Founder’s Message

Welcome to ICAST!

I view the initiative as a direct extension of my longstanding efforts to rebuild music studies atop creativity and consciousness foundations. The aligning of music schools with contemporary socio-musical realities would not only prepare a new generation of musical artists, but also render music education a catalyst for broader arts-driven educational and societal transformation. The fact that the European icons were contemporary improvisers who had deep spiritual convictions, presaging the trajectories of today’s jazz musicians and other real-world musical navigators, provided a powerful epistemological connecting thread that could be applied across fields. The merging of ancient wisdom and cutting-edge scientific discovery in a post-materialist understanding of consciousness provided an even more robust epistemic framework to guide the overall transformation.

From the prevailing science/spirituality divide, an unsustainable educational/societal template, stems spirituality/art/science synthesis and capacities to fundamentally redefine what it means to be an educated individual at this extraordinary moment in human history.

I invite you to explore the various links on the website to gain a fuller grasp of ICAST’s vision and action plans.

To be sure, the terrain is broad, particularly as evident in ICAST’s 15 pillars, which correspond to many of major issues of our times. However, the identification of five pillars in particular, thus comprising an ICAST grid to be established on a college/university campus, may be helpful in launching the new conversation and action plans.

The time is long overdue when education reinvents itself around the innermost dimensions of the soul, and the inextricable link between individual, soul and cosmos. Nothing short of this wholeness will suffice for humanity to address the litany of challenges it faces to its very survival, render them opportunities for growth and invoke an era of planetary flourishing that is well within our capabilities.

Please consider being part of what could be the most exciting and far-reaching program of thinking, dialogue and action in our lifetime.

The world is waiting.

 Ed Sarath