Bruce Alderman

Bruce Alderman

Bruce Alderman, MA, is an affiliate faculty at John F. Kennedy University in the Consciousness and Transformative Studies and Holistic Counseling Psychology departments. Recent integrally themed publications include essays in Integral Review, Dancing with Sophia: Integral Philosophy on the Verge and Wir Vielen in dieser einen Welt: Unsere Weltanschauung weiterentwickeln für den nachhaltigen Umbau unserer Zivilisation. In the early 2000s, Bruce learned about the imminent launch of Integral Naked while visiting Ken's Wilber's loft, and has been a member of IN and its later incarnations ever since. After years of moderating several integral discussion forums of his own, including Integral Postmetaphysical Spirituality and Integral Scholarship and Practice, he is venturing into production of integral video content himself.

When Democracy Eats Itself: Navigating the Politics of Confusion

When Democracy Eats Itself: Navigating the Politics of Confusion

Bruce Alderman   August 28, 2025  
Mark Edwards and Bruce Alderman explore Jean-Pierre Faye's "Horseshoe Theory," which reveals that political extremes curve toward each other when they abandon democratic norms, explaining why some voters support both Trump and AOC as anti-establishment alternatives. The discussion introduces meta-theoretical tools including Roy Bhaskar's concept of "demi-reality," Bruno Latour's analysis of "modal confusion," and the possibility of "post-conventional coalitions" that transcend left-right polarization while maintaining democratic integrity.
Caught in the Algorithmic Undertow

Caught in the Algorithmic Undertow

Bruce Alderman   April 4, 2025  
Bruce Alderman and Josh Leonard explore the slow, invisible pull of digital systems — algorithms, platforms, attention economies — that subtly yet profoundly shape our beliefs, behaviors, and social worlds.
Polarization and the Algorithmic Undertow: Integral and Critical Realist Perspectives

Polarization and the Algorithmic Undertow: Integral and Critical Realist Perspectives

Bruce Alderman   January 28, 2025  
Bruce Alderman explores how our rapid transition into a globally networked information environment has created unprecedented challenges for human cognition, social cohesion, and collective meaning-making and sensemaking.
A View From Somewhere: An Introduction to Metatheory and Planetary Sense-Making

A View From Somewhere: An Introduction to Metatheory and Planetary Sense-Making

Bruce Alderman   January 9, 2025  
Bruce Alderman and Mark Edwards explore how integrative metatheory can illuminate and address the interconnected crises of our time. Through themes such as navigating hyperobjects, the role of storytelling in fostering collaboration, and the challenges posed by algorithmic fragmentation, they advocate for integrative thinking that balances big-picture reflection with grounded, actionable practice.
Mathing the Loops: An Integral Perspectival Mathematics Approach to Transformational Learning Processes

Mathing the Loops: An Integral Perspectival Mathematics Approach to Transformational Learning Processes

Bruce Alderman   March 24, 2024  
Bruce Alderman builds upon Ken Wilber's integral perspectival mathematics to model the dynamics of Otto Scharmer's "3 Levels of Listening" framework. Alderman develops complex notational equations to map out how each successive listening level involves deeper transformations of belief structures, self-concepts, and collective awareness, culminating in a transconceptual, participatory openness to emerging future possibilities.
Sex, Pronouns, and Prepositions: How an Integral Mathematics of Perspectives Can Stop the AI Apocalypse

Sex, Pronouns, and Prepositions: How an Integral Mathematics of Perspectives Can Stop the AI Apocalypse

Bruce Alderman   March 18, 2024  
Bruce Alderman introduces an expanded version of Ken Wilber's integral mathematics, a notational system for mapping the complex interplay of perspectives in communication and meaning-making. He demonstrates the potential applications of this enhanced system across various domains, from modeling ethical decision-making in AI to facilitating transdisciplinary collaboration, while acknowledging the need for further testing and collaboration to fully realize its potential.
Deepening Our Explorations of Reality

Deepening Our Explorations of Reality

Bruce Alderman   January 19, 2024  
Bruce Alderman, poet, mystic, and spiritual explorer, is also an integral scholar and pioneer of the emerging field of metatheory, looking at how to put our disparate fields of information—spiritual, psychological, philosophical, environmental, scientific—together and integrate them into a useful whole.
Ontological Shock: The Accelerating Emergence of Artificial Intelligence

Ontological Shock: The Accelerating Emergence of Artificial Intelligence

Bruce Alderman   May 9, 2023  
Robb Smith joins co-hosts Bruce Alderman and Corey deVos in our first episode of Integral Life’s new AI series, where together they grapple with the profound "ontological shock" and societal transformation prompted by the emergence of AI, exploring its impact across education, personal lives, and organizations. They delve into the potential risks and benefits of AI, its role in discourse shaping, the evolving perceptions of AI, and the transformative potential of AI-aided technologies, all while weaving in spiritual insights and invoking a deeper understanding of our interconnectedness in this transformative age.
Re/Thinking Religion: Integral Postmetaphysical Spirituality

Re/Thinking Religion: Integral Postmetaphysical Spirituality

Bruce Alderman   May 2, 2022  
John Vervaeke joins Bruce Alderman and Layman Pascal to explore some of the commonalities and differences between Integral Postmetaphysical Spirituality and Integral Life Practice, and John's "religion that is not a religion" and his work around developing an ecology of practices suitable for addressing the meaning crisis.
Inhabit: Your Perspective

Inhabit: Your Perspective

Bruce Alderman   July 28, 2021  
This isn’t another hyper-cognitive discussion of integral theory. This is more of a “perspectival yoga”, and we hope that by the time you have finished watching this episode you will be more familiar with these fundamental dimensions of your experience, right now in this very moment.
The New Axial Age: A Complex Integral Realist Perspective

The New Axial Age: A Complex Integral Realist Perspective

Bruce Alderman   June 28, 2021  
Why do we do philosophy? For our innate love of wisdom, surely. But isn’t it also so we can better understand ourselves and the world in which we find ourselves so as to chart our way to our best possible futures? And if so, shouldn’t we try to do the best philosophy we can?
Sacrilegious and Sexy AF

Sacrilegious and Sexy AF

Bruce Alderman   October 30, 2019  
In this special Devil's Night interview, our good friends Bruce Alderman and Layman Pascal talk to Hofman and Daemon, former members of The Satanic Temple in New York, and founding members of the Satanic organization LORE: The Satanic Collective of NYC, about the history of Satanism and the new Integral and Metamodern-ish forms that are currently emerging.