Journal of Heart-Centered Therapies, 2010, Vol. 13, No. 2, pp. 67-82
© 2010 Heart-Centered Therapies Association
Using Heart-Centered Therapies and the
Integral Model for Shadow Integration
and Psycho-Spiritual Development
Louise Northcutt, M.S.
Abstract: The aim of this article is to introduce the elements of the Integral
Model as an approach to understanding consciousness. The article will
speculate how the Integral Model can be used with Heart-Centered therapies
in the process of shadow identification and integration. These practices are
useful for clients, as well as for our own growth. The intent of this process is
to shift from being stuck in a limited perspective, to the ability to take
multiple perspectives. When an individual can easily take many perspectives
there is an increased capacity to give and receive love, to handle greater
complexity, express compassion and grow in to a life of service. Ultimately
and ideally, this leads to an embodied awakening of consciousness. This is
when one is carrying transcendent awareness into daily actions, as a fully selfexpressed being, identified as infinite consciousness and expressing as finite
self.
Elements of Integral – Many Perspectives of the One
Integral theory has recently been synthesized by Ken Wilber,
drawing on the work of many of the philosophers, scholars and
researchers from around the world, such as Jean Gebser,
Teilhard de Chardin, Jean Piaget, James Fowler, Abraham
Maslow, Susanne Cook-Greuter, Clare Graves, and Daniel
Goleman.
The elements of the Integral Model include five key
distinctions for mapping all our experience. The five key areas
are: quadrants, levels or stages of development, lines of
development, states and types. The model uses the acronym
AQAL (all quadrants, all levels and lines). This can be useful in
helping us see how the various models we use to understand our
experience are related to each other. Each perspective is a partial
truth. The Integral Model provides a framework for integration
with room for more and more of the whole truth to be seen.
_____________________________
* louise@louisenorthcutt.com
X
(404) 434-3235
67
468
Journal of Heart-Centered Therapies, 2010, Vol. 13, No. 2
In terms of ultimate reality, it is only a map and not the
reality itself. Wilber calls it a map of Samsara, or a map of the
‘prison.’ He then adds, “If you want to make a prison break, it is
helpful to have a good map.” (From a 16 minute talk in the
Integral Operating System: Exercise Your Finite Self While
Resting in Infinity.)
1. Quadrants
The mathematical visual tool of Quadrants is created by
declaring that all experience has interior (hidden) and exterior
(measurable) qualities, and both of these qualities can be
experienced individually and collectively. This can be mapped
into four quadrants, with interior on the left side and exterior on
the right; individual above and collective below. (See FIGURE
1.) The upper left is interior-individual experience, the
experience of “I”. The lower left is interior-collective or the
experience of “we”. The upper right is the exterior-individual
experience, or the experience of “it”. The lower right is the
exterior-collective or the experience of “its”. So, when we talk
about any event or experience, we can do so with the awareness
that it occurs in each of these quadrants simultaneously; that is,
subjectively (I; thoughts and feelings), inter-subjectively (we;
relationships and culture), objectively (it; nature and science),
and inter-objectively (its; systems and society). The quadrants
provide a simple way of assessing our own development and
impact in the world.
An example of how Heart-Centered therapists might
experience the four quadrants is in coming to a Wellness
weekend. In circle, we bring our thoughts and feelings
(subjective-I) and choose what to share with the group. It is with
the group we work through our personal process (intersubjectiveWE). We, each individually travel a certain distance, under
varying weather conditions, which sometimes create measurable
changes in the body (IT), as example of individual exterior
(objective) experience. We use public transportation systems, the
monetary system, the internet (ITS) to get there.
Northcutt: Using Heart-Centered Therapies and the Integral Model
INTERIOR
I
N
D
I
V
I
D
U
A
L
C
O
L
L
E
C
T
I
V
E
69
EXTERIOR
I
SUBJECTIVE
THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS
(Intentional)
IT
OBJECTIVE
NATURE AND SCIENCE
(Behavioral)
prehension
sensation
perception
emotion
concepts
concrete operational
formal operational
vision-logic
atoms
molecules
neuronal cord
reptilian brain stem
limbic
neocortex
WE
INTER-SUBJECTIVE
RELATIONSHIPS AND CULTURE
(Cultural)
ITS
INTER-OBJECTIVE
SYSTEMS AND SOCIETY
(Social)
vegetative
archaic
magic
mythic
rational
galaxies
planets
Gaia
societies
groups
nations
FIGURE 1 - The Four Quadrants - with examples (Wilber, 2000)
2. Levels
The second major element of the Integral Model is Levels of
Consciousness. It maintains that we progress to higher levels of
development in waves or stages (and that it happens in all four
quadrants). Some examples of this are: childhood, adolescence,
adulthood as levels of individual values and needs; slavery,
segregation, civil rights as levels of cultural development; atoms,
molecules, cells, organisms as levels of biological and cognitive
evolution; egocentric, ethnocentric, world-centric, kosmo-centric
as levels of moral development. Another important Integral
concept to note: each level transcends and includes the previous
level. Developmental researcher, Robert Kegan of Harvard,
describes the process of adult growth as becoming aware of what
previously shaped perception. In other words, or in HeartCentered therapy, the old conclusion that one was subject to, and
that previously shaped behavior, is brought in to awareness and
held as object at the next level of development, as a new
470
Journal of Heart-Centered Therapies, 2010, Vol. 13, No. 2
conclusion and conscious choice is made to think, feel, and
behave in a healthier way.
3. Lines
Multiple lines of development within individuals (upper left
quadrant) are distinguishable (much like Howard Gardner’s
theory of multiple intelligences). Growth in each of the lines
occurs relatively independently. Some examples of lines of
development are: cognition, moral, needs, values, interpersonal,
emotional, and aesthetics. The cognitive line has significance
because it provides the capacity to be aware of something and to
act on it. This capacity is necessary to grow in the other lines.
Awareness itself is a balancing force. One can use one’s
strongest lines of development to leverage and strengthen weaker
lines.
Developmental lines can be looked at as a series of questions
that life asks us again and again. Here are some examples
(Wilber, 2008, p. 86):
• Cognitive: What am I aware of?
• Needs: What do I need?
• Values: What is important to me?
• Emotional Intelligence: How do I feel about this?
• Aesthetics: What is beautiful or attractive to me?
• Moral Development: What is the right thing to do?
• Spiritual: What is of ultimate concern?
The Kosmos Evolving through Us
The common denominator between developmental lines and
levels is consciousness itself. Consciousness is the space in
which lines unfold and levels emerge. In the Integral Model,
colors are used to talk about world views, or the various altitudes
of consciousness. Altitude has no content, it is an abstract unit of
measure that can refer to any line of development. It is useful to
understand distinct world views as ways of interpreting and
making sense of experience. This allows us to relate and
communicate more effectively with all kinds of people. Each
step up to a higher altitude expresses more consciousness,
complexity, wisdom and compassion.
The figure below (FIGURE 2) is a synthesized list of the
stages of development based on the Integral framework.
Northcutt: Using Heart-Centered Therapies and the Integral Model
71
Altitudes of consciousness can be mapped across all major
developmental lines, such as Maslow’s needs, Piaget’s cognitive,
Graves/Spiral Dynamics’ values, Kegan’s orders of
consciousness, or Cook-Greuter’s self-identity. In the figure
below, the highest altitude is at the top and the lowest
developmental altitude is at the bottom. You see columns for
color label, stage label, description of the stage, and some
limitations of the lower stages. As one develops to higher stages
of complexity and awareness, all the previous stages are included
and transcended. (Reader, please note that the colors do not
correspond to the chakras.)
A major distinction in the figure above is between first and
second tiers. In all the levels of the first tier, individuals whose
values are located in one of these levels each see their
perspective and the ONLY right one, and all others are wrong.
The leap to second tier happens when one realizes that everyone
is at their own developmentally appropriate place. There is no
absolute right or wrong. There is an acceptance of people where
they are and an ability to take their perspective.
Color
Stage
Description
Indigo
Integral
Super Integral,
transcend subject object
separation; intuitive,
flexible, flowing
relationship with
experience
Turquoise
Integral
Holistic, appreciates the
virtues of every level,
not blind to limitations
Teal
Integral
Kosmocentric, can shift
between all previous
levels and see relative
truths
Second Tier (Above.
Development may
continue beyond what
we currently see.)
Recognition that all
perspectives are valid,
true, but partial
Shadow Aspects
Elitist;
Insensitive;
Aloof; Lack of
patience
Journal of Heart-Centered Therapies, 2010, Vol. 13, No. 2
472
Color
Stage
First Tier (Below)
Description
Shadow Aspects
Characterized by
right/wrong thinking,
difficulty accepting
validity of other
perspectives
Pluralistic
(postmodern)
Multi-worldcentric, the
stage of divinity within
all beings, all paths
equal; major social
revolutions, consensus
decision-making
Narcissism;
Denial of
hierarchy;
contempt for
modernism and
traditionalism
Orange
Rational (modern)
Worldcentric, the level
of universal regard,
reason and tolerance;
business striving,
science; strategy,
planning, testing
Materialism;
selfish; greedy;
unscrupulous;
exploitive
Amber (or
sometimes known
as Blue in Spiral
DynamicsGraves/Beck)
Mythic
(traditional)
Ethnocentric, the stage
of absolute traditional
truths, tribal/ethnic
beliefs; myths
Rigid
intolerance;
dogmatic
fanaticism,
prejudice;
fundamentalism;
chauvinism
Power Magic
Egocentric, the world of Violent, ruthless,
magical powers; control moral
at any cost
bankruptcy,
egocentric ethics
Tribal Magic
Obey customs and
taboos
Superstitious;
violent; slavery
to the group;
naive
FIGURE 2 - Levels of Development from an Integral Perspective
4. States of Consciousness
Another major element of the Integral Model is the
understanding of states of consciousness. Again, states occur in
all four quadrants, and at every level. Interior/individual states
may include emotional states, meditative states, creative states or
Northcutt: Using Heart-Centered Therapies and the Integral Model
73
flow states. Exterior/individual examples are peak performance
states, brain wave states, or biological states. Interior/collective
states would include interpersonal relationship states, states of
shared meaning, states of shared emotion, and communication
states. Finally, exterior/collective examples could be economic
states, political states, weather states or states of war.
One of the most interesting areas of current research is on
states. Three primary mind (interior) states are waking, dreaming
and deep dreamless sleep. As Heart-Centered therapists, we are
aware of brainwave states: beta, alpha, theta, and delta. The
Integral Model correlates these measurable (exterior) states to
individual interior mind states of gross waking (beta), subtle
dream state (theta) and causal dreamless state (delta).
Meditative traditions describe additional states that are said
to be attained only by very highly developed meditation
practitioners. Going beyond the three primary states, the first is
called turiya, meaning ‘fourth.’ It is described as being awake
and lucid witness of all experience, through all the states. When
this witness awareness grows strong, one rests calmly and
continuously as awareness, no matter what the body and mind
are doing. Turyatita state (’beyond the fourth’) is a state in which
the stable witness evolves until all separation between the
witness and that which is witnessed dissolves. This state is also
known as “non-dual” and is beyond any subject/object division.
These two states are likely what the Buddha meant when he said,
“I’m awake.”
5. Types
In the final key element of the Integral Model, types, rather
than being vertical or developmental, describe horizontal
differences. It is another way of distinguishing perspectives. For
example, there are personality types, gender types, body types,
blood types, types of democracy, types of transportation, types of
relationships and communication types.
Types help us to locate where we are and to navigate life
more effectively. Understanding your personality type using,
say, Myers-Briggs, can help us see how our choices are
influenced by our type. Do you like to talk it out (extravert) or
think it through (introvert)? How do you process information, by
sensing or by intuition? How do you make decisions, by thinking
474
Journal of Heart-Centered Therapies, 2010, Vol. 13, No. 2
or by feeling? How do you organize your life, by judging or
perceiving? When you are aware of your strengths you can apply
them to your intentions. Also, by identifying our type, we can
see that it influences our perspective. Being able to step outside
our type to see other perspectives is an integral action.
It is useful to know your weaknesses as well, especially in
the area of masculine and feminine qualities. If you go overboard
with the feminine, you may feel joined with everyone, and have
trouble knowing yourself or asking for what you need. On the
other hand, if you are hyper-masculine, striving for autonomy
and transcendence may have you lonely, disconnected and
ungrounded.
Integral Life Practice Core Elements
We’ve outlined the core elements of the Integral Model
(AQAL) all quadrant, levels, lines, states and types. Integral Life
Practice is a way of looking at three kinds of health: horizontal,
vertical and essential. Horizontal health is caring for ourselves at
our current level of development, fulfilling the possibilities for
awareness and aliveness. Vertical health insures our growth and
development into greater consciousness, complexity and
wisdom. Essential health has to do with our attunement to selfrealization, only-ness/is-ness/unity and the mystery of every
moment.
The core modules of Integral Life Practice suggest healthy
practices for body, mind, spirit and shadow. Body practices such
as yoga, dance, strength training, and martial arts are employed
to exercise the gross physical, subtle and causal bodies. The
practice for the mind includes, among others, reading and study.
For the spirit: meditation, prayer and chanting, participation in
spiritual community or doing service (seva) in one’s community
are some of the practices. Toward the end of the article, we will
outline the Integral Life Practice for spirit: the 1-2-3 of God.
Practices for shadow work include therapies such as art, music,
dance, psychotherapy, dream work, journaling, and transmuting
emotions.
The practice from the Integral Model for working with
shadow material is called the 3-2-1 Shadow process. We will go
deeper into this process as we move forward into speculating on
Northcutt: Using Heart-Centered Therapies and the Integral Model
75
new ways of using the Integral Model combined with HeartCentered therapies for shadow identification and integration.
What Is Shadow?
The shadow aspect of the psyche refers to that which is
hidden from the light of awareness. It is the part of the self that is
split off, rejected, denied or projected. These parts of the self,
drives, needs, feelings, and potentials are repressed. These
repressed shadow potentials then find their expression as
neurosis, or self-defeating behavior. It is this behavior that tends
to shape life outcomes, apart from conscious choices.
The purpose of shadow work is to undo the repression, to
reintegrate the hidden material, improve psychological health,
and lead us to better shape life outcomes through greater
conscious choice. Some of the benefits of shadow work are
freeing energy used to repress and hide, relieve pain and
suffering, and make the move from stagnation to growth.
Further on in this article, the importance of shadow work
will be discussed in relationship to spiritual awakening and
integration of an awakened life.
Identifying the Shadow
Once we have healed the victim part of our psyche and our
reactive conditioning, we know we are 100% responsible for our
experience of life. It is shadow work from here on out.
The shadow can be found any time we become emotionally
triggered, strongly attracted or repelled, agitated, frozen,
disoriented or withdrawn. It may also be thought of as any
situation where you can’t fully, completely and comfortably be
yourself. The shadow can have a repressive and a reactive
aspect.
The authors of the book Integral Life Practice suggest that
Shadow is also identified by the symptom that manifests from
its original hidden form. For example, being rejected and feeling
as if “nobody likes me” could be a manifestation of a rejecting
shadow, or “I reject you.” The symptom of sexual dysfunction
could manifest from an “I won’t give him/her the satisfaction”
shadow. Feeling obligated “I have to” may have a shadow origin
of desire “I want to.” “I won’t” manifests from “I can’t”; hatred
manifests from self-hatred.
476
Journal of Heart-Centered Therapies, 2010, Vol. 13, No. 2
Secondary, inauthentic, projected emotions and drives are
translated to their primary, authentic forms in shadow work. For
example, the shadow symptom of ‘resentment of outside
pressure’ could manifest from a ‘personal drive.’
Once the shadow material is identified it becomes important
to feel and own the authentic emotion that is the root cause of
the symptom. Meditation may help to be in touch with the
infinite Self, to witness the symptom, and to cognitively see the
original shadow form. It is important to note here that meditation
alone may not be enough to fully metabolize*, bring into
awareness and reduce the emotional charge of the projected
shadow. One also needs to be in touch with the raw energy of the
primary emotion that has been denied, to transmute that
emotion, and see what needs to be shifted and acknowledged.
Acknowledgment of the authentic emotion transmutes into
the liberated energy. Using the example of a ‘personal drive,’
acknowledged; it may transmute into ‘efficiency and
effectiveness.’ Other examples include: ‘sorrow’ transmutes in to
‘care and connection’; ‘fear’ into ‘present, embodied awareness’;
‘anxiety’ into ‘surrender and spaciousness’; ‘rage’ into ‘the
energy to overcome obstacles.’
*Incidentally, I’m using the word “metabolize” in more than
a metaphoric sense. We are working through our physical and
subtle bodies to bring the light of consciousness to our repressed
and reactionary selves, and grow our awareness and skill at
managing our physical, emotional and mental energies. When we
use this embodied life to do our personal shadow work, we are
working to free the collective of victim patterns and projections
as well. We are metabolizing victim patterns through our
physical existence with awareness.
3-2-1 Shadow Process Using Heart-Centered Therapies
Look at where you, or your client, can’t be comfortably at home
with yourselves. Here is a practical list of questions to help you
identify possible shadow areas:
• Is there some reality in your life that you refuse to accept?
• Are there people you feel really uncomfortable with?
• Are there locations to which you are really uncomfortable
going?
Northcutt: Using Heart-Centered Therapies and the Integral Model
77
• Are there certain conversations you are very
uncomfortable, restless or bored with?
• Do you feel frustration with big business, government,
religion or some other institution?
• Do you feel extreme agitation around matters of civil
rights, or ecology?
• Do you have issues with authority? Power struggles in
relationships?
• Do unfounded pseudo scientific claims drive you nuts?
• Is the subject of death and dying something you avoid?
• What are some of the things you avoid?
• Identify a dream image that has a strong charge.
• Identify a body sensation that is a distraction.
Look for polarizing beliefs and decisions about:
• Survival/death
• Magic/mythic/tribal
• Power
• Religious tradition (traditional)
• Science and achievement (modern)
• Ideas of fairness (post-modern)
a. Using Hypnotherapy
i. Identify the most resent time you (or the client) was
feeling polarized or emotionally triggered, attracted or
repelled. Pick a “difficult person”, a dream image or
body sensation.
ii. The aim of the next step is to identify the source
experience, feel raw emotional energy at the source and
then process the emotions, identify old and new
decisions.
1. Perform 3-2-1 Shadow Process
a. 3-talk about it - The thing bugging you, the
shadow element - hold it in mind and observe,
explore, don’t minimize, see and feel it fully.
Talk about it in third person pronouns, and say
what bothers you about it, ‘him’ or ‘her’ or
‘them’.
b. 2-talk to it using second person pronouns (“you”
and “yours”) - resonate and be in relationship to
478
Journal of Heart-Centered Therapies, 2010, Vol. 13, No. 2
it. Allow yourself to be surprised by what
emerges in the dialog. Ask:
i. Who are you?
ii. What is your purpose?
iii. What do you want?
iv. What do you need to tell me?
v. What gift do you offer?
c. 1-talk as it - Be it. Take its perspective and
speak as it. See the world entirely from the
perspective of the disturbance. Discover your
commonality, in what ways are you the same?
Feel the excluded drive or feeling until it
resonates as your own.
iii. What is the unconscious reactivity (old decision)? What
is the new conscious responsibility (new decision)?
iv. Reclaim ‘not me’ by owning denied shadow material.
v. Choose new freeing, unity-based decision, allowing the
previously excluded reality. Then, transmuting
emotions: state how the new, freed energy previously
taken up by denial, will be used creatively.
b. Psychodrama
i. Use similar process as for hypnotherapy, using all the
steps outlined above.
ii. In psychodrama, the group helps to metabolize the
shadow material with movement and role playing. Use
group members as shadow voice, and as the voice of
one’s self speaking to the shadow.
iii. Integration - After new decisions have been made and
anchored, test the original triggering source for healthy
response.
1. Check to see if original trigger is no longer
polarizing
2. Can fully be oneself (empowered) around it (shadow
object)
3. See it as part of Self/Divine – Transmuting
Emotions, i.e, what is the gift in the denied emotion.
c. Breathwork Facilitation
i. Identify the triggering shadow element
ii. Facilitate the client in the 3-2-1 process (see above under
hypnotherapy). Briefly, 3) See it and describe it
Northcutt: Using Heart-Centered Therapies and the Integral Model
79
completely, 2) Speak and relate to it, and then 1) Speak
as it. This can be done before breathwork or during.
iii. Use the breathwork to express and release the hidden
feelings, and repressed raw emotion.
iv. After the breathwork, process with the client what new
decisions and behaviors are possible.
Toward a Stable Awakening and Self-Realization
Saniel Bonder is a spiritual teacher and founder of Waking
Down in Mutuality. He is also a founding member of the Integral
Spiritual Center. We talked about the importance of working
with shadow material as it arises in the process of selfrealization. He speaks of shadow material becoming activated in
the transmission field. This transmission field is the “we” space,
or communal field between an adept self-realized therapist or
teacher, and the seeker or client. He describes transmission in the
book Waking Down as, “effortless and spontaneous radiation of
the bodily realization of Being.” In a personal interview with
Saniel in January 2010, he stated, (and it is printed here with his
permission):
(In mutuality) the transmission field activates more shadow material...a
spontaneous, mysterious activation that releases sequences of previous
shadow identity fragments in to the “light” of participating conscious
awareness. The more that is released, the person goes through the process of
not just working on shadow material, but becomes those qualities in
themselves in a relatively unbuffered way. That very dynamic releases energy,
attention and awareness in ways that have been cut off, numbed out or frozen
in the psychic and cellular life of that individual.
The process that they then go through can be quite challenging, and at
other times isn’t. What winds up happening, the energy, attention and
awareness, as if frozen out of the individual’s resource reservoir, becomes part
of them and flows in their life. One of the primary factors that is so critical
here, and part of why the awakenings in our work are so authentic and stable,
they are qualities of non-separate participation in everyday reality. The
essence of what is happening as more attention, energy and awareness is
released into this flow, the conscious principle is empowered, allowed and
permitted to recognize its natural status. It just realized, “Oh, I’m here.” The
whole thing has a feeling of a kind of dropping down, because we’ve been
lifted off and out, up to that point, by our dissociations and a fragmentation of
our soul life, psychic life, identity life.
This doesn’t say that these awakenings always conform to traditional
standards of what “seamless non-dual” might mean, in many cases they do.
The individual has the solid realization, “I’m here, and I am this, all this” in a
paradoxical way. So, shadow work is of utmost importance in that
fundamental liberation or awakening process.
480
Journal of Heart-Centered Therapies, 2010, Vol. 13, No. 2
Recognition of “Onlyness”: Non-separate Participation
This recognition of non-separate participation in all our
experience allows us to acknowledge and use everything that
arises, externally and internally, in a conscious way. This stage
of development may also include a relaxing of the witness
awareness, having de-conditioned the victim, and moving more
into spontaneous being. This level of trust in being becomes
possible within the context of healthy community, teachers, and
the cultivation of personal resources to navigate the passage.
Saniel speaks about the importance of shadow work in a
post-awakened stage. He outlines a process for metabolizing the
shadow material in day-to-day living, called 6-step recognition
yoga. The shadow material is not something to avoid, but “ride
out” with awareness of who you are at the core and, ultimately,
transcend the effects. See heartgazing.com for more information.
Then, beyond the establishment of that awakened presence, that’s when
the shadow work gets even more interesting and important. That’s just a
preliminary unification of the spiritual material or consciousness and
phenomenal principles. The much more complete healing of the spirit matter
split occurs in the post-awakened life. There is a much more, in many ways
challenging, and in many ways less frightening or difficult passage after
awakening that goes on for some years. You are that much more released into
instinctive identification with whatever is coming up. You have much less
buffer or distance, than the previous (dissociated) way of being. Now that the
distance is gone, you are just in it. You also get that who you are at the core
cannot be compromised by any quality that comes up and is identified with,
felt into fully and lived out.
My wife, (and teaching partner) Linda’s six step recognition yoga is a
genius revelation insight, because it is so simple. It gets right to it: 1) see it, 2)
feel it, 3) live it, 4) be it, 5) transcend the effects of it, and I added 6) “speak
it” at appropriate moments along the way. Your relationship to that shadow
material changes, especially to the constricting past patterning material. You
have less desire to “get over” and be beyond the new you that is coming in
from the future. Six-step recognition yoga describes what you instinctually
and rapidly do, more and more, in your awakened participation.
In this quote from Senior Waking Down teacher, C.C. Leigh
(italics added), she speaks of the shift from transcendent
witnessing to embodied awakening, and the ability to experience
multiple perspectives.
In the fullness of a timing we can neither predict nor control, and
sometimes after a prolonged phase of transcendent witnessing, those who are
destined for an embodied awakening sooner or later experience a remarkable
shift. Instead of being able to experience only one perspective at a time, the
awakening person discovers something they could never have understood
Northcutt: Using Heart-Centered Therapies and the Integral Model
81
until they experienced it directly: the paradox of simultaneity. As if there were
a split screen, the perspective of infinite consciousness exists at the same time
as the finite human one complete with all its feelings, sensations, thoughts,
and emotions. Rather than stabilize in a transcendent sort of awakening, they
begin to experience the merger of infinite and finite, consciousness and
matter, divine and human. They are becoming divinely human.
Regardless of which aspect of Consciousness is awakened first,
embodied awakening is said to have occurred when the paradoxical
experience of being both impersonal consciousness and personal human being
fuses into a seamless unity, or sense of “onlyness”, that includes all of life and
creation. While your self-sense or identity as you continues to function, it is
simultaneously transcended by a recognition that you are made of the same
essence as everything else and are an integral part of something far greater
than your limited human perspective. This is realized both experientially
through various possible types of revelatory experience, and also tacitly, as a
continual background knowing that effortlessly co-exists with whatever else is
in the foreground of one’s attention, and inaugurates a new stage (not a state)
of evolution. Although this shift is permanent and irreversible, (it) requires
integration for its full potential to be realized.
Another way to describe this shift is that unbound impersonal
Consciousness has landed or taken birth in and as your human body-mind and
is beginning to function in a new way. Inexplicably, the subjective experience
is not one of being taken over by something foreign, but of your true Self
finally becoming fully awake and free to be who you most truly are.
Integral Life Practice: Spirit and The 1-2-3 of God
The Integral Model’s suggested practice for spirit is the 1-23 of God. In this practice, knowing and feeling the ultimate
mystery of existence, whatever your spiritual connection, is
acknowledging that we are related to the spirit through
perspectives. The perspectives through which we are related to
each other are no different from the perspectives through which
we are related to the ultimate. We contemplate and think about
the ultimate; a third person relationship (It). We relate to, listen
and commune with spirit; a second person relationship (Thou).
We also (often through meditation) feel the boundaries dissolve,
awaken as inseparable from spirit, and know ourselves as divine;
a first person awareness (I Am).
Conclusion
The Integral Model provides a synthesis of many
frameworks for understanding human development. It also offers
a map of consciousness that allows us to see from many
perspectives. Shadow work is about transcending a stuck
perspective, and making the unconscious conscious. The Integral
Model is a powerful framework to recognize our transformative
potential as Heart-Centered therapists. We all know that Heart-
482
Journal of Heart-Centered Therapies, 2010, Vol. 13, No. 2
Centered therapy is a great vehicle for getting to, and releasing
the raw emotion under the stuck perspective and creating new
possibilities. This metabolization of the shadow allows us to
move through the world and let emotions flow through us like air
through a hollow flute. Ultimately, nothing is refused, denied, or
repressed, but transformed in alchemical process relatively easily
and effortlessly as we go along. We have a recognition of our
non-separate participation with everything that is arising. This
recognition leads to an identification with a larger (infinite)
consciousness, beyond the finite self, and a trust in being as our
finite self that allows for spontaneous creative freedom in each
moment.
References
Bonder, S. (1998). Waking Down: Beyond Hypermasculine Dharmas - A Breakthrough
Way of Self-Realization in the Sanctuary of Mutuality, Mt. Tam Awakenings, Inc.,
San Anselmo, California.
Leigh, C.C. (n.d.). Waking Down in Mutuality, Map of Embodied Awakening, Retrieved
August 29, 2010, from
http://www.wakingdown.org/teacher_content.asp?PageID=140&typ=T
McIntosh, S. (2007). Integral Consciousness and the Future of Evolution; How the
Integral Worldview is Transforming Politics, Culture and Spirituality. St. Paul,
MN: Paragon House.
Wilber, K. (2000). Sex, Ecology, Spirituality: The Spirit of Evolution, Second Edition,
Revised. Boston & London: Shambhala.
Wilber, K. (2005). The Integral Operating System: Version 1. 0 [Illustrated] [Audio CD].
Boulder, CO: Sounds True, Inc.
Wilber, K., Patten, T., Leonard A., & Morelli, M. (2008). Integral Life Practice: A 21stCentury Blueprint for Physical Health, Emotional Balance, Mental Clarity and
Spiritual Awakening. Boston & London: Integral Books.
Biography
Louise Northcutt has Masters Degrees in both counseling and education. She is an
Advanced Clinical Hypnotherapist, Release Therapist and a member of Heart-Centered
Therapies Association and the American Association of Professional Hypnotherapists.
Since 2004, she continues advanced clinical hypnotherapy training with the Wellness
Institute in Issaquah, WA and assists in teaching therapists. Louise is a certified yoga
instructor. She is co-facilitator of the Atlanta Integral Salon, a group that meets regularly
since 2005 to discuss the ideas of Integral Philosophy. Louise lives and practices in
Atlanta, Georgia. You can find parts 1-7 of Louise’s interviews with Saniel Bonder,
commenting on his book Waking Down, on her YouTube channel, MayaNarayani.