Vanessa Fisher and Bonnitta Roy - Dancing with the Shadow: A Deep Dive into the Many Layers of Self

Here is a wonderful new conversation from Vanessa Fisher's on-going series of dialogues, Dancing in the Liminal: A Global, Border-crossing Inquiry into Art, Activism, Spirituality & Leadership for the 21st Century, this time with noted integral theorist and equine therapist, Bonnitta Roy.

Their conversation on the shadow uses Jung's conception of the idea and his understanding of the self as a system - and there is also some discussion of how this relates to shamanism, so you might see why I enjoyed this conversation.

Dancing with the Shadow: A Deep Dive into the Many Layers of Self

Posted by Vanessa Fisher on Monday, December 10, 2012
With Bonnitta Roy



Download this Dialogue as an MP3

Bonnitta Roy is the seventeenth guest on my Dialogue Series, Dancing in the Liminal: A Global, Border-crossing Inquiry into Art, Activism, Spirituality & Leadership for the 21st Century (see overview for this series here).

Bonnitta is an award winning process philosopher whose work on consciousness has twice been awarded for academic achievement at international conferences.

She is an associate editor of Integral Review and a guest faculty of the Conscious Evolution Masters Course at The Graduate Institute. She is also the founder/curator of The Magellan Courses, an on-line experimental course in post-conventional learning.

Bonnitta and her partner are stewards of their home-farm in northwest Connecticut where they host equine-facilitated workshops on energy awareness, body language and emotional balance. They also opened Alderlore Insight Center which offers on-site retreats, facilitated meetings, and workshops in transformative inquiry,

In this interview, Bonnitta and I engage a discussion on her ideas about the many dimensions of shadow. Bonnitta will expand on the notion of the “shadow” into deeper realms of being through a framework that is based on Carl Jung's understanding of the self as a system, and the trajectory of his later work which was beginning to be informed by his interest in shamanism.

In January, Bonnitta will be offering a course titled Dancing with the Shadow, as part of the Magellan Fellowship Initiative which brings original new views on timeless ideas.

Buddhist Geeks 231: The Dark Side of Dharma w/ Willoughby Britton

Cool topic - I am always interested in the intersection between neuroscience and Buddhism.

Willoughby Britton received a B.A. in Neuroscience from Colgate University, a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Arizona, and completed her clinical internship at Brown Medical School. She received sleep/EEG technician training at Harvard Medical School and was a Research Fellow at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA/NIH) and at Andrew Weil's Program in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona. She spent several years in Asia studying meditative techniques and received her mindfulness instructor certification training at the Center for Mindfulness at the UMASS Medical School. Dr. Britton's research includes sleep, emotional disturbances, and new treatment/prevention strategies. She recently completed a 3-year NIH-funded clinical trial on the neurophysiological effects of mindfulness meditation in depression, and continues to examine the link between sleep, affective disturbance and emotional regulation strategies.

Enjoy the talk - Vince asks some good questions.

BG 231: The Dark Side of Dharma

by Willoughby Britton

Episode Description:

We’re joined this week by Brown University neuroscience researcher Willougbhy Britton. In this episode Dr. Britton shares some of the details of a research project that she’s working on called, “The Difficult Stages of the Contemplative Path.” She goes into the purpose of the research project and also some of the research methods she’s using to establish a helpful subjective phenomenology for these difficult stages.

She also speaks about how she has collaborated with both meditation teachers and Buddhist scholars to help determine what the common experiences are for practitioners, and whether they have textual references in the Buddhist canons. And to make matters even more interesting, she shares what her personal experiences have been like, as she’s a committed meditation practitioner herself.

This is part 1 of a two-part series. Listen to part 2 (airing next week).

Episode Links:

• Willoughby Britton @ Brown University
• Britton Lab
• Willoughby Britton at the Buddhist Geeks Conference, on the Problem with Meditation – LA Weekly
• Video Interviews with Daniel Ingram
• Cheetah House

Transcript