Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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100 of 103 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Innovation (5), value (3)....., March 23, 2007
This is a great kit to introduce putting Wilber's model into practice in your daily life. The theory that underlies it is informed by Ken Wilber's AQAL model which is in my opinion best summarized in his book "A Brief History of Everything." I feel this book has the proper level of editing and accessibility to fully explain the model to the average person. While other books are more detailed, they might tell you more than you want or need to know. I would get this book to accompany the purchase of this item.
I work in psychology and have attended graduate school in an Integral Psychology program. This is a term that Wilber coined and as part of that program I studied Ken Wilber in-depth. Therefore, I am very familiar with his ideas and I feel I'm a good person to evaluate this kit.
Enclosed there are 5 DVDs, 2 CDs and 3 booklets. If the average cost per DVD or CD was $20.00 then one would expect this would be priced at about $140.00. If you add the booklets and the covenience, one might expect this sould be priced at $200-$225. From an economics standpoint, I feel it's priced too high and I want to get that out of the way. It's a big reason why I only rated it a four.
On a more positive note, this makes Wilber's ideas accessible to the average person in a structured, easy to follow program. More importantly, it gives you to the tools you need to put an Integral Life Practice into real world action! This is true for both serious practitioners and busy people who start out wanting bite-sized chuncks of information. In short, it is designed with the needs of modern people in mind.
If you are unfamiliar with what an integral life practice is and why it's important, let me tell you. The underlying theory is that for transformation to occur most quickly, you need to be working at the level of body, emotions, intellect, soul and spirit simultaneously. This will make it more likely that you can transcend and include where you are currently at and results in the fastest progress.
You also need to be exercising your capacities in all four quadrants or domains of human experience, subjective, intersubjective, objective and interobjective (systems). Your capacities also need to be expressed in Self, nature and culture to the benefit of the whole evolutionary spiral of which we are a part. This includes the evolution of consciousness toward higher levels of integration.
Packaging a single kit that addresses this type of practice takes a lot of planning and this is a great starting point. However, serious practioners will need more and they will also need to follow their inner lights toward practices that work best for them. It is impossible to do this in a one size fits all kit. However, the practices are flexible enough and provide you with the support and challenge you need to get started.
I bought my copy of this used to check it out. I personally think it's priced a bit to high. However, given the potential benefits, it may be worth spending a premium. At the same time, I think it may be more important to get more kits out in the world at a lower price and I wish that this is how it was marketed.
The packaging, paper, material and other physical aspects of the product are well thought out and of high quality. Some of the treatment of exercises is a bit superficial, but this kit is very much like a buffet and it would need to be many times larger to cover more areas or cover them more in-depth.
This would be a good kit for the average person to get started or a busy business person to "try on" some of these ideas. One thing I really like about it is that it combined learning with taking action. Like walking, you need to alternate legs i.e. deep learning and taking action to move forward. This kit will help you to do that and in this sense it is worth the asking price because of the planning that went into it and making it appeal to a large population that is diverse. However, this approach also leads to some dilution of intent or impact. I supposse this is inevitable, but perhaps there should be multiple kits for different audiences at various price points. Maybe this will come in the future.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Good Place to Start, July 12, 2008
The ILP starter kit is just that; a helpful right-out-of-the box quick-start tool that gets you going fast. Here is a pre-formed palette of practices to encourage personal growth. I've found the 1-minute versions or longer versions option very helpful--some days there's just more time than others.
The Big Mind session with Gempo Roshi was a profound experience for me--this gets 5 stars. The 3-2-1 Shadow Work session with Diane Hamilton gets a 4; the participants could have been more age-diverse. Despite the focus on 30-somethings you'll still get the idea no matter what age you are and have enough to go on to do your own shadow work.
Some of the things in this kit were not my cup of tea. I won't use the poster declaring my integral intentions to all, for example. That's just not me. Like a tool that does a little of everything, this is a good thing to have at first but soon you'll want more specific tools. This is a good place to start, however, just as it declares. From there you'll have a sense of what's next, no doubt.
For those already fluent in Ken Wilber's work and also familiar with the offerings on the Integral Naked web site, there's very little additional material here. However, this offers a convenient packaging of some of the most important presentations and material. It's worth it; just.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A potential chain-reaction of life-energy, July 2, 2008
This is an incrediblely innovative and one of a kind product. I cannot think of a single thing on this website that could benefit you more. It is an impressive collection of booklets, cds, dvds, and practices for the body, mind, spirit, and unconscious. What is to be marvelled at, however, is the way it has all been unified and integrated, the way the total structure of the life-practice has been carefully thought out (by a group of profound individuals) and naturally selected from a myriad of traditions from around the world. It's expensive but worth it. If you explore, maintain, and expand this practice, it will cause exponential growth in all aspects of your life, a chain reaction of life-energy. If you really want to wake up, you should try this experiential practice.
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