the challenge of charging for acquired knowledge

We have an integral meeting this Thursday, the 3rd of December, at 7pm, at the Quaker Meeting House. The address is

Quaker Meeting House
10 Hampson St
Kelvin Grove Q 4059
Australia
http://tinyurl.com/co5nfl

Something that is coming up for me in a couple of arenas, and Tim from Sydney Integral brought it more to the forefront of my attention in an email conversation we had, is the issue of how we monetize our knowledge of integral.

I think Integral thought, and the various frameworks and models, are very useful in their way. The way in which Integral Institute pitches Integral thought though, leaves me feeling very disenfranchised at times. If you're on the right mailing lists, presumably to do with having paid for Integral content at some stage, you may have recently gotten an email with the From field saying Ken Wilber, and the Subject field saying "Think You Understand Integral?" The email is selling a new program of teaching, mentoring, accreditation, access to knowledge, etc called Core Integral.

I wonder how that question makes you feel:

Think you know integral?

To me, it sounds somewhat challenging, with an unexpressed assumption that the answer would be a self-questioning

Yes?

and the follow up response would be

Well, let us set you straight.

And thus it raises the ongoing issue around whether the understanding of Integral thought by, well, basically anyone other than Ken really, is sufficient to allow the use of the name Integral.

A look at the Integral Movement Wikipedia entry indicates that there are indeed many more viewpoints on integral thought than Ken's, and many people who use the term with their work.

My questions for discussion on Thursday are:

• Do you think you know Integral enough to use the term when doing something you charge for?
  
• Do you think that if you did that, you should have a piece of paper from Ken accrediting you?
  
• Do you have other examples of where you have learnt something that you take further, which you feel is "owned" by those who first developed it?
  
• How would you like the Wilber style Integral Thought headquarters to engage with those who take their approach to Integral further?
  

I really like the Integral community for their openness to multiple simultaneous perspectives, particularly some not their own. The identification of this community with the Integral Commercialisation Machine makes me feel a little uncomfortable at times. This leads me to some related questions:

• How would you like the Wilber style Integral Thought headquarters to engage with salons and other communities like ours, who come together in an Integral perspective.
  
• What other communities do you associate with where this multi-perspective joining happens?
  

Looking forward to seeing you on Thursday, or to reading your thoughts on these questions in the comments, if you're drawn to respond.

Ralf

Gratification

Hi all

Our next meeting is tomorrow night at 7pm (for 7:15 start) at the Quaker Centre. Last time we looked further at the Shadow, and how we explore, transform, engage with it. It was a really great night, and I was particularly touched by the sharing of how our shadows are such a deep part of how we have become who we are.

I've got a very different question that I'd like to explore this week (and as nobody else is jumping in to suggest stuff, I get to shape the discussions for now ;-) )

How would you train Deferred, or Delayed, Gratification?

If you have broadband, have a look at this TED video. It shows research into children delaying short term gratification for future gain, which longitudinal studies have linked to success (in various measures, such as positivity, self-motivation, etc as well as academically.) There's a long New Yorker article about it which is worth reading.

One key technique used successfully is distraction -- think of something else, taking your mind off the pain. Another technique is to imagine the marshmallow as being a picture, not a real object, thus fooling yourself that the gratification isn't really there at the moment.

I'd be interested in exploring this from an Integral perspective.

• How do you deal with delayed gratification, do you think?
  
• What strategies do you use?
  
• How would you teach this to someone -- either child, or adult?
  
• How might different Integral Life Practices help with this?
  
• Which modules (e.g. Body, Mind, Spirit, Shadow) might be most relevant?
  
• Which areas of Integral Theory do you think would apply to this? (Quadrants, Levels, Altitudes, etc)
  

You might want to participate in some research to find out more about yourself on the first point...

Hope to see you Thursday,

Ralf

actually more on Shadow

Hi all

Our next meeting is Thursday at 7pm (for 7:15 start) at the Quaker Centre. Last time we agreed to look further at the Shadow, and how we explore, transform, engage with it. We ended up talking a bit more about spirituality and some other issues, so this is really worth revisiting I think.

Questions to think about before hand would be:

• How have you found Shadow coming up unexpectedly, but in such a way that you recognised that it was Shadow?
  
• What do you think helped you get to the point where you were recognising Shadow arising?
  
• What practices would you recommend to work with someone else who wants help exploring Shadow issues?
  
• How would you teach someone a practice for exploring Shadow by themselves?
  

An exercise for the evening, that you might want to practice during the day if you get the chance to be with other people, is how you can be aware of your shadow arising and engage with that with the other people, without losing the thread of what else is going on, and without blame/etc. A few of us went to the Big Mind workshop on Saturday, and something along these lines was facilitated very well by Phil who was running it.

The Wikipedia article on Defence Mechanisms, and the different levels of these that they've been categorised into is worth a read.

In terms of the Integral Altitudes, Spiral Dynamic levels, etc different forms of shadow also come up for the different places we're at. There is some audio commentary by different people at the Integral Life site, related to chapter 6 of Integral Spirituality, which deals with the Shadow:

I also saw that there is an article at iEvolve on the Teal Shadow which is a nice one to read about, and another one on the 3-2-1 process.

Stephen (L.), do you have some nice diagrams in your Integral Diagram collection that have to do with Shadow that you can easily lay your hands on? (I recommend you have a look at the collection, if you haven't had the pleasure of browsing through it!)

See you Thursday,

Ralf

PS The Big Mind workshop on Saturday was excellent, and I look forward to sharing my experiences with you on that too if anyone's interested. R

more on shadow

Hi all

Our next meeting is Thursday at 7pm (for 7:15 start) at the Quaker Centre. Last time we agreed to look further at the Shadow, and how we explore, transform, engage with it.

Questions to think about before hand would be:

• How have you found Shadow coming up unexpectedly, but in such a way that you recognised that it was Shadow?
  
• What do you think helped you get to the point where you were recognising Shadow arising?
  
• What practices would you recommend to work with someone else who wants help exploring Shadow issues?
  
• How would you teach someone a practice for exploring Shadow by themselves?
  

An exercise for the evening, that you might want to practice during the day if you get the chance to be with other people, is how you can be aware of your shadow arising and engage with that with the other people, without losing the thread of what else is going on, and without blame/etc. A few of us went to the Big Mind workshop on Saturday, and something along these lines was facilitated very well by Phil who was running it.

The Wikipedia article on Defence Mechanisms, and the different levels of these that they've been categorised into is worth a read.

In terms of the Integral Altitudes, Spiral Dynamic levels, etc different forms of shadow also come up for the different places we're at. There is some audio commentary by different people at the Integral Life site, related to chapter 6 of Integral Spirituality, which deals with the Shadow:

I also saw that there is an article at iEvolve on the Teal Shadow which is a nice one to read about, and another one on the 3-2-1 process.

Stephen (L.), do you have some nice diagrams in your Integral Diagram collection that have to do with Shadow that you can easily lay your hands on? (I recommend you have a look at the collection, if you haven't had the pleasure of browsing through it!)

See you Thursday,

Ralf

May meeting

Hi all

A quick update and reminder of next week's meeting:

Thursday 7th May from 7pm
Quaker Meeting House
10 Hampson St
Kelvin Grove Q 4059
http://tinyurl.com/co5nfl

In other news...

== Spiral Dynamics
There is a level 1 Spiral Dynamics training course on at the Worldview Centre in a few weeks. See http://tinyurl.com/ca26y8 for more, small extract:
----------
SDi Level 1 training at The Worldview Centre, Maleny QLD, 12-14 May 2009
Early bird price $1999 incl GST, pay by 30 April ($2250 after 30 April)
This is a residential course; price includes all meals & 2 nights accommodation!
Accommodation is also available for the night of 11 May, if required.
----------
and information on the course is at http://tinyurl.com/db768q

== Big Mind
Even more exciting for me is that on the 27th of June there will be a Big Mind session in Brisbane by Australia's only authorised facilitator. See http://www.integralalchemy.com/ for information.


See you soon,

Ralf

our personal practice and the Brisbane group

This is a reminder that there will be a meeting tomorrow evening, Thursday the 2nd of April, at 7pm, at the Quaker Meeting House. Address is

Quaker Meeting House
10 Hampson St
Kelvin Grove Q 4059
http://tinyurl.com/co5nfl

At the last meeting we talked more about our personal practice, and also about our relationship within the Brisbane Integral group, particularly how we are affected by it within the four quadrants:

UL: what does it mean to you to be part of such a group?
LL: what is it that holds the group in its' space?
UR: what exterior aspects of you play a part in the group?
LR: what systems, or other exterior aspects, exists because of the group?

Some of my thoughts on these are:

UL: it is motivating to have others who share my enjoyment of integral ways of approaching my life, and to have a group with whom I can explore these things theoretically, practically, and any other ways ending in "lly"

LL: to me that is a common drive towards our personal growth and unfolding, that we're pursuing in multi-faceted ways, i.e. body, mind, spirit, individual, group, subjectively, objectively, etc etc

UR: I bring dedication, organisational fortitude, understanding of techniques that seem to fit within the integral framework, and my particular interest in working out how to connect different world views

LR: there's the Brisbane Integral yahoo mailing list [1] for discussion, the Ken Wilber meetup system [2] for meeting announcements and RSVP tracking, there are our regular get-togethers at different venues that allow us to connect and explore, and there is email as a medium to communicate more in between meetings. There is also the integral framework, and how that helps us meet and be met clearly.

It might be nice to continue to explore these questions, and see what else others come up with. Also to see how the different points support each other, or what might be missing, in the LR particularly, to assist us in our journey of growth. The questions about practices from earlier are also worth discussing, if you haven't done so yet.

Unfortunately I can't make it tomorrow evening, as I'll be out of town, but I understand Cate will be there, as will some others, so I look forward to hearing how the evening went :-)

Ralf


[1] http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BrisbaneIntegral/
[2] http://kenwilber.meetup.com/278/

ILP questions...

Hi all

If you didn't make it to the meet-up last night, you missed out on an excellent evening. In our February meeting at the Quaker room we talked about a focus for the group for the year, namely to explore what it means for us to _be_ Integral, individually and as a group, and to help each other be more integral, including having an Integral Life Practice, and exploring the concept of 2nd Tier for ourselves and others.

In the meeting at my place between Quaker Hall meet-ups, we were going to start going through the ILP book that was suggested as a good text to work with. Unfortunately the initial group of eight who attended the previous meeting dwindled down to just me for this meeting...

Last night there were three of us -- one new person, Tim from Sydney Integral who was in town to visit, and myself -- and we spent the evening talking about our personal practices within the four core modules of ILP, namely Body, Mind, Spirit and Shadow, sharing what it is we currently regularly do for each of these four, and thinking about what one practice we might add to each of these four areas.

So for everyone who came to the first meeting of the year all enthusiastic, and hasn't made it to either of the meetings since, here's your chance to catch up, and to reflect on what has happened.

Questions:

A. What sort of practice do you do regularly do to build up or explore your
1. Body
2. Mind
3. Spirit
4. Shadow
and how regularly do you do it?

B. What is a practice that you might add to each of these four areas?

C. What is it in your Shadow Self, do you think, that has come in the way of you making it along to the last two meetings?


Next meeting is on Thursday the 19th of March at 7.30 in West End.

See you there.

Ralf

PS If you'd like to pick up a copy of the ILP book before then, drop me a line or give me a call and we can work out a mutually convenient time. R

personal practice

Hi all

A reminder that our next meeting is 7.30 pm on Thursday the 19th of March, to go deeper into the Integral Life Practice book. I'm happy to lead discussion, so if you haven't got your copy of the book yet, or haven't had a chance to read the first few chapters yet, that's fine. For preparation it would be great if you could think about the questions from my last post. I haven't seen anyone replying to those yet -- if you want to explore further what might be meant by them, or where your personal regular practices might fit, or what shadow exercises might be suitable for question C, feel free to email :-)

Here are the questions again. R


A. What sort of practice do you do regularly do to build up or explore
your
1. Body
2. Mind
3. Spirit
4. Shadow
and how regularly do you do it?

B. What is a practice that you might add to each of these four areas?

C. What is it in your Shadow Self, do you think, that has come in the
way of you making it along to the last two meetings?


Ralf

ILP

Hi all

A short reminder that the next meetup is on Thursday the 5th of March at 7pm

Quaker Meeting House
10 Hampson St
Kelvin Grove Q 4059
http://tinyurl.com/co5nfl

RSVP at http://kenwilber.meetup.com/278/

We'll be going further into Integral Life Practice, and how we can support each other as a group in being more integral in our lives. I'll be bringing spare copies of the Wilber, Patten, et al text with me for anyone who wants a copy. They came to $26 each.

One topic, among the many, that came up last meeting, was going into second tier, and here are a couple of links for those who weren't familiar with the terms:

• Altitudes (the opening sentence is a bit
  rich, as the comments after the article also attest to, but the summary itself is good)
  
• Stages or Levels
  

I hope you can make it.

Ralf

PS A reminder also that we have a yahoo group for discussion that you are very welcome to join, or email me and I'll add you to it. -R

year ahead

Hi all

A few of us got together on Australia day to think about the year ahead for the group. I'll be talking about the plan this Thursday from 7.15pm at our first meet up for the year, at the

Quaker Meeting House
10 Hampson St
Kelvin Grove Q 4059
http://tinyurl.com/co5nfl

I hope you can make it.

Regards,

Ralf