Mark Allan Kaplan

Exploring an Integral Approach to Multimedia Mental Health Interventions

2012-01-31T15:14:00.000-08:00

As part of the Integral Cinema Project’s outreachapplication process, I recently consulted on a multimedia mental healthintervention project at the University of Chicago and the University ofIllinois at Chicago Schools of Medicine helping them apply an Integral approachto deepen the power and effect of their intervention. The researchers alreadyhad intuitively fleshed out the need for an intervention that addressed theintentional, behavioral, cultural, and social dimensions of the issue at hand,namely helping teens at risk learn to become more resilient in the face of theoften daunting challenges of growing up in today’s fast moving and complicatedworld.

To help the research team apply and integrate these fourmain intervention dimensions in a more coordinated and effective way I createdan Integrally-Informed Sensory Synchronization Template for the project,mapping the four intervention dimensions of intentional, behavioral, cultural,and social across the multimedia expressive dimensions of Text, Image (still& moving), Sound, Time (accumulated meaning patterns), and Interactivity. Thisintegration of the intervention and expression dimensions included the mappingof desired affect patterns and their relationship to expressive modalitiesincluding textual linguistic and mimetic patterns; visual shapes, colors,tones, framing and space; audio modalities (dialogic, musical, atmospheric,effectual, etc.); and meaning patterns accumulated over time.

The goal of this approach was to help them coordinate theintervention across multiple modes of expression and perception to induce whatcinematic theorist Sergei Eisenstein called the synchronization of the senses, the process in which a message,synchronized across multiple expressive dimensions, achieves the power andforce of actual lived multi-sensory experience. This shift from mereinformation sharing to a deeply felt lived-experience has the potential toinduce deep change and transformation across all four dimensions of intention,behavior, relationship formation, and socialization patterns.

This research is still ongoing but initial results suggest agreat potential for this approach, and its application for use in multimediamental health interventions, and other multimedia transformational healingendeavors, including transformational learning, and individual and collectivehuman development applications.

Integral CinemaProject Researcher Report

By Mark Allan Kaplan, Ph.D.

Steve Jobs and the Evolution of Consciousness and Technology

2011-12-03T20:54:00.001-08:00

There is an extensive body of research that suggests that there are distinct evolutionary stages of individual and collective human consciousness, and that these stages co-evolve with developmental stages of techno-economic system growth. One of the scales used for these correlated stages was put forth by American philosopher and psycho-social researcher Ken Wilber. This scale correlates the Mythic, Rational, Pluralistic, and Integral stages of human and cultural consciousness with the techno-economic stages of the Agricultural, Industrial, Informational, and now the emerging Convergence Age.

As individual humans in all spheres (science, technology, art, philosophy, etc.) evolve through the various stages of consciousness, their created works reflect these stages and act as catalysts for the evolution of the consciousness of other individuals and their cultures and societies. Along this co-evolutionary path, there have been and continue to be certain individuals who are major contributors to this process, including Leonardo da Vinci, William Shakespeare, Rene Descartes, Charles Darwin, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, and Sigmund Freud, among many others.

Since the recent passing of Steve Jobs, there have been many who have commented on his profound influence on our world, and on his possible ranking with some of these other evolutionary-influencing individuals. I believe they are correct in this assessment, because the technological devices that Steve Jobs helped to create and share with the world are, on the most basic level, powerful and elegant convergence devices.

The iPod, iPhone, and iPad are tools that integrate and converge previously separate technologies and their corresponding individual, cultural, and social functions (i.e., the phone is no longer just a phone, it is also a computer, calculator, appointment book, portable music and video player, gaming console, etc.). The ramifications of this convergence extend from the way we perceive our world to the way the world around us works. Embedded in these convergence tools and their converging functions is the Integral structure of consciousness, which allows us to perceive self, culture, and world in deeper, more expansive, and more integrated ways. In light of this, I would indeed say that so far Steve Jobs is one of the major individual contributors to the emergence of the Convergence Age, and that we owe him and those that have come before him our deepest respect and gratitude. Thanks Steve!

Transpersonal 2.0

2011-12-01T12:58:00.001-08:00

The writings of Ken Wilber have been a lightening rod in the transpersonal movement from early on, being both heralded as foundational theory and attacked for being too linear, hierarchical, complex, etc. Recently I have found myself straddling across two realms of the transpersonal movement, and the demarcation point appears to be pre-SES (“Sex, Ecology, Spirituality”) Wilber and post-SES Wilber influenced. The pre-SES realm of the transpersonal movement focuses on Wilber’s early works as foundational to the movement and continues to hold this early work as representational of Wilber’s theories in general while not seriously taking into account Wilber’s post-SES works as being essential to transpersonal theory. This dimension of the transpersonal movement I am calling Transpersonal 1.0, or pre-Integral Theory Wilber. With the publication of SES, Wilber shifted his theories away from his previous works in essential ways; instead of primarily addressing patterns and structures of psychology, spirituality, and consciousness Wilber moved into the development of a “Theory of Everything” attempting to integrate all dimensions of human perception and experience. At this stage, many perceive that a rift grew between the transpersonal movement and Wilber (and his followers).

To be fair, many contend that Wilber himself contributed to this rift by separating himself from the transpersonal movement and attempting to form a new approach based on his Integral Theory. The common perception is that Wilber’s reasoning for this was that the transpersonal movement was stuck in a limited worldview. In Wilber’s post-SES model or Integral Theory, he places a major emphasis on altitudes of consciousness and the corresponding worldviews. From this perspective, we can see that the transpersonal movement was born out of the pluralistic worldview, and for the most part, transpersonal 1.0 was and is essentially stuck in this worldview. One of the problems with this is that while being born in the pluralistic structure of consciousness, the transpersonal movement is attempting to explore realms beyond this structure. Wilber’s post-SES work introduces a perspective from the next evolutionary structure of consciousness, the Integral structure, which is a stage closer to the transpersonal waves of development.

Now, after several years of two fairly separate movements, the transpersonal and the integral, there appears to be some loosening of the boundaries. It seems that many transpersonalists are integrating Wilber’s post-SES model into transpersonal theory and many Integralists are reintegrating the transpersonal dimensions into their work. This emerging integrated movement is what I am calling Transpersonal 2.0, and to put it in post-SES terms…I would say that Transpersonal 1.0 is looking at the transpersonal waves of experience and development from the more limited perspective of the pluralistic wave (stage, worldview); Wilber’s post-SES Integral Theory introduces us to the missing stage of development between the pluralistic and the transpersonal, namely the Integral; and Transpersonal 2.0, as I am applying it, looks at the transpersonal waves from the closer worldview perspective of the Integral wave and brings the other structures of consciousness into greater perspective. To shack this out a little further, it seems to me that through a post-SES, Transpersonal 2.0 lens we could say that transpersonal studies is basically the theoretical and practical exploration of transpersonal (trans-egoic, non-ordinary, mystical, etc.) states and stages of development.

Okay, so how is this definition different than the one held by the Transpersonal 1.0 movement. Well, on the surface it is the same, but when we go deeper I believe there are some subtle differences. One of these differences is that those operating out of the Transpersonal 1.0 perspective tend to have a conscious or unconscious resistance to structure, since the pluralistic level of consciousness tends to be anti-hierarchical. When we cross the bridge into Transpersonal 2.0 we can accept holarchical structures, that is, we can more easily accept and work with structured stages of increasing depth and complexity without falling into the hierarchical judgment trap (thinking this stage is better or worse than another; or throwing the stage-structure baby out with the bathwater entirely). Understanding that development occurs through a process of transcend and include, each stage both transcends and includes the previous stage, we see that every stage is a whole that is part of another whole, or a holon that is part of a holarchy. So in keeping with this spirit I have to remind us that Transpersonal 1.0 is not inferior to Transpersonal 2.0, it is a stage that is transcended and included… Every stage has its blessings and its challenges; and every station on the path must be passed through on the journey…

Integral Acting Q & A – Part Two

2011-10-07T11:34:00.000-07:00

The following in an edited transcript of part 2 of a Q & A session I had with a young actor I am working with who was interested in my Integral Approach to acting:

Question: From past experiences with different actors on film, I get worried that I’m not getting the give and take that I deserve from them, that will help us be the best that we can be in that moment..? If I’m stuck with someone as a scene partner who isn’t giving their all, how can I get them to help me develop my character, as well as theirs in the manner they should?

Answer: From my perspective, worrying about what the other actor is or isn’t giving/doing/etc. is not your job as an actor. If you are bringing your best, deeply rooted in your character, your presence, energy, and beingness will lift every other actor to a higher level. I cannot count the number of times I have heard stories from actors how being in a scene with a great actor elevated their own performance beyond anything they could imagine. There is a term called “social contagion” which refers to the contagious nature of higher levels of presence and beingness in relation to human interaction. Your job is to be the character as deeply and fully as possible and interact with the other actors as other character-beings, no matter how flawed their beingness is.

Question: As an actor such as myself, what do you think develops first in becoming a character; The Physical or Mental or Emotional, etc?

Answer: This varies from acting school to acting school, and from actor to actor. The key to an Integral approach is to recognize that all four dimensions (physical/behavioral, experiential/intentional, relational/cultural, and environmental/sociological) co-arise. You can use any dimension as your entry point as long as you recognize and move into a place where all four dimensions co-exist simultaneously.

Integral Acting Q & A

2011-08-28T16:53:00.000-07:00

The following in an edited transcript of a Q & A session I had with a young actor I am working with who was interested in my Integral Approach to acting:

Question: What’s the best way to know one’s self as an actor?

Answer: That is a big and tricky question; one that every acting theorist, coach, etc. would answer a little differently depending on their approach, etc. Since human beings have varied ways of perceiving, what is the “best” way for one actor, may not be the best way for another actor. That said, my own humble opinion is that knowing yourself as a person is key; that is, becoming conscious of the many dimensions of your own being, gives you a strong foundation from which to study the dimensions of your characters’ being. Knowing your self and knowing the self of the character gives you powerful reference points of where you are at and where you need to go to become the character. For example, if you know how you perceive the world, how you relate to others, how your environment has and is impacting you, etc., and if you know these same aspects of your character, you will be able to develop a felt-sense of the difference between these two realms of beingness.

Question: Now I've heard of dimension before, but exactly does that mean?

Answer: As with your previous question, the issue of what dimensions we are talking about varies depending on what acting theory we are using. In my experience and research I have found that no matter what these different approaches call these dimensions or how many divisions they make, in essence they are all talking about the same basic realms. The approach I use is based on Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory, which is a metatheory that attempts to integrate all human knowledge, and according to this approach we can say that we as human beings have and exist within four main dimension-perspectives: 1. Intentional/Experiential: Our thoughts, feelings, awareness, consciousness, intentions, sense of self or “I”-ness – this includes our multiple lines of development (Cognitive, moral, emotional intelligence, creative abilities, etc.); 2. Behavioral/Physiological: Our bodies, actions, the objects and other bodies we interact with – this includes our physical limitations and gifts; 3. Relational/Cultural: Our cultural worldviews and identity, how we relate to others, or our way of being in relationships or our “WE”-ness; 4. Environmental/Sociological/Systemic: The ecological, political, economic, technological systems that we were born into, grown up in and now operate in and how they have and continue to shape us. Here is a chart from my journal article on Integral Cinema that summarizes these dimensions in relation to a character:

For more on these dimensions and the Integral approach, see my Integral Cinema Studio Series at IntegralLife.com: The Holonic Lens; The Quadratic Lens; and The Developmental Lens.

Question: In your Integral Cinema Studio article on the Holonic Lens you state: “Cinematic holons also have positive, neutral, or negative charges, much like atomic particles. At the level of text, an example of positive and negative charges can be illustrated by the energetic difference between moments of affinity and conflict between characters.” Can you please clarify negative, neutral, or positive; in what aspect; for a film maker or a character?

Answer: Holons are a useful perceptual lens for all aspects of cinema (and life), recognizing that every moment, every experience is a whole in and of itself, and at the same time all the past moments and experiences in your life (or the life of your character) are part of that whole moment/experience as well (i.e., everything that happened to you is part of the whole of who you are right now)…and this whole NOW moment/experience you are having will become a part of you as you move forward into other whole moments/experiences. When we are talking in terms of “charges” connected to these whole/part moments/experiences, as related to a character: Your character can be having a negative (i.e., fear, hate, anger), neutral (i.e., indifference, detachment), or positive (i.e., love, joy, wonder) emotional experience in any given moment. This moment is experienced as a whole unto itself, yet under the surface, deep within the characters unconscious, all the other moments in their lives that resonate with this moment help to color their experience in the present (i.e., in an onscreen moment your character may be feeling love for another character, while at the same time every other experience of love in their life is swirling inside them under the surface…so for example, if your character has had bad love experiences in the past, their present moment of love may bring up a tiny quiver of fear inside them. This fear may not be easily seen on the surface, but a great actor can feel this and energetically project this undercurrent to the audience). This performance moment then becomes a positively charged whole moment with a subtextual negative charge as a part of it…a holon…a whole/part.

The Integral Cinema Studio Series at Integral+Life.com

2011-06-18T19:53:00.000-07:00

Announcing the INTEGRAL CINEMA STUDIO article series at Integral Life...

The Integral Cinema Studio at Integral Life is an article series on the application of Integral Theory to cinematic media theory and practice.

Integral Theory is a metatheory that offers several perspective-taking frameworks or lenses of perception through which we can perceive, experience, and integrate the multiple dimensions of existence. In this series of articles I will be exploring applying these various Integral lenses to the creation and viewing of cinematic media, which I am defining as any media that uses moving (kinetic) images as a means of expression.

This series is written with a general audience in mind and no prior knowledge of either Integral or cinematic theory is required. My hope is that there is something here for the novice and the expert, for the artist, theorist, and the average viewer of cinematic media in all its forms, and for those on the journey to better understand their self, culture, and world.

The first Integral lens I am exploring is the HOLONIC lens. To view this article click here.

INTEGRAL CINEMA STUDIO: THE HOLONIC LENS

Please join me in this exploration of the further reaches of the cinematic arts...

Special Thanks to Ken Wilber, Corey DeVos, David Riordan, Michael Schwartz, and all the gang at Integral Life for the inspiration and support, and for providing this wonderful platform for sharing my work.

Images: Integral+Life Logo; The Matrix Reloaded (2003)

Communicating Meaning Through Art

2011-06-04T19:10:00.000-07:00

As an artist of many different mediums (film, drawing, text, photography) I can honestly say that on one level it feels like a miracle when a viewer understands my work in the way that I intended it. And there is often another miracle, when the viewer sees something in my work that I did not consciously intend, but when they speak their truth it rings true for me as well.

I have studied the language of my mediums and how each of their material elements communicate differently across cultures and societies; I have studied the psychology of how individuals perceive and view art; I have studied symbols, metaphors, and archetypes across cultures; and I have studied how different states and stages of development in the viewer and the work communicate with each other. I believe all of these are factors in how the artist communicates to the viewer.

Yet, there is also something else involved here; something I learned in the form of both direct experience and teachings from some of the masters of art I have studied with over the years...this something else is that the more a creative work comes from a deeply personal meaningful place in the artist, the more universal its meaning becomes. This is the great paradox of art and meaning; the more personal the work the more universal and the less personal the work the less universal. Actor and playwright Sam Sheppard said it beautifully when he spoke to my class at the AFI many years ago. He said that if an artist starts with a deeply human truth, one from their own experience or one from the life of another, then the work becomes universal because what is true for one human heart resonates with all other human hearts.

As a practitioner of art as an integral spiritual practice, I also see myself as a creative channel for the Divine. When I align myself with the Creative Source as the Divine Suchness, Thou and I AM, the Source speaks through me into the work and out to the viewer. From this perspective, in addition to my own personal meaning being expressed in and through the work, I believe there is a higher meaning being channeled through me and the work that I most often am not even conscious of. Sometimes I discover this meaning when a viewer shares what they received from the work; other times, years later, I discover this hidden meaning when viewing my work from a different place in my own life journey. In the end, each individual views the work from where they are at on their live journey and when a work of art is a channeled work; I believe it has the capacity to become a kind of magic mirror in which the viewer receives the message that is perfect for them at that particular moment on their life path.

From an Integral perspective, I would say that meaning in art is tetra-resonant, in that a work of art can have subjective, material, cultural, and/or social resonance. This resonance channels meaning between the work of art and the viewer, and one can gauge the general message of the art work through any and all of these resonance channels/dimensions. The more this meaning is rooted in a deep truth in any and all of these dimensions, the more universal the message becomes.

In the end, as an artist I never know for sure beforehand if my intended meaning will translate to others; I can only strive to speak the truth as I perceive and feel it and attempt to communicate it through as many resonance channels and dimensions as possible. I have found that I feel that I have communicated with the audience if I have touched them somehow, and I have come to feel that the reception of my intended meaning is not as important as the reception of the meaning that arises through the wondrous and miraculous process of channeling the creative force…

*Image: Enlightenment by Diana Calvario (dicalva)

The Birth of Integral Cinema

2011-05-21T19:07:00.000-07:00

La Coquille et le Clergyman (1928)

The term integral cinema was first used by French avant-garde filmmaker Germaine Dulac in the 1920s. Dulac employed this term to describe cinema that utilized the natural inherent language of the cinema to evoke the interior life normally hidden beneath the exterior life of the objective world (Flitterman-Lewis, 1996). This form of cinema was also called pur cinema or visual music, because of the contention by its adherents that the language of the cinema is a language all its own, more related to music or poetics, than to literature or drama. In order to liberate the cinematic image from literary or dramatic expression, “…Dulac sought to create for the spectator a ‘cinegraphic sensation’ that could be achieved through the contemplation of pure forms in movement—the melodic arrangement of luminous reflections, the rhythmic ordering of successive shots” (Flitterman-Lewis, 1996, pp. 69-70).

While Dulac’s theoretical writings and public discourses on integral cinema mostly focus on this definition, her films reveal two distinct types of cinematic approaches. Whereas some of her films did seek to explore pure visual music approaches of using cinematic imagery, movement, and rhythm to reveal the interior life, films like her 1928 classic, La Coquille et le Clergyman (The Seashell and the Clergyman), reveal the raw beginnings of a more comprehensive or “integral” approach that attempts to use the inherent language of the cinema to capture and express the interior and exterior lives of both the individual and the collective. Dulac hints at this approach when she writes, “It isn’t enough to simply capture reality in order to express it in its totality; something else is necessary in order to respect it entirely, to surround it in its atmosphere, and to make its moral meaning perceptible…” (Dulac, as cited in Flitterman-Lewis, 1996, p. 49).

This more comprehensive approach hauntingly captures some of the constructs of Jean Gebser’s integral worldview (1985) and Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory (1995) while predating both by 21 and 67 years, respectively. These Integral constructs, as elementarily expressed in Dulac’s La Coquille et le Clergyman, include rudimentary cinematic representations of Gebser’s aperspectival structures of the concretion of time and interiority, and Wilber’s Integral framework of multiple dimension-perspectives with evolving levels of depth and complexity. More recent examples of these types of cinematic structures include: The concretion of time in films like Groundhog Day (1993), where concrete shifts in time affect objective and subjective realities; the concretion of interiority in films like The Matrix (1999), where individual and collective subjective realities are given concrete forms; and multiple dimension-perspectives of evolving depth and complexity in films like Inception (2010), where the characters move through different dimensions of reality as they evolve toward deeper levels of understanding and being.

While Dulac’s integral cinema movement was a significant contribution to the evolution of the cinema in many ways, it was also short-lived due to several factors. In 1928, the year that Dulac made La Coquille et le Clergyman in France, Hollywood released the first talking picture, The Jazz Singer (1927), and ushered in the sound film era. For many film theorists and historians, the introduction of sound marked the downfall of the artistic trailblazing of the silent film era as cinematic artists attempted to adjust and adapt to the new technological advancement, and audiences became enthralled by the heightened sense of reality of the talking picture (Andrew, 1976). The following year Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí made Un Chien Andalou (1929), which took the avant-garde cinema world by storm and established a precursor of postmodern relativism and meaning deconstruction as the center of gravity for the artistic worldview of experimental cinema, overshadowing Dulac’s more integral vision (Ebert, 2000; Short, 2008).

Finally, since Dulac operated from an unconscious expression of a worldview that had yet to be named or theoretically mapped, her integral vision ultimately fell dormant. Wilber notes that some kind of prescient emergence of integral consciousness appeared sporadically throughout Western civilization in the early to mid-20th century. Examples of this emergence include Sri Aurobindo’s Integral Yoga (1921/1990), Jacques Maritain’s Integral Humanism (1996), and Vladimir Soloviev’s Integral Christianity (Kostalevsky, 1997). Wilber also notes that these integral visions, along with Dulac’s, were short-lived because they were initial emergences not supported in all four fundamental domains of experiential, material, cultural, and social realities (Wilber, personal communication, July 20, 2010).

Beginning in the mid-1990s, concurrent with the dissemination of Wilber’s Integral Theory, there has been a growing movement of individuals and groups who have been applying integral principles to their personal and professional lives. In the domain of the cinematic arts, scholar-practitioners have explored the application of Integral Theory to cinematic story creation, acting, and video game design (Melody, 2008; Ornst, 2008; Silbiger, 2010). In addition, several cinematic artists have begun to explore and engage in dialogue about Integral Theory in relation to both their personal and professional lives (Aronofsky & Davis, 2006; Brill & Wilber, 2006; Crichton & Wilber, 2004; Konietzko & Davis, 2007; Ormond & Wilber, 2004; Stone & Wilber, 2007; Wachowski & Wilber, 2004). Wilber’s Integral Theory was also an inspiration to filmmakers Larry and Andy Wachowski (Wachowski & Wilber, 2004) in the development of The Matrix (1999), The Matrix Reloaded (2003), and The Matrix Revolutions (2003). The Wachowski brothers also invited Wilber to record a commentary on the films for The Ultimate Matrix Collection (2004), a complete DVD set of the films. Nearly three quarters of a century after Dulac’s work, many people within the integral and cinematic arts communities are raising the same question that Dulac asked many years ago: “What is Integral Cinema?”

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This material is an adapted excerpt from: Kaplan, M. A. (2010). Toward an integral cinema: The application of integral theory to cinematic media theory and practice. Journal of Integral Theory and Practice, 5(4), 112-138. Copyright © 2010 by Integral Institute. The complete article is available for download at Integral+Life.com.

Germaine Dulac’s La coquille et le clergyman is available for viewing online in its entirety at: http://www.ubu.com/film/dulac_coquille.html

Love In and Of Itself

2011-05-08T12:52:00.000-07:00

Love in and of itself can never cause suffering.

All suffering related to what we think love is

arises from our projections and attachments
to an object of attraction.

This is actually the opposite of love,

for love is a state of being
in which we transcend the awareness of separate objects

and recognize our oneness with all that is;

a state devoid of projection and attachment

for there is nothing outside of us to project on or attach to.

The Radiance of Dorothy Fadiman

2011-05-01T18:04:00.000-07:00

Dorothy Fadiman is one of the pioneers in Transpersonal Filmmaking and her film “RADIANCE: The Experience of Light” is considered a classic in the field. RADIANCE is both a cinematic expression of Fadiman’s own personal transcendent experience of Divine Light and a visual/poetic exploration of the spiritual significance of light and “radiance.” Here, in Fadiman’s own words, is the story of how this great work was born:

My husband and I create a simple ritual, we take turns drinking from a goblet, gaze lovingly into each other’s eyes, and each take some excellent acid. It’s the 60’s… We know our dealer, and we trust that we have taken good quality (legal at that time…) LSD. As our inner worlds expand, and deepen, I lay down, l close my eyes and start to breathe deeply, as my heart opens and… I hear a voice…inside my head, speaking to me: “May I fill you with Light?’

I have no idea who or what is speaking to me and in this moment, it doesn’t matter.

Whatever it is, I trust it. When you are in this state, where everything is connected to everything…whatever is happening seems right… and I say YES.

With the word “yes” my entire body begins filling with LIGHT, A BRILLIANT CASCADE …of light. A waterfall of radiance flows through me, every cell of my body is filled with this light. As the brilliance becomes almost unbearably intense…then, Jim reaches out and touches me… Suddenly, it STOPS… His touch pulls me back into the room…. I remember saying “What are you doing?????” It’s a moment I refer to now, affectionately, as “Illuminatus Interruptus,” but, in THAT moment, THEN, I am shocked.

Looking back, I know now that I was not ready to receive any more of light than when it stopped after Jim touched me…I realize now that the intention of this cascade was not only to infuse me with light… which it did, but also for me to be able to bring this light back, into my own world….like I am doing now, to tell people about it.

I spend the next ten years raising two daughters while trying to write a book about light. The dirty laundry piles up for days at a time, the dented grey file cabinets fill with my research about light, when the girls are in school, I sneak away to the basement of the art library at Stanford and spend hours under glaring fluorescent lights searching for images of radiant saints and glowing angels as I struggle to write my book.

Finally, after ten years of trying to complete my mission to tell this story with pictures and words on paper, there is a knock on our door. Literally, standing there, is a filmmaker. He says, “I heard what you’ve been trying to do, to write a book about light. Did you ever think of making a movie???”

With his help, I make my first film RADIANCE: The Experience of Light. Since then I have produced more than 25 films...each, in its own way, infused with the "light". The guidance which appeared to me during the experience of light more than 40 years ago, is with me today, every day.

RADIANCE: The Experience of Light can be viewed online at:
http://dorothyfadiman.com/radiance-the-experience-of-light
or downloaded at:
http://www.archive.org/details/Radiance_The_Experience_Of_Light

ABOUT the FILMMAKER

Dorothy Fadiman has been producing award-winning media with a focus on social justice and human rights since 1976. Most of her films have been shown on PBS and in Festivals throughout the world. For more about Dorothy and her work, visit her websites at: www.concentric.org and www.dorothyfadiman.com

The Valley of the Shadow of Grief and Loss

2011-04-26T21:39:00.000-07:00

In the wake of my father’s recent passing from this world of form, I have been reminded once again of the potential gifts of grief and loss, if one wholly surrenders into it. I first learned of these gifts several years ago with my mother’s passing. At that time I chose to honor her by following the Judaic rituals of loss which include a year-long process of prayers, rituals, and observances. I combined these with rituals and practices I had learned from my cross-cultural studies of grief and loss, and my training as a grief counselor.

What I discovered was that the grieving process can be a beautiful time filled with what Shakespeare called “sweet sorrow.” Yes, this time is often a time of tears and sadness, with moments of feeling a deep sense of loss and regret. Yes, surrendering into grief can often mean having to let go of a lot of the busyness of life and allowing oneself to be “out-of-control” in many ways. But I have also found the gifts of reflecting on the past through the lens of love and seeing blessings that I had not seen before. There is also the gift of experiencing times of deep present-moment awareness as I come to recognize the impermanence of my physical beingness and the world around me; The way the light sparkles through the trees, the feel of the morning breeze on my face, the smile of a friend, the song of a bird, all suddenly become powerful moments that fill my mind and heart with an in-the-moment overwhelming sense of grace and awe. In the specific circumstances of the loss of first my mother and now my father, my conscious honoring of their passing has also led to profound personal growth as my being entered the transformative well of the deep parental archetypes inside me. I feel truly blessed by all these gifts for in their light I can feel the love and lives of my loved ones living on within me.

Through these experiences of loss and grace I have come to embrace the spirit of Psalm 23, which is always read at Judaic funerals, by calling this time my walk through the valley of the shadow of the passing of my loved one…for though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, loss and grief, my way is lighted by the love and grace of that Force that radiates out from beyond the thin veil of the world of form.

*Image: "Yea Though I Walk Through the Valley of the Shadow of Death I Will Fear No Evil" by Frank C. Pape

An Integral Interpretation of the Ten Commandments (Precepts)

2011-04-16T21:00:00.000-07:00

As a spiritual exercise I attempted to translate the Ten Commandments using an integral approach whereby I analyzed Biblical (religious/historical), Talmudic (moral/philosophical), and Kabbalistic (mystical/metaphysical) sources of the texts related to the commandments and then attempted to integrate them. In addition, I analyzed the original Hebrew, which has no tense, from 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd person tense/perspectives; and I also explored the multiple translations of each Hebrew word, since in Hebrew most words have multiple meanings. This word/meaning/tense analysis included exploring the multidimensional meanings of the text using Kabbalistic letter/number calculus.

I started this process by delving into the multidimensional meaning of the Hebrew word for commandment, mitzvah, which can be translated as: commandment; precept; duty; or blessing. The word mitzvah simultaneously recognizes both a sanctified action and the blessing that arises from that action; so when one performs a mitzvah, one receives the blessing that arises from it. But this goes even further; from the mystical perspective, every mitzvah raises up one of the sparks of Divine Light that has been separated from its Source and hidden within the fragments that make up the world of form; so that every mitzvah “repairs” the world and brings it closer to its return to the Divine Source. In Hebrew this process is called Tikkun Olam or “repairing the world.” The concept of mitzvah is also very close to the Buddhist concept of Dharma; in that these Holy actions not only bring blessings to the individual and the collective, but also on a deep level, they represent the natural and most true path of the individual whose true Self is considered one with its Divine Source.

With this multidimensional concept in mind, I went through each commandment using the above method of interpretation, and combined the process with deep meditation and contemplation. This is what I came up with…

The Ten Precepts:

Let me strive to recognize and honor the Unity within and beyond the diversity
Let me strive to recognize and honor that which is beyond form
Let me strive to recognize and honor that which cannot be named
Let me strive to take time for both doingness and beingness
Let me strive to honor the sacredness of all beings
Let me strive to honor the sacredness of all of life
Let me strive to honor my commitments to others
Let me strive to recognize and honor the boundaries of others
Let me strive to know and speak the truth within me
Let me strive to release all attachment and aversion.

Notes on Transcinema

2011-04-09T21:33:00.000-07:00

There are two uses of the term “transcinema.” One is used to refer to films about transgender issues and is usually spelled “trans-cinema;” the other usage, spelled “transcinema,” refers to creative works that use cinematic expression as part of a hybrid creative work, usually a combination of live performance and projected cinematic imagery.

The transcinema movement can be traced back to avant-garde art movements in the 60s and had a resurgence back in the late 90s and early part of the 2000s. This later expression appears to be connected to the introduction of digital media technologies and a greater cultural movement of convergence in media platforms. This movement can also be correlated to Integral and transpersonal cultural and creative trends in that it is boundary transcending (transpersonal) and represents a striving toward an integrated multi-dimensional mode of expression (Integral).

During my research into this area I discovered several patterns that appear to be unique to this form of hybrid cinema. It seems that once you start combining live performance and imagery and sound, audiences gets hooked on it and the absence of one or more of these elements must be used with extreme purpose and prejudice.

There is also a natural expectation of a “third and fourth story” beyond the story of the performance and the story on the screen; there is the story of their convergence (the convergence story) and the container for this convergence (the spatial story).

In addition, the audience tends to expect and anticipate a build in convergence between the live performance and the cinematic projections as the piece unfolds; they also tend to anticipate a convergence climax. Of course, the transcinema artist/team, have the choice to fulfill this pattern or consciously play against it, either subtly or overtly.

An Integral Perspective on Judaic Exegesis and the Tradition of Passover

2011-03-30T21:24:00.000-07:00

There are three basic levels of text interpretation in the Judaic tradition: Literal/Biblical, Theoretical/Talmudic, and Mystical/Kabbalistic (Fishbane, 1998; Kenton, 1980). Literal/Biblical text interpretation includes the historical, biblical, and narrative levels of the material. Theoretical/Talmudic text interpretation consists of the extrapolation of the philosophical, ethical, moral, and religious doctrines, laws, and teachings that are woven into the fabric of the written material. Mystical/Kabbalistic text interpretation seeks to unearth the hidden and concealed metaphysical teachings buried in the text.

From an Integral perspective these three levels can be seen as correlated to the Big Three of 1st Person (I), 2nd Person (WE), and 3rd Person (IT) perspectives. The Literal/Biblical level of interpretation is the 3rd Person or IT level of the text; it is the surface structure; the directly observable aspects of the material. The Theoretical/Talmudic level of the text is the 2nd Person or WE level of the text; it is the communal meaning patterns just under the surface of the text; it is the blueprint for how we should treat each other, of what is right and good and just. The Mystical/Kabbalistic level is the 1st Person level of the text; it is level of secret teachings that guide us into a personal experience of the Divine. These three levels are The Good, The True, and The Beautiful, and when integrated together, they reveal a deeper and more expansive vision of the Word, the Logos.

Taking the story of Passover as an example… On the literal level of interpretation, Passover is a ritualistic retelling of the story of a historical biblical event, the Israelites’ exodus from bondage in Egypt. On the theoretical level, the story and rituals of Passover have many philosophical, ethical, moral, and religious lessons to teach us about human behavior and the human endeavor to live according to the teachings of the religion of Judaism. Traditionally, the rituals of Passover, including the Passover Seder, tend to focus on these two levels of interpretation and understanding.

On the Judaic mystical level of interpretation, Passover can also be seen as a powerful vehicle for personal and communal psycho-spiritual development. From the Mystical-Kabbalistic perspective, the Passover story of a people being freed from the bondage of slavery is transformed into a road map for how an individual can be freed from the bondage of limited consciousness (Kenton, 1980); the land of Egypt becomes the realm of narrowness of body and mind, and Moses becomes the Higher Self being called upon by the Divine to free all the different voices of the psyche (the children of Israel) from the bondage of the ego or the limited self (Pharaoh).

Several years ago I attempted to create my own Passover Haggadah or prayer book (Kaplan, 2003) that integrated all three levels of interpretation and discovered a deeper and more profound experience than I had ever encountered within the Judaic tradition. This was my first Integral Passover…in that I experienced Passover on a physical, communal, and psycho-spiritual level of being and becoming.

References

Fishbane, M. (1998). The Exegetical Imagination: On Jewish Thought and Theology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Kaplan, M. A. (2003). A mystical Passover: A transformational Passover haggadah. Pacific Grove, CA: Original Gravity.

Kenton, W. (1980). Kabbalah and Exodus. York Beach, ME: Samuel Weiser, Inc.

Image: Passover Shehechianu by Baruch Nachshon

Announcing the Integral Cinema Project's Affiliation with the Integral Research Center

2011-02-18T13:39:00.000-08:00

The Integral Cinema Project is now affiliated with the Integral Research Center (IRC). The IRC’s mission is to support the advancement of Integral Research (IR) and the global community of Integral scholar-practitioners through a variety of activities including: Supporting Integral research projects through grants and support services; providing a forum and resources for the Integral research community; supporting graduate level education and fieldwork in Integral studies; publishing academic articles and original research through special issues of Journal of Integral Theory and Practice; and by sponsoring the bi-annual Integral Theory Conference.

Integral Research is an emerging approach to mixed methods that is explicitly grounded in Integral Theory and makes use of its post-metaphysical position and its practice of Integral Methodological Pluralism to provide a multi-method approach that weaves together 1st-person, 2nd-person, and 3rd-person methods. IR makes use of multiple methods (qualitative and quantitative) as a way of exploring the multi-faceted and multi-dimensional nature of complex phenomena.

Toward an Integral Cinema

2011-01-28T16:03:00.000-08:00

Announcing the publication of…

Towards an Integral Cinema:
The Application of Integral Theory to Cinematic Media Theory and Practice

By Mark Allan Kaplan, Ph.D.

ABSTRACT: Germaine Dulac’s “integral cinema movement” of the 1920s and her integral cinematic work, La Coquille et le Clergyman (1928), are analyzed from a historical and theoretical perspective. Results suggest an early introduction of integral consciousness into cinematic media that corresponds to and predates the integral theories of both Jean Gebser and Ken Wilber. Defining characteristics of what may constitute an integral cinematic work are mapped out and developed into a set of evaluation criteria using the works of Dulac, Gebser, and Wilber. A test of these evaluation criteria with the viewing of several motion pictures is summarized; the results suggest that several past and recent films demonstrate qualities that could be said to constitute an integral cinematic work. A preliminary typology of forms of integral cinematic creation, and the potential benefits and challenges for the application of Integral Theory to cinematic theory and practice are presented and discussed.

Published in The Journal of Integral Theory and Practice, 2010, Volume 5, Number 4, Pages 112-138.

The complete article is available for download at:
The SUNY Press eBookStore

Transformative Creation States

2011-01-12T15:56:00.000-08:00

I have been researching what I call transformative creation-states for several years now. By this I mean the use of spiritual, transpersonal, and integral approaches for creative expression to induce altered states of consciousness in order to intentionally convert the creative act into a deeply transformative experience for both the artist and the viewer.

During my research in this area I have discerned several discreet transformative creation-states including creative inspiration-states, catharsis-states, visioning-states, witnessing-states, resonance-states, integration-states, and states of creative grace. I also observed and experienced various group creation states including creative group fields and I-Thou creation states in which members of the creative environment become the “sacred other.”

In addition, during this inquiry I also found a confluence of both structure and flow in the transformative creative process, manifesting within, around, and between any and all of these various transformative creation states. There also appears to be a process in which these two state typologies converge, leading to a transformative creative synthesis of structure and flow.

For example, in my own creative work (film, writing, drawing, etc.), I have found that I can approach the transformative-creative act from a pure flow approach (mindfulness/beingness approach) or from a pure structure approach (e.g., applying sacred rituals and practices or esoteric spiritual structures like Kabbalistic Divine-creation patterns). When I really click into either one of these two creation-state typologies a synthesis appears to occur: The flow-process produces previously hidden structures, and the structure-process leads to a kind of structure-flow experience in which Divine energy appears to move through the structures and, if I am open to it, takes me into a flow through the structures along with it. These experiments have led me to play with a synthesis approach, consciously marrying flow and structure in a sacred-creative dance.

Looking at this triangulation pattern through the masculine/feminine typology lens, the flow-process can be correlated to the feminine, the structure-process correlated to the masculine, and the synthesis of the two can be seen as a union of the deep masculine and feminine.

MAK Books Available at Google eBookstore

2010-12-06T21:33:00.000-08:00

A Mystical Passover

Prayers for the Awakening Self

Original Gravity

and

The Experience of Divine Guidance

are now available as eBooks from the Google eBookstore.

Integral Cinema Project Receives Fiscal Sponsorship from Fractured Atlas

2010-10-25T22:04:00.000-07:00

The Integral Cinema Project has been granted fiscal sponsorship from Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization, allowing us to receive tax-deductable donations by check and credit card as well as non-cash donations of property (equipment, materials, etc.).

One-Time Donation with a Credit Card

One-Time Donation with a Check

Monthly Donation Pledge with a Credit Card

Non-Cash Donation of Property

(Equipment, materials, etc.)

Unfinished Work

2010-10-10T15:57:00.000-07:00

I was touring Europe and visited the Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence, Italy where Michelangelo's David is housed. There was an art class walking through the Galleria and I tagged along. The instructor was showing the students Michelangelo's unfinished sculptures and explaining to them that Michelangelo left many of these behind because he would stop working when he learned what he needed to learn. Sometimes this coincided with the manifest completion of the physical work, but often he would walk away from a work "unfinished" because something within himself told him it was time to move on. Then the instructor said something that blew my mind. He said that "strangely" enough, these unfinished works have been the most valuable to art historians because they have given us a complete and accurate map of just how Michelangelo worked. So in the end, his unfinished works were a profound gift to humanity. This really rocked my world. I sat there alone, looking at his unfinished works, for several hours, as my mind and soul deconstructed the notion of what it means to complete something.

In Loving Memory of My Father - Harold Kaplan (1919-2010)

2010-08-10T18:49:00.000-07:00

Today my father passed from this world of form. I have entered that thin-place between the worlds that is the altered state of loss and grief. The father that gave his seed for my birth into this world is gone. The image of my father within me is in flux, as projection, reality, and archetypal forces swirl loose from their intra-psychic moorings. Memories of all the moments of love, challenge, bonding, and all the perfectly imperfect father-son experiences dance in the silence between the world of doing and the world of being. My father always believed in my gifts and talents. His eyes lit up with joy and pride at the sight of all my endeavors. Though we were different in so many ways, I always felt his quiet acceptance. Every time I draw a line on a blank piece of paper I will remember sitting at his architectural drafting table. Every time I face a challenge I will remember how he never retreated or surrendered. I will always remember his charm and his love for life. And though he was a greatly imperfect being, as am I, there is nothing I now hold against him or against myself. All that was love shines bright; and all the illusions of fear and doubt within and between us have melted away. He danced this life the best he could, I danced with him the best I could, and his light and love shines through and into my mind and heart and spirit. I feel grateful that his suffering has ended; and blessed for having him as my father. Goodbye my father. Thank you for loving me so unconditionally and so beautifully imperfectly.

Integral Cinema Presentation

2010-07-25T18:17:00.000-07:00

Towards an Integral Cinema: The Application of Integral Theory to Cinematic Media Theory and Practice.

Abstract: A historical, theoretical, and viewing analysis is offered of Germaine Dulac’s “integral cinema movement” of the 1920s, suggesting an early introduction of Integral consciousness into cinematic media that corresponds to and predates both Jean Gebser’s and Ken Wilber’s Integral Theories. Defining characteristics of what may constitute an integral cinematic work are mapped out and developed into a set of evaluation criteria using the works of Dulac, Gebser, and Wilber. A preliminary typology of forms of Integral cinematic creation is also presented, and the potential benefits and challenges for the application of Integral Theory to cinematic theory and practice are discussed.

Presentation at Integral Theory Conference 2010 on July 30th, 2010 by Mark Allan Kaplan, Ph.D.

My First Integral Cinematic Experiment

2010-07-01T18:33:00.001-07:00

A little over ten years ago I had my first encounter with what might be called “integral filmmaking.” I had been studying Ken Wilber’s Sex, Ecology, Spirituality (1995) and practicing George Leonard and Michael Murphy’s Integral Transformative Practice (ITP) on a daily basis. One day I performed my ITP Kata (a set of integrated body, mind, and spirit exercises) right before running a camera test on my new digital video camcorder. Still being in a post-practice transformative state, I had a profound cinematic experience. As I moved through the house with the camera on, I appeared to be fully aware and conscious of my inner experience, the camera in my hand and the space within which I was moving. I exited the house and was drawn to our koi pond. Once there, I felt drawn into the world of the pond and entered a deep state of pure presence or witnessing. My camera became my eyes, and my body, my awareness and the camera danced with the fish, the gently rippling water, the shimmering sunlight, the caressing wind and the material forms of the pond and its surroundings. I spent hours at the pond, lost in a deep cinematic meditation process. Afterwards I felt a profound sense of gratitude and grace.

When I viewed my footage I was amazed at what I had captured. There before my eyes appeared to be a cinematic example of the four dimensions/perspectives of Wilber’s Integral Theory (Subjective/I Space; Inter-Subjective/We Space; Objective/IT Space; and Inter-Objective/ITS Space): Besides the physical reality of the pond (IT Space) and the environment within and around it (ITS Space), I had footage of the individual koi fish in which I could sense their individual presence (I Space) and footage of the fish in pairs and groups that seemed to reveal a collective and inter-relational presence (WE Space).

I decided to continue my accidental experiment, spending the next few days editing the material while in a post-ITP state. I would basically perform my ITP Kata (Leonard & Murphy, 1995) and then sit down at the computer and edit in that state. It was a wondrous experience, and once I finished, the viewing of the final work sent me into the very state I experienced while shooting it. When I showed it to a few people they all said the same thing -- that the video put them into a very relaxed state and gave them the experience of actually being at the koi pond.

References

Kaplan, M. A. (2002). The Pond [Digital Video]. http://www.markallankaplan.com/cine/pond.htm

Leonard, G. & Murphy, M. (1995). The life we are given: A long-term program for realizing the potential of body, mind, heart, and soul. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.

Wilber, K. (1995). Sex, ecology, spirituality: The spirit of evolution. Boston, MA: Shambhala.

Integral Cinema Project Advisor Announcement: Sean Esbjörn-Hargen, Ph.D.

2010-06-14T13:32:00.000-07:00

Sean Esbjörn-Hargen, Ph.D. has agreed to be an advisor on the Integral Cinema Project. Sean is an associate professor and founding Chair of the Integral Theory Program at John F. Kennedy University in Pleasant Hill, California. He is a leading scholar-practitioner in Integral Theory and has worked closely with Ken Wilber for a decade operationalizing the integral (AQAL) model in multiple contexts. Sean is a founding member of Integral Institute and currently serves as their Vice President of Applications and Research. He is also the founding Director of the Integral Research Center, the founding Executive Editor of the Journal of Integral Theory and Practice, and co-founder of the biennial Integral Theory Conference. Sean is one of the most published authors applying the integral model to a variety of topics, including: Research, consciousness studies, intersubjectivity, education, sustainable development, ecology, science and religion, and play. His articles have appeared in academic journals such as the Journal of Consciousness Studies, World Futures, ReVision, and Journal of Humanistic Psychology. He also co-edited Ken Wilber’s book The Simple Feeling of Being, (2004) and is the co-author of Integral Ecology: Uniting Multiple Perspectives on the Natural World (2009) and the editor of Integral Theory in Action (2010). You can learn more about Sean at: http://www.rhizomedesigns.org/

Integral Cinema Project Receives Fiscal Sponsorship from the San Francisco Film Society

2010-06-03T17:05:00.001-07:00

SAN FRANCISCO FILM SOCIETY

The Integral Cinema Project has been granted fiscal sponsorship by the San Francisco Film Society, making all donations to the project tax-deductable.

To make a donation please visit the the SFFS Integral Cinema Project donation page at:

http://www.sffs.org/donate/donate-now.aspx?pid=712

My First Taste of an Integral Life

2010-05-18T13:36:00.000-07:00

My first inkling of an integral life came upon me when I was sitting at the bedside of my dying mother in the spring of 1993. Alzheimer’s and a severe stroke had taken their toll upon her and she could no longer see, speak, or move her body, except for small motions of her hands, head, and feet. As I sat by her side with various members of my family for several days, I had a profound mystical experience. All my years of studying many different spiritual traditions, mysteriously and automatically coalesced into a multi-tradition integrative practice of prayer, meditation, and presence that appeared to assist my mother and my whole family through the dying and grieving process, while also transforming my own heart and mind.

After this profoundly sorrowful and grace-filled experience, I began to see how each spiritual tradition I had studied had its own unique gifts and perspectives, which when put together created a more complete picture of my self, the world, and the Divine. This gave me my first real glimpse of what it means to live an Integral Life; a life that strives to engage in a wondrous evolutionary journey of ever-expanding and integrating fields of awareness, revealing higher, deeper and more expansive visions of self, others, and the world.

Judaic Cycles of Prayer

2010-05-06T13:14:00.000-07:00

Judaic spiritual practice can be divided into four major cyclical patterns of observance: The daily cycle – weekday practices; the weekly cycle – Shabbat practices; the monthly cycle – welcoming the new month; and the yearly cycle – festivals and Holy days (Falk, 1996). The daily cycle focuses on the cyclical spiritual practices that occur during the day and includes three prayer services (morning, afternoon, and evening) performed on weekdays (Sunday through Friday). The weekly cycle draws us into the cycle of the Sabbath, which creates and honors the cyclical spiritual practices that occur at the end of each week. This cycle connects us with the sacred pattern of creation (the seventh day). The monthly cycle brings us into harmony with the phases of the moon and the cyclical spiritual practices that occur from month-to-month. The yearly cycle expands our practice to the historical and seasonal patterns of spirit through the celebration and observance of the festivals and Holy Days.

Two additional patterns of observance exist within and around these four major cycles. These patterns fall into the two categories of the momentary cycle and the life cycle. The momentary cycle consists of the blessings and benedictions that are practiced from moment to moment, awakening us to the sacredness of all things and providing a vehicle of expression for the gratitude we feel for the blessings in our lives. These practices include blessings and benedictions for all our actions and reactions in life from eating, sleeping, and going to the bathroom to traveling, seeing beautiful sights, and experiencing something new. The life cycle observances are the blessings and benedictions we use to celebrate meaningful life events such as births, weddings, and funerals.

Excerpt from: Prayers for the Awakening Self: A Psycho-Spiritual Siddur for Judaic Weekday Practices by Mark Allan Kaplan, Ph.D.

Prayers for the Awakening Self eBook Release

2010-04-27T05:05:00.000-07:00

PRAYERS FOR THE AWAKENING SELF: A PSYCHO-SPIRITUAL SIDDUR FOR JUDAIC WEEKDAY PRACTICES

NOW AVAILABLE IN PRINTABLE AND READ-ONLY EBOOK EDITIONS

Prayers for the Awakening Self offers mystical and psycho-spiritual translations of traditional Jewish daily prayers and practices designed to invoke deep personal transformation of heart and spirit.

FREE ONLINE PREVIEW

TESTIMONIALS:

"I loved this siddur. Yesher koach!"
- Rabbi Rami Shapiro (Author of The Angelic Way and Minyon)

"This is a remarkable piece of work. I really enjoyed it, especially your humanistic translations of the prayers. Keep up the excellent work."
- Rabbi Roger Ross (Executive Director of The New Seminary)

OFFERED IN FOUR EBOOK (PDF) EDITIONS:

$10.00 – Read-Only eBook Edition for Digital Viewing Only
$22.00 – Personal eBook Edition for In-Home Personal and Small Family Use (Printable/up to 4 copies*).
$40.00 – Family eBook Edition for In-Home Personal and Large Family Use (Printable/up to 8 copies*).
$90.00 – Congregational eBook Edition for Public/Non-Commercial Printing Use (Printable/up to 18 copies*).

*Additional permissions to print available for purchase for all printable editions at $5.00 per copy.

PRODUCT DETAILS:

Author: Mark Allan Kaplan, Ph.D.
Contributor: Maja Apolonia Rode
Format: PDF, 8.5 x 11
Pages: 92 pages
Language: English/Hebrew
Item Number: OGPUB-PASE
ISBN-13: 978-0-9797980-2-3
ISBN-10: 0-9797980-2-7

AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE AT: http://www.markallankaplan.com/publications/awakeningself.htm

Kosmic Surf

2010-04-16T07:25:00.000-07:00

molecules swimming
in the atomic sea
particles becoming waves
waves becoming particles
table top ripples
from the hit
of my liquid fist

SOUND
echoing
turning into thought
into dream
into action
into matter
into nothing that matters

FEAR
dissolving
in an ocean
of connectedness

LOVE
undulating
in the Kosmic Surf

the future,
a one-eyed monster
wanting to be feed

the past,
a shadow
cast ahead

and now,
is…

NOW
riding the waves
Kosmic surfing
going with the flow
nothing else needed
to Know.

- MAK

Image: Particle Wave by me (MAK)

Fragmentation and Wholeness

2010-04-07T12:19:00.000-07:00

I was standing in the rotating rooftop restaurant of the Atlanta Hyatt Regency Hotel, gazing out the passing windows and the moving cityscape beyond them. One of the buildings across the way had mirrored windows and was reflecting back a fragmented image of the Hotel I was in. In that moment I felt a strange mix of fragmentation and wholeness; as I stood inside a moving cylinder-shaped room, looking out at the image of the exterior of the space I was in reflected back at me in the fragmented mirrored windows across the way…it was like I was part of a spinning planet at the center of the whole universe, and at the same time, that planet was made up of pieces of something, that was a piece of something else. My mind went blank as I lifted my camera and captured the moment. Reflection upon reflection upon reflection, spinning and turning, a whole with parts of another whole…

Book Review: "A Mystical Passover" (KabbalahConcepts)

2010-03-23T07:48:00.000-07:00

KABBALAH-CONCEPTS BOOK REVIEW NO. 12

Title: "A Mystical Passover: A Transformational Passover Haggadah"
Author: Mark Allan Kaplan, Ph.D.
Publisher: Original Gravity
URL: http://www.markallankaplan.com/publications/mysticalpassover.htm

With the Festival of Passover around the corner, I thought it appropriate to share with you details regarding a very beautiful and highly compacted text, in which the Pesach seder and the period of Omer are addressed from mystical and contemporary perspectives, these being aptly reflected in the title "A Mystical Passover: A Transformational Passover Haggadah." The author tells us that this work represents a process comprising, in his own words, "a radical interpretation of the Passover rituals and prayers into a language and process that resonated with my own heart while also attempting to honor the heart of Judaism itself."

Having said that, it is important to note that Mark Allan Kaplan's "Mystical Passover" offers all readers, Jews and non-Jews alike, a way to mental, emotional and spiritual transformation. The ancient saga of a nation being freed from bondage and slavery is "reinterpreted" in a manner which allows the reader the opportunity to have a personal "exodus," so to speak, i.e. being "freed" from the "bondage" of Mochin Katnut, the limited consciousness of the egoic pseudo-self, literally "passing over" into Mochin Gadlut, the condition in which personal consciousness is expanded to embrace the greater "whole," and so, whilst transcending into physical, emotional, mental and spiritual freedom, "awaken" the real "Self."

With his unique "Haggadah," Mark Allan Kaplan invites all and sundry to transform the traditional festival of "Pesach" into a personal journey in which "the land of Egypt becomes the realm of narrowness of body and mind, and Moses becomes the Higher Self being called upon by the Divine to free all the different voices of the psyche (the children of Israel, the Awakening Self) from the bondage of the ego (Pharaoh)." What is truly effective about this specific journey of transformation, is the actual process of "acting it out" in a physical manner, e.g. cleaning the house and the traditional "Pesach" preparations, candle lighting, assembling of family and friends, chanting and the various aspects of the Passover Seder itself, etc., all interpreted from a mystical perspective, so that these will combine into a "pathway through the metaphysical gates of these ancient and sacred rites of inner and outer freedom," which the author correctly maintains will lead to "the discovery of a personally transformative psycho-spiritual Passover experience."

The process expounded in "A Mystical Passover: A Transformational Passover Haggadah" also incorporates the "extended journey" beyond the "Festival of Passover," this being the seven week cycle known as "Sefirat ha-Omer" (Counting of the Omer). Traditionally these seven weeks comprise a period of self examination between Pesach (Passover) and Shavuot (Feast of Weeks). Each of the seven weeks represents a spiritual cycle attributed to one of seven Middot (qualities) equated with the seven lower Sefirot on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, i.e. from Chesed to Malchut. Each of the seven days of the week is likewise related to one of the mentioned lower Sefirot, hence the days of the first week would be Chesed in Chesed, Gevurah in Chesed, Tiferet in Chesed, Netzach in Chesed, etc.

In this particular regard, I find the section titled "Meditation and Practices - For the Days of Passover and the Counting of the Omer" in Mark Allan Kaplan's "A Mystical Passover" especially meaningful and beneficial. The week/day/sefirah associations are rendered into physical, psychological and spiritual "aspirations," to be achieved by the one undertaking this "journey of transformation." For example, what the author terms the "weekly energies" of the seven weeks respectively associated with the mentioned Sefirot, would be "Mastery of the Body," "Mastery of the Ego," "Attainment of Willingness," "Attainment of Will," "Submission of the Soul," "Access to the Spirit," and "Contact with the Divine," all vitally important factors in what I like to call the "Work of Self Creation."

Now, this text is available as an ebook in various editions. A "personal edition" will cost you $22.00, permitting the printing of 4 copies, whilst the "family edition," which allows the printing of 8 copies, costs $40.00, etc. If these prices should not suit your pocket, you could acquire the "read-only" edition for $10.00.

So, check out Mark Allan Kaplan's website, and whilst you are there, you would do well to investigate the rest of that very interesting domain on the world wide web!!

Jacobus G. Swart
KabbalahConcepts, March 21, 2010
The Sangreal Sodality

The Birth of Trans-Opera: The Convergence of Cinema and Opera

2010-03-21T08:12:00.000-07:00

A new form of opera emerged recently. For this year’s production of the Barber of Seville, the Florida Grand Opera company blazed new territory by using an animated digital screen backdrop for their production, adding depth, movement, and cinematic immersion to classic opera. This animated digital backdrop added evolving background environments replete with changes in location, light, and weather. It also added shadow characters that interacted with the live actors on stage, from groups of musicians and soldiers to a lone alley cat. Beyond these dimensions, the animated background also appeared to add greater symbolic and thematic depth to the relatively simple story of the Barber of Seville. Then, in the final moments of the opera, something even more wondrous occurred. The actors climbed up the steps of the central set piece and in the digital background, giant animated wings unfolded and began to flap. The juxtaposition between the animated backdrop and the live action actors and set pieces created the effect of flying to the heavens. The audience let out a collective gasp and for a few brief moments the stage was transcended and the audience, actors, and set pieces soared.

This convergence of opera with digital cinematic elements created a new multi-dimensional form of entertainment that could be called “trans-opera.” The birth of this new opera-cinematic hybrid is the work of French Director Renaud Doucet and Canadian Production Designer Andre Barbe, with the technical help of Miami’s Lava Studios. The impetus for the birth of this new approach came out of current financial constraints, and from these limits an artistic phoenix has risen. I feel honored to have personally witnessed this event.

Image, Form and Formlessness

2010-03-18T07:52:00.000-07:00

I remember walking along the base of the Tetons’ and seeing the rays of the setting sun striking a giant cloud formation in front of me. I stopped dead in my tracks as the beauty of the sight filled my being and for a brief moment I was breathless. The giant cloud looked like an anvil.

There was something strange and wondrous about the juxtaposition between the fluffiness of the cloud itself and the heavy-mass-related anvil form of its shape. Several other people stopped and gazed up at the cloud. Some of us took photos, some just stared up silently, and others conversed about the sight they were sharing. For a few moments, we were a community of beings joining together in a shared mystical moment of beauty and grace. Then the shifting light of the sun, the currents of the wind, and the movement of the clouds began to transform the anvil-cloud back into just another cloud. The shared state of grace dissipated as well, and we all returned to our separate paths.

As I walked away and looked around me, I couldn’t help but wonder about the permanence and impermanence of any image or form…and I felt as though I had briefly touched the edge of formlessness. Deep gratitude and wonder filled me as I pondered the seemingly random string of simple everyday events and choices that brought me to this moment.

*Image: Anvil Cloud by MAK

What is Love?

2010-03-15T07:30:00.000-07:00

I have traveled far to ask,

“What is Love?”

A Buddhist Monk once showed me that

Love is a compassionate heart;

A Christian Saint once showed me that

Love is a forgiving heart;

A Muslim Sheik once showed me that

Love is a devoted heart;

A Taoist Sage once showed me that

Love is a heart that accepts all things as they are;

A Jewish Prophet once showed me that

Love is a heart that sees the one within the many;

A Native American Shaman once showed me that

Love is a heart that feels the interconnectedness of all things;

A Hindu Holy Man once showed me that

Love is, when all that is not love ceases to be.

I have traveled far to ask,

“What is Love?”

And I have seen the many faces of Love,

and I have felt the many ways of Love,

and I have touched the heart of Love itself

and learned that

Love truly is all these things.

- MAK

From One Face: A Collection of Interfaith Prayers and Poems

*Image by: Daniel B. Holeman

A Mystical Passover eBook Release

2010-03-11T08:26:00.000-08:00

A MYSTICAL PASSOVER: A TRANSFORMATIONAL PASSOVER HAGGADAH

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A Mystical Passover: A Transformational Passover Haggadah offers a powerful psycho-spiritual approach to the Passover experience and includes individual and group psycho-spiritual exercises to help transform the holiday into a deeply mystical and magical experience for young and old alike. This unique Passover haggadah incorporates all three levels of Judaic interpretation (Biblical, Talmudic, and Kabbalistic) and integrates perspectives and practices from all the current Judaic movements (Orthodox, Conservative, Reconstructionist, Reform, and Renewal).

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The 1-2-3 of Healthcare

2010-03-10T09:37:00.000-08:00

I am one of the many faces of the recent and current healthcare and financial crisis. It all began when I became ill after having lost my health insurance. I ended up going into major debt paying for my own care, which led to financial ruin and near-homeless. I experienced first-hand the profound tetra-enmeshed nature of the healthcare and financial crisis in our country…feeling and perceiving loss, isolation, and pain on the physical, emotional, communal, and systemic levels of experience. During this whole process I felt a strange kind of connection between the inner and the outer as my own personal health and financial crisis appeared to be reflected in the greater culture and society. I could not help but feel that this was all part of a tetra-evolutionary process. On the individual level, besides my outer physical healing work throughout all this, I have also been attempting to process this whole experience on the using various inner Integral Life Practices, including Shadow work to uncover my own personal Shadow patterns that contributed to this situation. Concurrent with this individual inner-outer work, I have also been attempting to reflect on the collective and social dimensions of my experience by exploring the current healthcare debate from an Integral perspective, using various Integral lenses.

Looking at the issue from Integral Theory’s Big Three of I-We-It or 1st-2nd-3rd Person dimension-perspectives, it seems to me that within the boiling healthcare debate-soup there are 1st Person (1p), 2nd Person (2p), and 3rd Person (3p) competing healthcare reform approaches:

Individual-Freedom-oriented (1p) free-market “private” healthcare approaches;
Social-Systemic-oriented (3p) government-run “public” healthcare approaches; and
Collective-Community-oriented (2p) co-operative/non-profit “semi-public/private” healthcare approaches.

The private (1p) approaches appear to be most heavily associated with the conservative and mythic value meme (vMeme) political camps; The semi-public/private (2p) approaches associated with the centrist and rational vMeme political camps; and public (3p) approaches associated with the progressive and pluralistic vMeme political camps. In between these centers-of-gravity there appears to be varying degrees of attempted integration from those who are on the borders (between mythic/rational and rational/pluralistic vMemes).

Within this debate there also appears to be a fundamental question of whether healthcare is an “inalienable right” or “a privilege.” I believe this question is rooted in the central duality of our country’s doctrines which attempt to include equal measures of individual freedoms and certain socially-protected “inalienable” equal rights. Many of the 1p or private approaches to healthcare appear to champion freedom (individual and market) while forsaking some level of equality (degree of healthcare depends on economic class) and inalienable rights (degree of health is often directly related to an individual’s capacity to pursue the inalienable rights of Life, Liberty, and Happiness). Alternatively, many of the 3p or public healthcare approaches appear to sacrifice some degree of freedom (individual and market) in exchange for healthcare equality and inalienable rights, and most of the 2p or semi-public/private approaches seem to sacrifice some degree of both freedom and equality.

Then we have the issues of cost and quality. The private (1p) healthcare approaches tend to cost more for the individual person or group directly and cost less in taxation, while offering a relatively high degree of quality for those who can afford it and often a poor degree of quality for those who cannot afford it. The public (3p) approaches appear to cost the individual or group less in direct costs and more in taxation, while offering a more moderate degree of quality to a greater and more equal population. The semi-public/private (2p) approaches generally seem to offer a moderate degree of both cost and quality.

I believe this type of public/private/semi- (1p-2p-3p) tension can also be observed in our approaches to education. While our system is far from perfect, we seem to have achieved some degree of integration between the three perspectives by simultaneously offering public (3p) education, private (1p) education, and semi- public/private (2p) education (charter schools, home-schooling, etc). I think education is a good correlation to healthcare because both education and health affect an individual’s ability to pursue the inalienable rights of Life, Liberty, and Happiness.

In light of our country’s dual aspiration of individual freedom and socially-protected inalienable equal rights, I believe that a 100% private or a 100% public healthcare system is untenable and fundamentally incongruent with the aspirations and doctrines of our republic. While the nuts and bolts of our education system still needs a lot of work, I believe the 3-tiered structure that has evolved is inherently natural to our country’s ideals and current vMeme structures. Using this model, here is one possible scenario for an Integral “Big Three” approach to healthcare reform…

Basic Healthcare System Design:

Public Healthcare: Expansion of Medicaid and Medicare into a full-blown public healthcare system for those who cannot afford private care.
Private Healthcare: Strike a healthy balance of regulation and freedom for the Private Healthcare system (i.e.: Stronger patient rights; allow competition across state-lines; insurance pooling system; and balanced tort-reform).
Semi-Public/Private Healthcare: Regulatory support and incentives for Cooperative, Charter, and Non-Profit healthcare groups.

Obviously within this kind of three-tiered (1p-2p-3p) system there are a lot of complicated details that would have to be worked out, but I do believe a more Integral approach, like the basic template of the above three perspectives and the inherent dual aspirations of our system, can help a great deal. For example, with this awareness in mind, it seems to me that the notion of requiring all citizens to buy health insurance may go against the individual freedoms doctrines of our country. Interestingly, it seems that with the above proposed three-tier healthcare system, this requirement would be unnecessary, since the public system would be a free system for those who cannot afford private or semi-private/public healthcare.

So here it is…my own personal attempt to jump into the healthcare debate. I toss these words into the healthcare tetra-evolutionary soup with my prayers for vertical transformation for myself, for those in similar and worse situations, and for the greater system in which we live and co-create and co-evolve…

*Originally published at Integral Life

Some Nice Moments at the 2010 Oscars

2010-03-08T06:19:00.000-08:00

While this year’s Oscar Ceremony was as long as always and had many misfires in terms of style and substance, I was touched by several great and small moments and flourishes throughout the ceremony, including:

Kathryn Bigelow becoming the first woman to receive the Best Director Academy Award;
Geoffrey Fletcher becoming the first African-American writer to receive an Academy Award;
Mo'Nique becoming the fifth African-American actress to win an Academy Award;
Sandra Bullock transcending previous constructs to win the Best Actress Academy Award;
The heart-felt and heart-warming honoring of each of the actors and actresses competing for the top Awards by their peers;
The Hurt Locker, a small independent film with masterful execution in all creative and technical areas, winning the Best Picture Academy Award;
And a gentle and gracious atmosphere that seemed to pervade the whole event.

The Integral-Convergence Age

2010-02-25T17:50:00.000-08:00

If the co-evolutionary dance between the Pluralistic worldview movement in the LL cultural holon and the Information Age in the LR social holon is evolving to the next level, that of an Integral worldview movement in the LL cultural holon, the question arises: What is the equivalent Socio-Techno-Economic Age in the LR social holon?

There are many indicators that suggest that this next age is already unfolding, as information technologies and networks evolve into convergent technologies, networks, and systems. Terminologies like convergence media appliances, virtual reality, immersive environments, avatars, embedded technologies, and augmented realities are swirling around in the information soup. Entertainment streams across multiple delivery platforms into our theaters, homes, cars, computer screens, phones, gaming consoles, and even through digital walls in the architectural and social spaces around us. The movie Avatar immerses us in its world through immersive IMAX 3D technology telling us a story about becoming technologically immersed in another body and reality. Gamers take on virtual personas and play each other in living rooms and on cell phones across the globe. On other technology fronts, human and natural realities are converging as well, from genetic modification to hybrid and nanotechnologies. We ride around in hybrid vehicles, eat genetically modified foods, wear nanotech clothing, attend virtual concerts, purchase goods and services in a virtual economy, and communicate with each other through phones that are also computers, radios, televisions, and global positioning devices.

One of the first observers of the convergence trend in media technologies was MIT political scientist Ithiel de Sola Pool who noted an emerging media convergence process that he called the “convergence of modes” in which the lines between media platforms are blurred and “the one-to-one relationship between a medium and its use” is eroded (Pool, 1983, p.23).

American media scholar Henry Jenkins extended this work through his observations of a co-evolutionary trend between convergence media socio-techno-economic forces (LR) and what he calls convergence culture (LL), noting that “convergence does not occur through media appliances, however sophisticated they become. Convergence occurs within the brains of the individual consumers and through their social interactions with others” (Jenkins, 2008, p.3). This new convergence culture is made up of individuals and social networks that engage with and integrate dispersed media content into meaningful wholes. Jenkins notes that this co-evolving techno-cultural movement appears to be ushering in an “…era of media convergence, collective intelligence, and participatory culture” (Jenkins, 2008, p.170).

Another hallmark of this Convergence Age is the increased capacity for embodied “perspective-taking.” Whereas the Information Age gave us a multitude of information and information sources, the Convergence Age portends to offer us the capacity to take on a multitude of perceptions and worldviews, one of the essential qualities of the Integral perspective.

Both Pool and Jenkins note that the capacity to navigate this rapidly evolving and convergent environment is incredibly complex and challenging. If this trend is indeed the co-evolutionary movement in an Integral-Convergence Age, then the Integral worldview would be the most appropriate level of consciousness for fully comprehending and mastering this unfolding era.

One of the coming major tipping points in the emergence of this Convergence Age will most likely be the widespread disbursement of high speed and high bandwidth communication networks advanced enough to fully handle immersive, embedded, and virtual realties. While this technology already exists, its widespread dispersion is dependent on various political and financial constraints…so this tipping point in the technological and communication domains can occur very soon or take many years to actually reach its evolutionary moment. Google’s recent announcement of their intention to bring this type of widespread and advanced networking technology to the world is an indicator that there is indeed movement toward this particular tipping point.

Wilber notes that as we evolve up the evolutionary ladder, greater depth and span also brings greater challenges and potential dangers (Wilber, 2003). This new Convergence Age also ushers in the potential threat of nano-viruses, genetic mutation, the erosion of direct human contact social structures, and many other new challenges.

Many of these threats come from the potential misuse of these higher technologies by individuals and cultures operating at a lower worldview. History is full of horrific examples of this mismatch between consciousness and technology, from the holocaust to the potential for nuclear terrorism. The complex and often push and pull co-evolution of consciousness and technology is interestingly reflected in the film Avatar, which appears to be a convergence technology movie with a Pluralistic worldview center-of-gravity, telling a story about the use and abuse of convergence technologies by a dysfunctional mythic-rational human culture against an idyllic (Pre/Trans) magic-mythic alien culture.

As with all evolutionary movements, there is great challenge and also great potential. As one nanotechnology futurist website proclaims… “We are approaching an evolutionary event horizon, where the organic and the synthetic, the virtual and the ‘real’, are merging together into an operational ecology, an existence morphology for which there is no precedent in the history of which we are currently aware” (http://www.historianofthefuture.com/).

REFERENCES

Henry Jenkins (2008). Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: NYU Press.

Ithiel de Sola Pool (1983). Technologies of Freedom: On Free Speech in an Electronic Age. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

Ken Wilber (2003). Volume 2 of the Kosmos Trilogy: Excerpts A, B, C, D, and G. Available at: http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/books/kosmos/index.cfm/

*Originally published at Integral Life

Integral Cinema Presentation

2010-02-24T08:18:00.000-08:00

Integral Cinema Project lead researcher Mark Allan Kaplan, Ph.D. has been selected to present preliminary research findings and theories on the the application of Integral Theory to cinematic media theory and practice at the 2010 Integral Theory Conference.

The Integral Theory Conference 2010. July 29 through August 1, 2010. Pleasant Hill, California.

Holons

2010-02-23T20:09:00.000-08:00

A holon (Greek: ὅλον, holon neuter form of ὅλος, holos "whole") is something that is simultaneously a whole and a part.

"A new perspective on whole-part relationships is taking shape around the concept of the holon - a term coined by Arthur Koestler to designate that which is simultaneously a whole in its own right and a part of a larger whole. An atom is a whole in itself. When it is also part of a molecule it becomes a holon, or a whole-part. The molecule that is also part of a cell is a holon, as is the cell that is part of an organ, and so on. This hierarchy of relationships from the atom to the organism is known as a holarchy. The concepts of holon and holarchy are fundamental to understanding the healthy function of complex living systems, which requires that each of their whole-parts maintain its own identity and boundaries even as it functions as part of the larger whole."
(The Post-Corporate World by David C. Korten)

Individual holon

An individual holon possesses a dominant monad; that is, it possesses a definable "I-ness". An individual holon is discrete, self-contained, and also demonstrates the quality of agency, or self-directed behavior. [3] The individual holon, although a discrete and self-contained is made up of parts; in the case of a human, examples of these parts would include the heart, lungs, liver, brain, spleen, etc. When a human exercises agency, taking a step to the left, for example, the entire holon, including the constituent parts, moves together as one unit.

Social holon

A social holon does not possess a dominant monad; it possesses only a definable "we-ness", as it is a collective made up of individual holons. [4] In addition, rather than possessing discrete agency, a social holon possesses what is defined as nexus agency. An illustration of nexus agency is best described by a flock of geese. Each goose is an individual holon, the flock makes up a social holon. Although the flock moves as one unit when flying, and it is "directed" by the choices of the lead goose, the flock itself is not mandated to follow that lead goose. Another way to consider this would be collective activity that has the potential for independent internal activity at any given moment.

*Adapted from Wikipedia.

The Three Faces of Spirit

2010-02-19T19:56:00.000-08:00

One of the ways to deepen the practice of seeking, receiving, and following divine guidance is to unpack our constructs of the Divine Source.

Integral Theory has a great practice to help open our perceptions of Source. It is called the The Three Faces of Spirit and can be found at:

http://integrallife.com/awaken/spirit/practice-three-faces-spirit

Zones and Integral Methodological Pluralism (IMP)

2010-02-03T09:47:00.000-08:00

In addition to the five elements of integral theory, which comprise the basic foundation of the AQAL model, there is an another more advanced aspect that is important to mention. This aspect is less of a new element and more of a complexification of the first one (the quadrants). Each of the perspectives associated with the four quadrants can be studied through two major methodological families, namely from either the inside (i.e., a first-person perspective) or the outside (i.e., a third-person perspective). This results in eight distinct zones of human inquiry and research. These eight zones comprise what integral theory calls integral methodological pluralism (IMP), which includes such approaches as phenomenology (an exploration of first-person subjective realities), ethnomethodology (an exploration of second-person intersubjective realities), and empiricism (an exploration of third-person empirical realities). The above figure includes all eight zones and their respective labels.

Integral methodological pluralism operates according to three principles: inclusion (consult multiple perspectives and methods impartially), enfoldment (prioritize the importance of findings generated from these perspectives), and enactment (recognize that phenomenon are disclosed to subjects through their activity of knowing it). As a result of these commitments, integral theory emphasizes the dynamic quality of realities as being enacted through a subject using a particular method to study an object. That object can be a first-, second-, or third-person reality. For example, we can study first-person psychological realities as an object of investigation just as easily as we can study third-person biological realities.

- Sean Esbjörn-Hargens, Ph.D. (2009). AN OVERVIEW OF INTEGRAL THEORY: An All-Inclusive Framework for the 21st Century. Integral Institute, Resource Paper No. 1, March 2009, pp.16-17.

Integral Theory

2010-01-11T12:37:00.000-08:00

"Integral theory is an all-inclusive framework that draws on the key insights of the world’s greatest knowledge traditions. The awareness gained from drawing on all truths and perspectives allows the Integral thinker to bring new depth, clarity and compassion to every level of human endeavor — from unlocking individual potential to finding new approaches to global-scale problems." (From the Integral Institute Website)

Integral Cinema Blog on Integral Life

2009-12-29T12:07:00.000-08:00

Postings of Integral Cinema Project preliminary research findings can be found here and at Mark Allan Kaplan's Integral Life Integral Cinema Blog. Mark's Integral Life blog has received Integral Life's Editors Choice recognition for two months in a row.

Hollywood and the Integral Tipping Point

2009-12-18T16:33:00.000-08:00

Hollywood is currently in a state of panic. While box office attendance is up, DVD sales have fallen through the floor and the traditional market streams and financial indicators are in a state of flux. To more clearly understand this situation I chose to look at four developmental lines in the social holon of the current American motion picture industry. The four lines I chose are the Techno-Economic Base (T-E), Business/Markets (B/M), Communication/Media (C/M), and Artistic/Aesthetic (A/A) lines of development. I used a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the lowest level of development and 10 being the highest. These numbers correlate to the first 10 altitudes of consciousness of Ken Wilber’s spectrum of worldviews, with 1 representing Infrared/Archaic and 10 representing Violet/Super-Integral Level 2 (Wilber, Pattern, Leonard, & Morelli, 2008, p. 90).

Reflecting on the current state of the industry, it seems to me that the Techno-Economic Base (T-E) of the industry is shifting from level 6 (Green/Pluralistic/Informational) to level 7 (Teal/Integral Systems/Trans-Informational or Virtual). This shift appears to be driven/co-created by a transition from separate/pluralistic media technologies and platforms (i.e.: Movies, TV, Gaming, Web, etc.) to more integrated, cross-media, and virtual technologies and platforms (i.e.: Material delivered/integrated across multiple convergent, immersive, and embedded mediums), represented by a shift from level 6 to level 7 in the Communication/Media (C/M) developmental line. As the nature of the medium is shifting, cinematic media artists are embracing these advances as a means to expand their artistic expression across these multiple platform environments. This in turn is shifting the Artistic/Aesthetic (A/A) line from level 6 to level 7 as well. While these three lines appear to be shifting in tandem, it also appears that the Business/Markets (B/M) line is stuck at level 5 (Orange/Rational), as the industry’s business community frantically tries to apply their old models of finance, distribution, and marketing to the emerging new techno-creative-communication environment (see chart below).

There are indicators of some potential shifts in the Business/Markets (B/M) line, including a major restructuring of Disney’s studio model to meet the changing media environment and the release of James Cameron’s Avatar, which appears to be attempting to cross the integral media threshold by offering content immersion (IMAX 3D), platform convergence (Theatrical/Game simultaneous release), and a foray into virtual aperspectivalism (Character-to-Avatar perspective shifts). It should be interesting to see if these forays will be part of a vertical rather than horizontal change. Either way, I believe the industry is poised at the edge of a tipping point between the relativistic/information age and the approaching integral/virtual age. Only time will tell if the American film industry will cross this threshold through a single major shift, or several smaller transitions, or a combination of both major and minor shifts, or if it will be a turbulent or peaceful transition. Since several members of the industry have already begun downloading the Integral Operating System (IOS) into their consciousness, I think we are in for a wondrous and wild ride.

References

Wilber, K., Pattern, T., Leonard, A., & Morelli, M. (2008). Integral life practice: A 21st century blueprint for physical health, emotional balance, mental clarity, and spiritual awakening. Boston: Shambhala.

American Motion Picture Industry Social Holon Sociograph

T-E = Techno-Economic Base
C/M = Communication/Media
A/A = Artistic/Aesthetic
B/M = Business/Markets

*Originally published at Integral Life.

Types

2009-12-10T09:09:00.000-08:00

Types are the variety of consistent styles that arise in various domains and occur irrespective of developmental levels. Types can overlap or be incongruous. As with the other elements, types have expressions in all four quadrants.

In the UL quadrant there are personality types. There are numerous systems that map the number of different personalities, including Keirsey (4 types), Enneagram (9 types), and Myers-Briggs (16 types). In this quadrant there are also the gender types of masculine and feminine. In general, individuals have access to both masculine and feminine qualities and thus tend to have a unique combination of traits associated with each type. In the UR quadrant there are blood types (A, B, AB, O) and William Sheldon’s well-known body types (ectomorph, endomorph, mesomorph). In the LR quadrant there are ecological biome types (e.g., steppe, tundra, islands) and governmental regime types (e.g., communist, democracy, dictatorship, monarchy, republic). In the LL quadrant there are types of religious systems (e.g., monotheism, polytheism, pantheism) and different types of kinship systems (e.g., Eskimo, Hawaiian, Iroquois, Omaha, Sudanese).

- Sean Esbjörn-Hargens, Ph.D. (2009). AN OVERVIEW OF INTEGRAL THEORY: An All-Inclusive Framework for the 21st Century. Integral Institute, Resource Paper No. 1, March 2009, pp.15.

States

2009-12-01T13:33:00.000-08:00

In addition to levels and lines there are also various kinds of states associated with each quadrant. States are temporary occurrences of aspects of reality (lasting anywhere from a few seconds to days, and in some cases even months or years). They also tend to be incompatible with each other. For example, you cannot be drunk and sober at the same time, a town cannot experience a blizzard and a heat wave on the same day. Above are a few examples of the kinds of states associated with each quadrant.

- Sean Esbjörn-Hargens, Ph.D. (2009). AN OVERVIEW OF INTEGRAL THEORY: An All-Inclusive Framework for the 21st Century. Integral Institute, Resource Paper No. 1, March 2009, pp.13.

Levels and Lines

2009-11-25T12:53:00.000-08:00

LEVELS

Within each of the four quadrants there are levels of development. Within the interior, Left-Hand quadrants there are levels of depth and within the exterior, Right-Hand quadrants there are levels of complexity. The levels within each quadrant are best understood as probability waves that represent the dynamic nature of reality and the ways different realities show up under certain conditions.

Additionally, each quadrant’s levels are correlated with levels in the other quadrants. For example, a goal-driven executive (UL) who has high blood pressure (UR) will most likely be found in a scientific-rational culture or subculture (LL), which usually occurs in industrial corporate organizations (LR). In this example, all of these aspects of the situation are occurring at the same level of complexity and depth within their respective quadrant and are therefore correlated at level five in figure above. The inclusion of levels is important because they allow us to appreciate and better interface with the realities associated with each quadrant. Each quadrant serves as a map of different terrains of reality. The levels within each quadrant represent the topographical contour-lines of that terrain. This helps us to identify the unique features of that particular landscape, which enables us to travel through it more successfully and enjoy the amazing vistas along the way.

LINES

Lines of development are another way to describe the distinct capacities that develop through levels in each aspect of reality as represented by the quadrants. So if levels are contour-lines on a hiking map for reality, then lines of development represent the various trails you can take to transverse the vast wilderness of human potential. For example, in the individual-interior quadrant of experience, the lines that develop include, but are not limited to, cognitive, emotional, interpersonal, and moral capacities. These capacities are often thought of as the multiple intelligences that each person has. The idea being that each of us is more developed in some areas than others. Integral theory uses a psychograph (below) to depict an individual’s unique assortment of development in various individual lines.

Similarly, a sociograph is used to represent the various lines of development within a family, group, culture, or society (Below).

The kinds of lines found in cultures include things like kinesthetic capacities, interpersonal maturity (e.g., absence of slaves, women’s rights, civil liberties), artistic expression (e.g., forms of music, government funding for the arts), cognitive or technological capacities, physical longevity (e.g., healthcare systems, diet), and polyphasic maturity. Polyphasic refers to a culture’s general access to different states of consciousness. For example, many indigenous cultures embrace access to and cultivation of different kinds of states of awareness while rational Western societies tend to emphasize rational waking consciousness at the exclusion of other modes of experiencing reality.

Here are some of the lines present in the four quadrants:

- Sean Esbjörn-Hargens, Ph.D. (2009). AN OVERVIEW OF INTEGRAL THEORY: An All-Inclusive Framework for the 21st Century. Integral Institute, Resource Paper No. 1, March 2009, pp.7-11.

Tetra-Evolution

2009-11-18T17:13:00.000-08:00

According to Ken Wilber's ontology, being evolves in a four-fold way. That is, each of the four quadrants co-evolves with the other three.

The four quadrants are: Self (subjective being); Culture (intersubjective being); world (objective being); and systems (interobjective being). Or I-WE-IT-ITS. Or Intentional, cultural, behavioral, social.

So individual and collective subjective and objective being co-evolves or tetra-evolves. No aspect of being is isolated and alone, all four aspects of being tetra-mesh, co-influences and co-evolving the other.

(Adapted From Integral Wiki)

Star Wars and the Tetra-Evolution of American Cinema

2009-11-12T16:21:00.000-08:00

During my studies into the application of Integral Theory to cinematic media, I attempted to look at an evolutionary or unfolding display moment in Hollywood filmmaking history through the lens of the three Integral Methodological Pluralism (IMP) principles of Nonexclusion, Unfoldment, and Enactment. The evolutionary moment in Hollywood filmmaking history I chose was the making of the first Star Wars (1977). A film that, according to most members of the various Hollywood knowledge communities, revolutionized the creative, technical, business, and critical evaluation aspects of the industry.

These areas of advancement represents the four general knowledge communities within the world of Hollywood movie making, each with their own, often conflicting, paradigms/practices/injunctions and constructs of what makes a “good” movie. There is the Cinematic Artists Community, which tends to view the goodness or success of the cinematic work by how much of the artist’s subjective vision (UL) is translated onto the screen. There is the Cinematic Technicians Community, which evaluates the degree of technical/material/objective (UR) quality of the cinematic work. There is the Cinematic Business Community, which appraises the success of the cinematic work by its market reach and profitability within the economic system (LR). Finally, there is the Cinematic Analytical Community (Critics, Historians, Theorists), which evaluates the quality of the cinematic work by the contextual effectiveness of its cinematic language (LL).

Conflicts often arise between these communities, and their seemingly contrary social practices/injunctions and the constructs generated by them. In the case of the first Star Wars (1977), the Cinematic Business Community (every studio) turned down the script at least once, even though many of the executives personally loved it (UL). The reasoning behind their choice was that their marketing models (LR) clearly showed that a science fiction film could not be profitable. What they failed to see was that George Lucas had crafted a cinematic vision that would ultimately transform the paradigms and constructs of all four knowledge communities (see below).

Finally, one of the executives at 20th Century Fox, Alan Ladd, Jr., was able to join Lucas in ENACTING a different world by seeing the other dimensions of Lucas’ work (taking a leap of NONEXCLUSION), and by heroically putting his job on the line for the script (George Lucas, personal communication, 1978). In the end, the film shattered box office records, transformed Hollywood’s marketing models; saved Fox from bankruptcy, and gave Ladd and Lucas their own companies (LR). It created a new genre (trans-genre) within the cinematic lexicon (LL) by including many different genres (Science Fiction, Westerns, War Movies, Mythical Adventures, etc.) into a cohesive blend that transcended all of them (UNFOLDMENT). Stars Wars also helped usher in the return of mythology to American cinema and American culture (LL) by blending mythological archetypes with modern and postmodern story and thematic elements. Lucas and his technical team also managed to advance cinematic technology (UR), making it easier to translate the creative visions of cinematic artists (UL). The effect of Star Wars’ genre hybridization, techno-creative advancements, and rebirthing of mythic cinema on the cinematic audience was something the traditional business and marketing models could not prehend (LR).

For additional reflections on the elements and conditions which made Star Wars such a unique and profound phenomenon, see my previous post and comments: My Cinematic Structuralism Emancipation at Integral Life.

*Previously published at Integral Life

My Cinematic Structuralism Emancipation

2009-10-28T16:10:00.000-07:00

As I reflected on the importance of structuralism within Integral Theory (Wilber, Excerpt D), I remembered one of my first encounters with cinematic structuralism and how it had a profoundly emancipating effect on both my personal and professional life.

It was my third year at USC School of Cinematic Arts, and my very first class in cinematic expression. The teacher, famed animator, special effects artist, and IMAX pioneer Lester Novros, came into the crowded classroom and walked up to the blackboard. A hush fell over the room as Lester drew a rectangle on the board and then turned to look at the class. He paused for a moment and then dramatically told us that the rectangle on the board represented the motion picture frame, and that every element within that frame had the power to affect the viewer’s body, heart, mind, and spirit. With a twinkle in his eyes, he promised that he would teach us the rules/structures governing these elements of expression. My perception of myself, the cinema, and the world profoundly shifted as I sat in the back of that classroom and listened to Lester explain how the expressive elements of space, line, shape, tone, color, movement, rhythm, and contrast and affinity, influence the physiological (UR), psychological (UL), cultural (LL), and social/environmental (LR) experience of the cinematic audience.

For example, in the opening of the first Star Wars (1977) we see a relatively large spaceship fly across the screen. Suddenly, another spaceship appears in hot pursuit of the first ship. As the hull of this pursuit spaceship progressively enters the frame for an extended period of time, the viewer is surrounded by a deep rumbling sound that moves from the back of the theater to the front. This amalgamation of the visually expressive elements of open space (the ship extending beyond the edges of the frame), spatial contrast (difference in size between the two ships), and movement (the relative movement of the two ships), combines with the spatially-moving depth-representational sounds to produce a powerful synchronization of the senses that replicates the experience of actually sitting under this massive ship. In an instant filmmaker George Lucas stylistically and viscerally communicates a deep archetypal message to the viewer, the message that we are about to see an epic struggle against a great and mighty force.

When that first class was over, I walked out onto the quad (yes, quadrants are everywhere!) and everything within and around me seemed different. I noticed the bright sunlight streaming through the trees, the patchwork patterns of bright green lawns between winding pathways, and the feelings I was having in the midst of this spatial reality.

*Originally published on Integral Life.

Hollywood Flatland

2009-10-22T15:58:00.000-07:00

While studying the Big Three Perspectives of I-WE-IT of Integral Theory, I started mentally playing with a memorable event from my days as a Hollywood “wunderkind,” and then suddenly, a perspective on the event I had not seen before shifted my entire understanding of the experience. This new insight rippled through a series of connected events and suddenly all my experiences in Hollywood came into a new and clear perspective for me. I felt a wave of deep physical release in my body as though a great unconscious burden and tension suddenly lifted off me.

THE EVENT: A few months after graduating from film school, I was house-sitting for a movie star and had a life transforming experience sitting by the pool of his estate. My graduate film was winning awards around the world, I had a high-powered Hollywood agent, and studio executives were courting me.

THE IT OF THE EVENT: I was reclining naked on a lounge chair by the pool, talking to my agent on the portable phone. The afternoon L.A. sun was hot and bright. I had mirrored sunglasses on and had an ice-cold margarita in my hand. The pool was a beautifully manufactured grotto of exotic plants, palm trees, rocks, waterfalls, and a series of crystal blue swimming pools and hot tubs. A beautiful young woman I had just met and slept with the night before was swimming naked in one of the pools.

THE WE OF THE EVENT: The conversation I was having with my agent on the phone was the same as all the rest; he was telling me what he thought I wanted to hear and I pretended that what he was saying was true. At the same time, I was watching the naked woman sensuously swimming in the pool. She smiled sweetly and looked back at me with “starry” eyes.

THE I OF THE EVENT: I suddenly felt an emptiness deep inside me as I listened to the voice of my agent and looked into the eyes of my new found lover. I felt as though I did not exist and that everything around me wasn’t real. Soon after this experience, I put all my possessions in storage, left Hollywood, and began my quest for meaning.

My current insight around this event came when I pondered my conversation with my agent from the perspective of the Hollywood client-agent cultural and social system. I realized that “I” as the client was actually a product (an IT) in the agents’ world. Then I realized that we were both seeing each other as objects to be manipulated, and not as subjects that could be understood (Wilber, 2000). Suddenly I saw all my similar Hollywood experiences in this new light and realized that all of us were objectifying each other and our own selves because we were caught in our own fears, which were being fueled by a larger system. In an instant, I felt as though a deep unconscious reservoir of regret, resentment, self-blame, and blaming of others that I was holding washed right out of me. A sense of gratitude swept through me as I perceived this experience as a moment of grace that was my wake up call to get out of the Hollywood Flatland before my I was totally reduced to an IT and lost forever!

Wilber, K. (2000). A brief history of everything (revised edition). Boston: Shambhala Publications.

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*Originally published at Integral Life

A Spiral Dynamics Perspective on the Responses to President Obama Wining the Nobel Peace Prize

2009-10-11T13:04:00.000-07:00

There has been an intense variety of responses to the announcement that the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to President Barak Obama "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."

Here is my Spiral Dynamics meditation on this spectrum of responses to President Obama wining the Nobel Peace Prize:

“What a Joke” – Their truth is not my truth – Mythic/Blue
“It is Premature” – He has not done anything “concrete” yet – Rational/Orange
“What an affirmation” – He has brought hope and ushered in a climate more conducive to peace – Relativistic/Green
The Integral Response = AH SO…

Kosmic Groove

2009-10-10T15:58:00.000-07:00

Kosmic groove...
a history of communal prehensions
and harmonic empathies
felt from within.

Ken Wilber
Excerpt C: The Ways We Are in This Together

Image: Grooves by KidSysco

Flatland

2009-09-12T09:33:00.000-07:00

In Integral Theory, Flatland is "...the attempt to reduce interiors to their exterior correlates (i.e., collapsing subjective and intersubjective realities into their objective aspects). This is often seen in systems approaches to the natural world, which represent consciousness through diagrams of feedback loops and in the process leave out the texture and felt-sense of first- and second-person experience."

- Sean Esbjörn-Hargens, Ph.D. (2009). AN OVERVIEW OF INTEGRAL THEORY: An All-Inclusive Framework for the 21st Century. Integral Institute, Resource Paper No. 1, March 2009, pp. 4.

The Big Three

2009-08-08T09:23:00.000-07:00

As both of the Right-Hand quadrants (UR and LR) are characterized by objectivity, the four quadrants are also referred to as the three value spheres of subjectivity (UL), intersubjectivity (LL), and objectivity (UR and LR). These three domains of reality are discernable in all major languages through pronouns that represent first-, second-, and third-person perspectives and are referred to by Wilber as “the Big Three:” I, We, and It/s. These three spheres can also be characterized as aesthetics, morals, and science or consciousness, culture, and nature.

Integral theory insists that you cannot understand one of these realities (any of the quadrants or the Big Three) through the lens of any of the others. For example, viewing subjective psychological realities primarily through an objective empirical lens distorts much of what is valuable about those psychological dynamics. In fact, the irreducibility of these three spheres has been recognized throughout the history of Western philosophy, from Plato’s True, Good, and Beautiful to Immanuel Kant’s famous three critiques of pure reason, judgment, and practical reason to Jürgen Habermas’ validity claims of truth, rightness, and truthfulness.

- Sean Esbjörn-Hargens, Ph.D. (2009). AN OVERVIEW OF INTEGRAL THEORY: An All-Inclusive Framework for the 21st Century. Integral Institute, Resource Paper No. 1, March 2009, pp.3-4.

The Four Quadrants

2009-07-02T09:05:00.000-07:00

According to integral theory, there are at least four irreducible perspectives (subjective, intersubjective, objective, and interobjective) that must be consulted when attempting to fully understand any issue or aspect of reality. Thus, the quadrants express the simple recognition that everything can be viewed from two fundamental distinctions: 1) an inside and an outside perspective and 2) from a singular and plural perspective. A quick example can help illustrate this: imagine trying to understand the components of a successful meeting at work. You would want draw on psychological insights and cultural beliefs (the insides of individuals and groups) as well as behavioral observations and organizational dynamics (the outsides of individuals and groups) to fully appreciate what is involved in conducting worthwhile meetings.

These four quadrants also represent dimensions of reality. These dimensions are actual aspects of the world that are always present in each moment. For instance, all individuals (including animals) have some form of subjective experience and intentionality, or interiors, as well as various observable behaviors and physiological components, or exteriors. In addition, individuals are never just alone but are members of groups or collectives. The interiors of collectives are known generally as intersubjective cultural realities whereas their exteriors are known as ecological and social systems, which are characterized by interobjective dynamics. These four dimensions are represented by four basic pronouns: “I”, “we”, “it”, and “its.” Each pronoun represents one of the domains in the quadrant model: “I” represents the Upper Left (UL), “We” represents the Lower Left (LL), “It” represents the Upper Right (UR), and “Its” represents the Lower Right (LR).

- Sean Esbjörn-Hargens, Ph.D. (2009). AN OVERVIEW OF INTEGRAL THEORY: An All-Inclusive Framework for the 21st Century. Integral Institute, Resource Paper No. 1, March 2009, pp.2-3.

Transpersonal Cinema Project IndieGoGo Funding Launch

2009-02-21T06:48:00.000-08:00

The Transpersonal Cinema Project IndieGoGo fundraising site is now open for funding at:

http://www.indiegogo.com/transpersonalcinemaproject?iggref=CAGN_PJLC

Project Advisor Announcement: James Fadiman Ph.D.

2009-02-08T08:42:00.000-08:00

James Fadiman Ph.D. has agreed to be an advisor on the Transpersonal and Integral Cinema Project. James is a celebrated author, psychological researcher, corporate consultant, and an adjunct professor at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, which he co-founded. He is also one of the founders of the transpersonal movement, one of the first lecturers at Esalen Institute, and one of the early pioneers in psychedelics research, along with Ram Dass and Timothy Leary. James’s areas of specialization are altered states of consciousness, creativity, human potential, personal and organizational problem solving, Sufi storytelling, transformative fiction, and transpersonal theory. You can learn more about James at: http://www.jamesfadiman.com/index.html.

Project Advisor Announcement: Bruce Block

2009-02-03T10:02:00.000-08:00

Bruce Block has agreed to be an advisor on the Transpersonal and Interal Cinema Project. Bruce is an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts, where he has taught graduate level classes in visual structure for the past 30 years. His book, “The Visual Story,” now in its second edition, is used worldwide by students and professionals working in motion pictures, television, advertising and video game design. Bruce also teaches visual structure at the AFI and UCLA, and his seminars on visual structure have been presented to companies including PIXAR Studios, The Walt Disney Company, DreamWorks Animation, Nickelodeon Studios, Hasbro Interactive, Hewlett Packard, Blue Sky Studios, DirecTV and The Binger Film Institute. His credits include production and creative consulting on numerous film projects including As Good As It Gets, What Women Want, The Holiday, Alfie, Stuart Little, The Great Outdoors, Pretty in Pink, The Parent Trap, Father of the Bride I & II, and Baby Boom. You can learn more about Bruce at: http://www.bruceblock.com/.

Project Advisor Announcement: Arthur Hastings, Ph.D.

2009-02-02T09:21:00.000-08:00

Arthur Hastings, Ph.D. has agreed to be an advisor on the Transpersonal and Integral Cinema Projects. Arthur is a Professor at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology where he is the Research Director for the Institute and the Director of the William James Center for Consciousness Studies. He is also a former faculty Chair for the Residential programs, former Dean and President of the Institute, and a Past President of the Association for Transpersonal Psychology. Arthur’s areas of specialization are altered states of consciousness, parapsychology, research methods, and transpersonal theory. He has conducted pioneering research on audio brainwave entrainment, channeling, hypnotic trance induction, and the psychomantium experience. You can learn more about Arthur at: http://www.arthurhastings.com/.

Mark Allan Kaplan: Recipient of 2008 Integral Life Award

2009-01-29T09:25:00.000-08:00

ICP Lead Researcher, Mark Allan Kaplan, is the recipient of the 2008 Integral Life Award! The IL Award is an annual merit-based scholarly award given by the Integral Institute. Mark received the award in recognition of his demonstrated potential and capacity to make a difference in the world through the application of integral principles in his personal, professional, and academic endeavors.

Cinematic Evolution

2009-01-11T21:26:00.000-08:00

Citizen Kane (1941)

One of the most memorable days of my life was when motion picture director and editor Robert Wise spent the afternoon with me going over the rough cut of one of my films. As Bob went through every cut with me and shared his wisdom I kept thinking to myself “My God, the man who edited Citizen Kane (1941) is helping me edit my film!” I learned so much from Bob that day, both about filmmaking and about life. One of these “Wise” lessons was his sharing with me his perceptions about a possible connection between the evolution of consciousness and the evolution of the cinema.

Over his illustrious 60-year career, Bob observed that the perceptual consciousness of the cinematic audience appeared to advance along with the cinema in the ability to communicate more information, in more abstract forms, within shorter durations of time. He explained that when he first started in the film industry the motion picture audiences required very clear linear story structures, and that gradually throughout his career, the audiences seemed to develop the ability to more readily and quickly project meaning across discontinuous and non-linear cinematic structures.

To illustrate one aspect of this evolution, Bob used the example of a cinematic sequence that has a character driving to another character’s house for a meeting. In the old days filmmakers had to show the person driving the car, stopping the car, getting out of the car, walking up to the house, knocking on the door, and then going inside. Gradually over time, the audience has advanced to the point of being able to accept a direct cut from a person driving a car to them suddenly being inside someone’s house. Wise believed that these advancements in both cinematic expression and the perceptual consciousness of the cinematic audience were the product of an interdependent and co-evolutionary relationship between the cinema and the audience. This observation appears to concur with Jean Gebser’s (1986) contention that artistic movements and trends have a tendency to influence and be affected by the evolution of consciousness.

At the end of our time together, Bob was called away quickly, but before he left the editing room, he paused to tell me how wonderful my work was and then said, “I hope I helped you a little bit…” Of course, I profusely and sincerely thanked him, and as he walked off I felt a mysterious shift inside me. In that brief moment, it seemed as though I had received a kind of shaktipat, or life lesson energetic transmission, from this amazing man. After all the awards, honors and accolades, Bob Wise was still a sweet and deeply humble human being, and his living presence and example penetrated me in ways I still cannot describe. I will never forget that moment, and every moment I was blessed by his presence. In my heart and mind, I believe Bob Wise was a true Cinematic Bodhisattva.

Integral Cinema Project - Project Status

2009-01-04T06:59:00.000-08:00

The Integral Cinema Project is currently in the theory building stage, exploring the application of Integral Theory to cinematic media development, production, and distribution, under the auspices of Integral Institute's and Fielding Graduate University's Certificate Program in Integral Studies.

Eli Stone and Transpersonal Television

2009-01-01T22:39:00.000-08:00

There have been many wonderful television shows dealing with transpersonal themes over the years, including The Twilight Zone (Alternate Realities), Quantum Leap (Time Travel), The X-Files (Alien Encounters), Touched by an Angel (Angels), and Joan of Arcadia (Divine Guidance). There are also several superb transpersonal television shows currently on the air, including Lost (Metaphysical Realities), Life (Zen), Life on Mars (Time Travel), Heroes, Kyle-XY (Exceptional Human Capacities), and Eli Stone (Divine Guidance).

While all of these shows are excellent transpersonal television journeys, I believe Eli Stone must be singled out as one of televisions transpersonal masterpieces. The reason I believe Eli Stone deserves this mantle, is that it not only explores a transpersonal topic with great depth, grace, wit, and integrity, it also has the capacity to give the viewing audience a powerful experience of higher and illusive states of being. How often does a TV show induce a deep sense of grace, hope and faith in the face of life’s haunting mysteries? This is very rare…so I say, BRAVO to the creators of Eli Stone! But I also have to give a big BOO to the network (ABC) who never gave the show the chance it deserved and canceled this gem of television enlightentainment.

TCP on IndieGoGo

2008-12-30T13:29:00.000-08:00

The Transpersonal Cinema Project is now on IndieGoGo at: http://www.indiegogo.com/transpersonalcinemaproject

Once complete, the TCP IndieGoGo site will act as a project funding, promotion, and social networking hub for those interested in supporting and/or participating in The Transpersonal Cinema Project.

Synchronization of the Senses

2008-12-29T11:06:00.000-08:00

Renowned Russian filmmaker and film theory pioneer Sergei Eisenstein (1898-1948) postulated that the unique nature of the cinema produces a holistic and transcendent "synchronization of the senses" through the "integration of word, image and sound, and the accumulation of successive images and sounds [that serve] to construct perception, meaning, and emotion". After years of cinematic experimentation and "a thorough analysis of the nature of audiovisual phenomena," Eisenstein believed that the conscious manipulation of this sensory synchronization could allow the filmmaker to converse with his or her audience on higher, deeper, and subtler levels of communication by more closely replicating the multidimensional sensory stimulation of actual lived experience.

An example of the power of this consciously controlled sensory synchronization can be found in the film Chariots of Fire (1981). In this British cinema classic, the filmmakers combine the images and sounds of the experience of running with an emotionally expressive musical score to viscerally communicate the peak experience of running. When this synchronization of image, sound, and music integrates with the film’s plot, performances, and dialogue, the audience is able to experience the ephemeral and transformative emotions involved in the physical and spiritual struggle for glory.

Celluloid Calling

2008-12-28T19:46:00.000-08:00

Progress, 1974

All through my childhood, I struggled with finding a way to communicate with others. My stutter made verbal communication difficult and emotionally painful, and I searched for others ways of expressing myself. I began to draw at an earlier age, studying at the Art Institute of Chicago between the ages of nine and eleven. Gradually expanding into painting, still photography, and architectural design, I received numerous awards for my work. When I was sixteen I took a film class in high school. I teamed up with a friend, and we made a super 8 film together for our final project (Progress, 1974). I loved creating the film, and felt a sense of joy and purpose. When we showed the film in class, people laughed and cried. I felt a chill shoot up and down my spine as the flickering light and dancing celluloid images touched the hearts and minds of others. Time appeared to stand still, and I experienced a feeling of deep connection with everyone in the room. I also had a sense of great mystery, as though I had become a channel for something greater than myself. Suddenly, I knew that this was my path, my gift, my calling.

Transpersonal Cinema Project Website Official Launch

2008-12-28T11:32:00.000-08:00

The Transpersonal Cinema Project website launched at http://www.transpersonalcinema.com/

The Transpersonal Cinema Project is a groundbreaking research and production initiative seeking to investigate and advance these powerful transformational potentials of the cinema by integrating the latest theories, practices, and technologies of cinematic media, creativity, human perception, and consciousness.

Seeing the Light

2008-12-25T12:48:00.000-08:00

"For the moment, look at cinema as a mystery religion. One enters the darkened place and joins the silent congregation. Then comes the beam of light out of the shadows: the Projector, the Great Projector up there behind us! Turn out the little lights so that the big light can penetrate the darkness! Ah, behold the unreeling of the real reality of practically everything: our dreams, our idiocies and raptures, our nativity, passion and death."

- James Broughton (Seeing the Light, 1986)

Transpersonal Cinema Project YouTube Channel Launch

2008-12-23T13:05:00.000-08:00

The Transpersonal Cinema Project

YouTube Channel (Beta) is up and running at:

www.youtube.com/transpersonalcinema

Seeking the Heart of Darkness

2008-07-19T12:24:00.000-07:00

Schindler's List (1993)

There is violence in the media. There is violence in the streets. My mind has been asking why… what is cause and what is effect? I have tried to rid my thoughts and actions of violence. I have boycotted violent films and the evening news. I have prayed for peace within and without. Yet I have come to see that I am in the realm of aversion and repression.

Is the violence in the media and in our streets from our collective repression of our fear of death and pain and suffering? In many cultures there are rituals around death and dying. Is our collective unconscious giving us the experiences we are not giving ourselves?

For weeks I thought about seeing Schindler's List (1993) yet the idea of the intense physical and psychological horrors I might see held me back. Finally I decided to create a spiritual practice. As I entered the theater I asked God (Higher Power, etc.) to use this experience for my awakening and healing around my perceptions of the body. As I watched blood spiriting out of a man's head I did not turn away. I allowed the waves of emotions to sweep over me as scores of naked human beings waited to be either showered with deadly gas or cleansing water. I cried as the acts of love and kindness amidst this vast darkness appeared like golden flowers rising from the mud. After the film I sat outside in front of a fountain. All the trials and tribulations of my life were gone. The beauty and impermanence of everything around me washed my mind.

Within this journey through the darkness there was love and hope and beauty. I also found both the darkness and the beauty inside my self. And for a moment they merged into a sort of sweet sorrow.

Now I am seeking a way not to condone yet not to abhor the violence around me. I wonder if I can use it to seek the violence in me and use its dark mud to grow the golden flowers of light.

I have noticed my own tendency to see Transpersonal films in terms of films of light and not of darkness. Yet now I can think of several films, which are clearly transpersonal odysseys through darkness. There are films which show the triumph of the human spirit through the dark horrors of existence (Schindler's List, 1993); films which take us to the horrors and madness deep inside us (Apocalypse Now, 1979); and films which take us through the darkness of our minds on our way to the light (Jacob's Ladder, 1990).

But perhaps every journey through darkness and violence can be consciously used for our own healing. And perhaps as we make this journey and face our fears, the external manifestations will dissolve into the golden lotus growing up from the dark mud.

(Originally published in Focus: The Quarterly Newsletter of the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, Winter, 2-3, 1994)

The Medium is the Transpersonal

2008-04-18T23:15:00.000-07:00

It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

What is the connection between the Transpersonal and Cinema? Perhaps the very nature of any creative media is Transpersonal. Film and video, as well as all the arts . . . are ultimately the ideas, thoughts, and feelings of a "personal" mind (or minds) being extended outward to other minds. At this level we might say that the "medium is the message."

In the particular case of film, we have a medium steeped in alchemy, mythology, illusion, magic, and transcendence. When audiences first saw the image of a speeding train projected on a screen in front of them, they leaped from their seats and ran out of the theater screaming. A French magician made films in which people disappeared, became transparent, and flew to the moon. Like an ancient religious ritual we enter a darkened place in silence. As we sit before the giant alter, a great light slices the darkness and transforms the two-dimensional screen before us into a three-dimensional world.

Beyond the transpersonal nature of the medium itself, are some films more transpersonal than others? Surely films about angels (It's A Wonderful Life, 1946), life after death (Ghost, 1990), altered states (Altered States, 1980), dreams (Kurosawa's Dreams, 1990), archetypes (Star Wars, 1977), UFO phenomena (E.T.: The Extraterrestrial, 1982), mystical realities (The Last Wave, 1977) or religious experiences (The Last Temptation of Christ, 1988) are transpersonal in their content. And films that deal with shifts in temporal and spatial reality, like Field of Dreams (1989) and Groundhog Day (1993), weave the transpersonal into the dramatic structure itself. Then there are the films which embrace the transpersonal in the visual form as well as through the subject content and dramatic structure. In films like Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire (1987) and Lawrence Kasden's Grand Canyon (1991) the camera transcends all boundaries, moving through walls and floating through the air to capture the visceral reality of these other realms. Of course these categories tend to overlap and most transpersonal films are a combination of these elements.

I believe there is also a more subtle way that the transpersonal enters the cinema. There are films that move us in ways that are beyond just the stimulation of thoughts, ideas and emotions; beyond content, drama and form. These films cause a subtle shift inside us, they touch us on the level of soul or spirit. Sometimes these films deal directly with transpersonal realms; sometimes they are simple films about love and the human spirit; sometimes they are dark journeys into the underworld.

The power of these films seems to depend on the intersection of our own life's journey with the journey of the film. When this connection is made it seems as though this film was made for us. A chill moves through us and the notion of a grand design touches our awareness. In this way any film becomes transpersonal. From great works of filmic art to pop culture escapist adventures. Somehow the divine seems to be woven into the light of the movie projector. As the images and sounds dance before us, our realities and projections meet. Sometimes we are moved and entertained . . . and sometimes we are transformed.

(Originally published in Focus: The Quarterly Newsletter of the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, Fall, 1-2, 1993)

Gravity Waves

2008-03-08T21:58:00.000-08:00

I ride the waves of gravity,

surfing on the cosmic sea of light,

rippling distortions in the fabric of space-time,

rising from the past,

cresting in this very moment,

falling toward an unknown future shore.

Have to remember to ride the now,

looking back or looking ahead,

is always how I wipe out.

Night Watch

2008-02-08T21:35:00.000-08:00

In the fall of 1985 I visited the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. I remember walking into the room where Rembrandt’s “Nightwatch” was hung. I froze in my tracks and softly gasped (in-spired). The painting’s presence was so powerful that it felt as though I had entered the presence of some great force. The painting seemed alive, as though Rembrandt had captured the life energy of himself, the people he was painting and the presence of the divine, and fused it all into the paint and canvas. I sat in front of the painting for hours, while it spoke to me through image, character, story, color and light about human struggle and divine yearnings within myself and within all of humanity. The messages I was receiving from the painting seemed to be answering some of the inner questions that had been on my mind just before I entered the museum. That night I lay in bed feeling a deep sense of gratitude for the gifts of the inspiration and guidance I had received at the foot of that giant wondrous canvas.

Zen Ox Herding

2007-12-12T21:19:00.001-08:00

Seeking the Ox

Finding the Tracks

First Glimpse of the Ox

Catching the Ox

Taming the Ox

Riding the Ox Home

Ox Forgotten, Self Alone

Both Ox and Self Forgotten

Returning to the Source

Returning to Help Sentient Beings

Creating Without Expecting

2007-12-06T22:39:00.000-08:00

"The Tao gives birth to all beings...
nourishes them,
maintains them,
cares for them,
comforts them,
protects them,
takes them back to itself,
creating without possessing,
acting without expecting,
guiding without interfering."
- Lao-tzu (Tao Te Ching, 51)

The Sacred Tetrad

2007-12-05T22:38:00.000-08:00

The Sacred Tetrad

"Meditate upon my counsels;

love them; follow them;

To the divine virtues

will they know how to lead thee.

I swear it by the One who in our hearts

engraved the sacred Tetrad,

symbol immense and pure,

Source of Nature and

model of the Divine."
- Pythagoras (The Golden Verses)

The Primordial Poet

2007-12-04T20:47:00.000-08:00

"Meditate on the Guide,
the Giver of all,
the Primordial Poet,
smaller than an atom,
unthinkable,
brilliant as the sun."
- Bhagavad-Gita 8:9 (Mitchell)

The Eye of the Heart

2007-12-03T20:33:00.000-08:00

"I am blind and do not see the things of this world; but when the light comes from above, it enlightens my heart and I can see, for the Eye of my heart sees everything; and through this vision I can help my people. The heart is a sanctuary at the center of which there is a little space, wherein the Great Spirit dwells, and this is the Eye. This is the Eye of the Great Spirit by which He sees all things, and through which we see Him. If the heart is not pure, the Great Spirit cannot be seen." - Wallace Black Elk

Knocking on Heaven's Door

2007-12-02T15:50:00.000-08:00

"Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find;
knock, and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks, receives;
and he who seeks, finds;
and to him who knocks,

the door will be opened."
- Jesus

Seeking Water

2007-11-30T20:06:00.000-08:00

"Not only the thirsty seek the water,
but the water seeks the thirsty as well."
- Rumi

The Kabbalist

2007-11-29T20:15:00.000-08:00

The Kabbalist at Work

This image reminds me that...

To receive wisdom and express creativity
we must act as the Kabbalist
moving between and opening to
the forces that flow through
the Four Worlds (Domains) of Existence:

EMANATION

CREATION

FORMATION

MANIFESTATION

Integrative

2007-11-28T11:29:00.000-08:00

"Integrative" simply means that this approach attempts to include as many important truths from as many disciplines as possible--from East as well as the West, from premodern and modern and postmodern, from the hard sciences of physics to the tender sciences of spirituality." - Ken Wilber

Transfigurations

2007-11-27T22:51:00.001-08:00

Transfigurations by Alex Grey

Alex Grey's work so beautifully re-minds me of the multi-domain nature of inner and outer reality.

Multi-Domain Reality

2007-11-26T17:44:00.000-08:00

"…All our different ways of thinking are to be considered as different ways of looking at the one reality, each with some domain in which it is clear and adequate. One may indeed compare a theory to a particular view of some object. Each view gives only an appearance of the object in some aspect. The whole object is not perceived in any one view but, rather, it is grasped only implicitly as that single reality which is shown in all these views." - David Bohm

The Seeker

2007-11-25T18:41:00.000-08:00

Artist and Title Unknown?

This image reminds me that...

The true seeking of knowledge and wisdom

requires whole person, or embodied learning,

as well as a deep commitment to

a life of lived inquiry,

in which every experience

is taken as a lesson to learn.

Lived Inquiry

2007-11-24T13:31:00.000-08:00

"By lived inquiry, I mean simply
the active, innovative and examined life,
which seeks to both transform
and understand more deeply
the human condition... "
- John Heron

GUN

2007-08-07T14:13:00.000-07:00

GUN was created as an experiment in the application of cinematic design to capture and represent the inherent power of guns and the effects their mere presence can have on individuals. GUN is a film by Mark Allan Kaplan and was student produced at the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts. GUN premiered at the Los Angeles Film Exposition in 1980.

Voice in Exile - Cafeteria Scene

2007-06-29T14:08:00.000-07:00

The Cafeteria Scene from "Voice in Exile," a cinematic vision-quest into the mind and heart of a stutterer. Written and Directed by Mark Allan Kaplan

Voice in Exile - Classroom Scene

2007-06-29T14:01:00.000-07:00

The Classroom Scene from "Voice in Exile," a cinematic vision-quest into the mind and heart of a stutterer. Written and Directed by Mark Allan Kaplan.

Voice in Exile - Opening Dream Sequence

2007-06-29T12:58:00.000-07:00

The opening dream sequence of "Voice in Exile," a cinematic vision-quest into the mind and heart of a stutterer. Written and Directed by Mark Allan Kaplan

Alley of the Unseen Forces

2007-05-16T12:21:00.000-07:00

My earliest childhood memory is of a haunting mystical experience I had when I was in first grade. One morning, as I was getting ready to go to school, I experienced a deep sense of panic at the thought of returning to the ridicule and laughter I was receiving from my fellow classmates because of my stutter. Walking down the block with the other kids, the dread became unbearable. I turned the corner and slipped behind some tall bushes. As I watched the other kids going to school, I started to calm down. After a while, the street was empty. I slowly got up, turned down our back alley, and walked back to my house. I snuck into the garage, took my bicycle, and rode off, feeling the urgency of escape. After riding through the neighborhood for a while, I turned down an alley and suddenly stopped.

Autumn leaves swirled around the cracked pavement of the alley, being blown in spiraling waves by the strong Midwestern winds. White billowing clouds swiftly rolled across the bright blue sky above, and the electric power lines gently hummed around me. In an instant all my pains and fears vanished and I was filled with a sense of awe and wonder. Somehow I felt the power and beauty of the unseen forces at play all around me, and I sensed a presence of something vast and deep and unknown around me and within me. A feeling of safety and peace filled me, and I stood there for what seemed like hours.

Over the years, I have returned to this memory over and over; bathing in the gravity of that experience; and remembering to open to the unseen forces at play in every moment, both within me and all around me.

*Excerpt from Original Gravity: A Personal Narrative Theology Inquiry into the Experience of Seeking, Receiving, and Following Divine Guidance by Mark Allan Kaplan, Ph.D.

Transpersonal Movie Leader

2007-05-15T12:51:00.000-07:00

The transpersonal movie leader was created as an experiment in the application of cinematic rhythm and image juxtaposition to mediate an abstract conceptualization, representing the notion of transpersonal cinema.

Public domain images were edited and digitally enhanced in Adobe Photoshop, then assembled in Microsoft Movie Maker. Finished product was then converted to Macromedia Flash, Windows Media, and QuickTime file formats.

Various transpersonal practices were employed during the creation process to establish an optimum creative environment.

Featured Clips Include:
Un Chien Andalou (Bunuel, 1929)
A Clockwork Orange (Kubrick, 1971)
Wings of Desire (Wenders, 1987)
2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 1969)

An AudioVisual Meditation by Mark Allan Kaplan

A Tear

2006-10-10T10:58:00.000-07:00

I look, I listen.

The words I’ve written

tell me more than I’d ever wished to know.

Days grow longer…

thoughts dwell, expand, explode – implode…on overload.

I see air swirling in circles around my hand,

tiny particles of violet light

caress my canvased skin.

A humming in my brain

echoes down

deep dark caverns of parts untouched.

In response, my temples pound pain

– shooting nerves never ending.

The veins in my eyes bulge and swell

then suddenly…

I shed a tiny tear.

A tear

salty and sweet

to the taste of my tongue,

A tear

more real than any thought

I’ve ever touched.

- Mark Allan Kaplan

*Published in J. Campbell (Ed.) (1983).Our western world's greatest poems. Sacramento, California: World of Poetry Press.

Kabbalah Q&A

2006-07-18T13:38:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Kabbalah Q&A. Since I have been asked many questions about Kabbalah throughout this blogging journey, I thought I would try to answer some of the most basic questions here.

WHO SHOULD STUDY?

Traditionally, the study of Kabbalah in Judaism was reserved for Jewish men over the age of 40. Aside from the cultural and patriarchal issues involved in this stance, these constructs represented the belief within the tradition that the study of these mystical teachings required a high level of maturity, and extensive knowledge and training within the other, more exoteric teachings of the tradition (Torah and Talmud). The age of 40 also has a mystical meaning to it as well; 40 is the total number of the 10 Sefirah or branches of the Tree of Life, manifesting through the Four Worlds of Creation (see below).

My own belief is that these traditional conditions for the study of Kabbalah still hold true on a symbolic and/or archetypal level: For me, being Jewish means to be a devoted seeker of the Divine Oneness; since it is believed that the Divine Presence (Shekhinah) is a feminine energy, those who study Kabbalah should symbolically hold the masculine stance towards this presence in order to attain union with it; and one must be psychologically healthy, emotionally mature, and have some knowledge of the tradition before entering into the experiential mystical practices of Kabbalah.

There are also those who say that it is dangerous to study the Kabbalah if these traditional conditions are not met, and once again, I would agree on a more symbolic/archetypal level: It is my belief that any advanced psycho-spiritual practice like that of the Kabbalah, can be dangerous for those not prepared to loosen the perceptual bounds of the traditional constructs of both personal and consensual reality.

WHAT IS THE HISTORY OF THE KABBALISTIC MATERIAL?

In my view, there are three major theories about the origin of the Kabbalah: One theory holds that the teachings that would one day become the Kabbalah were communicated to Abraham and passed down from one generation to the next through an ever-expanding oral tradition; Another theory holds that the Kabbalah was transmitted to Moses at the same time that he was given the Torah and the other Oral Teachings that would eventually become the Talmud, or the codified Jewish Law; and still another theory holds that the teachings of Kabbalah were developed by Judaic mystics after the first millennium CE.

It is my understanding that there is historic evidence for the existence of Kabbalistic teachings dating back to the early Talmudic period (74 CE). Many Kabbalists and Biblical historians also point to hints of Kabbalistic teachings and practices in the writings of the Prophets, and within the Torah itself.

My own belief is that all three theories are true on some level; that the teachings of the Kabbalah slowly developed over the span of Judaic history, first beginning as simple mystical understandings and practices, then developing into more and more complex system of oral teachings and spiritual exercises, and finally becoming a codified and written tradition.

WHAT ABOUT ALL THE DIFFERENT KABBALISTIC SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT AND PRACTICE?

There are many different schools of Kabbalistic thought and practice both within and outside of Judaism. Within Judaism, there are many different systems of Kabbalah related to the different mystics who codified the teachings and practices to fit their particular mystical approach; these include the Kabbalistic teachings and systems of Moses Cordovero, Isaac Luria, Moses Luzzatto, Rabbi Simeon bar Yohai, Abraham Abulafia, and the Baal Shem Tov. There are also more recent permutations within the tradition, including more pop culture oriented movements like that of The Rav and the Kabbalah Center.

There are also many systems of Kabbalah (Cabala, Cabbala, or Qabalah) outside of Judaism, including Hermetic traditions like that of the Order of the Golden Dawn, along with various other Alchemic and esoteric traditions. Many of these teachings come from a long list of non-Judaic mystics and spiritualists including Franz Bardon, Madame Blavatsky, Aleister Crowley, A. E. Waite, Israel Regardie, and Paul Foster Case.

Kabbalah has also influenced and been influenced by other mystical systems; one can find Kabbalistic signs on most Tarot decks, and many see traces of neo-Aristotelian and Neo-Platonic thought within the teachings of Judaic and non-Judaic systems of Kabbalah.

My personal position on all these different schools and influences is...that it is all God in Drag (as Ram Dass likes to say). It is my belief that each method speaks to different people, and/or speaks to each of us at different times and phases of our journey. There is a poem I often like to remember when I am asked to comment on what I think of all these different and often seemingly divergent mystical paths...it says: “Oh Stream of Life, Run Ye Slow, or Run Ye Fast, All Streams Reach the Sea at Last.” So for me, if a path speaks to me, then I take it; and if that path stops speaking to me and another path calls me, then I take that one; because in my heart and mind I feel a single great river running through all these streams, all rushing towards that wondrous mystical ocean of oneness.

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE BASIC CONCEPTS IN KABBALAH?

While Kabbalah is a very complex system with a vast cosmology, I believe there are some basic concepts common to most, if not all, of the different Kabbalistic traditions. My perception of these basic concepts includes the idea of a formless, nameless Source of existence (EIN SOF); the emergence of the energy of that source through a process of emanation, creation, formation, and manifestation (THE FOUR WORLDS); the movement of this energy through the different worlds is channeled through a mystical structure (THE TREE OF LIFE) with numerous pathways (32 PATHS) and ten main branches or hubs (THE TEN SEFIROT).

These are just a few of the basic concepts of the tradition, and each of them is merely a tiny spark on the edge of a vast mystical universe of teachings and practices.

FURTHER RESOURCES:

Here are some resources for further exploration of the vast mystical universe of the teachings and practices of the Judaic Kabbalah, which is the form of Kabbalah I am personally drawn to.

Some Classic Books of the Judaic Kabbalah Tradition

Sefer Yetzirah: The Book of Creation. Translated by Aryeh Kaplan. York Beach, ME: Samuel Weiser.

Sefer Bahir. Translated by Aryeh Kaplan. York Beach, ME: Samuel Weiser.

The Zohar. Translated by Harry Sperling and Maurice Simon. New York: The Soncino Press.

Derech HaShem: The Way of God by Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto. Translated by Aryeh Kaplan. Jerusalem: Feldheim Publishers.

Da’ath Tevunoth, The Knowing Heart: The Philosophy of God’s Oneness by Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto. Translated by Shraga Silverstein. Jerusalem: Feldheim Publishers.

Sha’arey Orah: Gates of Light by Rabbi Joseph Gikatilla. Translated by Avi Weinstein. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.

Some Modern Books About Judaic Kabbalah

Daniel C. Matt. The Essential Kabbalah: The Heart of Jewish Mysticism. New York: Harper-Collins Publishers, 1995.

Perle Epstein. Kabbalah: The Way of the Jewish Mystic. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1978.

Z'ev ben Shimon Halevi (Warren Kenton). Kabbalah: Tradition of Hidden Knowledge. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1979.

Z'ev ben Shimon Halevi (Warren Kenton). Kabbalah and Exodus. York Beach, ME: Samuel Weiser, 1980

Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan. Meditation and Kabbalah. York Beach, ME: Samuel Weiser, 1982.

Rabbi Arthur Green. Seek My Face, Speak My Name. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, 1992.

Rabbi David A. Cooper. God is a Verb: Kabbalah and the Practice of Mystical Judaism. New York: Riverhead Books, 1997.

Rabbi Shoni Labowitz. Miraculous Living: A Guided Journey in Kabbalah through the Ten Gates of the Tree of Life. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996.

Rabbi Steven A. Fisdel. The Practice of Kabbalah: Meditation in Judaism. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, 1996.

Dr. Philip S. Berg. Kabbalah for the Layman. Jerusalem, Israel: Research Centre of Kabbalah, 1981.

*Originally published on KabbalahBlog hosted by Enlightenment.com

Seeking Peace

2006-04-12T16:54:00.000-07:00

My heart has wept many times over the last few years over the seemingly endless and violent conflicts between some of the worlds religious traditions and cultures. Like so many others, I have yearned to find a way to help bring about peace between the faiths. From this place of deep yearning, I began developing an interfaith daily practice to see if I could personally find and affirm an energetic harmony between the traditions. To my amazement the practices of the different faiths that I was exploring merged into one long beautiful sacred dance of movement, meditation, contemplation, chanting, and visualization. As part of this sacred dance I was guided to look up the words for peace in different languages and was further moved to develop an Interspiritual Peace Mantra which I now perform several times a day.

This Interspiritual Peace Mantra that emerged from my practice is a compilation of eight words for PEACE from eight different languages used to represent the eight major streams of world religions: Primal Traditions, Paganism, Hinduism, Judaism, Taoism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam. The words are arranged in the chronological/historical order of the emergence of each of these faiths. The purpose and intent of this mantra is to nurture and amplify personal and collective peace.

___________________

The eight words of the Interspiritual Peace Mantra are:

Sipala Sith Shanti Shalom T'ai Sidi Pax Salaam.

Sipala is the Hopi word for peace and represents the Primal Traditions (Shamanic , Aboriginal, etc).

Sith is the Gaelic word for peace and represents the Pagan Traditions (Goddess, Druid, Celtic, Wicca , Greek, etc.).

Shanti is the Hindi word for peace and represents the Hindu and Sikh traditions.

Shalom is the Hebrew word for peace and represents the Judaic and Kabbalistic traditions.

T’ai is a Chinese word for peace and represents the Taoist and Confucian traditions.

Sidi is the Tibetan word for peace and represents the Buddhist tradition.

Pax is the Latin word for peace and represents Christianity .

Salaam is the Aramaic word for peace and represents Islam and Sufism.

___________________

As part of this practice, I also developed the above Interspiritual Peace Mandala with the words of the Interspiritual Peace Mantra and symbols from each tradition set within a mandala pattern created by a dear friend of mine, artist Maja Apolonia Rode.

The Interspiritual Peace Mantra and Mandala can be found at the Interspiritul Peace Project web page.

The Ten Lessons

2006-04-11T13:02:00.000-07:00

One of the most difficult elements of the Passover story for me has always been the ten plagues. As a child I was terrified at the description of a God who would administer such suffering. As I studied the mystical interpretations of these events I found a deeper meaning that has helped me hold these archetypal elements in a way that brings me closer to spirit.

The world was created with ten Divine statements.
The ten statements of creation brought the world into being
in a manner in which the energy of spirit
that maintains its existence
was hidden.
The ten plagues were actually ten lessons
that sought to break through
the veils of concealment
and allow for
the revelation
of that
Divine power
to enter our consciousness
through the giving of
the Ten Commandments,
the Ten Precepts.
-Rabbi Yehudah Arieh Leib of Gur.

According to this mystical interpretation, each lesson or plague shattered an illusion of human power over nature and of the powers of idolized gods, thus revealing that there was a single Divine force at work in the world. Once all ten lessons occurred, the human ego (Pharaoh) surrendered its control to the higher Self (Moses) and the rest of the human psyche (the children of Israel) so that the mind and heart of each person who was to receive the Ten Precepts would be open to receiving them.

This process was created by the Divine to establish a profound experience for humanity to aid in the awakening of the Divine self within all beings. It was a symbolic and a literal example of Divine principles at work within the individual, collective, and unitive heart and mind. To this end, the Divine led the children of Israel, the Awakening Self, into the land of bondage/narrowness (Egypt/Mitzrayim) with the intention of freeing them by means of the Ten Lessons.

And the Divine “…hardened Pharaoh’s heart in order to have the opportunity to display many miraculous signs and wonders in the land of narrowness;” (Exodus 7:3) proving the existence of the one true Source of Life and shattering the belief in false gods and human powers.

These are the Ten Lessons
that the Divine
brought upon the land of Mitzrayim,

the consciousness of narrowness;
each lesson revealing
a Divine aspect
of creation:

Lesson/Plague (Hebrew)	Lesson/Plague (English)	Represented Divine Aspects of Creation
Dom	Blood	All sustenance comes from the Divine
Tzifardeyah	Frogs	All support comes from the Divine
Keenim	Lice	All integrity comes from the Divine
Arov	Wild Beasts	All endurance comes from the Divine
Dever	Pestilence	All beauty comes from the Divine
Shicheen	Boils	All justice comes from the Divine
Barahd	Hail	All mercy comes from the Divine
Arbeh	Locusts	All understanding comes from the Divine
Choshech	Darkness	All wisdom comes from the Divine
Makat Bichorot	Death of Firstborn	All life and death comes from the Divine

REFERENCES

Buber, M. (1947). Ten Rungs. New York: Citadel Press.

Kaplan, M. A. (2003). A Mystical Passover: A Transformational Passover Haggadah. Pacific Grove, CA: Original Gravity.

Touger, E. (1988). The Chassidic Haggadah. New York: Moznaim Publishing.

*Image: The Ten Plagues

*Originally published on KabbalahBlog hosted by Enlightenment.com

Season of Liberation

2006-04-04T12:47:00.000-07:00

The Jewish holiday of Passover (Pesach) is approaching. As part of my personal journey of healing, studies, and return to the Judaic path, I have explored the meaning, purpose, and practices of this important holiday through a process of spiritual exegesis. This process consisted of a radical interpretation of the Passover rituals and prayers into a language and process that resonated with my own heart while also attempting to honor the heart of Judaism itself. Through this technique I endeavored to heal old wounds and purge myself of the obstacles between the Divine and myself in relation to this important Judaic ritual of liberation.

There are three basic levels of text interpretation in the Jewish tradition: Literal-Biblical, Theoretical-Talmudic, and Mystical-Kabbalistic (Fishbane, 1998; Kenton, 1980). Literal-Biblical text interpretation includes the historical, biblical and narrative levels of the material. Theoretical-Talmudic text interpretation consists of the extrapolation of the philosophical, ethical, moral and religious doctrines, laws and teachings that are woven into the fabric of the written material. Mystical-Kabbalistic text interpretation seeks to unearth the hidden and concealed metaphysical teachings buried in the text.

On the literal level of interpretation, Passover is a ritualistic retelling of the story of a historical biblical event, the Israelites’ liberation from bondage in Egypt. On the theoretical level, the story and rituals of Passover have many philosophical, ethical, moral and religious lessons to teach us about human behavior and the human endeavor to live according to the teachings of the religion of Judaism. Traditionally, the rituals of Passover, including the Passover Seder, tend to focus on these two levels of interpretation and understanding.

In the Jewish mystical tradition, Passover can also be seen as a powerful vehicle for personal and communal psycho-spiritual development. From the Mystical-Kabbalistic perspective, the Passover story of a people being freed from the bondage of slavery is transformed into a road map for how an individual can be freed from the bondage of limited consciousness (Kenton, 1980); the land of Egypt becomes the realm of narrowness of body and mind, and Moses becomes the Higher Self being called upon by the Divine to free all the different voices of the psyche (the children of Israel, the Awakening Self) from the bondage of the ego (Pharaoh).

This mystical level of interpretation became my pathway through the metaphysical gates of these ancient and sacred rites of inner and outer freedom, leading me to the discovery a personally transformative psycho-spiritual Passover experience. The final product of this endeavor was the creation of a Mystical Passover handbook or Haggadah (Kaplan, 2003) which I now use ever year at this time.

REFERENCES

Fishbane, M. (1998). The Exegetical Imagination: On Jewish Thought and Theology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Kaplan, M. A. (2003). A Mystical Passover: A Transformational Passover Haggadah. Pacific Grove, CA: Original Gravity.

Kenton, W. (1980). Kabbalah and Exodus. York Beach, ME: Samuel Weiser, Inc.

*Image: Mystical Sedar Plate revealing the inner dimensions of the physical symbols.

*Originally published on KabbalahBlog hosted by Enlightenment.com

Transpersonal Dimensions of the Cinema

2006-03-01T12:32:00.000-08:00

Announcing the publication of…

Transpersonal Dimensions of the Cinema

By Mark Allan Kaplan, Ph.D.

ABSTRACT: Transpersonal dimensions of the cinematic art form are explored, including transpersonal elements inherent in the nature of the cinematic medium; transpersonal influences on cinematic content, structure, and style; and potential transpersonal effects of the cinematic experience. A preliminary classification of transpersonal cinematic effects indicates potential synchronization effects between constructed cinematic reality and various aspects of creator/viewer realities. Personal filmmaker observations and a review of theoretical, empirical, anecdotal, and historical sources suggests that the transpersonal or boundary-transcending nature and capacities of the cinematic medium make it a potentially powerful and valuable tool for the mediation of transpersonal experience and perception.

Published in The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 2005, Volume 37, Number 1, Pages 9-22.

View and Download the Complete Article at: http://www.markallankaplan.com/text/tpcinema.htm