CIIS Faculty Publications
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A Decade of Earth-Centered Scholarship and Activism
Elizabeth Allison
Origin stories reveal the myriad causes that converge to birth a new initiative. On the occasion of its tenth anniversary, this essay looks back to document the context and intellectual lineage out of which the Ecology, Spirituality, and Religion graduate program at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) emerged in 2013, and suggests some possibilities for the future of transdisciplinary education and the fields of religion and ecology (e.g. Tucker and Grim 2001), religion and nature (e.g. B. Taylor 2010), and spiritual ecology (e.g. Sponsel 2012) more broadly.
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Rhythms of Learning: What Waldorf Education Offers Children, Parents & Teachers (Vista Series)
Robert McDermott
Waldorf education―an established and growing independent school movement―continues to be shaped and inspired by Rudolf Steiner’s numerous writings and lectures on education and child development.
In Rhythms of Learning, key lectures on children and education have been thoughtfully chosen from the vast amount of material by Steiner and presented in a context that makes them reader-friendly and accessible. In his many discussions and lectures, Steiner shared his vision of education that considers the spirit, soul, and physiology in children as they grow.
Roberto Trostli, a seasoned Waldorf teacher, has selected the works that best illustrate the fundamentals of this unique approach. In each chapter, Trostli explains Steiner’s concepts and describes how they work in the contemporary Waldorf classroom. We learn how the teacher–child relationship and the Waldorf school curriculum changes as the students progress from kindergarten through high school.
Rhythms of Learning is an excellent resource for parents who want to understand how their child is learning. Parents will also be more prepared to discuss their child’s education with teachers, and teachers will find it to be a valuable reference source and communication tool.
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Rabindranath Tagore in the 21st Century: Theoretical Renewals
Debashish Banerji
This critical volume addresses the question of Rabindranath Tagore's relevance for postmodern and postcolonial discourse in the twenty-first century. The volume includes contributions by leading contemporary scholars on Tagore and analyses Tagore's literature, music, theatre, aesthetics, politics and art against contemporary theoretical developments in postcolonial literature and social theory. The authors take up themes as varied as the implications of Tagore’s educational vision for contemporary India; new theoretical interpretations of gender, queer elements, feminism and subalternism in Tagore's literary and social expressions; his language use as a vehicle for a dialogue between positivism, Orientalism and other constructs in the ongoing process of globalization; the nature of the influence of Tagore's music and literature on national and cultural identity formation, particularly in Bengal and Bangladesh; and intersubjectivity and critical modernity in Tagore’s art. This volume opens up a space for Tagore’s critique and his creative innovations in present theoretical engagements.
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The Neurogenesis Diet and Lifestyle: Upgrade Your Brain, Upgrade Your Life
Brant Cortright
Only recently has it been discovered that the brain produces new brain cells throughout our entire lives, a process called neurogenesis. The rate at which we form new brain cells has a profound influence upon every aspect of our life. When the rate of neurogenesis is low, we see cognitive deficits and memory problems, anxiety and stress, depression, and lowered immunity. Life is difficult. With high rates of neurogenesis we see the opposite: enhanced cognitive abilities, rapid learning, emotional resilience, protection from anxiety, stress and depression, heightened immunity and robust health. We flourish. Life is wonderful. Given the neurotoxic norms of society, it's almost universally true that your brain is working far below its capacity. It is deteriorating much faster than it needs to. What good is living longer if your brain can't go the distance? Recent discoveries in the emerging field of neurogenesis reveal the secrets to radically improve your brain's health. You can operate at a higher level than you ever dreamed possible--at any age!
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Steiner and Kindred Spirits (Spi Edition)
Robert McDermott
Rudolf Steiner is frequently viewed by those familiar with his teaching as unique and separate from other spiritual teachers of our modern era. While, Steiner is thought by anthroposophists to be a scientist and a philosopher, as well as an interpreter of events depicted in Christian scriptures, he is nevertheless generally ignored by scientists and philosophers, as well as by both liberal and fundamentalist scriptural scholars and theologians. In this book, Robert McDermott―the editor of American Philosophy and Rudolf Steiner, which investigates Steiner's philosophy in the context of American philosophers―places Steiner and his work in the context of a variety of spiritual teachers and teachings, both Western and Eastern. In doing so, the reader is guided to new perspectives that show the similarities and contrasts between Steiner's Spiritual Science and a number of Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, and secular spiritual worldviews. The kindred spirits in this book include His Holiness the Dalai Lama, C. G. Jung, Teilhard de Chardin, Martin Buber, Sri Aurobindo, Rabindranath Tagore, Gandhians, feminists, ecologists, and more. Steiner went as far up the spiritual ladder as any modern individual but, unlike some enthusiasts for Steiner, McDermott is also impressed by other religious thinkers and spiritual practitioners who have been helpful to those of us in need of encouragement and guidance and whose vistas and insights may not have been researched or explained by Steiner.
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Amor and Psycho
Carolyn Cooke
Set against a vast American landscape that ranges from Manhattan to the lush rain forests and marijuana farms of Northern California, these eleven stories dive into our darkest spaces, confronting the absurdity and poetry of human existence.
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Journeys in Complexity: Autobiographical Accounts by Leading Systems and Complexity Thinkers
Alfonso Montuori
In this book, fascinating autobiographical accounts by leading scholars in a variety of fields and disciplines provide a rich introduction to the art and science of complexity and systems thinking. We learn how the authors' interest in complexity thinking developed, the key figures and texts they encountered along the way, the experiences that shaped their path, their major works, and their personal journeys. This volume serves as an introduction to complexity as well as a vivid account of the personal and intellectual development of important scholars. Authors include Elisabet Sahtouris, Jay Ogilvy, Stanley Krippner, Albert Low, Riane Eisler, and Allan Leslie Combs. This book was originally published as a special issue of World Futures.
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Partakers of the Divine: Contemplation and the Practice of Philosophy
Jacob H. Sherman
Exploring the meeting of mystical and philosophical theology, Partakers of the Divineshows that Christian philosophical and contemplative practices arose together and that throughout much of Christian history, philosophy, theology, and contemplation remained internal to one another. Through an engagement with contemporary theologians and philosophers of religion, both analytic and continental, and through careful re-readings of historical figures such as Anselm and Nicholas of Cusa, Jacob Sherman presents a contemporary argument in favor of the antique, participatory tradition of contemplative philosophy. Sherman demonstrates that retrieving this more venerable vision of the relation of philosophy, theology, and contemplation to one another provides theologians and philosophers of religion today with a way forward beyond many of the stalemates that have beset discussions about faith and reason, the role of religion in contemporary culture, and the challenges of modernity and postmodernity.
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Journey of the Universe
Brian Swimme
Today we know what no previous generation knew: the history of the universe and of the unfolding of life on Earth. Through the astonishing combined achievements of natural scientists worldwide, we now have a detailed account of how galaxies and stars, planets and living organisms, human beings and human consciousness came to be. And yet . . . we thirst for answers to questions that have haunted humanity from the very beginning. What is our place in the 14-billion-year history of the universe? What roles do we play in Earth's history? How do we connect with the intricate web of life on Earth?
In Journey of the Universe Brian Thomas Swimme and Mary Evelyn Tucker tell the epic story of the universe from an inspired new perspective, weaving the findings of modern science together with enduring wisdom found in the humanistic traditions of the West, China, India, and indigenous peoples. The authors explore cosmic evolution as a profoundly wondrous process based on creativity, connection, and interdependence, and they envision an unprecedented opportunity for the world's people to address the daunting ecological and social challenges of our times.
Journey of the Universe transforms how we understand our origins and envision our future. Though a little book, it tells a big story—one that inspires hope for a way in which Earth and its human civilizations could flourish together.
This book is part of a larger project that includes a documentary film, an educational DVD series, and a website. The film and the DVD series will be released in 2011. For more information, please consult the website, journeyoftheuniverse.org.
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Complexity and Sustainability
Jennifer Wells
Complex dynamic system studies have been studied explicitly in the natural sciences, and most only implicitly throughout other fields. Yet much great social theory and philosophy is in fact based in complexity, and important concepts like postmodernism, risk, and collapse all stem from complexity. Six key terms are explored: nonlinearity, feedbacks, thresholds, hierarchies, emergence and self-organization, and dozens of related principles are discussed, with a focus on uncertainty, risk, vulnerability, learning, strategy, resilience, collapse and sustainability. The book surveys the role of these complexity principles in the natural sciences, social theory, transdisciplinary discourse, philosophy, and ethics, and shows how this complexity framework is a valuable lens for approaching the spectre of climate change and life in the Anthropocene.
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The Spectacle of Ourselves: A Chronology of Key Events in World History from Big Bang to 2012
Craig Chalquist
This book tells the human story over the entire span of time up to today. Events from every continent receive brief but interesting explanation throughout.
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The Wiley-Blackwell handbook of transpersonal psychology
Harris Friedman and Glenn Hartelius
The Wiley Blackwell Handbook of Transpersonal Psychology presents the most inclusive resource yet published on this topic - which seeks to benefit humanity by integrating ancient wisdom and modern knowledge.
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Seven Quartets of Becoming A Transformative Yoga Psychology Based on the Diaries of Sri Aurobindo
Debashish Banerji
Groomed in a modern academic tradition and post-Enlightenment ideals of creative freedom and social critique, Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950) turned his attention to yoga and the limits of consciousness in its ability to relate to and transform nature. In the process, he documented scrupulously his experiments and experiences based on a synergistic existential framework of practice. Debashish Banerji correlates the approach to yoga Sri Aurobindo took in his diaries with his later writings, to derive a description of human subjectivity and its powers. Banerji constellates Sri Aurobindo's approach with transpersonal psychology and contemporary lineages of phenomenology and ontology, to develop a transformative yoga psychology redefining the boundaries and possibilities of the human and opening up lines of self-practice towards a wholeness of being and becoming.
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Edges, Peaks, and Vales: A Mythocartography of California at the Margins
Craig Chalquist
Inland of its spectacularly busy and famously scenic coast, and around the edges of its huge Central Valley, California extends itself into a mysteriously introverted land of dry deserts, tall mountains, ancient lakes, and solitary valleys. To listen deeply to the myths, legends, and images emanating from this arc of isolation demands an open-hearted inquiry from border to border and Sierra to open sea. The Tears of Llorona took the historical, ecological, and imaginal pulse of the original Mission counties of California along El Camino Real from San Diego to Sonoma. Ventral Depths sampled alchemical and mythic motifs in the Central Valley. Edges, Peaks, and Vales moves the terrapsychological focus to the interior edges of California, and therefore to those of a quintessentially place-based consciousness attuned to its startlingly sentient surroundings.
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Daughters of the Revolution
Carolyn Cooke
In 1968, a clerical mistake threatens the prestigious but cash-strapped Goode School in the small New England town of Cape Wilde. After a century of all-male, old-boy education, the school accidentally admits its first female student: Carole Faust, a brilliant, outspoken, fifteen-year-old black girl whose arrival will have both an immediate and long-term effect on the prep school and everyone in its orbit. There’s the school’s philandering headmaster, Goddard “God” Byrd, who had promised co-education “over his dead body” and who finds his syllabi full of dead white males and patriarchal tradition constantly challenged; there’s EV, the daughter of God’s widowed mistress who watches Carole’s actions as she grows older with wide eyes and admiration; and, finally, there’s Carole herself, who bears the singular challenge of being the First Girl in a world that’s not quite ready to embrace her.
