A Multidimensional Matrix of Integral Learning

Imagine a geodesic dome, with 30 nodes on its surface, each representing an area or domain of integral practice, all linked together through an Integral Commons that allows thousands of members of these integral domains—from integral ecology to integral politics to integral business to integral spirituality—to communicate with each other, forging a multidimensional matrix of integral learning.

Welcome to the Multiplex, the world’s first Integral Learning Community.  Now under construction and set to launch in the summer/fall of 2003, the Multiplex is not only an integral community of practice, but a crucible of global integral learning.  The Multiplex will pioneer—and exemplify—new modes of being and knowing and working and playing, all based on a more integral life and consciousness.

The Multiplex is a historical first—the first community to attempt to bring integral theory and practice into existence on any sort of widespread scale.  It will link together integral centers, integral salons, integral communities, and integral approaches into a network that itself is integral.  This integral online network, instantly bringing together thousands of practitioners from around the world, will create an enclave of integral consciousness as a seed of tomorrow’s more integral, embracing, compassionate, and inclusive culture. 

The Multiplex is therefore indeed an example of what Toynbee called a Rising Culture.  It reaches beyond (and yet includes) any existing cultural types—beyond the cultural creatives, beyond traditional, modern, and postmodern habits—to create, by its own ongoing learning and self-organizing, a more genuinely integral and embracing culture of consciousness.

What will this Rising Culture look like?  Why don’t you join us and help to determine the answer to this question yourself.  Membership in the Multiplex is open to any individuals who sincerely wish to bring an integral approach to their life, work, relationships, career, consciousness.  Please see Join Us, Multiplex, if you would like to be part of this extraordinary adventure in consciousness.

The Pattern of Practical Wholeness

In the summer/fall of 2003, around 30 websites will go up all at once, linked together through an Integral Commons.  Each of these websites is now under construction, and involves the following:

Each domain site is hosted by one or more of the foremost authorities in that particular field, all of whom are associates of Integral Institute.  General membership to the Multiplex, however, is open to anybody who sincerely wishes to become involved in integral training, practice, and applications.

When you sign on to the Multiplex, you are ushered into the Integral Commons, which is at the core of the geodesic Dome that is the Multiplex itself.  Integral Commons has everything you need to understand and participate in any of the 30 domains of integral practice.  From the Commons, you can click onto any of those domains (which are nodes on the surface of the interlinked geodesic Dome)—that is, you can click onto any of the 30 websites representing a domain of integral practice (Integral Ecology, Integral Spirituality, Integral Medicine, Integral Law, Integral Psychotherapy, Integral Business, etc.).  Membership in the Multiplex gives access to all 30 domains, although individuals often chose to focus on one or two domains that particularly interest them.

Each domain site has a minimum of the following:

                (1) postings of the major seminal writings about that integral domain (such as Integral Psychology, Integral Transformative Practice, Integral Nursing, Integral Ecology, etc.).

                (2) an extensive audio archive of discussions that are already occurring around a particular integral topic (samples of which are available at Integral Naked); these include literally hundreds of hours of audio discussions among the world’s leading integral thinkers, available nowhere else.

                (3) a threaded discussion area (where individuals use their real names—no flaming, no drive-by shootings, but serious dialogue to advance an area of integral practice).

                (4) a starter kit of all of the basic information and practical tools needed to begin applying an integral approach in the particular field—personal or professional—represented by that domain.

                (5) a newsletter on developments in the integral area, presentations, seminars, courses, salons around the world, and news of members’ activities.

But the Multiplex is not a one-way educational site.  It is highly interactive.  It is, indeed, the world’s first Integral Learning Community.   

Integral Learning and the Rising Culture

There are two tiers of integral learning pioneered by the Multiplex.  The first involves each of the integral domains themselves—such as Integral Psychology, Integral Law, Integral Ecology, Integral Education, Integral Transformative Practice, Integral Art, and so on.  Each of those domains—and the many members around the world who are partners in those domains—will pioneer the hands-on practical application of integral principles to their chosen domains. 

That is the first tier of integral learning—namely, all of the partners of a particular domain will form a mega-feedback loop on how to apply the Integral Approach in their domains; which types of approaches work, which don’t; advice and practical tips on how to proceed; trial and error in the application of Integralism.  What works?—and what doesn’t?—when you practice Integral Business, Integral Medicine, Integral Spirituality, Integral Law, Integral Ecology, Integral Transformative Practice, and so on....

However, not only will each domain be pioneering ways to apply integral approaches in their own fields—personal to professional—each of the domains will be talking with each other.  And that is the second tier of integral learning pioneered by the Multiplex.  Not only how can I effectively learn and practice Integral Ecology, but what can Integral Ecology learn from Integral Psychology?  And what can Integral Psychology learn from Integral Law?  And what can Integral Law learn from Integral Art?

In the first years of Integral Institute, we have been amazed at how much of this type of second-tier learning occurs.  Crucial principles of Integral Business have actually come from Integral Art; major breakthroughs in Integral Ecology have come from Integral Psychology.  But then, what else would one expect from an Integral Approach, where everything is connected to everything else? 

The Multiplex will pioneer both of those levels of integral learning, with each domain learning more effective ways to implement the Integral Approach in its own area, and each domain—and all their members—talking to each other about what everybody can learn from... everybody else.

The first version of the Multiplex—which simply call Multiplex 1.0—is now under construction and is set to launch in the summer/fall of 2003. 

But Multiplex 1.0 is simply a huge feedback loop, a community of learning and practice, which will provide—and create—the necessary practical knowledge that will allow us to launch Multiplex 2.0.... which will create the practical learning that will allow the launch of Multiplex 3.0.... and so goes the creation of a Rising Culture of Consciousness.

If you would like to be part of this historical creation, please see Join Us, Multiplex.