SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Escaping the Drama Triangle: Presence, Problem-Solving, and Relational Mastery

and

and

Corey deVos and Dr. Keith Witt explore one of the most common yet misunderstood aspects of human interaction: the tension between drama and problem-solving. They dive deeply into the “Drama Triangle,” a psychological framework that reveals how the roles of victim, rescuer, and persecutor trap us in cycles of dysfunction. These dynamics, while often personal, are also embedded in cultural systems, politics, and even therapy itself.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

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

and

and

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.


SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Polarity Politics and the 2024 Election

and

and

Corey deVos and Mark Fischler explore the complexities of the 2024 U.S. presidential election through an integral lens, offering insights into how political polarization is shaped by systemic structures, and how these structures influence our individual psyches and sense-making. They introduce practical approaches for navigating political polarities, recognizing personal and collective shadows, and engaging in more nuanced political discourse.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Faces of X: Making Peace with the Culture War

and

and

Stephanie Lepp talks with Corey deVos about her Faces of X project, which models how we can transcend culture wars by integrating opposing perspectives. The discussion explores how the polarization we see in society mirrors unresolved polarities within ourselves, and emphasizes the need for both personal and social integration. This discussion highlights the limitations of binary thinking and the importance of synthesizing conflicting viewpoints to create more inclusive, nuanced solutions.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

The Myth of Evil: Why Polarities, Not Villains, Drive Injustice

Barry Johnson introduces the concept of polarity thinking, offering a revolutionary framework for addressing complex societal issues like poverty, racism, and climate change. Rather than viewing problems as having singular solutions or evil sources, Barry explains how mismanaged polarities—such as justice vs. mercy and freedom vs. equality—are at the heart of many dysfunctions. By adopting a both/and mindset, we can break vicious cycles, foster balance, and create more sustainable solutions in our personal and collective lives.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

The Integration of Defenses

and

and Leave a Comment

How can we become more aware of our defensive reactions as they arise? Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVos explore the intricate world of psychological defenses, presenting them as a critical line of intelligence and development. Dr. Witt introduces his pioneering concept of an “integration of defenses” as a developmental line, illustrating how our defensive mechanisms evolve and manifest across various stages of growth.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Can Integral Theory Actually Help the World?

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.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

The Art of Integral Conversation: How to Have a Turquoise Dialectic

and

and 4 Comments

Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVos explore the concept of “turquoise dialectic” – a sophisticated form of integral discourse that emerges at the later stages of human development. Drawing upon their deep understanding of adult development and integral theory, they explore the feeling and transformative potential of the turquoise “we-space”, and how we might create the conditions for this type of conversation to unfold.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

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

2 Comments

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?

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

The Psychology of Splitting

and

and 3 Comments

Watch as Dr. Keith and Corey explore the psychological process of splitting, revealing how awareness and regulation of these processes can lead to a more health and healing, as well as to a more integrated and resilient self. By acknowledging the nuanced nature of our emotional responses and learning to navigate them with compassion and mindfulness, we open the door to deeper self-understanding and more harmonious relationships with others.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Transforming Self, Society, and the Spaces Between Us

and

and

In this enlightening episode of The Ken Show, hosts Ken Wilber and Corey deVos embark on a profound journey through the multifaceted realms of systems theory, communication, and social evolution. They dissect the nuanced perspectives of “inside” and “outside” views in systems, delve into the transformative power of communication paradigms throughout history, and critically examine the influence of social media on the overall emergence of integral consciousness.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Meta-Ideological Politics: Bridging the Gaps Between Us

9 Comments

Ryan’s presentation delves into the complex nature of ideology and its profound impact on our perceptions, interactions, and behaviors. He underscores the human brain’s inherent tendency to seek patterns, elucidating how ideologies aid us in deciphering the world but can also misguide us. Ryan describes the three definitions of “meta” he uses to elucidate the concept of meta-ideological politics: “meta” as transcending, “meta” as between, and “meta” as self-aware or self-referential.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Integral Perspectives on Alcoholism

and

and Leave a Comment

Alcohol addiction is a deeply entrenched issue that affects a significant portion of the population, with around 10% of children being raised in a family with at least one alcoholic parent as of 2019. In this episode of Witt and Wisdom, Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVos undertake a comprehensive exploration of alcohol addiction, its effects, and the recovery process through the lens of Ken Wilber’s integral theory, which encompasses all four quadrants – individual (internal and external) and collective (internal and external).

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Sex, Identity, Gender: Beyond Wokism and Trumpism

and

and 10 Comments

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.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

The Art and Science of the Intentional Love Affair

and

and 4 Comments

Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVos delve into the intricacies of intimate relationships, exploring the concept of “intentional love affairs” and how they can be cultivated to deepen connection and intimacy. They discuss the importance of fostering better friendships, nurturing love affairs, and developing the ability to solve problems so effortlessly that they may not even appear as conflicts to others.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

When Therapists Go Woke

and

and 1 Comment

Dr. Keith and Corey examine a troubling new trend in psychotherapy, where woke ideologies are being imposed in the therapist’s office and interfering with client-based approaches to mental health. Prompted by Lisa Davis’s insightful article “How Therapists Became Social Justice Warriors” in The Free Press, Keith and Corey delve into the evolving role of therapists in the current sociopolitical climate.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Illuminating the Integral Vision: A Metatheory for Understanding Self, Life, and the World

, and

, and 6 Comments

Corey gives a terrifically lucid explanation of what the term Integral encompasses: a stage of psychological development, a description of Ken Wilber’s life’s work, and a comprehensive map that comes alive for people, guiding their way and making sense out of enormously complex issues. Corey also describes Integral as a gateway between two massive phases in human history — the “adolescent” phase of collective development now starting to fall behind us, and an integrated phase quite possibly ahead.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

How Self-Hatred Can Lead to Self Transformation

and

and Leave a Comment

Dr. Keith and Corey explore how feelings of self-hatred and self-loathing, when combined with compassionate self-awareness and the natural resilience of Witness consciousness, can help us overcome our resistance to change and put us back on the path of increasing wholeness, happiness, and self-acceptance. It’s an incredibly powerful discussion that we hope will help you better navigate some of these darkest corners of your own psyche.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Tapping Into Divine Guidance

and

and

“Tapping into Divine guidance” is a term most of us in the Integral family are familiar with. But what is the difference between that and prophesy or prophesizing? And what would practicing a prophetic modality entail? Join Lisa and Kevin with guest practitioner Rodrick Chambers, an ordained minister and spiritual coach, as we dive into the role of prophesy in the 21st Century.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

How Attachment Theory Can Improve Your Relationships

and

and 6 Comments

As Dr. Keith often reminds us, “Everything is relationships.” And the earliest relationships we form in our lives often set the tone and cadence for all the other relationships we will ever form in our lives. The coping strategies we learn in preadolescence become our inner compass later in life, and our efforts as grownups can often be seen as expressions, compensations, or substitute gratifications for the sense of security we may or may not have felt as children.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Perspectives on Development: Introducing the STAGES Model

and

and 3 Comments

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.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Transcending and Including Our Current Way of Being: An Introduction to Integral Coaching

1 Comment

This article provides an introduction to the Integral Coaching® method developed by Joanne Hunt and Laura Divine, founders of Integral Coaching Canada, Inc. A brief introduction to the field of coaching is offered using the four quadrants to appreciate the underlying assumptions of how change occurs and how schools of coaching have approached the rapidly growing field of adult development. Further delineation of Integral Coaching Canada’s use of subject-object theory and a “transcend and include” developmental model is provided and resides at the root of this school’s AQAL approach to change.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Transform the Police: A More Integral Approach to Law Enforcement

, and

, and 19 Comments

Mark and Corey are joined by Chris Orrey, a retired police lieutenant with over 30 years of service with the Hayward, California Police Department, to discuss the abuse and resulting death of Tyre Nichols, who was severely beaten and ultimately killed by five Memphis police officers after a routine traffic stop. What allowed this tragedy (and others like it) to take place? What sorts of personal, cultural, and institutional transformation are necessary to prevent something like this from occurring again?

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Integral Spiritual Explorations: What Is Integral Spirituality?

, , and

, , and Leave a Comment

What exactly do we mean by spirituality, and what do we mean specifically by “integral spirituality?” In this discussion, Nomali Perera presents a brief but vast array of ways in which we can explore this topic of integral spirituality. Her guests, longtime integral spiritual teachers and practitioners, Lama Pema Dragpa, Jeff Salzman & Rollie Stanich share their own inquiries and ideas of practices as well as answer questions from event attendees. At the end, you’ll also find a great integral anthem, “Universe Communion” by Stuart Davis, which beautifully captures the theme of integral spirituality.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

How to Build a Conscious Community

and

and

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.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Psychedelic Therapy and the Politics of Consciousness

and

and 2 Comments

In the recent 2022 midterm elections, Colorado joined the state of Oregon in its decriminalization of psychedelic substances for therapeutic use. Here Dr. Keith and Corey explore some of the major implications of this profound legal shift, both in terms of our overall emotional, psychological, and spiritual health, as well as our rapidly evolving “politics of consciousness” — those states of consciousness that are sanctioned by the state, versus those that are not.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

A Unique View Into You: Working With a Client’s AQAL Constellation

1 Comment

This article provides an introduction to the set of six lenses used to support client assessment and competency development: the four quadrants (competencies, orientation, and translation), levels of consciousness (including three levels within each level), six lines of development (cognitive, emotional, interpersonal, somatic, spiritual, and moral), states of consciousness (gross, subtle, and causal as well as productive and non-productive, high-energy and low-energy states), gender type structures (feminine and masculine development), and Enneagram type structures.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

How Change Works: Supporting Vertical Development

and

and

Dr. Keith and Corey explore some critical strategies to help support ongoing growth to increasing wholeness in ourselves and in other people: finding a psycho-spiritual framework to help organize our knowledge, experiences, and practices (e.g. Integral metatheory), engaging in change work (psychotherapy, coaching, consulting, etc.), and seeking communities of people who we recognize as more developed than ourselves.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Taking Justice Personally

and

and 2 Comments

Mark and Corey offer an intimate sharing of their personal stories, reflecting on some of the most formative experiences in their own lives that influenced their interest and enactment of justice. It is a tender and heartfelt conversation that we hope not only allows you to better understand their own passions and perspectives, but also invites you to reflect in a similar way on the critical fulcrums in your own life, and how these experiences continue to shape your standards of goodness, integrity, and justice.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

An Integral Approach to Sexual Identity: Beyond Religion and Science

Leave a Comment

This article proposes an integral approach to sexual identity development that broadens the discussion beyond science and religion or nature versus nurture. A four-quadrant exploration of the research on the origins of sexual identity reveals much more complexity and highlights potential points for social justice interventions as well as ideas to enhance personal spiritual transformation.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Awakening Joy: Life Skills for Living, Loving, and Serving Life to the Full

, and

, and Leave a Comment

James’ teachings take us deeply into states like gratitude and compassionate presence, to where we can focus our attention on how it feels to feel good somatically, thereby creating new neural pathways that strengthen awareness and aliveness. James has witnessed a lot of people learn to love themselves and turn their lives around as a result of this teaching.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Open Yourself to Greater Freedom and Flow

1 Comment

Come practice with Aneesah, using N.A.I.L. Freedom, her dynamic self-reflection tool specifically crafted to help you step into the space between stimulus and response, where you always have enough freedom to do the next right thing. This four-step alignment process can help you unshackle yourself from irrational fears, step into the flow, and flourish in all areas of your life.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Personality as the Base Note of Change Work

and

and

Watch as Dr. Keith offers a “Psychotherapy Masterclass” that helps us work with various personality types as a foundation for healing, change, and self-actualization. While intended for other psychotherapy professionals, this discussion offers valuable insight for all of us, and can be immediately applied to our personal transformational work, whatever that may be.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Adverse Childhood Experiences: Overview, Response Strategies, and Integral Theory

Leave a Comment

Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have been involved in an ongoing collaboration with Kaiser Permanente’s Department of Preventive Medicine, where they have designed a large and epidemiologically sound study exploring the role of “adverse childhood experiences” (ACEs) on social and health outcomes later in life. This research brings a distinct and compelling relationship between ACEs, health risk behaviors, and physical and mental health into awareness. This article outlines these research findings, pointing also to the role of ACEs in homelessness and criminal justice involvement and addressing service delivery implications. Integral Theory is used to explain ACEs as an underlying syndrome, and Integral Restorative Processes is presented as a useful and flexible intervention model to guide a comprehensive and effective response.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Inhabit: Your Speech

and

and 4 Comments

What are the unique challenges that prevent you from inhabiting your most authentic and embodied voice, and how can integral thought and practice help us to overcome those challenges — in our society, in our communities, and in our own consciousness? Watch as Ryan and Corey take a look at a recent article by Jonathan Haidt, and explore how we can bring more “enfoldment mechanisms” to our activities in all four quadrants.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Inhabit: Your Heart

, and

, and Leave a Comment

Watch as Corey deVos, Ryan Oelke, and special guest Rollie Stanich explore the vast and tender territories of the Integral Heart. This is an invitation to continue opening your own most Integral heart, and allow it to infuse and inform all of our actions and interactions together — to lead our lives with both wisdom and compassion, with both discernment and tenderness, with both insight and humility — so that we may use our integral minds and hearts to recognize, appreciate, and incorporate the partial truths that each of us are trying to bring to each other.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Transforming Trauma Into Resilience

and

and Leave a Comment

Watch as we take a look at several different kinds of trauma — micro-traumas, big traumas, “pre-verbal” traumas, generational traumas, etc. — and explore how we can shift into a “post-traumatic growth” mindset which, like the kintsugi vase in the image above, allows us to remake ourself into a more resilient, unique, and elegant vessel.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Inhabit: Your Humility

and

and 3 Comments

Corey and Ryan discuss the importance of cultivating and inhabiting a “confident humility” with relation to our own physical bodies, mental processes, and spiritual health. We also have a fun segment at the end designed to put your own humility to the test, by looking at 10 common integral caricatures — stereotypes that many of us fall into at one point or another during our Integral lives.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Honesty, Humility, and Reality Distortion Fields

and

and 7 Comments

Dr. Keith and Corey discuss “the H Factor” — a variation of the Big 5 personality typology that adds a critical sixth trait, honesty and humility. Watch as we take a deep dive into the psychological benefits of honest self-reporting, a healthy epistemic humility, and the sorts of “reality distortion fields” that seem to emanate from certain personalities.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Integral Life Practice: Enough Talk, It’s Time to Live!

and

and Leave a Comment

Terry Patten and Ken Wilber take an in-depth look at their book Integral Life Practice: A 21st-Century Blueprint for Physical Health, Emotional Balance, Mental Clarity, and Spiritual Awakening. ILP is a highly distilled, easily customizable, and radically inclusive approach to practice, based on the most comprehensive map of human potentials we currently have.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Inhabit: Your Vow

, and

, and Leave a Comment

Ryan and Corey are joined by our very good friend Vincent Horn, co-founder of Buddhist Geeks, in order to discuss Ryan and Vince’s decision to fully embrace the Bodhisattva Vow in their lives and in their spiritual practice. What unfolds is a fun and fascinating conversation about compassion, commitment, purpose, meaning, and skillful means — as well as some much-needed guidance to help us bring ourselves into deeper alignment with our own inner Bodhisattva, regardless of whatever spiritual tradition (or lack thereof!) that we find ourselves in.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

The Art of YES

and

and Leave a Comment

Watch as Lisa and Corey preview the new season of Integral Life Practice Experiences now available on Integral Life, taking you deeper than ever before into your own growth, awakening, and life purpose.

Lisa also discusses her exclusive new program, which she is calling Live Your Deepest Yes, a 12-week live group coaching series that will help you better align yourself with your innermost truth, your passion, and your own unique contribution to the world.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Ken Wilber Goes to High School: Sex, Ecology, Spirituality

1 Comment

In this very special episode of The Ken Show we are joined by Aissatou Diallo, Zoe Tray, and Noah Delorme, students at Choate Rosemary Hall who have been studying Ken Wilber’s seminal book, Sex, Ecology, Spirituality for their senior year project. Watch as Ken, Aissatou, Zoe, and Noah unpack many of the core insights of SES and discuss the unique value Integral work holds for a new generation of thinkers, leaders, artists, and scholars.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

How to Manage Passive Aggression

and

and 15 Comments

Watch as Dr. Keith and Corey explore the many ways passive aggression, anger, and codependence create more separation between people and degrade our capacity for love, while assertive processing of anger creates more intimacy and safety. Learning how to take a pause before aggressive or passive-aggressive action gives the opportunity to cross-validate through all four quadrants, and to take our overall kosmic address into account.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

The Art of Practice: Forgiveness Made Easy

, and

, and

To authentically forgive — what Barbara describes as “the absolute refusal to hold ill will against someone for what they did or didn’t do” — can actually be tremendously challenging. Fortunately Barbara Hunt is with us to help make it simple. Watch as Barbara talks to Lisa and Corey about forgiveness as an integral “master practice” — a practice that scaffolds and supports the rest of our various waking up, growing up, cleaning up, and showing up practices.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Escaping Narcissism

and

and 1 Comment

In this episode of Witt & Wisdom we take a careful look at these narcissistic tendencies and how they express themselves in all four quadrants, and at every major stage of development. We hope that this discussion will help you identify whatever narcissistic traits you may be carrying with you, and to consciously wield your positive self-esteem without being seduced by our own self-importance.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Into the Dreaming

and

and 4 Comments

Our dreams are often drenched in meaning, significance, and symbolism. But it is often very difficult for us to make sense of our experiences in the dream world, and to hoist these treasures out of the surreal and into the real. Our dreams typically communicate to us in the language of the bizarre, and more often than not we need some guidance in order to better understand them and extract whatever wisdoms they may offer us. Watch as Dr. Keith and Corey explore the murky depths of our own unconsciousness, and try to shine some light upon some of the common features we experience in the dream world.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Inhabit: Your Fear

and

and Leave a Comment

You don’t need to push away your fear, neither do you need to surrender to it. All you need to do is to consciously inhabit your fear – allow it to freely move through you, allow yourself to respond however you need to respond in the moment, and notice any interior frictions as it passes through your system so you know nothing is getting “stuck” or pushed into shadow.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

COVID-19 Through the Lens of the Enneagram

and

and Leave a Comment

How are different Enneagram types dealing with these new life conditions that are being imposed upon us all? What are the different coping strategies and pain points and opportunities for transformation? How can the Integral Enneagram help us bring more care, compassion, and connection to our own integral family? Watch this very special episode to find out.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

The Meaning of Coincidence

and

and

Dr. Keith and Corey take an integral look at synchronicity, exploring this elusive phenomena through the lenses of the four quadrants, the major states of consciousness, the twenty tenets, and Rupert Sheldrake’s theory of morphic resonance. It is a fun and fascinating discussion, and one that will hopefully help you pay a bit closer attention whenever you feel your own four quadrants falling into perfect and seamless symmetry.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Creating a Coherent Life Story

and

and 3 Comments

Dr. Keith and Corey discuss the primary goal of psychotherapy — to help people experience themselves every day as living a happy ending to their life so far, and at the very beginning of a wonderful and exciting new chapter. This goal, of course, requires a more integrated self in order to meet the inevitable challenges, triggers, and opportunities that we will encounter on the path of growing up, and for us to be able to create a cohesive and coherent life story for ourselves as we move forward

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Polarities in Human Development

, and

, and Leave a Comment

Beena Sharma and Corey deVos explore the important relationship between polarities and adult development — and how polarity thinking not only helps accelerate our development toward integral stages of maturity, but also helps us to be more of ourselves, wherever we happen to be in our developmental trajectory.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

A More Unifying Psychotherapy

and

and 1 Comment

Andre Marquis, PhD, is associate professor of counseling and human development and author of several books and scholarly articles in the field of Integral Psychology. Today Andre talks to Ken Wilber about his most recent book, Integral Psychotherapy: A Unifying Approach, which explores how a more comprehensive understanding of the self can greatly enhance, enrich, and energize the therapeutic experience for both patient and practitioner.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

The Varieties of Integral Spiritual Experience

and

and 3 Comments

Watch as Ken and Corey explore the path of Waking Up — a guided tour through temporary states of consciousness that include everything from emotional states to chemically-induced states to the direct, immediate experience of timeless reality, revealing an infinitely renewable source of energy, resilience, and creative inspiration that rests at the very center of you.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Trauma and the Unbound Body: The Connection Between Embodiment, Nondual Realization, and Healing

and

and

Ryan Oelke speaks with Judith Blackstone, a teacher in the contemporary fields of nondual realization and spiritual, relational, and somatic psychotherapy, about her new book, “Trauma and the Unbound Body: The Healing Power of Fundamental Consciousness”. They chat about the connection between embodiment, nondual realization, and healing, and how all three help deepen one other.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

The Many Ways We Grow

and

and Leave a Comment

Human development is uneven, which means that we are better at some things than we are at others. Some skills come more naturally to us, and others are more difficult to acquire. Watch as Ken and Corey explore each of these developmental capacities in detail, offering a powerful summary of human potentials, talents, and intelligences — a comprehensive map of the territory of “you” that will help guide your own ongoing growth and development.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Growing Up: A Guided Tour

and

and 6 Comments

In this episode of The Ken Show we explore one of the most central elements of integral metatheory: growing up through multiple stages of developmental maturity. Watch as Ken and Corey offer a guided tour through each of the major stages on the Path of Growing Up — an exploration of your own greatest, deepest potentials — and offer some simple practices to help you actualize those potentials.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

An Integral Understanding of Suicide

, and

, and 25 Comments

Suicide has been in existence as long as self-aware consciousness has been in existence. The gift of self-aware consciousness included the capacity for humans to anticipate and understand the inevitability of their own deaths, and all gifts come with a price. In this series of videos, Dr. Keith Witt talks to Jeff Salzman and Corey deVos about bringing a more integral understanding and compassion to the topic of suicide.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

The Butterfly and the Hawk: How “Dual Focus” Can Help You Overcome Pain, Anxiety, and Trauma

and

and 2 Comments

A common element of many trauma treatments, most psychotherapy, and much spiritual practice is something called “dual focus” — our capacity to anchor ourselves in the feeling of being safe, capable, and worthy in the present moment, while simultaneously extending our awareness to distressing feelings, thoughts, memories, impulses, judgments, and events.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Customize Your Mindfulness for Resilience and Impact

6 Comments

Mindfulness can feel like swimming upstream against your own mind. Yet the benefits are clear: enhanced attention, empathy, and resilience, and reduced anxiety, stress, and even insomnia. Unfortunately, too many people don’t find a practice that works for them and their daily lives. This series comes in five parts: an introduction and four follow-on sessions, each with a sample mindfulness practice based on the four primary ways of relating to the world.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Themes of Emergence: Awareness, Responsibility, and Mutuality

and

and 3 Comments

Culture wars and cognitive dissonance. Consensus trance on climate change. #MeToo and emergent mutuality. Tantric sexuality and karma yoga. Self-awareness and personal responsibility. Join us as Keith explores some of these converging themes, as well as questions from the audience around social trauma, education, and broken-hearted enlightenment.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Heal Thyself: How to Repair Interpersonal and Cultural Injuries

and

and 2 Comments

The Buddha had it right with “life is suffering”! We all regularly feel injured by other people, our own interior struggles, cultural events, or random chance. Repairing these injuries is a big deal! Luckily, Integrally informed psychology can help us recognize and repair injuries. In this upcoming episode of Live with Dr. Keith we’ll talk about how we all become injured and the steps we often need to take for effective repair.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

The Art of Being Unique (But Not Special)

and

and Leave a Comment

Today Jeff and Corey take a look at a paradoxical move in vertical development: where we embrace our own radical uniqueness and express it in relation to other beings who are also utterly unique. It’s a new and more vivid integration of the individual and collective realms of reality, and out of it emerges a possibility for a more fruitful, happy and fulfilling life. Once again we are helped out by Sarah Silverman!

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Politics, Addiction, and Mental Health: The Path to Recovery

and

and Leave a Comment

In this interview Chris recounts some of the surreal feelings he’s having as the Trump administration continues to disrupt the social, political, and cultural status quo. He speaks to the impact Trump is having on the mental health communities that he serves — as safety net budgets for social services are eliminated, those with mental health issues are often the first to feel the pain.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Why Meetings Suck (And How You Can Make Them More Fun, Efficient, and Engaging)

Leave a Comment

Join us in this role-playing exercise as four colleagues undergo the first 2 minutes of a business meeting where they discuss a new project. Watch how each participant brings a dramatically different Native Perspective — or “orienting quadrant” — to the table, then get inside their heads to see how they interpret the meeting. Can you spot your own Native Perspective?

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Growing, Relating, Connecting: An Integral Tour of Couples Therapy

and

and 1 Comment

In this episode of Psychology Now, Dr. Keith and Dr. Mark dive into the wide world of couples therapy and relationships, using the Integral lens to locate some of the deeper principles and key insights that leading couples therapists’ employ to help couples develop loving, growth-orientated, grounded relationships. Includes six key practices that you can try right now to enhance your relationship.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Psychedelics in Psychotherapy

, and

, and Leave a Comment

Special guest Dr. Elliott Ingersoll joins Doctors Keith Witt and Mark Forman to share their personal and professional experiences with psychedelics while reviewing relevant research, current practices, and the amazing potentials of these treatments. Therapists need as many tools as possible to remediate symptoms, enhance health, and support development. The way we see it therapies utilizing psychedelics will become increasingly available and likely useful in the years to come.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Shapes of Mind: The 10 Stages of Consciousness

6 Comments

At Integral Life we sometimes refer to different stages of consciousness in order to make sense of various issues or complex situations. So I thought it might be useful to briefly outline the ten stages of consciousness-or what I often call the ten shapes of mind–in order to provide an orienting primer for those who are new to Integral Life. For those who have been with us a long time, hopefully you’ll enjoy a refresher.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Into the Void and Back Again: Understanding and Recovering From Depression

and

and Leave a Comment

Depression is a powerful mood disorder and – after anxiety – the most prevalent of all mental health challenges. In this episode of Psychology Now, Dr. Witt and Dr. Forman dive deeply into the topic of depression, and how our struggles with depression can lead to deepened commitment to change, heightened self-understanding, and increased empathy for the suffering of others.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Patterns of Being / Patterns of Relating

Recorded during one of Helen Palmer’s rare live teachings in Boulder, this 9-hour workshop helps to awaken the ancient wisdom of the Narrative Enneagram in your own life, while enriching it with the unique insights and perspectives revealed by the Integral approach.Through these powerful teachings, demonstrations, and conversations you will be able to identify your own particular pattern — and …

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Loving Completely Web Course

Loving Completely is a groundbreaking training program designed to help you and your partner improve your connection on every level: physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual. Crafted by Dr. Keith Witt and Integral Life, Loving Completely will help you uncover a wealth of personal and interpersonal dynamics that you may not even have known were there. Your personal guide through the wilderness of the heart.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

The Art and Practice of Self-Love

Leave a Comment

Do you deeply and truly love yourself? What is preventing you from loving yourself completely? Is your capacity to love yourself contrained by poor self-esteem, internalized criticisms, or false modesty? Can you distinguish your self-love from self-absorption, narcissism, and the siren call of your own ego? Listen as Dr. Keith Witt explores the tremendous importance of self-love, and daily practices to help you explore the undiscovered regions of your own heart.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Patterns of Resistance: What Stands Between You and Spiritual Experience?

Leave a Comment

What is preventing you from fully experiencing your own timeless divine nature, right now in this very moment? Watch as Helen Palmer presents the Enneagram as a means to recognize and rehabilitate the conditioning of the everyday ego — reducing the opacity of our everyday habituated minds, transcending the illusion of separation, and allowing the self-liberating light of God to shine through more clearly.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Knowing Your Shadow: Healing the Broken Self

and

and Leave a Comment

Exploring the full spectrum of disassociated shadow material in our lives (pain, shame, guilt, dark emotions, sexual shadows, spiritual shadows, etc.) and the ways that we can begin cleaning up and reintegrating these splintered pieces of our psyche, Robert Augustus Masters talks to Ken Wilber about his recent audio course, Knowing Your Shadow.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

The Shadow Vignettes: A Tale of Reintegration in Six Parts

Leave a Comment

Ken Wilber offers what’s got to be one of his most hilarious teachings to date. His focus is on shadow, but this time he adopts a more practice-oriented perspective, offering examples of shadow at each of six levels of development—featuring conversations with a stripper, a monster, a man burning in eternal flame, a radiant being, an oil tanker, and Gaia. As for what these conversations entail, you’ll just have to experience them yourself….

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

The Secret to Transformation

and

and Leave a Comment

Mike Murphy, the co-founder of Esalen Institute (America’s pioneering center of transformation) shares his leading-edge thoughts on growth, transformation, and the fascinating life of Sri Aurobindo, a pioneer of Integral consciousness. Mike and Ken then go on to discuss personal transformation, the possibility of reincarnation, and the necessity of an integral approach to fully explore both.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Telling the Story of Development

and

and Leave a Comment

Susanne Cook-Greuter, one of the most important developmental psychologists working today, shares her path from a working-class family in Switzerland to academic excellence and innovation at Harvard University, exploring the higher stages of consciousness available to us all. She then shares her thoughts on the current state of academia and the culture at large, and why it‘s so important to encourage flourishing at every stage of development alongside the invitation to keep growing.

SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE

The Higher Reaches of Success

and

and Leave a Comment

Tony Robbins discusses his model of human needs and motivations, and his intervention strategy for change. From emotions to relationships to finances to physical health, Tony covers the bases. His model allows him to spot a person’s leverage points, identify their barriers to change, and redefine their challenges in a way that allows for the most effective action.