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Newsletter Nr. 715
Amsterdam, May 20th, 2018


FROM EVOLUTION TO VOLUTION - The implications of cosmic geometry (cosmometry) on our understanding of life and the human story - PETER MERRY

The idea that we as humanity have evolved in a linear process over time is probably one of the most widely accepted ideas across the human species. There is debate between more religious fundamentalist perspectives and more scientific-rational perspectives about exactly when it all began (eg a few thousand years ago versus 14 billion years ago), but they all agree on the idea that since that beginning we have been evolving through historical time with a past, present and future. Indeed, even our most popular philosophers and spiritual teachers tend to promote an evolutionary perspective (Wilber (1996), Cohen (2011), Laszlo (1996)). In my own book (Merry 2009) I adopted and connected these various evolutionary theories.

However, over the last year or so, I have come to question this perspective, and the cosmometry retreat has strengthened my belief that there is a more adequate perspective on our human reality that better reflects the fundamental dynamics of life. This paper attempts to explore the broader perspective and apply it to our human story.

Read more:
http://www.integralworld.net/merry3.html


CRITICIZING “INTEGRAL ABUSE” - Be Scofield & The Culture of Adversarial Journalism - JOE PEREZ

Today I clicked on a Google Ad for Be Scofield’s article, “Integral Abuse: Andrew Cohen & The Culture of Evolutionary Enlightenment”, which she has published on Medium and Frank Visser’s website. According to her bio, Be is a queer/trans writer and digital strategist who founded the magazine Decolonizing Yoga. As part of her work, she has even gone undercover in the communities of some spiritual gurus that she wants to tear down by digging up evidence that will paint them in a negative light.

Be’s article is one of several pieces of adversarial journalism that have criticized aspects of the Integral movement from the standpoint that it hasn’t done enough to curb “abuses” by the spiritual teachers Andrew Cohen and Marc Gafni, or because it received inspiration from another guru accused of moral impropriety, Adi Da. Other integralists come under scrutiny because they haven’t done enough to protest “abuses” loudly enough, or because they are “enablers” (Scofield names Ken Wilber, Craig Hamilton, and Terry Patten specifically).

Read more:
http://www.integralworld.net/perez2.html