Changes to come ...

It's nearly 2012; time to update this blog.

Actually, it's time for mitosis, separating this space into two different organisms. One will remain the site for information about CIIS' annual Symposium on Integral Research. (Look for information soon on the spring 2012 Symposium.) The other will hark back to one of the original ideas for this space, to support CIIS faculty & students in presenting/communicating their research, and will include a compendium of calls for papers, calls for conference participation, and publication opportunities of interest to the CIIS community.

Stay tuned!

Caifang (Jeremy) Zhu, C.G. Jung on the Nature and Interpretation of Dreams: A Developmental Delineation

(This presentation was a part of CIIS Multiversity February 2008.)

Jung interpreted about 80,000 dreams. Based on a systematic study of the dream articles found throughout The Collected Works of C.G. Jung, this paper portrays a developmental trajectory of Jung’s changing views on dreams and their interpretations. I broadly trace his development into three phases: (1) firm partisanship with Freud, where Jung accepted the theory of fulfillment of repressed wishes and excessively applied free association and sex theory; (2) Jung’s most original contributions, epitomized by the compensation theory, and (3) his final stand of relativity and fluidity expressed in 1961 (e.g. compensation theory is just a hypothesis). The paper posits that Jung’s last essay, "Symbols and the Interpretation of Dreams" epitomizes his definitive stand.

Jeremy presented this paper at the Fourth International Conference on Humanistic and Transpersonal Psychologies and Psychotherapies in Guangzhou, China during September of 2007.

Jeremy Zhu taught in Beijing for over a decade; from 2001-2004, went to Harvard Divinity School where he got a Master for Theological Studies degree with a concentration on Buddhist and Psychology; worked two years as a teaching fellow at Harvard; and Chaired the Harvard Buddhist Community and gave Tai Chi instruction class to the Divinity School community. From September 2004 through August 2005, he trained as a chaplain at St Mary’s Medical Center in San Francisco while living and training in SF Zen Center. Jeremy enrolled in the East-West psychology Ph.D. program in 2005 and has had over 10 academic papers published in China, Taiwan, USA, and UK. Jeremy practices meditation regularly and frankly acknowledges he is a perfectly imperfect person…

Annette Williams, Dreaming the Ancestors Among Indigenous Africans and Diaspora Descendents

(This was a part of CIIS Multiversity February 2008.)

This paper considers ancestor visitation dreams within African and black diaspora contexts. Ancestor dreams among the Xhosa are examined in detail as is ancestor regard among the Yoruba. Retention of this relationship to ancestors and their place in dreams is demonstrated among the diaspora descendents of African slaves. The indigenous African ontological perspective is generally one steeped in connection to spirit where distinctions are muted between the spiritual and material, the sacred and secular. The dream and traditional religion are inextricably linked as is the connection between religion and society, where religion permeates all areas of life. In terms of the Institute’s academic mission, looking at the spiritual traditions of others is in keeping with the CIIS mission of affirming spirituality by which “the Institute is committed to the study and practice of multiple spiritual traditions.”

Annette Williams holds a master’s degree in psychology with an emphasis in Jungian and archetypal approaches. Currently she is a doctoral student in Philosophy and Religion with an emphasis in Women’s Spirituality at the California Institute of Integral Studies. A student of the Yoruba Ifa tradition, Annette has had the privilege of being a guest lecturer, discussing the philosophy and lived reality of this West African religion. A trained French/English translator and admirer of hermetic tradition, Annette is a professional astrologer as well as a certified Sivananda yoga instructor.

Karen Villanueva, Iconic Symbolism and Cultural Appropriation: The Fish Goddess and Jesus Christ

(This was a part of CIIS Multiversity February 2008.)

This paper examines how the symbol of the fish is an example of a recurring pattern in patriarchal history: the traditions of the conquered are incorporated into the dominant culture's pantheon; the stories of the conquered are retold, reinterpreted, and written to reflect the values, beliefs, and supremacy of this dominant culture; and over time the original meaning is lost and forgotten as subsequent generations are reared in the manner of the dominant.

Karen has presented her paper at the following two conferences: the American Academy of Religion – Western Region Conference at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA in March of 2007 and the Western Association of Women Historians 38th Annual Conference at the Asilomar Conference Center in Pacific Grove, CA in May of 2006.

Karen Nelson Villanueva is a doctoral student in Women’s Spirituality awaiting advancement to candidacy for her dissertation proposal “Green Tara, the Tibetan Buddhist Goddess, and Mantra: Overcoming Fear through the Practice of Reciting Mantra, a Participatory Research Study.” The focus of her studies has been women and world religions with a particular emphasis on the dark mother and how she is found in cultures throughout the world such as the Black Madonnas of Europe and Green Tara of Tibet. She lives in San Francisco with her husband Max and regularly attends classes at the Tse Chen Ling Center for Tibetan Buddhist Studies.

David Treleaven, Falling in Love with Jung: Relationship as a Path to Individuation

(This presentation was a part of CIIS Multiversity February 2008.)

Carl Jung wrote passionately about individuation, a broadly defined process in which differentiated components gravitate toward an indivisible whole. In the fall of 2007, two East-West Psychology students documented their romantic relationship in the context of the individuation process, weaving Jung’s academic writings with conversational vignettes from their personal lives. Using documentary style footage, this 30 minute video presentation explores the integral relationship between sexuality, alchemy, and individuation.

David Treleaven is currently second year doctoral student in East-West Psychology at CIIS. While working as a therapist with male offenders in Vancouver, Canada, David served as an organizing member of the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society and helped organize monthly meditation retreats for the Westcoast Dharma Society. He is currently working closely with Marina Romero, director of ESTEL Center of Personal Growth and School of Integral Studies in Barcelona, and co-creator of Holistic Sexuality, an integral approach to psychospiritual healing and transformation that works experientially with the body, sexuality, and nature.

Kirk Templeton, Avicenna, Aquinas and the Active Intellect

(This presentation was a part of CIIS Multiversity February 2008.)

The paper focuses on a critical change that transformed the way we understand cognition from the way it was understood in the ancient world and in the Islamic philosophical tradition. In keeping with the ACS mission to foster knowledge of and respect for diverse worldviews of religion, philosophy, and culture, Kirk’s study opens wider vistas for the understanding of consciousness by comparing the development of Western theories of cognition to those of other traditions.

“Avicenna, Aquinas and the Active Intellect” will be published this summer in the peer-reviewed Journal of Islamic Philosophy.

Kirk Templeton is in the doctoral program of Asian and Comparative Studies. He specializes in comparative studies of philosophical and theosophical systems of the cultures of the old Silk Route—Western Europe, the Mediterranean, the Middle East, Central Asia, India, and China: in other words, following the golden road to Samarkand. He arrived in the Bay Area just in time for the counterculture and has been here ever since. He has packed a number of different incarnations into this current life, having been a drummer, banker, swordsman, computer programmer, and horseman.

Gal Szekely, Radical Acceptance: Between Buddhism and Psychotherapy

(This presentation was a part of CIIS Multiversity February 2008.)

“We have to face the pain we have been running from. In fact, we need to learn to rest in it and let its searing power transform us." -Charlotte Joko Beck.

Buddhism teaches us that our suffering is caused by not being present with whatever is. Psychotherapy claims that it is mainly the result of childhood wounding. Is there a contradiction? Through presentation, discussion, and exercise, we'll explore the place of psychotherapy in the path for spiritual liberation. We'll discuss the use of mindfulness in the therapy room as well as on the cushion.

Gal Szekely was introduced to Buddhism and meditation over eight years ago while traveling in South-East Asia. Since then, he has been passionate about exploring the intersection of spirituality and psychotherapy. He holds an MA in Social Psychology and has professional experience in coaching and consulting. He is currently a second year student in the ICP program.

Mary Louise Stone, Building Community: Strategies from the Andes

(This presentation was a part of CIIS Multiversity February 2008.)

Nurturing Andean communities have been vibrant throughout the millennia. The Andean rainbow flag, based on ancient rock art, demonstrates Unity in Diversity, whether expressed in Bolivia’s thirty-two ethnicities, the rainbow colors, or even San Francisco’s multiethnic neighborhoods. Theory becomes practice through Andeans’ constant reciprocity which maintains a dynamic balance among communities. Respect for the Andean Cosmic Mother knits society together with a caring that includes all community members. After twelve years living in Andean communities, I draw examples from traditional agricultural communities as well as urban organizations. Implementing the strategies of reciprocity, Bolivians recently elected South America’s first Indian president after five hundred years of exclusion of indigenous peoples from national life.

Mary Louise Stone taught cross cultural studies in Taos, New Mexico. She continued Latin American studies in Peru and Bolivia on the high plateau of Lake Titiqaqa, the most traditional area of the Andes. Working with native Andean communities, she helped develop workshops and intensive home-stays in which Andeans teach visitors about their own worldview, ecology, and community life. She is a student in the Women’s Spirituality Master’s program and is writing a portion of what she learned about Andean spirituality in her thesis "The Andean Cosmic Mother and Her Culture of Reciprocity".

Eric Shaw, Yoga in America: The Marketing of Hinduism by Multiculturalists East and West

(This presentation was a part of CIIS Multiversity February 2008.)

Integral Yoga was the philosophy of Sri Aurobindo, CIIS’s patron saint, and Hatha Yoga is the quintessential Body/Mind/Spirit practice of the type propounded by the school’s mission statement. Aurobindo, like Swami Vivekananda, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, and Pierre Bernard, was an Anglo-Indian syncretist who re-tooled yoga for the Western mind. This slide lecture is about these luminaries and others who used Cartesian and New Age Healing modalities to change yoga and plant the seeds for today’s Pop Yoga phenomenon.

Eric Shaw, MARS, MASE, RYT, attended the American Academy of Religions conference in San Diego, CA in November of 2007. He is a yoga teacher and third year PhD student at CIIS focused on Hindu Religion and Philosophy. His dissertation is on the History of Yoga in America.

Catherine Sancimino, Intensive Intervention for Autistic Disorder in Children Ages 0-3

(This presentation was a part of CIIS Multiversity February 2008)

This presentation includes an overview of autistic disorder, including the presentation of symptoms and a description of human sensory systems and sensory integration. Treatment approaches include case formulation and intervention from developmental and behavioral perspectives and the integration of speech therapy and sensory regulation.

Catherine Sancimino is a third year PsyD and practicum student at Oakland Children’s Hospital Autism Intervention.

Dunya Nuaimi, The Publishing Process: Notes from the Editorial Side

(This presentation was a part of CIIS Multiversity February 2008)

As one of the founding editors of the peer-reviewed, online, academic journal, OCHRE: Journal of Women’s Spirituality (www.ciis.edu/ochrejournal), Dunya Nuaimi will provide an inside perspective on the editorial process. For three years, Dunya worked with students, faculty and administration at CIIS to develop and publish the introductory issue of the Journal. Using examples from OCHRE, she will discuss how a piece moves from submission to final publication. While the focus will be on online journals, much of the content is relevant to print publications. It is hoped that students will leave with a better understanding of the publishing process, better prepared and inspired to publish their work.

Dunya Nuaimi is currently completing her Master's degree in Philosophy and Religion, Women's Spirituality. She was one of the co-founders and Editorial Directors of the introductory issue of the CIIS OCHRE: Journal of Women’s Spirituality, a peer-reviewed, online, academic journal. She holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Occupational Therapy from McGill University in Canada. Previously, she has worked in the non-profit, educational, and health care sectors, with people who have experienced trauma or other significant life challenges, as an occupational therapist, group facilitator, and administrator. Her current passion is using the expressive arts for positive change in individuals and communities. She currently works at the International Museum of Women.

Sarah Noyes, Women and Ethical Leadership

(This presentation was a part of CIIS Multiversity February 2008)

In an attempt to delve further into the ethics of leadership, how they relate to women, and to network with others interested in these topics, Sarah Noyes attended a 3-day conference with the Woodhull Institute on Ethical Leadership for Young Women. Concepts learned included supporting women in their endeavors as well as teaching them how to advocate for a sustainable and ethical world.

Sarah Noyes, student in Transformative Leadership, is an experienced change-maker and has worked within the Non-Profit and Social Activism worlds for ten years. She utilizes her experience, dedication, intuition, hard skills, and positive attitude to influence change locally and globally. Sarah is most passionate about aiding individuals and organizations to see the ethical for the good of humanity. You will most likely find her at a salsa club or on a tropical beach.

Sarah Noyes, When the Ideals of CIIS Meet “Anarchy”: A Tale of a Rejected Workshop

(This presentation was a part of CIIS Multiversity February 2008)

Discusses one student’s experience with attempting to hire a speaker for the Transformative Leadership and Transformative Studies department at their bi-annual intensive retreat. The speaker, Skip Spitzer, presented on skills needed for carrying out systematic change. Yet, it was viewed negatively since he described the organization of the WTO protest in Seattle, WA. What happened next was of great educational value in many respects. The presentation and subsequent discussion will explore how CIIS includes diverse ideas and governance.

Sarah Noyes, student in Transformative Leadership, is an experienced change-maker and has worked within the Non-Profit and Social Activism worlds for ten years. She utilizes her experience, dedication, intuition, hard skills, and positive attitude to influence change locally and globally. Sarah is most passionate about aiding individuals and organizations to see the ethical for the good of humanity. You will most likely find her at a salsa club or on a tropical beach.

David Nichol, Subtle Activism and the Gaiafield Project: Applying Spiritual Power for Global Transformation

(This presentation was a part of CIIS Multiversity February 2008)

Globally-synchronized meditation and prayer events are becoming increasingly popular and sophisticated as internet technology and global consciousness continue to emerge and develop. Such events can be seen as a kind of “subtle activism,” indirectly affecting events in the social and political realm through exerting a subtle influence on the collective mindset of a community, nation, or even the whole of humanity. In this presentation, I will review the scientific evidence for the principle of non-local causality (which underlies the hypothesis of subtle activism), discuss the potential of subtle activism to help us meet the multidimensional planetary crisis, and describe the Gaiafield Project, which uses leading-edge technology to broadcast regular global meditation events to a global audience.

David Nicol has sought for many years to integrate his personal spiritual journey to wholeness with a passionate desire to play a role in the collective global transformation that so many leaders recognize as the great possibility and challenge of our times. What has emerged as a focus is the concept and practice of "subtle activism" - how we may exert a subtle (but perhaps crucial) positive influence on the collective psyche through acting together on subtle planes of consciousness, such as collective meditation, prayer, or ritual work. David is the director the CIIS-based Gaiafield Project (www.gaiafield.net). In his past life, he worked as an environmental lawyer in Australia, his native land.

Bisola Marignay, The Abolition Movement Today

(This presentation was a part of CIIS Multiversity February 2008)

A exposition of how the U.S. Constitution permits legal slavery; how it is practiced through the Criminal Justice System; why accountability is impossible within prisons; and how the new abolition movement is responding to this social reality.

The prison abolition movement is mounted on recognition of the inability of reform efforts to overcome the inherent disparity and devastation that accompanies not only imprisonment, but the entire regime of oppression throughout the criminal justice system. Profile policing and arrest, non-functionality of legal representation for indigent defendants and prosecutorial misconduct thwart the possibility of fairness in trials and cause the imprisonment of many innocent defendants on an on-going basis. Activism aimed at shrinking the prison industrial complex into non-existence will be discussed relative to the social discourse necessary to the creation of new non-penal alternatives and the obstacles to the development of that discourse.

Bisola Marignay is an activist who has participated in pro-choice and union organizing, anti-child abuse and family support advocacy, and is presently involved in the new abolition movement and organized resistance to cultural appropriation. She studies Social and Cultural Anthropology here at CIIS.

Adam Hudson, Bridging Communities/Building Communities: Politicizing A Depoliticized Culture

(This presentation was a part of CIIS Multiversity February 2008)

CIIS holds a commitment to integral government and it is my perspective that this ideal is not present but always-to-come. In an American culture where individualism is pervasive, the practice of grassroots community building is not a conscious commitment by any majority, even at CIIS. Interests in bridging communities and politicizing our own student body should be one of the first commitments of a community emphasizing diversity, cultural difference, consciousness studies, integral government, and especially spirituality. The aim of the new consciousness must first be to live-up to the legacies that spiritual pioneers set forth and taught – spiritual and integral political movement.

Adam Hudson has always found it important to live, care, be understanding, and act responsibility to self/other/world. He is now beginning to practice speaking and teaching in fulfillment of this life calling. Adam grew up in Chattanooga, Tennessee and lives in relationship to the Christianity and class consciousness that marks that area of the world. Now he has residence at Glide Methodist Memorial Church singing, volunteering, and learning in a community that is very spiritual and political – actively feeding the poor and providing underprivileged persons health services. Last semester, Adam finished his M.A. in Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness at CIIS, and is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Social and Cultural Anthropology.

Nandi Hetenyi, Rethinking Self Esteem: Deconstruction of Self-Esteem Using Buddhist Psychology and Teachings of No Self

(This presentation was a part of CIIS Mutiversity February 2008)

Aligned with the CIIS mission to integrate disciplines and also affirm spirituality, this study will focus on integrating both Western and Buddhist Psychology to shed light on self-esteem, a pervasive psychological issue in the West. Through exploring current theories of self-esteem as well as deconstructing these theories using Buddhist teachings, this presentation hopes to find a way to use self-esteem to alleviate suffering rather than contribute to it.

Nandi presented this work at the World Congress on Psychology and Spirituality in India in January of 2008.

Nandi Hetenyi is a doctoral student in Clinical Psychology at CIIS and is currently taking a year away from school. She holds an MA in Multicultural Counseling from San Diego State University. Her primary interests include Buddhist Psychology, self-esteem, trauma, multicultural issues in psychotherapy, and the self as therapist. She is a practitioner of Vajrayana Buddhism, teaches meditation and yoga, enjoys photography, traveling, and coordinates several non-profit volunteer projects.

Surinder Gill, My Sikh Mother and I: The Way We Are in America

(This presentation was a part of CIIS Multiversity February 2008)

The intent of this dissertation is to identify and examine a number of major issues experienced by immigrant Sikh mothers and their daughters living in America. Like most immigrant families, Sikh families’ immigration journeys entail stories about struggles, dreams, and displacement. The material gathered here will describe how adapting to a new environment and surviving in the dominant American culture places immigrant Sikh mothers and their daughters in difficult, and at times peculiar, predicaments. Not only do these stories share the impact on their relationships but uncover the religious and cultural messages of how a Sikh woman is expected to behave and relate in the world.

Surinder presented on this topic at the Oral History Conference in October, 2007 in San Francisco.

Surinder Gill is a second generation Sikh American who has worked as a social service provider for close to ten years and has found that the immigrant experiences are often misunderstood and there is a lack of tools to adequately service immigrant families in the area of intergenerational issues. Currently she is writing a dissertation to complete a PhD at CIIS in Transformative Studies, struggling to raise two amazing daughters to know their Sikh roots while experiencing disownment based on marriage to their Italian American father.

Mary Fries, Psyche and Dimension: Ontology of Space, Time, Matter, and Consciousness

(This presentation was a part of CIIS Multiversity February 2008)

Out of the depths of the psyche emerges the ego, the differentiating differentiation of a resonant unity. As this discerning character endeavors to rationalize experience, we abstract conceptual maps in order to coordinate our activities, thus coalescing out of the prehensive wholeness dimensional coordinates of perceptive vanishing points, the space, time, mass, and energy of "observer" and "observed." Physical science, then, the modern pinnacle of conscious abstraction, finds the boundary of its viability in light, the conversion factor of space and time and of matter and energy as well as the very medium of our primary mode of perception, vision. That cosmological schemata are invariably bound to perceptive abstraction marks a universal archetype of reality. This paradox of the observational dialectic of a unified cosmos is so fundamental that it not only appears in spiritual and philosophical inquiry as well as in physical science but is, I argue, the core paradox of manifestation. Oneness can only be said to exist in separation, for to observe oneness presupposes an observer of at least provisional separation from the oneness, and yet, we observe the unity of reality physically, theoretically, and experientially. Reality, in being both unified and separative, manifests. The spatiotemporal-limitations of human form predispose our understanding of reality to generalizations, which recurrently hinder our scientific, spiritual, and philosophical progress. My inquiry addresses the questions: What insights do we overlook in positing dimension as primary to psyche? And what implications does the apparent quantization of dimension have for deeper understanding of the role of psyche in the cosmos?

Mary presented an earlier version of this talk, entitled “Overcoming Discontinuity and Dualism in Modern Cosmology” at the Quantum Mind Conference at the University of Salzburg, in Salzburg, Austria in July of 2007.

Mary Fries came to CIIS in 2005 with a B.S. in Mathematics from Mary Baldwin College and has completed her coursework for an M.A. in the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness program. Throughout her time here, she has served as the Communications Coordinator for Student Alliance with whom she planned events, facilitated meetings and hiring processes, established organizational guidelines and procedures, and coordinated funding for student projects and campus groups. Mary's work background also includes both teaching and website design and database management. In addition to creating websites for Student Alliance (www.saciis.org), the PCC department (pcc.ciis.edu), and Species Alliance (www.speciesalliance.org), a non-profit organization that birthed out of PCC and that is committed to raising awareness about biodiversity issues, she has taught high school mathematics, directed children's theatre productions and camps, and worked at a Montessori school. Her intellectual interests lie at the intersections of philosophy and mathematical physics. Mary now works in the Dean of Students Office as the Student Affairs Manager and has coordinated this Multiversity Conference.

Lise Dyckman, Trends in Scholarly Publishing

(This presentation was a part of CIIS Multiversity Feb. 2008)

Based on experience with CIIS’ Library, and that of colleagues and presenters at 2007 conferences of the Society of Scholarly Publishers, California Association of Research Libraries, and the American Library Association, I”ll share some recent developments in this rapidly changing, topsy-turvy market. I’ll pose – and hopefully propose some answers – for questions that affect us all, as consumers and producers of scholarship, like: Do personal websites or electronic-only journals count in a scholar’s publication record? What about Google Scholar and/or social networking tools – are they really useful for finding relevant information outside my core discipline, or is that just hype? As a scholar, should I care about copyrights to my own work – and how can I navigate around the barriers of other people’s copyright? Where does all that money spent on subscriptions actually go?

Lise Dyckman has worked in many different types of libraries – for Ivy League colleges & universities, for non-profit organizations, for graduate medical education, and in a pre-internet “internet startup” corporation - before coming to CIIS as Library Director. She has authored several articles in library journals (most recently, “Fear of failure and fear of finishing: a case study on the emotional aspects of dissertation proposal research, with thoughts on library instruction and graduate student retention”, in Currents and Convergence: Navigating the rivers of change (2005)); contributed a chapter to Library instruction revised: bibliographic instruction comes of age, Haworth Press (1995); and co-edited Bobst and beyond: a guide to library resources in New York City, NYU Press (1994). Her professional activities include serving on the board of the Statewide California Electronic Library Consortium (CA), various sections of the Association for College & Research Libraries and of the national American Library Association; and as a board member of the ALA’s Freedom to Read Foundation (the group which successfully argued against the Communications Decency Act before the U.S. Supreme Court). Before she went back to school for a graduate Library & Information Science degree, she got an MA in Museum Curatorship, and produced social history exhibits and programs.

Judson Davis, The World Mountain: Eternal Symbol of the Heights of Human Spiritual Aspiration

(This presentation was part of CIIS Multiversity, Feb. 2008)

The World Mountain motif has found expression in a diverse and far-reaching array of religious and cultural traditions throughout the history of humanity. At the heart of its symbolic representation lies a deeply felt sense of the soul of nature, with the mountain serving as both a living manifestation of the sacred on Earth as well as an archetypal representation of humanity's deepest developmental stages and ultimate realization of the divine. This presentation will explore the temporal and eternal aspects of this fascinating phenomenon, and will demonstrate the intriguing similarities between such seemingly diverse cultures as ancient Egypt, Meso-America, the Hindu and Buddhist traditions, and various indigenous peoples.

Judson Davis is a second year doctoral student in East-West Psychology specializing in Spiritual Counseling and Transpersonal Psychology. He has traveled extensively throughout the world, an on-going exploratory process that includes a previous four-year stay in East Asia. He has taught on the college level in both Japan and California, and has produced documentary films dealing with an array of subjects. His present pursuits involve an ever-deepening exploration of human consciousness and spirituality, which serves as the basis for his continuing work in the areas of teaching, counseling, and artistic expression.

Fernando Castrillion: Digital Teleologies, Imperial Threshold Machinic Assemblages and the Colonization of the Cosmos

the full title of this presentation is:
Digital Teleologies, Imperial Threshold Machinic Assemblages and the Colonization of the Cosmos: A Post-Structuralist Interpretation of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey

(This presentation was a part of CIIS Multiversity, Feb. 2008)

This presentation highlights how our increasing interaction with digital machines is impacting our psyches and our cultures, and demonstrates the enormous impact of the digital sphere on our human subjectivity and our relationship with nature. It is posited that the increasing digitization of our psyches has adverse effects on nature and our relationship to the ecosphere. Furthermore, it is argued that a more harmonious relationship with the earth can serve to heal many of the ills that result from the digitization of our psyches. This kind of analysis can serve both CIIS and the global community by specifying ecologically sustainable practices that can be put into place and identifying ecologically unsustainable practices that should be avoided. Hence, the work has great resonance with the current rise in environmental consciousness and helps promote harmonious human-nature relationships, which is perhaps the most difficult task facing humanity at this point.

Fernando gave two guest lectures at Roosevelt University in Chicago under this same title that were based on his dissertation research on US federal artificial intelligence, massive database analysis projects, and the “digitization of the psyche,” in October, 2007.

Fernando Castrillon earned a Masters in Sociology from the University of California. He is currently completing a doctorate in Clinical Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) and is also a Candidate in Training at the Lacanian School of Psychoanalysis in Berkeley, California. He is adjunct lead faculty in the Interdisciplinary Studies Department at CIIS as well as a Pre-doctoral Clinical Psychology Intern at a San Francisco Department of Public Health Clinic. His clinical, teaching, and research interests include the production of subjectivity (both human and more-than-human), ecopsychology, radical psychoanalysis, post-structuralist social/cultural theory, Schizoanalysis, liberatory politics, cosmology, entheogens, the impact of hyper-velocity technological change on human psychology and intersubjectivity, the psychology of human-machine interaction, the intersection of critical social theory and psychology, contemporary approaches to the treatment of psychosis, community mental health, xenopsychology, violent political movements, war, terrorism, and revolution. His dissertation, entitled "Digitizing the Psyche: Human/Nature in the Age of Intelligent Machines," examines the psychological and intersubjective consequences of the hyper-digitization of contemporary Western culture. He is currently co-editing, with Doug Vakoch, an ecopsychology anthology titled "Ecologies of the Psyche: Transdisciplinary Migrations of Critical Ecopsychology."

Sonia Brewer, CIIS Community Process Group

(This presentation was a part of CIIS Multiversity, Feb. 2008)

The CIIS Community Process Group offers professionally-facilitated, experientially-oriented community forums that bring together students, faculty, and staff who are interested in actively exploring ways to relate with transparency and authenticity in a diverse community context. We strive to make room for various and competing views, tensions, feelings, styles of communication, and modes of inquiry and exploration, while encouraging an awareness of unconscious biases and power relationships. We provide opportunities to engage in personal and communal explorations of what the CIIS commitment to the ideal of diversity really means to us as a community. This brief introductory workshop will provide participants with a taste of the Community Process Groupwork. Using techniques derived from a variety of disciplines, including Freedom through Voice work, Theatre of the Oppressed, and Processwork, participants will explore embodied ways of relating in community without dismissing conflict or differences.

Leo Bellina, Integral Education after Abu Ghraib: Participatory Education and Practices of Citizenship

(This presentation was part of the CIIS' Multiversity, Feb. 2008)

The title of this presentation paraphrases an essay title by Henri Giroux, in which the author examines the role of higher education in making possible critical, engaged citizenship that is able to challenge the increasing normalization of violence against “the other” within and outside of the US. The presentation relates this urgent challenge of higher education with the results of last year’s student-research, in which participants re-envisioned practices of “integral governance” at CIIS as attentive to equity and diversity, and therefore productive of skills to live, work, imagine, and build alliances in the world of difference/diversity we already live in today.

Leo Bellina was hired as an institutional researcher by the Center for Teaching and Learning (Assessment) to ensure the contribution of student voice to the Integral Education essay for WASC. The research was conducted in the spring of 2007, as Participatory Action Research in collaboration with campus groups working against oppression. Before relocating to San Francisco, Leo Bellina worked as a somatic psychotherapist and integrative health counselor in private practice and in NGO contexts on issues of state and sexual violence against immigrant girls and women. She has been an educator on diversity issues in Europe and the US, teaching in schools, psychotherapy trainings and conferences, and for the Naropa University community in Boulder, Colorado.

Lucia Birnbaum: The Future Has an Ancient Heart: Transformational Legacy of DNA and Maternal Energies

(This paper is the keynote for 2008 Multiversity - see the full schedule here)

The paper aims to transform students' notions of race and gender and urges them to consider the difference between dominant and submerged beliefs, as well as the hopeful legacy of the memory transmitted through our mothers in the DNA on primordial African migration paths in Europe (and everywhere), of our original harmonious universe and original communities of caring and sharing.

Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum received her doctorate in conventional history of the U. S. and Europe from the University of California at Berkeley. She was an Assistant Professor at San Francisco State. In 1968, she was fired for supporting students’ just demands for a black studies department and for opposing the imperial war in Vietnam. Thereafter as an independent scholar and a professor at CIIS, she has been guided by dual perspectives of women's spirituality, and African origins and transformative legacy. Her published works include Liberazione della donna, (Feminism in Italy) (1986, 1988), Black Madonnas. Feminism, religion and politics in Italy (1994, 1997, 2000), and Dark mother: African origins and godmothers (2000, 2004, 2007).

Multiversity 2008 - CIIS conference of student (and others') research

This week is the third annual Multiversity conference at CIIS. This started as a one-day event in 2006, grew to a weekend in 2007, and now spans four days (!). Here's the schedule of talks. We'll post to this blog abstracts of the presentations as they are given; links to the actual texts / files / etc. will be provided if the author chooses to make these available. Please feel free to use the comments feature of this blog to start a dialogue with these presenters.

Tuesday Feb. 26, 2008
3:15-4:45 Keynote Speaker: Lucia Birnbaum, WSE Professor
The Future Has an Ancient Heart: Transformational Legacy of DNA and Maternal Energies on Migration Paths out of Africa into Europe and the Rest of the World

5:15-5:45 Dunya Nuaimi, WSE MA
The Publishing Process: Notes from the Editorial Side

5:45-6:45 Mary Louise Stone, WSE MA
Building Community: Strategies from the Andes

6:45-7:00 Lise Dyckman, Library Director
Trends in Scholarly Publishing

7:15-7:45 Adam Hudson, SCA PhD
Bridging Communities/Building Communities: Politicizing a Depoliticized Culture

7:45-8:15 David Nicol, PCC PhD
Subtle Activism and the Gaiafield Project: Applying Spiritual Power for Global Transformation


Wednesday Feb. 27, 2008
5:15-5:45 Sarah Noyes, TLD MA
When the Ideals of CIIS Meet “Anarchy”: A Tale of a Rejected Workshop

5:45-6:45 Judson Davis, EWP PhD
The World Mountain: Eternal Symbol of the Heights of Human Spiritual Aspiration

7:15-8:15 Fernando Castrillon, PsyD
Digital Teleologies, Imperial Threshold Machinic Assemblages, and the Colonization of the Cosmos: A Post-Structuralist Interpretation of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey


Thursday, Feb. 28, 2008
11:45-12:15 Catherine Sancimino, PsyD
Intensive Intervention for Autistic Disorder in Children Ages 0-3

12:15-1:15 Leo Bellina, SCA MA
Integral Education after Abu Ghraib: Participatory Education and Practices of Citizenship

2:00-3:30 Sonya Brewer, SOM MA
CIIS Community Process Group

3:45-4:30 Surinder Gill, TLC PhD
My Sikh Mother and I: The Way We Are in America

4:45-6:15 Kirk Templeton, ACS PhD
Avicenna, Aquinas, and the Active Intellect

6:45-7:15 Sinem Yilanci, WSE MA
Women’s Theater Form in Turkey

7:15-8:15 Annette Williams, WSE PhD
Dreaming the Ancestors among Indigenous Africans and Diaspora Descendents


Fri. Feb. 29, 2008
11:45-12:15 Mary Fries, PCC MA
Psyche and Dimension: Ontology of Space, Time, Matter, and Consciousness

12:15-12:45 Sarah Noyes, TLD MA
Women and Ethical Leadership

1:00-2:00 Gal Szekley, ICP MA
Radical Acceptance: Between Buddhism and Psychotherapy

2:00-2:30 Karen Villanueva, WSE PhD
Iconic Symbolism and Cultural Appropriation: The Fish Goddess and Jesus Christ

3:00-3:30 Bisola Marignay, SCA MA
Today’s Abolition Movement

3:30-4:00 Caifang (Jeremy) Zhu, EWP PhD
C.G. Jung on the Nature and Interpretation of Dreams: A Developmental Delineation

4:15-5:00 David Treleaven, EWP PhD
Falling in Love with Jung: Relationship as a Path to Individuation

6:00-6:30 Nandi Hetenyi, PsyD
Rethinking Self Esteem: Deconstruction of Self-Esteem using Buddhist Psychology and Teachings of No Self

6:30-8:00 Eric Shaw, ACS PhD
Yoga in America: The Marketing of Hinduism by Multiculturalists East and West

Obtain Many non-CIIS Books in Only 4 Days!

Do you need a book that is not in our collection? Now there is a good chance that you can obtain it within 4 days! There is a new system called Link+ that currently has 40 library catalogs linked together. The participating libraries include, San Francisco Public Library and several others in the Bay Area as well as Southern California. If you have a library card at any one of these participating libraries, you can then check out books and have them delivered to that library. To obtain a library card at San Francisco Public Library all you need is proof of California residence.

New LGBT Database

LGBT Life is the premier resource to the world's literature regarding gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues. This database contains indexing and abstracts for more than 80 GLBT-specific core periodicals. The database includes current coverage of these sources, as well as backfiles for key publications - many back to the first published issue. Examples of publications indexed back to their inaugural issues include The Advocate (1967), Journal of Homosexuality (1974) and Harvard Gay and Lesbian Review (1994). The product also contains articles mined from more than 70 priority periodicals as well as more than 5,000 select titles. LGBT Life provides comprehensive coverage of traditional academic, cultural, lifestyle and regional publications, including Journal of Bisexuality, Gay Times, Lesbian News, Journal of Lesbian Studies, Washington Blade, Bay Area Reporter, etc. LGBT Life also indexes and abstracts the full run of many historically significant titles such as ONE (1953-1967), The Ladder (1956-1972), Mattachine Review (1955-1964), Christopher Street (1976-1995) and Body Politic (1971-1987). In addition, other source-types such as monographs and reference books as well as grey literature including newsletters, case studies, dissertations, etc. are represented. Disciplines covered by LGBT Life include civil liberties, culture, employment, family, history, psychology, religion, sociology and more.

You will also find the full text for 50 of the most important and historically significant LGBT journals, magazines and regional newspapers, as well as dozens of full text monographs. Full text content available includes The Advocate, Gay Parent Magazine, Girlfriends, GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian & Gay Studies, James White Review, ISNA News, Ladder, Lesbian Tide, New York Blade, ONE, Tangents, Washington Blade, and many more.

A New Business Database

This is a combination of 3 business databases. The first contains hard-to-find local and regional business news coverage of large corporations, privately held companies, local start-ups, executive profiles, marketing, finance, and industry news. Provides access to business information not typically found in national news sources. Contains news and analysis, information on local markets, and more gathered from major business tabloids, magazines, daily newspapers, wire services, and city, state, and regional business publications. The second database allows searching of nearly 1800 worldwide business periodicals for in-depth coverage of business and economic conditions, management techniques, theory, and practice of business, advertising, marketing, economics, human resources, finance, taxation, computers, and more. Expanded international coverage. Fast access to information on 60,000 + companies with business and executive profiles. Also includes The Wall Street Journal. And the third database allows searching of more than 750 business periodicals and newsletters with a trade or industry focus. Provides users with the latest industry news, product and competitive information, marketing trends, and a wide variety of other topics. Contains publications on every major industry, including finance, insurance, transportation, construction, and many more.

Archive of Research in Archetypal Symbolism

CIIS library is delighted to launch the Archive of Research in Archetypal Symbolism. ARAS is an encyclopedic collection of academic theory and alchemical images that affords boundless and spontaneous interpretative possibilities. Drawing on art, artifacts, and ritual images of East-West traditions, ARAS is a gateway to endless archetypical patterns, symbols, and themes that stretch across centuries, cultures, and civilizations.

This unique archive includes 17,000 photographic images that are cross-indexed to 20,000 research pages and close to 50,000 search word or keyword options. The archetypal / archaeological timeline is from 50,000 BCE to 2,000 CE. Collected over the past 60 years, ARAS has now transformed into a world-reach electronic format that affords an unprecedented search experience. Selected subjects of special interest for the CIIS community include: psychology, anthropology, archaeology, expressive arts, drama therapy, somatics, archaeomythology, mythology, theology, thealogy, spirituality, religion, philosophy, ecology, and cosmology plus numerous other fields of interest.

Study sheets include detailed cultural information, archetypal commentary, extensive bibliographies plus glossaries that accompany each image. In addition to the wealth of visuals and descriptive information, each image also includes numerous links to further related symbols, artifacts, and commentary that amplifies inter-related rites, rituals, and patterns. “This may well lead to vast if not universal syncretistic possibilities.”

To get a flavor of these syncretistic possibilities, suggest going to the DISCOVER option under search. Here, randomly-chosen yet thematic images float across the screen that can be changed and redirected at the click of the mouse.

Slides can be ordered at $5.00 per slide plus $5.00 for shipping and handling. These images are for the sole purpose of research and education.