Ah, the power of Google Blog Search.  While checking out the most "revelant" tags regarding blogs posting about Ken Wilber, ran across this article on the Institute for the Future, and a quick reference to a LOT of theories of everything.

Other Theories of Everything presented included:

    * A Brief History of Everything, by Ken Wilber
    * Spiral Dynamics
    * Consilience, by Edward O. Wilson
    * The Great Chain of Being, by Arthur Oncken Lovejoy (1873-1962)
    * The Nature of Order, by Christopher Alexander [Book one, Book two, Book three, Book four]
    * The Universe in a Single Atom, by the Dalai Lama
    * TRUTON (The Rational Unified Theory of Nature)

Also, then get referred to Rudy's Blog, who appears to have published a book called The Lifebox, the Seashell, and the Soul.

Don't know if this is good or not, but I'm pointing you to it.  I should do a review, but I don't really have time - so if someone wants to give a brief summary of the whole Wolfram-geek-spiritual point of view these guys are coming from, that would be cool.

What is the better word - on a marketing level - for saying you have a point of view, or a practice?

"I have a holistic point of view, with an integral practice for the body, mind, and spirit."

"I have an integral point of view, with a holistic practice for the body, mind, and spirit".

Are there better terms?

Thoughts?

Huh - just as a post that article on MySpace - which is still true - I come across this post about MySpace and Friendster - about fake people and porn!

Well, I guess even fake social friends, are still social friends??

I saw coolmel's article about MySpace, so I decided to take a look at MySpace.

I had looked at MySpace awhile ago, but I must say, it's gotten better, in the groups, in the search functions, etc.

Take a look at this listing of groups, and also this listing of events. Also, here's the integral philosophy group.

Pretty interesting!  As coolmel says, social networking is all the rage!

Continuing with the them today of do-it-yourself - with a WYSIWYG interface -  here comes the  FabLab. 

John Silvester Boafo stands next to a small scale, metal prototype of what he calls a fu-fu pounder. "In every Ghanaian home, the main dish is fu-fu," says Boafo, Principal at the Takoradi Technical Institute, home to Ghana's Fab Lab, which opened last year.

"Fu-fu is made of plantain and cassava, which are cooked," he explains.

"After they are cooked, they are put into a mortar, and pounded by hand. People go through hard labour, just to get a meal to eat.

"So, we thought we could fabricate this machine to alleviate the hard labour they use in pounding." Boafo says the fu-fu pounder is a good example of the practical projects that the Ghanaian Fab Lab wants to tackle.

So, people are becoming more empowered to not only generate their own energy - or publish weblogs and websites like this one - but they can also start fabricating their own products - right down to the specs.

Notice also, that the software that tells the machines what to do, are open source. 

I wonder if this applies to housing communities - extending to the water, septic tank, and hook-ups to the water and the electric grid?

If there is going to be some type or form of Peak Oil Crisis, well, things like this will help alleviate some of it...

These type of products look amazing.  Welcome to the world of personal power generation.

I find them interesting not only because of the lack of batteries, but also because of the Do It Yourself aspect.  Like "personal publishing", if these type of products are done right, it's another area of life that - easily - comes under one's personal control.

I'm late to comment on this, but the Integral Institute is offering more I-Wet weekends.

The new ones are in Los Angeles, Seattle, and San Francisco.

The cost went up $50 as well, I see. 

I've offered a review on the SF event previously - and for me it was definitely worth it.

However, one other comment.

I would say that the percentage of guys to women at the I-Wet seminar, was about 60% men, 40% women - actually maybe a little more highly skewed to guys, although I wasn't counting.

This is uncommon for spiritual events for me, as most holistic-spiritual type "events" in the Bay Area, tend to be more evenly weighted, or even lean towards more female representation.

What does that mean?  Well, I clearly think it means there is a strong masculine-intellectual vibe operating in Ken Wilber's head, that then resonates in other masculine-intellectual heads. 

This vibe doesn't have much to do with any CAPACITY.  A couple of fremale friends of mine - super-bright - picked up Ken's books, and just did not get moved by them.  (Small sample size, I know)

Of course, this type of population skewing isn't anything like what I have found in tech companies, where the ratio of men to women is even higher.

So there is SOME "Heart" represented in the work, but probably more heart would be useful.

Back when I was only a comics and fantasy geek, I never imagined that comics and fantasy would go so mainstream as to be so favorably highlighted in Time magazine.  But of course, this is taken for granted now.

This article is good, because it takes both the best (Neil Gaiman and Sandman - need I say more?) and the decent-but-popular (Joss Whedon of Buffy fame) and talks about the current state of popularity of comics, fantasy, horror, etc. 

Also, didn't know that Neil Gaiman had his own blog.

Warren Ellis has been amusing me with his demented writings for years now.

Now all I need are where:

Grant Morrison
Brian Michael Bendis
Alan Moore

leave their online musings, and I will be all set...

This weekend, we will be going to music events on all three days:

a. The Crystal Method, at Ruby Skye  for tonight (Friday).

b. The Love Parade San Francisco for Saturday.

c. Now and Zen at Golden Gate Park - where the interest is in seeing Maroon 5.

If anyone else is going to these events - let me know, email is at the right! 

A great animated short on SO-CALLED "Trusted Computing".  Take a look.

I don't think there is any "out" on this.  All computers will end up having something like this, and built into the computer itself, before the operating system.

Now ideally, this is a big deal - I want as much choice as possible on my computer, and otherwise, I give the choice to various multimedia companies, of what CAN and CANNOT run on my computer. 

However, it's really not so clear-cut as that.  Take the IPOD as an example.  The IPOD, which I love, is about as closed a piece of hardware as you can imagine - but, in its favor, it DOES run mp3's without that level of openness, people wouldn't be into it.

But do I really care?  Do I not love the IPOD? 

Same thing with Apple, actually.  Apple goes so far as to sue anonymous reporters-sites, claiming "trade violation".  Simply to shut down a fan gossip and rumor site.

Does this mean I love Apple products less?  No.  But Apple culture is well-known for a penchant for complete control.  And that obsessiveness is actually useful for incredible pieces of engineering like the Ipod Nano.

So what's the right mix?  Is there a right ideal?

I don't know - I'm only raising the question.

And here they are.

This is my "Health" post for the week!

I'm seeing Hurrican Rita bear down on Texas, and it reminds me of a lot of the energy and resource questions that are looming over modern civilization and how we power ourselves AS a civilization.

An article from Technology Review, presenting some of the apocalyptic views of James Howard Kunstler, proprietor over at Clusterfuck Nation.

This review article is pretty balanced, giving seriousness to the views of Kunstler, without - in the end - buying it.  For those concerned about Peak Oil, give it a read.

Also, a good article by the science writer Darksyde over at DailyKos, that is more topical, on how oil rigs around the ports of Texas and Louisiana work.

Vomitting Confetti has been talking about this topic a bit as well recently.

Anyone else have some thoughts on this?

This is a story from CNET.

What happens if Google invites reporters and bloggers, but they agree not to write about it?

Small humorous article about asking people not to "Blog" about something yet.

Hence, the Non-Blog-Agreement.

A funny thing happened to me last month. I went to the September San Francisco Ken Wilber Meet-Up, and as it happened, the organizer was stepping down. He put it open for others to volunteer to become the organizer of the Ken Wilber Meet-Ups. No one was stepping up immediately, so Amy (my fiance, who was at the meeting as well) started nudging me in the ribs, and whispering (Go! You! You're always on that computer on your blog, integral this, integral that, you do this!). (On another note, I'll have a post about the September MeetUp, and what was discussed there later). Long story short, I am now the Ken Wilber Meetup Organizer - at least until they kick me out for causing a scene, or some such...   more »

I noticed a new site called Street Prophets: Faith and Politics.  This site is an outgrowth of DailyKos, which is THE community site for the democratic party, and in terms of a blogging community, is head and shoulders above any other.  Here is Kos's post for the site. 


For anyone with interest in Integral Politics, or Spirit and Politics, I think it is incumbent to enter a site like this, and test your ideas, thoughts, commitments, in the fire of a larger community.  Also, in a previous post, I've commented how those who are religious/spiritual, but not fundamentalist, have to do a better job of reaching out in this society.

My interest in politics is less than a lot of others, and it isn't something I write about much.  But I have created an account, and have a feeling I will occasionally be posting there.  And I urge others who appreciate "theories of everything" - Wilber or Kazlev or another's theory of everything  - to participate as well.

In another post on future training - what has been called elearning 2.0 - and also following up on Coolmel's great Tetrameshing Web2.0, I there's a great graphic that I think most people would find very interesting.

Here is Scott Wilson's Vision of VLE's - or the future Virtual Learning Environments. 

I've written before on these type of future VLE's, and some things we can expect from them - but this brings a different shift in the focus, as what Scott Wilson is pointing to - along with many others - is a type of bottom up perspective - where the person, the profile, the connected interests, and the subsequent communication, form the backbone of of the virtual cloud the user - as agent - is operating in. 

This also connects very strongly to Michaeul Bauwens P2P and Human Evolution: Placing Peer to Peer Theory in an Integral Framework, and suggests the social environment that will come to exist in different communities.  I've had some email correspondence with Michael - not only is he incredibly bright, but a grace and humor shine through in his communications, that are very "lightening".  I highly recommend going through his work - (with the warning that it is very dense.)

At any rate, always fun to envision the future, and see what hopefully will be coming down the pike.

Check it out here.

It's a good review, and he mentions the StopWatch application, which I hadn't heard about.


As you can tell, over the last week, I have a bit of an infatuation with the new I-Nano.  It's quite unhealthy, especially since I won't be picking it up! (Unless I rationalize to myself that the stopwatch application is EXACTLY what I need for my exercise practice.)

Then of course, Paul reminds me to feel guilty about this infatuation, which is pretty easy for me to do.

Since I'm not buying the Nano (at least not yet), my rationalization is that I am simply admiring genius at work - kinda like when you see a beautiful butterfly, you have no choice but to feel awe. 

What do you think?

I saw this worksheet on preparing for an exercise program from Ryan. What is excellent about this, is a modified version of this program can be utilized in any integral practice module that one is beginning as a new practice. My own interest is in continuing to explore the 5 Essential Practices of an Integral Practitioner   more »

Great news to hear, heading into the weekend - this article says Global Warming Past the Point of No Return.

Lovely.

It's all about the sea ice - and how the sea ice is disappearing rapidly.

"Sea ice keeps a cap on frigid water, keeping it cold and protecting it from heating up. Losing the sea ice of the Arctic is likely to have major repercussions for the climate, he said. "There could be dramatic changes to the climate of the northern region due to the creation of a vast expanse of open water where there was once effectively land," Professor Wadhams said. "You're essentially changing land into ocean and the creation of a huge area of open ocean where there was once land will have a very big impact on other climate parameters," he said."

That doesn't sound good. 
"The greatest fear is that the Arctic has reached a "tipping point" beyond which nothing can reverse the continual loss of sea ice and with it the massive land glaciers of Greenland, which will raise sea levels dramatically."

Hmm.

As I live on a city surrounding on three sides by water, I will be paying attention to these things...

I've gone ahead and added the "Ken Wilber Google Blog Search" and called it "Ken Wilber Currents", as an RSS feed, under the Ken Wilber category (look to the left).  Once you click on the Category, in the right column, you will see the list of "posts about Ken Wilber.

This feed will always have the most relevant (according to Google) posts about Ken Wilber.

In the next few weeks, I'll also try to make the navigation to the various rss feeds here, a bit more navigation friendly.  Any thoughts in this area, let me know!

Via Lifehacks, I came acroos the GoogleBlog search.

This is the search I find when I look for Ken Wilber.  It seems to me to be pretty fast and powerful.

A couple of things -

1.  There are some good posts from authors I know nothing about.

Check out this article from Perigrinato, and also this article from A Place Called Vertigo.

2.  It looks like the List of Integral Blogs I keep is going to be expanding in the near future...

Here's the definitive "best press" article on the Nano. 

Looking at the recent changes on Integral Wiki, I saw that someone had entered information, and an essay, on Stanislave Grof and Holotropic BreathWork.

What's funny is all this week, mulling what I am going to write for the Integral Spirituality review, I was thinking a lot about Stan Grof and the perspective he works from. 

I had a class with him, a long time ago, and had read a couple of his books, in particular 'Beyond the Brain'.

At any rate, here's a quick hits take on Grof's research, theory, and practice:

Grof noticed that an individual’s issues are grouped along certain themes. There are common patterns linking one’s emotional issues, physical problems, birth dynamics, and profound universal spiritual questions. Grof calls these threads or chains "systems of condensed experience", or COEX’s for short.
...
Most spectacularly, in Holotropic Breathwork, we can have experiences that touch on several levels of the spectrum at once, or even embrace the entire spectrum. It is common for individuals to have a profound spiritual realization at the same time as a major physical release. In this simultaneous experience, we also become aware that all levels of Being are deeply interwoven.

What always has struck me as different between the Grof conception - based on quite a number of in-session evaluations - and the Wilber conception, was how the "birth material" - images of being born, of fighting to leave the womb - think of this as a person's 1st imprint - was DEEPLY RELATED to the experience of the divine.  In uncovering the "birth material", this also uncovers some of the deepest spiritual truths.

(I hope I am remembering this right - feel free to notify me with a correction if I am not).

From a graphic perspective then, from one view, it can make sense to trace "evolution" on a circle - with experiences of birth, death, and the highest spiritual truths, occupying the same space in terms of human experience.

This is slightly different than Wilber, who posits a type of "Ladder" or "structures of a house" view, where the PRE-normal consciousness experiences, demonstrated by the Piaget stages, are very different than the POST-normal consciousness stages, demonstrated by spiritual truths and experience.

This is one reason why Grof has said that Wilber's model "doesn't mesh with the data", as the interpenetration of regression experience, with then the subsequent healing, doesn't fit will into a house or ladder view.

In my naivete, I have thought both sets of data might fit into a "spiral" view - whereby birth material and profound spiritual material, on the X axis, would be connected - would have "circled back", but on the Y axis, be at a different place in consciousness.

But I'm sure that is pure and silly navel gazing. 

Any other information on the meshing of these two out there?

While we wait for a review about Apple's new IPOD Nano
from Coolmel, I've gone ahead and read a couple of other reviews, so I'll link them here:

Playlist Magazine

Unoffical Apple Weblog

If anyone sees another very informative review, let me know.

 Recently, I had some time to do thinking about Integral Practice and I've realized, that I have strayed a bit from my earlier thoughts about what I was going to do with this site.

Partly, because my thoughts have evolved, and my interests go to other things besides simply practice - right now, Holistic and  Integral Theory, Non-Duality, and evolving technology.

So, getting back to the basics of Integral Practice, here's the beginning of a series of posts, regarding what are the ESSENTIAL practices to take up, to be a productive, loving, integral practicioner in the world. 

1st Tier - Essentials - or The Five Petals

Career and Money
Health and Exercise
Spiritual Practice
Interpersonal Relationships (Romance, Family Friends, Community)
Psychological Health and Stability

2nd Tier - Self-Improvement and Self-Actualization
Creativity
Productivity
Individual Passion Projects  (Intellectual Research, Spiritual Retreats, Community Service, Website and Design, Auto Mechanics, Carpentry, Gardening, Hiking, Adventures, Travel, etc, etc.). 
Volunteerism, Environmental and Political Action

3rd Tier - Mastery

Of any of the above subjects, whether money, creativity, building, growing communities, spiritual understanding, leadership etc.

4th Tier - Genius, Improvement of world's conditions, Realization

Profound impact and improvement in the lifeworld.  Example - Ramana Maharshi, Gandhi, Einstein, Berners-Lee, Dali, etc.


My own inclination, is that the five areas above in essentials are the building blocks of what needs to be practiced, in order for 2nd through 4th tier flowering to arise.

Now, there's a caveat to this - and the caveat is, if one's area of expertise/genius is evident, and one's dedication to this area so fierce, then life usually excuses a person from having to be "well-rounded" in having all five areas flowing.  However, this is usually apparent, because you will have "backers" who will be willing to fund your genius - or you have gone out of your way to learn/study/teach in the optimal "social centers" for your genius.  So your life centers around that and nothing else, and it has always been so.

Even still, greater happiness usually will occur, in paying attention to all the 5 areas, no matter who you are.

In the next few weeks, I'm going to be examining each area of life, with the following template:

a.  Personal self-evaluations regarding each area, that actually result in some self-knowledge.
b. A recommendation of a basic practice, that one can do daily, and also an "all-in" path, that utilizes the retreat or "basic training" style of grounding a new practice.
c. Directing, through links, to the type of online support, community, and volunteerism, that is essential for "regular people" to be successful in taking on and sticking with a new practice.

I was alerted to the IPod Nano by Integra-Pundit Coolmel. 

So I went by the San Francisco Mac Store near Union Square, to take a look at it.

OH! MY!  GOD!!!!

This Nano ABSOLUTELY takes my breath away!!!  I cannot believe how small and light it is!!  It's like having the functionality of an IPOD in a credit card!!! (it's thicker than a credit card of course, but you get the idea.)

Comparing the size of the current IPOD to the Nano, is like comparing the first Motorola Brick phone to the current IPOD. The thing is that small!

I'm not going to get it, because I have an ipod, and I simply can't justify the expense, since I have one.  But in a couple of years, when this credit card-sized Nano has 20 or 30 gigs, I'll be revisiting that decision...

In an email I was informed that someone didn't see a change - if you don't, try refreshing or reloading the page - the site look is quite different!

Let me know what you think.  I was getting tired of the green, and also it wasn't as clear for certain uses as I wanted it to be.