Eliot Bissey Los Angeles CA USAEarthSol Systemthe UniverseSpirit.
   Writing under my name, and the pseudonym: Dr.Lo

   I have been interested in consciousness, spirituality, philosophy and psychology since I was a child. My other areas of interest include music, art, cooking, movies, and of course the “Big 3” of the ancient Greeks, “Truth, beauty and goodness”. I love learning, in fact I'm very passionate about it. My personal circle of friends spans the entire spectrum of consciousness, which I like, as we all have the potentials of the whole spiral of development within us, manifested through the lens of our own particular character development, unique characteristics, personality and genetic inheritance (speaking of which, I'm Japanese on my mother's side, and French, Scottish, Irish, English and American Indian on my father's side - I tell people, "I'm confused").

    In this time of evolutionary tension, we are witness to the growing gap between our technological achievements, and the cognitive, moral, emotional and psycho-social stage development from which our leaders deploy that technology. Our leaders have short, 2 to 4 year terms, and they understandably (if not morally justifiably) tend to develop short term thinking and views, with their commensurate behaviors, which many among us realize are threatening our food supply, peace, and sustainable life on our planet. We have more things and less real timeless values, more bureaucratic infrastructure and less healthy interior structure and development (look around and within, have you noticed? Lots of personality everywhere, not much good character around nowadays, eh?), we can communicate with the entire world, yet we deeply wish to be acknowledged and heard. Integral culture and community are an evolutionary response to these conditions.

   Acknowledging that interiors are not directly reducible to exteriors, but that they are intimately inter-related (one feels anger or fear, adrenaline is released in the body, breathing and heart rate change) integral culture is essentially: 1. the internalization of meta-theories (big maps, so that one can navigate efficiently towards one’s destination, in this case, a more evolved and integral self-system center-of-gravity, or “higher” consciousness), and 2. the actual “walking” through the territory (living life, moment to moment, with honesty and authenticity), and 3. constantly referencing the theory and the reality to one another, WITH each other (the "community" part, helping each other grow); as new emergent truths are revealed they are incorporated into the maps; and as one reflects on one’s experiences, one uses the maps to adequately differentiate and integrate one’s feelings and thoughts, facilitating the move up the spiral from the absolutist “First Tier” (Spiral Dynamics term; “If I am right, then you must be wrong”) to the more integral “Second Tier” (multi-dimensional appropriateness, “I am right under these conditions, you are right under those conditions, let’s see if we can synthesize the best of both”). A crude logic demands that only one answer can be “right”, however, the wave/particle duality of physics (the famous light/slit/photon counter experiment) is an example that life is not forced to a simplistic level by our needs and/or capacities. Albert Einstein said, “Make things as simple as possible, but no simpler”, a call for distillation, NOT distortion. Think of focusing a lens, too far in either direction causes a loss of focus. Many people have simplistic conceptions of God, complete with anthropomorphic attributes, which reveals much about them, and nothing about God.

   My favorite maps/models so far: Ken Wilber’s Integral Methodological Pluralism, A.Q.A.L. and I.O.S. (the biggest and most inclusive meta-theory, all valid truth and experience is subtly differentiated, holistically integrated, genealogically located, and pluralistically honored, all the way up, and all the way down); Robert Kegan’s Constructive Developmentalism (evolving subject/object equilibriums); Spiral Dynamics, Don Beck and Chris Cowan's development from the pioneering work of Professor Clare Graves (he discovered the double-helical relationship between exterior life conditions and interior subjective worldspace BEFORE the discovery of DNA structure). Other top philosophy/psychology picks are: Jiddu Krishnamurti, Lao Tzu, Byron Katie, Eckhart Tolle, Epictetus, Plato, Aristotle, Confucius, Gillette & Moore, Carol S.Pearson, Ramana Maharshi, Zen (just about anything/anybody, they have the best sense of humor of any spiritual and/or religious group), and let's not forget Jesus (the vast majority of his followers give him a bad rap, but HE doesn't really deserve it at all - "I want Jesus Christ without the Christians" song lyric by brilliant integral musician Stuart Davis - the higher level consciousness you function from and speak to, the more you will be misunderstood, or as George W.Bush would say, "misunderestimated" LOL!).

   Top music picks: King Crimson, Yoko Kanno, Stuart Davis, Swing Out Sister, Beth Orton, Sarah Mclachlan, Norah Jones, William Orbit, Laura Fygi, Manhattan Transfer, John McLaughlin, Peter Gabriel, The Cheerful Insanity of Giles Giles and Fripp, Thomas Dolby, Tori Amos, kd lang, Robbie Nevil, Loreena McKennitt, All Saints, Lisa Fischer, NIN, Ice-T, John Scofield, New York Voices, Tal Farlow, Joe Pass, Miles Davis, Scritti Politti, Stan Getz, Calle 54, + lots more.

   Top movie related picks; Favorite Directors: Akira Kurosawa (Rashomon), Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects), Stanley Kubrick (A Clockwork Orange), Alejandro Jodorowsky (El Topo), and too many more to list. Favorite actors: Kevin Spacey, Samuel L.Jackson, Morgan Freeman, Charlize Theron, Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Brian Cox, Diana Rigg, Nicole Kidman, Zhang Ziyi, Chingmy Yau, Chow Yun Fat, Natalie Portman, and too many more to list. And, I totally LOVE Japanese animation ("Ghost In The Shell" {2 movies and tv series} is the best!), too many to list. And, of course, Chanbara (Samurai movies, the "westerns" of the east, tales with a moral lesson); Lone Wolf and Cub, Zatoichi, + lots more.

   Top graphic novels: The Elektra Trilogy (The Elektra Saga, Elektra Assassin {best ever!}, Elektra Lives Again), Sin City (all), Ronin, The Complete Frank Miller Batman (including The Dark Knight Returns), all by Frank Miller (some with Lynn Varley {colorist} and Bill Sienkiewicz {mad genius multi-media artist}); Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, + lots more.

   Top fiction authors: Isaac Asimov, Harlan Ellison, Philip K.Dick, Frank Herbert, Trevanian, Thomas Harris, + more.  

   Top TV shows:  The Shield, Gilmore Girls, Profiler, 24, Six Feet Under, Dead Like Me, Smallville, NUMB3RS, Medium, The Apprentice, Northern Exposure, Criminal Minds, Alias, Columbo, The Avengers, The L Word, Las Vegas, CSI, Law and Order, Firefly, The Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Prisoner, Threshold, Joan of Arcadia, Astro Boy (the old stuff), + lots more.

   Dr.Lo is rap/blog/humor/talkin’ trash/monologue & dialogue (with Integirl and others), wit & wisdom, fun,                     articles/essays, critical analysis and critical review (not necessarily negative).
 
                                                                     Thanks for reading.
                                                                               Eliot.