We need to understand something about stages of psychological development in order to understand this, so let’s start with a basic example of how our psychologies develop through greater levels of complexity, as we go through our human journey throughout life, since birth.

Let’s say you have a tennis ball that’s red on one side, and blue on the other.

If you hand it to a three year old child (for example), with the blue side facing them, and ask them what colour they are looking at, they will say “Blue”.

But if you ask them what colour YOU are looking at, they will ALSO say “Blue”.

Conduct that same experiment with a five year old (again, say, as an example), and whilst they will tell you they see blue, they will be able to appreciate that you will be seeing the red side.

This indicates a development in psychological complexity, because the second child is able to take your perspective; they can take the perspective of another person.

Further along the developmental chain, then, and into adulthood, we have some individuals who can make a deeper distinction that there is a difference between themselves, and their own mind.  They can see the mind as an object that they are aware of – and this has a very beneficial effect when it comes to health.  Let’s see…

Integrating Mind and Body

Imagine you are doing a jigsaw puzzle with only two pieces.  Pretty easy huh?

Each of the two pieces are in front of you, and you have only to put them together.  A piece of cake!

But this is only simple because you can take a perspective of both pieces as objects.

Consider these two jigsaw pieces as ‘the mind’, and ‘the body’, and you can see that integrating mind and body is possible - both are ’in front of you’ - but what if you think you ARE your mind? …and the body is there to serve that, mostly for pleasure (through eating rich foods and drinking alcohol, say)?

Here, one cannot take an objective perspective of the mind.  Mind is perceived as being subjective – the observer, rather than being one of the two things you want to integrate and make work together as a whole.

So in this instance, of a person identifying directly with the mind, an individual is unable to integrate mind and body because the individual is unable to hold both as objects in their awareness.

It’s like trying to put the two jigsaw pieces together when one is behind your back – or rather inside your head!

When the mind and body cannot be integrated as a single, functioning, overall whole, we are only able to make less integrated decisions about how to use our body – it might, for example, be used for entertainment, or we might put upon it to occupy our mind’s needs at its expense, or even exercise for unbalanced reasons, to meet an intellectualised goal or self-image, say, resulting in health that is less optimum than is possible with an integrated perspective.

You can still have health at the previous levels without this, but it’s not informed and run by this higher capacity.  It’s not mind-body integrated.

Incidentally, this level of perspective, the sixth, also begins the stages of ‘transpersonal’ or what might be called genuine ’spiritual’ stages of development, the same transcended perspective that is aimed for by meditation, the classical purpose and goal of which is to dis-identify with the Finite Self.

Integral philosopher, Ken Wilber, who coined the phrase ‘the Centaur’ for this stage, explains it thusly;

“Yes, fulcrum-6. The basic structure at this stage is vision-logic…

“But vision-logic adds up the parts and sees networks of interactions…  When the self’s center of gravity identifies with vision-logic, when the person lives from that level, then we tend to get a very highly integrated personality, a self that can actually inhabit a global perspective, and not merely talk about it.

“So the highly integrative capacity of vision-logic supports an equally integrated self.  Which is why I call the self of this stage the centaur, representing an integration of the mind and the body…

“…I have always liked the summary of Broughton’s research: at this stage, “mind and body are both experiences of an integrated self.”

“…precisely because the observing self is beginning to transcend the mind and the body, it can for just that reason begin to integrate the mind and body.  Thus, centaur.

“The observing self then begins to differentiate from the mind and to see it as an object.  Since it is no longer exclusively identified with the mind, it can integrate the mind with the other components in awareness, with the body and its impulses.  Hence, centaur – mind and body are both experiences of an integrated self.” – Ken Wilber

- Taken from A Brief History of Everything.

This is why, in my article on social and global development for Integral Leadership Review, I say;

“Has the importance and practice of listening to the body been informed and taught, and then followed up with the suggestion to integrate the mind with the body, which is something that is not—yet—focused on culturally, and so is a very natural capacity of beautifully flowing with the luminous health of one’s body that only a few people have as yet achieved, but which makes achieving lifelong health so much easier? If you can see your own mind and its wondrous intricacies as an object and a tool that is yours to shape and nurture and define, then you can manage it in order to integrate it with the body! This conclusion has led me to define ‘The 1-2-3 of Health’, whereby step one is listening to the body, step two is distinguishing the difference between the needs of the mind and the needs of the body, and step three is actually having—or developing—the capacity of self-mastery to actually make that awareness count, and take the right action. Outside the much smaller percentage of unavoidable ill health causes, that is where the solution to Western health lies in the Degenerative Disease age.”

You can also click the link below to see my video explanation of The 1-2-3 of Health…

• YouTube: The 1-2-3 of Health

“The needs of the mind are not the needs of the body. If the need for food is in the mind, if the need for sex is in the mind, you cannot satisfy the need.”—Don Miguel Ruiz

This has been quite a complex article, so I recommend you to come back to it from time to time if you need to.  Or even get in touch with me if you’d like help fully understanding it and ‘integrating’ it.

Best wishes ’til the next time.

James Blacker

Related Pages

• The Finite Self is covered in Modules 1. The Universe and The Wisdom of The Self
• …and 2. The Person: Liberation and Ego, Heaven and Hell
• Listening to the Body is covered in Module 8. Awakening to Your Body’s Wisdom

They also help me to avoid arguments by having them in my head rather than with the person in question.

If you play out a conversation with someone in your head, and you know the values they live by, and what they might be likely to say, you may get a sense of when actually saying something may not serve you – either because you are speaking (in this case thinking) from false self or fear-based consciousness, or perhaps you suspect they will.

Of course there is also a place for asking people for their thoughts directly, but this ways still serves to avoid oneself being off-message, before we begin…  …or banging one’s head against a brick wall.

So what exactly is a thought experiment?

Simply it is the playing through of a scenario in your head, to see what might happen, and more importantly how you think and feel about it.

You may play a thought through your head whereby you consider taking on a new role or vocation.  How do you feel about that?  What thought comes up?  If it turns out it feels wrong for you, you may have saved yourself lots of time.

You may also play out in your head the idea of saying something to someone, and discovering that actually you are coming form a position of seeking to control or judge them, and may decide you wish to reign back on doing so. 

You may realise that your attempts at ‘giving’ are attempts at taking in disguise.

Literally anything can benefit from a thought experiment, including whether to go for a run, whether to eat something, whether to buy something, and much more.

“When you know your Inner World as well as you know your Outer World, you may become unstoppable. Your creative impulse from Wisdom and Inner Guidance, to thought, to physical outcome, becomes flawless and uninhibited, as does your acceptance of, and best and truest response to, that which you do not personally determine.” – James Blacker, taken from Wisdom The Course

Best wishes ’til next time.

James Blacker

Related Pages

• Self-seeking is covered in Wisdom The Course Module 2. The Person: Liberation and Ego, Heaven and Hell
• Conditioned choices are covered in Module 4. Adulteration: The Loss of Inner Sense and The Shadow
• And also of relevance is Module 6. The Person: A Tale of Two Worlds

Well known British comedian and TV personality, Lenny Henry, was presenting his thoughts on a programme about the Open University this week and talked about a re-kindling of his own desire for learning – a perfect example of the principle, and wonderful to hear.

He explained that, after having taken up further learning, but then as that particular course had stopped, he realised that that didn’t need to be the end of the matter.

“The desire to learn has been re-kindled in me.  I don’t intent to stop…  because I think learning is everything really.” – Lenny Henry

The essence of this understanding or insight which I have such a passion for conveying has nothing to do with trying to force oneself to like or enjoy learning, but to actually see if, buried under an assumption that we don’t like learning, perhaps derived from childhood and schooldays, overbearing teachers, homework and the like, maybe we actually really liked and had a passion for learning, growing, discovering, exploring and becoming more, before this very natural and human drive in us was quashed by social conditioning. 

We live in a world where, by and large, it is socially understood that adults don’t learn, but how natural is this?  Thinking of learning and growing as something that only applies to children may also lead to stagnation, and stagnation has never been something that has been rewarded by nature.

So my question comes again, and I’ll repeat it for as long as I think the adult population is mostly still missing out on its own passions; What is your real relationship to learning and self-education, beyond and beneath the conditioning, cliche and past negative experiences of it?

Best wishes,

James Blacker

Related Pages

• Module 5. True Education: The Eternal Truths

“My aim is to download just about everything positive and insightful in my brain I can into your brain. This Course does that.” – James Blacker, Author

Course Syllabus

Wisdom The Course invites you to take yourself on the adventure of self-discovery and self-mastery, through the masteries of your own emotions, your mind, your physical body, your deeper perspectives of spiritual awareness, of financial control, of your career and contributions as your life’s path, of your histories, your relationships and your life.

Page Screens of Module One.

It also includes an understanding of the masteries of love, confidence, desire, freedom, genius, integrity and ethics, sensory acuity, positive psychology, effortless authentic communication and intent, inner guidance, the mastery of time and timing, and a passion for uncovering one’s own human potential as the further reaches of one’s own fullness and fulfillment.

The following are the links for summary descriptions of the Three Parts and Twenty Modules of Wisdom The Course…

Sample Descriptions of Part One: You and The Universe

In this first Part of Wisdom The Course, we explore and define the very perimeters of ourselves and the main elements of being that any one person has. We expand this into a full exploration of Ego and Shadow, Emotions, Mind, Body and Spirit, Desire and Unlimited Human Potential.

Sample Descriptions of Part Two: You and ‘Others’

Page Screens of Module Fifteen.

The first Part of Wisdom The Course covers the individual’s relationship to his or her own self. However, we also live in a world of other people, and so this second Part of Wisdom shows the way to success and harmony in that department…

Sample Descriptions of Part Three: Self Mastery

In this third and final Part of The Course we take a further look at Self Mastery, developing something which is known as ‘Sensory Acuity’, and working with what we think of as our ‘Inner Compass’. Then, as part of that, we finally cover Genius and The Mastery of Time.

About The Author

Wisdom's author, James Blacker, is the Founder of Whole Life Whole World.

Wisdom’s creator and author is the Founder of the Whole Life Whole World Integral Wisdom Movement, James Blacker. Click here to find out about James’s philosophies, projects, products and biography.

Coaching and Personal Practice

Click Play to listen to James speaking to colleague,
Gary Hawke, about coaching and personal practice.

Further Features

Journals can be done on any given day, whenever, as and how you wish.

There are also a series of Further Features, including Exercise Sheets, Journal Sheets and Test Yourself Question and Answer sections, which you can print off from the PDF files provided and do at your leisure.

> Exercise Sheets
> Journal Sheets
> Awareness Exercises
> Test Yourself Q & A’s
> The Full Screen Feature
> Key Message Pages

Screenshots From The Course

The images gallery on this page will show you screenshot samples of just a few of the 997 pages of The Course, demonstrating the standard page display, the Main Menus, and a few examples of some of the 52 Key Message Pages. Go…

Intertwined with launching and developing all of the areas, projects and websites of Whole Life Whole World, I have been quietly writing up detailed descriptions to outline the contents of this unique 10 to 20 week, 20 module home study life course, which is also my flagship teaching presentation, or wisdom-based coaching product, with over 102,000 words of wisdom.

The full Syllabus list and summary can be seen here, with links from that to fuller and more detailed summaries of each of the sections.  In the summaries alone, you will find insights on a wide range of life topics, from health and prosperity, to emotions, relationships, communication and time.

A Screenshots Gallery from the course is also available, which can be seen from the homepage, or below.

And you can also find out about the Further Features of the course in this section, which include Journals and Exercise Sheets, Test Yourself Question and Answer sections, personal practice Awareness Exercises, Full Screen display, and 52 Key Message Pages.

Please click here if you wish to buy the course.

Best wishes,

James Blacker

Wisdom The Course Screenshots Gallery

[View with PicLens]

Related Pages

• 1. The Universe and The Wisdom of The Self
• 2. The Person: Liberation and Ego, Heaven and Hell
• 3. What is Love?
• 4. Adulteration: The Loss of Inner Sense and The Shadow
• 5. True Education: The Eternal Truths
• 6. The Person: A Tale of Two Worlds
• 7. Psychology: The Power of Love Consciousness
• 8. Awakening to Your Body’s Wisdom
• 9. Emotional Mastery: Wisdom Opens The Door
• 10. The Power of Self-Honesty: Confidence, Faith and Conscience
• 11. True Success: The Mastery of Desire
• 12. True Success: The Mastery of Desire (Continued)
• 13. Integrity and Integration, Karma and Intent
• 14. Communication and ‘Divine Schizophrenia’
• 15. Relationship Wisdom
• 16. The Mastery of Forgiveness
• 17. Purpose, Contribution, Prosperity and Fulfillment
• 18. Sensory Acuity: Your Inner Compass
• 19. Harnessing The Ever-Available Faculty of Genius
• 20. The Mastery of Time

• An Investment in Yourself
• Buy Wisdom The Course

In the past, a while back, there had been a view that the body was ’second class’, and to be transcended (without being re-included – the mantra of stage development we work from now is ‘transcend AND include’), however, there has since been a recognition of the importance of the body and physical exercise/practice to maintain it.  So the purpose of this article is to give a few examples that I know of about spiritual practitioners who engage in physical activity…

Ken Wilber, if you go to his website at kenwilber.com, demonstrates how he has kept in shape through an integral practice including body modules.

Andrew Cohen, I know also participates in yoga and has an interest in healthy diet.  Whilst at their EnlightenNext London centre, I was interested to ask one of the colleagues there about the vegetarian diet that they put on in their restaurant and the reasoning behind it.  Whilst I wondered whether a respect for animals may be a reason – and I don’t know that it wasn’t, the essence and prime motivation was very much on being in keeping with promoting good health.

Deepak Chopra, when asked how he keeps himself able to replenish his faculties as he ages, replies; “I exercise my mind and my body”. 

Wayne Dyer; “I can’t let an old man move into my body”. 

Gary Hawke, our colleague at Whole Life Whole World, apart from including a Body element into The London Integral Life Practice Group’s programme (as ILP typically does), also goes to the gym regularly.  And, of course, Peter Ragnar has his own unique array of practices.  Readers of our Strength for Life website will have been introduced to his no messing around approach to physical health mastery.  Our other colleague, John Christian, also takes regular exercise at the gym, in yoga, and follows an informed dietary approach which, for him, includes nutritional supplements.  No such denial or renouncing of the body to be seen!

So almost everywhere we look nowadays you’ll see philosophers, thinkers and spiritual teachers who are putting the notion of denying the body to bed, and seeking out expert ways to honour it – incidentally, a development movement which is making new discoveries and reaching new heights all the time now.

As also mentioned on the intro page, this doesn’t mean nobody will ever get ill.  Other forms of illness, sadly, do seem to be able to still occur, and we are aware that Ken Wilber is himself experiencing a particular condition.  The point is, though, that the vast majority can be side-stepped by a sensible, conscious approach, for, as I pointed out, it is Degenerative Diseases that most people in a modern society are dying from, and most of this oriented around one’s own activity – and that is most definitely something that we can have power over.

…and as they say in the ILP Book, this physical body of yours is the only vehicle you can use to become enlightened in anyway.

I for one am grateful to welcome to a new cultural, body-including approach to spiritual practice and activity.

Best wishes for your health and physical vibrancy and power.

James Blacker

Wisdom The Course

This website to explain it all clearly isn’t though, so those interested in taking the course may wish to wait until the website is filled out a bit with the various necessary details.

More to follow.

James

100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

Wisdom is a 20 week home study Life Course that you do off-line through your web browser at home in your own time, and help you to;

Unlock Both Your Highest, and Truest Self
Apply Wisdom to All Areas of Your Life
Understand Your Pure Potential for Success
Enjoy Loving Relationships without Conflict
Spot Limiting Beliefs and Right Actions Faster

“I have personally attended, designed and lead many training courses over the years.  In my opinion, James has done an excellent job in putting this course together.  It can only be of great benefit to those who enrol…  The Wisdom course is a wonderful support programme to help you to move from a purely mental understanding and grasping of wisdom teachings into a direct transcendental experience of reality and true wisdom.” – John Christian of John Christian Seminars.com, Teacher and International Life Skills Trainer