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Bridging Transpersonal Ecosophical Concerns with the Hero’s Journey and Superheroes Through Comicbook Lore: Implications for Personal and Cultural Transformation
Get PDFThis paper explores how mythical figures and comicbook superheroes can 1) inspire personal growth, social and planetary change, and 2) explicate aspects of the deep ecology movement and transpersonal ecosophy that invite further academic inquiry while at the same time 3) speak to concerns that ignite the interests of popular culture and personal mythology. Likewise the ecopsychological significance of modern fictional characters in comicbooks, graphic novels, and films will be examined. It is divided into two parts. Part 1 provides a theoretical examination of how definitions of the terms myth and hero and hero’s journey are framed, and their implications for understanding personal and transpersonal growth. Part 2 provides portraits of individual characters from comicbook lore, their evaluation, and their significance toward raising collective archetypal awareness of the psyche’s relationship with Earth—an ecopsychological framework. In addition the paper offers practical examples of how this understanding of comicbook lore can be used for cultivating a new quality of life on a planetary scale
Rhythms of Learning: What Waldorf Education Offers Children, Parents & Teachers (Vista Series)
No full textWaldorf education―an established and growing independent school movement―continues to be shaped and inspired by Rudolf Steiner’s numerous writings and lectures on education and child development.
In Rhythms of Learning, key lectures on children and education have been thoughtfully chosen from the vast amount of material by Steiner and presented in a context that makes them reader-friendly and accessible. In his many discussions and lectures, Steiner shared his vision of education that considers the spirit, soul, and physiology in children as they grow.
Roberto Trostli, a seasoned Waldorf teacher, has selected the works that best illustrate the fundamentals of this unique approach. In each chapter, Trostli explains Steiner’s concepts and describes how they work in the contemporary Waldorf classroom. We learn how the teacher–child relationship and the Waldorf school curriculum changes as the students progress from kindergarten through high school.
Rhythms of Learning is an excellent resource for parents who want to understand how their child is learning. Parents will also be more prepared to discuss their child’s education with teachers, and teachers will find it to be a valuable reference source and communication tool.https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/facultypublications/1059/thumbnail.jp
Inclusion and Social justice in Integral Education
No full textThe aim of this panel discussion is to relocate diversity and inclusion themes in higher education to a more central position informing curriculum choices, classroom dynamics and teaching methodologies. Using the integral model of education at CIIS as a lens, the discussion will explore how to honor and foster inclusion of students of minority background and embrace a social justice orientation in the classroom.
The panel will explore the experience of teachers and students who identify as people of color and illicit how their teaching and learning in a predominantly white higher education institution is permeated by their positionality in society.
At CIIS, where transformative education and social justice awareness are highly valued and part of an experiential curriculum that honors complexity and multidimensionality of the student’s experiences, we invite deeper reflection on the meaning of inclusion
Students of African Diaspora: Assimilation and Acculturation and Integral Living/Learning
No full textA panel discussion moderated by Denise Bosto
Sensory Dots, No-Self, and Stream-Entry: The Significance of Buddhist Contemplative Development for Transpersonal Studies
Get PDFBased on the author’s nearly 50 years of meditation, it is observed that as a given alternative state is accessed and used over the span of years, experiences and capacities within that state are not merely static but may themselves shift as a practitioner develops neuropsychologically. An ethnographer using a substance within the context of a cultural practice may gain helpful direct insights into that cultural practice, but the researcher may fail to realize that the state attained by a novice may be substantively different from that gained by an elder or shaman with years of experience in the practice. The author’s meditation led to insight that visual and other phenomenal experiences are constructed out of sensory particles, or sensory dots. This practice later led to a state in which pure awareness was aware only of itself, and to an experiential realization of the Buddhist teaching of no-self
Electronic Dance Music Events as Modern-Day Ritual
Get PDFElectronic dance music (EDM) events may function as a ritual space for psycho-spiritual exploration and personal development, often linked to the occurrence of non-ordinary states of consciousness in participants. This paper reviews the literature addressing the spiritual, religious, and transpersonal facets of participants’ experiences at EDM events, with an emphasis on the subsequent integration of these experiences into daily life. Several empirical studies conducted in the past two decades, of which the most recent was conducted by the first author of the present paper (Redfield, 2017, this issue), provides grounds to argue that EDM events can be vectors for enhancing personal and psychosocial wellbeing for their participants—a discussion that was omitted in previous studies that strictly emphasized either the dangers or the purely hedonistic nature of EDM participation. The paper concludes with suggestions for further research into the specific ways in which EDM events may benefit individual participants
Some Thoughts Regarding an Integral Ecology
No full textThe most ecologically responsible people on the planet, the Native Americans, preserved the north American eco-system for 10,000 years by, in a sense, learning how to be one with that natural environment. Conversely, the environmental devastation created by Western thought and its cultural reflections is based on a fundamental understanding of dualism; the human and non-human are seen as two starkly separate realms. In this talk, Professor Ryan will offer some reflections on how non-dual thought, as seen from the lens of Sri Aurobindo, Mother and other non-dualist philosophies like Hindu Tantrism, can offer a way to heal the rift between humans and the others on this planet and help us revision and experience an earth-consciousness (and finally cosmic-consciousness) that can perhaps avert the human calamities that seem inevitable without this change
Opening Remarks
Get PDFThe integral vision of CIIS is primarily concerned with transformative action at the individual, social and global levels. How are the educational philosophy of CIIS and its programs relevant to the current world affairs? How can what we teach at CIIS be applied as sustainable, transformative action? What are the kinds of initiative that can make integral education relevant in today’s world
How Does a Whole Person Psychology Span Spiritual Vision and Neuroscience?
No full textThis conversation looks at the relationship between metaphysics, phenomenology and neuroscience in the context of a whole person framework. Transpersonal psychology has struggled from its inception with the challenge of being branded as a metaphysical system--essentially a New Age religion. While Ferrer\u27s participatory thought offers a corrective to this for transpersonal, the situation is different for Integral Yoga Psychology, which is explicitly rooted in Aurobindonian Integral Yoga--clearly situated within a spiritual tradition. How does a whole person approach incorporate or honor such a tradition and remain a psychology
Retembló la tierra : CIIS and Zapatista Community
No full textOn December 29th through January 5th, the panelists participated in the CIIS sponsored study-trip to Mexico - Another World is Possible: Building Autonomy in Chiapas . The trip, led by BAC core faculty, Charlotte Sáenz, allowed them to explore historical and contemporary Zapatismo in the contexts of globalization and legacies of Mayan resistance. During the trip, the group visited various organizations dedicated to autonomous learning, healing, and creativity, including the Indigenous Center of Integral Learning (CIDECI -Universidad de la Tierra). At CIDECI they witnessed an historic gathering of global scientists invited by the Zapatistas to share their diverse knowledges at conCiencias por la humanidad, which translates to “with sciences for humanity” as well as “conscience.