I Was Wrong: Integral is a Movement. And We Need Your Support.

Dear friend,

I have not asked for your direct support since I joined the integral movement in January, 2007.  Despite the generous support of a small, committed group of donors, we have not enthusiastically solicited donations for Integral Institute. And at Integral Life we’ve focused on a great membership experience that first earns your respect and your trust, not your money.

I’m writing to now ask you to consider supporting the global integral movement by donating to Integral Institute or by joining Integral Life as a premium member. 

You see, I made a mistake.  I was wrong to not focus more on Integral’s role as a global philosophical movement alive in the hearts, minds and commitment of hundreds of thousands of people throughout the world.  I thought we had more time.  We don’t. 

The global economic meltdown of 2008 is only a prelude to severe problems facing the next generation: inflating national paper currencies, massive unfunded social liabilities, energy and water shortages, global warming, continuing religious conflict … the list of serious structural problems facing our children is daunting.

We’re running into life conditions that are forcing us to evolve beyond currently unsustainable lifestyles where we don’t account for more of reality, where we don’t see the biggest picture possible, where we don’t honor ourselves and our neighbors more fully.  The human race has to evolve to thrive and our efforts in the integral movement are at the forefront of aiding this adaptation.  My appeal to you is that in supporting Integral Institute as a donor or Integral Life as a member you are committing to a movement of consciousness that is bigger than yourself.

This commitment is about feeling full, literally “fulfilled.” 

It is an exceptional investment to help build a global ecosystem of consciousness and accelerate transformation efforts across major disciplines of human activity.  Just some of what you’ve helped us to accomplish the past 12 months includes:

Social Movements

  • Integral Theory: Integral Theory Conference – The first biennial ITC attracted 600 participants as we showcased how scholars and professionals are using Integral Theory to impact the lives of individuals and communities and highlighted emerging lines of Integral scholarship and research, with over 100 individual presentations, 12 panel discussions, and 30 poster presentations from over a dozen different countries.
  • Climate Change: State of the World Forum – We’re mobilizing a group of inspired leaders and grassroots activists from all over the globe in a 10-year “Global Transition Initiative” to green the global economy by 2020.  Starting November 2-4, 2009 in Washington, D.C., year 1 will kick-off the global movement around a new vision of civilization that can be sustainable, healthy and abundant, 1) by deploying a “global motherboard” for building lifestyle resilience at the local and national level, 2) by describing the big picture of human reality as we know it, 3) by engaging in specific processes to transform “the big four” of behavior, consciousness, systems and values, and 4) by generating the political will globally to compel the changes necessary for action. 
  • Spirituality: Integral Spiritual Experience – A 5-year guided integral exploration and practice of your unique life and purpose at the edge of trans-lineage spiritual evolution and service.
  • Business: Catalyzing Conscious Capitalism – Using the integral framework to chart the future of capitalism that enacts a deeper purpose for business while accounting for the well-being of all of the stakeholders in the economic ecosystem, including the environment and society.
  • Religion: Future of Christianity – An integral journey into Christianity at the dawn of the new millennium with Father Thomas Keating and Ken Wilber, which has caught fire in nunneries across the land! (Yes, seriously.)
  • Activism: Integral Life Spiritual Center has galvanized spiritual teachers from across traditions to combat human rights abuses including genocide, human trafficking and climate change.

Academics and Research

  • Launched the Integral Ecology Center to establish the field of integral ecology and to connect its practitioners throughout the world.
  • This fall we begin a ground-breaking longitudinal integral research project on vertical transformation of students and faculty in the JFKU program.
  • Supporting important Integral events including education, leadership, activism, Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism, substance abuse recovery, and others.
  • Scholarships, including $10,000 in research grants and another $20,000 in academic scholarships
  • By Fall we’ll have over 100 students registered in integral graduate degree programs

Publishing

  • The Journal of Integral Theory and Practice has been indexed in EBSCO to make integral content available to all universities and have several special issues in the works, including Climate Change, Best of the Integral Theory Conference 2008, Integral Spirituality/The Unique Self, and Integral Research
  • We’ve published two books recently: Integral Ecology and Integral life Practice, both of which sold-out their first printings

Coming Soon

  • In the next 2 months we launch Integral Life’s Coaching Service which offers a dramatic and sustainable process for real transformation by working one-on-one with an Integral Coach®.  This is the most embodied and transformative integral application Ken Wilber or I have worked with and we’re thrilled to offer it to our members.
  • Your Native Perspective: This media presentation will walk you through a practice to discover your “home quadrant” of seeing the world, which you go to first to make meaning of your experience and how to deepen your relationships and enhance your communication by understanding the 4 different native perspectives.

And the list goes on…

As you can see we’ve been busy.  But we need your help, your support and your participation. 

Can you invest $15 a month to become a premium member of Integral Life or make a small donation to Integral Institute?

Nowhere else do you get so much leverage, in so many lines of global development, with so much personal benefit, as you do by investing in the integral ecosystem.

Last month I spent $147 on my cellular phone bill and $29 at Starbuck’s.  I live in privilege every day and I never forget it.  By working for Integral Institute pro-bono and through Integral Life’s support of the Institute, I am the single largest financial contributor to Integral Institute the past 2 years.  But we invite more people from around the globe to join Ken Wilber and me and thousands of others as we build this global integral ecosystem far, wide and deep.

Integral is a global movement of human consciousness.  It is free to all, and to which all are invited.  But we are asking for your financial support, if you can afford it, to keep it growing. 

Please join us.

Warm loving regards, 

Robb Smith

P.S. We have 100 copies of Ken Wilber’s Integral Spirituality hardcover book and the April DVD/CD of Integral Naked Premiere we’ve set aside and will ship to you for free as a “Thank You” gift for those who join Integral Life today as a premium member (or until we run out…).