Merhaba, friends! I’m back from Istanbul with tons to share about the trip and the Integral Without Borders conference. I’m going to give you an overview today and get down to specifics over the next week or so.Istanbul was beautiful. If you haven’t been, go. I didn’t get to do much sightseeing, but hit the major monuments and made it over to the trendy Taksim area. It may be hard to believe that anyone could drag their attention away from a city like Istanbul to focus on a conference, but it was easy in this case. The six day schedule was packed with cutting edge Integral Theory, spiritual inquiry and discussion of projects being implemented around the world. Here is an overview of the schedule:

Day One: Review of Integral Theory & the latest ideas from Ken Wilber

Day Two: Big Mind/Big Heart with Diane Hamilton (this was fantastic!)

Day Three: Presentations on Integral Spirituality, resilience, human needs, Turkish politics, and climate change

Day Four: Presentations on projects in Peru, AIDS in Uganda, Integral Africa, waste management in Ethiopia, and social power dynamics

Day Five: Presentations on projects in Syria, South Africa, Chile, sex work in Vancouver and Integral coaching

As you can see, the topics were quite varied. It was really inspirational to meet people from around the world who are dedicated to making a difference. It was also great to hang out with fellow Integral-heads. People actually laughed at my jokes referencing Spiral Dynamics! Love it!

This conference was exactly what I needed to get excited to the Integral Psychology program at JFK. I really felt welcomed into the Integral community at the Istanbul conference. I encourage anyone who is even casually interested in Ken Wilber’s work to attend the Integral Theory Conference in August. It is being hosted by JFKU near San Francisco.

More to come on the conference. Feel free to send me your specific questions so I can be sure to cover everything.