California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) is a private university in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1968. As of 2020, the institute operates in two locations: the main campus near the confluence of the Civic Center, SoMa, and Mission districts, and another campus for the American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine in the Potrero Hill neighborhood. As of 2020, CIIS has a total of 1,510 students and 80 core faculty members. Although the institute has no official spiritual path, some of its historical roots lie among followers of the Bengali sage Sri Aurobindo. The term "Integral", in the school's name, refers to Aurobindo's Integral Yoga (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. Other early contributors to the founding of the academy include Frederic Spiegelberg. 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 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. 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. 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