Everyone Is Right

As many people know, Billy Corgan and Smashing Pumpkins burst on the scene with their first album, Gish, in 1991, which shot to the top of the charts, which is where the Pumpkins remained for a decade, all the harder in that critics considered them “sophisticated,” “complex,” “with great depth,” words usually reserved for artistic success and commercial failure. Billy and the Pumpkins achieved both, as did his next group, Zwan…. In this inside look at this own artistic unfolding, Billy discusses why he formed, and then dissolved, the Pumpkins, and likewise Zwan, as his own artistic crest (or leading edge or avant garde) moved forward. He and Ken talk about the leading edge of consciousness evolution and why artists are so often riding that edge — hence, the avant garde. To be on the crest of one’s own unfolding consciousness is not to guarantee creativity, or greatness, or even talent; it is, however, necessary if not sufficient for such. Since dissolving Zwan, Billy has been experimenting with a succession of avenues for creating new forms of music. He has quietly recorded new solo material, and is planning on re-entering the studio this month to record what he and Ken refer to in the dialogue as the “futuristic rock record.” Billy also plans on experimenting with small groups of audiences who can participate in a type of co-creation of music—”I’m still working on ways to integrate the opinion or the feeling of the audience into its own living art.” Whether or not any of these experimental forms succeed is not the point; the point is exactly as Billy says in this dialogue: “Even how I approach composition, I’m going at it from a different angle from how I would normally do it. Different process, different results.” And the different process is surfing the leading edge, whether you wipe out or not.

Spiritual conversations often emphasize the importance of overcoming our resistance and accepting the world for what it is, exactly as it is. However, there are times when we don’t need to overcome our resistance, we need to fully inhabit our resistance. We can’t simply accept what is, we need to put ourselves on the line for what can and should be. How can we bring more mindfulness, skillfulness, and embodiment to our resistance, even while seeing everything as always-already perfect? And what is the role of violence in protest culture? Is some degree of violence necessary in order to create real social change? When is violence appropriate, when can it help your cause, and when can it only work against your cause? These are not easy questions to answer. Which is why Ryan and I wanted to talk with our good friend Justin Miles about all this. Justin stands in an extraordinary confluence of spiritual, political, and cultural lineages — he is an avid Integralist, a practicing Shambhala Buddhist, an active member of the Black Panther Party, a local community leader, the founder of a Black Power Meditation group in Baltimore, and a prolific hip hop artist. All of these divergent and sometimes conflicting influences have given Justin a unique full-spectrum perspective on the #BLM protests we see erupting all across the country. Watch as Justin shares his own views on this new wave of social resistance and gives voice to the incredible pain, trauma, and frustration that black Americans have been living with for generations. One important note — although we talk openly in this episode about the possible role(s) of violence in protest culture, in no way are we actually condoning violence. Attempting to understand violence — even asking whether some degree of violence might be necessary in order to overcome our social inertia and get the gears of social transformation moving — is very different from actually justifying violence. And of course there is a fairly wide spectrum of violence, from physical assault to property damage to resisting arrest to self-harm, not to mention the accumulated interior violence of discrimination, disenfranchisement, and dehumanization. All resistance is inherently violent, on some level — but how much violence is necessary in today’s resistance movements? This may very well be one of the best measures of just how functional and healthy a society is — how much violence is required in order to enact social change? — in which case, our hope is “as little as possible”.

Although there are many facets to this wonderful discussion, the central idea is that there are masculine and feminine expressions of Spirit, whose respective qualities are often referred to as consciousness and light, agency and communion, solar and lunar, Emptiness and Manifestation, Freedom and Fullness. Both the masculine and feminine types develop through three basic stages or levels. David refers to these three basic stages by many different names, including gross, subtle, and causal; preconventional, conventional, and postconventional; personal, interpersonal, and transpersonal; or simply body, mind, and spirit. Thus, there are masculine and feminine expressions of body, of mind, and of spirit. Further, there are healthy and unhealthy forms of the masculine and feminine at each of those three levels. As David articulately explains, there are ways to spot those pathological forms and experientially redress them, thus finding and fulfilling one’s deepest gift and potential. In part two of the discussion, David continues his fascinating account of the masculine and feminine faces of Spirit, with particular emphasis on the unhealthy or pathological forms of each—along with direct experiential ways to redress or correct those imbalances. The relation (and deep connection) of sexuality and spirituality is a topic strangely ignored by most spiritual teachers, which creates a lack or gap that desperately needs attention. David explores the ways in which traditional spiritual concerns can be integrated with the bodily existence of men and women in the here and now. The overall view is one of an integral approach that unites masculine and feminine in body, mind, and spirit. David and Ken also discuss David’s essay, “Ken Wilber is a Fraud,” which caused a huge ruckus when it was released. Believe us, you don’t want to miss this one.

The creator of some of the most transcendent art of our time explores why it is necessary to go beyond the faded postmodern milieu of today’s art world, how psychedelics can play a role in discovering and manifesting one’s deeper realms of being, and how the “two kinds of higher” can impact artists and their work. In the foreword to Alex’s book The Mission of Art, Ken stated: “Alex Grey might be the most significant artist alive.” At first glance, this can appear to be pure hyperbole, expressing the understandable enthusiasm of a long-time friend and colleague. However, with an Integral Approach, Ken explains, “significant” has a specific meaning, and it was this meaning alluded to in the foreword. “Significant” refers to the degree of depth of an occasion (how many levels of complexity does it contain?), and “fundamental” refers to the span or breadth of an occasion (how many of them are there?). Atoms, for example, are extremely fundamental to the universe—and have enormous span (there are zillions of them)—but they are not very significant (containing little complexity). Humans, on the other hand, are not very fundamental to the universe (e.g., there are far fewer of us than there are atoms), but we are uniquely significant (no other thing or organism in the known universe contains more levels of depth and complexity than a human). So, how is Alex Grey possibly the most significant artist alive? Looking at the territory we have covered so far, the answer is actually quite simple and elegant: Alex has explored and to various degrees mastered all five states of consciousness, and has grown to integral and transpersonal levels of development, the current leading edge of consciousness evolution. (In Ken’s book Integral Spirituality, these two axes are likewise called “the two axes of Enlightenment,” and no spiritual realization is complete without both.) Particularly when it comes to the forms of reality disclosed by non-ordinary, meditative, and peak states of consciousness, Alex is unparalleled in his ability to translate what he sees in his “eye of spirit” to a work of art, which then often has the extraordinary ability of evoking similar kinds of states in viewers.

Caroline Myss, one of the best known (and highly researched) medical intuitives, presents a fast, wild, rich, and rollicking narrative of her personal struggles with spiritual intuition and the dramatic growth and unfolding that often resulted. Caroline begins with a compelling account of how she came to a fundamental change in her own spiritual understanding and teaching: not that people need to learn how to be more intuitive, but that people are already abundantly intuitive but spend their time trying to deny it. “I am now beginning to believe the you are so intuitive, that‘s the source of your misery. You‘re so intuitive you‘re imploding, so you try to numb yourself to it instead of going with it. Every choice most people make is to block that level of timeless guidance.” Caroline then focuses on the unfolding of awareness from prepersonal to personal awareness to transpersonal, and, as a dramatic example of the latter, recounts here, for the first time in public in any detail, the ordeal of her own near-death experience. The nature of her realizations and the profound switch in her own teaching are recounted in a riveting tale… accompanied by unrelenting humor and a lightness of being that is simply infectious. Caroline and Ken go on to explore how the grace of Spirit motivates the teaching impulse, and how a genuine spiritual teacher often isn‘t interested in telling anyone what to do, but rather in sharing the insight that has blessed their lives, laced with a redeeming honesty. Caroline speaks of how, for her, the impulse to share truth is the manifestation of a kind of spiritual contract with God — one which may or may not fit in with your personal life plans: “I think that the nature of contracts is that they are meant to disappoint the ego but fill the soul. And therein lies the intensity of life, which is: this isn‘t what I asked for, but it is what I need.” With humor and unapologetic enthusiasm, Caroline touches on everything from the hell of unresolved resentment to the joy of renovating her newly acquired 1885 Victorian house. But through it all, Caroline and Ken keep pointing toward a recognition of the always-already free nature of our deepest Self, and away from the superficial light-and-love posturing common in the new-age community. We hope you enjoy this energetic and unabashed perspective on the trials of life, the glory of Spirit, and why a house can be as satisfying as a baked potato.

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”.