California Institute of Integral Studies
California Institute of Integral Studies librariesNot a member yet
1665 research outputs found
Sort by
Allan Leslie Combs: Reminiscence and Recommendation
No full textThe author recalls his first meeting with Allan Leslie Combs, identifying his defining trait of openness through the lens of the Trickster archetype. Drawing on the philosophy of William James, the essay concludes with a recommendation for a future edition of Combs’s book Synchronicity, specifically regarding the inclusion of precognition.
Keywords: trickster, synchronicity, William James, Allan Leslie Combs, precognition, opennes
We\u27re in this Together: Spirituality, Interconnectedness, and Concern for Global Crises
Full text linkThis study examined the relationship between spirituality, interconnectedness, and concern for global crises. A sample of 225 participants comprised of students from King\u27s University College, members of the Consciousness Club, and alumni from The Finders Course completed online questionnaires assessing spirituality, psychological well-being, and attitudes toward global crises. Quadratic regression analysis revealed that spirituality accounted for 11% of the variance in concern for global crises. Individuals scoring lower and higher on spirituality reported the most concern for global crises, whereas individuals scoring in the mid-range on spirituality reported less concern for global crises. The correlation between spirituality and interconnectedness was not significant. Post hoc analyses revealed that the paranormal beliefs dimension of spirituality significantly predicted concern for global crises, and that this relationship was mediated by interconnectedness. Implications for informing strategies to increase concern for global crises are discussed
Steiner and Jung on Esoteric Knowledge
No full textFor centuries, humanity has been accumulating complex knowledge, systematically building increasingly intricate mathematical and scientific models by accruing predictable circumstances or facts, often designated as theories or laws. This essay proposes that there is a hidden well-spring of ideas or knowledge beyond the methodical accumulation of such mathematical and scientific knowledge, from whence the source that inspired the basis of this knowledge might have originated. Carl Gustav Jung and Rudolf Steiner believe there is an abundance of such knowledge that lies hidden in plain sight and available for a vast expansion of human awareness. In this essay, I take a hermeneutic approach, synthesizing as well as identifying differences in the views on the source of esoteric knowledge. A primary focus of the essay is to articulate Steiner’s, Jung’s, and a few other like-minded scholars’ joint and individual methods of discovering esoteric knowledge. Specifically, I present the imagination, inspiration, and intuition, along with Steiner’s initiation and Jung’s individuation, as these concepts relate to the acquisition of esoteric knowledge. Along with Steiner and Jung, several other voices are brought in to explore the concepts of beauty, truth, and contemplative participation, as these concepts relate to knowledge. A brief synthesis is offered which suggests the approaches discussed may apply to both mainstream methods of procuring scientific knowledge and esoteric knowledge. Finally, a fusion of opposites is offered as a key to discovering esoteric knowledge.
Keywords: Carl Jung, Rudolf Steiner, knowledge, participation, imagination, inspiration, intuition, individuation, initiatio
The Filipino Experience of Kutob: Understanding Culturally-Informed Hyper-Intuition
No full textKutob is a Filipino concept that usually refers to a sense of what may happen. It is often experienced as an omen of negative events. Despite its apparent ubiquity in everyday conversations, there is a lack of sincere academic reflection surrounding the topic of kutob. Relying on foreign (that is, western) approaches and frameworks to understand this concept may only limit it to certain categories of psychological thought. In this paper, I use the lens of indigenous psychology—in particular, Sikolohiyang Pilipino (Filipino psychology)—to identify the nuances and contexts of kutob. I show how kutob is a function of the dynamic between the interconnected elements of self, others, and the world
Millennium School: An Experiment in Transpersonal Education for Early Adolescents
No full textThis article describes the design, curriculum, culture, and values of an experiment in transpersonal education for young adolescents, the Millennium middle school in San Francisco, CA. The overarching design of the school was to help children exiting the latency period of child development, who exhibit the rudiments of Wade’s Authentic consciousness or Maslow’s Self-actualization motive stage, consolidate that level rather than losing it, as the vast majority do, because of social pressures that make earlier stages of development more adaptable in most contemporary societies. Early adolescence is a time when peer pressure, individuation from the family, and puberty are strong influences driving ego development, but it is also a time when existential questions about self, reality, meaning, and purpose open up possibilities for transpersonal development. Millennium is an attempt to further that development
States of Consciousness Are Central to a Transpersonal Critique of Contemporary Psychology (Editor\u27s Introduction)
No full textThe framework used by contemporary science is infused with the particularly Western philosophy out of which it emerged. These implicit assumptions in turn shape the lens through which psychological phenomena are studied, with the result that experiences and human capabilities not favored by Western societies are marginalized by its psychology. Efforts to constructively critique these limitations as unscientific bias are regularly rebuffed as challenges to science itself, complicating efforts at correcting this limitation. Early work by Charles Tart articulated the process by which such a paradigm, once established, becomes immune to further questioning
An Integral Transpersonal Approach to the Self: Practical Maps and Models
Full text linkThis work aims to focus attention on the concepts of the psyche and of self, and the participatory dialogue between the self and the world, to highlight the contribution that an integral transpersonal psychotherapy (ITP) approach of biotransenergetics (BTE) offers. The ITP approach sees the psyche as the totality of the being and the self as the unifying archetype that defifines it. Some new epistemological maps and concepts are outlined to highlight their usefulness for a clinical and research methodology based on assumptions of a transpersonal and integral order
Transpersonal Philosophy Grows Up: A Clarification of Ken Wilber’s Most Recent Updates to His Theoretical Framework
Full text linkThe fact that there are multiple phases to Ken Wilber’s theoretical development has been widely recognized, with Wilber himself arguing that his works can be divided into four distinct phases (1983/2001). Students of Wilber’s work later added a fifth and final phase, which is said to begin in 2001. What has received hardly any scholarly attention, however, is the fact that Wilber still made major changes to his theoretical framework several years after the beginning of phase 5 in Integral Spirituality (2006), and that it is only after the publication of this book that his thinking really reaches a steady state after which very few major changes were made anymore. This paper clarifies these most recent changes and reflects on their implications, arguing that they represent a new phase in Wilber’s thinking: phase 6
The Founding History of The Journal of Conscious Evolution
No full textThis article traces the founding history of the Journal of Conscious Evolution (JCE), established by Allan Leslie Combs in 2005. The narrative explores three distinct perspectives on conscious evolution that influenced the journal’s creation: Barbara Marx Hubbard’s emphasis on humanity’s interconnectedness and creative potential, the General Evolution Research Group’s systems theory approach led by Ervin László, and Combs’s integration of the developmental growth of states and structures of consciousness within a conscious evolution framework. The article details how Combs developed the curriculum for the first accredited Master of Arts degree program in Conscious Evolution at The Graduate Institute in Connecticut in 2002, which directly inspired the journal’s founding. Through personal narrative, the author describes his journey as a student, program coordinator, and eventually Academic Co-Director alongside Combs, providing insight into the pedagogical approach that combined rigorous academic inquiry with experiential learning, including tours of the Metropolitan Museum of Art to demonstrate the evolution of consciousness through artistic expression. The article concludes with examining how Combs’s legacy lives on through the Journal of Conscious Evolution and the institutions he founded, providing a vital framework for understanding and applying humanity’s capacity for conscious transformation amid contemporary global crises.
Keywords: conscious evolution, consciousness studies, Journal of Conscious Evolution, systems theory, integral theory, transformative education, Allan Leslie Comb