The Integral Stage

Layman is joined by evolutionary enlightenment teacher, Andrew Cohen.   Andrew recounts his early experiences with his teacher, H.W.L. Poonja, and he explores with Layman the questions of what factors might serve to amplify transmission in certain people or places; the nature and role of subtle energy in relation to transmission dynamics; transmission in intersubjective or group contexts; the role of pomp and mythopoetic symbology in postmodern and metamodern transmission contexts; evolutionary enlightenment and the evolutionary impulse; the relationship dynamics of enlightened teachers with one another, and what might be done to overcome competitive ego dynamics and foster greater collaboration; Andrew's experiences with American Baul spiritual teacher, Lee Lozowick; and much more.   Andrew Cohen is an American-born, internationally known integral spiritual teacher and writer, and the founder of Evolutionary Enlightenment.  He has been teaching meditation for over three decades, and created the magazine, What is Enlightenment? -- one of the most successful publications ever in its genre.  His teaching work grapples with the challenges of bringing the revelation of enlightenment to a contemporary Western audience, integrating postmodern cultural and scientific understanding with an original and sophisticated non-dual philosophy.  After his organization, EnlightenNext, dissolved in 2013, he went on sabbatical for several years, but now has returned to teaching and is leading an online spiritual community called Manifest Nirvana.  Links and Resources   https://www.andrewcohen.com/  https://www.manifest-nirvana.com/

Layman and Bruce continue their trialogue with Alexander Bard, this time focusing in Nietzsche and nihilism -- the types of nihilism and its stages; its role in paradigm transition; its relationship to cynicism and enlightened false consciousness; the roles of the trickster, priest, and chief; Dionysian vs. Cybelian sensibilities; sutric vs. tantric orientations; transformation in light of the dynamics of process and event; and much more.    Alexander Bard is a Swedish author, lecturer, artist, songwriter, music producer, TV personality, religious and political activist, and one of the founders of the Syntheist religious movement alongside his co-author Jan Söderqvist.

Bruce Alderman sits down with Lee Nichol to discuss some of the intricacies of David Bohm's work.  In our broader integrative meta-community, and here on The Integral Stage as well, there has been a lot of concern recently with what John Vervaeke calls the 'meaning crisis.'  Back in the late 70s and 80s, dimensions of this crisis were already quite apparent to a number of thinkers, from David Bohm and Krishnamurti, to Fritjof Capra, Joanna Macy, Ken Wilber, Henryk Skolimowski, and others.  David Bohm's work is especially consonant with John Vervaeke's project.  From his position as a scientist, a quantum physicist in his case rather than a cognitive scientist, Bohm began to reflect on, and attempt to address, the breakdown in meaning he was witnessing -- the fragmentations in consciousness and culture that were leading to untold, and perhaps largely unnecessary, conflict and suffering in the world.  And like Vervaeke, for Bohm, one of the primary ways forward -- toward the cultivation of greater wisdom and insight -- was through the practice of dialogue.  Not just regular conversation, but a deeply somatically rooted process of inquiry and transjective encounter.  From fairly early on in his work on dialogue, Bohm was joined by Lee Nichol, a teacher at one of Krishnamurti's schools, and a deep thinker in his own right.  Over the years, Lee helped Bohm to refine and implement the practice of dialogue, and since Bohm's death, he has attempted to take the practice further -- most recently, through exploration of, and experiments with, Bohm's notion of holomovement or the holoflux.  In the discussion that follows, we will get into just what Bohm meant by holoflux, and how it relates to the process of dialogue, and to the deep transformative work needed to begin to address the roots of our present meaning crisis.   Entering Bohm's Holoflux free e-book Entering Bohm’s Holoflux by Lee Nichol - The Pari Center Beyond Bohm: Contemplation and Creativity course Beyond Bohm: Contemplation and Creativity - The Pari Center

For the seventh episode of the FIRE FROM HEAVEN series, Saniel Bonder and Linda Groves-Bonder return for a follow-up dialogue with Layman, this time to discuss an upcoming book, and then to explore the concept of spiritual democracy; the place and dynamics of transmission in a democratized spiritual context; the importance of embodiment and ecological awareness in developing or emerging spiritual traditions; the cultivation of collaborative mutuality among spiritual teachers and adepts, not just among followers; and much more.   Saniel and Linda:  http://www.sanielandlinda.com/  Free intro video, The Heart and Waking Down in Mutuality http://www.humansuninstitute.com/the-...  Free daily ‘Unshakable Joy Immersion’ meditations on Saniel's Facebook page  https://www.facebook.com/saniel.bonder

Layman Pascal and Bruce Alderman offer some riffs and reflections on John Vervaeke, Gregg Henriques, and Christopher Mastropietro's excellent 12-part dialogos on the nature and function of the self, "The Elusive I."    What kind of language can mediate between objective models and subjective experiences of the self, between science and clinical practice?  What is the dance between the elusiveness of the I and anatman, or the emptiness of the self?  How does the model of the self in The Elusive I relate to the models developed in transpersonal, integral, and esoteric psychologies?  What can Kierkegaard teach us about the nonduality of the self, and what are its farther reaches of development?  What is the role of the centaur in developing character?  Under the pressure of so many conditioning forces in culture, how might we be served by practices of self-transgression as well as self-transcendence?    Layman and Bruce consider these questions and more in developing a model of the self as a self-approximating hypersubject, a prepositional wild knot, an autopoietic living system, modulated dialogically, and described in a manner that is open both to naturalistic psychology and deep participatory spirituality... The Elusive I - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Fnmp6UVafM

Layman welcomes Andrés Bernal, a lecturer at CUNY Queens College, to discuss Modern Monetary Theory -- how he became interested in it, its major claims, its main proponents and detractors, and what it would take to begin to put it in action.  Andrés discusses his work with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; the development and implementation of the Green New Deal; the potential for South American countries to lead the way in monetary and economic reform; the role of AQAL, existential philosophy, and spiritual practice in his activism and the formation of his ideas; and much more.  Andrés was born in Bogota, Colombia and immigrated to the United States as a child. He has a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley with a focus on Existentialism, Political Economy, and Social Theory; and a Master of Arts from the University of San Diego's School of Leadership and Educational Sciences with a specialization in group learning and development and organizational leadership under the mentoring of renowned scholar-practitioner Zachary Green of Group Relations International.   Andrés has over a decade's worth of experience in youth leadership development and community building and serves as the Director of Political Education for the Young Progressives of America. In the Summer of 2017, Andrés began supporting the Congressional campaign of former colleague Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as a policy advisor and organizer. His work facilitated the incorporation of the Federal Jobs Guarantee policy onto the official campaign platform and helped in the vetting process of various academic resources. Alexandria would go on to become the youngest woman in history to be elected to the United States Congress.   Currently, Andrés resides in New York City where he is a Lecturer of Urban Studies at CUNY Queens College and Doctoral student at The New School For Public Engagement, Division of Policy Management and Environment. His research focuses on the Green New Deal as a site of political communication and policy analysis. Andrés is a leading voice and proponent associated with the heterodox school of economic thought known as Modern Monetary Theory. He is a Research Fellow at the Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity and a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Missouri Kansas City Department of Economics. https://www.andres-bernal.com/

Layman, Bruce, and Gregg Henriques convene for part one of a long-form dialogue on the meaning and promise of a sacred or sophianic naturalism for our time.  In this first episode, they explore some provisional framings of sacred naturalism, from Integral and UTOK perspectives; the place of consciousness in a sacred naturalist account; the tree, coin, and garden elements of UTOK; the importance of Dionysian as well as Apollonian approaches to the topic; ecological ethics and embodied practices; and much more.

In this episode of the Integral Stage's Fire from Heaven series, Layman continues to explore the nature, significance, perils and possibilities of "spiritual transmission" -- this time with Waking Down in Mutuality teacher-transmitters, Saniel Bonder and Linda Groves-Bonder. http://www.sanielandlinda.com/

In this episode of The Future Faces of Spirit, Andrew Cohen joins Bruce Alderman & Layman Pascal for a trialogue on his pioneering efforts in developing an integrative, evolutionary spirituality that is responsive to the unique challenges of our times.   Andrew is candid about the successes and shortcomings of his earlier work with the EnlightenNext community, and focuses in our conversation here on working productively with the genuine insights, breakthroughs, and lessons learned over the past 30 years, emphasizing the ongoing importance of spiritual awakening, the nature of intersubjective nonduality, the challenges of our contemporary meaning crisis, the indispensability of clear intention and earnestness in transformative practice, and the value of an evolutionary understanding and a metaphysics of becoming for engaging *with* the world instead of pursuing a mystical retreat from it.   Andrew Cohen is an American-born, internationally known integral spiritual teacher and writer, and the founder of Evolutionary Enlightenment.  He has been teaching meditation for over three decades, and created the magazine, What is Enlightenment?, one of the most successful publications ever in its genre.  His teaching work grapples with the challenges of bringing the revelation of enlightenment to a contemporary Western audience, integrating postmodern cultural and scientific understanding with an original and sophisticated non-dual philosophy.  After his organization, EnlightenNext, dissolved in 2013, he went on sabbatical for several years, but now has returned to teaching and is leading an online spiritual community called Manifest Nirvana.   https://www.andrewcohen.com https://www.manifest-nirvana.com/

For the Integral Stage Author Series, Layman is joined by Lonny Jarrett to discuss his new book, Deepening Perspectives on Chinese Medicine.   The conversation is rich and wide-ranging, touching on Lonny's early fascination with the Chinese classics as a child, and his concurrent educational journeys in Western science and medicine, Chinese medicine and martial arts,  and entheogenic experimentation and the contemplative arts.  Together they explore Western and Eastern conceptions of health, the importance of care for the body and its organ systems in cultivating integral development, the nature of chi and the chakra system, the potential emergence of a truly integral, world medicine that integrates the strengths of East and West, and much more.   Lonny is recognized worldwide as a leading practitioner, author, scholar & teacher of East Asian medicine. Throughout his career, he has been devoted to advancing the practice of this medicine.  Lonny has been practicing Acupuncture and Herbology in Stockbridge, Massachusetts since 1986. He holds Master’s Degrees in Neurobiology (University of Michigan) and Acupuncture (Traditional Acupuncture Institute) and studied Contemporary Pulse Diagnosis with Dr. Leon Hammer for 10 years.   https://lonnyjarrett.com/