Bio
Justin Forrest Miles is a multi-hyphenate polymath who lives a personal and professional life studying, practicing, and teaching ancient and modern methods of realizing innate human goodness in self, culture, and society.
Hiphop
For over 25 years, Justin F. Miles has been a pioneering practitioner, theorist, and educator at the intersection of Hiphop culture, mindfulness and contemplative studies. He is the leading voice championing the use of Hiphop-infused contemplative modalities to foster resilience, emotional intelligence, and community empowerment.
In 2000, Justin founded Hiphop Alive: the world’s first organization dedicated to studying and using the elements of Hiphop as tools of enlightenment. He cultivated an approach called “Integral Hiphop” that integrates Eastern and Western spiritual and psychological methods of development with the elements of Hiphop.
Since the year 2000, his work, writing, and research has concerned the intersections of Integral Philosophy, non-duality, psychology, and Hiphop as a practice of self, other, and global awakening. As a “guerilla journalist”, Justin has interviewed numerous Hiphop legends concerning Hiphop, spirituality, and human development. This expansive list includes Afrika Bambaataa, Outkast, Souls of Mischief, Casual, DJ Q−Bert, Mix Master Mike, People Under The Stairs, Mr. Lif, Myka 9, Aesop Rock, Guru, Saul Williams, A Tribe Called Quest, Dudley Perkins, The Black Eyed Peas, Wycleff Jean, Canibus, The Micranots, DJ Muggs, and several prominent underground artists.
Additionally, Justin has received two grants to create and facilitate psychoeducational music and freestyle cypher programs for Baltimore youth in 2002 and 2003. In 2003, Justin was a featured presenter at the National Blacks in Criminal Justice conference where he educated attendees about how to create a therapeutic Hiphop-based psychoeducation group for youth and facilitated therapeutic freestyle cyphers utilizing an African-centered form of therapy called NTU psychotherapy.
Justin’s Hiphop writings have been published in Beautiful Decay magazine, A Gathering Together literary journal, The Journal of Hiphop Studies, The Journal of Integral Hiphop, as well as on the websites Nonduality.com, goldenagehiphop.com and integrallife.com. He was the first Hiphop artist featured on, and is currently an author for the world's most translated philosopher Ken Wilber's website Integral Life, which also features Deepak Chopra, Michael Crichton, Rick Rubin, and Saul Williams. Justin has lectured at colleges and national conferences about psychology and Hiphop, and is the world’s foremost writer concerning Integral and Non-Dual Hiphop. He is working on three books; Hiphop Alive: The Ground, Path and Fruition of the Four Elements; The Contemplations; and The Physics of Hiphop with Theoretical Physicist and Johns Hopkins professor David Kaplan. Justin is a member of the Review Board for the Journal of Hiphop Studies through Virginia Commonwealth University and peer reviews articles prior to publication.
Also known as J-Who? Worldwise, Justin has been involved in Hiphop Culture for over 30 years and is a proficient freestyler, emcee, DJ, vocal turntablist, beatboxer, journalist, and producer. Instead of defining a consistent production style, Justin prefers to explore different moods and atmospheres to provide listeners with a space in which to feel beautiful. As an avid record digger of rare records for 30 years, Justin treats his relationship with music as a curator of rarely heard artifacts and his music reflects a dedication to the art of sampling. He has released several albums and mixtapes and produced, mixed, and mastered albums for local Baltimore Hiphop artists as well as artists in Perth, Australia, and Benin. As an emcee Justin has shared the stage with artists such as Mike Ladd, Beans of Anti Pop Consortium, Doodlebug of Digable Planets, Akrobatik and Subconscious. Justin sells records via his online store and has a brick and mortar Contemplative Record Store called Black Wax Idol set to open in 2024. In 2010, Justin and friends from college started a record label called Mystery Sound Recordings where he serves as the Vinyl Sales and Procurement Manager and where he has released 10 albums and contributed production to many more. He is currently the Music Director and Sound Designer for a film in development by Buddhist teacher Pamela Ayo Yetunde titled Birdsong, slated for release in 2025.
Psychology
Justin Forrest Miles, MA LCPC-S, LCADA-S, has worked in the field of clinical mental health and substance abuse treatment for 25 years. He is a licensed psychotherapist with a thriving private practice located in Baltimore, Maryland. Justin is the founder and Director of the Miles Institute of Integral Living LLC, a multi-faceted organization that primarily provides contemplative psychotherapy but also utilizes meditation, horticulture, photography, music production and other therapeutic activities connected to everyday life to promote awareness and growth. He utilizes a metatheory called Integral Philosophy that integrates Earth-based indigenous wisdom and traditional Eastern spiritual systems with the findings of modern Western psychological systems. As of 2017, Justin is the only African-American in the world listed through MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies) as a provider of Psychedelic Integration Therapy for individuals seeking to use and integrate entheogens as a part of their healing process. In addition to his private practice he is the Clinical Director of an outpatient mental health clinic in Baltimore City and deploys as a Mental Health First Responder for Maryland Responds Medical Reserve Corps in times of local, national, or international emergencies.
Integral Spirituality
For over 33 years Justin has been an active member and student of the world’s wisdom traditions and engages in Buddhist, Contemplative Christian, Taoist, and Lakota indigenous practices. Since 1998 Justin has practiced with a Lakota community that resides in Rosebud South Dakota, and has learned first hand from native elders what is called the Red Road, or the Lakota way and engages in practices such as sweat lodges four times per year and solitary vision quests every other year. Since formally becoming a Buddhist in 2000, he has participated in, staffed, coordinated, and facilitated short- and long-term retreats. Justin attended and completed Vajrayana Buddhist Seminary in 2005, studying to become a monk and teacher. In 2006 he became a certified meditation teacher and assistant director of meditation programs through the Shambhala Buddhist Community. He has taught meditation for 19 years to individuals and families; community groups and organizations such as Progressive Life Center and The Last Resort Artists Retreat; and educational institutions including University of Maryland, Goucher College, Towson University, Trinity University, and Howard University School of Divinity. His primary interest is the organization, mobilization, education, and upliftment of Black people based on their direct experience of innate wisdom and humanity. To help to bring this about, Justin authored and published the world’s first Black Liberation Meditation Liturgy titled “The Sadhana of Awakened Melanin: Black Power Meditation Liturgy” which is currently used around the world by Afrikans in the diaspora seeking to experience the enlightenment found within our own nature. To inspire confidence within Black people, Justin also created the world’s first Buddhist practice using a Black person as the central character titled, “The Light of the Black Prince of Shabazz that Illuminates Confidence.” Additionally, Justin creates tailored contemplative practices for communities seeking to experience wakefulness through their vocation and has developed practices for healers (The Sadhana of Awakened Healers) and artists (The Artists Intention) that center them around the heart of their efforts. Justin founded the Black Power Meditation group in 2014 as a response to the Freddie Gray uprising in Baltimore, Maryland to explore the application of innate wisdom to the path of activism and militancy. Prior to the Covid pandemic, Justin taught meditation bi-weekly to inmates at the Harford County Detention Center. In 2019, Justin was recognized alongside 80 of the world’s most prominent Black Buddhist teachers alongside luminaries including Alice Walker, Angela Davis, Ruth King, Lama Rod Owens, and Angel Kyodo Williams. Justin’s writings have been published in many Buddhist books, magazines, and websites and he is an author for Lion’s Roar Magazine and Integral Life. He is currently a mentor for fellows accepted to Howard University’s Howard Thurman Contemplative Justice Fellowship Program, and continues to facilitate the Black Power Meditation group bi-weekly as well leads meditation retreats locally.
Black Liberation, Preparedness, and Horticulture
Since 1998, Justin has been a member of the original Baltimore Black Panther Party for Self-Defense and much of his work is informed by Panther ideology and the lives of the lineage of Pan Afrikanists and Black Liberators. To help eliminate food insecurities and food shortages in Zimbabwe, Africa the Miles Institute of Integral Living, LLC partnered with the Ubuntu Permaculture community in Harare, Zimbabwe and purchased 12 acres of land to develop a Food Forest and Tree Nursery. The long term goal is to create an eco-village that would: house residents; teach and promote sustainable permaculture; incorporate water management, soil preservation and enrichment; cultivate seedlings, plant trees, and create a food forest that could provide a year-round supply of fruits, nuts, beans and vegetables to local villages. The village would also house a retreat center where participants can learn permaculture and meditation and an orphanage where youth will live in a safe and loving environment and where they can learn gardening skills. The Clyde A. Miles Food Forest and Tree Nursery is named after Justin’s father Clyde A. Miles.
A certified Baltimore City Master Gardener since 2013, Justin teaches horticulture not only to his psychotherapy clients but to anyone willing to learn! He gardens daily and is adept at teaching others how to plan and grow gardens, compost, rehabilitate plants, save seeds, and propagate plants. Additionally, Justin is a preparedness expert, has extensive training in indigenous technologies, emergency preparedness, firearms, self defense, aquaponics, and wilderness survival. Justin has developed a theory and practice called “Integral Preparedness” which readies individuals for the inevitable material, psychospiritual, emotional, cultural, and social changes of human life.
PUBLICATIONS
The Towerlight Magazine (Towson University)
Black Voices Magazine (Towson University)
Beautiful Decay Magazine: Shambhala Interview, 2004
Hiphop Golden Age: DJ Q-Bert: True Master
Integral Naked: Song: Dream Drumming
Integral Life: Author: integral Life Writings
NonDuality.com: Freestyle: Gateway to the Beyond Within
The Sadhana of Awakened Melanin: Black Power Liturgy (2020)
Afrikan Wisdom; New Voices Talk Black Liberation, Buddhism and Beyond: Valerie Mason John, North Atlantic Books (2021)
“Space: The Problem and he Promise of Hiphop”. A Gathering Together: Literary Journal (Spring 2021)
Black Buddhists and the Black Radical Tradition by Rima Vesely-Flad, NYU Press (2021)
Lions Roar Magazine; The Spiritual Leadership of Malcolm X, (May 20, 2022)
Diunital Living, Self-Knowledge, Divine Infinite Mind: An Afrocentric Path to "Everlasting Peace and Happiness" (2022)
“The Heart of Who We Are”, Caverly Morgan, (2022)
Bridging the Inner Life of Personal Transformation with Social Liberation by Rashani V Réa and Angel Kyodo Williams (2023)
Lion’s Roar Magazine, Black and Buddhist Issue, (March 2024)