Evolutionary Leaders Retreat

This past week I attended the second annual Evolutionary Leaders group retreat spearheaded by Deepak Chopra. The four day invitational event was held at a lovely Franciscan spiritual retreat center in Malibu, California (see photo). About 40 "evolutionary leaders" were in attendance, including Jean Houston, Don Beck, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Marianne Williamson, Bruce Lipton, Carter Phipps, Duane Elgin, and of course, Deepak Chopra. Although the relatively loose structure resulted in more talk than action, I was glad to have gone as it was a pleasure to interact with the many marvelous people who were there. Deepak's natural leadership ability and personal charm helped us through the more difficult moments.

The group discussion showcased both the strengths and weaknesses of the current state of progressive spiritual culture. For example, there was a strong commitment to help bring about a spiritual renaissance, yet many seemed to expect that large segments of our society will be awakened en masse through some kind of miraculous transformation in the year 2012. For me, this combination of compassionate concern for humanity and pseudo magical thinking was simultaneously charming and off-putting. However, my main regret was that there was not more opportunity to engage each other's ideas and to debate what progressive spiritual culture really stands for. Many in the room had heard of the integral perspective, but few were aware of its major tenets or its potential to uplift and empower this postmodern spiritual movement. Perhaps next year the integralists in the group will have an opportunity for more education in this direction.

Overall, it seems that this Evolutionary Leaders group has the potential to become a meaningful voice in our culture. Our petition, entitled "A Call to Conscious Evolution" has already garnered over 40,000 signatures, and these have been achieved mostly through word-of-mouth referrals. See the petition here:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/248704259

As the mainstream media shows growing interest in the "consciousness movement," as they call it, our challenge will be to mature beyond the "New Age" shortcomings that have thus far diminished progressive spirituality's credibility in the eyes of academia and the larger society. Despite the ongoing presence of the "pre/trans fallacy" there is much about progressive spirituality that is beautiful, true, and good.