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The original idea behind the eventual development of Global Integral Solutions (GIS) came in the mid-nineteen eighties when I, Michael D. Ostrolenk, the founder of GIS, sat thinking about the need to address social issues from a multidisciplinary perspective. My idea at that time was to create a forum where avant garde thinkers could come together to discuss contemporary issues. I imagined bringing together philosophers, psychologists, biophysicists, spiritual leaders, artists, public policy experts, political activists and business people on a regular basis to break bread and discuss issues of the day. I envisioned it to be an exercise in inter-disciplinary thinking, community building and action plan development. It would be based on the spirit of inquiry, collaboration and a deep commitment to solving real problems for real people. I believe part of this idea came from my own daemon which has driven me since my earliest memories to inquire into philosophical and spiritual questions and synthesize knowledge from what appeared to be disparate fields. Another part came from watching my father's dental associates gather on irregular basis at our house during my youth to discuss what was then cutting edge thinking in biological dentistry.
An early version of this idea came to fruition in the realm of healthcare in the mid-nineteen nineties, when I joined the Health Medicine Forum as a board members and Health Medicine Panel Project Coordinator. I was able to see first hand the value and power of brining diverse experts such as medical doctors, nutritionists, somatic practitioners, Chinese Medicine Doctors, chiropractors, nurses, naturopaths and psychologists together to address healthcare issues in general and patient's specific problems in particular. This coincided with my own development and training as a transpersonally oriented body-psychotherapist which further deepend my own sense of the need to create new relationship forms and ways of understanding and experiencing the worlds in which we live. At this same time, thanks to my friend and first integrative medicine research client Meg Jordan, RN, Ph.D., I met Tony Rich, President of IdeasOne Inc., who would become a financial and spiritual catalyst for many of my future activities.
A second experience that concretized the value of interdisciplinary thinking for me was my participation in the creation of the Integral Institute in 2000. I attended meetings of the Integral Institute for the first few years of its creation, first in the education branch and then in politics. The meetings where full of creative and cutting edge thinkers who where looking to intensify the changes socio-culturally that where taking place in individuals consciousness. These thinkers where looking for ways to integrate the wisdom of the past with the promises of the future in a fully articulated synthesis of human knowledge and experiential modes of knowing and leaning. It was a very exciting time. I met great people, who not only inspired my thinking but warmed my heart with their care and compassion. John Steiner, an associate of GIS, played a key role at this time in organizing and supporting the further growth of the community of practitioners and researchers that Ken Wilber brought together under the auspices of the Integral Institute. His (and Margo King's) house became a home away from home over the next few years for me and many integral institute associates.
By 2001, through my connection to the Integral Institute, my own thinking complexified around interdisciplinary thinking, to recognize that more comprehensive frameworks and tools on human and social system dynamics where needed to create appropriate understanding and useful action in the world. My thinking moved beyond inter-disciplinary to integrally informed inter-disciplinary thinking.
It was during this time that I decided to create a new business that would model itself after the new thinking coming from these integrally informed inter-disciplinary inquiries. Utilizing my networks from previous work in healthcare, public policy, psychology and education proved to be quite valuable in putting together the original team. Jenny Wade PhD, Maureen Silos, Ph.D. and Jim Turner accepted my invitation to be on the board of the company. They each brought their own expertise in such areas as law, public policy, cultural anthropology, psychology and organizational development. I then pulled together a quite impressive list of advisors and associates such as Ken Wilber, Meg Jordan, RN. Ph.D, Tony Rich, Beverly Rubic, Ph.D, David Johnston, Bert Parlee PhD, John Forman , John Petersen, Sean Hargens MA, (Ph.D Candidate), Nathaniel Branden Ph.D. and Don Beck, Ph.D. Other great people joined over time.
During this same time, I was privileged to spend time with David Johnston, founder of What's Working , who helped me with the original design of the company. We spent many hours discussing integral theory, systems science, Buckminster Fuller, ecology, free markets and business. Of course without his wife Elena's blessing, those conversations could not have taken place. Also, time was well spent with my friend Tony Arcari, who helped with the development of the first website and helped to keep my mind in a drug-free psychedelic state with his polemics and gift for story telling. I put Tony up there with my three other favorite Anglo story tellers, who are of Irish ancestry, William Irwin Thompson, Timothy Leary and Terence McKenna. Mark Gerzon is a person who played a quiet but important role. We spent an afternoon in the Rocky Mountains walking, eating and talking about leadership and human relations. This was a reminder of sorts to bring the heart into the mind. Another important person both professionally and personally was Dr. Marian T. Giles. Her support during the company's early development was instrumental. I am sad to report that she passed away this past year.
One of the original missions of the company was to be a viable network for those associates doing their cutting edge work in their various fields. It was to be a virtual and concrete organized structure for networking, marketing of new ideas, developing projects and programs and having some fun. The mission like the thinking behind the company has evolved over time. In 2003, the company began to focus more on transpartisan social change initiatives. We were instrumental in creating the Medical Privacy Coalition and we have worked closely with the Campaign for Better Health on thinking through the need to evolve the healthcare paradigm from disease management to socio-cultural systems based on wellness and health. GIS also started to host Transpartisan and Integral salons in Washington DC. In late 2003 and early 2004 Global Integral Solutions ventured into 'Clean Energy' and other such issues that effect global sustainability. I personally joined a small group within the Integral Institute who are brining integral thinking into global issues.
In the summer of 2003, I met Gilberto Carrasquero through Ken Wilber. Gil came to DC and spent a week with Amy and me. We spent the entire week walking the lake and talking about our mutual interests, cares and concerns. Those conversations eventually led Gilberto Carrasquero partnering with GIS. He now runs GIS's Integral Leadership Academy.
In late 2003, like in cultures that reflect and gives ritual to articulate natural processes of human development, thanks to the love and support of my wife Amy, I successfully navigated a rite of passage, which helped to further clarify GIS's mission in the next few years. It became clear to me that the company's mission is to advance initiatives that lead to sustainable communities that are based on deep embodied integrity of life and higher ordered natural processes as expressed through complex adaptive systems. This mission was even further clarified through the friendship of Mark Eddy, whose no BS policy was like dropping acid on rusty metal. It eats right through the crap so the metal can shine. Michael Margolis from Thirsty Fish and Robbe Richman from Articulated Impact also helped me give voice to the mission by working with me in creating living narratives. This mission has been a conscious and at times unconscious thread in my life. My work as a psychotherapist, somatics practitioner, integrative medicine educator and advocate, public policy researcher and political activist are all threaded together by the recognition that a conscious embodied relationship in and between individuals, nature and culture is necessary in order to create and support sustainable human enterprises, communities and social systems.
This new phase of Global Integral Solutions is dedicated to the memory of Beth Ostrolenk, loving mother, friend and teacher.
As the story continues to unfold, this section, like the company will grow.
