Travels in California

For the past few weeks I’ve been traveling in California in connection with my Integral Philosophy work. My trip included an invitational event at Deepak Chopra’s center in Carlsbad, a talk at the new Santa Monica Center for Integral Living, a talk in Berkley at Bay Area Integral, and a variety of presentations at the Integral Theory Conference at John F. Kennedy University. I finished the trip with a weekend at Esalen on the Big Sur coast where I gave a workshop on Integral Consciousness. This post includes brief comments on the highlights.

Evolutionary Leaders at the Chopra Center

This event was attended by some of progressive spiritual culture’s most prominent thinkers and activists (named in my last blog post). As you can imagine, it was difficult to accomplish concrete outcomes with forty outspoken postmodernists in a room together, but we did agree to work on a “declaration of conscious evolution” document, which is still being circulated by email prior to finalization. For me, the best part of the event was the personal connections I made with Jean Houston, Marianne Williamson, Peter Russell, Bruce Lipton, and Deepak himself. Although the integral perspective was well received, there was a clearly discernable difference between the participants who were “exit green” and those who remained embedded within the postmodern worldview. I did make the point that the best way for progressive spiritual culture to persuade modernists to adopt postmodern values and concerns is for postmodernists themselves to “become the change” and demonstrate their own evolution by adopting the integral worldview. I emphasized how the often anti-modern sentiments of postmodernism represent a hindrance to the important project of moving America’s center of gravity forward in history. Overall, I think that there were good integral seeds planted at this weekend event and I look forward to working with this group into the future.

Integral Theory Conference

The long-awaited integral theory conference at JFK University was very exciting and rewarding. The sold-out event was attended by over 500 people, with at least 300 more on the waiting list. It was the really first time that a good portion of the integral movement could “see each other,” and the connections that were made helped to solidify and expand the intersubjective entity of the integral worldview. My presentation on Integral Politics and Global law was well-attended and well-received, and I also participated on two panel discussion: “Does Integral Theory = Ken Wilber” and “Integral Politics.” The Integral Theory panel, which included Sean Hargens, Allan Combs, Bill Torbert, Sean Kelly, Bonny Roy, Mark Edwards, and myself, was electric — the room was filled to overflowing with over 200 people and the questions were excellent. However, I sensed a lack of cohesion among the panelists about whether the integral worldview is really the next historically significant stage of human history — what comes after postmodernism — or simply an interesting “meta-theory.” I argued for the former, but I’m more of an activist than an academic. The Integral Politics panel was attended by about 40 people, and it also resulted in some lively discussion. As with the Chopra Center event, for me the highlight of the conference was the personal connections I established and the general exchange of subtle energy among the participants.

Esalen Workshop

I was moved and impressed by my first visit to Esalen. The beauty of the ocean and the rugged cliffs of the Big Sur coast, together with the venerable pedigree of this pillar of postmodern culture, gave the place the aura of a sacred site. My workshop was held in the “Maslow room”(auspiciously), and although I worked hard to give my attendees a fulsome experience of integral consciousness, I also had time to soak in the delicious sulfur hot springs just above the waves with my wife, Tehya, and two-year-old son, Peter, who thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

The integral worldview is blossoming all over California and it was a real pleasure to return to my native state and share my work with so many enthusiastic people.