JOSEPH GELFER

You may remember a while ago I had a lively exchange with various members of Integral Life and Robb Smith of Integral Institute about capitalism and money: I claimed integral thought unconsciously perpetuates the capitalist status quo; they claimed I overstate my case and that they promote conscious capitalism (which I am too developmentally challenged to appreciate). I offer an analysis of this in my recent article, LOHAS and the Indigo Dollar: Growing the Spiritual Economy.

This morning’s sales propaganda from Integral Life starts with the question “are you making as much money as you want”? It goes on to flog a new wealth-generating attitude scheme from internet marketer Eben Pagan:

Notice everything going on in your mind and emotions right now, everything set in motion by the question of money. If you’re feeling a bit of a charge, take a moment. Settle into it. Make new use of an old yoga practice, and… Breathe into your checking account. Notice any sensations that may arise.

You probably outgrew your exclusive identification with the achievement mentality a long time ago. You no longer experience your drive for success as who you are. Instead, it is a part of you. But how comfortably does that part sit with you? Does it flow effortlessly into your life or does it keep you up at night?

We’re writing you to recommend a program that will dramatically improve your relationship with wealth and help your achiever do what it does best… to achieve! It was created by our friend and colleague Eben Pagan. Eben is a longtime student of the human potential and personal growth movements with a solid understanding of integral theory and the values of the integral movement. Plus, he is, shall we say… well-qualified to talk about success.

His program, “Self Made Wealth,” speaks to a conventional audience but delivers an exceptional level of insight. If you stick with him, you will soon find that he is a master at re-framing, capable of lifting his audience up from a constricted and confused identification with money into a space of genuine confidence and inspiration.

Do you really need any more evidence to demonstrate how the indigo dollar is privileged in contemporary Wilberian integral thought?

And note how Pagan is described as embodying “a solid understanding of integral theory and the values of the integral movement”: this is yet another example of the ever-expanding posse of “thought leaders” who are assigned the brand of “integral” simply by selling their products and services to the integral community.

Every time a flaky new thought leader is branded, another nail is hammered in to the coffin of integral thought. I know there are plenty of smart folks who hold on to the concept of integral as having value; however, my suggestion is to salvage what you can, call it something else and move on.

Integral is exhausted: abandon it to Oprah Winfrey Network.

I have a new article out called LOHAS and the Indigo Dollar: Growing the Spiritual Economy in the new issue of New Proposals: Journal of Marxism and Interdisciplinary Inquiry.

The article abstract is as follows:

It is well documented that alternative spiritualities can be commercialised and commodified. My aim in this paper is to extend this further by identifying how LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability), which describes a multi-billion dollar marketplace in the United States, seeks to consciously grow the spiritual economy to unprecedented levels. I then provide an example of how this consumer-focused logic is expressed by integral theorist Ken Wilber, resulting in what might be called the “indigo dollar.”

The journal is open access, so you can read the final published version right here.

As I write, Melbourne is witnessing its first “consultation process” in the proposed establishment of Integral Institute Australia.

Honestly, I tried to attend. I even got half way to the venue, but as a Western Suburbs Man, I grossly underestimated the east-bound traffic at 6:30 pm on a Wednesday, and eventually abandoned the journey. I had so many things I wanted to say, too: Maybe it’s best I didn’t make it…

Proudly reprinting a letter from Integral Institute CEO Robb Smith (who dropped by this blog once asking about my “desire to connect,” but when I did clearly had no desire to connect with me), this new initiative is intended to offer “I-I-sanctioned in-country research.”

But for all the scholarly aspirations of the various uses of the word “research,” one thing jumps out at me: Smith frames this process twice in terms of the “market”: “the market consultation process” and “a market exploration process.”

I have an academic paper coming out soon called Lohas and the Indigo Dollar: Growing the Spiritual Economy, which looks at precisely this type of thing: how I-I has positioned itself in the spiritual marketplace as a seller of integral products and services, co-opting Lohas (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability) and spiritual values along the way.

It’s quite easy to imagine the integrally-sanctioned products and services that will come from I-I Australia. Of the current board, we are told: Don Adlam attended the inaugural Integral Psychotherapy Seminar in Boulder; Adam Fletcher has completed the Integral Leader course in Boulder (and “financially contributed to the Integral Institute for 18 months”!); Jennifer Gidley spent three months in Boulder in 2005 as a member of the Integral Institute education committee. These guys will no doubt be happy to on-sell their integral experiences to you in Melbourne. Also of the current board, John Wood has been employed in corporate roles and managed his own business; Bob Millar has qualifications in economics and accounting, and a background in public finance. All the better for keeping good books (I talk a bit in Lohas and the Indigo Dollar about Wilber’s essay Right Bucks in which he waxes lyrical about accounting procedures for sharing the Dharma).

Anyway, I’m sure any day soon we’ll receive a report on Integral Life about how the consultation process has shown that the Australian market is ripe for integral exploitation research, and probably a request for volunteers interested in being on the cutting edge of shifting product consciousness.