California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) is a
private university
Private universities and private colleges are institutions of higher education, not operated, owned, or institutionally funded by governments. They may (and often do) receive from governments tax breaks, public student loans, and grant (money ...
in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
,
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
.
[Otterman, Sharon. "Merging Spirituality and Clinical Psychology at Columbia". ''New York Times'', Aug. 9, 2012][Aanstoos, C. Serlin, I., & Greening, T. (2000). ''History of Division 32 (Humanistic Psychology) of the American Psychological Association''. In D. Dewsbury (Ed.), ''Unification through Division: Histories of the divisions of the American Psychological Association'', Vol. V. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.] It was founded in 1968. As of 2020, the institute operates in two locations: the main campus near the confluence of the
Civic Center
A civic center or civic centre is a prominent land area within a community that is constructed to be its focal point or center. It usually contains one or more dominant public buildings, which may also include a government building. Recently, the ...
,
SoMa
Soma may refer to:
Businesses and brands
* SOMA (architects), a New York–based firm of architects
* Soma (company), a company that designs eco-friendly water filtration systems
* SOMA Fabrications, a builder of bicycle frames and other bicycle ...
, and
Mission
Mission (from Latin ''missio'' "the act of sending out") may refer to:
Organised activities Religion
*Christian mission, an organized effort to spread Christianity
*Mission (LDS Church), an administrative area of The Church of Jesus Christ of ...
districts, and another campus for the American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine in the
Potrero Hill
Potrero Hill is a residential neighborhood in San Francisco, California. It is known for its views of the San Francisco Bay and city skyline, its proximity to many destination spots, its sunny weather, and having two freeways and a Caltrain stat ...
neighborhood. As of 2020, CIIS has a total of 1,510 students and 80 core faculty members.
CIIS consists of four schools: the School of Professional Psychology & Health, the School of Consciousness and Transformation (mainly
humanities
Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...
subjects), the School of Undergraduate Studies, and the American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine (ACTCM). ACTCM became the fourth school after merging with CIIS on July 1, 2015.
The institute offers interdisciplinary and cross-cultural graduate studies in psychology, counseling, philosophy, religion, cultural anthropology, transformative studies and leadership, integrative health, women's spirituality, and community mental health.
[Psychology & Psychiatry Journal. "California Institute of Integral Studies Launches Groundbreaking Community Mental Health Program". ''Psychology & Psychiatry Journal''; Atlanta, Feb 2008: 4.] Many courses combine mainstream academic curricula with a spiritual orientation, including influences from a broad spectrum of mystical or esoteric traditions. Although the institute has no official spiritual path, some of its historical roots lie among followers of the
Bengal
Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...
i sage
Sri Aurobindo
Sri Aurobindo (born Aurobindo Ghose; 15 August 1872 – 5 December 1950) was an Indian philosopher, yogi, maharishi, poet, and Indian nationalist. He was also a journalist, editing newspapers such as ''Vande Mataram''. He joined the ...
. "Integral" in the school's name refers to Aurobindo's
Integral Yoga
Integral yoga, sometimes also called supramental yoga, is the yoga-based philosophy and practice of Sri Aurobindo and ''The Mother'' (Mirra Alfassa). Central to ''Integral yoga'' is the idea that Spirit manifests itself in a process of involu ...
(''purnayoga''), here interpreted as the integration of
mind, body, and spirit.
History
American Academy of Asian Studies (1951–1968)
''California Institute of Integral Studies'' (CIIS) grew out of the earlier ''American Academy of Asian Studies'', founded by Louis Gainsborough in 1951.
[New York Times Staff. Frederic Spiegelberg, Religion Teacher, 97. ''The New York Times'', 1994][Subbiondo, Joseph L. CIIS and American Higher Education. ''Integral Review'', June 2011, Vol. 7, No. 1] Other early contributors to the founding of the academy include
Frederic Spiegelberg Frederic Spiegelberg (May 24, 1897 – November 10, 1994) was a Stanford University professor of Asian religions.
Education and career
Spiegelberg was born into a Jewish family in Hamburg, Germany, in 1897 and earned his doctorate at the Universit ...
.
[Stanford University News Release: ''Comparative religions expert Frederic Spiegelberg dies at 97''. Stanford University News Service, 11/15/94] The academy was an independent educational institution set up to study Eastern culture and philosophy
and improve the dialogue between east and west.
Soon after the founding of the institution, Gainsborough was joined by
Alan Watts
Alan Wilson Watts (6 January 1915 – 16 November 1973) was an English writer, speaker and self-styled "philosophical entertainer", known for interpreting and popularising Japanese, Chinese and Indian traditions of Buddhist, Taoist, and Hindu ...
and Haridas Chaudhuri, two persons that played a crucial role in the development of the academy's academic profile.
Both Watts and Chaudhuri were oriented towards Eastern religions and philosophy and integrated this into their teaching and colloquia. Watts, a teacher of Eastern mysticism, established the academy as a meeting place for counter-cultural movements, also known as the
San Francisco Renaissance
The term San Francisco Renaissance is used as a global designation for a range of poetic activity centered on San Francisco, which brought it to prominence as a hub of the American poetry avant-garde in the 1950s. However, others (e.g., Alan Watts ...
. Chaudhuri, a scholar of Aurobindo, developed the field of ''Integral counseling psychology'', an integration of eastern philosophy with the growing field of counseling psychology.
According to sources “''Chaudhuri’s vision of integral education, like that of Alan Watts, was based on connecting the cultural traditions of the East and the West''”.
California Institute of Asian Studies (1968–1980)
In 1968, Chaudhuri was instrumental in the founding and development of a new institution called the ''California Institute of Asian Studies''.
[Voigt, Walt. Bridging East and West in Graduate Education: The California Institute of Integral Studies. ''The Humanistic Psychologist'', 27 Vol. 13, No. 3, Autumn 1985.] The new institution grew out of the former ''American Academy of Asian Studies'', which was winding down. In this period several developments took place. Paul Herman continued the work of Chaudhuri and also designed the institute's first graduate degree in Integral Psychology, the Integral Counseling Psychology (ICP) degree, which was established in 1973.
Frederic Spiegelberg, who helped found the predecessor ''American Academy of Asian Studies'', served as the institute's second president, from 1976 to 1978.
California Institute of Integral Studies (1980–present)
In 1980 the Institute underwent a change of name, now emerging as ''California Institute of Integral Studies''.
In 1981, the institute was granted regional accreditation
and became a member of the national community of colleges and universities.
By the mid-eighties several academic programs were available, including the ''Clinical Psychology program'', the ''Counseling Psychology program'', and the ''East/West Psychology program''. Several new programs were also launched in the 1985–1986 academic year, including the ''Organizational Development program'' and ''Transformation certificate program'', and the ''External Studies program''. Other services, available to students at this time, included an extensive library, as well as the ''Integral Counseling Center'', a community-based service facility that supported the training needs of clinical and counseling students.
In 2008, the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' reported that psychology students at the
New College of California
New College of California was a college founded in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1971 by former Gonzaga University President John Leary. It ceased operations in early 2008.
New College's main campus was housed in several buildings in the Mission ...
were transferring to the ''California Institute of Integral Studies'', due to the closing of the former institution.
[Schevitz, Tanya. "Stark lesson as San Francisco college close". ''San Francisco Chronicle'' online, June 20, 2008. Retrieved 07 April 2018.]
In 2012, CIIS, with support from the Aetna Foundation, announced that it was introducing its new onsite Health and Wellness Coaching program to San Francisco's Mid-Market District. The program was to be of benefit to children and families living at 10th & Mission Family Housing, a supportive housing project run by Mercy Housing California.
["Wellness; California Institute of Integral Studies, Aetna Foundation Bring Free Wellness Coaching to Supportive Housing Residents in San Francisco". ''Pediatrics Week''; Atlanta tlanta1 Feb 2012: 64.] In 2013 Jordan
[Jordan, Meg. «Health Coaching for the Underserved». ''Glob Adv Health Med''. 2013 May; 2(3): 75–82.] published a case report that summarized the experiences from the Integrative Wellness Coaching (IWC) project among homeless and low-income individuals in San Francisco. The IWC model was, at this time, included in the Master of Arts program in Integrative Health Studies at the California Institute of Integral Studies.
Philosophical background
Central to the early history of the institute is a model of so-called ''integral education''. Originally set up to study Eastern culture and philosophy in the beginning of the 1950s,
the Institute developed further in this direction with the arrival of Haridas Chaudhuri. Chaudhuri introduced the integral philosophy of Sri Aurobindo as a navigating principle for education and established a perspective that sought a holistic view of the human being; an integration of material and spiritual values; as well as an integration of Eastern and Western philosophies and worldviews.
By the mid-eighties this model of education was firmly established. In 1985 Voigt
reported on the graduate programs at CIIS and elaborated on the experience of integral education at the institute. In the late 1990s, CIIS was one of several institutions in the United States associated with the study of Holism and Consciousness.
[McManis, Sam. "University with a Vision / JFK's holistic studies program attracts devoted students – and strong critics". ''San Francisco Chronicle'' online, October 9, 1998. Retrieved 07 April 2018.]
There is also a connection between the roots of CIIS and the
Human Potential Movement
The Human Potential Movement (HPM) arose out of the counterculture of the 1960s and formed around the concept of an extraordinary potential that its advocates believed to lie largely untapped in all people. The movement takes as its premise the be ...
of the 1950s and 1960s. Among the students who attended the colloquia at the ''American Academy of Asian Studies'' in the 1950s was
Michael Murphy Michael, Mick, or Mike Murphy may refer to:
Artists and entertainers
* Michael Murphy (actor) (born 1938), American actor
* Mike Murphy (musician) (1946–2006), American drummer for the Bee Gees and Chicago
* Michael Bryan Murphy, lead singer ...
and
Dick Price
Richard Price (October 12, 1930 – November 25, 1985) was co-founder of the Esalen Institute in 1962 and a veteran of the Beat Generation. He ran Esalen in Big Sur for many years, sometimes virtually single-handed."Dick's life in the late 1960s ...
, founders of the
Esalen Institute
The Esalen Institute, commonly called Esalen, is a non-profit American retreat center and intentional community in Big Sur, California, which focuses on humanistic alternative education. The institute played a key role in the Human Potential ...
at
Big Sur
Big Sur () is a rugged and mountainous section of the Central Coast of California between Carmel and San Simeon, where the Santa Lucia Mountains rise abruptly from the Pacific Ocean. It is frequently praised for its dramatic scenery. Big Sur ha ...
.
According to Gleig and Floress,
[Ann Gleig and Charles I. Flores (2013), "Remembering Sri Aurobindo and the Mother: The Forgotten Lineage of Integral Yoga" (chapter 2) In: Singleton, Mark; Goldberg, Ellen (2013). Gurus of Modern Yoga. Oxford University Press. . .] "one can trace a direct line from Integral Yoga through
he Cultural Integration Fellowship
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
to two of the major centers of the
Human Potential movement
The Human Potential Movement (HPM) arose out of the counterculture of the 1960s and formed around the concept of an extraordinary potential that its advocates believed to lie largely untapped in all people. The movement takes as its premise the be ...
and the
transpersonal psychology
Transpersonal psychology, or spiritual psychology, is a sub-field or school of psychology that integrates the spiritual and transcendent aspects of the human experience with the framework of modern psychology. The '' transpersonal'' is defined ...
field it birthed: Esalen and California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS)."
Gleig and Flores further explain that:
According to Jim Ryan, CIIS, as developed by the founder (Chaudhuri), "had a very wide academic reach, far beyond its basic East-West philosophy concentration. Theses and dissertations were done over many years on the politics, economics, anthropology, sociology, and area studies of many nations of the world."
[Jim Ryan, "The Complete Yoga: The Lineage of Integral Education" in: ]
Accreditation and exam pass rates
CIIS is accredited by the
WASC Senior College and University Commission
The Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) was an organization providing accreditation of public and private universities, colleges, secondary and elementary schools in California and Hawaii, the territories of Guam, American Samoa ...
. In addition, degrees offered through ACTCM are accredited by the
Accreditation Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine
The Accreditation Commission for Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine (ACAHM) is a specialized accreditation agency recognized by the United States Department of Education. ACAHM is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation, incorporated in the District o ...
(ACAOM).
In 2018, The Board of Behavioral Sciences (BBS), California's state regulatory agency responsible for licensing, examination, and enforcement of Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists (LMFTs), released statistics for its January 1, 2018 through June 30, 2018 exam cycle.
* CIIS examinees' pass rate was 82% (Standard exam), compared with a 77% pass rate for all schools in California.
* 83% of CIIS first-time Standard exam-takers passed, compared with an 80% pass rate for California schools overall.
The Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) program in Clinical Psychology is not accredited by the
American Psychological Association
The American Psychological Association (APA) is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States, with over 133,000 members, including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants, and students. It ha ...
(APA). The program received APA accreditation in 2003, but accreditation was revoked in 2011, and CIIS's appeal of the revocation was denied in 2012 on the basis that it was "not fully consistent with the Guidelines and Principles for Accreditation of Programs in Professional Psychology", notably "several requirements in the following areas: Domain B: Program Philosophy, Objectives, and Curriculum Plan; Domain C: Program Resources; Domain E: Student-Faculty Relations; Domain F: Program Self-Assessment and Quality Enhancement." CIIS applied for APA accreditation in June 2016, but voluntarily withdrew its application in June 2017.
Notable people
*
Angeles Arrien
Angeles Arrien (1940 – April 24, 2014) was a Basque-American cultural anthropologist, educator, author, lecturer and consultant, best known for her book ''The Four-Fold Way: Walking the Paths of the Warrior, Healer, Teacher and Visionary''.
Ea ...
*
Dave Carter
*
Haridas Chaudhuri
Haridas Chaudhuri (May 1913 – 1975) was an Indian integral philosopher. He was a correspondent with Sri Aurobindo and the founder of the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS).
Early life and career
He was born in May 1913 in Shyam ...
*
Allan Combs
*
Nadinne I. Cruz
Nadinne Irene Cruz (born June 28, 1948) has served as an advocate and practitioner of service-learning and experiential education across institutions of higher education.
Biography
Cruz's early volunteer experiences with peasants in the Philip ...
*
Angela Davis
Angela Yvonne Davis (born January 26, 1944) is an American political activist, philosopher, academic, scholar, and author. She is a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. A feminist and a Marxist, Davis was a longtime member of ...
*
Stanislav Grof
Stanislav "Stan" Grof is a Czech-born psychiatrist who has been living in the United States since the 1960s. Grof is one of the principal developers of transpersonal psychology and research into the use of non-ordinary states of consciousness ...
*
Andrej Grubacic
*
Will Hall
*
Judith Hanson Lasater
*
Noah Levine
Noah Levine (born 1971) is an American Buddhist teacher and author, son of American Buddhist teacher and poet Stephen Levine. As a counselor known for his philosophical alignment with Buddhism and punk ideology, he identifies his Buddhist belie ...
*
Joanna Macy
Joanna Rogers Macy (born May 2, 1929) is an environmental activist, author, and scholar of Buddhism, general systems theory, and deep ecology. She is the author of twelve books.
She was married to the late Francis Underhill Macy, the activist ...
*
Robert A. McDermott
*
Chani Nicholas
*
Starhawk
Starhawk (born Miriam Simos on June 17, 1951) is an American feminist and author. She is known as a theorist of feminist Neopaganism and ecofeminism.
In 2013, she was listed in Watkins' ''Mind Body Spirit'' magazine as one of the 100 Most Spir ...
*
Brian Swimme
Brian Thomas Swimme (born 1950) is a professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies, in San Francisco, where he teaches evolutionary cosmology to graduate students in the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness program. He received his ...
*
Richard Tarnas
*
Judith Tyberg Judith Tyberg (1902–1980) was an American yogi ("Jyotipriya") and a renowned Sanskrit scholar and Oriental studies, orientalist. Author of ''The Language of the Gods'' and two other texts on Sanskrit, she was the founder and guiding spirit of the ...
*
Douglas Vakoch
Douglas A. Vakoch ( ; born June 16, 1961) is an American astrobiologist, search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) researcher, psychologist, and president of METI International, a nonprofit research and educational organization devoted to ...
*
Alan Watts
Alan Wilson Watts (6 January 1915 – 16 November 1973) was an English writer, speaker and self-styled "philosophical entertainer", known for interpreting and popularising Japanese, Chinese and Indian traditions of Buddhist, Taoist, and Hindu ...
References
External links
Official website
{{authority control
California Institute of Integral Studies
Integral thought
Schools accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges
New Age organizations
Educational institutions established in 1968
South of Market, San Francisco
Private universities and colleges in California