It’s Electric! Welcome to Integral "Scenius"

Crossposted from Integral Life

"Scenius": A word coined by musician Brian Eno to describe "the intelligence and the intuition of a whole cultural scene. It is the communal form of the concept of genius."

Research is teaching us that the most important creative new ideas come not from remarkable individuals but from the interactions of highly creative and collaborative communities.

The history of art and science is all about episodes of scenius: America's founding fathers; Paris in the 20s; the Algonquin Round Table, the SF Beats, the ever-expanding Silicon Valley, Building 20 at MIT, etc. etc.

We keep rediscovering that, in the famous phrase, "we are smarter than me." It's such an obvious theme that we all laughed about our nostalgia for it earlier this year watching Woody Allen's charming Midnight in Paris.

And if you're reading this blog, you're acutely aware that you're (at least sometimes) participating in the remarkable "scenius" of the budding Integral and Evolutionary convergence, a genius scene with no single address.

Is it a movement? A zeitgeist? A meta-meme? An operating system? An academic theory? The call of the evolving Kosmos?

All of these, and yet none exclusively. Whatever it is, it is never far away—always at hand via the web, and in countless Integral and Evolutionary meetups, meetings, seminars, workshops, and informal gatherings all over the world.

"Scenius" perfectly describes what's really going on among us all. Two brilliant co-creative friends in the field of this "scenius", Elizabeth Debold and Carter Phipps of EnlightenNext, began pointing to this phenomenon last year. We don't have to see eye-to-eye about everything, but as we awaken, connect, and press into what's next, we feed each other. Higher-order consciousness co-creates passion and creativity and emergence.

You know what I'm talkin' ‘bout if your life has been changed by the inspirational electricity of the field of scenius that crackles the air in the most alive Integral Evolutionary gatherings. When we come together with open trans-rational hearts, clear integral minds, and grounded evolutionary hands and feet, something amazing happens—it feels like arriving home for the first time in your life.

I remember showing up at the very first I-I seminars. Feeling higher vision-logic intelligence connecting up with openhearted vulnerability and transcendent spiritual ecstasy—I felt like a match had been dropped in a trail of gasoline, illuminating in a flash a vast interior-exterior landscape that created room for me to do the work I was born to do. And I've been engaged with it ever since. The rest (so far) is history (or, rather, Mystery!)

I'm excited and gratified that this year's Integral Spiritual Experience at Asilomar is being designed to facilitate exactly that kind of intersubjective "quantum field effect."

The Integral Spiritual Experience web page cites names like Ken Wilber, Alex Grey, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Andrew Cohen, Stuart Davis, Diane Hamilton, Sofia Diaz, Decker Cunov, Gay and Katie Hendricks, Junpo Roshi, Saniel and Linda Bonder, Jeff Salzman, and many more. And these amazing folks will rock the joint, you can count on that!

But it won't be a "wisdo-tainment" event—the Main Event will be Us—the field of "scenius" we'll all be co-creating together. And scenius can't be directed. It can be invoked and welcomed—then all it takes is to get out of the way!

• Art will be projected onto the main screen.
• Music will be played before and after (and during!) key sessions.
• Our process will progress in a fashion that will optimize all of our creative engagement—with our personal creative projects, and with one another.
• We'll be free to play, to dance, to laugh, to cry, to think rigorously, and (hey, we're integralists) to question everything.

What the design team is dedicated to doing is to maximize opportunities synergy, co-creativity, convergence, cross-pollination, and the dynamism of our collective intelligence.

There'll be room to focus on "my" creativity and creative breakthroughs or creative blocks, but the real point will be to just get together to wake up and love each other and share what's alive, exciting, interesting, and real -- with the sincere intention to catalyze each other and be open to being catalyzed.

When we do that, the creativity of the Kosmos (thank God!) can be trusted to come flowing through. And it really does, especially "when 200 or more are gathered in my name" ;^)

Here again is the link: Integral Spiritual Experience web page

Looking forward to seeing you there,
Terry Patten, From the ISE3 Design Team, with Jeff Salzman and Diane Hamilton

PS: Use my discount code "Patten" and receive $100 off the registration fees.