The Integral Institute is a think-tank founded in 1998 by American author Ken Wilber

Ken Wilber

Kenneth Earl Wilber II is an American author who has written about mysticism, philosophy, ecology, and developmental psychology. His work formulates what he calls Integral Theory. In 1998, he founded the Integral Institute, for teaching and applications of Integral theory.-Biography:Ken Wilber was...

. The purpose of the Institute is to gather and attempt to integrate the various viewpoints found in a number of major fields of knowledge. For example, the Integral Institute currently has a number of branches including Integral psychology

Integral psychology

Integral psychology is psychology that presents an all-encompassing holistic rather than an exclusivist or reductive approach. It includes both lower, ordinary, and spiritual or transcendent states of consciousness. Important writers in the field of integral psychology are Sri Aurobindo, Indra...

, Integral business, Integral politics

Integral politics

Integral politics is an endeavor to develop a balanced and comprehensive politics around the principles of integral studies. Theorists including Don Beck, Lawrence Chickering, Jack Crittenden, David Sprecher, and Ken Wilber have applied concepts such as the AQAL methodology of Integral Theory to...

, Integral medicine, Integral education

Integral education

Integral education refers to educational theories or institutions which are informed by integral thought.-Development:In the teachings on education of Sri Aurobindo and especially those of his co-worker The Mother, Integral Education is the philosophy and practice of education for the whole child:...

, Integral ecology

Integral ecology

Integral ecology is an emerging field that applies Ken Wilber's integral theory to environmental studies and ecological research. The field was pioneered in the late 1990s by integral theorist Sean Esbjörn-Hargens and environmental philosopher Michael E. Zimmerman.-Teachings:Integral ecology...

 and sustainability, Integral law and criminal justice, Integral art

Integral art

Integral art can be variously defined as art that reaches across multiple quadrants and levels, that transcends and includes all limited forms, interpretations, or perspectives, as the belief that every human being is creative and that art is integral to all human endeavours, or simply as art that...

, and Integral spirituality.

This attempt to integrate the knowledge base of a particular field is based on the notion that differing opinions are often true but partial versions of actual reality. Various schools of thought in a particular subject, then, rather than being winner-take-all competitors, are seen as unique but partial contributors to a more realistic or Integral whole. These schools of thought can be likened to the parable about the blind men standing around the elephant

Blind Men and an Elephant

The story of the blind men and an elephant originated in India from where it is widely diffused. It has been used to illustrate a range of truths and fallacies...

 each describing what they feel - one feels the elephant's feet, one feels the ears, the trunk, etc. Integral theory

Integral Theory

Integral Theory is a philosophy posited by Ken Wilber that seeks a synthesis of the best of pre-modern, modern, and postmodern reality. It claims to be a "theory of everything," and offers an approach "to draw together an already existing number of separate paradigms into an interrelated network of...

, in a nutshell, says that these viewpoints can be integrated to create a more complete and accurate version of reality.

Integral Institute outreach is occurring through a variety of projects. These include the Integral Institute Workshop Series, Integral Naked, Integral Life Practice, Integral University, and the Integral Spiritual Center. Notable members include Stuart Davis

Stuart Davis (musician)

Stuart Davis is an American contemporary musician and songwriter. He has been performing throughout the United States and Europe since 1993...

, Alex Grey

Alex Grey

Alex Grey is an American artist specializing in spiritual and psychedelic art that is sometimes associated with the New Age movement. Grey is a Vajrayana practitioner. His body of work spans a variety of forms including performance art, process art, installation art, sculpture, visionary art, and...

, Deepak Chopra

Deepak Chopra

Deepak Chopra is an Indian medical doctor, public speaker, and writer on subjects such as spirituality, Ayurveda and mind-body medicine. Chopra began his career as an endocrinologist and later shifted his focus to alternative medicine. Chopra now runs his own medical center, with a focus on...

, Michael Murphy

Michael Murphy (author)

Michael Murphy is the co-founder of the Esalen Institute, a key figure in the Human Potential Movement and author of both fiction and non-fiction books on topics related to extraordinary human potential.- Biography :...

, Roger Walsh

Roger Walsh

Roger N. Walsh is an Australian professor of Psychiatry, Philosophy and Anthropology at the University of California, Irvine, in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, within UCI's College of Medicine...

, Don Beck, Larry Dossey, Jon Kabat-Zinn

Jon Kabat-Zinn

Jon Kabat-Zinn is Professor of Medicine Emeritus and founding director of the Stress Reduction Clinic and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Kabat-Zinn was a student of Zen Master Seung Sahn and a founding member of...

, Ed Kowalczyk (from the band Live

Live (band)

Live is an American rock band from York, Pennsylvania, composed of Chad Taylor , Patrick Dahlheimer , and Chad Gracey . Lead singer and principal songwriter Ed Kowalczyk left the band in November 2009....

), and others.

Integral Research Center

Integral Research Center provides support, including student grants, in the field of Integral Research (IR). The methodologies supported use the post-metaphysical position of Integral Theory and its practice to explore many phenomena in multiple disciplines. Among their grants is the Indigo Award for students who successfully apply Integral principles. The group's senior researcher is Sean Esbjörn-Hargens, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Integral Studies Department and Program Director of two Master of Arts degrees at John F. Kennedy University

John F. Kennedy University

John F. Kennedy University is a nonprofit, private university located in Pleasant Hill, California, with satellite campuses in Campbell, Berkeley, and Costa Mesa. It was founded in 1964 to focus on providing continuing opportunities for non-traditional higher education. Enrollment is approximately...

.

Integral Spiritual Center

Integral Spiritual Center began as a collaborative endeavor bringing together respected spiritual teachers in the world today, who, in addition to fully embracing their own particular paths, came together to explore a trans-path path to the future. Through three teachers' gatherings, three seminars, numerous one day events, dozens of conference calls, and a web presence, ISC has worked to "nourish the vision of Integral spirituality" and share it with thousands of practitioners around the world.