Because she writes funny sh*t like this:

A sample:

I'm just not getting this stuff. It is as if I am taking a class in Chinese and the prof's mode of teaching it is to stand in front of the class and speak Chinese for an hour and a half. It is as if the textbook were written in hieraglyphics and there is no primer. That swirly symbol with the flaming curliques? Could be the solution to the question 'Comment on the symmetry of the distribution of change scores based on the answers derived from computing the mean change in cholesterol, as well as the standard deviation and range of hospitalization' or it could be just saying 'kiss my ass you granolahead honky'. I wouldn't know...

I saw this from Kottke, and it is pretty interesting. 

Ostensibly, this particular research was supposed to show whether blogs or "traditional media" was more popular, with the measuring stick being Google mentions. 

But take a look at the results.

Wikipedia is ostensibly the winner here, with wikipedia articles being in the top 4 more often than not.

As this continues, Wikipedia looks to be the default place for articles on any aspect of the world.

Over at Generation Sit - a site I frequently contribute to - there's a post on how David Jon Peckinpaugh has just had a son - named Uriah.

If you read David John - either at Generation Sit, or also at Syntegral - and also a couple of thoughtful essays at the Visser site Integral World - you may want to swing on by and give him the virtual equivalent of a cigar...

Good article on this here.

My biggest limitation in San Francisco with this, is getting a decent room, in a decent location, for cheap-near free, in an area close to BART, but also with adequate and inexpensive parking.

When a group of 7 to 10 people show up for Wilber/integral, you can do a lot of interesting things, both from a practice and study perspective - but again, you want a private room to do so, without paying $40 for two hours. 

The one crap thing about San Francisco - rents!!  (And the fact that I have not been industrious in looking for a place...)

I've been reading a lot of "integralians", who have been signing up for the social network Zaadz.  I am reading this with interest, but I haven't signed up yet.  

(It takes me awhile to "join", what can I say?)

From my initial review, I'm not sure it is the best of the up and coming social networks.  I am a fan of the open source Elgg, and also Barnraiser looks to have better features, at the moment.

However -

I was alerted by Ryan's post to this Flickr feature - and it is definitely very cool.  Ideas are voted on by the community, and then graphically displayed.

As expected, the largest graphics - "groups/tribes", "place to gather", "connection to others", "friends", etc.

I'm a busy guy, so I would have to agree that:  meeting in meatspace on a regular basis, with a like-minded community, is a difficult proposition currently.  I have taken - and am taking - steps to remedy this, but attention pulls to other things than building that community.

Answer is here.  Thanks to Lifehacker for the reference.

I think I am going to sign up for travel deals - that should be interesting!

Here is the link - a very good conversation, that brings up a whole host of questions.

Wilber is, in a very real way, the current modern exemplar of an evolutionary spirituality that Aurobindo in the East, first proposed.  As such, Wilber's Institute and work - like Aurobindo before him - tends towards a comprehensiveness and account of the world as it is in its form, as well as it is in it's formlessness, and towards a progress IN this world, and accounting for the various forms of this world.

Ramana Maharshi is having none of this:

"The state of Atmanishta [being fixed in the Self], devoid of the individual feeling of 'I', is the supreme state. In this state there is no room for thinking of objects, nor for this feeling of individual being. There is no doubt of any kind in this natural state of being-consciousness-bliss. So long as there is the perception of name and form in oneself, God will appear with form, but when the vision of the formless reality is achieved there will be no modifications of seer, seeing and seen. That vision is the nature of consciousness itself, non-dual and undivided. It is limitless, infinite and perfect"

Given the limited apperception - and availability to - the non-dual state - even reading Maharshi's description, elicits a change in perception for me.  A wonder seizes me - that peaceful, joyful peace arises, not attached to any object.

But there is still a WORLD that I live in, that I work in, that I have relationships in.  That impinges upon me.

Say there are 100,000 life lessons to learn, for your time here on earth. Navigating that absolute commitment to the formless- that Maharshi is a stand-in for - is only a small part of the lessons that life can teach you here on earth. 

And then the other 95,000 lessons that life has for you, in terms of giving, receiving, communicating, learning, growing - these lessons are what the "integral", and "skillful means" concepts point to.

Walking that tightrope between the two, is my own personal task.

Cross-posted at Generation Sit

Or one of the reasons why I love this city. 

And for free wi-fi spots, SF has 3 times more than the 2nd city, Austin!

A lot of people have seen the SNL skit, Chronic(cles) of Narnia.

Now, a couple of 11 years give their own take, in their neighborhood!

The Bloggies award for this year.  I wonder if we can push for a new category called "Best Holistic Award" or some such - we won't get Best Integral, that's for sure...

but anyway, take a look. Lots of interesting blogs you haven't heard from.

But at any rate, my own personal choices for 2006 Best Integral Blogs:

Best New Blog - Integral Options Cafe
Best Integral Politics and Social Commentary Blog - Joe Perez
Best Integral Techie Blog - Coolmel
Best Integral Theory Ken Wilber blog -  Indistinct Union
Best Integral Theory Non-Ken Wilber blog -  SELF (Savitri Era Learning Forum) blog
Best Multimedia Integral Blog - Mark Davis Lippman
Best Art Integral Blog - Matthew Dallman
Best Group Integral Blog - (doesn't exist yet)
Best Non-Dual Blog - Mystery of Existence
Best Individual Writing Integral Blog - well, a lot to choose from - the sarcastic yet enthusiastic stylings of Stuart Davis, the passionately sober Vince, the resonant writings of Syntegral, etc., the wry intellect of The Human Bean - we got a competition!

Also, for blogs related to Integral that I would give awards for - Pop Occulture, Lifehacker, Steve Pavlina

I know I am missing a LOT here, so I pass this on.  Enlighten me!

Vince, what are your integral nominations?

A cool Google Maps mashup - again - detailing the highest peaks in each state.

Looks like I've been to the highest - California's Whitney - but that still leaves a lot of peaks unexplored!!

From World Changing, how always-on web 2.0 services, mixed together, are creating some great monitoring tools.  In this case, Google Maps mashed up with satellite and ground sensor data.

The graf and summary is at Daily Kos, which then points to the meat of the article.

Here's the basics on Peak Oil.

I wonder though - with the oil that can be extracted from shale, although again NOT cheap at all, in the success of biodiesel in South American (can't find a link right now...), with the ability to harvest "clean coal" in Montana (Note: I'll believe it when I see it), there are alternatives, but  again, the alternatives mean the end of CHEAP oil.

Here is the link.

Feel free to list your own blog, or, if you are intimidated by the Wiki system, comment here or send me an email, and I will add your blog to the Integral Blog list.

A lot of these I haven't used, so I need to give them a try.  This is an audio and slide presentation that takes about 30 minutes.  But you can skip ahead.

Here is the link.

Has anyone tried any of the tools listed?

I'm looking at a few different posts on practices -

The last post here
Integral Options post.
A post by Ideological Putty.

Man, these integral practices get complicated, don't they? 

So that brings up a question - integralism always faces the challenge of elitism, as explained well by Joe Perez.

So if integral is a call to excellence is - but there are a lot of us that are lazy non-achievers - what is the marketing campaign - and practical program, for the ordinary Joe/Bubba?

Spiritual: 

    Meditation - Zen Practice
    Right View - BigMind, Swami Dyandana, Dzogchen
    Heart practice - Bodhistattva prayer and meditation

Health and Exercise:

    Food:  Body For Life
    Supplements:  Body For Life
    Exercise: 
        Stretching and suppleness: Yoga
        Cardio:  Body For Life
        Resistance training:  Body For Life
    Health Advice Online - WebMD

Interpersonal Relationships

    Family Guideline Practice
    Community Practice
   

Career and Money

    What Color Is Your Parachute? individual or practice groups
    Smart With Money forums

Psychological Health and Life Motivation

    Pscyche Self-Assessments
    Practical Advice on Inexpensive Therapy
    Life Coaching
   

Funny DailyKos post.

In the last 5 years, Ken Wilber has gone from an independent and successful storyteller of evolutionary spirituality - which he could have kept doing - to founding an organization to further expand on Wilber's vision, and hopefully to create new work and thought based out of that vision.

When I first heard that Wilber was creating an institute, I was glad to hear it.  Wilber had been the pundit expanding on his vision for over a quarter of a century.  It was great that there would be a larger labratory in which to test this vision in the real world, rather than just him telling his inspiring vision, and resting in the commercial book success of that, for the rest of his life (which he could have EASILY done.)

What the institute has been successful in doing in the last two years is - like Ken Wilber - providing a forum for the best storytellers and motivators in different areas of living, but grounded in spirituality- hence the integral.  So different experts, hawking their various products - from enlightenment, to relationship, to energy, to environment - are featured and produced, under the Integral Institute, as well as having their own thing going.

However, with the impending release of Integral University - really the next step - it seems to me that what has been successful for Wilber - mainly sythesizing lots of different points of theory and fact into his overall inspiring vision - is going to run into the next challenge.  Which is that good research is a commitment of good infrastructure, and good organization, and a commitment to NEUTRALITY.

In this sense, the commitment for a research organization is to "neutral" research.  This implies research fights, disagreements, and some generalized unpleasantness, when people disagree.  The role required to LEAD this, is NOT the role of pre-eminent philosopher-king-C.E.O, but more is the role of the University President.  And those roles are pretty separate, and pretty distinct.  I can't see any bodymind being able to encompass both roles, no matter how enlightened.

There have been criticisms about Ken Wilber by various bloggers, and I haven't really weighed in.   But I thought it was time to give my opinion, for what it is worth.

a. Ken Wilber in his work, generalizes, from a profound amount of sources, and he does a pretty good job.  However, there simply is TOO MUCH information to synthesize, for any genius, any polymath.  The days of the polymath are OVER.  (This is put really well by Alan Kazlev in an article titled "Specialized Knowledge".)

Ken Wilber has been able to avoid the challenges to his system, mainly because he is very successful commercially, which pretty much every philosopher is not - and my contention is that what most of Ken Wilber does is synthesizing philosophy,  Success for most theorists  has been with the support of a larger university.

Some of the recent criticism of Ken Wilber has been because of:

1. Errors in particular details - getting his generalizations of a particular subject area wrong.
2. Defensiveness in engaging with critics - for example, claiming that no one has understood his work.

Let's take 1. 

a. I have no doubt that Wilber has made errors - again, no matter how skilled a polymath genius he is, it is simply IMPOSSIBLE to be an expert in every field, or even to adequately cover the controversies in one field.  One can only take on as much as one can chew.
b. If you look at the history of philosophers - they have nearly ALWAYS made significant errors, when referencing other domains of knowledge, to either support or elucidate a point of their philosophy.  But the value of Merleau-Ponty, Sartre, Heidegger, Habermas, Derrida, their philosophy's value has NEVER rested in whether these references to other domains of knowledge are right and wrong.  In a way, that is an impossible standard.

Let's take 2, defensiveness in engaging with critics:

a.  First off, when you get to the academic fields - guess what? - it is fundamental that you speak for your positions in an absolutely strong way, using every conceivable rhetorical device.  Academic fights get nasty, there is no doubt, as people put their LIVES into their work.  And like the old adage says, "old scientists don't change their views, they just die off".   So again, in this particular realm, there has to be a practical understanding that competing in the rational realm of ideas, is for the most part, a bloody business.
b.  Philosophers complaining that they aren't understood.  Um, yeah!  Again, this happens all the time.  One should read sometime the back and forth between Jurgen Habermas and Jacques Derrida.  Knives were always ready to be displayed - at least until the common enemy of George Bush induced them to put down those knives....
c. Also, you find this a lot in some of the Buddhist debating.  It could get pretty tense there.

Look, again, this is part of the package deal.  Philosophers will defend their ideas to the death, using every rhetorical device imaginable.   The fact that Wilber meditates and has some genuine spiritual realizations, doesn't mean that this personal dynamic that has afflicted every other philsopher won't operate in Wilber's case.

So, what does this mean?  Well, Integral Institute is going to either:

a. Go the product route.  Research will focus around putting out better product, all couched in the terms of integral vision.  In this sense, Integral Institute will continue (or become) the "best" of the "self-improvement" market.  Like Tony Robbins, or Deepak Chopra, use their commercially produced products to derive whatever benefit you can, all operating under the vision of Ken Wilber.  This might be the most practical way to go, as it produces immediate financial benefits.
b. Go the research route.  Ken Wilber will cede the role of operating manager to the "university president", and become like a chairman of the board figure - but of course, still involved!  Then the university president can go ahead and commit to a true "research institute", that also releases products.   But this institute will then allow TRUE research to go forward, with disagreements in the research and theory between each other, and sometimes with the Chairman of the Board.

I may be wrong, but I don't believe any person can be the "leading theorist" of something, and then also operate as the objective judge of that theory.  I at least, would be FAR too bound up!

As he describes here.

Interestingly, I got on the XTC bandwagon late to their US "fame" - this is back when "Oranges and Lemons" were released.

But I quickly filled in my lack of knowledge - and ah, it's been worth it ever since.  The early stuff (English Settlement) in my own opinion was better than some of their later stuff.

I think that the "odd", less successful bands that came out of Punk and New Wave, were in some ways the better ones.

A Bonus CD for someone who can tell me what their favorite song was from "The Jam", and why!

I've been reading (but not doing exercises yet) from Personal Development for Smart People, or the blog of Stev Pavlina.

I've been looking over the articles, and they are pretty good!

What he is doing, is a big part of what Integral Practice is about, from my perspective (Except for the weird sleeping thing) .  You would simply add an effective spiritual practice and community.

So, what's the problem with Steve, or with the Tony Robbinses of the world? 

The biggest issue of course, is that the "successes" are shouted to the rooftops, while the vast majority of "failures", slink back to their own lives, ashamed to not live up to their goals.  And in the case of Tony Robbins (and others) probably 3 grand lighter in the wallet as well.  (This isn't the case for Steve Pavlina, from what I can tell.  He offers a lot of his perspectives and practice, "open source", as it were, without a 3 grand seminar to attend.  All praises!)

What's the solution to this? 

Well - it will take another post, but I do have an interesting idea and I will post it later.

Time Magazine does an article about the recent flurry of meditation-related research.

Some great stuff here - bullet points -

a. One recent study found evidence that the daily practice of meditation thickened the parts of the brain's cerebral cortex responsible for decision making, attention and memory.  (I've blogged on this before).
b. Using caps with electrical sensors placed on the (tibetan) monks' heads, Davidson has picked up unusually powerful gamma waves that are better synchronized in the Tibetans than they are in novice meditators. Studies have linked this gamma-wave synchrony to increased awareness.
c. Meditation restores energy better than sleep or rest.
d. Meditation benefits emotional intelligence.

Thanks to Mind Hacks.

And so I can order Ken Wilber's phone records! 

Don't worry, I'll post all the numbers here.

Of course, those conversations are probably WAY boring.  Hmm, I'll need someone else's number.  Maybe Paul's.  As a wise-ass musician-writer-designer, his phone records would probably be much more entertaining!



(Note - this post is tongue-in-cheek, of course).

I came across this article on personal web applications, that gathers in one place all the ways you can keep the data that is important to your life online

Pretty much everything:

Email?  Gmail, Yahoo Mail, etc, etc.

Calendar? Try Kiko - or stay with Yahoo Calendar.

Simple Word documents?  Writely

Spreadsheets?  How about NumSum?

PowerPoint app?  How about S5?

Full office suite?  Well, you have ThinkFree and gOffice. 

Want one place to read all the blogs and news items you are intrested in, through RSS feeds?  Well, you have a million of course.  Google Reader, or Bloglines, or Kinja.

How about a very good personal organizer?  This is where Backpack comes in.

This article also pointed me to Barnraiser.  This looks like a REALLY good social networking application, that includes events, degrees of separation, interests,  and both your own blog, and reading others blogs, upload files, and a personal wiki!

The point here is, that over 90% - maybe more - of what a person does with his life in terms of data and productivity, can now be done online.

You know there has been all this discussion of whether Google, or Yahoo would come out with an office application, and "take on" Microsoft.  (And notice, nowhere did I mention Microsoft in ANY of the above applications, or actually anything installed on your desktop.)  And for myself, I always thought that it would be stupid to challenge Microsoft in terms of Office.  Office is a great product, and always has been.  Notice that Office is still an amazing seller on Apple machines, when there really is no NEED for it, per se.

But the truth is, the online world, and the various web applications are ALREADY taking on Microsoft.  If Google, or Yahoo, don't get in the game, or BUY one of the above better applications  -

they'll be left behind.  So they have to get moving, there really isn't much of a choice for them.

Also, what this means, in terms of Vince's Leapfrogging Dangers article. With a 100 dollar computer, you NOW have full, unfettered, and free access to a full office suite, a scheduler, you can create a network, read all your personalized news, blog, be a writer, form groups and advocate, improve the state of the world with your own wiki, or keep up a wiki of a subject you are interested in -

The future is HERE and the future is NOW.  For anyone on the planet who has an internet connection and a computer.  (Of course, that is easy to say, isn't it?  For billions, having a computer never even enters the consciousness of the person.)

It will be interesting to see what forms these applications take for the future, as they improve.

Go read this article by Jean posted at The Human Bean.  Note - you need some time.  But it's a funny article, and reading about her experiences in the great and vast United States government bureaucracy is educational.

According to this study from the University of Chicago.

From the article:

Most of the problems were related to increased incidents of illness and the inability to afford medical care; mounting bills; unemployment; and troubled romantic relationships.

I'm not surprised about the health care issue - I think this will be - as it should be - one of the defining issues of the next 20 years, is the lack of affordable health care.

Still, the researcher ends with quite a little integral self-help program:

Happiness is an individual thing, he says, like a thermostat in our brains with a baseline that's predetermined by genetics. "We all move around, up or down, around our set point" depending on life events, he says. "The key to the psychology of happiness is to move to the upper range of your potential."

He advises a three-point check-up on the state of personal relationships, the work environment and control over daily life, because improving those areas will boost happiness.

Or the Savitri Era Learning Forum (Self)

I would also recommended subscribing to the feed.

The posts are never too long, or for the most part, too short.  Over time, you get a good sense of the main Aurobindo philosophy and practice, without having to read Aurobindo (which can be difficult!)

On my one trip to India, I spent a couple of weeks at Pondicherry, with some days at Auroville. 

Aurobindo is the originator or Integral Yoga, and one of his main disciples Haridas Chaudhuri (I think a disciple) a founder of California Institute of Integral Studies.

So Aurobindo is really one of the first go-to "integral" guys - definitely before Ken Wilber.

I'm not so sure after reading this.

However, since this is a provision for Women Against Violence, perhaps they can simply clean up the language a bit, so this provision isn't a catch-all.

There's been a lot more cross-blog talk on this - but for me what has contributed the most to the conversation -

This post from William at Integral Options Cafe, does a good job of highlighting the essential points, in my view.

He also goes to the evidence about the version of "integral" we are talking about, in this case, - which is Wilber's, and highlights one of Wilber's distinctions between liberal and conservative -

Well, if you ask the simple question-- Why do human beings suffer? --you will get two different, basic answers. The conservatives will say, You suffer because of yourself ; the liberals will say, You suffer because of someone else.

So, if this is taken as the distinction between liberal and conservative, then integral really, is neither. 

I also like the Perez quote that William highlights, as a caution to conflating integral and conservative. 

Joe Perez also takes issue with my equating "Apollonian" and Integralism:

When Wilber's spiritual writings on nondual mysticism are given their due, and his emphasis on the vitality of including Descending as well as Ascending currents is weighed in, it seems clear to me that Wilber's philosophy (yes) includes and transcends both Apollo and Dionysus.

That is a very valid point.  Possibly we are running into the human-ness of the philosopher himself here, in terms of a practice of a "Dionysian" integralism.  (Someone creating the maps and models, and integrating everything into an overarching framework, isn't really in a Dionysian practice - and this is how it should be.)
Since we haven't seen it, this doesn't mean the possibilities aren't wide open for it.

Also, if I came across as saying that there is a one to one correspondence between Apollonian and conservative, liberal and Dionysian, I'm not sure this is the case.  The only point I was making is that Wilber integral looks very Apollonian to me, and that it isn't a big jump for a conservative mindset to embrace an Apollonian view.  But then again, it may not take a big jump for a liberal mindset to embrace an Apollonian view either.

Lastly, I agree with what Tuff Ghost says here -

Other than that, I think the other terms are a bit too muddied at this point for me to say anything conclusive

At some point - as observed by all participants in this cross-blog conversation - the terms themselves mean different things to different people.  Unless there is agreement on terms, then there will be a lot of speaking past one another. 

So I'll end with William's thought again

I still feel that conservativism is a Blue/Orange values system. Integral certainly has many of the traits that make conservativism useful in the philosophical sense (ignoring, as you say, American politics), but I think that defining Integral as conservative is to elevate first tier memes to second tier status. That was my main disagreement with your post.

I cannot argue against what you say about Integral having a strong streak of conservative values, but I also can't allow that to stand as the defining characteristic of Integral.