This is to do what a few pioneering souls have started to do, to bring these two paths of ‘integral’ and ‘evolutionary’ together, and say; “I am an Integral Evolutionary”.

We are actively seeking to usher in the ‘Integral Age’ of consciousness, whereby more and more of us can take perspectives on life that go beyond the cultural differences and ‘transcend and include’ them, for a better world based on a deeper and more caring worldview.

I’m pretty sure there’s going to be more on this in the coming weeks and beyond.  In fact, my mind is already whirring over the idea of a second Whole Life Whole World (free) email newsletter/sign-up for those who wish to consider themselves ‘Integral Evolutionaries’. 

For the moment, though, if you have a deeper inclination to be part of something bigger, for the whole, you might like to watch the following video, which will open into a new window from the link below.

• Integral Life Exclusive Video – Ken Wilber on Transforming the World

Kind regards and best wishes all,

James Blacker

From memory, almost the only area of slightly differing views came almost at the end, with a few variations on the theme around the nature of compassion and unconditional love.

Terry defined the essence of basic human compassion and stated his own wish not to wish to have any interest in any philosophy or spirituality that wanted to be without such a thing.

“Everyone’s got a story that will break your heart.” – Terry Patten

In the same mini-dialogue, Chris stated that he and his wife were not interested in each other’s egos, (and his wife was there to confirm this, too), but I don’t think this necessarily precludes compassion or unconditional love.

Later, I recorded a quick interview for EnlightenNext and was asked about the evening’s discussions and made the point that this is two people – at a relatively high or deep personal orientation – who simply don’t wish to support each other’s victim mentalities – which is what ego is.  Which I can understand, that makes a lot of sense.  I myself also have a clear value that I never wish to support anyone’s victim mentality either – and never will.  If people are doing the best they can with their life’s situation, or with their ego, though, I do have full compassion for them.  In Integral Theory we know how hard it is to reach awareness as the transpersonal or trans-egoic stages – of over 20,000 personal transformation methodologies studied, only one, meditation, has as yet been shown to help people up stages vertically, and that at an average of four years for approximately two vertical developmental stages.

“A leader is someone who helps people replace disempowering beliefs with empowering beliefs.” – Tony Robbins

So when asked if this was therefore contextual – that the context was relevant - then I replied yes, as I believe is always the case in integral theory, context is everything.

This is a question I want to give more thought to over the coming days, to clarify an exact, and ‘ideal’ definition of and approach to unconditional love.  Certainly, I agree with and stand by the notions and principles of unconditional love and freedom to give.

Note also though, that you can have conditional ‘appreciation’ – I may like someone specifically because of a depth or quality they have.  For example, for that reason I might only want to enter into a relationship with someone who has a worldcentric (at least) orientation of care and ethics – but even so I still can love (accept) unconditionally all those who don’t.

So it was an exciting first dialogue on the road to Evolutionary + Integral…  and I had the great pleasure to meet Terry as well, as he joined us for an informal chat afterwards with quite a few of us from our (London) Integral Life Practice Group present.

Best wishes,

James Blacker

PS.  I’ve also just come across this wonderful article which was written recently by someone who also attended the event at EnlightenNext last evening – very well worth a read…

• Emergence or Emergency?

Related Links

• EnlightenNext London
• Terry Patten’s The Integral Heart Website

There’s an event on at London’s EnlightenNext this sunday evening – a dialogue between EnlightenNext London’s Director, Chris Parish, and Integral exponent, Terry Patten – which I think will open the doorway to a broad and, pardon the pun, more ‘integral’ evolutionary effort.  I’m very much excited to see what develops from it, Gary has also picked up on the news very quickly, already having emailed his other newsgroup about the event, and I’m sure both he and I are aware of how useful this conversation may be in accelerating the intellectual and theoretical unification of these two most heartfelt spiritual perspectives, which is something I have been thinking for a while now is the next crux decision or step forward in our global collective effort. 

• Evolutionary V’s Integral (Sunday 30th May 2010) by Gary Hawke
• More information about the evening
• Click here to book a place for this event
• Click here to book to listen live via webcast

For my view, I agree with Chris, that a person is not likely to be one without being the other.  In fact, for my part, I do not see them as separate things but one overall approach.  Perhaps the distinction is that one, ‘integral’, is a framework, whereas evolutionary enlightenment is an active movement.  That I see the importance and value of both is why I founded Whole Life Whole World specifically as an integral wisdom movement.

“Yes, I know the title says “versus”, but it’s not really like that. I’m looking forward to the dialogue I’m going to have with my good friend Terry Patten, since this subject is one of those ones which keeps popping up.” – Chris Parish

The event will be a live discussion at EnlightenNext London’s centre in Islington, North London, price per head £10.00.  It is also possible to follow the dialogue from anywhere around the world via a webcast option.

We look forward to see what comes of this evening discussion with great anticipation.

Best wishes, and if you’re going live I may very well see you there…

James Blacker

'Meetings without Masks over-delivers in a big way.'

I spent my Sunday yesterday sampling the experience of our new friend and colleague, Jan Day’s, ‘Meetings without Masks’ – ‘Naked Dating’ event.  And whilst I was expecting good things from Jan’s event, based on my intuition and sense that she had a little more expertise than the usual, she still managed to over-deliver.  It’s also left me even more excited about the possibility of working with her through Whole Life Whole World.

The basic ‘layout’ of the day is that you take a group of men and women in equal numbers, 24 in our case, 12 of each, of around I’d say perhaps 30 – 60 years of age, all single, and looking for something a bit more than the superficial.  Then the day itself is a very creative and varied mix of exercises which get the individual and collective human essences going, and allow the various personalities to connect as they wish…

“The surroundings of the venue were beautiful, too, with great food and a spacious and comfortable reception room in addition to the relaxed and easy gathering hall itself. So the location itself was also first class.”

The challenge I have now is that I want to describe it all to you to give you a feel of it’s energy and intrigue, whilst at the same time I don’t want to spoil it all for you if you want to go along to one of them yourself.

I should say also, that the notion of ‘Naked Dating’ is a metaphor, not a literal.  We all kept our clothes on throughout the day.

Just like a castle, our 'walls' also keep the good out. So how do we solve this? Meetings without Masks can help with the answer.

The underlying principle, though, is that in life we all go around with ‘masks’ on, projecting a persona of ourselves that is designed by our psyche to keep us safe, emotionally and psychologically speaking, but at the same time the barrier or shield that it projects keeps us from reaching out or ever really connecting with others.

In short, like the walls of a castle, what keeps the scary out, also keeps the good out, and facilitators such as Jan are well schooled in the art of unlocking this ‘Catch-22′ situation – very creatively, and most importantly for a lot of people, safely.

“By the lunch-time break I was describing it as ‘Speed Dating with Brains’.”

We all experienced a feast of positive connections and self and life-affirming reminders of our true natures during the course of the day.  By my best senses, everyone had a thoroughly fulfilling time and were glad they had gone.  There were a lot of beaming smiles, and clearly a lot of people who got something quite unique and original from the day.

By six o’clock we were communicating and conversing as a group of people, almost with the consciousness of a team of ten years of knowing each other, who you would never have guessed were all strangers at the start of the day – all credit to Jan for the ability to lead us to manifesting that less limited expression.

At Meetings without Masks you never know who you might meet or where it might lead.

People who started uncertain, and slightly tentatively, soon came a bit more out of themselves, and showed their uniqueness.  And as is often the case, there’s almost a sense of sadness at the end of such a day that the connection of the group has to come to an end. 

And as for the question, ‘did anyone make any romantic partnerships?’, well, that’s not for me to know.

You may say, ‘well why don’t you do a ‘warts ‘n all’ review of the event?’, and actually I am…  There were no downsides or negatives to report.  No errors made and no faults to be found.

If you’re single and looking for a more meaningful connection, the answer to the question, “would I recommend you to attend a Meetings without Masks day”, is an unequivocal ‘Yes’.

You can find out more about Jan Day’s ‘Meetings without Masks’ via the information and links provided below.

There will / may also be more information and further audio telephone testimonials and interviews from some of the participants who volunteered to share their thoughts on the day with others.

Best wishes, and thanks to Jan and everyone who participated in the day for a thoroughly warm and enriching communion.

James Blacker

Coming Soon…

We’ll keep you informed and updated on this page, and through our newsletter, about any new projects, connections or web areas that we develop with Jan.

Related Links

• Meetings without Masks.com
• Jan Day.com

'We have reached the stage where our successes and failures have produced problems that we simply cannot solve, in the old Einsteinian sense, at the same level that they were created.'

Our colleagues at The Centre for Human Emergence (UK) are announcing a special event date for next Monday, the 22nd March, 7.00pm to 8:30pm.

One of the developmental leaders at the forefront of social and global dynamics is coming to London next week to give a presentation at Alternatives at St. James’s Church in Piccadilly.

About Dr Beck

For more than three decades, Dr Don Beck has been the leading advocate of spiral dynamics and has used this approach to remarkable effect, working with leaders of South Africa - including Nelson Mandela, Iceland and Great Britain, and for peace with the Israel-Palestine conflict.

For more information, follow the link below;

• Don Beck’s visit to London on March 22nd, 2010

“The opportunity to see Don is particularly special for those who have not yet heard him present or are new to SDi.” – Jon Freeman, CHE (UK)

About CHE (UK)

“CHE-UK is about serving societal innovation by developing individuals, organizations and communities in the UK; our purpose is to use the insights and technology of Spiral Dynamics integral and Meshworking to facilitate the re-creation of the UK from the ground up and to catalyse and crystallise action for our planetary transformation into holistic evolutionary consciousness.”

Our colleague, Gary Hawke, has also seen Don and studied to qualify in his Spiral Dynamics model, and I know Don is strongly recommended and world-renowned, so this is a great opportunity for those who live nearby or can get there.

Best wishes,

James

“What I’m trying to do is to create Heaven on Earth; and show people the way to actually do that.” – Andrew Cohen

Hi Everyone,

I’ve been asked to pass on news of one big date to tell you about.  EnlightenNext Founder, Andrew Cohen, will be hosting an Intensive in London on Saturday the 27th of March, 2010.

• Click here to open the day information PDF screen.

I attended the last of these events with Andrew, in the Autumn of 2008, and from that experience I can tell you that it’s a very real, alive and meaningful environment and gathering that you can attend and be involved in, very switched on and totally authentic, on the subject of creating a better world and making the next step.

This intensive focus is; ‘The Next Step: Cultivating New Spiritual Values for our Culture.

The venue is also the same as that which was recently used for John Christian’s evening seminar, on Relationships and The Art of Self Confidence, as that was held at EnlightenNext’s London Centre in Islington, North London – one of many they have around the world.

To book your place, telephone 0207 288 7000, and you can also visit the EnlightenNext website at;

• http://www.enlightennext.org/london/

Here’s a little taster of the kind of thing you can expect from a previous similar event.

Best wishes,

James Blacker

Related Pages

This Intensive is also part of the ongoing movement of Evolutionary Enlightenment and the evolution of consciousness which we are a dynamic and pioneering part of.  Andrew is the original founder of the notion of Evolutionary Enlightenment, and have close associations with him and his colleagues in London.

To find out a bit more about this on our own site, you can read the following;

• Creating Heaven on Earth: Increased Consciousness is Decreased Suffering
• Interior Depth: A Key to Deep Personal Fulfillment, World Famine and More

Until they do, I thought I’d post one of them here in the Blog, on living in the flow and achieving potential, a wonderfully concise clip which very nicely defines this wisdom-informed approach to life, and I strongly recommend it, as it defines a quintessential source of inner strength, and Gary puts it about as well as it can be put. 

Please click on the Play button below to listen to the audio.  Gary is speaking first.

We’ve a new audio technology set up now, so you can expect a lot more audio clips from us in the upcoming weeks and months ahead.

“The Master of Manifestation” by Peter Ragnar

PS. And two days later after having posted this, Peter Ragnar’s emailed article started with the following paragraph…

“When my friend Kevin Trudeau asked another master of manifestation how he felt about making important decisions, this billionaire replied, “I care, but not too much.” This harmonizes with what John Berry wrote, “The bird of paradise alights only upon the hand that does not grasp.” When you truly understand the art of manifestation, you realize that everything in your life is a result of flow.”

Best wishes for the weekend.

James Blacker

This particular video, of which there are many, explains how the states in which we are in are often the causes of a perceived problem in a relationship, but which may not actually have anything to do with the relationship itself – and are just about the states we are in in any given monent.  Scroll down his homepage for the video blog on ‘THE X FACTOR’.

• love.tonyrobbins.com

Enjoy!

Best wishes,

James

PS.  To give you some early news, you can now follow us on Twitter – http://twitter.com/WLWW.

We have added a toolbar of the most popular social media icons to the bottom of each page, along with useful function icons should you wish to print a page, or email the link of a page to a friend…

You can try the ’Email a friend’ option by clicking on the email icon (second from the left) - nothing will send until you see what you are doing and then you will see how easy and friendly it is to use.

You can see the row of icons below, as on every page.  These options will also be available throughout all the sub-sites of the group over the next few hours.

There are many dozens of social networking sites out there, probably many thousands, in fact, so we have added what we hope are the most popular ones, however, if you wish to request that we add your favourite we shall consider all such requests, we’ll see how it goes.

PS.  Have you checked out the new Shadow Practice site (and videos) yet?

Best wishes,

James Blacker

We have recently begun issuing Press Releases through Pressitt.com which detail some of our more significant pieces of news, and these required us to draft some company information about what we are about.

So I thought it would be helpful to put this description up here, too, for people to get a further sense of what our aim and essence is, and how you might wish to be involved in that…

Here’s the Company Information as it appears at the bottom of our Press Releases.  To view the launch Press Release, click below;

• Pressitt: Announcing The Launch of Whole Life Whole World

Company information

ABOUT WHOLE LIFE WHOLE WORLD

Whole Life Whole World is a catalyst, movement and service for personal development and global change which presents the expertise of world-class speakers in the field of health, life coaching and personal development, social and global dynamics and visionary leadership.

Based on the principles of Integral Theory, the thrust of its main two aims are a Whole Life for the individual, and a Whole World for the collective, informed by an understanding that the development of the one supports the other, and vice versa.

Thus, the aim of the organisation, ultimately, is to usher in the Integral Age, and help drive forward what is known as the evolution of consciousness to help create human harmony, positivity and wellbeing.

FURTHER INFORMATION

The majority of these resources are presented on our multi-presentation website at www.wholelifewholeworld.com.