Well, my post-ISE high has spilled over into a bit of a creative obsession for the past week, the fruits of which i am so happy to share with you all!

Empty Spaces: an 80-minute musical meditation on silence, featuring Sally Kempton, Alan Watts, Alex Grey, and Ken Wilber.

This is what my Dark Night of the Soul sounds like.  I hope you enjoy.

Right click to download audio

Duration: 80 minutes (192 MB)

TRACK LIST

IMPORTANT: By offering these songs for free in my dj mix, i am in no way suggesting that this be a replacement for purchasing these tracks yourself and adding to your own personal music libraries.  PLEASE SUPPORT THESE ARTISTS by purchasing any of the songs that you have enjoyed in the Empty Spaces mix.  For your convenience, most of these songs can be bought in iTunes by clicking the links below.

Thunupa – Bill Laswell
Experience the Nature of Thoughts – Sally Kempton
Mantra – Material
Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows – The Beatles
To Know That You Are God – Alan Watts
Raghupati – Bhagavan Das and Mike D.
Ghost Dance – Tomahawk
Roads – Portishead
Weathered Stone – Aphex Twin
Integral Spiritual Experience Meditation – Sally Kempton
Who Am I? – Peace Orchestra
Locomotion – Plastikman
Dark Night of the Soul – David Lynch and Danger Mouse
Empty Spaces – Pink Floyd
Farewell Ferengistan – Banco De Gaia
Best Mamgu Ever – Underworld
Everpresent – Ken Wilber (TSO)
Cat People – Cujo (Amon Tobin)
The Vast Expanse – Alex Grey
Final Home (Piano Mix) – DJ Krush & Esthero
DLZ – TV on the Radio
National Anthem – Radiohead
Lonely Soul – U.N.K.L.E.
Complications of the Flesh – Nine Inch Nails
10 Ghosts II – Nine Inch Nails
Sala – Tosca
The Ultimate Experiment – Ken Wilber
Splitting the Atom – Massive Attack
Banged and Blown Through – Saul Williams
Get Innocuous! – LCD Soundsystem
Blood on the Motorway – DJ Shadow
Good Vibrations – Brian Wilson

With so much end-of-the-world hype spreading through our digital nervous system—especially in the wake of the new film 2012 (which i have not seen yet, but would like to….)—i thought i would compile a few clips from the Integral Life archives that offer Ken Wilber’s own perspective about 2012, the apocalypse, and the future of civilization as a whole.  All these clips are available for free.

Also, be sure to check out InformationIsBeautiful’s gorgeous info-graphic separating 2012 facts from fiction. Link.

Is the Future Spinning Out of Control?

“Is everything spinning out of control?” asked an Associated Press article in Summer 2008. Between rising flood waters in the Midwest, drowning polar bears in the far North, skyrocketing gas prices, plummeting home values, and endless wars on multiple fronts, the future does not seem to be living up to its promise—a promise envisioned since the détente of the Cold War and the proclamation of George H.W. Bush’s “New World Order.” From an Integral altitude, what can we make of the future?

The Ever-Nearing Apocalypse

Each altitude sees the apocalypse differently: Magenta is awaiting the return of Quetzalcoatl and the completion of the “long cycle” of the ancient Mayan calender. Red is currently stocking ammunition and digging bunkers in Montana. Amber is eagerly anticipating the Rapture just before the arrival of the Four Horsemen. Orange prognosticates a very gloomy future after the total collapse of the global economy. While Green just hopes we make it to 2012 before we all boil alive in our own atmosphere.

Are we facing the inevitable end of everything? Or are we experiencing an entirely new set of global life conditions which—painful and chaotic as they are—will nonetheless lead to a more sane and integral future? Repent, the Beginning is near!!!

2012, the Aquarian Age, and the Nature of Evolution

From the Mayan prophecies of 2012 to the Aquarian Age, ever since the sixties many of us have felt that something big is about to happen in human consciousness—indeed, in human history—and that we are lucky enough to be a part of that monumental transformation. So what’s going on here? Is this simply the narcissistic fantasy of our time, or are we truly fortunate enough to be participating in the culmination of 15 billion years of evolution? As might be expected, the truth seems to be somewhere in the middle: no, we are not going to “go up in light” any day now—but the evolving universe has become conscious of itself, and it’s only through the precious human vehicle that this understanding is realized—that is, if we survive long enough to engage the glorious possibilities before us. As with any evolutionary step forward, the promise of the good to come is weighed against the new terrors hidden in this nascent power. Ken goes on to discuss his work-in-progress, The Many Faces of Terrorism, and how, with the advancement of pluralistic values on a global scale, and the implementation of worldwide one-person-one-vote electronic democracy, only 50% of the population may survive this brave new world….

I have been looking forward to this week’s launch for a long time, eagerly awaiting the opportunity to invite you to check out a new monthly installment here on Integral Life: the debut of the Integral Life Art Gallery.  As many of you already know, art, creativity, and aesthetics have always been an essential part of an integrally-lived life. In fact, the very existence of a genuinely transformative Integral Art scene is one of the greatest indicators that we are indeed part of a bonafide cultural movement, as we have often looked to our greatest artists to scout out the unfamiliar territory ahead of us, blazing new paths through the wilderness of consciousness.

We have been working very hard to find a way to present the extraordinary talent shared by the Integral Art community here on Integral Life, and I believe we have achieved exactly this. I am very proud and excited to invite you all to check it out.

Our debut gallery features the work of Bryce Widom, an accomplished painter, designer, and illustrator as well as a beloved part of the Boulder/Denver integral community. His gallery is titled 1000 Views of God, and I am sure you will find it as breathtaking as I did.

“By painting 1000 Views of God, I’m consciously marrying my work as an artist with my spiritual path. Each painting becomes a meditation, a prayer, a moment of turning all my attention toward the divine with an open body, mind, and heart.

In this exploration, no subject is off-limits, for there is no limit to the domain of the divine. This includes both the “shadow” terrain of my inner landscape, as well as the brightest aspects of Spirit.” -Bryce Widom

And be sure to check out Bryce’s exclusive interview with Stuart Davis, The Life of an Artist: Fantasies, Realities, and a Thousand Views of God, in which you can find insight into his creative process and some of his own personal struggles eking out a living as an artist.

Of course, there is much more to the Integral Art experience than just sitting back and taking it all in. We are more than just idle consumers of art—we are also the enactors of art, co-conspirators in Beauty’s unveiling. Our interpretations of beauty are therefore at least as important as our actual perception of beauty, and certainly indivisible from the whole of our experience. As such, we want to give you the tools needed to help you more deeply perceive and interpret the beauty that surrounds you.

Which is why we are also excited to introduce you to our new Aesthetics Editor, Dr. Michael Schwartz, Professor of the Philosophy of Art at Augusta State University. Michael will offer some very special commentary for each of our monthly art galleries, as you will see in 1000 Views of God.

So you can get to know Michael a little better, we have also included an interview between he and Stuart Davis, The Complementary Dance of Art and Economics, originally recorded in 2005. Whether you’re an artist or not, we invite you to listen in on the ways we can all bring a more comprehensive, integral, balanced approach to life as a human being. And balanced doesn’t mean boring—you can rock the boat all the more wildly, because you’re aware of all the things keeping you afloat.

We have also included Ken Wilber’s masterful essay Integral Art and Literary Theory—a pièce de résistance in its own right—in which he walks us through his integral process of art interpretation and takes an in-depth look at a famous painting by Van Gogh of a pair of worn shoes.

Download PDF      Read online

I titled this letter “The Rebirth of Cool” because that is exactly what this week’s offerings strive for. This is Integral Cool. These are the perspectives at the forefront of the new avant-garde, pushing deeper into new possibilities and new expressions of creative novelty, forging the sounds and visions of the Integral movement with every brushstroke, every melody, and every written word.

After all, an evolution without dancing (or painting, or acting, or writing, or performing) is an evolution not worth having.

Special thanks to Angie Hinickle for her exquisite work creating the new Integral Life Art Gallery.

Call For Submissions: If you would like your own art to be considered for a future Integral Life Art Gallery, please submit samples of your work as well as a brief description of how the Integral vision has informed your process to Angie at art@integrallife.com

Previously:

I am starting a new internet meme. I’m calling it LOLsaints LOLsages. Here’s the first installation:

*I’ve been informed that LOLsaints has already been taken. Damn my impulsive lust for novelty; i didn’t do my homework first.

NOTE: LOLsages is inspired by LOLcats, and essentially represents a post-post-modern mashup of the incredibly brilliant and the incredibly stupid.  If you are not already familiar with the LOLcats phenomenon, i suggest that you try googling the term.  Or you can simply refer to the cartoon below, which sums it up pretty well.

In this piece I will outline two concepts that lie at the core of the religious, spiritual, and mystical dialogue: the notion of “vertical development” through the major stages of consciousness studied by the world’s great developmental psychologists, and of “horizontal development” through the major states of consciousness that are found in virtually all the world’s religious traditions.  States and stages, fullness and freedom, human and divine—these are the two axes of personal and spiritual development, two vectors of human potential that intersect deep in our hearts, tracing an outline of Christianity’s most sacred symbol with each and every breath.

Here we will explore this notion of states and stages of consciousness by taking a closer look at two of the world’s foremost Christian thinkers, theologian James Fowler and mystical writer Evelyn Underhill, exploring ways to integrate these two pioneers into a more comprehensive view of the Christian experience. Read the rest of this entry