Monday, August 09, 2010

Clarifying My Role as an Integral Blogger

My purpose and my goal here at IOC has NOTHING to do with bringing down any spiritual teachers - if I call them to task on ethical standards from time to time, I am hoping to serve the community, not act as a clearing house for allegations and suggestions of unethical behavior.

I seem to have become the go-to person for all information on Marc Gafni, likely because all other critics have been scared off - but he is not part of my agenda as an integral blogger.

I understand that there is a lot of frustration in the integral community about his continued prominence in integral teaching - however, nothing I say or do is going to change that, or change Gafni's behavior. Moreover, it will just make me a target for his retribution, which I can handle, but I don't need the hassle in my life.

I plan to take part in whatever comes of the integral ethics project - but even that is not about Gafni, but about providing a safe place to bring ethical violations in general. Let's all take a wider perspective, please.


2 comments:

Shoshi said...

It's unfortunate that the drama of Marc Gafni has landed in your lap; I'm sure this is not easy for you. You're right, there's definitely a lot of impatience and frustration amongst people who have been watching his rise in the Integral world -- supported by endless lies and distortions about his history by him and his supporters -- knowing from past experience that as his karma catches up to him, his leadership will only lead to more personal trauma and organizational implosions.

It would be great if a blog were created along the lines of What Enlightenment??! -- http://whatenlightenment.blogspot.com/ -- which has become a useful and powerful site for former followers to share the even more horrific abuses of Andrew Cohen, another FOK (Friend Of Ken).

In the meantime, thank you for keeping the issue open. It is important and necessary. I hope you get all the support you need to stay balanced and protected, and not let this overwhelm you.

Nathan said...

Actually, it's possible that your writings about Gafni and others may be helping to slowly change the bland acceptance of misdeeds that seems kind of prevalent. It could just be a tiny drop, but drops add up.

This seems to be one of the interesting things about blogging - if you do some digging, and provide a little insight or space for discussion, it can quickly snowball into something else entirely. Sometimes, that's great. Other times, not so much.