– Marc Gafni’s collaborators, colleagues, supporters, and friends speak out about the smear campaign against Marc Gafni, for the sake of restoring integrity. This response by Kate Maloney, Co-Chair of CIW, was first posted as a comment to the Center for Integral Wisdom statement on centerforintegralwisdom.org. You can read the statement below or listen to the audio. –
I have known Marc for over 10 years, and have worked with him daily for over two years. Marc has one of the highest levels of integrity that I have ever had the honor to encounter. He has articulated over many decades a core set of distinctions which, together with Integral thought, lie at the heart of the work of our activist think tank and its projects. While he has a brilliant mind, even more remarkable is his sincere love for all people. He is able to connect with moviestars and rockstars in the same way he connects with waitresses or people at the copy shop. I have seen this consistently time and time again. Not once have I ever seen him disrespect anyone – from his colleagues, staff, partners, family, and friends to strangers on the street, and beyond. Said simply, his genius, mind and heart are all in service to loving humanity – moment to moment.
In all of the years I have worked with Marc I have never seen him do anything but empower and encourage the greatness in every person he interacts with. One of Marc’s ‘superpowers’ is his ability to see what is possible for people, beyond what a person might even see for themselves. He not only encourages this greatness in people but provides opportunities for each person to expand and thrive. Marc is fundamentally about collaboration and creation with others. This has been my own direct experience. Marc consistently calls me to greatness and delights in my success. While Marc is most known for being an inspired creator of new thought and distinctions, his secret is that he is not merely a creator but a connector. He is constantly putting people in touch with each other to join their genius together. Our work at the Center for Integral Wisdom is about creating an organization where people can come together to partner, create and collaborate. The Center and our projects are designed to create collaborative work in the world through us coming together and producing results well beyond what any of us can do alone. This is the distinction of what we call the Unique Self Symphony. We all have our strengths, and when we all rise up to do what each of us can uniquely do, that is when we can truly thrive as a global community.
The genius that has come together in the Center is truly off-the-charts. It is a group of global leaders and change agents in all areas of public discourse; from John Mackey and Ken Wilber to John Gray, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Zak Stein, Clint Fuhs, Sally Kempton, Paul Miller, Warren Farrell, Elliott Ingersoll and dozens of other superstar human beings, innovators and leaders. This group of people are completely inspiring, integrous, brilliant, loving and committed. These people have come together with a shared commitment to the transformation of culture through the application of integral principles. With over a dozen of books in progress, events, courses, ongoing dialogues, podcasts and more, we are people who are committed to making a real difference through the work we do TOGETHER.
Of course, it has been upsetting to see this attempted character assassination of a person who I deeply respect, and who is respected by so many. I have personally not experienced any of what he has been accused of. Those of us who know him well find it such an unlikely depiction of someone who we work closely with and is authentically generous and loving to everyone. We understand therefore that the hostility that has expressed itself here is a reflection of those making the attacks and not of Marc.
Unfortunately, many our board members, colleagues and business partners have been aggressively approached directly, and through their employers, colleagues, and organizations, having been sent highly aggressive and even threatening messages to urging us to renounce any affiliation with Marc and resign from the Center. The absolute incorruptibility and integrity of the prominent thought and business leaders who are standing by Marc and the work of the Center, even in the face of being themselves threatened, and in some case experiencing their own financial losses, is beyond inspiring. If you saw the integrity, leadership, boldness, and honorableness I see, you would be moved to tears as I am.
I have talked to one of the key women who are at the core of the complaints against Marc. As a woman, I am truly interested in the healing and honoring of anything that is incomplete – for anyone, with anyone else. I know if we talk about peace on the planet, it starts right here with ourselves. I shared with the woman how Marc respects and appreciates her (which is true), and stated that if he caused her any upset, that was not his intention, and that he was available to connect and hear anything that was unresolved for her. She has had this invitation a number of times before, as this always stands for Marc with anyone. In the moment, she said, yes, she would consider re-connecting with Marc. Marc followed up with an email as well, but the woman never responded. I got that the core of the upset for her was how much she cared for Marc, and was just hurt by not being able to be closer.
While it was initially frustrating to have to manage these defamatory attacks, I soon realized that this is not a distraction from our work — rather this is our work. As a group of people committed to evolving the consciousness of the planet, the only question is how we can bring love, integrity, transformation to this situation. We all claim to stand for peace and transformation on the planet; here is our opportunity to live it.
Kate Maloney
Business Development & Entrepreneur
Co-Board Chair, Center for Integral Wisdom
Boulder, CO
USA