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Parallax Video & Audio Podcast Unique Self 2.0–Year 2 Portal 2: Beyond Shame–Identifying Your Unique Wound of Desire

Watch the YouTube Video Here or Scroll Down to Listen to the Spotify Audio Below

Beyond Shame: Identifying Your Unique Wound of Desire

The Ontology of Touch and Wound (Nega)

In his pre-course podcast with Andrew Sweeny, Dr. Gafni begins by pointing to a core realization in the interior sciences: the original Hebrew word for touch is also the word for wound: Nega.

This is not a coincidence; it is an ontological truth. The wound is where your connection to the real has been broken.

“My wound is, I haven’t been able to touch… I haven’t been touched… The wound is the wound of desire. When my desire has been wounded, when I can’t access and trust my desire, I literally begin to deaden.”

The deepest desire of every particle of existence is to prehend (to touch) all prior experience. Your fundamental desire is to touch that which is real—significance, value, and aliveness. When this unique capacity to touch is rejected or thwarted, a unique wound is created. To heal, you must engage this wound directly.

The Divine Nature of Desire (Nachash/Messiah)

We live in a world where desire is often demonized, shamed, or hijacked by advertising. This course offers a radical re-reading of our most foundational myths.

Dr. Gafni explains that a deeper reading of the Garden of Eden story reveals it as a tantric text—a trickster story where non-rejection is key. The snake (Nachash) is not the voice of evil, but a disguise for the new human (Messiah).

  • Desire is the Name of God: The realization is that desire itself is the animating force of reality. The clarification of your unique desire is, therefore, a divine process.
  • Cosmic Eros: Reality is not a mechanical system but an erotic process unfolding every second. From the precise “rates” of chemistry that lead to life (abiogenesis) to the movement between two beloveds, it is all an unfolding of unique eros. Your life is literally a product of reality’s unique erotic intention.

The course is about engaging this truth. You must clarify your unique desire, which means engaging the fundamental ways in which your desire has been wounded.

Clarification: The Path to Wholeness

Dr. Gafni emphasizes that we must stop mistaking impulsivity for desire. Like the monk who “brackets” mechanical desire to access his deepest heart’s desire, we need the tools to clarify our own unique configuration of longing.

You cannot achieve mental health, fulfillment, or joy without desire. The transformation of your unique wound is what literally births you into reality, turning devastation into a deeper capacity for wonder.

We live in a world that is “always already home” and yet is ripped apart by war and suffering. This course holds that tension—the unbearable joy of Eros and the unbearable intensity of suffering—as the only way to become whole.

A new Parallax course with Dr. Marc Gafni in Collaboration with the Unique Self Institute

Starting Sunday, November 16th, 2025

Course Description: The Essence of the Wound

In this three-week journey, participants confront the wounds that shape their lives—the unique ruptures that call us from despair into wonder, from alienation into intimacy, from devastation into divinity. Each person’s wound is singular, tied to their shadow, their desire, and their unique self. This course guides students to trace the root of their wound, recognize the false core it may have created, and begin the heroic work of transforming pain into power, shame into insight, and contraction into love. We explore personal, familial, and cultural wounding, and the path of the wounded hero, learning to step into authentic presence and the intimate communion between hero and the wounded God.

This 3-week course will guide you to:

  1. Confront the wounds that shape your life.
  2. Trace your wounds back to their root.
  3. Recognize the false core sense of self your wounds have created.
  4. Begin the heroic work of transforming pain into power, shame into insight, and contraction into love.

>Read more about the course here<

The Rapture of the Wounded Hero

“There is no human being who is not wounded. The wound is not an accident. The wound is the intention of Cosmos to be wounded and to transform the wound into wonder—the rupture into rapture, the alienation into allurement, the collapse into covenant, the pathology into power, the devastation into divinity. Evil comes always from the untransformed wound. What is a wound? How do we understand that? What is my unique wound? A wound is not generic. A human being has a unique self—my unique gift, my unique quality of intimacy, my unique perspective, my unique beauty, my unique presence. And a person also has a unique shadow, and a related but not the same unique wound. The path to unique self is through unique shadow and unique wound.

Our focus in this course is your unique wound. You cannot be alive without identifying your unique wound and beginning to walk the path of its transformation. There is nothing more tragic than to die with your wound unrecognized and untransformed. To look away from your wound is to ignore the call of the infinite, the divine calling. If I do not engage the wound in this lifetime, the wound festers and emerges, replaying itself in the next lifetime again and again. To identify my unique wound, I need to trace it back to its root and heal it there. There are ten major approaches to wounding; some address my unique wound, others address different forms of wounding that are not my own. I cannot heal my unique wound without taking my unique risk. My unique risk is essential; really, the only risk is not to take it.

The unique wound can be personal, tribal, collective—the unique wound of the tribe, the family, the couple. Identifying, articulating, and telling the story of the unique wound is the beginning of its transformation. One cannot be a hero without transforming one’s unique wound. There are no heroes who are not wounded heroes. When the hero bypasses the wound, the hero explodes and often becomes the villain. To be a hero is to be a wounded hero; to be a king is to be a wounded king; to be a queen is to be a wounded queen. And the context of all of this is a wounded God. Who is the wounded God? What’s the story of the wounded God? What does it mean to trust the wounded God? What is the encounter between the wounded hero and the wounded God? Who is the hero and who is God? What is the nature of their intimate communion?

The essence of the false core, both individual and collective, is the unrecognized wound. The unrecognized wound becomes the false core. It is only by recognizing the false core that it is brought into the light. The false self built upon the false core can begin to be deconstructed, and the authentic, unique self can emerge, allowing me to play my instrument in the unique self symphony, to take my place, to take the armor off, and for homo armor to become homo amor. This is the path from contraction to love, from pettiness to power, from hate to healing. Every insult is actually a wound of love.

The wound of culture today is the failure of value, and the recognition of that failure was shame—shame itself as a unique wound. Your unique shame is your unique wound, your unique distortion of your unique configuration of desire.”

– Dr. Marc Gafni

>Read more about the course here<

Parallax Video & Audio Podcast Unique Self 2.0–Year 2 Portal 2: Beyond Shame–Identifying Your Unique Wound of Desire2025-11-16T06:02:59-08:00

Charlie Kirk Assassination, Political Polarization, and the Call for a New World Religion

On September 10th, 2025, conservative activist Charlie Kirk was tragically assassinated during a live event. His death shocked millions and raises the urgent question: why is America so divided, and why does political polarization so often turn violent?

This Sunday, Dr. Marc Gafni will speak live on these very questions—offering a radical and hopeful vision of how humanity can move beyond polarization into a New World Religion grounded in shared Value.

Why Is America So Divided?

Dr. Gafni explains that polarization is not just about politics or policies—it’s about the collapse of a shared story of value.

  • Premodernity rooted value in religion.

  • Modernity undermined that source of value, pretending value was “self-evident.”

  • Postmodernity called the bluff and declared that value itself was unreal—just a social construct.

The result? Individuals and groups cling to single values—pro-life, pro-choice, progressive, conservative—and fuse them with identity. When my value is my survival, compromise feels impossible. That is the root of polarization.

Do You Believe in God—or Why People Are Leaving Church

Many today ask: Do I still believe in God? Why don’t I go to church anymore?

The issue is not simply belief. It is that the frameworks of traditional religion no longer hold the weight of our lives. Postmodern culture tells us value is made up. Fundamentalist religion tells us value exists but only inside its patch of truth.

But what’s missing is the recognition that there is a shared Field of Value—a deeper ground of goodness, truth, and beauty that underlies all traditions. That is what people are hungry for when they leave church. Not less religion, but a new kind of religion.

From Christ to Homo Amor: Toward a World Religion

Marc Gafni teaches that each of us is a unique expression of the Field of Value—you could call it God, Spirit, or Consciousness.

If value is not real, then nothing unites us and polarization is inevitable. But if value is real, then what unites us is infinitely greater than what divides us.

This realization births the vision of a World Religion as the context for our diversity—a religion not of dogma, but of shared fundamentals.

It is a vision of moving from Christ to Homo Amor—the emergence of the New Human and the New Humanity, rooted in love, intimacy, and shared Field of Value.

Honoring and Debating Charlie Kirk

Charlie Kirk believed in the power of debate. To honor him is to engage the questions he raised.

But here’s where Charlie got it wrong: Charlie framed the battle as Christianity versus secularism, Jesus versus disbelief. But the deeper truth is that Jesus himself is an expression of something larger—the universal Field of Value.

Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Taoism, even secular humanism—all are unique expressions of the same fundamental goodness and truth. The tragedy of both fundamentalism and relativism is that they miss this shared ground.

The challenge of our time is not to collapse into either extreme but to birth a New World Religion—a religion of shared value as context for all diversity.

Join the New World Religion Service This Sunday

Every Sunday, Dr. Marc Gafni leads a free live teaching and global community gathering. This week’s service will explore:

  • Why political polarization has become so dangerous

  • The difference between being spiritual and being religious

  • Honoring and debating Charlie Kirk—what he got right and wrong

  • From Christ to Homo Amor: birthing a New World Religion

Sunday, September 21, 2025
10 AM Pacific / 1 PM Eastern
Free to join worldwide

➡️ Join the live service here

The Desperate Need for a New World Religion

Political violence, the loss of shared values, and the collapse of old religious structures are not separate problems—they are symptoms of the same crisis.

As Marc Gafni says: “That which unites us is infinitely greater than anything that divides us.”

The hope for humanity is the rediscovery of the Field of Value and the articulation of a New World Religion—a religion of intimacy, love, and shared humanity.

Join us this Sunday to be part of this unfolding future.

World Religion as a Context for Our Diversity: Reclaiming Value in a Time Between Stories: The Evolution of Outrageous Love and the Universal Grammar of Value:

World Religion As A Context For Our Diversity Marc GafniWorld Religion as a Context for Our Diversity is a visionary collection of “oral essays” by Dr. Marc Gafni that offers a new “Story of Value” in response to the collapse of a shared global ethos. In many ways, we must reclaim religion as part of this story—not a return to traditional forms of religion but a new shared Story of Value as a context for our diversity. At the core of world religion is a universal grammar of value. This grammar of value writes the chapters of a new Story of Value, not as mere conjecture or a constructed narrative, but as a story deeply rooted in the value structure of Reality itself.

Each of us participates directly in this story, as Unique Selves, individual expressions of the divine evolutionary impulse. We are all irreplicable verses in the cosmic scroll, which holds the record of the past and the memory of our future.

At the heart of this work lies the realization of Outrageous Love, a force that transcends ordinary romantic love. Outrageous Love is the animating Eros of the evolutionary impulse that drives the Cosmos. Outrageous Love incarnates Eros and Intimacy as the heart of Reality’s Field of Value in which all of the manifest world unfolds.

Marc Gafni, Zachary Stein and their colleagues are calling for the emergence of a new human and new humanity, it is time for Homo sapiens to be fulfilled as Homo amor. World Religion as a Context for Our Diversity invites us, in this time between worlds and time between stories, to tell a new Story of Value. It is time to evolve together into a future where ever-deepening Eros, ethos, and intimacy—First Principles and First Values—are the north star for Reality’s evolution.

 

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Charlie Kirk Assassination, Political Polarization, and the Call for a New World Religion2025-09-17T12:27:00-07:00

Foreword to Your Unique Self by Ken Wilber

Dr. Marc Gafni’s integral unique self teaching is seminal. What you hold in your hands is a radically exciting and groundbreaking book that will change forever not only how you think about enlightenment, but how you understand, from a post-metaphysical perspective, the very nature of human life itself.

The Unique Self work is magnificent, and it belongs among the “great books.” It offers what may arguably be one of the most significant contemporary evolutions of enlightenment teaching. Unique Self brings together East and West in a higher integral embrace of stunning implications. Unique Self is a pivotal step toward an authentic Integral Enlightenment.

The teaching in this book has been evolved primarily by Marc Gafni for over three decades and draws from his own realization, insight, and the enlightenment lineage in which he stands. In Gafni’s reading of this lineage, brilliantly articulated in his three-volume opus Unique Self and Non-Dual Humanism, (forthcoming) which I read in several highly excited nights, Unique Self is a non-dual realization of Unique Perspective. This realization expresses itself both as the Unique Perspective on a text and as the Unique Perspective of the realized individual—what Gafni terms, in Lainer’s thought, the Judah Archetype, whose perspective is a unique incarnation of unmediated divinity and therefore overrides all previous text, including even the Torah itself. In essence, the realized individual, whose True Self has been disclosed, expresses that True Self through his or her Unique Perspective—what Gafni originally termed “Unique Self.” Hence, what Gafni calls the non-dual humanism of Unique Self is rooted in this equation: True Self + Perspective = Unique Self.

Unique Self brilliantly articulates the idea that within each of us is a post-egoic nondual realization of unique perspective, a unique incarnation of unmediated divinity.  The Unique Self re-inhabits all the natural capacities of the human body-mind and all its multiple intelligences. It embraces its capacity for math, for music, for introspection, for love and interpersonal connection—all the talents and capacities given to human beings—without dismissing the True Self, the One Spirit condition that connects us all. Unique Self drenches and permeates the entire system of what is known as Eastern and Western forms of enlightenment.

The full crystallization of this New Enlightenment/Unique Self teaching that Dr. Gafni initiated, in which he and I have partnered,  emerged through a  series  of many  important  dialogues  that  we had  over  nearly  a  decade. Through these dialogues, a highly  significant  new chapter in Integral Theory has emerged. These conversations were coupled with intensive discourse that Marc and I had with other leading Integral Spiritual teachers and thinkers, including, initially, Diane Hamilton in a catalytic role and later Sally Kempton. Over the last decade, Marc has dialogued with many of today’s most renowned spiritual theorists in the Unique Self-enlightenment, World Spirituality and future-of-love conversations, both public and private. This  includes important  dialogues with Brother David Steindl-Rast, Jean Houston, Bryon Katie, Michael Lerner, Susanne Cook-Greuter, Deepak Chopra, Alex Grey, John Welwood, Mariana Caplan, Warren Farrell, Michael Zimme, Terry Patten, Patrick Sweeney, Genpo Roshi, Michael Murphy, Arjuna Ardagh, Fred Kofman, John Mackey, Joan Borysenko, Lama Surya Das, Michael Bernard Beckwith, Tami Simon, Dustin DiPerna, Zachary Stein, John Gray, Warren Farrell, Don Beck, and many others.

Some of the these early conversations took place originally in the translineage context provided by the Integral Spiritual Center in which Marc played a wonderful role. Many new conversations are now taking place at the Center for World Spirituality, where I am active together with Marc and some one hundred other thought leaders around the world in articulating  a world  spirituality based on Integral principles. World Spirituality based on Integral Principles is an entirely new lineage—a trans-path Unique Self models the emergent World Spirituality based on Integral principles in that it includes all the good stuff of previous paths, but adds a whole new level of emergence. And that is something  that is extraordinary,  historic, and not to be denied.

About Ken Wilber

Ken Wilber Foreword to Unique Self Book Marc GafniKen Wilber is the most influential figure in defining the terms of discussion on what constitutes the “Integral” perspective today. His corpus of 25 widely translated books has erected an intellectual framework for understanding the nature of converging trends in philosophy, psychology, sociology, and other disciplines. His books have often been bestsellers, and his scholarly books have been the basis for numerous academic programs, master’s and doctoral dissertations. He is a leading voice in support of World Spirituality based on Integral principles and has been one of the founding members of the Wisdom Council of the Center for World Spirituality.

Foreword to Your Unique Self by Ken Wilber2025-09-02T09:20:04-07:00

The Road to CosmoErotic Humanism: The “Tears” of Dr. Marc Gafni Part 2

Dr. Marc Gafni on The Integral Stage Podcast

In this episode of The Integral Stage podcast, Layman Pascal and Dr. Marc Gafni continue their exploration of the backstory and intellectual journey to CosmoErotic Humanism with a further exploration of the “relentless Rabbi’s” book on Tears. This time, they focus on questions related to God’s Voice, Laughter in Hell, Bondage & the Abraham/Isaac tale. 

This podcast is Part 2 of a series focussing on the book Tears: Reclaiming Ritual, Integral Religion, and Rosh Hashanah. The book uses the rite of Rosh Hashanah in the wisdom of Solomon lineage to explore the necessity of the return of ritual and the importance of religion beyond philosophy and spirituality.

Click Here for Part 1 of this dialogue
The Road to CosmoErotic Humanism: The “Tears” of Dr. Marc Gafni Part 22025-11-04T11:38:06-08:00

Formal Statement Refuting Sally Adnams Jones

Formal Statement Refuting Sally Adnams Jones

The Center for World Philosophy and Religion

This is a formal statement issued by the Center for World Philosophy and Religion (The Center) in response to the egregious false claims made by Sally Adnams Jones (Adnams) in her self-recorded and self-published video. In this video — and in prior social media posts — Adnams has launched a series of malicious attacks against Dr. Marc Gafni (Gafni) and The Center.

This response addresses the allegations, provides factual context, and reserves the Center’s right to further action, as it considers other possible recourse to remedy the reputational and contractual harm caused by these statements. The impacts of Adnams claims are shown here to be made with intent to inflict damage not only to Gafni, but dozens of men, women, families, and livelihoods connected to this work.

I. Response to Allegations of Plagiarism

In her video, Adnams opens by accusing Gafni of plagiarism, claiming: “I don’t follow his work — in fact, he follows mine and plagiarizes it constantly.”

This is a claim that can be easily disproven, with readily available evidence.

The Center hosted Adnams as participant in both in-person teachings and hundreds of our online teachings with Gafni over extended periods of time. These sessions were recorded. In them, she engages deeply with Gafni’s original work, often taking detailed notes on specific topics. This is a matter of record.

It is equally clear — and well-documented — that she later began claiming authorship of these frameworks, which originated with Dr. Gafni and Dr. Zachary Stein.

This is confession through projection. Adnams accuses Gafni of plagiarizing her material, when the facts of the record show the opposite: Adnams is attempting to claim attribution for Gafni’s original work.

Under the assumption of her providing editorial services, the Center shared extensive unpublished documents of original writing in good faith. These materials were significantly augmented during the course of her engagements with Gafni’s teaching, as noted above.

In written private documentation and other recorded public forums, she has claimed Gafni’s material as her own, making the demonstrably false claim that this material was plagiarized from her. This can explain some of the motivation to discredit Gafni and the Center. It appears that Adnams acted in an opportunistic and predatory way, disguising herself as helpful, while actively exploiting the system to extract ideas.

II. Response to Defamatory Allegations

The Center sees it relevant to bring attention to the fact that the recent falsehoods of Adnams are part of a long-standing and thoroughly documented smear campaign against Gafni. In the public record Adnams is directly associated with key actors in that campaign. This is also evidenced in the Appendix below.

This multi-decade smear campaign — which Adnams has leveraged to give credence to her false claims — has been addressed in great detail on this website.  A collection of relevant evidence is linked in the Appendix below.

This smear campaign — which intensified around 2006 and involved the circulation of false allegations via email and online — was thoroughly investigated and documented. The investigations include extensive email evidence, clearly showing that the claims made in 2006 — and widely spread afterward — were blatantly false.

Gafni has consistently invited the other parties to engage in formal mediation, in a setting in which all sides could present evidence and reach a fair conclusion. These offers have always been ignored.

Building on already false claims, Adnams builds out a more extreme and alarming fabrication, that intends to defame and disgrace the Center’s reputation and confirm in very stereotyped terms the already disproven accusation against Gafni.

Adnams claims of misconduct are demonstrably false and represent serious accusation of wrongdoing that all Center members categorically deny, and will seek all forms of redress and remediation for the damage caused.

III. Adnams History of Erratic Behavior

The Center has a long and documented record of consistently attempting to treat Adnams with kindness, even while holding the complexity of her behavior. Due to the nature of her public attacks in previous cycles, The Center has reviewed the communications with Adnams.

Adnams erratic mood swings were met time and again with the Center’s patience, offer of conversation, and attempt to bring clarity and mutual understanding.

The erratic nature of her communication, along with her repeated and verifiable falsehoods, have brought the Center to issue this statement, as part of documentation, in the sincere attempt of correcting disinformation and resolving this ongoing conflict.

IV. Position and Request

The Center has done everything possible to not issue this response statement. The mission of the Center is to express a new form of philosophy and inquiry into human religion and the sacred. However, when moral and legal boundaries are crossed as a means to target the reputations, livelihoods, and work of others— the Center is congruent with its mission only if it responds with unwavering clarity and resolve.

If these malicious attacks continue and remain posted, whose intention demonstrated herein is to cause damage, interfere with torts, and defame, the Center will take recourse to stop it, and all other attempted defamation of the Center and it personnel. This includes Adnams’s attack or that of any person or group perpetrating similar attacks. This includes both legal recourse as well as full sharing of the documented historical records of all forms, that may be necessary to clarify any distortions or falsehood.

Finally, The Center also wants to clearly state that the attacks on Aubrey Marcus, Vylana Marcus, and Alana Beale  — spread in mob-like chat threads and echoed by Adnams and Zerner— are utterly unfounded. All three are known to Center personnel as fundamentally moral and profoundly good human beings, deeply committed to bringing good into the world. The Center stands with them in this statement.

V. Invitation to Seek Truth

To all those who seek to uncover the truth for themselves — we invite you to read, to watch, and to inquire deeply. The record speaks for itself.

The Center for World Philosophy and Religion

VI. Appendix

 

Formal Statement Refuting Sally Adnams Jones2025-06-08T19:27:09-07:00

Beyond Maslow: The Eight Core Needs of CosmoErotic Humanism

From Maslow’s Five Needs to the Eight Core Needs of Eros & CosmoErotic Humanism on Need and Desire

Early Draft by Dr. Marc Gafni

Download a PDF Version of this Essay Here:

Download Here

Evolution Is Love in Action in Response to Need

The Bi-Directional Eros and Ethos of Your Need Is My Allurement: Shame, Allurement, Intimacy, Value, Need, and Obligation

In earlier writings, we spoke of the animating principle of evolution, Your need is my allurement. When the beloved speaks to us—not necessarily the romantic beloved, but the Outrageous Love beloved—and says, Your need is my allurement, we heal the shame of finitude that lives so deeply in us. The shame of finitude, as we have outlined it,[1] is the shame that comes from the humiliation we experience in meeting our basic needs. Together with the shame of our mortality and the shame of our animal nature, the shame of finitude is connected to an underlying malaise—the shame of powerlessness. It is only in healing the shame of finitude that we step into the fullness of Homo amor, the new human and the new humanity. The shame of finitude must be healed by each of us, personally. And collectively, we must heal our planet drenched in shame.

Shame is healed, however, not only when we feel the allurement of the beloved to meet our need. That is but the first step of two steps. In this step, we overcome our original humiliation in meeting our fundamental need for touch, contact, and nourishment. The second step is to also experience ourselves saying to the beloved, Your Need is my allurement.

We need to be the object of allurement, which elicits the response of Your Need is my allurement. And we need to be the one allured, who is speaking, Your Need is my allurement.

Allurement is deeply entwined with intimacy. Remember our intimacy articulation:

Intimacy = shared identity in the context of relative otherness x mutuality of recognition x mutuality of pathos x mutuality of value x mutuality of purpose.

Underlying the Eros of intimacy is need: I love you = I need you.

To truly say I love you is to say I need you. It is the mutuality of need that drives the movement towards intimacy. It is in the mutuality of need—often desperate need—that we meet and know each other.

Deep in our Anthro-Ontology, we are allured to respond to need. We are allured to respond to the need of the beloved in precisely the same way that we are allured to respond to our own need. The allurement is rooted in a hidden knowing that we are part of the same Field of Consciousness and Desire. We are allured because no one is ultimately a stranger. That allurement creates not only delight but also the gravitas of intimacy and joyful obligation.

Remember that intimacy is shared identity. And intimacy itself creates obligation. Intimacy is the allurement that reminds my heart and body that we share identity. Intimacy is the allurement in which we recognize each other, we feel each other, we experience our shared values and shared purpose. But even deeper, intimacy is the depth of naked realization in which we embrace the raw and vulnerable truth that we need each other—desperately.

It is not a coincidence of language that in Hebrew one of the root words for love or intimacy—chibah—is also the root word for obligation—chovah. Obligation is not imposed from an alienated source, external to us. Obligation is the experience of love itself in response to need. (more…)

Beyond Maslow: The Eight Core Needs of CosmoErotic Humanism2025-04-02T05:00:36-07:00

Updates November 2024: New Podcasts & New Essays on Substack

Read the Most Recent Essays on Substack

Follow Us on Substack
New Teachings Emerge from Our Weekly Sensemaking Sessions in One Mountain, Many Paths

New Podcasts in September 2024

Watch More
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We Are Still Celebrating Our Worldwide Book Release

Our new book can be ordered worldwide from each country’s amazon and other bookstores. It is available as Paperback, eBook, and Audiobook.

From the US and Canada, it can also be ordered directly from the publisher HERE:

FIRST PRINCIPLES AND FIRST VALUES

Forty-Two Propositions on CosmoErotic Humanism, the Meta-Crisis, and the World to Come

by David J. Temple

AS THE META-CRISIS DEEPENS, THE FATE OF CIVILIZATION AND HUMANITY HANGS IN THE BALANCE.

First Principles and First Values is the tip of the spear in the fight for a humane future. Establishing frameworks for a new school of thought called CosmoErotic Humanism, the book is built around forty-two propositions that provide new source code for the future of planetary culture.

Like Europe in the early Renaissance, humanity is in a time between worlds, at a time between stories. First Principles and First Values contains blueprints for the bridge needed to cross from this world to the next.

“The position argued for in this book is of vital importance . . . it needs urgently to be read.”
IAIN McGILCHRIST, author of The Master and His Emissary

David J. Temple is a pseudonym created for enabling ongoing collaborative authorship at the Center for World Philosophy and Religion, a leading international think tank whose mission is to address existential risk by articulating a shared universal Story of Value for global intimacy and global coordination. The Center focuses its work on a world philosophy, CosmoErotic Humanism, as the ground for a global vision of value, economics, politics, and spiritual coherence. The two primary authors behind David J. Temple are Marc Gafni and Zak Stein. For different projects specific writers will be named as part of the collaboration. In this volume Ken Wilber joins Dr. Gafni and Dr. Stein.

Order Here from Amplify
Order Here from Amazon.com
Download the First Five Chapters HERE for Free

Updates November 2024: New Podcasts & New Essays on Substack2025-02-25T02:52:53-08:00

Dr. Marc Gafni in Audio Conversation with Devin Bailey: The Universe Is a Love Story

As Above, So Below.

Dr. Marc Gafni in Audio Conversation with Devin Bailey: The Universe Is a Love Story2024-12-04T03:33:54-08:00

Parallax Video & Audio Podcast: Unique Self 2.0. with Marc Gafni

Portal 1: Intimacy, Eros, and Evolutionary Love

Unique Self 2.0?

What is Unique?

What is Self?

What is 2.0?

Dr. Marc Gafni argues that the Enlightenment traditions made the big mistake of denying identity and selfhood. He attempts to rectify this mistake and celebrate human uniqueness as the only way to survive the meta-crisis.

Parallax Video & Audio Podcast: Unique Self 2.0. with Marc Gafni2024-12-04T03:16:06-08:00

Dr. Zachary Stein on AI, Education, and the Meta-Crisis at Smart Funny Tortured Podcast – Audio

The Smart Funny Tortured Podcast

Paul Chamberlain sits down with some of the most interesting people he knows to talk about what it was like when they broke down and what was their breakthrough. What tools, supports, and practices did they use and still use, to get back on track and carry on?

The podcast will also allow you to get to know Paul. What started as a well-produced podcast, turned into a life-changing cathartic confessional that could have only happened via his amazing guests and the support of those around him.

Through these shared stories, his hope is we all get a little more comfortable with being smart, funny and (a little less) tortured.

EPISODE CHAPTERS

0:01 – Envisioning an Educational Renaissance Through AI and Human Connection

2:18 – Technological Elites and the Redesign of Society

7:39 – BF Skinner’s Influence on Societal Engineering to Prevent Existential Risks

9:22 – Manipulation Through Digital Reinforcement and Surveillance

11:58 – Technocracy’s Struggle With Value and Control

13:45 – Confronting Nihilism and Meaning in Education

15:48 – Transforming American Education for Cold War Supremacy

18:35 – Decoding the Shift in American Education and Economy

21:59 – Debating AI’s Role in Transforming Education

25:03 – AI Socialization Threatens Millennia-Old Human Connections

26:46 – The Ethical Dilemmas of Humanoid AI Development

32:43 – Debating the Nature of Value and the Good Life

34:12 – The Dual Use Dilemma of AI in Modern Technology

35:57 – AI’s Impact on Military, Finance, and Pop Culture

39:09 – Educational Crisis and National Defense Perspectives

43:36 – Envisioning a Renaissance in Education Through AI and Community

48:57 – Revitalizing Education Through Community Engagement and Guild Structures

51:06 – Distinguishing Education from Propaganda and Coercion

55:19 – Coercion and Thought-Terminating Cliches in Social Media

1:00:26 – Confronting Propaganda with Educational Innovation

1:03:49 – Metacrisis Dynamics: Oscillating Between Chaos and Oppression

1:07:04 – Redefining Civilization Within Planetary Boundaries

1:10:37 – Rethinking Value Systems and Worldviews for Ecological Preservation

Dr. Zachary Stein is a Co-Founder of the Civilization Research Institute and the Center for World Philosophy and Religion. He was trained at the interface of philosophy, psychology, and education and now works in fields related to the mitigation of global catastrophic risk. He is a widely sought-after and award-winning speaker and a leading authority on the future of education and contemporary issues in human development.

Zak is the author of dozens of published papers and two influential books. His first book, Social Justice and Educational Measurement, traces the history of standardized testing and its ethical implications. His most recent book, Education in a Time Between Worlds, grapples with the dangers posed by a profound learning and capacity deficit in a time of civilization-wide transformation. In this work, Zak argues that educational systems must be transformed beyond recognition if humanity is to survive the planetary crises currently underway, from climate change to geopolitical instability.

Zak sees education, in a deeply philosophical sense, as fundamental to the sustainability of civilization, with implications for each component of the “metacrisis” – the complex, interrelated global challenges and existential threats facing humanity. In Zak’s view, whoever drives the technology stack of education will shape the future of civilization itself. His mission is to empower younger generations with the capacity to comprehend and respond appropriately to the unique challenges of our time.

For More on This Podcast, Click Here
Dr. Zachary Stein on AI, Education, and the Meta-Crisis at Smart Funny Tortured Podcast – Audio2025-07-03T05:28:29-07:00

Updates October 2024: New Podcasts & Essays on Substack

 NEW Unique Self Courses in Collaboration with Parallax and the Unique Self Institute

An invitation by Marc Gafni (Transcript of Video):

Reality is evolution, and evolution is a series of transformations. My reality—my life—is my evolution. That evolution consists of the personal transformations I experience. To count means to be accountable, right? So, to be accountable is to answer one fundamental question: Did I live my Unique Self Story, the story that will shape how I face my death? Whether I find myself in a death chair, on a death walker, or even on death skis, the goal is to reach that final moment feeling fearless and fully alive—more alive at the moment of my death than ever before. A life well-lived is one where I realize the unique transformations that are the essence of my Unique Self Story. Continue reading…

Read a transcript of the Video Invite HERE
Learn More about the Course HERE

Read the Most Recent Essays on Substack

Including a New Review Essay by Dr. Brad Kershner

Follow Us on Substack
New Teachings Emerge from Our Weekly Sensemaking Sessions in One Mountain, Many Paths

New Podcasts in October 2024

Watch More
Listen More

We Are Still Celebrating Our Worldwide Book Release

Our new book can be ordered worldwide from each country’s amazon and other bookstores. It is available as Paperback, eBook, and Audiobook.

From the US and Canada, it can also be ordered directly from the publisher HERE:

FIRST PRINCIPLES AND FIRST VALUES

Forty-Two Propositions on CosmoErotic Humanism, the Meta-Crisis, and the World to Come

by David J. Temple

AS THE META-CRISIS DEEPENS, THE FATE OF CIVILIZATION AND HUMANITY HANGS IN THE BALANCE.

First Principles and First Values is the tip of the spear in the fight for a humane future. Establishing frameworks for a new school of thought called CosmoErotic Humanism, the book is built around forty-two propositions that provide new source code for the future of planetary culture.

Like Europe in the early Renaissance, humanity is in a time between worlds, at a time between stories. First Principles and First Values contains blueprints for the bridge needed to cross from this world to the next.

“The position argued for in this book is of vital importance . . . it needs urgently to be read.”
IAIN McGILCHRIST, author of The Master and His Emissary

David J. Temple is a pseudonym created for enabling ongoing collaborative authorship at the Center for World Philosophy and Religion, a leading international think tank whose mission is to address existential risk by articulating a shared universal Story of Value for global intimacy and global coordination. The Center focuses its work on a world philosophy, CosmoErotic Humanism, as the ground for a global vision of value, economics, politics, and spiritual coherence. The two primary authors behind David J. Temple are Marc Gafni and Zak Stein. For different projects specific writers will be named as part of the collaboration. In this volume Ken Wilber joins Dr. Gafni and Dr. Stein.

Order Here from Amplify
Order Here from Amazon.com
Download the First Five Chapters HERE for Free

Updates October 2024: New Podcasts & Essays on Substack2025-02-25T02:53:06-08:00

The Road to CosmoErotic Humanism: The “Tears” of Dr. Marc Gafni Part 1

Dr. Marc Gafni on The Integral Stage Podcast

In this episode of The Integral Stage podcast, Layman Pascal interviews Dr. Marc Gafni on his book Tears: Reclaiming Ritual, Integral Religion, and Rosh Hashanah. The book uses the rite of Rosh Hashanah in the wisdom of Solomon lineage to explore the necessity of the return of ritual and the importance of religion beyond philosophy and spirituality. 

This podcast is the continuation of their conversation about the predecessors to CosmoErotic Humanism.

Listen to Part 2 of the Dialogue Here
The Road to CosmoErotic Humanism: The “Tears” of Dr. Marc Gafni Part 12025-11-04T11:38:06-08:00

Updates September 2024: New Podcasts & Featured Essay “On the Erotic and the Ethical”

 NEW cohort of coaches to become certified in Unique Self Coaching, starting in October 2024!

The Unique Self Coaching process, and its signature program “Unique Self Emergence” created by Barbara Alexander and Claire Molinard, is a powerful change technology that taps into the deepest aspects of your life to reveal your unique potential and facilitate its emergence as your Unique Self.

Unique Self Coaching offers a dynamic and modular curriculum that can be adapted to individuals and groups in a wide range of contexts. Because the process facilitates getting to the heart of who you are – an irreducible expression of the Love Intelligence that animates all of existence – and how the creative impulse of this Source wants to express through you, it has many applications.

Unique Self Emergence Coach Training Program

This program has two tracks:

Certification track

This track is for change agents who, in addition to undergoing their own process of transformation, want to learn how to apply the Unique Self emergence Process to their already existing work with people. This certification program trains them to utilize the process with individuals and groups in a variety of contexts.

Personal track

This track is for anyone who wishes to experience the Unique Self Emergence Process for their own benefit, without supervision or 1:1 Coaching. You will have access to all the group coaching and teaching calls, as well as all the online content. This track does not lead to Unique Self Coaching certification.

Learn More HERE

Read Our Featured Essay

On the Erotic and the Ethical

Download a PDF of the Essay

The Temple of the ancient Israelites is the original Hebrew expression of pagan consciousness. Now—as we will see later in this essay—the difference between Temple and pagan consciousness is very crucial. But it is a difference that is only important because of their profound similarity. Both the Temple and the pagan cults shared an intoxication with the feminine Goddess, symbol of sacred eros.

The relationship with the Goddess was not a hobby for the Israelites like modern religious affiliation often tends to be. It was an all-consuming desire to be on the inside, to feel the infinite fullness of reality in every moment and in every encounter—it was an attempt to fully experience eros. Because the ancients were so aware of the depth of reality, to live without being able to access the infinite in this erotic way was enormously painful. (For an example, read the story of the idolatrous King Menashe, as retold in the Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin 92A.)

The prophets of the Temple period opposed paganism with all of their ethical fire and passion. For them, it was inconceivable that the ecstatic and primal Temple experience, religiously powerful and important as it might be, should become primary. When eros overrode ethos, the prophet exploded in divine rage. In moments of clash, the prophet taught that the ethical always needed to trump the erotic.

Modern Judaism has developed from the ethical teachings of the prophets. In the process, however, we have overlooked the erotic, present in the pagan consciousness of the Temple service. We have forgotten the Goddess, a vital presence in the life of ancient Israel. Hebrew liturgy reflects the virtually inconsolable longing of the Hebrew spirit for the rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem. This longing is not a dream of proprietorship over this or that hill in Jerusalem. Indeed, ownership and holiness are mutually exclusive. Instead, it is a yearning to reclaim sacred eros as part of the fabric of our lives. And, in the way of the circle, our longing for eros is also a longing for ethos. All ethical breakdown emerges from a dearth of eros. When we are overwhelmed by an erotic vacuum, ethics collapse. (more…)

Read the Whole Essay

Read the Most Recent Essays on Substack

Follow Us on Substack
New Teachings Emerge from Our Weekly Sensemaking Sessions in One Mountain, Many Paths

New Podcasts in September 2024

Watch More
Listen More

We Are Still Celebrating Our Worldwide Book Release

Our new book can be ordered worldwide from each country’s amazon and other bookstores. It is available as Paperback, eBook, and Audiobook.

From the US and Canada, it can also be ordered directly from the publisher HERE:

FIRST PRINCIPLES AND FIRST VALUES

Forty-Two Propositions on CosmoErotic Humanism, the Meta-Crisis, and the World to Come

by David J. Temple

AS THE META-CRISIS DEEPENS, THE FATE OF CIVILIZATION AND HUMANITY HANGS IN THE BALANCE.

First Principles and First Values is the tip of the spear in the fight for a humane future. Establishing frameworks for a new school of thought called CosmoErotic Humanism, the book is built around forty-two propositions that provide new source code for the future of planetary culture.

Like Europe in the early Renaissance, humanity is in a time between worlds, at a time between stories. First Principles and First Values contains blueprints for the bridge needed to cross from this world to the next.

“The position argued for in this book is of vital importance . . . it needs urgently to be read.”
IAIN McGILCHRIST, author of The Master and His Emissary

David J. Temple is a pseudonym created for enabling ongoing collaborative authorship at the Center for World Philosophy and Religion, a leading international think tank whose mission is to address existential risk by articulating a shared universal Story of Value for global intimacy and global coordination. The Center focuses its work on a world philosophy, CosmoErotic Humanism, as the ground for a global vision of value, economics, politics, and spiritual coherence. The two primary authors behind David J. Temple are Marc Gafni and Zak Stein. For different projects specific writers will be named as part of the collaboration. In this volume Ken Wilber joins Dr. Gafni and Dr. Stein.

Order Here from Amplify
Order Here from Amazon.com
Download the First Five Chapters HERE for Free

Updates September 2024: New Podcasts & Featured Essay “On the Erotic and the Ethical”2025-02-25T02:53:19-08:00

Updates August 2024: Summer Symphonies, Book Review, Upcoming Courses, and New Podcasts

Below we link to everything that has been posted on this site in this past month.

As the summer is nearing its end, so are our Summer Symphonies at One Mountain, Many Paths (see below), and there is so much to celebrate:

  • Launch of New Podcasts: Introducing great new video and audio podcasts
  • New Book Review by David Nicol
  • New Essays: Available on our website, Substack, and Academia.edu
  • The Upcoming Parallax Course: Value is Real Why Saying This Clearly May Save Civilization [and our Souls] – (with Marc Gafni and Zak Stein) takes place on Saturdays, September 7/14/21/28 – 2024. For more information and registration, click here.
  • New Cohort of Unique Self Coach Training starting October 2024! The Unique Self Institute’s flagship year-long program—The Unique Self Emergence Process—is currently the only coaching program in the world designed to help you uncover your Unique Risk and cultivate an integral practice that allows your Unique Self to emerge. Whether you’re seeking personal transformation or certification to coach others, this program offers a profound opportunity for growth. Get more info and book a discernment call here.

Upcoming Course in September

Eye of Value: Saving the Damsel in Distress

A course about the essence of a New Story of Value that can change the vector of civilization.

The Parallax Course: Value is Real Why Saying This Clearly May Save Civilization [and our Souls] – (with Marc Gafni and Zak Stein) takes place on Saturdays, September 7/14/21/28 – 2024. For more information:

Register for Course HERE

New Cohort of Unique Self Coach Training starting October 2024!

The Unique Self Institute’s flagship year-long program—The Unique Self Emergence Process—is currently the only coaching program in the world designed to help you uncover your Unique Risk and cultivate an integral practice that allows your Unique Self to emerge. Whether you’re seeking personal transformation or certification to coach others, this program offers a profound opportunity for growth.

This program has two tracks:

Certification track

This track is for change agents who, in addition to undergoing their own process of transformation, want to learn how to apply the Unique Self emergence Process to their already existing work with people. This certification program trains them to utilize the process with individuals and groups in a variety of contexts.

Personal track

This track is for anyone who wishes to experience the Unique Self Emergence Process for their own benefit, without supervision or 1:1 Coaching. You will have access to all the group coaching and teaching calls, as well as all the online content. This track does not lead to Unique Self Coaching certification.

Get more info and book a discernment call here

Read One of Our Book Reviews

Book Review “First Principles & First Values” by David Nicol

Read on Substack

David Nicol is an Australian native now living in North California. His book, Subtle Activism: The Inner Dimension of Social and Planetary Transformation (SUNY Press) was the first comprehensive study of the idea that focused collective intention can powerfully and measurably contribute to social change.

David writes a blog on Substack called Geistic Musings, offering his “reflections on the intersection of consciousness and culture.”

Book Review “First Principles & First Values”

A New Story of Value for Our Times

David Nicol
Jul 16, 2024

Today I want to share about (what I think is) a vitally important new book that offers profound context for why we need these novel forms of knowing to start to move into the center of culture as a matter of urgency in this time between worlds.

The book is First Principles & First Values: Forty-Two Propositions on Cosmoerotic Humanism, the Meta-Crisis, and the World to Come, by David J. Temple. David J. Temple is a pseudonym that represents a consortium of writers associated with the Center for World Philosophy and Religion, with Marc Gafni and Zak Stein being the primary authors.

Because of the significance of the book’s thesis, I go into some detail below to convey the essential argument. I hope you will stay with me, because there is something deeply hopeful about these ideas for our future.

First Principles is an attempt to articulate the foundations of a new worldview that can guide humanity through the global metacrisis. We have become deeply conditioned by postmodernity to be cynical of intellectual efforts to create frameworks of universal value, but this is indeed at the heart of the authors’ thesis. Post-modernity’s deconstruction of old stories of value has overreached, resulting not only in a pervasive global mood of nihilism but also an inability to coordinate in any meaningful way at a time when the stakes could not be higher.

Into this void, First Principles offers a ‘New Story of Value’ that provides a context for integrating the best of premodern, modern, and postmodern thought. It does so by explicitly articulating a universal set of values that underlies reality all the way up and down the evolutionary chain, and is validated by both science and the wisdom traditions. Below I provide a specific example. (more…)

Read the Whole Book Review

We Are Still Celebrating Our Worldwide Book Release

Our new book can be ordered worldwide from each country’s amazon and other bookstores. It is available as Paperback, eBook, and Audiobook.

From the US and Canada, it can also be ordered directly from the publisher HERE:

FIRST PRINCIPLES AND FIRST VALUES

Forty-Two Propositions on CosmoErotic Humanism, the Meta-Crisis, and the World to Come

by David J. Temple

AS THE META-CRISIS DEEPENS, THE FATE OF CIVILIZATION AND HUMANITY HANGS IN THE BALANCE.

First Principles and First Values is the tip of the spear in the fight for a humane future. Establishing frameworks for a new school of thought called CosmoErotic Humanism, the book is built around forty-two propositions that provide new source code for the future of planetary culture.

Like Europe in the early Renaissance, humanity is in a time between worlds, at a time between stories. First Principles and First Values contains blueprints for the bridge needed to cross from this world to the next.

“The position argued for in this book is of vital importance . . . it needs urgently to be read.”
IAIN McGILCHRIST, author of The Master and His Emissary

David J. Temple is a pseudonym created for enabling ongoing collaborative authorship at the Center for World Philosophy and Religion, a leading international think tank whose mission is to address existential risk by articulating a shared universal Story of Value for global intimacy and global coordination. The Center focuses its work on a world philosophy, CosmoErotic Humanism, as the ground for a global vision of value, economics, politics, and spiritual coherence. The two primary authors behind David J. Temple are Marc Gafni and Zak Stein. For different projects specific writers will be named as part of the collaboration. In this volume Ken Wilber joins Dr. Gafni and Dr. Stein.

Order Here from Amplify
Order Here from Amazon.com
Download the First Five Chapters HERE for Free

More Essays and White Papers Published on This Site in August 2024

Read the Most Recent Essays on Substack

Follow Us on Substack

New Podcasts in August 2024

New Teachings Emerge from Our Weekly Sensemaking Sessions in One Mountain, Many Paths

Summer Symphonies at One Mountain, Many Paths

For those of you who are new to One Mountain, Many Paths, we normally receive a deep transmission of First Principles and First Values by Dr. Marc Gafni and Barbara Marx Hubbard (through recorded sermons of hers). But how do we, as students of the dharma of CosmoErotic Humanism, make these teachings real in our daily lives?

This inquiry is the reason why Dr. Marc Gafni invited those who have been holding the One Mountain infrastructure for the last year to lead the weekly gathering for the month of August. For 5 weeks from August 4th to Sept 1st, Dr. Marc Gafni stepped back to invite our Unique Self Symphony to play our unique instruments. This also allowed Dr. Marc to focus his time entirely on writing the Great Library.

All of this is part of our bigger vision for One Mountain, Many Paths as a grassroots revolution where EVERYBODY is called to powerfully step in and contribute their Unique Gifts! Each week, a special One Mountain leadership team led an INTERACTIVE WORKSHOP SERVICE on some key idea in the Dharma that we have received from Dr. Marc and Barbara. Each team invited us into the magic through the lens of their own Unique Gift. Our program was filled with inspiring practices that empowered all of us to embody the dharma together and make this revolution our own!

Of course, we missed Dr. Marc Gafni and we are very much looking forward to his return on September 8th.

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In Case You Missed This Documentary with Dr. Marc Gafni

In collaboration with Aubrey Marcus and the Unique Self Institute

In Dr. Gafni and Dr. Stein’s language: “We stand at a pivotal moment in history – a time between worlds and a time between stories  – poised between dystopia and utopia.” To bridge the gap between our external technologies and internal narratives of identity and purpose, every human and every epoch of humanity must evolve responses to three essential questions, what we refer to as the three great questions of CosmoErotic Humanism: “Who? Where? And What?”

  • Who am I? and Who are we?
  • Where am I? and Where are we?
  • What ought I do? and What ought we do?

In a profound analysis of our current meta-crisis and what he calls the “global intimacy disorder,” Dr. Marc Gafni draws from what he refers to as “the exterior and interior sciences” to deepen our responses to these three questions. The responses offer a new understanding of the Good, the True, and the Beautiful, and generate the beginning of “a universal grammar of value as a context for our diversity.” 

“A universal grammar of value is grounded in eternal yet evolving First Principles and First Values, which are inherent in the Intimate Universe, in which we all participate. A new grammar articulates a potent Story of intrinsic Value, with the poignancy and power to respond to the meta-crisis. At the core of this Story of Value, called CosmoErotic Humanism, is a new narrative of identity, both personal and collective. Principles of Unique Self and Unique Self Symphony contribute to the shaping of a shared reality that is flawed and human, filled with holy and broken Hallelujahs. Yet, that Reality reaches insistently towards better tomorrows that are suffused with ever-deepening Eros and ethos, kindness, and creativity.”

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Dr. Marc Gafni: Our First Steps as “Homo amor” – FREE Abridged Course

This 27-Part Video series is part of the 7-week Online Video Course:

“Our First Steps as Homo Amor” – OUR FIRST STEPS AS “HOMO AMOR” BIRTHING THE NEW HUMAN AND THE NEW HUMANITY

A 7-Week Online Video Course with Dr. Marc Gafni

When looking at the state of the world today, if your head is not in the sand, you feel a sense of urgency. There is outrageous beauty and goodness. But there is also outrageous pain. But not of the ordinary kind. There is the pain of dislocation as we enter a phase shift in human history where all of the old narratives of identity are collapsing. In this 11th hour, as we are poised between utopia and dystopia, we have no authentic sense of who we are and what is our personal place in this pivotal moment in human history.

This playlist is a short introduction to the 7-week Online Video Course: “the First Steps as Homo Amor” with Dr. Marc Gafni.

Enjoy the FREE Series HERE:

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We are at a pivotal moment – in the 11th hour poised between dystopia and utopia – between the capacity to create heaven on earth or unleash, especially for the most vulnerable two billion people on the planet, a hell of suffering and death. We are at a tipping point, where our next steps can either usher in heaven on earth or all hell break loose. We are faced with global challenges at an existential level – threats to our very existence.

Global challenges can only be met with concerted global action. But we suffer a global action paralysis or rampant global action confusion. The global action paralysis is rooted not merely in political struggle but in something far more fundamental. Our global action paralysis is rooted in a global intimacy disorder.

Therefore, in order to move towards collective mutual action that can take us to the next level, we need to heal the global intimacy disorder that is at the root of our crisis.

Intimacy disorders – personal and collective – are always rooted in one root cause: living in different stories of reality. Intimacy disorders are only healed when partners, beloveds, parents and children, or tribes and societies, experience themselves as living in a shared story, with a shared vision and values. Whenever there is alienation, it is because there is a breakdown in our own story.

The purpose of this offering is to locate you in the most accurate, good, true, and beautiful story of the universe and your personal life that is available at this moment in time. This is the great eternal, evolutionary story of cosmo-erotic humanism in which you are personally implicated. This is the most urgent question of your identity. Who Are You? The truth of your identity is that you are Homo amor.

As such, your personal love story is implicated in the evolutionary story. But for REAL. This course is about YOUR transfiguration into Homo amor, a term we use to describe the New Human and the New Humanity, that is the evolutionary fulfillment of Homo sapiens.

In this program, Dr. Marc Gafni will take you deep into a new vision that understands the progressive deepening of intimacies as the core evolutionary driver. You will begin to birth the new human in your own being.

This is a personal invitation. Your response to this invitation may well be pivotal in activating Homo amor.

Welcome to this extraordinary journey that will show you the way to activate your identity as Homo amor.

Read More About the Full Course HERE

Online Video Course with Dr. Marc Gafni

CosmoErotic Humanism: The New Story of Value – Birthing the New Human and the New Humanity (recorded in 2022)

CosmoErotic Humanism in Seven Chapters:

Chapter 1:  Responding to the Meta-Crisis with a New Story: CosmoErotic Humanism
Chapter 2: Reading Texts of Culture: Don’t Look Up Explores Value, Beyond the Intention of Its Writers
Chapter 3: Why is There Something Rather Than Nothing?
Chapter 4: The Radical Path to the Transformation of Shame: From the Shame of Finitude to the Celebration of Finitude
Chapter 5:  The Leading Edge of Human Identity
Chapter 6:  Towards a New Universal Grammar of Evolving Value as a Context for our Diversity
Chapter 7:  Blessings of the Father and Blessings of the Mother: Am I Welcome in Cosmos?

Each level consists of the main teaching by Dr. Marc Gafni that was recorded on one of seven days during Eros Mystery School in Holland in 2022. It contains dharma talks, practices, prayers, chants, movie clips, songs, poems, and dance sessions – seamlessly woven into one whole. It is kind of like being at a Mozart concerto played on that day – in those hours – unrehearsed and raw – never to be played in that way ever again but recorded for you in this course journey which is reality’s gift for you.

Learn More About the Course Here

Updates August 2024: Summer Symphonies, Book Review, Upcoming Courses, and New Podcasts2025-02-25T02:54:00-08:00

Value in the Metacrisis with Zak Stein

Enjoy this podcast with Dr. Zak Stein featured on the Life from Plato’s Cave podcast. 

Dr. Zachary Stein is the co-president of the Center for World Philosophy and Religion. He was trained at the interface of philosophy, psychology, and education, and now works in fields related to the mitigation of global catastrophic risk. He is a widely sought after and award winning speaker, and a leading authority on the future of education and contemporary issues in human development. Zak is the author of several books, such as Education in a Time Between Worlds. In this conversation we primarily discuss the new book he contributed to, together with Marc Gafni and Ken Wilber. It’s called First Principles and First Values: Forty-Two Propositions on CosmoErotic Humanism, the Meta-Crisis, and the World to Come.

Value in the Metacrisis with Zak Stein2024-08-31T09:48:58-07:00

From Crisis to Crossing: A New Story For A New Humanity ft. Marc Gafni

Enjoy this documentary with Dr. Marc Gafni created in collaboration with Aubrey Marcus and the Unique Self Institute

Documentary with Dr. Marc Gafni

In collaboration with Aubrey Marcus and the Unique Self Institute

In Dr. Gafni and Dr. Stein’s language: “We stand at a pivotal moment in history – a time between worlds and a time between stories  – poised between dystopia and utopia.” To bridge the gap between our external technologies and internal narratives of identity and purpose, every human and every epoch of humanity must evolve responses to three essential questions, what we refer to as the three great questions of CosmoErotic Humanism: “Who? Where? And What?”

Who am I? and Who are we?

Where am I? and Where are we?

What ought I do? and What ought we do?

In a profound analysis of our current meta-crisis and what he calls the “global intimacy disorder,” Dr. Marc Gafni draws from what he refers to as “the exterior and interior sciences” to deepen our responses to these three questions. The responses offer a new understanding of the Good, the True, and the Beautiful, and generate the beginning of “a universal grammar of value as a context for our diversity.”

“A universal grammar of value is grounded in eternal yet evolving First Principles and First Values, which are inherent in the Intimate Universe, in which we all participate. A new grammar articulates a potent Story of intrinsic Value, with the poignancy and power to respond to the meta-crisis. At the core of this Story of Value, called CosmoErotic Humanism, is a new narrative of identity, both personal and collective. Principles of Unique Self and Unique Self Symphony contribute to the shaping of a shared reality that is flawed and human, filled with holy and broken Hallelujahs. Yet, that Reality reaches insistently towards better tomorrows that are suffused with ever-deepening Eros and ethos, kindness, and creativity.”

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FIRST PRINCIPLES AND FIRST VALUES

Forty-Two Propositions on CosmoErotic Humanism, the Meta-Crisis, and the World to Come

by David J. Temple

AS THE META-CRISIS DEEPENS, THE FATE OF CIVILIZATION AND HUMANITY HANGS IN THE BALANCE.

First Principles and First Values is the tip of the spear in the fight for a humane future. Establishing frameworks for a new school of thought called CosmoErotic Humanism, the book is built around forty-two propositions that provide new source code for the future of planetary culture.

Like Europe in the early Renaissance, humanity is in a time between worlds, at a time between stories. First Principles and First Values contains blueprints for the bridge needed to cross from this world to the next.

“The position argued for in this book is of vital importance . . . it needs urgently to be read.”
IAIN McGILCHRIST, author of The Master and His Emissary

Order Here

From Crisis to Crossing: A New Story For A New Humanity ft. Marc Gafni2024-08-30T09:32:04-07:00

The TRUE Story In The Guardians Of The Galaxy Trilogy w/ Marc Gafni and Aubrey Marcus

Enjoy this podcast with Dr. Marc Gafni featured on Aubrey Marcus’ Podcast

Aubrey Marcus: “If you have watched the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy, this podcast will blow your mind. Because hidden within these fictional films, are true stories of value and reality drawn forth into existence by a force even greater than the writers themselves. So what deep mythic wisdom can we find hiding in the Guardians Of The Galaxy story? You’ll have to join Dr. Marc Gafni and I to find out. SPOILER ALERT! 

For more on the wisdom from the Soloman lineage, and a deeper understanding of the cosmo-erotic universe, check out the book: ⁠⁠A Return to Eros by Marc Gafni and Kristina Kincaid.”

Covered in this podcast:

  • Cast Of Characters | A New Vision of Heroes & Trauma
  • A New Vision Of Family
  • Who is the enemy?
  • Field Of Value
  • The Role Of Dance & Expanding Circles Of Intimacy
  • The Blessing Of the Father
  • Themes Recap & 1 Disappointment
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The TRUE Story In The Guardians Of The Galaxy Trilogy w/ Marc Gafni and Aubrey Marcus2024-09-04T05:09:07-07:00

Decoding Lord Of The Rings: A Revelatory Exploration w/ Dr. Marc Gafni and Aubrey Marcus

Enjoy this podcast with Dr. Marc Gafni featured on Aubrey Marcus’ Podcast

Introduction by Aubrey Marcus:

“Was Lord of the Rings just a story or was it a prophesy? What does it have to tell us about our current time and the struggles we face? What is the meaning of the two towers, and the ring of power? I sit down with master teacher and religious scholar Dr. Marc Gafni to decode the hidden meaning in this timeless tale.”

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Decoding Lord Of The Rings: A Revelatory Exploration w/ Dr. Marc Gafni and Aubrey Marcus2024-08-30T08:57:43-07:00

Book Review “First Principles & First Values” by David Nicol

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David Nicol is an Australian native now living in North California. His book, Subtle Activism: The Inner Dimension of Social and Planetary Transformation (SUNY Press) was the first comprehensive study of the idea that focused collective intention can powerfully and measurably contribute to social change.

David writes a blog on Substack called Geistic Musings, offering his “reflections on the intersection of consciousness and culture.”

Book Review “First Principles & First Values”

A New Story of Value for Our Times

David Nicol
Jul 16, 2024

Today I want to share about (what I think is) a vitally important new book that offers profound context for why we need these novel forms of knowing to start to move into the center of culture as a matter of urgency in this time between worlds.

The book is First Principles & First Values: Forty-Two Propositions on Cosmoerotic Humanism, the Meta-Crisis, and the World to Come, by David J. Temple. David J. Temple is a pseudonym that represents a consortium of writers associated with the Center for World Philosophy and Religion, with Marc Gafni and Zak Stein being the primary authors.

Because of the significance of the book’s thesis, I go into some detail below to convey the essential argument. I hope you will stay with me, because there is something deeply hopeful about these ideas for our future.

First Principles is an attempt to articulate the foundations of a new worldview that can guide humanity through the global metacrisis. We have become deeply conditioned by postmodernity to be cynical of intellectual efforts to create frameworks of universal value, but this is indeed at the heart of the authors’ thesis. Post-modernity’s deconstruction of old stories of value has overreached, resulting not only in a pervasive global mood of nihilism but also an inability to coordinate in any meaningful way at a time when the stakes could not be higher.

Into this void, First Principles offers a ‘New Story of Value’ that provides a context for integrating the best of premodern, modern, and postmodern thought. It does so by explicitly articulating a universal set of values that underlies reality all the way up and down the evolutionary chain, and is validated by both science and the wisdom traditions. Below I provide a specific example. (more…)

Book Review “First Principles & First Values” by David Nicol2024-08-31T11:13:59-07:00

On the Erotic and the Ethical

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The Temple of the ancient Israelites is the original Hebrew expression of pagan consciousness. Now—as we will see later in this essay—the difference between Temple and pagan consciousness is very crucial. But it is a difference that is only important because of their profound similarity. Both the Temple and the pagan cults shared an intoxication with the feminine Goddess, symbol of sacred eros.

The relationship with the Goddess was not a hobby for the Israelites like modern religious affiliation often tends to be. It was an all-consuming desire to be on the inside, to feel the infinite fullness of reality in every moment and in every encounter—it was an attempt to fully experience eros. Because the ancients were so aware of the depth of reality, to live without being able to access the infinite in this erotic way was enormously painful. (For an example, read the story of the idolatrous King Menashe, as retold in the Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin 92A.)

The prophets of the Temple period opposed paganism with all of their ethical fire and passion. For them, it was inconceivable that the ecstatic and primal Temple experience, religiously powerful and important as it might be, should become primary. When eros overrode ethos, the prophet exploded in divine rage. In moments of clash, the prophet taught that the ethical always needed to trump the erotic.

Modern Judaism has developed from the ethical teachings of the prophets. In the process, however, we have overlooked the erotic, present in the pagan consciousness of the Temple service. We have forgotten the Goddess, a vital presence in the life of ancient Israel. Hebrew liturgy reflects the virtually inconsolable longing of the Hebrew spirit for the rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem. This longing is not a dream of proprietorship over this or that hill in Jerusalem. Indeed, ownership and holiness are mutually exclusive. Instead, it is a yearning to reclaim sacred eros as part of the fabric of our lives. And, in the way of the circle, our longing for eros is also a longing for ethos. All ethical breakdown emerges from a dearth of eros. When we are overwhelmed by an erotic vacuum, ethics collapse. (more…)

On the Erotic and the Ethical2024-10-02T03:05:47-07:00
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