JOHN´S SERVICES
John Kesler is available to share IPP as well as to speak, teach, facilitate and consult with regard to societal flourishing and transformation. In addition, my colleagues and I mentor communities in the context of a global environment through the non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, which I founded and chair, the Salt Lake Center for Engaging Communities (SLCEC) You will find additional information on this web site regarding SLCEC.
The IPP tab section below provides a brief description of John's Integral Polarity Practice. At the bottom of that section is a more thorough introduction to IPP.
John is available to facilitate mentor IPP on an individual and group basis, and offers half day to one week workshops. See the calendar.
The other tab provides a descripton of social change services. At the bottom of that section is an article on a new integral social and political movement.
BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO INTEGRAL POLARITY PRACTICE
John Kesler has developed a meditation and awareness practice which he has named integral polarity practice (IPP). It is grounded in the big mind process, in which John was one of the first to be certified as a large group facilitator by Zen master, Genpo Roshi, the founder of the process. The big mind process enables a person to access non-dual awareness or big mind and other transcendent states of awareness through an application of voice dialogue, a Jungian therapeutic technique. John integrally informed the big mind process with developmental and other integral perspectives as well as other aspects drawn from other spiritual traditions particularly his own Mormon tradition. Ultimately, by John inhabiting a new world space created by all of the above, IPP essentially flowed out of him in the context of facilitating others and his own practice over a number of years. IPP makes no assertions that it is an exclusive path, but rather IPP provides a rich meditative and awareness practice which can complement any approach to life or spiritual practice.
IPP reflects an understanding of human psychology, eastern and western perspectives, and tantric practice which appears to be unique. As Ken Wilber the leading philosopher who has perhaps the most comprehensive grasp of the traditions of both East and West has commented:
There is nobody doing more leading-edge work on the integration of Eastern and Western approaches to consciousness and growth than John Kesler. His fully integral approach includes conventional and contemplative dimensions of psychology and spirituality, spanning body and mind and spirit and shadow, a truly remarkable and effective approach. I give his work my highest recommendation.
In addition John has explored and charted how aspects of energy and consciousness show up in archetypal polarities through the entire spectrum of human development. As Susanne Cook-Greuter, perhaps the leading researcher and scholar of higher ranges of human development has observed:
John Kesler has created the richest matrix that covers development through the whole spectrum of consciousness from birth through personal individuation into the heart of Big Mind. Kesler provides exquisite detail within an elegant and comprehensive structure. His polarity map illuminates the still points between polar opposites at 20 or so junctures along the way. By clarifying just what the fundamental tensions are he has deepened our understanding of human development and experience in a profound way.
Also very distinctive in this practice is the discovery of the same five themes which pervade every aspect and dimension of life experience. The five themes are physical / gross, relational / subtle, aware / causal, the ground out of which the three themes emerge, and their integrated expression. Through IPP life become an aesthetic experience of the integration, interpenetration and flow of the themes.
In any event IPP tends to be a practice which engages the person on multiple levels, triggering differentiation through more discriminating awareness and moving toward integration and transformation, with the impact over time of increasing awareness and capacity in multiple dimensions. An IPP practitioner, Terri O Fallon, a scholar and professor of human development and integral studies, and a partner in the Seattle consulting firm, Integral Pacific, has noted:
Integral Polarity Practice is the only approach I am aware of that systematically integrates states within each and all levels of development. His practice brings in thematic polarities we each have within ourselves, and I am deeply moved by the integration of so many aspects of life; it is an ascending and descending practice, integrated; it is a practice of states, and developmental stages integrated; it is a practice that can be facilitated at first by a teacher, and self facilitation can be learned; it opens into both virtues and shadows. It can be easily used and embraced by an atheist as well as a devoted spiritual practitioner of any path; it is complex, and yet so grounded and simple. It is a practice path that has helped me become intimate with parts of myself that I didn't know existed.
For the full introduction to the IPP click HERE.
Social and Political Services
John T. Kesler consults, facilitate, lectures and writes regarding integral approaches to:- social and political theory and practice
- a new integral social and political movement
- community flourishing, and transformation in a global environment
- community assessments, convenings, visioning
- seven levels of civil reciprocity, civility and civil-ization
- community dispute resolution
- local/global networks and learning communities
- leadership
- effective social activism
- religious liberty principles in community and particularly in schools
- health care reform through a lens of community, wellness and responsibility
- next steps in education
- new models of politics and governance
- awareness and meditation practice as an integral element of social activism
- integral life practice as a foundation for social activism
For the full introduction to the Civility click HERE.