CIIS: Impressions

Hello Matt,
I just joined the Gaia community and I am excited about it. I enjoyed Brian Swimme's video.  As a public school teacher I see that our young people are mostly engaged in studying the world by the mind control of standardized tests. Isolated eduactors at the state level or national level create these tests ans standards that rank each student adn school.  Our principal tells us to do all we can to get the scores better and this is the major direction of the learning process of the school system. We do not teach critical thinking or encourage seeking solutions to the real problems in any extended sense. It is ridiculous. The young who are aware are mostly mourning and dressed in black.

jung couldn't have said anything any truer…i am with you matt…all the way…it is so frustrating sometimes…but the gentle genuineness of your spirit…suggests to me…that there is hope…for change…so that we can experience the sunrise on a new planet…we can learn to live together…we can make this world a better place…thank you for all your efforts toward this goal…and your audacity of hope…you're a treasure and i am honored to know you, much joy*****

I didn't listen to the Jung video last time I visited this posting. As you know it is our violent cultural behaviors that I am after, to change. But first we must wake up the American people to another way of being. We continue to pass on the values of competition and selfish hoarding as a cultural value along with domination through superior firepower.  This is now leading the worlds power struggle and leaving so many in the dust full of anger. We must develop the power of our hearts, that is where to kind of change we want to see must be rooted. This is what we must teach the young people in a meaningful way.  As Jung says we know so little about the true potential of human beings because it is only the mechanical reality that is explored by the dominant culture. Peace

Dear Matthew,

It's good to know you've joined CIIS! I was hoping to meet you there but I won't be able to attend for another two years. (It's a long story, am finishing a Master's in psych at NYU right now but am on a scholarship and have to go back to my home country, i.e. Pakistan, for two years as part of the agreement.) I'm still not sure about whether I want to apply for the PCC program or the East-West Psychology program. I'm so all over the place and interested (like you) in a thousand different things, so it's hard to decide!

Well, do let us know how you are finding CIIS. I visited the campus earlier this year during the summer and was quite impressed with the place.

Wishing you all the best in your studies and future!

I came by to express that I appreciated your thoughts at Mr. Walker's site that threaded off the Bill Maher video clip.  I liked your inquiry and approach to the debate.  While I find integral philosophy intriguing, I have a concern that at its very core rests a distinct Westernized view of things, even as it recognizes Eastern influence.   I find, in many subtle ways, however: that it does not recognize at best, or dismisses at worst,  the collective experience of indigenous people whose reality is far different, but no less valid (or real), than Western reality;  and it may be the height of hubris to dismiss such experience as primitive in its' interpretation of reality or its adherence to myth or story in complementing that reality.  I do think that to come together and respect these variances is the first step, and ending oppression is vital.  I do understand the concern over flights of fancy in general, however, and its very real consequence to the underlying psyche of our present Western culture.  If integral philosophy is a rebellion against the trend of self-absorbed, feel-good “spirituality” becoming more prevalent in these current times, I find that healthy, but it must be cautious, I think, in its measure of critique outside of its own philosophical Western heritage (which I haven't seen anyone consciously do in the discussion, yet at the same time any reference to cultures beyond Western are simply not referenced.)

I like how you have written here: cultural therapy, to heal. 

The Jung video was interesting to view.  I was reading some time ago Miguel Serrano's book: C.G. Jung & Hermann Hesse: A Record of Two Friendships which was captivating in how it blended Western and Eastern influences in philosophical thought.

I do hope I make some sense.  It is very late.

I have very much enjoyed visiting your site here.

Peace~