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Hello Friends,
Integral Institute, from its inception, has gone through several phases. The first, which was exploratory, involved bringing together some 400 of the world's leading integral thinkers for a series of landmark meetings and dialogues. These were fluidly organized around thirteen general branches of I-I such as integral psychology, integral business, integral politics, integral ecology, integral art, integral law, integral education, integral medicine, and integral spirituality. (See About Us, History for further details.)
These meetings were very important in allowing us, as it were, to take the world's integral pulse. In fact, we often had the branches rate the success of various integral attempts in their own fields. The sad conclusion: the existing approaches to integral studies never received a grade higher than a "D"—and this from the most respected authorities in the fields themselves.
Given this dismal consensus, we began to switch our focus from conferences, meetings, and dialogues (which merely shared the present dismal methods), and moved in the direction of trying to find ways to create and produce genuinely integral approaches in the various areas of human activity.
We realized that the field of integral studies would continue to make little progress unless we could create a series of carefully crafted works outlining a persuasive integral approach to these various fields, not as the final word or the last word on the topic but as the opening word, or the beginning of a series of dialogues that would have traction in moving the field forward.
By far the most effective means that we found were the creation of numerous core teams in the various branches. These teams were composed of anywhere from 5 to 12 highly qualified members of I-I, who were charged with creating practices and services that would best advance an integral approach in their particular fields, such as integral business, integral ecology, integral psychotherapy, integral law, integral education, integral medicine, integral spirituality, integral leadership, and so on.
Having set several of these core teams in motion, I-I went into a relatively low-profile period. We expected that it would be several years before these teams began producing "integral products and services"—such as books, articles, multimedia presentations, field-tested consulting services, tools for personal transformation, and so on.
However, what is so exciting is that several of these teams are now at a point where they can begin to share their pioneering results with others who are interested in bringing a truly integral approach to their particular fields.
Numerous core team members will be joining other members, friends, and associates of Integral Institute to offer a series of public programs and services meant to make the Integral approach available to those who are interested. For example, Integral Institute will be presenting a variety of:
- integral seminars and salons
- integral training programs at various levels
- integral consulting services
- certificates of learning
- integral conferences
- co-sponsored presentations with the world's leading authorities in integral approaches
- the creation of communities of integral practice around the world
At this time, Integral Institute is offering Integral Consulting Services, various forms of Integral Training, and a variety of Volunteer/Funding possibilities (Join Us). Please see those sections for details on these leading-edge programs.
Finally, and most exciting, Integral Institute is set to launch Integral University, the world’s first Integral Learning Community. We have entered into a partnership with Aesthetic Technologies to create an interlinked network of over 20 websites all devoted to Integral Theory and Practice. Integral University is proud to announce that over two thousand pages of original material has been written by the finest integral scholars in the world, all of which will be publicly available with the launch of IU.
Please see Integral University for more information on this history-making endeavor—and for ways that you can become involved in this project right now.
In the meantime, please see Integral Naked for a humorous—but also serious—glimpse of the types of dialogues that are now occurring around Integral University.
For late-breaking news on all of the above activities, please see Bulletin Board.
The Integral Adventure is about to begin. Care to join us?
Ken Wilber
President
Integral Institute
Next section: History
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Letter from the President
