Alanis Morissette - Healing the Ruptures - a podcast by www.integralnaked.org

One of the most dynamic and live-out-loud artists of our time shares how, over the course of a lifetime and 11 albums, she has come to a deeply integral—and deeply personal—understanding of why "touching on all the bases" is by far the most rewarding way to engage spirituality, relationships, and self-expression.

Alanis Morissette is a glorious example of what it means to talk about living an Integral Life in a way that is fun, accessible, and quite simply the most natural thing in the world. Why would you want to do anything less than touch in on all the bases of one’s life? Actually, it’s a little spooky how spot-on she is, apparently without even really trying. Alanis has this uncanny ability to talk abouta certain dimension of her life, and how she has, over a lifetime, come to a place of inner peace and integration in that particular dimension. The uncanny part is that Ken will then mirror back to her the fact that she just walked us through all the important elements of that part of one’s life, exactly as the Integral Approach would do, but without any unfamiliar technical wording. It’s pretty amazing.

Just one example: Alanis and Ken start the dialogue by talking about what practices Alanis does for her spiritual dimension. She then lists everything from "being still" meditation, to prayer, to the exaltation of singing on stage, to walking in nature with her dogs. Ken then goes on to speak about what we call "The 1-2-3 of God," and how Spirit (or God, by whatever name) can be known and investigated in three fundamental dimensions: 1st-person (I), 2nd-person (You), and 3rd-person (It). Spirit in 3rd-person is the Great Perfection of the Kosmos, the unified Web of Life, and Nature with a capital "N." Spirit in 2nd-person is the great other, the great Thou or You that created the entire universe, a living intelligence infinitely greater than one’s separate self-sense. Spirit in 1st-person is the recognition that at the core of one’s personal experience of consciousness is the pure consciousness of Spirit itself, living as you and through you, in the Supreme Identity of I AMness. Alanis’s "being still" touches on Spirit in 1st-person, her prayer and singing touches on Spirit in 2nd-person, and walking in nature touches on Spirit in 3rd-person.

The next major topic of discussion has to do with the role of relationships in Alanis’s life, and how masculine and feminine types (whether in a man or woman, gay or straight) show up in relationship, and what their primary pathologies look like. To summarize, the masculine dimension in all of us is geared towards autonomy, and the feminine dimension in all of us is geared towards communion. Unhealthy masculine is not just autonomy, but dissociation from relationship. Unhealthy feminine is not just communion, but fusion in relationship. Both of these dimensions have something to learn from the other, and any Integral Approach would be sure to include both.

It’s hard to describe Alanis’s presence in this dialogue as anything other than "delicious." You get the sense that she doesn’t stop smiling for half an hour straight, and her laughs punctuate and liberate almost every other sentence. If for no other reason than to imbibe the joyous nectar of this brilliant soul, we invite you to listen in, and drink deeply of an Integral Life lived full-to-overflowing….

"I think ultimately I was born to help heal the rupture between self and self, self and other, and self and Spirit…."

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