In this remarkable exploration, Mark walks us through all of the main elements of Integral theory—using some of our favorite movies to illustrate the basics of the Integral approach, while noting how each of these elements has shaped the cinema experience since the invention of film itself. Not only does this series offer a wealth of perspective and insight to film, filmmakers, and audiences alike, but it also brings more color, more sound, and more awesome explosions to Integral thought and practice.
The Archetypal Lens
Mark Allan KaplanThe next integrally-informed lens we will be exploring is the ARCHETYPAL LENS. One way of understanding Archetypes from an Integral perspective is to see them as Primary Patterns of Being and Becoming that have their roots in the first forms of involution residing at the very edge of the Formless itself
The Complexity Lens
Mark Allan KaplanWe now enter the complex domain of tetra-enmeshment and tetra-evolution with what I am calling the COMPLEXITY LENS. On a basic level we could say that tetra-enmeshment refers to the complex inter-relationship or tetra-enmeshment between the four quadrants or “the subjective, objective, intersubjective, and interobjective dimensions of existence” whereby “all four dimensions arise simultaneously and tetra-evolve
The Methodology Lens
Mark Allan KaplanWe now shift focus to that space between theory and practice where we find the constructs, paradigms, and approaches used to examine and enact our world and the world of cinema, using what I am calling the METHODOLOGY LENS. With this lens we can attempt to look at what methodological constructs are behind how we look and how we act, what method or approach we are using at any given moment to comprehend and relate to self, others, and world.
The Energetics Lens
Mark Allan KaplanSince art in general and cinema in particular communicate through the transmission of light and sound, which both operate through frequency spectrums that transfer energy through space, every moment of projected image and sound of a cinematic work can be said to essentially have its own particular energy signature. Some film theorists have explored the dynamics of what can be called cinematic or kinetic energies that are inherent in the perceptual reception of moving imagery.
The Altitudinal Lens
Mark Allan KaplanWhen we look at a cinematic work and endeavor to discern if it is “integral” or not, what we are doing is attempting to use the term in an evaluative mode as a kind of typological categorization tool. One of the major ways of typologically mapping the Integral structure of consciousness is as a particular level or altitude on the worldview line of development (the Integral Worldview altitude).
The Zonal Lens
Mark Allan KaplanWe are now ready to delve into the more advanced integrally-informed cinematic lenses, starting here with the ZONAL LENS.
The Zonal Lens aids us in applying eight (8) indigenous human perspectives (zones) and their corresponding methodologies for gaining verifiable and reproducible knowledge to the realm of perceivable realities.
The Typological Lens
Mark Allan KaplanIn addition to States, and developmental Lines and Levels, there are also various patterns of shared Characteristic Types or Typologies within all four Quadrants.
The States Lens
Mark Allan KaplanIn a cinematic work, at the most basic level, these various human reality states can be captured and replicated to some degree through text, image, and sound. For example, we can visually and auditorily capture a storm (a weather state), and add the text/story of a person trying to get out of its way, including how this person is reacting (i.e., a fearful emotional state).
The Developmental Lens
Mark Allan KaplanThis time we will explore what I am calling the DEVELOPMENTAL LENS. The Developmental lens includes two separate yet intimately connected perceptual lenses: LINES and LEVELS of development.
The Quadratic Lens
Mark Allan KaplanThis time we explore the QUADRATIC LENS. This lens helps us look upon everything we perceive as being made up of four distinct yet equal and interrelated essential dimensions of perceptual reality. These dimension-perspectives can be labeled in various ways to represent the form of existence we are looking at.
The Holonic Lens
Mark Allan KaplanThe first Integral lens I will explore is the HOLONIC lens. This lens helps us look upon everything we perceive as a HOLON; a whole that is part of another whole. Holons are the essential building blocks of our reality. A whole atom is part of a whole molecule, which is part of a whole cell, which is part of a whole organism
Toward an Integral Cinema: The Application of Integral Theory to Cinematic Media Theory and Practice
Mark Allan KaplanDefining characteristics of what may constitute an integral cinematic work are mapped out and developed into a set of evaluation criteria using the works of Dulac, Gebser, and Wilber. A test of these evaluation criteria with the viewing of several motion pictures is summarized; the results suggest that several past and recent films demonstrate qualities that could be said to constitute an integral cinematic work.
Buddhas in Blue: Enlightened Ways to Make Policing Work For Everyone
Ryan Johansen, Chris Orrey, Roger Walsh and John DupuyIn this moving, illuminating, and impassioned discussion, retired Police Lt. Chris Orrey and San Bruno Police Chief Ryan Johansen open our eyes as to the realities of policing in today’s world and offer solutions as to how the entire institution of police work could be transformed to become more effective and sustainable, both for police officers and for the communities they serve.
Meta-Ideological Politics: Bridging the Gaps Between Us
Ryan NakadeRyan’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.
Sentio Ergo Sum: The Emotional Line of Development
Joanne RubinIntegral Theory is described as a “nondual” developmental paradigm, where ontology and epistemology are paired constructively, and in which developing consciousness is sourced by thought, feeling, and states of consciousness. Emotional and cognitive development intertwine within ego development, and ego is defined by its coordinating and self-identifying functions. Following a review of the literature on emotions and emotional development, criteria are proposed for preconventional, conventional, and post-conventional levels of emotional development.
Integral Perspectives on Alcoholism
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosAlcohol 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).
From Socrates to Social Media: Renewing Our Commitment to Free Speech
Nadine Strossen, Mark Fischler and Corey deVosMark Fischler and Corey deVos are joined by Nadine Strossen, a renowned advocate for free speech and former president of the ACLU, to traverse the rich history and the evolving frontier of free speech — a legacy that reaches from the philosophical debates of ancient Greece to today’s dynamic platforms of social media. Together, Nadine, Mark, and Corey illuminate the journey of free speech (a crowning achievement of the rational/modern (Orange) stage) celebrating it as a beacon of individual rights and a testament to the unyielding human pursuit of truth and expression.
Developmental Experiments in Individual and Collective Movement to Second Tier
Terri O'FallonThis article describes seven years of research on an ongoing experiment that fosters the development of individuals and groups through an integrally informed educational program called Generating Transformative Change (GTC). A progressively targeted developmental action research project involving seven cohorts is described and the conclusions about three of these participant groups, involving a total of 30 people, are presented.
Diversity, Empathy, and Integration: Reframing and Reclaiming a Movement Toward Healing and Wholeness
Brad KershnerBrad Kershner offers a deep and detailed criticism of standard DEI approaches (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion), highlighting the complexities of ethnicity, race, and cultural evolution. He challenges prevailing educational metaphors grounded in the postmodern perspective, advocating for a more universal application of modern liberal values, and emphasizing the need for a nuanced understanding to forge a more genuine and generative path forward for social justice.
Toward an Integral Meta-Psychotherapy
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosImagine a therapy where everything is interconnected, where every moment is a golden opportunity, and where the journey is as transformative as the destination. Whether you’re a therapist, a seeker, or just curious about the intricacies of the human psyche, this episode promises a journey of discovery, connection, and evolution.
The Essence of Awakening: Who Are We Really?
Lama Surya Das, Roger Walsh and John DupuyLama Surya Das, beloved meditation teacher, scholar, pioneer of bringing Tibetan Buddhism to the West, and author of the bestseller Awakening the Buddha Within among many more, shares bright gems of wisdom from his extensive experience practicing Dzogchen, his long immersion in meditation retreats, and studying in person with the great spiritual teachers of Asia.
Is Metamodernism Integral? Is Integral Metamodern?
Brendan Graham DempseyMetamodernism and the integral paradigm share a lot in common, yet also differ in important ways. To what degree should these terms be conflated or kept apart? What unites them, and what constitute the meaningful distinctions? What role do things like sensibility, generation, emphasis, and epistemology play? This gathering provided an opportunity to dig into this topic. To this end, metamodern thinker Brendan Graham Dempsey offers some history and a bit of compare/contrast perspectives on the topic.
Sex, Identity, Gender: Beyond Wokism and Trumpism
Corey deVos and Keith Martin-SmithJoin 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.
Building a Just World: How Our Laws Express Our Collective Values
Mark Fischler, John Dupuy and Roger WalshConstitutional law expert and criminal justice professor Mark Fischler has a thirst for justice and a gift for teaching. With cogency and passion, Mark explains that law is not the absolute that we perhaps thought, but an ever changing reflection of the values we hold as a society. Law is a developmental process, and will benefit from our own dedication to inner moral development.
The Art and Science of the Intentional Love Affair
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosDr. 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.
What Is a Man (And Why Does It Matter?)
Keith Martin-SmithWith 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.
When Therapists Go Woke
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosDr. 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.
AQAL Topology: An Introduction to Integral Geography and Spatiality
Brian EddyThis article introduces some of the basic elements of Integral Geography as both theory and practice for applying the AQAL framework to the study of the world. A historical overview elaborates what geography is, how it evolved as a discipline, and how geographers frame a number of key dimensions of inquiry in studying both the human and natural world. These key dimensions are then situated in relation to the AQAL framework and are used to reveal how space, spatiality, and topology are intrinsic to the AQAL map and Integral Theory in general.
The Enneagram as a Spiritual Tool
Leslie Hershberger, John Dupuy and Roger WalshEnneagram expert, teacher, master facilitator, and transformational coach Leslie Hershberger leads us into the world of the Enneagram, painting a broader, deeper picture of the Enneagram and its uses as a psycho-spiritual tool than is commonly understood.
From Race to Culture to Kosmos
Greg Thomas, John Dupuy and Roger WalshJoin cultural analyst and co-founder of the Jazz Leadership Project, Greg Thomas, as he explores the transformative power of culture, using his knowledge of jazz and blues as a conduit to greater understanding and connection. Greg tackles layered issues of race through a systemic lens, suggesting a shift from racial to cultural worldview, offering an enlightening dialogue filled with anecdotes from music history and a rich exploration of how shared cultural experiences can dissolve boundaries and unite us all.
Shadow, Trauma, and Attachment: Why Do Spiritual Teachers Keep Messing Up?
Keith Martin-SmithIf 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.
Mastery, Collaboration, and Finding Your Unique Healing Style
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosDr. Keith Witt and Corey deVos explore the multifaceted nature of integral psychotherapy, emphasizing the importance of therapists finding their own healing style and the role of personal cosmologies in shaping therapeutic practice. They delve into the complexities of blending different integral systems, highlighting potential blind spots in integral cosmology and the challenges of extending beyond one’s mastery. The conversation also touches on the impact of generational events and the internet on mental health and societal norms.
Ontological Shock: The Accelerating Emergence of Artificial Intelligence
Robb Smith, Bruce Alderman and Corey deVosRobb 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.
Accountability Matters: A Call for Ethics, Empathy, and Equality
Mark Fischler and Corey deVosIn this thought-provoking podcast discussion, Mark Fischler and Corey deVos delve into the intricacies of Trump’s legal battles, the pursuit of accountability in politics, and the complexities of maintaining empathy and justice in a polarized society.
Grappling with the Metacrisis
Sean Esbjörn-Hargens, Nicholas Hedlund, Roger Walsh and John DupuyIn this dialogue, the world of metatheories comes alive with urgent, purposeful meaning, because as Sean and Nick point out, integrative metatheories like Ken Wilber’s integral theory and Roy Bhaskar’s critical realism are the only tools that provide a useful framework for us to talk about and confront the vast web of interrelated and wicked problems we face on every level at this time.
Shadows of Development
Kim Barta and Keith Martin-SmithJoin 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.
What Makes Us Happy? Growing Toward Anti-Fragility
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosJoin Keith and Corey in this enriching dialogue, as they bring forth an integral perspective on the pressing issue of mental health and resilience among youth, and explore the transformative potential of anti-fragility and the happiness strategies that can empower us to create a brighter future for ourselves and the generations to come.
The Integral Way of Jean Gebser
Jeremy JohnsonIn this two-part introductory series, Jeremy Johnson and participants explore a brief — if experiential — journey through the structures of consciousness, discovering how they continue to live in and through us and our world.
The 8 Perspectival Zones of Emergence
Ken WilberKen Wilber is asked whether there are structural preconditions for the enacting of certain zones, whether zones unfold with respect to increasing cognitive development, whether certain zones were even available at earlier times in history, and whether there are “premodern,” “modern,” and “postmodern” zones.
Illuminating the Integral Vision: A Metatheory for Understanding Self, Life, and the World
Corey deVos, John Dupuy and Roger WalshCorey 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.
The Edge of the Future: Education, Civilization, and the Metacrisis
Zach Stein, John Dupuy and Roger WalshEducator, author, philosopher, and futurist Zachary Stein gives a startling account of the effects the digital age already has on education and where this is headed. Zak sees education in a deeply philosophical sense as fundamental to the sustainability of our civilization, with implications for each component of the metacrisis. Who will be driving the technology stack that actually leads to a viable civilization? Can we maintain our psychological sovereignty in a sea of digital propaganda and know the truth?
The Highest Stages of Conscious Development
Terri O'Fallon and Keith Martin-SmithTerri 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.
How Self-Hatred Can Lead to Self Transformation
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosDr. 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.
No Beginnings, No Endings: A Dialogue with Living Jazz Great Wayne Shorter
Greg ThomasWayne Shorter, likely the greatest jazz composer since Thelonious Monk, was also one of the most influential tenor and soprano saxophonists in the post-John Coltrane period from the mid-1960s onward. His death on March 2, 2023, at the age of 89, marks the end of a musical life that spanned a panoply of styles and configurations, from hard bop to electronic fusion and funk to Brazilian and Caribbean to orchestral and the avant-garde, all suffused his own idiosyncratic melding of sounds and sensibilities which seemed to reach from the heat-center of the earth to the infinite expanses of the cosmos.
Navigating the Meaning Crisis
John Vervaeke and Nomali PereraJohn Vervaeke talks with Nomali, Jeff, and the rest of the group about his three major concerns about stage models, and why he doesn’t emphasize them in his own work
Where Is the Method to Our Integral Madness? An Outline for Integral Meta-Studies
Mark EdwardsThe purpose of this article is to explore the future development of Integral metatheory and to contextualize the absence of a formal method within a general framework for describing an integral meta-studies. The importance of method is discussed within an integral cycle of learning model that shows why method plays such a crucial role in metatheory building and in scientific disciplines in general. An overview of integral meta-studies is presented to contextualise the discussion of method.
Tapping Into Divine Guidance
Lisa Frost and Kevin Snorf“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.
How Attachment Theory Can Improve Your Relationships
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosAs 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.
Perspectives on Development: Introducing the STAGES Model
Terri O'Fallon and Keith Martin-SmithTerri 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.
Transcending and Including Our Current Way of Being: An Introduction to Integral Coaching
Joanne HuntThis 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.
Transform the Police: A More Integral Approach to Law Enforcement
Chris Orrey, Mark Fischler and Corey deVosMark 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?
Nature as Teacher: Finding Beauty, Wisdom, and Self in Everything
Susanne Cook-Greuter, John Dupuy and Roger WalshAdult psychology pioneer and ego development expert Susanne Cook-Greuter introduces us to her favorite wisdom teacher: Nature. Susanne explains how Integral Theory’s 3-2-1 Process can be practiced with elements in nature to gain greater insight into the teachings of nature—evolution, cycles of life and death, the transience of life, the beauty that is everywhere—and to experience oneness with all.
Escaping the Comfort Zone: Motivation, Shame, and the Will to Transform
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosDr. Keith and Corey explore the complex psychology of motivation — the various sticks and carrots we use to get out of bed in the morning and keep ourselves moving forward in our lives, sustaining the inertia we need to push us through any number of hardships, setbacks, and growth opportunities.
Integral Spiritual Explorations: What Is Integral Spirituality?
Rollie Stanich, Nomali Perera, Lama Pema Dragpa and Jeff SalzmanWhat 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.
Songs of Peace, Grace, and Awakening
Barbara Hunt and Stephen BanksBarbara Hunt talks to host Stephen Banks about her personal musical journey, the different effects of major and minor chords in music, the One Taste of pain and suffering as it is expressed in our creative expression, and more.
How to Build a Conscious Community
John Churchill and Keith Martin-SmithKeith 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.
Looking Back: The Best of 2022
Corey deVosWe now live in a time when all of the right conditions and contradictions for Integral have finally emerged — a cascade of “wicked problems” that can only be fully seen, let alone solved, from an Integral point of view, but whose effects can be felt by virtually everybody. We took a close look at many of these wicked problems over the year, including issues such as racism, abortion, power, free speech, disinformation, and the rise of artificial intelligence. You can find many of these discussions listed on our Best of 2022 page!
Psychedelic Therapy and the Politics of Consciousness
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosIn 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.
A Unique View Into You: Working With a Client’s AQAL Constellation
Laura DivineThis 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.
Transformational Conversations: The Four Conversations of Integral Coaching
Joanne HuntThis article provides an introduction to the process used by Integral Coaching Canada in working with clients over time.
We’re Hoping AIs Will Answer Our Deepest Spiritual Question. They Can’t.
Robb SmithIf we can create an AI that seems fully conscious, what does it mean for our place in the universe? Are we really conscious? If we can basically replicate consciousness, how special can life be? How special can our own lives be?
How to Thrive During the Holidays
Lisa Frost and Kevin SnorfHolidays can be tough. For many the holiday season can be the some of the most hectic and challenging weeks of the year. Join Lisa and Kevin for a look at not just how to survive the holidays, but how to genuinely thrive and deepen your commitment to practice.
The Maturing Test: How Developed Is the World’s Most Advanced AI?
Robb Smith, Corey deVos and Susanne Cook-GreuterWe just assessed GPT-3, the world’s most advanced sentence-generating Artificial Intelligence, using Susanne Cook Greuter’s testing methodology. What did we learn, and what are the possible consequences for humanity? Watch to find out!
How Change Works: Supporting Vertical Development
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosDr. 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.
Holons: The Building Blocks of the Universe
Corey deVosJoin Corey deVos for this fun, fascinating, and far-reaching exploration of one of the essential cornerstones of integral theory — holons, or the apparently endless series of “part/wholes” that fundamentally compose reality as we know it.
Therapy & Awakening: A New Integration
Chad Bennett and Keith Martin-SmithKeith 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.
Taking Justice Personally
Mark Fischler and Corey deVosMark 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.
Putting the “Art” in Artificial Intelligence
Ken Wilber and Corey deVosWhat is art, at its most fundamental level? This is one of those perennial questions that we have been asking and re-asking at every stage of the human journey, from the first cave drawings all the way to the emergence of sophisticated artificial intelligence algorithms like MidJourney that are once again blurring the lines between art, beauty, and perspective and forcing us to find new ways to answer this timeless question. Watch as Ken and Corey take a fun and fascinating look at the intersection between art, semiotics, and technology.
An Integral Approach to Sexual Identity: Beyond Religion and Science
Michele EliasonThis 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.
How Healthy Relationships Manage Conflict
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosDr. Keith and Corey discuss “post-issue relationships” — relationships where both partners have the awareness and skill to stay connected in warmth and acceptance all the time, where challenges such as irritation, anxiety, doubt, guilt, and frustration can be transmuted into problem solving and warm feelings towards each other.
Awakening Joy: Life Skills for Living, Loving, and Serving Life to the Full
James Baraz, Roger Walsh and John DupuyJames’ 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.
Who Awakens? How to Be Free From Your Freedom
Keith Martin-SmithIn 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?
Ranked Choice Voting: A Path Toward a More Integral Politics
Jim AnestRanked choice voting (RCV) is a practice that offers considerable promise by creating and protecting a more civil commons where more perspectives are included, respect is encouraged, coercion and distortion are minimized, and intersubjective bridging is rewarded.
Open Yourself to Greater Freedom and Flow
Aneesah WilhelmstätterCome 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.
Nonduality (And Beyond)
A. H. Almaas, John Dupuy and Roger WalshA.H. Almaas (Hameed Ali), renowned author and co-creator of the Diamond Approach, describes his own process of inquiry and some of what he has come to discover in his lifelong pursuit to understand the nature of reality and know the truth.
Indistinct Union: An Integral Introduction to Nonduality in Christianity
Christopher DierkesThis article explores the work of Bernadette Roberts, a little-known contemporary Catholic Christian mystic. I analyze her work as a basis for a renewed and complete Christian map of mystical consciousness for the contemporary era. Through her experience, Roberts lays the foundation for a native Christian nonduality.
Work as Practice, Practice as Work
Lisa Frost, Kevin Snorf and Kent FrazierWhat would it look like to re-imagine and redefine the very ways we relate to and participate in our work? In this episode Lisa and Kevin speak with Kent Frazier, founder of Fully Human at Work, to understand what practice looks like in this context of our lives.
The WHAT, WHY, and HOW of Integral Practice
Lisa Frost and Kevin SnorfThe truth is, you’re always practicing something. What is your default practice if you are not practicing consciously?
The Source and Heart of Judaism and the Great Religions
Zvi Ish-Shalom, Roger Walsh and John DupuyIn this remarkable conversation, Zvi describes how he found ways to map and interpret his own profound mystical experiences, how the teachings arise from the ground of being, about how they might become accessible to us all, regardless of religion or spiritual tradition, and how they are especially relevant for young people today, seeking to find a structure for their spiritual journey.
Inhabit: Your Bardo
Corey deVos and Ryan OelkeRyan and Corey explore the idea that every moment is a bardo, a transition from one state of being to another state of being — and within these ubiquitous transitions there are opportunities to transcend the karmas of our conditioning, and to channel new kinds of creativity into the world.
Vertical Development’s Many Gifts
Beena Sharma, John Dupuy and Roger WalshBeena Sharma, president of the Vertical Development Academy (VeDA), gives a beautifully cogent explanation of the 8-stage, full spectrum model of adult psychological development, Vertical Development — illuminating us not only to the characteristics of each stage of development, but the implications and ramifications of each stage, the process of human development as a whole, and how this model can help us face our current metacrisis.
Spiraling towards Perihelion
Markus PintzingerA stunning collection of hand-drawn imagery by Markus Pintzinger, detailing the evolutionary journey through the major stages of development (as depicted by Spiral Dynamics).
The Remarkable Practice of Dream Yoga
Andrew Holecek, Roger Walsh and John DupuyLucid dreaming expert, author, “curiouist,” and integralist Andrew Holecek explains how lucid dreaming opens the door to a greatly expanded understanding of our minds, our perception of reality, and human potential altogether.
The Momentous Leap to Integral Consciousness
Ken Wilber and Corey deVosKen Wilber and Corey deVos explore some of the unique challenges that come with the transition to Integral stages of development — “the momentous leap” as it is often called. Watch as Ken and Corey try to bring a little bit more light to this particular path of transformation, and maybe leave a few signposts for fellow travelers along the way.
Personality as the Base Note of Change Work
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosWatch 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.
Transformational Theses: Your Doorway to Changing the World
Robb SmithA Transformational Thesis (“TT”) is the name for a specific hypothesis that if you can effect this change, you can achieve that outcome, and in particular this process of change is a transformational one in which a person, organization, system, context etc. has moved to an overall fundamentally higher- and more-healthy form of long-term functioning.
Abortion, Freedom, and the Sanctity of Life
Cindy Wigglesworth, Corey deVos and Mark FischlerWatch as Cindy Wigglesworth, Mark Fischler, and Corey deVos take a careful look at the Supreme Court’s deeply controversial decision to overrule Roe vs. Wade, and the subsequent banning of abortion access in dozens of states across the country. How does something like the sanctity of life change from one developmental stage to another? How do integral “metaphysics of wholeness” inform our views? Watch to find out.
Blue Pearl: A One World Oratorio
Stephen BanksThe world premiere of Blue Pearl: A One World Oratorio, composed by Steve Banks and performed on 14th May 2022, at St Giles’ Cripplegate, London.
Blue Pearl is an ground-breaking new oratorio for choir, four solo singers and orchestra. It is inspired by the writing of American mystical philosopher, Ken Wilber, and his Integral vision.
Making Sense of Madness: Personality Disorders and Mass Formation Delusions
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosDr. Keith and Corey explore an Integral understanding of personality disorders, and how they fit into the mass formation distortions that currently seem to be happening all around us in our culture.
Has the Supreme Court Lost Its Way?
Mark Fischler and Corey deVosWatch as Mark and Corey discuss the legitimacy crisis the Court is now faced with, the dangers of an “originalist” reading of the U.S. Constitution, and the failure of the left to produce a coherent legal theory to steer the Court (and the rest of the country) toward a better, more inclusive, and more stable vision of democracy.
No Boundary: Ken Wilber Goes Back to High School
Ken WilberKen speaks with high school students to discuss his 1979 classic, No Boundary. What follows is a lively and deeply insightful exploration of integral spirituality, Ken’s personal practice, and the path of awakening that leads us to nondual realization.
How to Heal a Culture That Has Lost Its Soul
Alexander Beiner, Roger Walsh and John DupuyRebel Wisdom co-founder Alexander Beiner has his finger on the cultural pulse of our times. Here he explores key challenges we face as a global community: sensemaking and truth finding in an culture that has lost its coherence as well as its sense of the divine, and what role psychedelics might play both therapeutically and spiritually in healing our culture. He discusses the need to go beyond the intellectual to find clarity and coherence, using embodied practices like meditation and inquiry, and explains how modalities such as these are an essential container for therapeutic psychedelic experiences.
In Pursuit of Wholeness: Making Room for Everything
Corey deVos and Ken WilberThis notion of holons — the idea that the universe is fundamentally made of whole/parts within whole/parts within whole/parts, turtles all the way up and turtles all the way down — this isn’t just important in a theoretical or philosophical sense. Understanding holons also helps us make better sense of the world that we live in, and our inner worlds as well. And it helps guide our own growing up, waking up, and cleaning up process.
An Example of Integral Pedagogy
Lynne FeldmanBased on Integral Theory, the practice of Integral Education is emerging as a viable and practical discipline. This article demonstrates how an instructor can begin to operate within the AQAL framework by first focusing on the quadrants. Detailed examples of using the quadrants as a pedagogical tool are provided in the context of a senior high school sociology course. In addition, the role of an Integral educator is explored in the context of Integral practices they might employ based on the four quadrants. Although the article presents an application of the AQAL framework within a high school curriculum, the Integral principles in use are instructive for other educational settings using an Integral approach.
Authoring Your Life Story: The Hero’s Journey and You
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosWatch as Dr. Keith and Corey take a deep dive into the human superpower of self-authorship, and how we can use that superpower to construct a more resilient, more forgiving, and more integrated sense of “self”.
Adverse Childhood Experiences: Overview, Response Strategies, and Integral Theory
Heather LarkinResearchers 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.
From Bodhisattva to Ecosattva: Integrating Personal Practice and Global Activism
David Loy, Roger Walsh and John DupuyDavid Loy, Zen teacher, scholar, and prolific author, reveals his acute understanding of the crises we face today, the psychology at the root of the problems, and how we can make our way forward in this in-depth discussion. He has adopted the term ecodharma to focus attention on the challenge Buddhism faces now: integrating personal transformation with global activism and social transformation. As David points out, the focus needs to be on this world, with transcendence being a metaphorical understanding but not an excuse to abandon the problems we and our planet face today.
How to Teach Kids About Sex and Gender
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosWhat exactly are “developmentally appropriate, age-appropriate” ways to teach kids about sex, gender, and identity, not only for kids in kindergarten through third grade, but throughout the rest of childhood and adolescence? Which aspects are more appropriate to teach at home, and which are appropriate to teach at school? Watch as Dr. Keith and Corey share their thoughts.
Armed Insanity: Getting Real About Guns and Criminality
Jeff SalzmanJeff Salzman shares our collective outrage and heartbreak over the shooting of the Texas schoolchildren and teachers, and offesr some hope that this time it will be different, that this shooting will heighten a social pain-point – unstable young men equipped with weapons of war – sufficiently to transcend political polarities.
What’s Wrong With Education (And How Can We Fix It?)
Mark Fischler and Corey deVosBroken education produces broken people. How can integral perspectives and practices help our education systems generate more happy, healthy, and wholesome kids? Watch as Mark and Corey take a close look at the many dysfunctions, injustices, and failures we see in our education system — both within the system (how and what kids are being taught) as well as surrounding the system (access to education, funding, etc.).
An Integral Approach to Affective Education
Frank MarreroThe author uses twelve AQAL dimensions of education as described by Sean Esbjörn-Hargens to approximate a “report card” for evaluating any curriculum with an affective focus. This completeness is not just an academic exercise but shows the practicality and advantage of an Integral approach in the real world. Four affective educational models will also be examined using Integral perspectives. The features of these programs will be measured using an example of an Integral assessment of their strengths, foci, and weaknesses.
Integral Critical Theory: The 8 Zones of Racism
Ken Wilber and Corey deVosKen and Corey continue their discussion of the 8 critical zones of integral metatheory, and apply them to the ongoing cultural conversation taking place around race, racism, and other kinds of bigotry that we continue to see in the world. This discussion is a great opportunity to not only learn more about these 8 primordial perspectives that are available to us, but also to see how they can be applied to social and cultural challenges and “wicked problems” such as these.
Coding Gender: Using IMP to Construct a Content Analysis of Gender Definitions in Scientific Research
Jeff CohenThe pervasive influence and conceptual complexity of gender as a scientific construct has lead to attempts to explain it from multiple perspectives. When each of these perspectives is offered, it tends to be presented as a complete explanation. Each perspective, however, likely offers only a partial truth concerning the enactment of gender. The recognition of the partiality of these perspectives indicates that each should be considered in some form when trying to address the full complexity of gender. It also makes clear that none should be privileged above any other. Through the application of the Integral model and Integral Methodological Pluralism (IMP), this article develops a broader and deeper conceptual and operational model for the study of gender than those that have been typically applied.
Healing Collective Trauma: We Are All Shareholders in a Traumatized World
Thomas Hübl, Roger Walsh and John DupuyThomas Hübl, renowned spiritual teacher, author, expert on collective trauma, and creator and facilitator of The Collective Trauma Integration Process, shares fascinating, life changing information about the dynamics of collective trauma — how it is embodied and perpetuated in the language we use, and how we are bound together in a sort of “mutual collusion” that predisposes us to repeat our past, and to repeat over and over the things we would much rather leave behind.
The Kosmic Vitality of Poetry and Music
Brooke McNamara and Stephen BanksBrooke McNamara and Stephen Banks explore integral art as an expression of Integral spirituality, with its embrace of every dimension of our humanity. Includes a 20 minute performance combining Brooke’s poetry with excerpts from Steve’s Blue Pearl: A One World Oratorio.
An Integral Understanding of Narcissism and Gaslighting
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosIn this episode, Dr. Keith and Corey take a careful look at the strategies and intended results of gaslighting (the effort to make you question your very sanity by convincing you that your memories and perception of reality are somehow incorrect, inconsistent, or unreliable) in our personal and professional relationships, as well as in media, marketing, politics, and society at-large. How can we can better inoculate ourselves from this pernicious form of psychological manipulation? Watch to find out!
Illuminating Our Stage Structures
Jeff SalzmanSometimes in our psychological development the way forward requires us to go back, to re-explore earlier stages of life to see what is distorted or left unintegrated. This is the theme of the work of my guest today, developmental psychotherapist Kim Barta, who joins us to discuss his approach to personal growth.
Re/Thinking Religion: Integral Postmetaphysical Spirituality
John Vervaeke, Bruce Alderman and Layman PascalJohn 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.
Integral Political Economy
Kevin BowmanAn integral political-economic framework is developed first with a quadrant analysis of the economy. The analysis contains a novel separation by quadrant of the effects that either encourage or discourage economic development. It is then shown what quadrant aspects are recognized or emphasized by liberals and conservatives. A review of the Integral approach to capital then allows for the integration of the radical view. Political-economic understanding is then proposed as a learning line of development where conservative, liberal, or radical emphasis in agents is associated with their political-economic personality types. Distinctions are made between less and more mature versions of each type. Finally, an immature/mature fallacy is discovered where more mature views are often mistakenly reduced to less mature versions of that type by less mature views of another type.
The Moral Imperative to Help Ukraine
Kateryna Yasko, Vytautas Bučiūnas, Bence Gánti, John Dupuy and Roger WalshIntegral leaders Kateryna Yasko, Vytautas Bučiūnas, and Bence Gánti illuminate many of the most poignant and pressing questions of our time, brought to the fore by the ongoing war in Ukraine: Can postmodern people embrace a warrior consciousness when necessary? Are Russians who explicitly support the war worthy of compassion? Can people remain sane and humane while at the same time taking up arms? How can we handle the effects of the psychological trauma that will cascade over generations? And how do we prevent the mass delusion and psychosis that is so easily propagated via modern media technology?
Inhabit: Your Speech
Corey deVos and Ryan OelkeWhat 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.
Toward an Integral Analysis of the Iraq Crisis
Gregory WilpertThis article analyzes pro- and anti-war arguments and situates each within an all-quadrant, all-level perspective. I evaluate each perspective according to its probable sincerity, given that some arguments covered deeper, unarticulated interests. This analysis considers the intended and unintended consequences of warring or abstaining on various scales: global, regional, and national. Finally, I argue that an Integral perspective can recommend actions in an ideal scenario and a real world scenario.
From the Big Bang to the Eight Primordial Perspectives
Ken Wilber and Corey deVosKen Wilber offers a stunning introduction to the major components of Integral theory and practice — a guided tour that takes us from the very first forms to emerge in the universe, all the way to the eight primordial perspectives that all of our knowledge is constructed from.
An Integral Approach to Constitutional Interpretation
Mark FischlerThe following article outlines the major approaches to constitutional interpretation and explains how either approach on its own ultimately leads to a narrow and incomplete understanding of the law, which ignores the rich reality that both interior and exterior perspectives carry. The author will introduce Integral Legal Theory as a method of interpretation that will allow each perspective its day in court while offering coherence to a jurisprudence gone slightly mad.
Beyond the Culture War: Consciousness Evolves, Politics Can Too
Steve McIntosh, Roger Walsh and John DupuySteve McIntosh outlines an extraordinary framework to make sense of our political conflicts—extraordinary in that it points to ways through and out of our persistent polarity consciousness. Steve convincingly argues our opportunity is right now: to create a synthesis, a cooperative agreement space, that transcends and includes thesis and antithesis, left and right, individual and community.
Sex, Death, and the Creative Mystery
Stuart Davis and Stephen BanksStuart Davis talks to host Steve Banks about his own creative process, the central themes that inform his art, and how he unpacks the radical unknowable mystery at the center of the creative furnace. Stuart and Steve focus on two themes in particular: sex and death (aka eros and thanatos, creativity and destruction, the self-transcending and self-dissolving drives shared by all holons in the Kosmos). They also explore how these themes are all expressions of a single primordial creative lineage running through all of our human activities, and indeed through all manifestations in this universe.
Using Integral Theory in the Classroom
Jack CrittendenThe first part of this article discusses the need for the application of Integral Theory, a postdisciplinary model, to university and academic culture. The second section examines the need for and current status of character education. It uses the AQAL framework to outline an Integral Character Education, which not only includes inculcating values in an individual but also the requisite behaviors associated with those values, as well as the need to anchor them in social interaction and a common ethos.
The Essence of Zen: One Heart, One Mind
Diane Musho Hamilton, John Dupuy and Roger WalshZen teacher Diane Musho Hamilton brings us home to the simple essence of Zen: to practice as one, without reference to past or future. This heartfelt conversation covers many topics: waking up to our true nature, grief and practices that help us work through it, the tension of “difference,” healing the rift between female and male, the role of ayahuasca and peyote, the ever more subtle process of purification, and a beautiful recitation of 14th century Sufi poet Hafiz’s poem, “I Have Learned So Much.” Allow yourself to be reminded how simple things can get if you let them and how, as Diane says, “We’re all just growing up together.”
Integral Journalism in the Disinformation Age
Stefan Schultz and Corey deVosStefan Schultz is a journalist for Der Spiegel magazine since 2008, and a student of integral theory since 2018. In this fun and far-ranging discussion, Corey deVos talks to Stefan about his own integral approach to journalism, taking a careful look at the primary methods and motivations of journalism we see at each major stage of development. They then go on to suggest what a more integral form of journalism might look like, while also exploring a number of related topics — the role of art and aesthetics in journalism, the distinction between orthodox and heterodox sources of information, the collapse of legitimacy in our media institutions, and much more.
An Overview of Integral International Development
Gail HochachkaInternational development is a diverse field attempting to address some of the most pressing global problems facing humanity today. Although the field has come a long way over the past five decades, it is far from perfect. In this article, Gail Hochachka discusses how the quadrants, lines, and levels of Integral Theory assist in this ongoing refinement of international development practice.
Facing the Metacrisis: Conflict, Metamodernity, and Construct Awareness
Jonathan Rowson, John Dupuy and Roger WalshJonathan Rowson, brilliant, driven, articulate, shines a bright light of understanding on the metacrisis we face today, what feeds it, and what could help us find our way through. What is metamodernity and what does it have to offer? Is the ecological crisis fundamentally an educational crisis? Can we grow into our problem rather than thinking of ourselves as “failing beings” as the climate collapses around us?
Trauma to Transcendence: Using Life’s Wounds to Grow
Dr. Keith Witt and Jeff SalzmanDr. Keith Witt and Jeff discuss a powerful realization emerging at the leading edge of culture regarding the role of trauma in our lives. Dr. Keith is writing a book on the subject and has mined various psychotherapeutic modalities to create an integral approach to using trauma as a portal to health and higher consciousness.
Gender Fluidity: Fruitful and Fanatic
Jeff SalzmanThe sexual evolution continues! This week Jeff looks at the controversy raging over the dramatic emergence of transsexual identity and gender fluidity, particularly among young people. He places it in the context of the stage transformations of sex and gender through history, and even gets a little personal.
An Integral Writing Tour: Through the Four Studios of Your Own Awareness
Edith FriesenUsing Integral Theory as my framework, I explore the four quadrants or fundamental perspectives of reality with respect to writing. This consists of inquiry into the use of subjective, objective, intersubjective, and interobjective perspectives to better understand and express writing. My thesis is that together these interrelated perspectives comprise the whole writing space: an Integral writing space. I also identify three developmental levels within each quadrant (e.g., three increasingly complex subjective perspectives, objective perspectives, etc.). This results in a total of twelve unique perspectives that map the horizontal breadth and vertical depth of the territory of writing. I offer experiential exercises for each of these writing perspectives in order to help the reader recognize them. My conclusion is that each of these perspectives is already present within our experience and is vital for a comprehensive understanding and expression of writing.
Facing Death: A Call to “Get Real”
Terry Patten, Roger Walsh and John DupuyAn extraordinary, heartfelt conversation with spiritual practitioner, teacher, activist, Integralist, and author Terry Patten, who was at the time facing his own mortality following a recent diagnosis of a rare and aggressive cancer. An inner radiance shines forth as Terry, with much graciousness and candor, discusses the call to “get real”—not only personally but also collectively; his deepened perception of the “amazing grace of existence;” the directionality that has guided much of his life; and action inquiry: working on becoming next-stage human beings by experimenting with being the best people we can be. A touching and transformative talk, Terry conveys the deepening understanding coming from living on the edge and transmits a “radical okayness” with everything.
Inhabit: Your Heart
Corey deVos, Ryan Oelke and Rollie StanichWatch 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.
Integral Mathematics: An AQAL Approach
Elliot BenjaminThis article lays the foundations for a comprehensive formulation of Integral Mathematics. I introduce a number of definitions for an Integral Mathematics, including the perspective of Integral Mathematics in the context of a distinct discipline, Ken Wilber’s symbolic Integral Mathematics of primordial perspectives, and Integral Mathematics as a developmental line. I then focus on the perspective of Integral Mathematics as a distinct discipline and show that the “division” between the worlds of pure and applied mathematics is parallel to the distinction between the Left- and Right-Hand quadrants. I give a four-quadrant analysis for Integral Mathematics as a distinct discipline by applying the quadrants to Perfect Numbers from Recreational Number Theory. Finally, I give an example from Group Theory that illustrates how Integral Mathematics may be applied to explore shifts in levels of consciousness through meditation.
How We Can Hack Our Brain to Become Happier, Healthier, and More Transcendent
Rick Hanson, John Dupuy and Roger WalshIn this inspiring and empowering conversation, Rick Hanson spells out how we can use positive, self-directed neuroplasticity to hardwire our brains in order to become happier, cultivate virtues, deal with cravings, become deeply grounded, turn our desired states into stable traits, and more.
The Awakened Brain: The Neurobiology of Spiritual Experience
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosDr. Keith takes a close look at the physiology of spiritual experience. What parts of the brain are being activated when we are having one of these powerful state experiences, and what does this tell us about the critical intersection between growth (both biological and psychological development) and awakening?
AQAL and the Practice of Law
Mark FischlerFor many the practice of law is a dissatisfying experience. By providing a more comprehensive, AQAL vision for the practice of law, I speculate that lawyers can gain more satisfaction and meaning from their profession.
Bringing Integral Wisdom and Compassion to Ukraine
Jeff Salzman, Corey deVos and Nomali PereraIn this series of discussions, Daily Evolver host Jeff Salzman talks to Corey deVos and Nomali Perera about some crucial perspectives and practices to help us bring more clarity to our thinking, and more depth to our hearts, as we witness the brutal realities of war in Ukraine.
Responding to Suffering and Evil: Integral Principles
Roger WalshSuffering and evil challenge us all, but several principles may help Integral practitioners to respond effectively. These include appreciating the role that unrecognized, limited perspectives (and corresponding worldviews) play in creating suffering and evil, and learning to recognize and release such limitations into more integral stances. Doing this skillfully requires taking up effective, authentic psychological and contemplative disciplines, and especially the disciplines of awakening service or karma yoga, whose central elements are described.
Ramping Up Human Evolution in Time to Avert Disaster
Jamie Wheal, John Dupuy and Roger WalshIn this riveting, mind opening (and bending) conversation, philosopher and peak performance expert Jamie Wheal takes our existential metacrisis head on, asking and often answering the biggest questions we, the human race, face today. More than inspirational, this conversation is like an infusion of the energetic, coherent, transpersonal potential of human beings. Guaranteed, you won’t see things the same way after listening.
Russia Is Catalyzing the Transformation Age
Robb SmithRussia’s invasion of Ukraine is not just a violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty, it is a coordinated attack, with China’s cooperation, on the dominant late Information Age global network, especially the US dollar as global reserve currency. And while it likely counts on a devastating financial counterattack from the western alliance—after all, Putin is a Judo master and wants to use his opponent’s weight against them—it underestimates the global values coherence of the “Green” structure of sociocultural evolution that will yet hamper a serious bipolar Russo-Sino block from gaining momentum. But it may come to represent a signal opportunity for the US to lead much-needed reform in the global order in the very areas continuing to be exposed as structural flaws, including the power of UN’s peacekeeping mission, total nuclear disarmament, the US dollar’s role in foreign policy, and the structure of the UN security council.
From Codependence to Interdependence
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosCodependent relationships — those relationships where one person needs another, and the other person needs to be needed — are surprisingly common in our lives, regardless of our overall stage of development. In fact, there is a good chance that you have dealt with codependent relationships in the past, or are maybe even struggling with one right now. This discussion will help you to transform those relationships into genuinely interdependent relationships that can transcend and include both healthy dependence and independence.
The Path of Integral Flourishing: 1000 Points of Transformation
Lee Mason and Corey deVosLee Mason talks to Corey deVos about Lee’s new Flourishing LIVE training — an online group coaching program to help you develop a personalized strategy to thrive optimally across all areas of your life.
Integral Management and the Effective Human Service Organization
Heather LarkinHuman service organizations aim to address personal and social growth and development in the communities they serve. At the same time, these organizations must respond to increasing client complexity and diversity within a rapidly changing global environment. This includes the ability to respond to the needs of an ever-increasing aging population as well as the spiritual diversity within communities. There is also an increasing emphasis on interorganizational collaboration as a way to better meet the needs of disadvantaged populations. Integral Theory offers a map to guide the human service manager in handling these complex organizational interactions while aligning with the mission of addressing personal and social growth and development.
Polarization, Being Woke, the Universal Agenda, Mindfulness Going Bad, and the Integral Vision
Jeff Salzman, John Dupuy and Roger WalshCulture wars, polarization, discernment versus condemnation, how our psychological development determines political attitudes and values, and how Integral perspectives help us understand them all. A candid conversation, ranging from global current events to personal spiritual turning points, with endearing, brilliant, and optimistic Integral pundit Jeff Salzman.
Fatherhood and Leadership in a Time Between Eras
Robb SmithRobb Smith talks with Bonnitta Roy, Jordan Greenhall, and Jonathan Rowson about what it means to be a father, raise children, and take on the responsibility of intergenerational transmission in this time between eras — and whether it holds lessons for being a leader today.
The Data and Methodologies of Integral Science
Kurt KollerThis essay introduces a methodology for Integral Science called Integral Methodological Pluralism (IMP). Tracing the development of epistemological and ontological relationships in the writings of Ken Wilber, the paper demonstrates how such a methodology might be applied. I consider Wilber’s elucidations of three core principles of valid knowledge (injunction, apprehension, and consensual validation) along with three essential elements of an IMP (nonexclusion, enfoldment, and enactment).
What Is Integral Justice?
Mark Fischler and Corey deVosMark and Corey go back to basics by returning to some of the guiding principles running through the series — namely, how to enact justice in all four quadrants in order to support more equal opportunities and more equal outcomes, while reducing suffering for the greatest number of people.
Monological, Dialogical, and Translogical Power
Ken Wilber and Corey deVosKen and Corey explore the three different kinds of power, each a product of particular stages of development in both individuals and collectives. Ken explores the different kinds of power associated with each chakra in our interiors, and Corey notes that the same patterns can be seen in the different modes of power associate with social holons.
Quadrants as a Scanning and Mapping Device
Susanne Cook-GreuterDefining the problem space has always been a central task of research and problem solving. In this article Susanne Cook-Greuter argues that the Integral or “all-quadrant” (AQ) approach provides a method to define a problem space that is at once elegant, infinitely adaptable, and panoramic. AQ stands for the first two letters of AQAL, the “all-quadrants, all-levels” aspects of Integral Theory created by Ken Wilber. I am choosing to represent AQ separately from the rest of the Integral Theory because it is independently powerful and useful as a means to explore and describe the human territory of experience.
Justice Breyer, Originalism, and the Engine of Enfoldment
Mark Fischler and Corey deVosMark and Corey take a look at the life, legacy, and retirement of Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, and what distinguished his judgements and legal philosophy from other Supreme Court Justices. We then examine the legal doctrine of “originalism” — the idea that our founding documents should only be interpreted according to the specific contexts and understandings of the time they were written.
AQAL: Beyond the Biopsychosocial Model
Baron ShortThe biopsychosocial model promised a more integrated psychiatric approach to patients. It assumed biological and psychosocial factors were paramount to effectively treat human disease and suffering. It has not, however, influenced conventional psychiatry as George Engel had envisioned. This article describes many of the strengths and weaknesses of the biopsychosocial model, as well as how AQAL and Integral Methodological Pluralism include the model’s partial truths and transcend its shortcomings.
Art, Awakening, and the Evolution of Consciousness
Gaia Orion and Stephen BanksSteve Banks talks to Canadian Integral artist Gaia Orion about how she came to Integral, her experience of living an Integral lifestyle, and putting together exhibitions of Integral artists at the Integral European Conferences since 2016. Steve and Gaia go on to talk about three of Gaia’s exquisite paintings.
Embody Your Ancestry
Lee MasonThe goal of this practice is to invite you to consciously embody both your unique individual ancestry and the ancestry that you share with all life. Doing this exercise can help you to feel more at home in reality and more deeply appreciate your interconnectedness with all life.
Wang Huning: The World’s Most Influential Intellectual?
Robb SmithTo understand this century, we have to understand the geopolitical and philosophical power struggle between China and the United States and the differing global “Operating Systems” they’re fighting for. And to better understand that struggle, we have to better understand whether the cognition of China’s leaders are integral or not: are they capable of bringing the Teal “Power to Integrate” to bear on the world system?
Defending the Importance of the Holarchical-Developmental Scheme for Environmentalism
Michael E. ZimmermanAccording to the late ecologist, Stan Rowe, Ken Wilber’s holarchical scheme confuses important issues in the part-whole relationships belonging to organisms and ecosystems, and Wilber’s developmental ideas echo the anthropocentrism found in the work of many other modernists. In the process of articulating and defending Wilber’s views, I argue that Rowe’s alternative flirts with ecofascism, insofar as Rowe depicts human beings as mere “parts” of Gaia, which considers everything smaller than Gaia as functional units. Despite my disagreements with Rowe, I admire him for grappling with these important and highly complex issues.
Integrating Power
Ken Wilber and Corey deVosKen and Corey take an in-depth look at the multiple kinds of power we find in all four quadrants — interior and exterior power, individual and collective power — as they are expressed up and down the spiral of development.
An Analysis of Integral Coaching Canada Across Eight Zones and Five Methodologies
Lisa FrostThis article provides an in-depth analysis of Integral Coaching Canada’s coaching model using Integral Methodological Pluralism (IMP). The author uses five primary methodologies and the perspectives available through eight zones to evaluate what makes Integral Coaching Canada’s model unique in the field of coaching. This article is based on first-, second-, and third-person approaches to research and an original study and master’s degree thesis that evaluated over 20 coaching models.
Transforming Trauma Into Resilience
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosWatch 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.
A Brief Overview of Integral Social Work
David KerriganThis article seeks to explore Integral Social Work — its meaning and applications. This goal is achieved by exploring the nature of social service in the context of Integral Theory’s AQAL (all- quadrant, all-level) approach. The essence of Integral Social Work is to serve the whole person and the whole of society with the whole of one’s being. This requires that social workers develop themselves, while simultaneously helping others, and society, to develop in as full, complex, and healthy a way as possible.
Social Work as an Integral Profession
Heather LarkinThis article introduces the reader to the profession of social work and its evolution over time. By simultaneously attending to both the person and the environment, social work has been a more comprehensive profession. Although social work has been inherently striving for a more integrative approach from the beginning, it has lacked a meta-theory that could address people, their environments, and integrate previously competing theories. Integral Theory is that meta-theory. Social workers are invited to consider this meta-theoretical approach to the service they provide.
Toward an Integral Feminism
Sarah NicholsonThis paper studies the development of some of the key schools of feminist thought, exploring the history of the definition of Woman. Ken Wilber’s framework of Integral Feminism is then used to move toward the processual creation of a more adequately holistic understanding of women and subjectivity.
The Development of Desire
Willow PearsonIn this article Willow Pearson proposes that desire, as all lines of development, evolves toward greater complexity and is an all-quadrant phenomenon. For this reason, she situates desire and sex (from preconventional to conventional to postconventional and beyond) within an Integral framework. Integral Theory offers a unique view of desire and a possibility to understand all levels of desire as embodied wisdom, however partial each view might be.
The Three Centers of the Enneagram: Mental, Emotional, and Physical
Leslie HershbergerLeslie Hershberger takes us on an illuminating tour through the three centers of the Enneagram — the heart center, the mind center, and the body center.
An Introduction to Integral Science
Kurt KollerThis paper argues for an Integral approach to science, which consists of interior, exterior, individual, and collective dimensions, all of which must be included in the various knowledge quests of science. A basic methodology consisting of injunction, apprehension, and communal consensus is elaborated to help create a broad umbrella for distinguishing valid scientific endeavors. Distinctions are drawn between contemporary science and Integral Science, with the conclusion that an Integral approach allows for a greater opportunity for transdisciplinary learning and cohesiveness in the overall scientific endeavor.
The Science of Subtle Energy
Ken Wilber and Corey deVosIn this episode of The Ken Show we take a look at Ken’s “Comprehensive Theory of Subtle Energy”, which offers an elegant summary of how these energies might be accounted for by integral metatheory and integrated with our scientific understanding of the universe.
Jane: An Integral Psychotherapy Case Study (Depression, Identity, and Intimacy in Young Adulthood)
Paul LandraitisTo illustrate the value of the AQAL model for therapists, Paul presents a case study that demonstrates some features of Integral Psychotherapy. He introduces the client and explore three treatment episodes of various lengths. By following the unfolding journey of one client working with an integrally informed psychotherapist, the reader gains a felt sense of at least one way the AQAL model can be clinically applied. Lastly, the client’s situation and progress are explored through an AQAL analysis using the five elements of Integral Theory.
Integral Psychotherapy: An Introduction
Bert ParleeIn this article Bert introduces and explores some of the diverse schools of psychotherapeutic thought. He then argues that Integral Theory or the “all-quadrant” approach provides a method of organizing and uniting these competing schools of psychotherapy into a coherent whole. The result, as we will see, is a more inclusive, adaptive clinical assessment and treatment.
Wicked Problems: Bringing Wisdom and Compassion to Immigration
Magdalena Smieszek, Mark Fischler and Corey deVosImmigration matters have been viewed by many as a “wicked problem” — implying a complexity that has sets of values in tension, something societies have dealt with since the very dawn of civilization itself. Watch as Magdalena, Mark, and Corey offer their own ideas and reflect on the reasons this issue has become one of the central fault lines in the culture wars.
20th Century Background for Integral Psychology
Susanne Cook-GreuterThis paper introduces Integral Psychology (IP) as a mature embrace to the question of what is human nature and how do we best explore it. Historically, wave after wave of various trends and movements have attempted to give psychology a focus and scientific status. After decades of specialization and segmentation (APA has over 50 divisions), IP aims at a mature synthesis of the field. IP mines and integrates the lasting contributions to our understanding of human nature and potential from all psychological schools of thought, disciplinary divisions, and methods of investigation—paying attention to both research and applications. In this paper I explore six of the major historical predecessors to IP: behaviorism, psychoanalysis, humanistic-existential, transpersonal, constructivist-developmental, and positive psychology.
Inhabit: Your Humility
Corey deVos and Ryan OelkeCorey 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.
Integral Psychiatry: Five Elements of Clinical Theory and Practice
Baron ShortPharmacological treatments are the mainstay of current psychiatric practice as effective treatments for a variety of mental disorders. Many recognize the inadequacy of a purely biological treatment for most patients. The psychiatric field appears to be shifting into a more integrative stance with biological and psychosocial treatments. With the vast array of therapies, the Integral approach attempts to embrace all schools of treatment into a coherent whole. Two elements of the AQAL framework — quadrants and levels — are introduced as relevant aspects for Integral Psychiatry.
Honesty, Humility, and Reality Distortion Fields
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosDr. 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.
Integral Life Practice: Enough Talk, It’s Time to Live!
Terry Patten and Ken WilberTerry 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.
Principles of Integral Life Practice
Forest JacksonThis article presents the state-of-the-art design elements of Integral Life Practice, which is a method of supporting personal or professional growth into greater levels of success and actualization. Integral Life Practice is guided by Integral Theory, the fundamental elements of which are briefly reviewed before the author postulates six tenets of Integral Life Practice. The flexible, modular design of Integral Life Practice is described in detail, and suggestions are given for creating integrally informed basic and advanced practices that will have a high degree of transformative efficacy.
An Introduction to Integral Life Practice
Adam LeonardIntegral Life Practice — the conscious exercise of body, mind, and spirit in self, culture, and nature — uses the AQAL Integral map to orient the many growth techniques invented by humans throughout the ages.
Zero to Awake
Jogen SalzbergJoin a multi-dimensional guided meditation and pointing-out instruction tour led by Integral Practice Leader Jogen Salzberg, Sensei through awareness in its various extra-ordinary modes. The tour encompasses the 3 Faces of Spirit through the practice of sparking Wonder, resting into Calm-Abiding, recognizing Spaciousness, orienting to Timelessness, affirming Selflessness and finally being the Clear Light Nature of Mind itself.
The Art of YES
Lisa Frost and Corey deVosWatch 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.
Ken Wilber Goes to High School: Sex, Ecology, Spirituality
Ken WilberIn 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.
Afghanistan: Meeting at the Crossroads of Complexity, Chaos, and Compassion
Magdalena Smieszek, Mark Fischler and Corey deVosMagdalena, Mark, and Corey try to bring a bit more wisdom and compassion to the topic of America’s occupation and withdrawal from Afghanistan, while holding a space for all the complexity, chaos, and heartbreak that is flooding our awareness.
Integral Healthcare Management
Integral LifeIntegral Healthcare Management, an application of Integral Theory to the management of healthcare organizations, is a comprehensive and inclusive way of providing healthcare. This article explains the “all-quadrant” aspect of Integral Theory in the context of two common healthcare management challenges: operating a hospital in accord with national accreditation standards and complying with modern notions of “patient safety.”
The Forgotten People: Restoring Justice for Indigenous Cultures
Magdalena Smieszek, Mark Fischler and Corey deVosJoin Mark, Corey, and special guest Magdalena Smieszek as they take a careful look at the many indignities and injustices that have been inflicted on indigenous populations in North America and around the world over the last several years, decades, and centuries.
Martial Arts and Psychotherapy
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosDr. Keith and Corey explore the fertile intersection between martial arts, psychotherapy, and integral living. Watch as Keith shares the deep wisdoms he has received from his own lifelong martial arts practice, and how those wisdoms directly inform his approach to his own psychotherapy practice and the various healing strategies he draws upon.
3-Body Workout
Integral LifeThis series of movements (sometimes called Integral Kata) is a way to contact and exercise your three bodies: physical/gross, subtle, and causal.
Inhabit: Your Perspective
Corey deVos, Bruce Alderman and Ryan OelkeThis 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.
Grace and Grit: From Book to Film to Practice
Sebastian Siegel and Nomali PereraExplore the topic of grace and grit as something we all need in order to live purposefully, face challenges, and birth our dreams in the same way Ken and Treya exemplified in this profound story of transcendent love.
The Art of Practice: Forgiveness Made Easy
Barbara Hunt, Lisa Frost and Corey deVosTo 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.
Inhabit: Your Entertainment
Corey deVos and Ryan OelkeCorey deVos and Ryan Oelke explore how to more fully inhabit our art and entertainment. We tend to think of “recreation” as a passive activity, but we actually share an active symbiotic relationship with our art and entertainment, both personally and culturally. We create art, which in turn re-creates us.
An Integral Age at the Leading Edge
Ken WilberThis is the excerpt that started it all — an extraordinary 200-page introduction to Ken Wilber’s updated integral map, kicking off a stunning new evolution in his meta-theoretical work (often refered to as his “post-metaphysical” or “Wilber V” phase). Excerpted from the still-unpublished followup to Sex, Ecology, Spirituality, in this free ebook you will be introduced to some of the key ideas that emerged from this new phase of integral thinking.
The New Axial Age: A Complex Integral Realist Perspective
Paul Marshall, Bruce Alderman and Robb SmithWhy 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?
Escaping Narcissism
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosIn 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.
Marx, Mysticism, and Mathematics: Navigating Our Epistemic Collapse
Ken Wilber and Corey deVosIn this episode we continue our fascinating discussion about Integral epistemology, taking a look at the important but partial truths of Marxism, how we go about verifying and confirming spiritual experiences, and the involutionary/evolutionary nature of mathematics.
Israel/Palestine: Where Do We Go From Here?
Magdalena Smieszek, Mark Fischler and Corey deVosWatch as Magdalena, Mark, and corey explore the long and complex history of the region, offer their own thoughts on whether Israel qualifies as an “apartheid state”, and suggest some next step solutions in order to inch ourselves closer to genuine peace, stability, and justice for the men, women, and children on all sides of this seemingly intractable conflict.
From Languishing to Flourishing
Lee Mason and Robb SmithRobb Smith talks with Lee Mason about what an integral approach to flourishing looks like, and what we know about the science of getting out of languishing.
Inhabit: Your Wokeness
Corey deVos and Ryan OelkeRyan and Corey invite all of us to inhabit our own most embodied “post-woke” leadership, allowing us to recognize and rescue the most important babies of “social justice” from the bathwater of political extremism.
What’s Wrong With Policing in America?
Mark Fischler and Corey deVosWhy do we see so many cases of apparent police abuse being recorded so frequently, but punished so rarely? What are some possible solutions that can help create more social trust for our police organizations, and a more peaceful society for all of us? Watch as Mark and Corey take a careful look at the Derek Chauvin verdict — and at the state of policing itself in America — as they offer their own personal views and try to sort through the conflicting narratives surrounding this tragically controversial cultural fault line.
Calling All Integral Practitioners! Responding Effectively to the Crises and Craziness of Our Times
Roger WalshWe are in a race between consciousness and catastrophe, and the potential catastrophes keep multiplying. But the outcome is not predestined and our fate is in our hands. As integral practitioners, the question becomes: How can we use our integral skills to contribute most effectively? Of course, beneath this lies another question: How do we discover our most effective contributions?
Awaken the Eye of Spirit
Ken Wilber and Corey deVosAll of us possess three primary modes of perception that we use to disclose reality – the “Eye of Flesh”, the “Eye of Mind”, and the “Eye of Spirit”. Watch as Ken and Corey explore these ideas and the many ways we perceive and interpret spiritual realities.
Heartbreak in Boulder: Finding Meaning in the Wake of Tragedy
Mark Fischler, Jeff Salzman, Nomali Perera and Corey deVosOn March 22nd, a mass shooting took place at the King Soopers grocery store in Boulder, Colorado which claimed the lives of 10 people. What follows is a heart-full conversation that invites all of us to bring more awareness to the full spectrum of emotion that is likely moving through all of us right now, a much-needed reminder that the integral heart is big enough for all of this, because it is a heart that is both utterly unbreakable, as well as always-already broken.
Sitting in the Mystery: Aliens, Artists, and the Experiencer Group
Stuart Davis and Corey deVosBelief in UFOs and alien contact continues to find more and more legitimacy. In this fun and fascinating discussion, Stuart and Corey take a deep dive into these cosmic mysteries, exploring the many ways the Integral framework helps us illuminate and interpret the full enchilada of human (and non-human) experience, from the ordinary to the extraordinary to the extra-extraordinary.
Love, Conflict, and Play
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosKeith and Corey talk about how all play is an abstracted version of fighting, and how we can always draw upon our evolutionary capacity to transmute our basic animal drives into art, goodness, and greater understanding.
Unpacking the Integral Enneagram
Corey deVos and Lisa FrostWhat exactly is the Enneagram, and what makes it such a helpful tool when it comes to our ongoing growth and awakening? Watch as Lisa and Corey offer a broad introduction to the Integral Enneagram, as well as to the many Enneagram offerings we currently have available on Integral Life.
Overcoming Bias in Practice
Aneesah Wilhelmstätter, Lisa Frost and Corey deVosWhat do we do when experiences of bias arise within our practice, or even within our practice community? What is the best way to verify whether these biases are real in the first place, and overcome them when they are?
From Woke to Awake: An Intersectionality of Perspective
Mark Fischler and Corey deVosMark and Corey have a rich and far-reaching discussion about our present political realities and challenges, dedicating the first half of the discussion to some of the major headlines from the last few weeks, and then exploring ways to elevate “woke culture” into a genuine “post-woke” integral sensibility.
VisionLogix Woodworks
Corey deVosIn recent years, much of my creativity has been focused around my woodworking. It has become an all-consuming passion for me, and over the last year or so I have created a number of custom-designed carvings that try to bring integral ideas and iconography out of the abstract and into solid material form.
Hope as Process: Being and Becoming in the Great Integration
Brad KershnerHow do we expand our horizon? How do we learn to see through our current forms of construction and break through into broader, deeper vistas of awareness and understanding, so that we may envision a richer and more nuanced context of possibility, and enact a way of life that forms the shape of our deepest potentials?
Inhabit: Your Game
Corey deVos and Ryan OelkeIn this continuation of our “integral media” series, Ryan and Corey take another look at the major stages of human development, this time using a series of 33 video games in order to illustrate the qualities and characteristics of each stage. All of this allows you to not only observe these stages within you, but to actively inhabit, engage, and play with them as well.
Biden’s First Month, Trump’s Second Impeachment, and Cancelling Cancel Culture
Mark Fischler and Corey deVosHow is the Biden Presidency going so far? Will Donald Trump be convicted in the Senate for his impeachment trial? Now that the political left has regained tentative control of our government, what do we do about “cancel culture” and other illiberal tendencies coming from the left? Watch this latest episode of Integral Justice Warrior as Mark and Corey shine a light upon these three questions.
The Art of Practice: Introducing ILP
Corey deVos and Lisa FrostJoin Lisa Frost and Corey deVos in a new monthly series that will explore how to bring more depth and artistry to our Integral Life Practice — the very best and most effective practices to help you Wake Up, Grow Up, Clean Up, and Show Up in your life, your relationships, and your work in the world.
The GameStop Revolution Has Started. It Won’t Be Televised.
Robb SmithThe revolution won’t be televised, it will be Reddited. And it has started. In a four year run of incredible, historic events, it’s hard to objectively recognize which and when the most significant of them occurs. But I think it possible that one of the most important events of the past several years is playing out as we speak: the deep structure of society has just phase-shifted into a state of conditions necessary for Teal to emerge and without which it cannot: the GameStop Revolution is putting in place a demand by the crowd that will force Green-platform power holders to either evolve to Teal or become increasingly irrelevant.
The Invisible Audience
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosWatch as Dr. Keith and Corey have a fascinating discussion about the “Invisible Audience”, helping you make these unconscious observers just a bit more visible to you.
Inhabit: Your Inner Theatre
Corey deVos and Ryan OelkeCorey and Ryan take you on a cinematic journey through the stages of human development, a tour of your own inner theatre, using a series of 21 carefully-curated film clips to illustrate some of the most important qualities of each stage.
Insurrection, Censorship, and Madness
Mark Fischler and Corey deVosMark and Corey take an in-depth look at the heart-breaking events at the Capitol, offering their own full-spectrum response to this American travesty. They also discuss the response coming from corporations such as Google, Twitter, and Facebook, who are now beginning to purge their platforms of far-right voices and Q anon supporters. Is censorship ever the right thing to do? If you think you have a simple answer to the question, you might be missing something important.
Inhabit: Your Trust
Corey deVos and Ryan OelkeRyan and Corey take a deep dive into the wicked problem of social trust, looking at this meta-crisis through each of the four quadrants while suggesting some key practices and perspectives within each quadrant that can help us restore our trust in each other, in our institutions, in ourselves, and in the grand evolutionary unfolding itself.
Supreme Court, Systemic Racism, and Sea Monsters
Mark Fischler and Corey deVosMark and Corey discuss the state of Trump’s challenges to the election results (e.g. “The Kraken”), the recent Supreme Court decision around religious liberties in the face of a pandemic, and what it says about Amy Coney Barrett’s future tenure as Supreme Court Justice, and whether Joe Biden’s plans to address racial justice are coming from healthy liberal values and methods of enforcement, or from unhealthy illiberal (woke) values and enforcement.
Putting the Pieces Back Together
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosCorey and Keith discuss the psychological and cultural aftermath of the 2020 Presidential Election, and the integral work ahead of us to help put the fragmented pieces of our society back together in the post-Trump era.
Inhabit: Your Election
Ryan Oelke and Corey deVosWatch as Ryan and Corey reflect on the results of the 2020 Presidential Election, exploring its implications for the world and within our own hearts, while also creating a space where we can begin to release some of the fears and anxieties many of us have been struggling with during these chaotic and uncertain times.
Integral Panel: Post-Election Wrap-Up
Corey deVos, Jeff Salzman, Cindy Wigglesworth, Mark Fischler and Ryan OelkeJoin Corey deVos, Jeff Salzman, Cindy Wigglesworth, Ryan Oelke, and Mark Fischler as we explore some of the deeper implications of the 2020 election results through a more integral lens.
The Fierce Urgency of Now
Mark Fischler and Corey deVosWelcome back to Integral Justice Warrior! Watch as Corey and new co-host Mark Fischler kick off a new season of IJW, exploring how the spirit of integral justice moves through us, and how it has moved through some of the most significant justice warriors throughout history.
The Breakup Episode (IJW Season 1 Review)
Diane Musho Hamilton and Corey deVosParting is such sweet sorrow! In this final episode of Diane and Corey’s first season of Integral Justice, we take a look at our past year of episodes together — the major themes we explored, the insights we gleaned, and the space we shared with our community.
Inhabit: Your Democracy
Corey deVos and Ryan OelkeIn this very special episode of Inhabit, Ryan and Corey focus on one of the most essential elements of any Integral Life Practice — directly engaging your democratic systems and showing up at the polls to cast your vote.
Illuminating Shadow: Family, Community, and Relationship
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosCorey and Keith are joined by a very special guest, Keith’s daughter Zoe Witt, for this tremendously touching exploration of shadow in family, in relationships, and in the Integral community itself.
Inhabit: Your Fear
Corey deVos and Ryan OelkeYou 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.
Welcome to the Party! Celebrating Race as a Mutually-Shared Experience
Mark Palmer, Diane Musho Hamilton, Corey deVos and Rob McNamaraIntegralist Mark Palmer proposes that our conversations all need to be more imbued with joy, with play, and with celebration of our differences.
Just Breathe: How to Manage Your Stress and Find Your Flow
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosYour breath is a direct channel to the flow state. Watch as Dr. Keith and Corey explore this elegantly simple practice, one that can bring you more joy, more fulfillment, and more anti-fragile strategies to manage and master the outrageous pressures of our lives.
Grace and Grit: An Interview with Sebastian Siegel and Julia Ormond
Sebastian Siegel and Julia OrmondJulia Ormond interviews Sebastian Siegel at the 2020 Integral European Conference about the film adaptation of “Grace and Grit”. Bence Ganti facilitates with an introduction to Ken Wilber. They discuss book-to-film, acting, directing, producing, characters and set, filmming, and pivotal elements of production.
Integral Finance
Integral LifeMoney is a human abstraction. Although not found in nature, it is pervasively used throughout human activities and undertakings. In so doing, it generates an array of personal and cultural responses in addition to its material manifestations. As such, it is ideally suited for an AQAL analysis. This paper constitutes the introductory theoretical overview for Integral Finance. It introduces the basic principles and presents fundamental applications of Integral principles to money, including money’s nature, its various roles in the world, and its applications to and impacts on other disciplines.
Integral Ecology: A Post-Metaphysical Approach to Environmental Phenomena
Sean Esbjörn-HargensIntegral Theory provides a distinct and participatory approach to Ecology. This article introduces Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory, distinguishes the Integral approach from other methods, and applies some key concepts to Ecology. The ontology, epistemology, and methodology of environmental phenomena are examined in light of Wilber’s framework and the framework is applied to multidimensional examples of recycling. Finally, an Integral Ecology platform is presented.
Integral Ecology: An Ecology of Perspectives
Sean Esbjörn-HargensThere are many competing approaches available for responding to environmental problems and dealing with ecological issues. This article provides an introduction to Integral Ecology, an approach that takes the valuable insights from all the major schools of ecological thought and unites them in a comprehensive framework. First, the difficulty of defining “ecology” is explored. Next, the twenty-five major approaches to ecology are introduced. Finally, Integral Ecology is defined in such a way that it honors the importance of all these approaches.
Criminology Needs an Integral Vision
Integral LifeThis article supports the claim that there is substantial agreement within the discipline that criminology (and criminal justice) is in need of a change in approach. This article maintains that a framework is needed to organize the contributions and partial truths of existing disciplinary knowledge. It is argued that criminology needs an “orienting perspective” or a “meta-theory.” The article proposes that the Integral model provides a functional and apposite framework for addressing these problems. An in-depth, AQAL-based justification for this proposition is provided.
The Meaning of Integral Criminology and Criminal Justice
Integral LifeThis document was produced on the basis of a meeting that took place in March, 2001. There are some revisions reflecting activities and developments that have occurred since that meeting. Our intention is to suggest, in an introductory way, how the Integral approach could be applied to contemporary issues in criminology and criminal justice. We explore issues of the War on Drugs, the death penalty, and juvenile justice as illustrations.
Integral Correctional Education
Integral LifeThis article is part one of an overview of Integral Correctional Education. It briefly introduces salient aspects of the field of correctional education, defines correctional education, introduces the Integral model, and outlines the historical periods of correctional education practice. A discussion of some core principles of correctional education is followed by some problems that afflict inmate students, correctional educators, and the communities they serve.
An Integral Tour of Consciousness Studies
Allan Combs and Sean Esbjörn-HargensConsciousness is not only found in the Upper-Left quadrant in Integral Theory, which concerns itself with individual subjectivity and experience; rather consciousness is located in each of the four quadrants. This short essay examines how consciousness reveals itself and is studied in each of the four quadrants within Integral Theory.
Consciousness as Embodied, Embedded, Enmeshed
Sean Esbjörn-HargensConsciousness is all too often understood purely in subjective terms. An Integral approach recognizes that subjectivity is only one of four dimensions to consciousness. This article proposes that consciousness (subjectivity) cannot be understood independent of its co-arising with bodies (objectivity), cultures (intersubjectivity), and systems (interobjectivity).
Integral Approaches to Christian Ministry
Integral LifeThis article presents an Integral (AQAL) framework for Christian Ministry. Quadrants, levels, lines, states, and types are introduced and situated within the historical framework of Christianity.
An Overview of Integral Congregational Ministry
Integral LifeAQAL perspectives provide a uniquely comprehensive holding environment for investigating the various approaches of Christian “confessional theologies”—those understandings of the Divine that are lived within; and “comparative theologies”—those inquiries into the ultimate spiritual values and goals of all human life as perceived and expressed in a variety of religions and wisdom traditions. The authors use the AQAL analytical framework to unite the interior, exterior, individual, and collective dimensions, and to explore aspects of specific lines, levels, states, and types associated with Christian ministry.
Integral Business and Leadership
Integral LifeThis introductory article is an early articulation of Integral approaches to business and leadership in which the authors use the clarifying and synthesizing perspectives of Integral Theory and methodology to update biases, make new connections, and illumine blind spots of the theorists who have gone before: Drucker, McGregor, Kaplan and Norton, Senge, Hammer, and Collins, et al.
Inhabit: Your Shadow
Ryan Oelke and Corey deVosRyan and Corey explore ways to bring more embodiment to your shadow practice, allowing you you to recognize your shadow in 3rd person, to relate with your shadow in 2nd person, and to finally reclaim and inhabit your shadow in your own 1st-person experience.
Introducing and Understanding Integral Art
Integral LifeThis article briefly outlines a general definition of art and the main approaches of art theory andpractice. It then illustrates how those approaches coherently fit together via the four quadrants of AQAL theory. The article concludes that Integral Art preserves the important truths of these approaches (while negating their more extreme versions). Therefore, nothing short of an Integral approach will suffice in both tuning artists to their fullest expression and reminding critics of their widest embrace.
Overcoming Racism: What Is Ours To Do?
Diane Musho Hamilton and Corey deVosDiane and Corey continue their in-depth exploration of race and racism, focusing on the actual four-quadrant work that needs to be done in order to begin to truly overcome these personal, cultural, and social challenges.
Mindfulness, Psychotherapy, and Politics
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosDr. Keith and Corey lead a fascinating discussion that brings us to the heart of psychotherapy, mindfulness, and spiritual awakening, and then apply this transformational wisdom to the social and political challenges we are surrounded by.
Inhabit: Your Ground
Corey deVos and Ryan OelkeWatch as Ryan, Corey, and Marshall explore how Integral Practice allows us to more fully inhabit our ground by helping us bring more awareness to the most fundamental dimensions of our own lived territory.
The Metacrisis is Giving Rise to the Transformation Age
Integral Life and Robb SmithHow can we contribute to the rise of the Transformation Age? We first need to understand what’s driving the emergence of the Transformation Age out of the Information Age: a global metacrisis, occurring amidst a great release of global power, which as it becomes more acute is exposing the limitations of the current era’s structures, sensemaking, key contradictions (all pluribus, little unum), scarce resources (meaning), and the sources of power themselves (convening power).
Integrating Shadow
Ken Wilber and Corey deVosKen and Corey offer a stunning overview of the psychological shadow. Ken describes several different kinds of shadow, how shadow can show up differently in all four quadrants, and the relationship between shadow, violence, and social transformation.
Power, Privilege, and Fragility: Leveling Up Our Conversations About Race and Racism
Greg Thomas, Mark Palmer, Diane Musho Hamilton and Corey deVosDiane and Corey are joined by guests Greg Thomas and Mark Palmer in this groundbreaking discussion about racism, anti-racism, and racial integration, highlighting a number of critical views that have been largely missing from the larger conversation that’s been taking place culturally in recent weeks, months, and years.
Integral Mastery
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosThe mastery process has been heavily researched — from the initial ignition of passion that makes us want to excel is some area, to embracing growth as progress as the ongoing goal, independent of outcomes. Join us for a fascinating exportation of integral growth and mastery that goes far beyond the typical discussion of “10,000 hours”.
Inhabit: Your Resistance
Justin Miles, Corey deVos and Ryan OelkeSpiritual conversations often emphasize the importance of overcoming our resistance and accepting the world for what it is, exactly as it is. However, there are times when we don’t need to overcome our resistance, we need to fully inhabit our resistance. We can’t simply accept what is, we need to put ourselves on the line for what can and should be. How can we bring more mindfulness, skillfulness, and embodiment to our resistance, even while seeing everything as always-already perfect?
The Transformation Age: America Burning
Robb SmithAmerica has been on fire these past few weeks. A nation struggling with its racist past, its contemporary racial shadow, its deep political and cultural polarization, and a divisive president who will never be capable of leading a nation, we continue to find ourselves in the heart of The Great Release (and this time, not from an economic depression or disease pandemic, but from our deep and terrible racist heritage). In this brief article, I want to use a few lenses of integral metatheory—concepts you’ll be familiar with, but applied in ways you’ve never seen before—to see if we can get a broader view of what’s happening.
#EnoughIsEnough: Overcoming Racism in America
Diane Musho Hamilton, Greg Thomas, Mark Palmer, Gabe Wilson, Rob McNamara and Corey deVosIn light of the recent violent deaths of three black Americans — Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd — at the hands of current and former police officers in the United States, we wanted to deepen our discussion of race and racism and how we as Integralists can contribute to change by becoming powerful anti-racists in our own circles of influence.
The Heart of Conversation
Diane Musho Hamilton and Ken WilberDiane talks to Ken Wilber about her new book, Compassionate Conversations, which takes an intimate look at many of these cultural fault lines — power, privilege, identity, systemic racism, political correctness, collective shadows, etc. — and suggests a more skillful, artful, and heartful way to facilitate these conversations, to honor our unique differences, and to reaffirm our underlying unity.
COVID-19 Through the Lens of the Enneagram
Leslie Hershberger and Corey deVosHow 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.
Inhabit: Your Truth
Corey deVos and Ryan OelkeRyan and Corey devote an episode to the theme of fully inhabiting, embodying, and enacting truth — how to find it, how to wield it, and how to avoid the false certainties fed to us by both mainstream and fringe media. They don’t try to tell you what to believe, but rather try to help you avoid overly identifying with the contents of our views and to liberate yourself from your beliefs, whatever they happen to be.
Integral Europe Goes Global
Bence Gánti and Corey deVosWatch as Bence Ganti and Corey deVos take a sneak peak into the IEC lineup (which will feature over 70 presenters and a full range of activities including workshops, games, and even live concerts) and discuss the many challenges of transitioning from a live event to a streaming-only event.
Supporting Development in Adolescents
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosWatch as Dr. Keith and Corey take a close look at a critical phase of our own development, noting all of the things that can go right (and many of the things that can go wrong) during this period of growth, and how we can be more supportive and responsive to the needs of our own children as they navigate this turbulent period of their lives.
How to Have More Compassionate Conversations
Diane Musho Hamilton, Gail Hochachka and Corey deVosIn this episode of Integral Justice Warrior we are joined by Gabe Wilson, co-author of Compassionate Conversations: How to Speak and Listen from the Heart, co-written with Diane and Kim Loh. In this discussion we explore many of the central themes of the book, helping all of us learn how to de-escalate conflicts and tensions, and to communicate with far more presence, empathy, skill, and grace.
Conversations From the Road
Robb SmithIn my travels, I’ve been privileged to sit down with members of the Integral Life community and talk with them about their lives, their growth and what’s on their minds. You are invited to listen in to those conversations we have received permission to publish.
Coronavirus: Making Sense of Our Sense-Making
Beena Sharma, Susanne Cook-Greuter and Corey deVosWatch as Beena Sharma and Susanne Cook-Greuter offer a must-see presentation to help us understand the many healthy and unhealthy responses we are seeing to the coronavirus pandemic, all the way up and down the spiral of development.
The Four Energies: Turn Your Energy Into Things That Matter
Ginny WhitelawGinny Whitelaw helps you experience the four energy patterns that show up in the human nervous system. All of us possess these four patterns, and though most of us have our favorites, all four are available to us at all times. Each is good at different things, and here you will learn what each one is good for, which ones you might use or overuse, and how you can tap into any of them at the right time in order to lead with your fullest and most authentic purpose.
Life as Practice: Karma Yoga and Awakening Service
Roger WalshAnyone who is deeply committed to contemplative practice and to cultivating the qualities it enhances—such as empathy, compassion, clarity and insight, to name only a few—will want to practice as continuously as possible. This means finding a way to use our daily activities and work as part of our practice. Fortunately, such a way is part of the world’s major religious-spiritual traditions, and it is formulated most explicitly in Hinduism as karma yoga.
From Trauma to Transcendence
Dr. Keith WittThis practice will help you cultivate the courage to face your trauma, discover an unbreakable source of resilience and empathy within yourself, and find deeper meaning in your suffering — so that you yourself can become a source of strength and healing for the rest of the world.
Inhabit: Your Creativity
Corey deVos and Ryan OelkeWe live in an infinitely creative universe — and with every passing moment we have the option to actively and consciously participate with that creativity. Watch as Ryan and Corey explore ways to more fully align ourselves with our own deepest source of beauty, inspiration, and creative emergence.
Coronavirus and a Course in Anti-Fragility
Corey deVos and Ken WilberKen and Corey respond to the COVID-19 pandemic by suggesting a far more comprehensive approach to health and healing. Watch as we take a tour through all four quadrants of healthy living — a much-needed guide to integral anti-fragility in the 21st century.
Working With Collective Trauma
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosCollective trauma is more than the sum aggregate of all our our individual traumas. It is a trauma that exists between us, rather than within us individually, and requires different kinds of interventions and rehabilitations in order to treat.
Inhabit: Your Quarantine
Ryan Oelke, Corey deVos and Keith Martin-SmithWe are joined by special guest Keith Martin-Smith, an acclaimed author, teacher, and dear friend to the show, in order to explore key practices and postures to help us maintain our physical, mental, and spiritual health while enduring the painful realities that all of us are so immersed in right now.
Deeper Into the Great Release
Robb Smith and Corey deVosLadies and gentlemen, the Great Release is truly and fully underway. That earthquake has now begun. Nanoscopically small and quietly transmissible, Covid-19 would be almost laughable as a catalyst for the great release if it weren’t so deadly. But as it stands, it is in fact the perfect spark to alight the ample tinder of total system irresilience.
Love in the Time of Corona
Diane Musho Hamilton, Gail Hochachka, Rob McNamara and Corey deVosJoin Diane, Gail, Rob, Corey, and special guest Cindy Lou Golin for a very special discussion about the coronavirus pandemic and how to manage the tremendous fear, anxiety, and uncertainty that can arise from it. We also explore some of the hopeful opportunities and wisdoms that are being brought to the surface by our new set of global life conditions, as well as some of the possible paths toward anti-fragility that our society can take in the wake of this pandemic.
A Plague Arrives (And How Integral Practice Helps Us to Meet It)
Jeff SalzmanJeff takes a look at the Coronavirus pandemic, humanity’s response to it, and how the integral lens helps us see more clearly the myriad forces and opportunities rising out of this crisis — which increases our wisdom, compassion, and resilience while dealing with it.
How Defensive States Prevent Self-Knowledge
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosDr. Keith and Corey navigate the psychological minefield of defensive states and shadow impulses that often diminish our capacity for wisdom, empathy, and self-knowledge.
The Four Quadrants: A Guided Tour
Ken Wilber and Corey deVosKen and Corey take a in-depth tour through one of Ken’s most well-known contributions to integral philosophy: the Four Quadrants. Watch as Ken shares his personal story about the origins of the Four Quadrant model — the day everything came together — as he weaves 3rd-person theoretical descriptions of the model with his own 1st-person experience and creative process.
Get your own custom Four Quadrant carving!
Corey deVosCorey is making these beautiful Four Quadrant carvings available by commission. Hand crafted in Corey’s workshop, these are available in a variety of beautiful and exotic hardwoods. Click through for more details.
Inhabit: Your Uncertainty
Ryan Oelke and Corey deVosRyan and Corey invite us to deepen our practice in the face of uncertainty, finding strategies in all four quadrants to help us better acclimate ourselves to the massive pressures, social responsibilities, and societal realignments that are coming to the surface as we plunge into the opening act of the Transformation Age.
Intersubjectivity, Social Justice, and Climate
Diane Musho Hamilton, Gail Hochachka, Rob McNamara and Corey deVosJoin us as we take a look at climate change through the lens of 2nd-person intersubjectivity — how we live together, how we grieve together, how we create meaning together, how we relate with each other in the midst of crisis, and the many other ways that we are all in this together.
Integral Preparation for a Time of Rapid Social Change
Robb SmithA lifetime of practice has prepared integral people to carry the world through the trying and rapidly-changing times we are entering.
Corona, Climate, and Crashes: Welcome to the Transformation Age
Robb Smith and Corey deVosRobb Smith and Corey deVos explore the rising disruption caused by a brand new set of global life conditions emerging across the planet, why only an integral sensibility is capable of managing these many challenges and crises, and how we can begin to cultivate the inner resilience and anti-fragility we need in order to endure and even thrive in the midst of extreme volatility.
Inhabit: Your Politics
Ryan Oelke and Corey deVosRyan and Corey explore ways to bring more embodied awareness and skillful discernment to our political lives, overcoming the corrosive and often paralyzing effects that both our cynicism and our idealism can have upon our political decisions and our willingness to engage our most fundamental civic responsibilities.
Climate Change: From Alarmism to Anti-Fragility
Diane Musho Hamilton, Gail Hochachka, Rob McNamara and Corey deVosIn this fascinating episode of Integral Justice Warrior, Diane and Corey are joined by Gail Hochachka and Rob McNamara to explore anti-fragile approaches to climate change. We are also joined by fellow integral enthusiast Deb Collins, who offers her own perspectives around the tragic wild fires that swept across the Australian continent.
2020 Integral European Conference Preview
Jeff Salzman and Bence GántiJeff Salzman talks to Bence Ganti, the driving force behind the upcoming Integral European Conference, a major six-day event for the Integral community which will commence on May 26th at the Azur Resort at Lake Balaton in Hungary. This fourth biennial conference will be the biggest and most comprehensive yet, with over 700 participants from 50 countries.
Inhabit: Your Wisdom
Ryan Oelke and Corey deVosWatch as Ryan and Corey explore a number of practices and perspectives to help you bring your own wisdoms to the surface, allowing you to move through the world with more skill, compassion, insight, and humility.
The Meaning of Coincidence
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosDr. 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.
Climate Change Solutions: Adapt or Transform?
Diane Musho Hamilton, Gail Hochachka, Rob McNamara and Corey deVosWe are joined by special guests Gail Hochachka and Rob McNamara to explore some of the critical strategies to climate change — some of which emphasize a total top-down transformation of our political and economic systems, and others that emphasize a more incremental and adaptive approach.
Time, Consciousness, and Development
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosDr. Keith and Corey discuss how our relationship with time lies at the very root of consciousness, and explore how our perceptions of time affect our overall psychological health and sense of well-being. We are also joined by our good friend Jeremy Johnson in a fascinating discussion of how Jean Gebser describes our ever-evolving enactment of time.
Engaging Climate Change in All Four Quadrants
Diane Musho Hamilton, Rob McNamara and Corey deVosIn this episode of Integral Justice Warrior, Diane and Corey are joined by Rob McNamara, integral teacher and author of The Elegant Self, in order to take a closer look at climate change through all four quadrants.
Integrating Shadow Up and Down the Spiral
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosDr. Keith and Corey shine some light on the many sorts of shadow material we can encounter during our developmental journey, and how we can use our own shadows to help guide us toward the light.
Inhabit: Your New Year
Ryan Oelke and Corey deVosRyan and Corey offer some simple practices and perspectives to help keep us grounded and engaged during this transition not only into a new year, but into a whole new decade, with a whole new set of possibilities, challenges, and life conditions emerging all around us.
Inhabit: Your Wound
Ryan Oelke and Corey deVosWe all possess a unique constellation of traumas, enacted by your own unique kosmic address, and which can lead to your own unique wisdom. This is what we hope to help you uncover today.
Big Time: Integral Historiography and You
Ken Wilber and Corey deVosKen unpacks his own approach to integral historiography, helping us to better understand our own place in history — and history’s place in us.
Who Ate Captain Cook? Integral Historiography in a Postmodern Age
Ken WilberIn this fascinating sidebar to Ken Wilber’s book Boomeritis: A Novel That Will Set You Free, Ken offers a summary of integral historiography, revealing a far more comprehensive way to integrate multiple schools of historiography and to deepen our enactment of both the facts and most salient interpretations of the historical record.
100 Reasons Not to Have an Affair
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosDr. Keith and Corey discuss why extramarital affairs happen, what the consequences of infidelity are to your relationship, your family, and your own mental well-being, and why you should probably never, ever have one.
Judge Judy: Evolution’s Warrior
Jeff SalzmanNow in its 23rd year, Judge Judy attracts 10 million viewers a day who are eager to watch the 76-year-old grandmother transform into a Valkyrie for Justice, laying waste to the mendacities of cheating lovers, thieving landlords, lying teenagers, and meddling mothers-in-law.
Climate Change: From Despair to Determination
Diane Musho Hamilton and Corey deVosDiane Musho Hamilton talks to Corey deVos about how to cut through the feelings of despair and hopelessness that so many people feel around the challenge of climate change, and how to engage in more skillful and productive communication around the issue so that we can generate the political will we need in order to catalyze new solutions.
Integral Social Justice
Ken Wilber and Corey deVosIn this stunning 3 hour discussion, Ken Wilber offers his own views around healthy and unhealthy forms of social justice, praising the healthy and legitimate efforts to enact social justice over the generations while noting how much of today’s broken discourse around social justice is helping to perpetuate multiple forms of injustice.
Sacrilegious and Sexy AF
Bruce Alderman and Layman PascalIn 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.
Inhabit: Your Digital Life
Corey deVos and Ryan OelkeHow do we better manage the inherent fractures and fragmentations of the digital world while bringing more embodied wisdom and compassion to our online interactions? Watch as Ryan and Corey provide some fairly simple perspectives and practices that might help you inhabit and engage your digital life with more skillful authenticity, resilience, and kindness.
Creating a Coherent Life Story
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosDr. 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
Considering Otto Scharmer’s “Axial Shift” Political Theory
Dr. Keith Witt and Jeff SalzmanMany integralists are fans of Otto Scharmer, MIT professor and developer of “Theory U”, a brilliant tool for activating higher stages of consciousness that has gained wide acceptance in organizations.
Speaking and Listening From the Heart
Diane Musho Hamilton and Corey deVosDiane and Corey are joined by Gabe Wilson and Kim Loh, co-authors of Diane’s new book Compassionate Conversations, in this far-ranging discussion about growth, empathy, dignity, and integrity. Join us as we unpack one of the primary polarities at the core of Diane’s book — the polarity between sameness and difference — and how we can draw upon both our uniqueness and our commonalities in our pursuit for social justice and our efforts to reduce suffering within us, between us, and outside of us.
Polarities in Human Development
Beena Sharma, Susanne Cook-Greuter and Corey deVosBeena 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.
Inhabit: Your Life Purpose
Ryan Oelke and Corey deVosRyan and Corey explore the many ways we can create meaning for ourselves, introducing the concept of “Integral Ikigai” to help us find and fulfill our deepest life purpose.
Wicked Problems: Gun Violence
Ken Wilber and Corey deVosIn this exclusive series, Ken and Corey take an in-depth look at America’s ongoing struggle with gun violence, using the four quadrants to track many of the most critical and commonly-blamed factors, conditions, and causes that seem to be contributing to this terribly wicked problem.
Polarity Wisdom: The Mechanics of Integral Thinking
Beena Sharma and Corey deVosIn this premiere episode of our new monthly Polarity Wisdom show, Beena introduces her new Integrating Polarities training, designed to teach you the higher-order thinking common to individuals at the integral stage of development.
Poetry as a Transformational Practice
Brooke McNamaraBrooke McNamara weaves poetry and meditation in this moving presentation from the 2016 Relational Leadership Summit, exploring poetry as a transformational practice — “language being used to go beyond language.”
Integral Justice Warrior: Compassionate Conversations
Diane Musho Hamilton and Corey deVosIntegral Justice Warrior is a new show with Diane Musho Hamilton and Corey deVos, where every month we will take a close look at some of the most challenging cultural issues and fault lines of our time — as well as the communication skills we need in order to heal these shared wounds and begin to close the gaps between us.
The One Moment That Can Make or Break Your Relationship
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosDr. Keith and Corey explore how to better manage conflict in our relationships, focusing on one critical moment in these conflicts — the moment a defensive state arises. How that moment is handled is a massive determinant of how a relationship will progress, as discussed by Keith and Corey in this episode.
A More Unifying Psychotherapy
Andre Marquis and Ken WilberAndre 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.
Inhabit: Your Spiritual Life
Ryan Oelke and Corey deVosNeed help shifting gears from mental map-making to actually inhabiting the spiritual territory? Watch as Ryan Oelke and Corey deVos explore what it means to truly inhabit and integrate our contemplative practice and our moment-to-moment experience of life.
The Other World: Integrating Psychological and Spiritual Health
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosDr. Keith Witt and Corey deVos explore the bottomless source of deep wisdom that exists at the intersection between the spiritual and psychological realms.
Watch the Grace and Grit Film Trailer!
Integral LifeKen Wilber’s acclaimed and globally popular book, Grace and Grit, has been made into a feature film starring Mena Suvari and Stuart Townsend, with Frances Fisher, Rebekah Graf, Nick Stahl, and Mariel Hemingway – produced, written, and directed by Sebastian Siegel. The film adaptation explores Ken and Treya’s courage, commitment, transcendence… and their discovery of love beyond life.
Grace and Grit: The Movie
Sebastian Siegel and Jeff SalzmanToday’s guest, Sebastian Siegel, is the screenwriter and director of the upcoming movie, Grace and Grit. The film tells the true love story of iconic, Integral philosopher Ken Wilber and his wife Treya. Based on the acclaimed book that chronicles Treya’s journals, they fall madly in love in 1980’s California and are immediately faced with illness and challenges that tear them apart. They overcome by finding a connection beyond this world, and love beyond life.
Inhabit: The Territory of You
Ryan Oelke and Corey deVosWelcome to INHABIT — a monthly practice-based series with Ryan Oelke and Corey deVos, designed to help you embody your own unique expression of integral being and more fully inhabit the territory of your life, your relationships, and your world.
Kosmos: An Integral Voyage
Ken Wilber and Corey deVosKen Wilber and Corey deVos ponder the evolutionary mysteries of the universe, speculating on how abundant life might be in the kosmos, why we haven’t met any of our galactic neighbors yet, and what might happen if a UFO landed on the White House lawn. It’s a fun conversation — and one that takes its subject matter more seriously than you might expect. Whether you are a true believer of UFO phenomena or an iron-clad skeptic, you don’t want to miss this fascinating and far-reaching exploration.
Evolving a Multi-Cellular Society
David Sloan Wilson and Ken WilberA fascinating discussion of conscious, cultural, and biological evolution — and how we can use the fundamental patterns running through all three in order to create a more adaptable and sustainable future.
Shadow Work for Couples
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosDr. Keith and Corey explore how shadow practices can help couples resolve conflict and deepen their intimacy.
The Art of Integral Embodiment
Ryan Oelke and Corey deVosRyan Oelke is a gifted integral coach, the co-founder of Buddhist Geeks, and the creator of our new Embodied Success program. Watch as Ryan and Corey enjoy a far-ranging discussion about integral embodiment, self-actualization, and the call to make a meaningful impact in the world.
The Varieties of Integral Spiritual Experience
Ken Wilber and Corey deVosWatch 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.
Trauma and the Unbound Body: The Connection Between Embodiment, Nondual Realization, and Healing
Ryan Oelke and Judith BlackstoneRyan 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.
Campaign Closeup: Marianne, Bernie, and More Mayor Pete!
Corey deVos and Jeff SalzmanThe Democratic field for US president is taking shape fast. Today I have a freewheeling conversation with Corey deVos of Integral Life about our impressions of the emerging landscape, with a special focus on Marianne Williamson, Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg.
The Many Ways We Grow
Ken Wilber and Corey deVosHuman 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.
Affluenza and the College Admissions Scandal
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosWatch as Dr. Keith and Corey explore the recent college admissions scandal through the lens of integral psychology, typology, and the intimate interplay between culture, genetically influenced personality traits, and personal choice.
Mayor Pete’s X-Factor: Could It Be Integral Consciousness?
Jeff SalzmanIn less than three months, Pete Buttigieg, the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend Indiana, (population 102,000), has gone from political anonymity to the top tier of candidates in the Democratic race for president of the United States. What accounts for Mayor Pete’s blast out of the political gate?
Rebel Wisdom: Integral Meets the Intellectual Dark Web
David Fuller and Jeff SalzmanToday’s guest, David Fuller, is at the center of the intellectual Dark Web (IDW) having founded Rebel Wisdom, a YouTube station that has attracted over 60,000 subscribers in less than two years. David Fuller is committed to the further evolution of the intellectual dark web and enthusiastic, as I am, about what integral theory can bring to that project. I hope you enjoy our conversation!
Doing Justice: Integral Law and the Mueller Report
Mark Fischler and Corey deVosIn this new monthly series with Mark Fischler, we take a look at some of the most pressing and most complex issues of our time through the lens of Integral Law. In this special premiere episode Mark describes his own background, how he arrived at this fascinating intersection between the integral world and the legal world, and what exactly he means by the phrase “integral law”. Mark and Corey then turn their attention to the big story of our day — the Mueller report — offering their own views about the investigation, Attorney General William Barr’s summary of Mueller Report, and how this story might play out in the weeks and months to come.
The Boy Crisis
Warren Farrell and Ken WilberWarren Farrell and Ken Wilber take an in-depth look at the many social, cultural, and psychological challenges that young boys are facing today, while noting how many of these challenges are the products of well-intentioned — but often misguided — feminist praxis.
Growing Up: A Guided Tour
Ken Wilber and Corey deVosIn 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.
Conflict as a Driver of Evolution and Intimacy
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosDr. Keith and Corey explore the central role that conflict plays in the ongoing evolutionary process, from the big bang to today, and in our intimate relationships in particular — where conflict can either create more distance and resentment, or it can be an opportunity to create more intimacy and deeper connection.
The Heart of Motherhood
Brooke McNamara and Jeff SalzmanBrooke McNamara developed her new course, Write to the Heart of Motherhood, because, as a poet, she knows writing to be a flexible and potent way for mothers to “connect to our true voice in the middle of our messy lives.” Listen as she discusses her new course with Jeff Salzman.
What’s Missing in the Intellectual Dark Web
Ken WilberKen Wilber takes an in-depth look at the Intellectual Dark Web though the lens of Integrative Metatheory, celebrating their contributions to political discourse while also pointing out what they’ve been missing in their analyses.
Taking Aliens Seriously
Sean Esbjörn-Hargens and Jeff SalzmanIs there intelligent life beyond Earth? Is it possible that alien beings have already contacted us? What do we make of the thousands of testimonials of human-alien contact, including from scientists, diplomats and astronauts? Yet… where’s the proof? And if there is proof, why is alien contact not the biggest story of the millennia?
On the Front Line of the Culture War — Give Me Some Real Examples, Not Just Theories!
Ken Wilber and Corey deVosWatch as Ken and Corey offer their views on some of the most controversial policy debates of our time, each of which has become a battle line in our constantly escalating culture wars.
The Psychology of Kink: Transforming Sexual Drives Into Art
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosLOT of adults are into kink, and studies show those people are happier, more resilient, and more conscientious. Join Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVos as we explore kink as a one way to transform our sexual drives into art and add to the sum total of love in the universe.
Is Masculinity Toxic?
Jeff Salzman and Dr. Keith WittJeff talks with Dr. Keith Witt about an evolutionary approach that liberates masculinity and femininity into a new integration that features the best of both and makes them available to all.
The Baby and the Bathwater: Saving Liberalism
Ken Wilber and Corey deVosIn this episode of The Ken Show we explore five themes near and dear to the liberal heart — tolerance, nonviolence, power, privilege, and gender — celebrating the healthy aspects of each that we want to include in a more integral embrace, while weeding out the unhealthy regressive narratives that most of these have devolved into.
Angry and Vulgar: The Fruits of Incivility
Jeff SalzmanDonald Trump’s coarseness has proven to be more powerful than most people thought possible. In act two of his presidency he is being met with reciprocal incivility from his opposition, exemplified by newly-elected Congressperson Rashida Tlabid, who promised at a rally to “impeach the motherf*****”. In this episode I explore where and how this “new incivility” is arising, its evolutionary potency, and how it can be – and is being — engaged with more wisdom and intention.
Integral Mindfulness and the Evolution of Shame
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosIntegral mindfulness gives us the tools to make our moral discernments more visible and influenceable. Integral mindfulness can organize our relationships with shame and moral disgust (as well as with moral approval and all forms of pleasure) to use them as sources of enhanced horizontal and vertical health.
Unlocking the Power of Meditation
Craig Hamilton and David RiordanCraig Hamilton offers a brief summary of three common mistakes we all make in meditation.
The Expanded Trinity: The Three Faces of God-in-Three-Persons
Paul Smith and Ken WilberIs your god big enough? Close enough? You enough? Join Paul Smith and Ken Wilber as they take us on an expansive journey from the traditional Trinity to Paul’s nine-dimensional “expanded” Trinity.