ITPI Spring Newsletter 2015

Integral Transformative Practice International

- Spring Newsletter 2015 -

Dear Friends,

We are buzzing with excitement about Catching Fire, our 2015 ITPI Conference at IONS EarthRise Retreat Center. Never before have we brought together such a spectacular group of presenters, with our own Michael Murphy leading the way!

You name it, and this conference has it: intellectual spice, invigorating practices to nurture body, mind, heart and soul; a spacious, natural setting; improvisational play; live music; and a soulful crowd inspired to transform themselves and the world.

Enjoy hearing more about Catching Fire in this issue and the ITP group leader gathering May 15 - 17 at Earthrise. We are grateful for our association with Esalen's Center for Theory and Research (CTR), responsible for bringing us new friends eager to enrich our community and participate in the evolutionary adventure with us.

Read about new works coming out of CTR described in this issue. Better yet, join us at Catching Fire and have the direct experience. As George Leonard would say, "Take advantage of life-changing opportunities whenever you can."

We are grateful for your friendship and look forward to seeing you soon.

Love and blessings,

Pamela Kramer

ITPI President

What's Catching Fire Inside of You?

by Christina Grote

ITPI Board Chair

Something is bubbling up into our consciousness, a sense that we are on the verge of a major transition, an intimation that things are changing in ways that we can't quite see. More and more people are talking about an evolutionary wave, a new consciousness arising, a sense that we are going somewhere ? together. Could it be that life is more than a random series of coincidences and evolution is more than random mutations? Maybe the universe is going somewhere, and what we think and what we do really does matter.

The emerging worldview of Evolutionary Panentheism places humanity at the leading edge of consciousness, as the divine or source is waking up in us and through us. As this happens and we practice deeply, our latent supernormal capacities can begin to emerge as part of this evolutionary disclosure. Our ITP practice gives us the foundation to align ourselves with the trajectory of the universe.

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The ITP Group Leader Gathering at IONS
EarthRise Campus

by Roger Marsh

Mastery Teacher and GLEE Co-Leader

All of us on the path of Integral Transformative Practice are leaders. Just by acknowledging one's integral nature as a human being is an evolutionary step forward. Add an integral practice such as ITP to that awareness, and you are on a path of leadership, whether you realize it or not.

In an ITP group, all members demonstrate leadership in some way, whether through their individual practice, leading the Kata, presenting a program or just showing up on time for each session. In many ways, all of us are leaders. Some, however, are called to lead and contribute in additional ways ; these are the group members who provide the glue that keeps the group going and growing. You know who they are. You may be one of them!

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Stepping on the Path of Mastery

by Sally Durgan

ITP SF Group Leader and Mastery Member

"Are you looking for your keys?" asked a friend as I rummaged through the bottom of my purse. Grasping my key ring, I felt a sense of relief, regaining access to my home, mailbox and membership to the gym, public library and frequent tea drinkers' club.

In a more figurative sense, George Leonard offers "The Five Master Keys" in his book Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment, quoted below. These principles, which informed both the development of ITP and subsequently, ITP's 9-month Mastery program, feel both familiar and challenging, worthy of revisiting on a regular basis:

Key 1: Instruction: We are constantly learning-new information, skills, and ways of being. With the vast number of subjects and methods, George emphasizes "how to involve each student actively in the process of learning." As students, how can we know ourselves well enough to create the conditions and chose the approaches that support us? As teachers, how can we engage to meet the varying needs of our students? We are fortunate to have a number of options for continued development, which brings us to the second key:

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Tackling Political Polarization:

An Unconventional Gathering

by Carter Phipps

Author and Presenter at Catching Fire Conference

Perched on a narrow stretch of the Big Sur Pacific coastline, Esalen Institute is about as far away as you can get from Washington DC and still be in the same country - geographically, but also politically, culturally, and institutionally. Yet, for a few days in the first week of October, those distances were bridged, and Esalen played host to a carefully curated, invitation-only "conclave" of 24 experts to address the subject of Political Polarization. The result was three days of political and cultural analysis that surprised the insiders, educated the outsiders, engaged both Republicans and Democrats, and left everyone encouraged-not a small achievement when it comes to such a notoriously thorny subject.

"The polarization between the parties exists even when the issue under debate has no ideological content," explained Brookings Institute scholar Tom Mann on the first morning. And he pointed to a telling statistic: "In the 1960s, 5 percent or so of Democrats and Republicans said they would be unhappy if their child married somebody from the other party. Today, it's 49 percent of Republicans, 33 percent of Democrats. People today are more unhappy if their child marries someone from another party than someone from another religion."

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Integrate Improv Into Your

Daily Practice

by Rachel Hamilton

Improv Performer, Teacher and Catching Fire Presenter

Dive into the embodied exploration of your leadership style(s)
Build your courage and commitment muscles and express your whole, authentic self
Expand your capacity to say Yes and discover the magic of the Group Mind
Practice extreme listening, even with those with whom you disagree

Playing Your Edge

by Bob Doenges

ITP Tulsa Group Leader and Mastery Teacher

Practice is easy, yet to become one who practices is very difficult. George Leonard's teaching on homeostasis clearly helps one become deeply aware of the meaning of this statement, and the challenges one faces on the path of transformation. Through his teaching and our new awareness, we can more freely do gladly that which we came into this life to experience.

To hear George speak more on homeostasis, click here.

Hot off the Press!

Beyond Physicalism

Publication Summary

Edited by

Edward Kelly, Adam Crabtree and Paul Marshall

Esalen Center for Theory and Research Authors

The rise of modern science has brought with it increasing acceptance among intellectual elites of a worldview that conflicts sharply both with everyday human experience and with beliefs widely shared among the world's great cultural traditions. Most contemporary scientists and philosophers believe that reality is at bottom purely physical, and that human beings are nothing more than extremely complicated biological machines. On such views, our everyday experiences of conscious decision-making, free will, and the self are illusory by-products of the grinding of our neural machinery. It follows that mind and personality are necessarily extinguished at death, and that there exists no deeper transpersonal or spiritual reality of any sort.

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Spotlight on Michael Choy

ITP Palo Alto Group Leader & Mastery Graduate

How did you become involved in ITP?

Years ago, my friend Father Se?n ?Laoire, PhD, took an ITP workshop with Barry Robbins. Se?n believed that our path of spiritual growth could best be developed through long-term integral practice and encouraged us to start an ITP group with our spiritual community, Companions on the Journey. In 2004, Barry Robbins, Pam Kramer and Erik Riswold supported Brenda Greene in starting ITP Palo Alto, and I became a member of the group at that time.

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