Source: Integral Institute – Scholars

Lynn D. Feldman, MA, JD, earned her undergraduate degree from Tulane University, her Master’s degree in Public Law and Government from Columbia University’s Graduate Faculties, and her law degree from Pace Law. She has been a public school teacher for 24 years and an attorney specializing in matrimonial and criminal law for 10 years. She began working with Integral Institute in 2003 and has worked toward the creation of Integral University while organizing the Integral Educational model.

Source: Gaia Community

Source: LynneDFeldman.org

I have been searching for a synthesis of the individual’s need for agency with the community’s need for cooperation as far back as my undergraduate days at Tulane University in New Orleans, and then when facing the 1960’s campus riots during graduate school at Columbia University Graduate Faculties where I earned a Master’s in Public Law and Government.

I became a ghost-writer for the Senior Vice-President and Special Legal Counsel of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and then a political speech-writer for a US senatorial candidate from New Jersey, where I came to see that I had an ability to assume multiple perspective-taking.

My political experience left me with a profound disquiet about how little the voters seemed to understand the political and governmental structures.  I chose to become a high school teacher and to dedicate myself to creating generations of informed and involved citizens.  In 1982 there was a reduction in the teaching force, and I was laid off; I used that opportunity to attend law school at Pace University.

By then I had read Ken Wilber’s Spectrum of Consciousness and had found the grand synthesis that I had been looking for.  I began applying Integral theory to everything from arguing cases before the highest court in New Jersey to picking a jury for a death penalty trial where I was for the defense.

Selected review from Amazon.com: Ken Wilber offers a unique way of looking at reality. Whether or not one agrees with his ideas, the book represents a truly different view of existence which differs dramatically from that of most people. The author shows how the electromagnetic spectrum existed all along, but that we humans only recently understood the nature of this energy. He posits a similar spectrum – albeit for consciousness – that we only now are beginning to comprehend. Well worth reading – it will challenge your view of the world, especially if you have been raised in a dualistic world.

In 1992 I returned to teaching, which had become necessary as I had assumed primary care for my elderly mother. I began applying the Integral approach daily in my classes.

After 9/11, I used the principles of both Spiral Dynamics and Integral theory in the creation of the Teen Freedom Corps, which brought the group to the attention of the White House, Peter Jennings on ABC News, Dateline, People magazine, and finally a visit from Pres. Bush.

In 2003 I met Ken Wilber and the folks working to create Integral Institute.  I was asked to join them that year, and by the next I had been asked to be Vice Chancellor of the emerging Integral University.  Unfortunately, those plans died by 2006, but I remained intrigued by the transformative potential of the application of Integral to my classes.

I then began to assemble what became the Center for Integral Education, and I was asked to be the Director.  Under a different umbrella organization, we held two international seminars in 2007 and 2008.

I continue to consult and speak on Integral education and will soon publish my first book on the topic.

As part of an Integral consciousness, I returned to the practice of law with a concentration on mediation and collaborative legal divorce practice.

I remain passionate about learning, education, schooling, and the legal profession in both its litigation and mediation aspects.

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