The Integral Stage

In Re/thinking Religion, a new Integral Stage series, John Vervaeke joins Bruce Alderman and Layman Pascal to explore possible points of contact and confluence between their respective approaches to religion and spirituality. For the eleventh episode, Layman, John, and Bruce explore the question of subtle energy -- its nature, its scientific or religious status, and the roles that subtle energy cultivation and awareness may play in transformative processes. They discuss a number of the major paradigms on subtle energy, including one John has offered; its capacity to bridge subject and object, and psychological and contemplative domains; its moral dimensions; and towards the end of the talk, the reasons this topic is more important than ever for our communities to begin to explore.

Layman is joined by expressive arts therapist, transformative educator, artist, and author, Dr. Sally Adnams Jones, to talk about Eros, Yin-Yang polarity, gender non/duality, boundaries and consent, agency and communion, and the integral Tao of creativity. Sally Adnams Jones is Director of TransformArta and has taught art education at The University of Victoria, Canada. Her Ph.D. research explored how survivors of the HIV/AIDs pandemic in Africa transformed through their art practice. Currently she participates on Integral forums on Clubhouse, leads retreats and workshops, offers counseling and creative coaching, and is an artist and author. Professional website http://sallyadnamsjones.com/ Fathom app https://hello.fathom.fm/ Support The Integral Stage on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/theintegralstage

In 2021, Layman conducted a Salon of the Banned interview with Son of Korg and Ezekiel-73 about their experimental online magazine, the Limited Hangout, which was dedicated to exploring a host of paranormal, parapolitical, and "conspiracy"-related themes from an integral perspective. That experiment is now coming to a close, so Son of Korg and Ezekiel-73 (who outs himself in this video) return to talk about the origins and original intentions of the project; what they learned during this several-year journey; the amplification of the uncanny they experienced as COVID unfolded and fringe topics came more to the center of mainstream discourse; the challenges and gifts they experienced navigating alternative sensemaking circles; the reasons why conspiracy or parapolitical thinking now seems to be related to "Right-wing rabbit holes," and why that wasn't always the case; and much more. Limited Hangout website https://limitedhangout.wtf/

CATALYZING CONNECTION: A CONVERSATION MID-STREAM For episode 6 at the Liminal Café, we drop in mid-stream on a conversation between Tim Adalin and Layman Pascal. Although we drop in on the couch as eavesdroppers after the conversation has already begun, we can pick up soon enough that this is a rich conversation on conversation itself ... on cultivating the field, working with emergent criticality, and catalyzing connection across challenging boundaries. Towards the end of the conversation, they discuss the religion that is not a religion, dreams of pilgrimages and new formats for collective events, and Tim gets Layman closer than he's ever been to admitting his alien origins. Tim Adalin is the founder and producer of the Voicecraft podcast and a transformative philosopher. Tim's work focuses on the relation between participation and transformation, and integrates metaphysical and scientific modes of understanding. The primary medium of this work lives in embodied relationality with friends, family, and peers. He is concerned with the vital connections between psyche, culture, and nature, and is developing networks and communities that support wiser contexts for education, contribution, and belonging. Voicecraft Podcast https://voicecraft.io/about/

Cognitive neuroscientist and science writer, Bobby Azarian, returns to the Integral Stage for a deep and wide-ranging discussion of the emerging scientific paradigm -- the complexity science paradigm arising out of the intersections of physics, biology, neuroscience, and information theory -- that will likely shape self, culture, and society for the next century. If the universe is now known to be self-organizing through levels of developmental emergence, and if we are, as Carl Sagan once said, "a way for the cosmos to know itself," what really are the implications of such a view for all the domains of life that matter to us? This perspective, of course, is in its general outlines very similar to the one Ken Wilber outlined in Sex, Ecology, Spirituality, but the science has developed since Wilber published SES; so Bobby and Layman explore those developments, and how they further reinforce, and in some cases update, the synthesis Wilber offered several decades ago. Bobby Azarian is a cognitive neuroscientist (PhD, George Mason University), a science journalist, and author of the book The Romance of Reality: How the Universe Organizes Itself to Create Life, Consciousness, and Cosmic Complexity. He has written for The Atlantic, The New York Times, BBC Future, Scientific American, Slate, The Huffington Post, Quartz, The Daily Beast, Aeon, and others. His research has been published in peer-reviewed journals like Human Brain Mapping, Cognition & Emotion, Acta Psychologica, and Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. His Psychology Today blog (Mind in the Machine) has received over 8 million views, making it one of the most popular blogs on the website. He has been a guest on The Joe Rogan Experience, the Michael Shermer Show, The David Pakman Show, The Jim Rutt Show, The Young Turks, the Singularity University podcast, and many others. He helped develop multiple episodes for Season 2 of the YouTube Premium series Mind Field, which won the show its first Emmy nomination. He is a pro at audio and music production, and is currently working on an educational podcast based on his new book.

Bruce joins Layman Pascal under the Wayne mansion to explore Layman's infamous Facebook group, Pascal's Integral Batcave, and the art of metaphilosophical meme-ing.   Pascal's Integral Batcave https://www.facebook.com/groups/162945624115898 Follow The Integral Stage on Fathom!   https://hello.fathom.fm/  Like, subscribe, and support The Integral Stage on Patreon to make more of these conversations possible! https://www.patreon.com/theintegralstage

In the Integral community, we tend to show too little love to the Lower Right quadrant.  In this new series, Love the System, Layman Pascal and his guests will take deep dives the nature of living and man-made systems, and explore the most promising systemic approaches to managing the challenges of our day.   In Episode 22, Layman meets with James Redenbaugh, the founder and creative director of Iris Co-Creative, an integrally informed, international team of website designer, artists, and branding experts.  IRIS stands for Intuitive, Relational, and Intersubjective, and Layman and James explore what is meant by each term, how they relate to creative work, and how they inform emergent ways of working in the world.   James Redenbaugh is a director, facilitator, and designer.  He directs creative processes for paradigm-shifting organizations around the world.  He has 10+ years experience working with globally recognized thought-leaders, game-changing companies, and high-impact NGOs.  Iris Co-Creative website https://www.iris-cocreative.com/

Recently, we released a discussion titled, "Things That Integral Has Not Done Well," looking at a number of missteps the integral community and leadership has made, and at some of its most controversial associations with spiritual figures.  Among the figures discussed was Andrew Cohen, and he joins us today to respond to that video, to offer some counter critiques, and to discuss possible things both he and the integral community can do going forward to correct for those mistakes and to open possible ways forward for greater transformation and integral flourishing.   Andrew Cohen is an American-born, internationally known 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  Personal Website https://www.andrewcohen.com/

In Re/thinking Religion, a new Integral Stage series, John Vervaeke joins Bruce Alderman and Layman Pascal to explore possible points of contact and confluence between their respective approaches to religion and spirituality.   For the tenth episode, Bruce, Layman, and John reflect on the groundbreaking work of 4E cognitive scientists, Francisco Varela and Evan Thompson, especially their perspectives on the role of the imaginal in perception, healing, self-transformation, and the development of wisdom; the five criteria for the wise use of the imaginal in education, therapy, and religious practice; the need to rehabilitate the 'place' of the imaginal in common understanding; and the potential risks of the exploitative commodification and commercialization of the fruits of the cognitive scientific study of religion and spirituality (along the lines of "McMindfulness"), and how that can be avoided with a fuller, more integral understanding and practice of cognitive science.   John Vervaeke is a cognitive scientist, a professor of psychology at Toronto University, and the creator of the popular YouTube series, "Awakening from the Meaning Crisis."

For the 30th episode of the Integral Stage Authors series, Layman sits down with evolutionary enlightenment teacher, Andrew Cohen, to talk about his most recent book, "When Shadow Meets the Bodhisattva: The Challenging Transformation of a Modern Guru."   Ten years after his public fall from grace and the dissolution of his spiritual community, Andrew talks about the lessons learned -- his understanding of what went wrong; his confrontation with shadow and the need to take responsibility for what transpired; the shame and regret of failing those who had counted on him; the wise counsel he sought and received from others; and the personal and spiritual insights, and the new vision of spirituality, he developed through this process.   Andrew Cohen is an American-born, internationally known 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   When Shadow Meets the Bodhisattva https://www.amazon.com/When-Shadow-Meets-Bodhisattva-Transformation/dp/1644115905/ Personal Website https://www.andrewcohen.com/