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Transcribed from iAwake’s weekly, free teleconference call on July 25, 2012. I was recently in the Bay Area to teach a class on Addiction Studies. When my class and I did our first meditation together, we sank into a very deep meditative state, one which we could all really feel. When you meditate in a…

I wanted to write a few words about the use of binaural brain entrainment technology (specifically Holosync® technology) for enhanced meditation, shadow work, and brain transformation. There seems to be some controversy, albeit small controversy, regarding its use. There’s the argument that goes something like this: Well, Buddha didn’t have Holosync®, which makes using Holosync® seem…

I wanted to share a powerful experience that I had in meditation the other day. I was using the iAwake Special Edition Digital Euphoria track and I was in a profound state of contemplative prayer, or resting in the presence, as I have begun to call it. Paul Smith, author of Integral Christianity, calls it the…

Here is a technique that I have been using for over three years in my personal work and also shared with clients and students and watched them use it with great success. I call it “Sitting in the Fire.” While I arrived at this technique semi-independently, I have found similar examples of this particular method…

In previous posts, I’ve discussed how to include ethics and morality in your inner meditative work. But inner moral awareness necessitates outer moral behavior. For our ethics to be Integral, they must include ethical action in all 4 quadrants from our highest current level of development. An Integral Life Practice without ethics is foundationally weak. To choose…

One way to get at one’s shadow motives is to simply look deeply into any emotions, thoughts, or feelings that arise in meditation—or any other time. As we continue to let awareness penetrate the objects of consciousness as they arise, they will reveal themselves to us ever more deeply, until they too are empty or…

Here’s another practice to help with your ethical line. I’ve been working with and adapting the 3-2-1 method developed by Ken Wilber for making sure one is covering all the fundamental perspectives (I, We, and It; or 1st-person, 2nd-person, and 3rd-person) in one’s meditative practice. When an issue or emotion arises (and will they ever!) I visualize…

“Being a cynic is so contemptibly easy… you don’t have to invest anything in your work. No effort, no pride, no compassion, no sense of excellence, nothing.”– Molly Ivins I’ve been struggling with the idea of adding Ethics as a fifth line of our Integral Recovery Practice. Not because I don’t think Integral Ethics is…

This blog entry is an excerpt from the rough draft of the book “Integral Recovery” that I am currently writing. I thought this might be of interest to readers to get a taste of what Integral Recovery treatment looks like in practice. But first an introductory quote…. “This week was planes, buses and rental cars.…

I’m sitting in a motel room in Boulder, Colorado, where I am attending Naropa University’s Wilderness Therapy Symposium. Living in a small isolated community like Teasdale makes going to a city always interesting. I’m struck with the question, “I used to live like this?” It actually makes me appreciate cities more, and gorgeous Wayne County, Utah (my home)…