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Announcing the Formation of Integral Institute
Introduction
Integral Institute is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the integration of body,
mind, soul, and spirit in self, culture, and nature. This integral vision attempts to honor and integrate the largest amount of research from the greatest number of disciplines--including the natural sciences (physics, chemistry, biology, neurology, ecology), art, ethics, religion, psychology, politics, business, sociology, and spirituality. Integral Institute is dedicated to the proposition that piecemeal approaches to the world's problems--war, hunger, disease, famine, over-population, housing, technology, education--not only no longer help but often compound the
problem, and they need to be replaced by approaches that are more comprehensive, systematic, encompassing--and integral.
Integral Institute functions as a network of many of the most highly influential integral theorists now working, an international information clearing house, a source of funding for integral research, and a coordinating center for thousands of integral researchers from around the world.
The Structure of Integral Institute
Integral Institute itself has three general tiers or spheres: its board, its associates,
and its members. The board of I-I includes Ken Wilber, Roger Walsh, Frances Vaughan, Jack Crittenden, Tony Schwartz, Sam Bercholz, and Mike Murphy. New board personnel can be added by a
majority vote.
The associates of I-I include all of those who are actively participating in the various branches of I-I (see below). These associates are individuals who have made outstanding and widely recognized contributions to integral psychology, politics, medicine, business, education, art, spirituality, and so forth.
The members of I-I include all those who share the vision of the Institute and have joined by subscribing to its newsletter, journal, conferences, and so on.
The affiliates of I-I include outside advisors, other recipients of funding, and friends and associates of the Institute itself.
The easiest way to think of Integral Institute is as a type of wagon wheel, with a hub, numerous spokes reaching out from that hub, and the surrounding wheel itself.
The hub is the center of Integral Institute, whose functions include an information clearing house and a coordinating center for the various branches of I-I.
Reaching out from the hub are numerous spokes or branches of I-I, populated by the associates. As of this moment, these branches include the Institutes of Integral Psychology, Integral Politics, Integral Business, Integral Medicine, Integral Spirituality, Integral Art, and Integral Education, with branches of Integral Ecology, Law, Diplomacy, and Media in the planning.
Around those are the members, affiliates, and friends of Integral Institute.
Any person who is an associate of one branch of I-I is automatically an associate of all of them. The whole point of an integral approach, of course, is that you can't really separate politics, psychology, business, spirituality, and so on, because all are an interwoven part of reality. But, generally speaking, associates start by joining the branch of Integral Institute for which they are best known (e.g., psychology, business, politics, etc.). As things continue to
unfold, associates can attend any of the other branch meetings that they wish.
The Dynamics of Integral Institute
Given that structure of Integral Institute, the dynamics of I-I include the following:
The funding made available to Integral Institute goes into the hub, and from there is distributed to the various branches (as outlined below). This money will help fund both the research and dissemination of integral knowledge. Here the dynamic flows from the hub outward to the various spokes (associates and members).
Any research findings generated by the various associates, members, or affiliates will flow back into the hub (and its computers, as part of the information clearing house), and from there it will be disseminated outward to the other branches and affiliates (and the public at large).
For example, Mike Murphy and several of his colleagues (George Leonard, Ken Pelletier, Fred Luskin) are now involved in research with Stanford Medical School on the effects of Integral Transformative Practice. The results of this research will be fed into the hub of I-I, and from there to its branches. For instance, several members of the Institute of Integral Business are involved in "integral leadership training," which help business leaders learn the art of integral business management and transformational leadership. Results from the ITP research will have direct relevance for these members and their clients, and this information will be shared directly with them. In turn, the results of their experience with integral transformative practices in the
business world would go into the hub, and from there back to the other branches (and made available to the public at large in a series of White Paper reports; see below).
The result is a multidimensional feedback dynamism where each of the branches is giving--and receiving--research from all of the others. The findings of integral psychology will have direct relevance to integral business, politics, education, and medicine, and these reciprocally will have direct relevance to psychology--and so on around the wheel with all of its spokes and affiliates. The result is a creative synergy between the hub, spokes, and surrounds, furthering the integral meshwork--in both its theory and its applications--that is the core of Integral Institute.
All Quadrant, All-Level
The guiding vision of Integral Institute is best summarized by the phrase "all-quadrant, all-level" (AQAL). Although this phrase is taken specifically from the work of Ken Wilber, the idea itself is very general. It is basically a union of perhaps the two most widely shared cross-cultural views about reality: the Great Chain of Being; and first-, second-, and third-person dimensions.
The Great Chain maintains that reality consists of increasingly inclusive spheres of being and knowing, stretching from body to mind to soul to spirit. Each senior sphere "transcends but includes" its juniors, much as a cell transcends but includes molecules, which transcend but include atoms. Thus, spirit transcends but includes soul, which transcends but includes mind, which transcends but includes body--a series of concentric spheres reaching from dust to Deity.
The Great Chain is thus something of a misnomer. These levels are not linked in a linear fashion, like a chain; rather, each senior enfolds, includes, and embraces its juniors--it's really the Great Nest of Being. Although some cultural relativists have spent much of their time trying to deny the existence of anything universal (except for their own pronouncements), scholars of the
world's wisdom traditions point out that virtually all of the great spiritual systems recognize at least these four realms of reality. (See, for example, Huston Smith's Forgotten Truth or Roger Walsh's Essential Spirituality.) Thus, the "all-level" part of "all-quadrant, all-level"
refers to the Great Nest of Being in any of its legitimate versions.
The "all-quadrant" part refers to the fact that every major human language possesses first-, second-, and third-person pronouns--"I," "we," and "it"--which refer to subjective, intersubjective, and objective dimensions of reality (e.g., art, morals, and science; the Beautiful, the Good, and the True; Buddha, Sangha, and Dharma; self, culture, and nature, and so on). The reason that every language contains these three pronouns is that language evolved in response to these very real dimensions, and these real dimensions are universally reflected in the structure of language itself.
Although scientific materialism spends much of its time trying to deny reality to the "I" and "we" dimensions and reduce the entire Kosmos to third-person "it" language, the effort is ultimately futile, as the structure of any existing language tells us. The point is that any integral
view would want to honor and include the "I," "we," and "it" dimensions--would want to make room for art, morals, and science; the Beautiful, the Good, and the True; self, culture, and nature.
(The "it" domain can be subdivided into singular and plural--it and its--and thus these four dimensions are also referred to as "the four quadrants.")
These two major realities (the Great Nest and the three dimensions), which are recognized by every major culture the world over, actually fit together quite specifically. Basically, each and every level of reality (body to mind to soul to spirit) has these four dimensions or four quadrants, so that we want to include body, mind, soul, and spirit as they manifest in self, culture, and
nature.
Thus, any truly integral view would be, at the very least, "all-quadrant, all-level." The only "requirement" for associates of Integral Institute is that they are comfortable with an AQAL view, since that is the general vision that guides the Institute itself. This is, after all, nothing
but a combination the two basic realities recognized by every major culture the world over.
Some Founding Associates
Below are some of the founding associates of the various branches of Integral Institute.
Institute of Integral Psychology--Roger Walsh, Frances Vaughan, Robert Kegan, Jenny Wade, Kaisa Puhakka, Don Beck, Mike Murphy, T George Harris, Robert Forman, Susann Cook-Greuter, Bert Parlee, Leland Johnson, Allan Combs, Raz Ingrasci, Petra Pieterse, Brian van der Horst, Edith Zundel, Frank Visser, Thomas Jordan, John Rowan, Antony Arcari, Joel Funk, Mike Mahoney, David Deida, Connie Hilliard, Dick Mann, Peter McNab, Michael Zimmerman, Francisco Varela, David Chalmers
Institute of Integral Business--Tony Schwartz, Bob Richards, Jim Stuart, Eric Klein, Bob Anderson, Geoffrey Gioja, John Forman, Ron Cacioppe, Ian Mitroff, Sam Bercholz, Joann Neuroth, John Cleveland, Michael Putz, Daryl Paulson, Tami Simon, Leo Burke, Rick Strycker, Ron and Sue Kertzner, Eric Utne, Deepak Chopra, Yasuhiko Kamura, Jordan Gruber, Byron Belitsos, Fred Kofman, Fred Studier, Warren Bennis, Joe Firmage
Institute of Integral Politics--Lawry Chickering, Drexel Sprecher, Tyler Norris, Mark Gerzon, Jack Crittenden, Debora Lerner, Jim Turner, Betsy Lehrfeld, Michael Lerner, Waheed Hassan, Tom Rautenberg, Jim Garrison, John Steiner, Margo King, Maureen Silos, Reg Daniel, Christy Carpenter, Mike McDermott, Bill Ury, Paul van Schaik
Institute of Integral Medicine--Larry Dossey, Ken Pelletier, Fred Luskin, Kekuni Minton, John Astin, Richie Davidson, Tom Goddard, Joan Borysenko, Marilyn Schlitz, Fred Luskin, Gary Schwartz, David Lorimer, Jeanne Achterberg, Linda Russek, George Leonard, Jon Kabat-Zinn
The Institute of Integral Education and the Institute of Integral Art have just formed, and nearing the completion stages are the Institute of Integral Spirituality and the
Institute of Integral Media.
Pragmatic Steps
Each associate of the various branches of Integral Institute is asked to do the following:
Assume you have unlimited funding. Make a list of the items that you would most like to see funded. This can include research projects, books, publications, foundations, individuals--anything, really--for both yourself and others. These are the items that you think will not only contribute to
advancing a particular field, but also can most contribute to changing the world in a positive fashion. For each of those items, write a short (from one paragraph to one page, but no longer) outline of the project, one item to a page. If you have five items, this would be five pages you will submit. You can do literally any number of items that you wish.
We take those pages and file them. We also make copies of them and give them to all the other associates of the various branches. The immediate benefit is that each associate has the advantage of seeing what the other experts in various fields think are the most world-changing projects that need funding. This exchange of information helps individuals clarify their own ideas about what they believe to be the most important ways to further an integral vision at large and contribute the most to changing the world in a positive and beneficial fashion.
As funding becomes available, all of the associates of the various branches of Integral Institute look at all of the pages submitted, and basically vote on those items they believe to be most worth supporting. The final decisions will be made by the board.
This does not rule out some associates' votes being given more weight. For example, when it comes to research designed specifically with integral transformative practice in mind, the opinions of associates of the Institute of Integral Psychology could certainly be given more weight. At the same time, how associates of the other branches view the relative importance of this research could be most illuminating. The idea is simply that the opinions of all of the associates of the various branches of Integral Institute will be taken into account in arriving at final decisions, a living example of the integral meshwork that we are attempting to promote.
Examples of Funding
There are literally hundreds of different types of funding that Integral Institute intends to support. Here is a small sampling.
A Theory of Everything--a PBS series, in six parts, about the integral vision, based on "all-quadrant, all-level," and highlighting integral medicine, politics, business, art, science, and spirituality. This would be a major production and would act to define and promote the field for the coming decades.
Longitudinal Research on Transformation. There exist dozens of widely respected tests of development and transformation--cognitive development, moral development, values, self sense, altruism, creativity, and so on. Take any purported means of transformation--meditation, ITP, shamanic voyaging, hatha yoga, psychotherapy, and so on--and give a large battery of these tests before, during, and after the practice.
As only one example of the types of results that might be expected: less than 2% of the adult population scores at Jane Loevinger's highest two stages of self development (autonomous and integrated). No practice (including psychotherapy, holotropic breathwork, or NLP) has been
shown to substantially increase that percentage . With one exception: studies have shown that consistent meditation practice over a several-year period increases that percentage from 2% to an astonishing 38% (see The Eye of Spirit, second edition, in CW7). Replicating these types of longitudinal studies could have a profound impact on our understanding of how to actually help individuals transform (research that would have immediate application in the Institutes of Integral Education, Business, Politics, and so on).
Integral Awards and Grants. We intend to start an annual Integral Award for the person or institution that most promotes the integration of body, mind, soul, and spirit in self, culture,
and nature. This is meant to complement the Templeton Award, which focuses specifically on religion.
Integral Grants, on the other hand, will be similar to the MacArthur Grants. Where Awards will be given for past performance, Grants will be given for specific proposals.
Advertising Existing Works. In addition to funding future research, we would like to promote and advertise existing work of outstanding merit--books, for example. This would consist
of taking a particular topic and selecting a half-dozen exemplary books in that area, then doing a national advertising campaign around them--in newspapers, magazines, and other appropriate media. For example, we might select the topic of integral psychology, and include books such as Murphy and
Leonard, The Life We Are Given, Jenny Wade's Changes of Mind, Ken Wilber's Integral
Psychology, Allan Combs's The Radiance of Being, Roger Walsh's Essential Spirituality, Charles Alexander and Ellen Langer's Higher Stages of Human Development,
Melvin Miller and Susann Cook-Greuter's Transcendence and Mature Thought in Adulthood, Frances's Vaughan's Shadows of the Sacred, and Robert Kegan's In Over Our Heads. We would then take out full-page ads in newspapers and magazines across the country. We would do the same with integral business, medicine, art, and so on. There are literally hundreds of good books that have not received the attention they deserve, and we would like to rectify this.
Endowing University Chairs. Although this a tricky endeavor, we would eventually like to endow several chairs in integral and transformative disciplines.
Stipends for Teaching Integral Topics. We would like to offer stipends to any qualified professor who teaches a course in integral psychology, integral business, integral medicine, and so on. We would also like to offer scholarships to qualified students to attend such
classes.
University Students Outreach. The tendency of the "knowledge workers" today is to "divide and conquer." Specialization and over-specialization rule the day, and this fragmented state of affairs often contributes to as many problems as it solves. Integral Institute has already started a sophisticated outreach program to promising university students who recognize the need for more integrative thinking. Since professors have often made up their minds and settled into their specialized ruts, we seek students who are open to all the new and exciting integral possibilities.
Conferences. Each branch of I-I meets several times a year. At least once each year, all of the branches of Integral Institute come together for a "mega-conference," which represents the largest gathering of integral thinkers ever assembled. The results of both the regular conferences and the mega-conferences will be published in various forms, from books to websites.
Specific Items. Although we wish particularly to fund items that are oriented to more integral approaches, this does not prevent us from supporting specific projects that have exceptional merit in themselves. An example is the project to fund female education in Third-World countries--a move that has been shown to have the single greatest impact on liberal social transformation. The number of these types of projects is virtually unlimited.
White Paper Reports. At some point, each branch of Integral Institute will be asked to draw up a series of general tenets with which most of its associates can agree. For example, can the associates of the Institute of Integral Psychology come up with a series of very general conclusions as to the overall stages of psychological development? Many liberal political theorists have a great deal of trouble accepting "stages" of anything, since they imagine that stages are always marginalizing, oppressive, etc. If Integral Institute could issue a summary statement on this topic--backed by the widely respected stature of the Institute itself--this would have an important impact on politics. These types of summary reports from each of the branches of I-I could have a significant impact on culture at large.
Web Presence. We intend to create the definitive web site for integral studies--in psychology, spirituality, art, business, politics, medicine, law, diplomacy, and education.
All-Quadrant, All-Level. The gold standard of research involves those projects that are "all-quadrant, all-level." An example of this would be the Integral Transformative Practice introduced by Mike Murphy and George Leonard. Another example would be stipends for teachers using AQAL textbooks (e.g., "all-quadrant, all-level" medicine, business, education). Nonetheless, there are a great number of worthy projects that, although less than all-quadrant, all-level, are deserving of support, since they provide important pieces of the integral puzzle, and we intend to strongly support those worthy projects.
Our Legacy
Integral Institute seems to represent a rather extraordinary confluence of factors which
comes along once in a lifetime. If we handle this opportunity wisely, Integral Institute will become a profound source of positive, compassionate, transformative social change, and an Institute that lasts decades, even centuries. I believe we can all work together to make this a landmark occasion.
[Note: At this time, Integral Institute is not accepting new associates or members. Please do not email the webmaster requesting membership. However, in the near future, we will be accepting new associates and we will be opening up membership to any who would like to join us. Please stay tuned to this site for further announcements.]
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