Seven-time Grammy Award winner Alanis Morissette takes us on a tour of her life and career by sharing how the threads of her life have increasingly come together into one integral tapestry—where once there may have been jagged fragments, we can now see conscious and playful entanglement with all of life….

Alanis Morissette is one of those rare souls who has been brave enough to live, learn, and grow in the public eye, over the course of eleven albums, starting with Alanis, when she was just seventeen.  Now, with her latest album—Flavors of Entanglement—near completion (no release date yet, sorry!), Alanis and Ken explore how her personal and professional life has increasingly reflected an integral impulse towards embracing as much of the human experience as possible.  In one of the many light and humorous moments of this dialogue, Alanis shares that she gets bored hanging around with people who have less than a "multi-tentacled" approach—truly one of the most original, and funny, ways we've ever heard someone express their understanding an integral life.  

One of the fascinating elements of this dialogue is that the discussion of Alanis's personal and professional life meshes into one unified story.  Her art is a reflection and expression of who she is, who she has been, and who she'd like to be—truly an astonishing feat, given that most of what the music industry produces is a superficial shimmer of human drama and emotion, not the deep, complex, and passionate narrative that life really is.  As Ken shares, Alanis recently told him that she thought her purpose "was to connect the human and the divine," a remarkably succinct summary of what art has the power to do, and, indeed, is one of its highest purposes. 
  

Alanis, with a laugh, says she's "always had a little love affair with God," although, she reflects, God is also the first thing to go when she gets stressed.  Here, Alanis and Ken both share their deep appreciation for the role that shadow work can have in helping one have a clearer connection with ever-present Spirit, and also in just leading a happier, healthier life.  Ken goes on to mention that, in today's world, "God has a serious PR problem."  The mainstream media simply doesn't know the difference between contemplative, liberating, "experience it for yourself" spirituality, and dogmatic, mythic, "believe the Word or you're going to hell" spirituality.  Alanis, needless to say, is a radiant example of a spirituality that transforms, a spirituality that you feel and breathe and touch, where one is connected directly to the center of this conscious and living Kosmos. 

"I still find myself in certain circles of people who have just one focal point, and I usually glaze over after a while—if it's not a multi-tentacled approach to something, it's probably time to leave!"

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Previously on Integral Naked:

Sharon Stone
Dan Millman
Alex Grey
Deepak Chopra
Integral Art
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