Walt Whitman Integral

Walt Whitman Integral is a virtual commons for people to collaborate with me to understand how we can embrace our world and reality by using Whitman’s ideas as a platform and especially his meditation.

Whitman’s poetic, spiritual and philosophical ideas grew out of a time of turmoil and uncertainty in the United States. He believed that our democracy was in its infancy and would always be in a process of creation and evolution. Whitman believed in the sanctity of the common person and he was passionate in believing that for America to fulfill its potential, each of us needs to strive toward developing “towering selfhood” that can become integrated in a democratic culture. A truly democratic culture requires well-rounded citizens who can accept diversity and embrace difference, Whitman believed that we can only accomplish this through love. He named this approach Personalism.

Walt Whitman Integral will explore Whitman’s ideas within the context of developing a democratic person and culture that balances the needs of the one and the many. There will be spiritual, psychological, sexual, political, literary and other components in which to understand democratic culture. All of these components or ideas from Whitman developed out of a particular “insight” or “soul sight” that I believe were the result of a consistent practice of meditation.

I believe, as Whitman did that we should each fulfill our destiny by developing our mind, body, soul and fathomless spirit into dynamic autonomous individuals and open-minded, community-oriented citizens of the world. How do you see this? Can we use Whitman’s ideas to explore ways to move forward individually and together?

Please practice the meditation and feel free to send me an email regarding your experiences at NeilRichardsonMeditation@gmail.com.  Neil is also available to teach the meditation.