Reaching the Next Generation of Integral Leaders: Center for World Spirituality and Marc Gafni
From the Integral Leadership Collaborative
Description: There’s a new generation of Integral Leaders coming to town. They’re calling themselves the Second Wave. San Francisco is the home of one of the fastest growing Second Wave communities — and they are making plenty of noise! At the epicenter of this socio-cultural rumbling is a group of visionary spiritualists-artists-musicians-producers-renegades-activists. They will be discussing how and why “integral” is or isn’t relevant to Gen Y (Millennials) and how we can reach them! The projects this posse is pulling together is truly mind bending!
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Background:
Michael Richardson is a visionary writer, poet, community builder and networker passionate about the arts, digital technology, comparative world religions, developmental psychology and meta theories of all shapes and sizes. In 2008, he published his first book, Suicide Dictionary: The History of Rainbow Abbey, which prominent integral theorist, Ken Wilber, called “a startlingly original work of sheer genius.” Besides leading C-CAM, he is also Creative Director at the Center for World Spirituality, and a founding team member of Evolving Wisdom.com. He is currently writing a new book about the future of art and spirituality called Enlightened Creativity as well as completing a collection of transmedia poems and storyboarding an immersive multi-media experience called The 8 Story Mountain. He is frequently found at workshops and talks by progressive thinkers and anywhere there is dubstep or glitch-hop playing in the Bay Area.
Dustin DiPerna is an authority on world religions and brings a provocative, and often brilliant perspective to the topic by incorporating developmental psychology and integral theory. Many people think of religion as a non-rational, pre-modern relic that often hinders individuals’ and society’s evolution. Dustin points to compelling evidence that religion can, in fact, be a factor in helping less developed people and societies grow in their capacity of greater awareness, complexity, and consciousness. As unlikely as it may seem, religion can actually help humanity evolve. After spending two years at Integral Institute from 2003-2005 working for both the seminar team and Integral Spiritual Center, inspired by all that he experienced, Dustin left I-I to begin writing full time about the nexus of religion and psychological development. He recently completed his first book Developmental Religious Pluralism: A Brief Introduction to Integral Religious Studies – to be released by Integral Books sometime next year. Dustin is currently pursuing a Masters of Liberal Arts in Religion at Harvard University and consults on issues of how a developmental perspective creates greater clarity on the role of religion in international relations.
Kelly Sosan Bearer is a social entrepreneur specializing in multi-media platform development to disseminate integral spiritual teachings both online and off. She serves as the Executive Producer for the Center for World Spirituality and Curator for the Integral Spiritual Experience. She is also the Executive Producer, Founder, and Host of the humorous and often irreverent Integral Chicks Podcast: Practical Wisdom from the Next Generation with her partner-in-crime Nicole Fegley. Previously, Kelly worked for Integral Institute/Integral Life from 2003 – 2008 and has been a student of integral theory and practice for over twelve years. She is an ordained Zen monk and completed her graduate studies at Naropa University with a MA in Transpersonal Counseling Psychology. A published author in the Integral Journal of Theory and Practice, Kelly is currently exploring the application of Integral theory to the Zen tradition.
Mikyö Clark is an emerging visionary, weaving his family’s lineage of Dzogchen Buddhism with Integral Theory to offer educational platforms that speak to the younger generation. His focus is on the development of cultural ecosystems that allow for the emergence of the youth’s leadership potential. He currently serves as the Associate Producer of Center for World Spirituality. He received his B.A. from the California Institute of Integral Studies, and is currently pursuing a Masters of Arts in Integral Theory at John F. Kennedy University.
Gavriel Strauss is an up and coming leader in the Jewish Integral world, he’s been studying Kabbalah for over ten years in Israel and the US, and is now dedicated his life to bringing an integral voice to the Jewish practice and Jewish Community. For the past five years he’s been living in Tsfat, Israel where he’s helped to create an environmental NGO called The Center for Healthy Living in Tsfat, where he’s been teaching yoga to religious Jewish men. Currently on a US tour promoting his new project called “Evolving Judaism”, Gavriel is working on gathering like minded individuals who are interested in exploring how the Jewish Wisdom Path can be used as a practice for inner-self transformation. He’s in the midst of creating a program for youth 18-26 who want to experience an introduction to Kabbalah and Spiritual activism.
