Integral Spiritual Experience: Year 1 Media Collection

In December 2009, over 500 inspired practitioners from more than 30 different countries gathered at the Asilomar Retreat Center in Monterey, CA, to experience the emergence of a more coherent, more compassionate, and more sophisticated spirituality. It was a truly extraordinary event, and you can now have unlimited access to what was discovered there at a fraction of the cost.

The Integral Spiritual Experience: Year 1 Media Collection is your gateway to a new spiritual teaching for the 21st century—one that draws upon all the countless insights offered from countless disciplines, all throughout history. One that combines the enlightenment of the East, with its focus upon ever-present states of consciousness, with the enlightenment of the West, which offers crucial developmental and psychological knowledge. One that meets you exactly where you are, without forcing you onto a path of renunciation, and without denying the radical beauty, goodness, and truth that defines your own unique life.

A full version of this Unique Self teaching is slated to appear in the forthcoming book, “Your Unique Self, The Future of Enlightenment," by Dr. Marc Gafni with a Introduction by Ken Wilber, published by Sounds True in 2011.

A Turning Point In Spirituality

Many of us share a certain intuition about spirituality—that somehow, all of our religions have actually been talking about the same thing, even if many of their belief systems appear to be incompatible. We sense some common unity underlying them all, some universal thread that ties these many traditions together. But the problem is, we haven’t had a common language to help us recognize and understand this unity, or a philosophical framework comprehensive enough to hold all these countless perspectives on spiritual reality.

It is as if there were a secret code running through history, a cryptic riddle just waiting to be deciphered. And once we do, all the secrets of love, happiness, transformation, and transcendence can rise from the shadows and see the light of day.

Integral Spirituality Has Cracked the Code

In 2006 Ken Wilber released the seminal book Integral Spirituality, where he presented a new vision for the role of religion in our world. One of the truly remarkable insights offered by Integral Spirituality is that not only do all the world’s religious traditions try to put us on the path toward enlightenment, atonement, or liberation—but that the very nature of enlightenment changes over time. Which simply means that the experience of “waking up” is different today than it was a hundred years ago, a thousand years ago, or ten thousand years ago.

In Other Words, Enlightenment Itself Is Evolving

The Unique Self teaching represents one of the latest evolutions of enlightenment. It is a truly “trans-lineage” path, which simply means that it does not matter what religious tradition you happen to be standing in: whether you are Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, Agnostic, etc., Unique Self is a “plug and play” approach to spirituality that does not ask you to step outside of your own beliefs, but instead deepens and enlivens whatever practices you may already have in your lives.

Featuring over 10 hours of cutting-edge audio/video content, we invite you to explore this beautiful new teaching with us. We have designed this collection for ultimate ease of use: watch it on your computer, listen to it in your car, even stream it on your iPad or iPhone. Or you can download the entire collection, which includes all the videos, and audio mp3 versions of all the presentations.

What You’ll Learn:

How to become who you already are: Unique Self honors both your timeless, unborn self and your relative everyday self. This is not a path of renunciation, nor of indulgence—it is a path of growth, embodiment, and personal responsibility.
How to see the world in a whole new way: One of the truly remarkable aspects of the Unique Self teaching is how it begins to shift your worldview, recognizing the vast ecology of souls that we are interwoven with, and to whom we are ultimately accountable.
How to discover your own unique contribution to the world: We are all here for a reason. Every one of us possesses some combination of passions, perspectives, and talents that is completely unique to each of us. Unique Self teaches us how to find those gifts, and how to offer them to a world that so needs them.
How to cultivate the will to practice: Let’s face it—we all want to grow and transform, but finding the time and energy to do so can be an enormous struggle. Even your best intentions can fall flat, and it can be all too easy for your engine to run out of steam. But as Unique Self helps you experience your own deepest possible expression, the will to practice begins to come online and replenish itself in a powerful way, brimming with newfound purpose and tenacity.

An Overview of the Unique Self Curriculum, and the Five Major Stages of Unfolding:

Letting Go of Your False Self: who are you not? Here we begin to gently loosen the knot of suffering, addiction, and identity that prevents us from recognizing our inherent divinity
Awakening Your True Self: who are you really? Come face to face with your own infinite nature, discovering the True Self that resides behind each of our eyes
Discovering Your Unique Self: emptiness + perspective - Eastern traditions tend to emphasize the timeless and empty nature of True Self; while Western traditions tend to emphasize independence, volition, and the dignity of the individual soul. The Unique Self honors and includes both simultaneously into a seamless (but not featureless) combination of emptiness and perspective.
Exploring Your Unique Shadow: your life unlived - What is holding you back from fully stepping into your own passion, your own story, and your own fully-lived life?
Contributing Your Unique Gift: how does God want to manifest in (and as) You? The question is no longer “what’s the meaning of life?” It is now “what’s the meaning of MY life?” This media collection will help you answer this perennial question.

"The Divine cries out to every individual human being: 'I need you, I need your unique service.' There's something that you have that is so ultimately gorgeous and unique and is desperately needed by the universe for its own evolution, for the Divine's own process of coming to know Him/Her/Itself." - Marc Gafni

Now You Can Explore these Teachings at a Fraction of the Cost

Those who gathered for this Integral Spiritual Experience conference paid $1299 for attendance; not to mention an average of $800 for accommodations and more for travel expenses to be a part of what was, by all accounts, one of the most powerfully transformative experiences of our lives—a value certainly worth the cost. The teachings and curriculum that emerged we believe to be the most comprehensive offering in Integral Spirituality currently available. We’re excited to offer you this collection of teachings that you can access instantly here for only $147. Click the Add to Cart button below to get started.

Meet Your Teachers For the 2009 Integral Spiritual Experience conference, we drew together some of the world’s most respected spiritual teachers—each coming from his or her own particular religious background, and each bringing their own spiritual authority to bear upon the Unique Self teaching. As you participate in this media collection, you will be guided by:
	Ken Wilber is the most widely translated academic writer in America, with 25 books translated into some 30 foreign languages. Wilber is an internationally acknowledged leader and the preeminent scholar of the Integral stage of human development, which continues to gather momentum around the world.
	Dr. Marc Gafni is a cutting edge evolutionary visionary, a provocative spiritual artist and teacher, academic, public intellectual, author, social activist, and lover of people. He holds a doctorate, written on Nondual Humanism in Kabbalah taken at Oxford University under the co-supervision of Prof. Moshe Idel. Marc is also co-founder and director of iEvolve Global Practice community, partners with Integral Life in creating Integral Spiritual Experience.
	Sally Kempton is recognized as a powerful meditation guide and as a spiritual teacher who integrates yogic philosophy with daily life. She is the author of The Heart of Meditation, and writes the popular Wisdom column for Yoga Journal. A teacher in the tantric tradition of Kashmir Shaivism Sally conducts conducts workshops and retreats on applied philosophy and meditation.
	Diane Hamilton is a gifted mediator, facilitator and teacher of Zen Buddhism and Integral Spirituality. She received dharma transmission from Zen Master Genpo Roshi in 2006, and has been offering Zen teachings to the integral community for years. Diane is also co-founder and director of iEvolve Global Practice community, partners with Integral Life in creating Integral Spiritual Experience.
	Lama Surya Das is one of the foremost Western Buddhist meditation teachers and scholars. Surya Das teaches and lectures around the world, conducting dozens of meditation retreats and workshops each year. Based on his relationship with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Surya Das founded the Western Buddhist Teachers Network and has organized three week-long conferences of Western Buddhist Meditation Teachers with the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India.
	Dr. Jean Houston is a scholar, philosopher and researcher in human capacities, as well as one of the foremost visionary thinkers and doers of our time. She is one of the principal founders of the Human Potential Movement. A powerful and dynamic speaker, she holds conferences and seminars with social leaders, educational institutions and business organizations worldwide. Jean has worked intensively in 40 cultures and 100 countries helping to enhance and deepen their own uniqueness while they become part of the global community.
	Robb Smith is co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Integral Life, Inc. and Chief Executive Officer of Integral Institute, Inc. He has been involved in the formation of the Conscious Capitalism movement, the 2020 Climate Leadership Campaign, and the Integral Spiritual Experience series of conferences.
	Craig Hamilton is an author and teacher working to articulate the vital relationship between individual transformation and collective evolution. For 13 years, he lived and worked under the guidance of EnlightenNext founder and spiritual teacher Andrew Cohen, and served as the Senior Editor of What is Enlightenment? magazine.

A Preview of the Integral Spiritual Experience Presentations

Introducing Unique Self
with Ken Wilber, Marc Gafni, Sally Kempton and Robb Smith

Welcome to the Integral Spiritual Experience, Virtual Conference – Year 1. Ken Wilber, Sally Kempton and Dr. Marc Gafni are here to introduce you to Unique Self—the deepest possible expression of consciousness, a subject that can never be made object, the union of ever-present consciousness and individual perspective at a radically fundamental level. Unique Self is the substrate of all our 1st-person experiences, the subtle patterns of perspective and textures of spirit that make you exclusively you in this ecology of souls. Listen as Sally, Ken and Marc explore Unique Self, facilitated by Robb Smith. What is revealed establishes the context for the Unique Self teachings and keynote presentations recorded at the Integral Spiritual Experience over New Years 2009 at the Asilomar Conference Center.

Your Personal Story with Robb Smith

In this guided “Lifeline” exercise, we ask you to contemplate your own personal story. Use this as an opportunity to pause and reflect on the key transitions of your life, allowing yourself to be completely honest and open with as little judgment as possible. Pay attention as the subject of your story becomes an object of your awareness, noticing any accompanying sensation of release or even liberation—whether subtle or overt—as you reflect upon your own sacred story.

Observing Ego/False Self with Sally Kempton

Before we can truly know ourselves, we must understand that everything we think we know about ourselves is wrong—or at least painfully partial. Here Sally Kempton talks about the need to dislodge our identity from the False Self—the broken self-image we walk around with every day, an identity based upon false perceptions of separation, fragmentation, and isolation.

Why Be a Buddhist, When You Can Be a Buddha?
ISE Keynote Address from Lama Surya Das

At the core of every major religion we can find a treasure trove of powerful technologies for awakening, transformative practices designed to invoke in us the very same experience of fullness, transcendence, and immeasurable love as the great religious founders themselves were able to have. That's right—you can have the same experience that the Buddha had. You can have the same experience that Jesus Christ had. Or Muhammad or Rumi, or any other great mystic in history. Here Lama Surya Das asks the question, why on Earth we would want to be a Buddhist, when we can simply be the Buddha?

Awakening with Sally Kempton

The goal of the Unique Self process is to wake up, to discover the timeless reality behind all things, and to re-discover the sacredness of your own unique perspective. Sally offers two meditation practices that will help you recognize and lay claim to your own divine birthright—it's why you are here after all, suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous incarnation. This is not an invitation, nor is it an obligation—it's who you already are, right now. All that's left to do is… wake up.

Exploring Your Unique Self with Dr. Marc Gafni

There is something remarkably unique about each of our perspectives—from our physical orientations in time and space, all the way to our individual experiences of the universal. Within each of us lies a fundamental thread of perspective, stretching all the way to the darkest depths of the Mystery....

Emptiness + Perspective = Unique Self

After the egoic self-contraction is removed, and after I discover that One Self, One Spirit, One Reality, how do I manifest it? What special and unique perspectives do I bring to the picture? How, in other words, do I discover that my One True Self is actually alive in me an infinite, all-pervading Unique Self? How do I honor my Unique Self, discover my Unique Self, manifest my Unique Self...?

Joy Squared: Unique Self Q&A with Ken Wilber and Dr. Marc Gafni

What is the origin of the Unique Self teaching? What does this teaching have to say about rekindling the transformative power of love in the 21st century? What exactly does Ken mean by "the miracle of we", and what implications does that have upon our conceptions of the divine? Ken Wilber discusses all this and more in this very special Q&A session, recorded live at the ISE conference.

Big Mind Practice with Diane Musho Hamilton

Just as every unique song is composed of the same universal notes common to all music, your Unique Self is composed of a chorus of voices common to all of us—such as the protector, the skeptic, the seeker, the master. Each voice speaks to us and influences our perceptions in very different ways—a unique alchemy of intelligence and perspective that can never be replicated.

It’s Jump Time!
ISE Keynote Address from Dr. Jean Houston

We stand at the precipice of evolution. Billions of years are at our backs, billions more calling us into our future, an entire living Kosmos balanced upon this delicate present moment. We stare into the gulf before us, feeling the calm stillness of the air, remembering when great gales of fear once threatened to topple us. We look into the void and see it looking back through us, inviting us to take this momentous leap into greater consciousness, greater complexity, and greater compassion—a timeless leap into our own inevitable liberation. Are you ready to jump?

Understanding Your Unique Shadow with Dr. Marc Gafni

Just as there is no light without the dark, there is no Unique Self without a Unique Shadow—which simply means the aspects of our experience, our manifestation, and our full engagement of the world that have yet to come online. In other words, your Unique Shadow is your life unlived, those dark avenues of experience that have yet to be actualized—and by tracing your Unique Shadow back to its timeless source, we are led directly into the heart of this at every moment. In this presentation, Marc explores the evolution of our knowledge about shadow, tracing its development from an Integral point of view.

Your Unique Gift and Obligation with Craig Hamilton

At a certain point in our journey, the fruit of realization ripens on the vine and drops effortlessly back to the ground, seeding future generations with the love, clarity, and vision we've gleaned in our own lifetimes. After all, what good is your own realization if it doesn't help make the world a better place? How enlightened can you be if you can't express spontaneous kindness to a stranger at a gas station? If your spiritual practice does not directly translate to more love, more bliss, and more freedom in the world, does it really amount to anything more than self-absorption?

Heart-Flame Meditation with Sally Kempton

Within each of us lies a fundamental thread of perspective, stretching all the way to the darkest depths of Mystery—a "bottomless drop" of the Heart that is unique to each and every one of us. But my “bottomless drop” is not your “bottomless drop,” even as they are forever laced together in the Heart of the world. In this guided meditation, Sally helps us to rest in the infinite spaciousness of our hearts, using our breath to fan the flames of uniqueness that live within each of us as we prepare for the final step of our shared journey: The Unique Self Vow.

The Unique Self Vow with Dr. Marc Gafni

In a certain sense, the Unique Self represents an end to the spiritual journey, the final realization of awakening. But this non-dual unification of self and no-self, "final" as it may seem, is actually as unattainable as it is inescapable. You can't lose it, because it is closer to you than your own skin. It has no beginning and no end, as it never enters the stream of space and time to begin with—and yet it permeates all space and all time, never separate from the kaleidoscopic carnival of the manifest world. As we slowly awaken to the fact that we've really never been asleep, there's little else to do but to help remind everyone else of their own always-already nature, to allow our unique awakening to spill over into the rest of the universe, and to freely offer our hearts, our minds, our gifts, and our talents to the betterment and liberation of the world....

In Summary, Here's What You'll Receive

Exclusive access to the private webpage with all the content in one place
14 page PDF collection guide to assist you through this journey
14 Presentations containing over 10 hours of teachings
Meditations and Practices allowing you to deeply experience and anchor the various aspects of Unique Self into your daily life
Multiple formats (including audio-only, streaming, and downloads) for all presentations allowing you to explore the content anywhere
Full Customer Service with the Integral Life Member Support team in case you have any difficulty or confusion with accessing the content
The ability to listen to this transformative teaching over and over, wherever you go
Click the Add to Cart button below to begin engaging with this powerful collection of teachings immediately

*Art Credits: 1.Michael Bergt, 2.Michael Harris, 3.Mark T. Smith, 4.Bryce Widom, 5.Diana Calvario, 6.Kelli Bickman, 7.Jason Mareydt, 8.Candida Matthews, 9.Pamela Sukhum, 10.Philip Rubinov Jacobson, 11.Diana Calvario, 12.Bo Bartlett, 13.Mike Mitchell, 14.Pamela Sukhum,
Photography: Jason Digges and Adam Shemper