Inquiry

 The work of many people has been moving in this direction for years.  All of us don't speak the same language, so the works or writings don't google under the words and headings assigned by integral.  So in the same way that religions weren't or aren't able to recognize that they are saying the same thing using different words - so are people approaching "the tipping point" not always able to recognize each other.  I suspect that the invisible hand of integration will tip before there is agreement about the language being used to describe it in its entirety.  I believe that in a visual age we are moving far faster toward a tipping point than we can keep up with by writing about it.  It's on that energy I feed.  

      This is quite a loose translation into English of Victor Hugo's statement, but it seems to have relevance to this question. A great amount of semi quantitative research appears to have been done, trying to quantify what percentage of a population needs to adopt an idea before it's time "comes", before it gains transformational "power". Five percent is the most frequently arrived at "quantity", and if it was this simple an equation, it might seem that we have a long way to go, before the "integral movement" reaches a "tipping point".

     It is saddening for me, at this point, that I have seen so little mention of the rest of the equation. Maybe part of the problem is the misguided "scientific" belief that qualities can be quantified. Maybe it involves the misunderstanding that subtle energy field aspects like thought, thinking, and ideas occur in the gross energy fields of body and/or brain.

     I may have missed mention of causal energy field aspects like intentionality and counter-intention, at least as causal field aspects. Or mention that Causal energy fields might have causal effects upon subtle and gross energy fields.

    Conscious creation of the "causal field" conditions, which are required for the time to come for "subtle field" ideas, needs to be included in our awareness of what is needed for us to reach the tipping point. And like efforts and counter-efforts in gross energy (physical) fields, we need to be aware of the intentions and counter-intentions in our causal fields. Even more so, as we see in the effects of causal field counter-intentions we call "shadows" on our subtle field thoughts and emotions, what exists (is created) within the causal energy fields is causative of effects in the subtle and gross field aspects in all four quadrants which are barriers to development and integral/holistic achievement.

    Is it our intention (or its cousin, prophecy) to reach the "tipping point" sooner rather than later? What equivalents of shadows, in causal and subtle aspects of the other three quadrants, do we need to identify and address, to facilitate it?

7 years ago when I began to seriously study Integral it had, in my mind, all the perspectives and tools needed to change everything.  I came into Integral from a rationalist/empirical background plus a social science background as well.  Suddenly it all fit together.

Furthermore, I felt it was laying a path for those in the empirical modernist and postmodern communities to grow into 2nd Tier consciousness.  But I have felt that path for those people slipping away recently in the form of what I must (with chagrin) call increased pre-rational thinking.  In short, I have seen this movement start to look a lot more like a classic New Age movement.  If that is what it is becoming--we will never get there.

We must consider that if we want to help people get into second tier we must be careful with things like predicting the future, and ESP, and the likes.  This will shut the path to some very important people who are desperately needed if we are to make it as a species.

 I don't think its particularly easy to create a tipping point that requires so many people to be sitting a Tier 2. But I reckon for those of us that have been working on our practice, and seeing results in our effectiveness, personal and interpersonal, have built up enough objective evidence to support the idea that it may well be possible in our lifetime.

I have faith in the idea that my tapping into the diversity of people and their ideas that I am drawn to, since through that my newer capacity to become less 'intensified' by the ideas, but more 'engaged' in how they might be applied in effective ways, has afforded me some deeply changed personal traits. My life and thoughts continually evolve, and I have begun to see ways in which that has happened: in ways that I can pass on. Specifically I have focused on being grounded and relational with the prior stages to Tier 2. Me and my shadows.

I continue to use that japanese proverb as a bit of a touch stone:

Vision without action is a daydream
Action without vision is a nightmare

I have a feeling that being an Integral Bakuninist may be an interesting journey, this stuff needs sustained solidarity, equality and liberty. Interesting times...

The Integral revolution isn't a deliberate movement per-se, but yes I agree it's an unstoppable force.

I'd say the Internet and Social Media right now, as we speak, are organically defining "Integral", in a way that ultimately has little to do with "Integral Theory" (i.e. our abstractions of lines, levels, and stages). So in this higher sense, it's happening right now.

@dustmapper
- I'm on Twitter

I was once of the opinion, in the not too distant past, that it was upon us.  However now I am beginning to see the Pre/trans fallacy is actually bigger then I once thought or in my opinion has been clearly articulated of late.

The burgeoning eco-movement is not “Green” as in post conventional but in large part conventional and or traditional. These are people wanting to be one with the pack. I do not look for legitimate Second tier in positions to make a radical difference any time soon.

There are no major politicos giving these views, at best we are hoping for them in some of the speeches made.  We are seeing less accountability as the years go on with politicians. One major factor in needing to be second tier is honesty with your short comings, both on an individual basis and a larger basis. At best we are acknowledging the shortfalls of those who came before us, without giving them the credit for the things they did accomplish.  

While there are some companies starting to chart this path, there is yet to be seen a clear example of success in this movement, an Archetype if you will that is not marketing to those within the movement.

  I was initially going to say when people finally get off their, um, easy chairs, but when I thought about it some more, I realized that change is not easy or necessarily fun, so that many/most people won’t change unless it becomes necessary to change.   To a certain degree, that is a good thing, since it stabilizes our culture.  However, when the world changes past a certain point and the people in a culture don’t, it creates a disconnect that can cause the culture to fail.  Thus, I predict the “tipping point” will occur when our culture is in imminent danger of “tipping over.”

  So, what could cause this “tipping over”?  Well, let me see, how about a financial melt down that shows that our conservative bankers…aren’t.  How about the average person who is not able to afford health insurance, who then finds the already profitable insurance companies want a 30% or more hike in their rates?  Or perhaps the person who lost their job, who then reads about the mega-bonuses of the companies that the government bailed out and continues to support with 0.25% interest loans?

  Of course, my concern is that these people will get angry and tip over “backwards” and actually regress, which makes them even easier to be manipulated.  Please see my recent blog on “American the Regressed?” where I wonder if perhaps this is occurring.

  However, I don’t think the world will collapse if we don’t all suddenly shed our green or amber or red and pop up to turquoise in the next year or two.  However, I do think that if enough people are uncomfortable enough to evolve upwards, then the world will evolve consciously.  And if enough people regress, we will evolve unconsciously.  And from my experience, the former is much better than the latter.

  That said, I also think we’re at the point in this particular group, in the culture of Integral Life, where many of us could rather easily make it up another developmental level.  For that, I think we have to thank our many wonderful teachers that have contributed to this website and help get us where we are presently.  If you feel the same way I do, please support them more than merely morally: visit their websites, go to their conferences, use their services, donate money if you have it, or just express your gratitude in a blog here on IL.  This is an important time for Integral Life and the Integral Institute.  Is it a tipping point for us?  I don’t know for sure, but I think we're close.

Yours,

mb

I see 2 VERY different sides to this.

On the one hand I read the works of the visionaries and its great that this Integral Life community even exists and I've been to some inspiring conferences with some wonderful people who are passionatley & wisely &  deeply commited to making a fair, susutainable peaceful humanity, but I do worry that its still a very small number of people preaching to the same choir year after year.

On the other hand I return to my average job in an average city in an averge Western country and I walk around an average city centre and study mainstream economics and i occasionally debate with my average elected representatives and I realise that the drivers keeping humanity on this path to painful self destruction are: very strong; accepted as normal and correct by the vast majority of people ; tightly locked in a vicious circle that make any sort of change in the mainstream very very difficult. I'm not going to list them here becuase it would fill a book & I guess that anyone reading this knows them well anyway.

So the question is: can the drivers-for-reform change humanity for the better before it destroys itself ? Can the rate of improvement become greater than the rate of self destruction ?

Right now, I don't know. It could go either way. Maybe the integral movement will grow exponentially and reform humanity before our nascent civilisation destroys itself , or maybe that self-destruct point will be reached before integral reaches more than a tiny percentage of the population

So how do we proceed?

In my view we must keep trying but also I think we have to be realistic about the scale of the challenge of making integral the dominant behaviour of humanity, rather than just a behaviour of a tiny percentage of humanity and thought and aspiration in the minds of a few more. It is with great love that I say this , but I have met so many people (and I've done it myself) who want to make the world a better place but are living in a fantasy propogated by going to great conferences and ignoring the extent of the resistance-to-change in the mainstream. That unrealistic-ness doesn't actually help becuase it stops us making realistic assesments of what we need to do in order to make the changes. 

So: much love and respect to everyone trying to make humanity a peaceful, sustainable, fair and just race, & I'll keep doing the best I can aswell.

Bliss & wisdom

Edward