Dear friends,

I wanted to take this opportunity to wish you a safe and happy holiday season full of love, freedom and fullness.  We are deeply grateful to every Integral Life member for your ongoing support and participation in our collective effort to help bring unity to a fragmented world, what I like to think of as the 21st century’s most interesting movement, an adventure to wake up on a grand scale.  2008 has been a fascinating year of struggle and growth for many of us, and we’ve been delighted to be a part of your lives, just as you are a part of ours.

Ken Wilber—the author of over twenty books of philosophy and psychology—is a pioneering thinker who has developed an integral “theory of everything” that embraces the truths of both Eastern spirituality and Western science. The Pocket Ken Wilber highlights the personal wisdom of this popular author with short selections of inspirational and mystical passages drawn from his publications.

Congratulations to Mark Allan Kaplan, recipient of this year's Integral Life Award!  The IL Award is an annual merit-based scholarship of $10,000 for an Integral Studies MA student at either John F. Kennedy University or Fielding Graduate University.

iEvolve: Global Practice Community

iEvolve is a global, integrally-informed practice community co-founded by leading Integral Spiritual teachers  Swami Sally Kempton, Diane Musho Hamilton Sensei, Dr. Marc Gafni, and Sofia Diaz. 

Dear friends,

For many of us the past few months have felt incredibly volatile.  What I have appreciated most about resting as a witness to this volatility is the profound study of contrasts offered: at a time when we are confronted by what I have come to call “meltdown capitalism” we have also collectively acted to elect a historic and rare inspirational figure to the highest political office in the world.  I speak poetically when I say that it feels like Spirit has awoken in 2008, and yet there are seeds – deep, alive and beginning to stir – in the cultural soil that is being churned right now.

Integral Institute is very pleased to announce that Sean Esbjörn-Hargens, Ph.D. has been promoted to Vice President, Research and Applications in addition to his role as Executive Editor of the Journal of Integral Theory and Practice.  "This promotion is in recognition of Dr. Esbjörn-Hargens's exceptional work in helping the Institute establish its academic programs, its biennial academic conference, its academic journal and the Integral Research Center," said Robb Smith, Integral Institute's CEO.

Join Zachary Stein of Harvard Graduate School of Education for this exciting talk.
Friday, November 21st, 6:30pm - 9:30pm
At Boulder Integral
Suggested Donation: $10 - $20

This talk brings attention to a set of important issues in the Integral Community's discourse and practice surrounding human development. Broad concerns about quality control motivate a critical discussion about the myths we circulate and the models we hold. Arguments suggest that the Basic Moral Imperative entails the adoption of psychometrically rigorous standards for evaluating people. This frames the introduction of a powerful new approach to researching and assessing development, grounded by a look at levels in the development of understanding Integral Theory itself.

The New Man Podcast: Episode 36

"The life of the New Man just got a whole lot more complicated.

This week we're talking with Ken Wilber, world-renown Integral philosopher about the evolution of men's and women's roles in our society.  Ken shows us how our current disagreements over equality between the sexes actually stemmed from old school tools and "little things" like pregnancy.

Episode 93: The Meditative Maps: Happy Mornings and Dark Nights

"Philosopher and long-time Buddhist practitioner, Ken Wilber, shares with us a 10,000 foot view of the terrain of meditative experience. He describes several of the most common Buddhist maps and their progression, including the one presented in the Visuddhimagga (one of the most prevalent in the Theravada tradition), the 10 ox herding pictures in the Zen tradition, and the Anuttara Tantra from the Tibetan tradition.

PROMETHEAN FLAMES: Rekindling and Re-visioning the Creative Fire
272 pages, 8 1/4 x 5 3/4 inches, 16 full color plates of the artist/author's paintings.
Foreword by Prof Michael Schwartz. Prologue by Robyn Sean Peterson
Order Here

This book offers a deep exploration of the CREATIVE PROCESS, INSPIRATION and its delivery systems. An intense Investigation of  the artist as a contemporary mystic and shaman,  it delineates the boundaries and bridges between the creative process and illumination by expounding on and synthesizing the fields of art, creativity, psychology, comparative religion and philosophy. It also surveys the situation between the contemporary art world and the modern creative mystic, between the artist and the responder, the states and stages of illumined artistic vision and the sacred path of art as an INTEGRAL practice and tool for the transformation of consciousness.