Can Integral Theory Actually Help the World?

Keith Martin-SmithBuddha In Therapy, Cognitive, Integral Basics, Intrapersonal, Spiritual, Video, What is a more hopeful future for civilization?, What is Integral?, World Affairs

Have a minute?

Check out these 1-minute excerpts:

Become A Supporting Member To Unlock The Full Episode

Get access to easy-to-use resources that help you learn big ideas quickly. You don’t need a lot of time to start changing your perspective and growing. Here’s what’s included:

Insight Maps
  • Full Videos & Podcasts: Experience enriching discussion that will expand your perspective
  • Key Questions to Reflect Upon: We prepared some thought-provoking questions designed for your personal reflection
  • Polarity Maps: Identify and understand this episode’s crucial tensions and polarities
  • Full Written Transcript: Get all the key information you need, available in PDF or EPUB formats for learning on the go
  • Illustrated Insight Map: Easily navigate through the core insights and takeaways
  • Guided Polarity Practices: Designed to help you integrate polarity thinking into your life
Get Full Access For $1 (30 days)* Or explore all membership plans → * Trial price for the first 30 days, then $20/month. Cancel or switch plans in 2 minutes at any time.

Perspective Shift:

  1. Integral ideas are only valuable if they actually help improve our lives and the world around us in tangible ways.
  2. Complex adaptive systems thinking is necessary to address the world’s interconnected “metacrisis” issues.
  3. Don’t conflate what people believe with how they believe it. The content of beliefs matters less than the complexity with which they’re held.
  4. The integral community often needs more shadow work, not just cognitive understanding of theory.
  5. Integral theory is more helpful as an “operating system” than as an “app”. Use it as an organizing framework in the back of your mind, rather than focusing only on the theory itself.
 

Keith Martin-Smith explores the potential and pitfalls of integral theory in addressing global challenges. He argues that while integral thinking offers valuable tools for understanding complex systems and human development, it often falls short in practice due to misapplication and ego-driven superiority complexes. Keith proposes a more nuanced approach: treating people as unique individuals, communicating integral ideas more skillfully, and focusing on practical applications rather than theoretical grandstanding.

Can Integral Theory, applied wisely, do good for the world, and for each of us individually? How do we hold the model lightly but wisely, and be careful about the traps it can create?

At its best, Integral Theory is a powerful tool and map to help us to better understand ourselves and our world. The AQAL model – all quadrants, lines, levels, states, and types – has helped hundreds, perhaps thousands, better navigate the world with compassion and care, and wisdom and humility.
 
At its worst, integral Theory can lead to what Keith Martin-Smith calls the “insufferable integralist,” or someone who uses the theory to look down on others they deem “less evolved” then they are, or to create a cognitive tower from which to look down on the world, disembodied and unable to do much of anything but watch. This can create a cult-like “in-group” elitism that can become obsessed with their own development while using the model as a cudgel on others.
 
Today we face a polycrisis or metacrisis – deeply intertwined and existential-level problems in economics, technology, energy production and access, late-stage capitalism, increasing polarization in almost all Western democracies, delegitimized institutions, and the fracturing of truth. For the first time, the existential challenges facing humankind are entirely created and sustain by us. More and more, we all live in our separate worlds, with our own beliefs, cultures, and imagined sets of “good guys” and “bad guys”. And in the meantime the world burns, people suffer, and we further divide ourselves against one another at a time when we need to be coming together as a species.
 
If you’ve been curious how Integral might help you and the world, but leery of the ways it can seemingly misguide those who know it, this talk may be helpful for you.

 

Previous Episodes of Buddha In Therapy

The Content/Structure Fallacy: The Common Mistake Most Integralists Make

The Content/Structure Fallacy: The Common Mistake Most Integralists Make

David Arrell
David Arrell and Keith Martin-Smith explore one of the most important (and misunderstood) dynamics within integral theory: the content/structure fallacy. They explore how developmental structures—our deeper worldviews and ways of making sense—shape the content of our beliefs, but not always in straightforward or predictable ways. The conversation touches on how integral theory can help us navigate the nuances of individual growth, leadership, and social dynamics, especially when it comes to assessing the developmental depth of others.

Reintegrating DEI: Beyond the Culture Wars

Reintegrating DEI: Beyond the Culture Wars

Keith Martin-Smith
Keith Martin-Smith explains the developmental levels in detail that allowed DEI to form in the first place, as well as the levels from which DEI is often expressed (and resisted) from, allowing us to more clearly see and understand the cultural wars we are all experiencing.
The Lost Art of Adulthood: Reviving Our Rites of Passage

The Lost Art of Adulthood: Reviving Our Rites of Passage

Luke Entrup
In this episode, Keith and Luke Entrup discuss the necessity of reintroducing formal rites of passage for our children, not as a fun thing to do with your kid but as something vital for their development – a piece most of us missed and have had to make up for throughout our lives.
The Seven Deadly Sins of DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion)

The Seven Deadly Sins of DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion)

Keith Martin-Smith
Join Keith Martin-Smith as we question whether DEI initiatives are achieving their intended goals of increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion, or whether they may be perpetuating any number of unseen biases that take us further away from those shared goals. Are we oversimplifying the narrative around privilege and diversity? How do factors like poverty impact issues like police violence? How might we rethink and reshape the DEI discourse, moving towards more skillful (and more integral) approaches?
How to Awaken and Empower the Integral Man

How to Awaken and Empower the Integral Man

Keith Martin-Smith
Keith Martin-Smith and Jason Lange explore the challenges and ongoing evolution of masculinity. Watch as they delve into topics such as the impact of societal norms on men's behavior, the importance of emotional intelligence, and the journey from traditional to more integrated forms of masculinity, bringing a wealth of insights to help men navigate their roles and identities in a rapidly changing social landscape.
The Power of Vulnerability: Embracing an Integrated Masculinity

The Power of Vulnerability: Embracing an Integrated Masculinity

Keith Martin-Smith
In this insightful discussion, Keith Martin-Smith addresses the misconceptions around male vulnerability, emphasizing its role as a source of strength and authenticity. He explores the transformative impact of embracing vulnerability on men's emotional health, relationships, and societal perceptions of masculinity.
Sex, Identity, Gender: Beyond Wokism and Trumpism

Sex, Identity, Gender: Beyond Wokism and Trumpism

Corey deVos
Join us as we push even further into the front lines of the culture war skirmishes that have become so plentiful over the last several years. Corey deVos joins Keith to discuss how our notions of sex, gender, and identity apply to some of the most contentious and pressing issues of our time, and how they can be integrated into a more integral dialectic.
What Is a Man (And Why Does It Matter?)

What Is a Man (And Why Does It Matter?)

Keith Martin-Smith
With all the cultural war battles being waged around the question "what is a woman", Keith Martin-Smith offers an integral discussion of manhood and masculinity — as a biological given, as a cultural construct, and as an ongoing source of identity.
Shadow, Trauma, and Attachment: Why Do Spiritual Teachers Keep Messing Up?

Shadow, Trauma, and Attachment: Why Do Spiritual Teachers Keep Messing Up?

Keith Martin-Smith
If spiritual teachers are so “awake” and “enlightened”, why do so many of them get caught with their shadow hanging out? Watch as Keith Martin-Smith offers a stunning overview of shadow, trauma, and attachment disorders, and how they can corrupt both our mental health and our spiritual awakening.
Shadows of Development

Shadows of Development

Kim Barta
Join Keith Martin-Smith and Kim Barta for an exclusive discussion as they delve into the world of shadow and ego development. Kim is a seasoned therapist, coach, and educator with over 40 years of experience who has dedicated his career to the resolution of shadow material. His unique perspective on the intersection of development, trauma, and attachment disorders combines the best of developmental psychology with depth psychology.
The Highest Stages of Conscious Development

The Highest Stages of Conscious Development

Terri O'Fallon
Terri O'Fallon and Keith Martin-Smith dive into a deeper and more detailed exploration of Terri's STAGES model, focusing on a smaller section of the model: stages 3.0 – 6.0 (roughly Amber/Orange to Turquoise/Indigo). Terri outlines what makes each level of her model unique from the last, what causes people to shift from one level to another, as well as what the mature expressions look like for 3.0, 4.0, and 5.0 stages.
Perspectives on Development: Introducing the STAGES Model

Perspectives on Development: Introducing the STAGES Model

Terri O'Fallon
Terri O’Fallon takes us on a guided journey through her STAGES model, an integrally based development model that charts human development from infancy to the highest levels of development that humans are capable of. Terri’s research is based in the number of perspectives a person can take (1st through 7th) – and she explains how different levels of fluency with these perspectives can often cause us to talk “past” or “over” one another, and how familiarizing ourselves with these perspectives can help us stop doing that.
How to Build a Conscious Community

How to Build a Conscious Community

John Churchill
Keith Martin-Smith talks with Dr. John Churchill about the themes in Keith's latest book, When the Buddha Needs Therapy: shadow and awakening, the problem and promise of spiritual communities, the state-stage model as it relates to trauma and growth, narcissism and other personality disorders inside of spirituality, the power and trap of lineage, and what a fully Western version of an awakened spiritual path might look like.
Therapy & Awakening: A New Integration

Therapy & Awakening: A New Integration

Chad Bennett
Keith Martin-Smith speaks with Chad Bennett, a psychotherapist and ordained Zen priest, about why our existing ideas of therapy are often limited and keep us bound inside of the therapeutic relationship, unable to learn the skills necessary to continue our own growth towards psychological wholeness.
Who Awakens? How to Be Free From Your Freedom

Who Awakens? How to Be Free From Your Freedom

Keith Martin-Smith
In this talk, Keith Martin-Smith dives into some topics of particular interest to those on a spiritual path. He first addresses the question head on: what is awakening, exactly? To answer this, he presents the listeners with a Zen koan, or riddle: Who awakens?
Keith Martin-Smith

About Keith Martin-Smith

Keith Martin-Smith is an award-winning author, writing coach, and Zen priest. He is passionate about human connection, creativity, and evolution. His books include "The Mysterious Divination of Tea Leaves", "A Heart Blown Open", and "The Heart of Zen". His most recent book is his first novel, "Only Everything", a novel that explores the promise and the pain of following an artist's path.