Rick Rubin has produced some of the most influential and creative albums of the past two decades, from artists such as The Beastie Boys, LL Cool J, Slayer, Tom Petty, Johnny Cash, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rage Against the Machine, System of a Down, Nine Inch Nails, Audio Slave, Jay-Z, Saul Williams—and the list just keeps on going. But what kind of producer works as easily with Johnny Cash as with Nine Inch Nails? And what kind of producer has Johnny covering a NIN song? Quite simply, a producer who follows the trail of excellence, no matter how many boundaries are broken in the process. “Every step of the way I’ve been told I can’t do what I do, because people tend to have their niche, and that’s it.” Rick’s niche just seems to be great music, and what he does is create a space for artists of any genre to be as great as they can possibly be. Intuitively, Rick has been acting on a kind of integral impulse for years. Even as a kid in his early twenties, Rick would work simultaneously with the rap group Public Enemy and the metal band Slayer, and think that was perfectly normal. And rap-rock? Yup, his idea. He got Run-DMC together with Aerosmith to record “Walk This Way,” and the hard-hitting sound of the rap-rock fusion would go on to dominate the late 90s. As someone who has explored so many types of music, Rick has a few things to say about what makes for great music in any genre. And it’s this kind of insight that exposes the integral thread running throughout his work, because without a way to hold all of these things together in a way that makes sense, you don’t have art, you have a fifty-car pileup. A mind that can understand the unique value of each different style of music is a mind that can know how to bring those different styles together in an act of true creativity. But as he notes, there are indeed a couple of important factors in creating great art that appear to apply to the music business in general. For example, if you want to make music you’re proud of, get in the habit of living as a songwriter, and always be in that mode. When it comes time to record an album, you’ll have several dozen songs at your disposal, and you can pick the best twelve. Unfortunately, he also notes that record labels today tend to encourage artists to create one or two radio singles, rush through the rest of the album, go on tour, and then not write again until two months before it’s time to record the next album. The result? Artists learn to devalue their work and consumers learn it’s not worth buying albums since 90% of the songs aren’t very impressive. Sure, you can make just about anything catchy if you throw in 20 different audio elements to gloss over mediocre song-writing, but Rick follows a different philosophy: “If it’s not good in its simplest, barest, most immediate form, then we discard it.” Well, this Rick in his simplest, barest, most immediate form—we hope you enjoy the dialogue….

Distilled from the profound teachings of the Christian contemplative heritage, Centering Prayer has aimed to bring a living spirituality into an age where God is typically reduced to the New-Age vicissitudes of emotionality, if not simply pronounced dead. Listen as Fr. Thomas Keating and Ken Wilber discuss the remarkable history and importance of Centering Prayer. Father Thomas Keating has been a key figure in the Centering Prayer movement since its early beginnings in the 1970s. Distilled from the profound teachings of the Christian contemplative heritage, reaching from the early Desert Fathers and Mothers to The Cloud of Unknowing, St John of the Cross, and St Teresa of Avila, Centering Prayer has aimed to bring a living spirituality into an age where God is either reduced to the New-Age vicissitudes of emotionality or simply pronounced dead. Although it would embarrass him to hear it, many people consider Father Thomas Keating to be a living Christian saint in the truest sense of the term. We at Integral Life certainly do so, and it is therefore with honor and humility that we present a conversation with this deeply realized human being. Father Thomas Keating has been a key figure in the Centering Prayer movement since its early beginnings in the 1970s. Distilled from the profound teachings of the Christian contemplative heritage—reaching from the early Desert Fathers and Mothers to The Cloud of Unknowing, St John of the Cross, and St Teresa of Avila—Centering Prayer has aimed to bring a living spirituality into an age where God is either reduced to the New-Age vicissitudes of emotionality or is simply pronounced dead. It was as a freshman in college that Father Thomas was forced to confront “the death of God” in the form of a modern philosophy course. Having been raised a Catholic, but “without a profound understanding of its historical or theological background,” the assaults on religion by the likes of Nietzsche and Schopenhauer were quite unsettling. Having resolved to confront this dilemma through study, Father Thomas returned to the work of the early Church Fathers and their understanding of the Gospel. As a result of this research, It became clearer and clearer to me that the Christian religion was really about transformation…. I got thoroughly convinced that the contemplative dimension of the Gospel is what Christianity is really all about. It’s the heart of the Gospel. But when I started looking around for how I could get some help developing a contemplative life, there wasn’t anybody…. Thus, the seed that would eventually bloom into Centering Prayer was sown deep in Father Thomas’s heart. Even though he has spent the whole of his adult life in monasteries, Father Thomas’s gift to the world has been to help bring God back within reach of the average human soul. As he points out, the contemplative faculty is not a reward for austerity, but is fundamental to human nature. Father Thomas touches on many subjects in this dialogue, ranging from the effects of Vatican II, to the influence of Eastern traditions, to the need for an integration of the contemplative heart and the discursive head. His is a beautiful story, drawing on a lifetime’s worth of experience and yet always grounded in the timeless Mystery of God. As Father Thomas reminds us, “It can’t be expressed as it actually is, but you have to say something!” And may we respectfully suggest that you listen to the soul behind those words, to the depth and presence of one in whom God shines?

“Integral doesn’t tell us what to believe, it tells us how to believe.” —Corey deVos It’s harder than ever these days to tell fact from fiction. Our lives have become so inundated with information — some good, some bad, most biased, all partial — at the end of the day it can be hard for some people to tell up from down. And as we spend more and more of our time on the deconstructive postmodern platforms of social media, truth becomes increasingly fragmented and balkanized and reduced to all sorts of low-resolution narratives. All because we lack any real social mechanism for enfoldment, the process whereby multiple partial and even contradictory truths can be assembled into a more complex and coherent understanding of reality. Take “conspiracy theories” for example. Everyone knows that genuine conspiracies occur behind the scenes all the time. We can talk about dozens of proven conspiracies that have come to the light over the decades. And at the same time, we can talk about hundreds of other conspiracy theories that are just plain silly. The problem, of course, is that few of us possess the epistemic tools required to discern genuine plots from paranoia and propaganda. Which can be a major problem when the Dunning-Kruger effect (the inability to discern when one is “over their heads”) confidently assures us that we do. And so without these basic epistemic guardrails, a segment of our population has swerved off the road into conspiracy thinking, all while real-world conspiracies are taking place in plain sight, right before our very eyes. Life in the “Information Age” seems to resemble fundamentalist religion more than some technocratic utopia: - Separates people into “believers” and “non-believers”, - Reduces meta-systemic complexity, real-world pressures, and power dynamics to oversimplified black-and-white narratives, - Only supports data that reinforces their narrative beliefs, and rejects data that goes against that narrative, - Resists ambiguity and prefers narratives that create a false sense of certainty. Which may be because we really aren’t in the Information Age at all, and haven’t been for some time — we are now living in the “Attention Age” where depth is replaced by volume, where facts are replaced by feelings, and where an increasingly noisy minority sets the frame and tone for everyone else. Which is why Ryan and I wanted to do this particular show, around the theme of fully inhabiting, embodying, and enacting truth — how to find it, how to wield it, and how to avoid the false certainties fed to us by both mainstream and fringe media. We don’t try to tell you what to believe, but rather try to help you avoid overly identifying with the contents of our views and to liberate yourself from your beliefs, whatever they happen to be.

The Integral European Conference is quickly approaching! And what’s more, you can attend from the comfort of your own home. Integral Europe has gone global, as COVID-19 has forced the IEC event planners to shift gears and move to a 100% streaming conference. While it is unfortunate that the conference will not feature the face-to-face community experiences that integral events are so well known for, it is also exciting to think of all the people who may not have been able to attend a live event in Europe, but who may now have the opportunity to participate with the conference remotely. And what a conference it’s going to be! Watch as Bence Ganti and I take a sneak peak into the IEC lineup (which will feature over 70 presenters and a full range of activities including workshops, games, and even live concerts) and discuss the many challenges of transitioning from a live event to a streaming-only event. For more information about the event, click here. https://integraleuropeanconference.com/

Here we feature a selection of performances by Saul Williams, including live recitals of several of his most well-loved pieces — Black Stacey, Sha-Clack-Clack, Twice the First Time, and Telegram — as well as a collaboration between Saul and Stuart Davis on a track titled “Easter”.

Art as contemplation. Poetry as incantation. Relationship as enlightenment. Such are the words and experiences of Saul Williams. Though digitized, synthesized, and edited into bit-sized segments, the man and the trans-man-transmission are as clear as ever. Here you will find a stream of consciousness shared between two conscious brothers exchanging soul-symbols over copper wires, molding verbal form to the demands of that which cannot be expressed, and yet must be. As Saul says in “Untimely Meditations” (Amethyst Rock Star, 2001): "Mere language is profanity, I’d rather hum, or have my soul tattooed to my tongue, and let the scriptures be sung in gibberish, as words be simple fish in my soul aquarium." -Saul Williams, Amethyst Rock Star And yet, the dialogue continues. Thomas Edison: “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.” In the world that we live in, it is the individual’s job to translate that sliver of inspiration into a creative act that lives up to the original brilliance of that divine spark. Saul: “Where I am now is at the point of realizing that I have to harness this sense of discipline, that it is my duty, my dharma, so to speak, to write all these things that come to mind.” Complementary to that conversation is one concerning the value of being in intimate relationship. Often, intimate partners are much quicker to spot the ways we are lying to ourselves than we are. They can help us serve that one percent of inspiration, because they can keep us honest. Saul goes on to share the rather extraordinary circumstances surrounding how he and his then-girlfriend Varshini came to be together. The lesson learned: Be careful what you write poetry about, you might just get it…! When Ken and Saul first met, they talked nonstop for four hours, only interrupted because Saul had a gig. All Ken said about that meeting was, “That might be the most beautiful human being I’ve ever met.” Please join us in sitting with this extraordinary soul….

Robert Kegan, author of The Evolving Self, discusses the role of interior development in creating a more integrated world. He explores the misconceptions about developmental stages and the importance of understanding interconnectedness in various fields of work. The podcast delves into the harmonious integration of hierarchies in scientific forms, advocating for inclusive perspectives devoid of biases.

In this classic dialogue — so classic, in fact, it was the very first dialogue we ever published! — Stuart Davis discusses his music and creative process in intimate detail and offers an intimate performance of 8 of his songs, including a incredibly touching version of “Swim”, based on the death of Treya Killam Wilber.

We live in an infinitely creative universe — and with every passing moment we have the option to actively and consciously participate with that creativity. We can either follow the familiar rhythms of our own habituations and comforts, or we can make a different choice altogether — we can do something new, something unpredictable, something that allows this creative novelty to work through our own nervous system and spill new forms of beauty into the rest of the world. Because we are all artists at the end of the day. We are constantly creating new realities and conjuring new possibilities, both for ourselves and for the rest of the world. Every decision we make is a creative act, whether we are aware of it or not. Sometimes we live our art in unconscious ways, following a path of least resistance as far as we think it will take us. But we are also invited to bring more embodied awareness to our creative expression — harnessing the untamed sounds, colors, and energies of nature and willing them to bend in the service of beauty, meaning, purpose, and connection. This is what Ryan and I explore in this special episode of Inhabit — how to more fully align ourselves with our own deepest source of beauty, inspiration, and creative emergence. Watch as we discuss: - The creative confluence that exists between beauty, evolution, and spirit, - The importance of a 2nd-person perspective to your creative process, - How the neoliberal commodification of art influences and/or limits our own creative expression, - How the integral mindset allows us to increase our enjoyment and enactment of art, - How our immersion in entertainment culture can make us overly critical of art, - The importance of beauty and aesthetics for the healing process, - How work with our own creative blocks and ruts

Habituation is the enemy of growth. It is rare for any circumstance to force us completely out of our accumulated habits, patterns, and comfort zones — which is exactly what is happening right now, as people all over the globe are having to drastically alter their lifestyles and livelihood in response to the corona pandemic. The good news is, when this happens and our normal day-to-day inertias are interrupted, it’s also an opportunity to make new choices: to recognize the patterns that haven’t been working for you, and to begin cultivating new patterns that work better, that take you farther, that bring you greater resilience, deeper compassion, and more skillful responsiveness. In times of extreme fragility such as these, it becomes all the more important to find new ways to practice our own anti-fragility. In this episode of Inhabit we are joined by special guest Keith Martin Smith, an acclaimed author, teacher, and dear friend to the show, in order to explore key practices and postures to help us maintain our physical, mental, and spiritual health while enduring the painful realities that all of us are so immersed in right now.