Integral Education: The CIIS Blog

Integral Dreaming: A Holistic Approach to Dreams

By FARIBA BOGZARAN, PhD, East-West Psychology alum, and DANIEL DESLAURIERS, professor in the Transformative Studies PhD program

We are often asked how we came to the idea of writing Integral Dreaming. The book is our collaborative attempt to reveal the complexity and multidimensionality of dreams. Having been part of the dream studies movement since the early 1980s, we realized early on that dreams are a phenomenon too complex to be narrowed down to one discipline or a single author’s theoretical stance. We set ourselves the task of integrating the rigor of science with the wholeness of the multidimensional being.

The concept of Integral Dreaming evolved out of twenty-five years of dialogue, co-teaching and research. We met at the inaugural conference of the International Association for the Study of Dreams (IASD) in 1984 in San Francisco.  At the time, we both were graduate students living in Canada, Fariba studying psychology, researching consciousness and dreams at the University of Regina, and Daniel a doctoral student at Université de Montreal, working on a project marrying cognitive psychology, artificial intelligence and dreams. We were both also practicing artists: Fariba trained in the visual and multimedia arts and Daniel in music and dance.  Every year we met at the IASD conference and attended each other’s presentations. It became apparent early on that each of us, in our unique ways, understood the value of dreaming not only from the perspective of the “hard sciences”, but also from depth psychology and creativity. Before naming it, our approach was already integral.

The intellectual and artistic common ground we shared brought us together as colleagues. At IASD conferences, we participated in dream theater presentations that merged science, archetypal exploration and cross-cultural music and dance (Santa Cruz, 1988 and London, 1989).

At the 1985 IASD conference, Fariba met psycho-physiologist and lucid dream researcher Stephen LaBerge who introduced her to CIIS. Fariba joined his lucid dream team at Stanford Sleep Laboratory. Transferring her courses from the University of Regina to CIIS, she received her MA and PhD in East-West Psychology. Her research explored transpersonal experiences in lucid dreaming. Trained in somatic psychology, art and shamanic studies, she developed Dream Creations as a set of integrative and creative methods to explore dreams. She was appointed as faculty member at JFK University where she founded the Dream Studies program in 1996. Simultaneously, she continued her career as an artist, exploring the connection between arts and consciousness.

Profile of Professor Urusa Fahim, Department of Transformative Inquiry

By ZACK ROGOW, senior editor at CIIS. His writings include a recent book of poems, "My Mother and the Ceiling Dancers," from Kattywompus Press. 

Urusa Fahim brings to her teaching in the Transformative Leadership and Transformative Studies at CIIS an amazing variety of interests and experiences. She grew up in Bangladesh and Pakistan, and has studied or speaks six languages: English, Urdu, Arabic, French, Hindi, and Bengali. She earned a master’s degree in applied psychology at Punjab University, one of the leading centers of learning in South Asia. After graduating, she worked as a clinical psychologist both in private practice and in government-run hospitals in Pakistan, before taking a training in women’s leadership that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) offered.

“That workshop literally changed my career overnight,” she recalls. “I could see the application of concepts I was familiar with in a clinical context, how they could be used to train leaders and entrepreneurs.” By coincidence, the program leader was leaving right after Fahim took the training. Fahim applied to become the new director, and was accepted. She spent the next couple of years teaching women in Pakistan how to become managers, entrepreneurs, and trainers.

She attributes her ability to exercise authority and train future leaders partly to her mother. “My mother had the equivalent of a sixth grade education, but she headed a department in an international hotel. She always told me I could be anything I wanted. It wasn’t till later that I realized that not all girls were being given that same message. Understanding that was a factor in my wanting to train women leaders.”

Courses Only Taught at CIIS: Part II

By ZACK ROGOW, senior editor at CIIS. His writings include a recent book of poems, "My Mother and the Ceiling Dancers," from Kattywompus Press. 

Read Courses Only Taught at CIIS: Part I

California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) has a unique curriculum, partly because of its distinctive academic programs, including Asian and Comparative Studies, Women’s Spirituality, Somatic Psychology, and many others.  The one-of-a-kind courses also reflect the interests of the CIIS faculty, who have deep expertise in research areas that most other universities don’t even touch on.

In academic year 2011–12, CIIS is featuring a number of courses that you can only find at the Institute. Professor Renée Emunah is teaching a class that doesn’t seem that unusual from its title—Integrative Seminar—but the content is completely singular. The class is offered by the Drama Therapy program at CIIS, one of only two accredited and approved programs in this field in the entire U.S. Professor Emunah’s class focuses on a method in drama therapy that she herself pioneered: the self-revelatory performance. Students have the option of creating and performing a 35- to 40-minute self-revelatory performance as their capstone project. The pieces are performed in a theatre for an audience composed of students and graduates of the program, as well as invited guests. The CIIS community also receives an invite.

Upwelling: Coming to Terms with Transition

By TERRANCE BRADFORD-MUHAMMAD, student in the Transformative Studies online PhD program. He is a student affairs professional whose research interests include the transformation of the U.S. higher education system, student retention, communication ethics, and progressive Islam.

I would describe myself as a moderately experienced reef tank enthusiast. For many years I have tried to perfect the art of building a reef, and for many years and with thousands of dollars I have learned the importance of keeping a tank clean. Arguably one of the best ways to do this is through the use of a protein skimmer. It is designed to remove organic compounds from the water before they break down into nitrogenous waste. This waste harms the reef and, if not removed, can ultimately kill it.

One year I decided to “go natural," heeding the advice of a master saltwater enthusiast who blogged that "protein skimming rids the water of vital minerals and nutrients the fish need in order to be healthy.” I took (what became) his useless advice, and just as soon as I removed the skimmer from the tank, my two beautiful (and mated) clown fish became sick and died. They were the first of many others: my live rock turned from the beautiful purple I once knew to a horrendous brown and white, several sensitive invertebrates shriveled up and were “lost at sea,” and I eventually began to fight "the war on algae" all over the tank—on the glass, on the rock, in the filter, and on my snails.

I was devastated. I had followed the directions as listed, and yet, my reef was destroyed. Not only had my creation been destroyed, my MONEY was lost and, as someone who purposefully makes sure the gas pump is empty before replacing it (by turning it upside down for the last few drops), the loss of this money was a financial crisis to me. I think I cried; no, I am sure I did. That hurt. A lot. I went through the five stages of grief like Sally Fields' character in "Steel Magnolias" after her daughter Shelby died. Sadly, there was no Ouiser Boudreaux  to hit. I never understood what I did wrong.

Just last week I arrived home from the Transformative Inquiry Department’s mandatory residential intensive for online students. We meet twice a year for new semester orientation, mentorship, teaching and learning and community building.

Why an Education in the Humanities Matters

By LYNNE H. ROFF, student in the Transformative Studies program, which is an online doctoral program. Lynn lives in Homer, Alaska.

Five days a week I read articles online in academic publications such as the Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed. At least once a week there is an article proclaiming the futility of a doctoral degree in the humanities. These invariably cite the weak job market in higher education, the dwindling likelihood of any financial recompense for the expense of graduate study in the form of a meaningful career, and the questionable psychological stability of anyone undertaking such a course in today’s academic and economic climate. I have only to pick up a newspaper to observe the dearth of employment opportunities for many if not most individuals in our country today.

Everywhere it seems people are wondering what to do to improve their living conditions and the well-being of their families. Increasingly, higher education is pressed to justify programs that cannot be immediately associated with gainful employment and to quantify educational content in the anticipation of financial outcomes in an era in which the avenues for creative social expression and individual employment are changing with dizzying rapidity. What are we to do?

The earth is in need of people who have an understanding of their respective cultures, who have a sensitivity to the cultural heritage of others, and an appreciation for the complexity and interconnection of human society and the environmental concerns of our world. Societies are in need of people who can invent, motivate, and organize sustainable systems of agriculture, economy, and development. Organizations are in need of creative and visionary people who can invent solutions to ongoing problems because they perceive human interactions in new and productive ways.

Today’s problems will not yield to yesterday’s methods. These needs can only be satisfied by individuals whose educational preparation equips them for creative and transdisciplinary perspectives situated within a complex humanitarian context. I am proud to be a student in an organization that is on the leading edge of these educational endeavors. I am grateful to be afforded the opportunity to study in an environment that encourages interactive learning and innovative research, and to be aided in that pursuit by the assistance of an organization whose interests so complement my own.

Education is not about earning a living so much as it is about creating a life. Though there is a place for quantitative outcomes, these measurements cannot hope to capture the essence and depth of individual experience. Individuals who are educated in the humanities create opportunities for themselves and others that are innovative, advantageous, and rewarding within social, spiritual, and financial contexts. These attributes are not luxuries in today’s social climate. They are necessities for the development of human civilization.

When critics decry the humanities for placing awareness of those who have come before us and those who are inhabiting this planet with us ahead of job training, we must hold to these understandings in the knowledge that education in the humanities is the study of human beings, and there is no better preparation for the needs of today’s society and the future of our world.

Of Passion and Transdisciplinarity

By Alfonso Montuori, Professor and Chair of the Transformative Inquiry Department

In the mid-1980s I was looking for a university where I could do my Ph.D. The experience was disconcerting. Every time I walked into a department and sat down to speak with the chair, he or she would mumble something about how interesting my research project was, and then politely add that this was probably not the department for me and I should try…. Well, psychology would point me to sociology, sociology to political science, political science to philosophy, philosophy to anthropology, and then, ironically, anthropology would lead me back to psychology.

I couldn’t help but be reminded of an earlier experience. In my late teens and early 20s I led a band in London. What kind of a band? Well, that’s the problem. We were a pretty good band, quite successful, arguably a lot of fun, definitely wacky, but…nobody could quite label us. We didn’t care, because we played to packed houses and had a good time. But when the record companies would come to hear us they hemmed and hawed. The trouble was, they didn’t know what record store bin to put us in. Was it Rock? Punk? Funk? Comedy?

In the end we almost got signed, but in true anarchic fashion we self-destructed by dancing on the tables of dining record company executives while they were eating at their Christmas party. The execs were apparently somewhat lacking in the humor department although arguably not quite as much as we were overendowed in the youthful folly department. Our inappropriate dancing displeased them even more than our un”bin”ability. So we ended up with a deal on a minor label, and then of course the band broke up.

Compounding matters, I am also a “Third Culture Child,” a rootless cosmopolitan. I didn’t live in the country that issued my passport until my late 40s when I became a US citizen. Again, the question was—where did I fit in? Was I Italian (my other passport)? Dutch (I was born in Holland)? English (nothing like high school and undergraduate to build identity)? But I do my best swearing in Greek, a language I learned as a boy, before learning English. That should count for something, surely.

I mention this because for me the underlying issues are the same. With music and education, I was passionate about something, there seemed to be some consensus that I was not completely off the wall—the band was successful, my ideas were not bad—but none of it fit anywhere. And I didn’t fit anywhere as a person. I was there, the music was there, the issues I wanted to address were there, but the existing categories didn’t recognize us. And it appeared that categories seemed to have the ability to deny the existence of people and things and issues that were patently there. I was homeless. I therefore had to create my home.

And that’s what my dissertation ended up being about: the theory base for a kind of learning environment that was not mutilated by disciplines and seemingly arbitrary restrictions, but fosters creativity, passion, and a focus on issues rather than disciplines.

Fast forward to the 21st century: So what if you’re passionate about a topic, but you don’t fit into a specific discipline? What if you want to draw on knowledge that is appropriate and pertinent to address the issue, but this knowledge lives in several different disciplines? The Transformative Studies PhD at CIIS is designed for individuals who are passionate about a particular topic, but don’t want to be confined exclusively by the boundaries of a single discipline. They are eager to push the envelope and see inquiry as a creative process.

The program encourages students to create, define, and engage the inquiry they are passionate about. Because many of our students don’t naturally fit into pre-existing categories, disciplines, and boxes, the program helps them to create themselves as unique scholars who can participate in the mainstream discourse, but also push the boundaries of that discourse, as any innovative contribution will do. And just to be on the safe side, we strongly advise our students against dancing on tables.