Awakening the Core Self - Music in Action

From Lesley Stoller (see below for bio)
On June 22, 2009, we were very fortunate to have Jessica Roemischer come to town and share with us some of the work she has been doing using Music to elevate and enhance the creative proclivities of individuals, including those with a wide range of cognitive and physical challenges. At that inspiring event, I was immediately struck by the deep similarities between what Jessica does and my work at the Queens Children’s Psychiatric Center, where I teach Music to emotionally handicapped children.
Since then, Jessica and I have embarked upon a co-journey to uncover the deepest common principles which guide and underlie our work. Our different histories and perspectives enable us to view the work each in our own personal way, but we both agree there are some formal resemblances. Some of the precepts in progress are:

The ability to express and experience beauty is inherent to us all, and is unfettered by any limitation.

In expressing and experiencing beauty, we awaken to our core essence or Self.

In becoming aware of our core essence, we realize that its nature is Good, True and Beautiful.

In this way, the expression and experience of Music is powerful in its effect, connecting us to our inner pathways of vibrancy, healing and growth.

On Monday, November 23, Jessica and I will be co-facilitating an evening workshop at which you will be invited to participate in the unfolding of some of this ongoing craft. We will discuss the Integral nuances of our work, and you will have an opportunity to explore and express your own core non-verbal sense of beauty and form through guided music exercises. We will also be sharing brief illustrative musical performances, and some reflection to evoke a powerful, first-hand experience of Beauty as a primary value inherent to Life and our essential Self.

Help us uncover these principles, and enjoy an evening of experiencing and expanding your own personal creative identity.

Best wishes to all, and Jessica and I hope to see you!
Lesley Stoller

Pianist, educator and Integral thinker, Jessica Roemischer graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University and has taught and performed internationally for nearly three decades. Her pedagogical lineage links directly to Frederic Chopin and Ludwig van Beethoven. Jessica’s eclectic background includes lecturing and writing on aesthetics, culture, visual arts, spirituality, and social change. A former Senior Editor of What is Enlightenment? Magazine, she produced the seminal article on Spiral Dynamics, which Dr. Don Beck called, “the single most powerful piece in the history of the Spiral Dynamics movement.” Jessica is using music and aesthetics to awaken us to an evolutionary perspective on the human experience. She is training a new generation of musicians, including those whom she instructs at Riverbrook Residence for Women. Jessica Roemischer resides in Stockbridge, MA.
Educator, songwriter and musician, Lesley Stoller teaches music for The New York City Department of Education, PS 23, at Queens Children’s Psychiatric Center . He is a permanent member of the BMI/Lehman Engel Advanced Musical Theatre Workshop in NYC, and has recently completed the book, music, and lyrics for The Talking Cure, a new musical, about the origins of Psychoanalysis. From 2002 – 2005, Mr. Stoller was the resident Composer and Musical Director for the Night Kitchen Radio Theatre, founded by Arthur Yorinks and Maurice Sendak where he was thrilled to conduct his original score for Mr. Yorinks’s Radio adaptation of The Emperor’s New Clothes at The Kennedy Center in Washington DC. Lesley’s Rock ‘n’ Roll band – Whitman Lee – is recording a new album, expanding upon original songs performed live at The Parkside Lounge ’06 -‘08. Mr. Stoller has recently begun attending classes at the Center for Modern Psychoanalytical Studies, and is a joyful contributor and friend to the NYC Integral Community.

Please join us for Part II of our Sex in the Integral Age series:

The Good: It feels good, but is it really Good?

Last month, we mapped human sexuality through the lenses of Wilber’s quadrants. In each quadrant, questions emerged that remained unresolved: (UL) What is love? (UR) What function does female orgasm serve? (LL) Why have all cultures been obsessed with sexual behavior? (LR) What causes our clumsiness and anxiety when expressing our sexual nature and responding to others’ sexual nature? In this second session, we will nonetheless proceed with the next step of our exploration: an inquiry into the morality of sex.
When it comes to sexual morals, we all have values and excellent reasons—personal and cultural—to back these values up. Tonight, we invite you to set your preconceptions aside, as best you can. Together, let us generate a new context within which to reflect on sexual morals.

When one explores moral values, one is immediately confronted by a serious difficulty: Unlike physical objects whose properties can be determined objectively and impartially, what makes one moral system “better” than another? Is monogamy better than polygamy? Why? Is faithfulness better than philandering? Again, why? How can one be sure? We are then facing another "inconvenient truth": When viewed from its own cultural context and worldview, every moral system is valid, even though it may appear immoral from a different perspective.
How can we debate the value of moral tenets without being moralistic (blue meme), sinking into extreme relativism (green meme), and/or being trapped in our own cultural model in general? Consider the possibility that every moral system is consistent with, and motivated by underlying intentions. What underlying intentions do religions have with regard to sexual morals? What underlies the perspective of men or women on sex? What intentions underlie YOUR sexual morals? Let us include that in our discussion and see if we can now understand the disconcerting multiplicity of moral views better.
On that note, let the games begin…

Recommended Resources:
Wilber's video: Integral Sex: The Erogenous Zones of Life, Light, and Emptiness
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=1327955
also on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhvMSlirh5k

Chimpanzees exchange meat for sex
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7988169.stm

Series Description:

Sex in the Integral Age

How can we initiate an authentic and ongoing discourse on the topic of human sexuality?

Our exploration of human sexuality will extend over three sessions, each one with a particular theme and unique intention. The first one will be dedicated to the True, or the objective reality of sex; the second to the Good, the intersubjective world of morals and shared beliefs; and the last one to the Beautiful, the inner realm of individual expression and creativity.
This progression from the True to the Good and the Beautiful is also recapitulated through the IT, WE, and I perspectives. In addition, we can look at sexuality through the lens of "far," "near," and "here." Our intention is to get closer and closer to the individual’s sexual consciousness BUT ONLY after having understood how each person’s experience is effected by and dependent upon the larger context in which it arises.

We would like to invite you to join us in opening that dialogue, sharing an unusual exploration into the world of sex, Integrally informed. Let us approach this topic with humility, acknowledging that we are still grappling with sexuality and have more questions than answers.

Facilitators: Gilles and Robin

P.S. For a full description of this special series, please feel free to check out the announcement that was posted to our message board: http://kenwilber.meetup.com/58/messages/boards/thread/7750874

Sex in the Integral Age

For the first part of our ongoing series, we are pleased to present:

Part I - The True: Sex in Four Dimensions

Synopsis of Event:

We would like to invite you to join us in an integrally-informed exploration into the world of sex. As promised, our first session will be dedicated to the TRUTH OF SEX, from an integral perspective. We like to say that phenomena tetra-arise, but when it comes to sex what does that mean? What is the CONTEXT in which sexual feelings and behavior occur? Keep the AQAL map in mind and ask yourself, what is sex? What do you know about it? What don't you know about it? Map it.

What are the dynamics involved in sex? Reproduction is obviously one aspect of sexuality. There are many others in addition. When you have sex, think about sex, or organize it, what energies animate your body, mind, and soul? Map them.

In our first meeting, we will work together to begin building a map that can serve as a backdrop to the following two explorative sessions. Please keep in mind that the morality of sex and the potential that it represents for the individual will be discussed in depth in the follow up sessions. Let us begin by looking at the largest context in session one. We are fortunate enough to have three sessions at our disposal, let us use them wisely.

It is time for the New York integral community to acknowledge its existence as a think tank. And if indeed we are a space of creative thinking to be reckoned with, let us prove it once more.

Integrally yours,
Gilles and Robin

Rocky, Spocky…. and Kermit !?!

In a recent NY Times Op Ed piece, Maureen Dowd declared that Obama is so “wrapped up in his desire to be a different, more conciliatory, beer-summit kind of leader, he ignores some verities” such as instilling fear in one’s opponents – or recognizing that civil discourse is fine, but when the other side is fighting dirty, you should get angry. Another strategist complained that Obama should be more bold in his leadership, or as Dowd puts it, a “little less Spocky and more Rocky.”

But what would an integral warrior look like in a world that is becoming increasingly polarized and one that is characterized by fear and the feeling that fundamental needs and cherished values are not being met? Even within our own personal spheres, we’re often times confronted by rebellious teenagers, fundamentalists, radical conservatives, greedy corporate types, militant atheists and even new-age idealists – each intent on championing their own particular worldview.

Previously we discussed the importance of using skillful means as a tool to bridge the gap between the unhealthy expressions of each of the vMemes, but tonight we’ll revisit this topic with the goal of looking below the many surface structures that exist and we’ll attempt to identify the underlying meanings that serve to co-create individual personal identities and their associated value systems. We’ll also engage in a short experiential exercise intended to unlock the mystery of the “other” and to hopefully gain a felt-sense of his or her first-person experience.

The challenge for us as a group however, will be to find a way to cultivate compassion for individuals who have the greatest potential to trigger us, while at the same time recognize that the ability to hold multiple perspectives may diminish the potency of our own personal convictions. Thus, part of our journey together will include an examination of healthy and unhealthy aspects of each of the vMemes and their potential to represent un-integrated aspects of our own self-constructs.

NY Times source:
Less Spocky, More Rocky
By Maureen Dowd
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/09/opinion/09dowd.html

Presenting FQFM - The Four Quadrants, Full Monty
An invitation to explore embodied multi-perspective taking with Dylan Newcomb

Dear Friends,
As an integral enthusiast, I’ve always been deeply inspired by the Quadrants, arguably the keystone of the AQAL model. However out of all the ‘perspectival breakthroughs’ that Integral brings, the most dramatic stories I hear center on this simple matrix of Individual/Collective crossed with Internal/External.

Wilber’s brilliant little grid creates new space in our lives where Subjectivity and Objectivity can do a sexy little dance together instead of cowering insecurely in their own corners. Now Agency and Communion can support and challenge each other instead of deciding whether to dance a big solo or just keep in line.

When the Beauty, Truth and Goodness of what Wilber’s Quadrants proposes really hits us, we suddenly realize we don’t have to take sides anymore. Within this worldview we can finally relax. The war is over and we find ourselves blissing out on brand new alpha waves of perspectival equilibrium. Eventually however, in this new tetra-dimensional territory of breathable boundaries, it starts to creep up on us just how large the implications of this all are for our own unrealized potential! As our Subjectivity and Objectivity begin to ache for deeper communion, a new adventure in consciousness begins.

Some things come into our lives as a calling and we know we must answer. I knew I had to bring this new way of inter-relating different perspectives as deeply as possible into my life as a composer and choreographer. About six years ago, I first took my photocopy of Wilber’s quadrants into the dance studio. What started then as a somewhat vague and open inquiry gradually expanded into a fulltime obsession with embodied perspective-taking and the artistic process. I began to explore it with more and more dancers and musicians, and the sheer clarity and power of the quadrant approach to art quickly spread through Holland. Here was something we artists could really use! Six years later, there are three graduated classes of composers and choreographers who excitedly ‘speak in quadrants’ in Amsterdam cafés as they reflect on their process, clarify their motivations and intentions, and collaborate together in a common language of holons!

The utterly essential nature of holons indeed forms a language we can all deeply relate to – or not. The not so insignificant challenge here is of course in finding an ‘integral translation’ that is robustly specific to our own particulars. As I repeatedly witness the new possibilities that open up for people when they learn to embody the Quadrants in a context truly relevant to their own life, my passion for sharing and catalyzing transformation through the embodiment of the Quadrants continues to grow. I’m grateful for the opportunity to share my passion with the members of iNYCs on Monday August 3rd.

I look forward to meeting you there.

Please RSVP at http://kenwilber.meetup.com/58/calendar/10560776/

Warmest regards,

Dylan