INTEGRAL EUROPE 2nd meeting.
In June 2012 in the city of Berlin, 21 people that represented 14 countries
were gathered, answering the call of Dennis Wittrock to bring together the European
countries that were working with Integral Theory.
I have just come from Budapest-Hungary, where
Bence Ganti (member of the INTEGRAL EUROPE board created in Berlin) invited the
four other members of the board to have
a real physical encounter after having been working for six months through
Skype every fifteen days.
What it was going to be a
board meeting, ended up being the second INTEGRAL EUROPE big encounter, where
representatives of each country have had five minutes through Skype to
introduce themselves and tell the more than 50 Hungarians (plus the five
members of the board -in person at the meeting-) about their integral
activities. KEN WILBER was also present
through telephone call and also TERRY PATTEN, creator of Integral Life Practice
and very well known among the integral circles as Integral Spirituality
teacher, through video call.
Two interesting aspects of
this second gathering in Budapest, on top of Ken and Terry's collaboration,
were, firstly: that the event was cybernetically held by Integral Village, an
integral internet service offered by Ian Mc Donald, member of Integral Europe –
England; and secondly, the presence and
recognition as new members of INTEGRAL
EUROPE of two new countries: Bulgaria and Portugal. The first country was
represented by my dearest Mihaela and Simeon (with which I have teach in
Bulgaria) that came by bus to the venue on a 10 hour ride. They shared about
their more than six years of dedication to teaching Integral Theory and the
existence of their Integral Center in
Sofia. The second country, Portugal , was represented by Ivo Banaco that due to
some technical problems transmitted his presence in the Integral world trough
chat writing.
It was a historical encounter,
not only for being the second one, for using a modern tool for connecting and
for having Ken and Terry join in, but also because Ken announced that seeing
the interest and entitlement that INTEGRAL EUROPE has as an emerging
organization among europeans, Integral Institute (now run by Ken and Clint
Fuhs) has decided to create the first branch of the Institute outside the
United States, precisely in Europe and under the leadership of Bence Ganti (one
of the members of INTEGRAL EUROPE). This is great news as both organizations
will collaborate together in the establishment and development of integral
contents and practices. ¡¡¡ Congratulations Bence, and thanks for a wonderful
blessed meeting in Budapest ¡¡¡
Raquel Torrent