Humanity's Team presents the 2016 Spiritual Leadership Award to Ken Wilber

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• published: 06 Aug 2016
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Ken Wilber Receives Humanity's Team 2016 Spiritual Leadership Award On Friday, June 24th we (Humanity's Team) presented Ken Wilber with our Spiritual Leadership Award. The ceremony took place in Denver, Colorado at Ken's home. While it was a much more intimate setting than past presentations, the words Steve Farrell, Humanity's Team Worldwide Executive Director, spoke came from the heart. Since only a handful of us from Humanity's Team Global could attend, those of us present read notes of appreciation for Ken's work and accomplishments from those who could not attend. Some may not be familiar with the history of the Humanity's Team Spiritual Leadership Award, so we thought we'd briefly tell you about it. Shortly after our founding, in 2005, we decided we could help accelerate spiritual change in the world by acknowledging and celebrating those leaders who are spiritually impacting the world in an exceptional way. Humanity's Team has presented the Spiritual Leadership Award eight times previously. Past recipients include Neale Donald Walsch in 2005, Gabriel Avruj in 2008, Archbishop Desmond Tutu in 2009, Andrew Harvey in 2010, Immaculee Ilibagiza in 2011, Barbara Marx Hubbard in 2013, Nelson Mandela posthumously in 2014 and Michael Bernard Beckwith and Rickie Byers Beckwith in 2015. Here are a few words from the speech Steve Farrell delivered: "Somehow life was bound to deliver someone who would feel called to, and who would be dedicated to drawing up this framework and map, and who would make it possible for us to know the territory of us. Someone who would make us aware of dimensions that most of us never knew existed, and who would help us expand our identity and make it awesomely desirable and attractive for us to cultivate our own greatness and to accelerate our evolution. This person is Ken Wilber, and it is for this reason that we are giving you our highest award: the Humanity's Team 2016 Spiritual Leadership Award. We are giving our award to you Ken, as a gesture of immense gratitude for a life given to this task and for developing the Integral Theory that has become a foremost approach within the larger fields of integral studies and meta-theory. Today, the Integral Theory that weaves together the significant insights from all the major human disciplines of knowledge, including the natural and social sciences as well as the arts and humanities, is being used in a wide range of distinct academic and professional fields such as art, healthcare, organizational management, ecology, congregational ministry, economics, psychology, law, and feminism, while helping to pull the many different schools within each field into a more comprehensive whole and revealing how all these fields fit together in a genuine "theory of everything" for today's world. In addition, the Integral Theory has been used to develop an approach to personal transformation and integration, and lately the Integral Life Practice has developed into an all comprehensive Super Human Operating System that includes a comprehensive map of the overall landscape of a human being in his/her process of Waking Up, Growing Up and Cleaning Up." Ken graciously accepted the award and spoke about the importance of the Integral Model. Here is just a sampling of what Ken had to say: ~What are these 5 elements in the Integral Model? We call them quadrants, levels, lines, states, and types. As you will see, all of these elements are, right now, available in your own awareness. These 5 elements are not merely theoretical concepts; they are aspects of your own experience, contours of your own consciousness. ~From an Integral point of view, simply "Waking Up" isn't enough. We are also being called to "Grow Up" (mature emotionally), "Clean Up" (engage in shadow work), and "Show Up" (embody our insight in our daily lives). ~In ten to twenty years, which is really an extremely short time, we will see a dramatic shift in the population who will understand, and care and have concern for all peoples, regardless of race, color, sex, or creed. This is called worldcentric. You won't want to miss the filmed ceremony. It is chalked full of Ken's passion for the work he has done and continues to do. Steve would like to thank Anna-Mari Pieterse, a key Humanity's Team leader based in Pretoria, South Africa, for assistance in drafting this speech. With so much love, The Humanity's Team Global Council