This article outlines the authors’ ongoing study of diversity, focusing particularly on the AQAL model as a linchpin in an evolving theory of “diversity maturity.” Recognizing the limitations of non-integral approaches to understanding and negotiating diversity dynamics, the authors explain how an integral perspectives come to inform their postconventional understanding. The authors share their preliminary theory of the diversity maturity process in which the integral vision/theory that unites diversity, complexity, and creativity is the dynamic relationship among and between quadrants, levels, lines, states, and types. The article concludes with an agenda for further theoretical and empirical inquiry.
Mathing the Loops: An Integral Perspectival Mathematics Approach to Transformational Learning Processes
Bruce AldermanBruce Alderman builds upon Ken Wilber’s integral perspectival mathematics to model the dynamics of Otto Scharmer’s “3 Levels of Listening” framework. Alderman develops complex notational equations to map out how each successive listening level involves deeper transformations of belief structures, self-concepts, and collective awareness, culminating in a transconceptual, participatory openness to emerging future possibilities.
Sex, Pronouns, and Prepositions: How an Integral Mathematics of Perspectives Can Stop the AI Apocalypse
Bruce AldermanBruce Alderman introduces an expanded version of Ken Wilber’s integral mathematics, a notational system for mapping the complex interplay of perspectives in communication and meaning-making. He demonstrates the potential applications of this enhanced system across various domains, from modeling ethical decision-making in AI to facilitating transdisciplinary collaboration, while acknowledging the need for further testing and collaboration to fully realize its potential.
What Feels Right: An Embodied Perspective on the Ethical Line of Development
Emily BarattaThis article examines ethical frameworks across levels of human development and via the quadrants of the AQAL model. The ethical line is examined as it progresses through stages of development, paying special attention to the role of the felt sense in the determination of right action. The role of unconscious forces, particularly the felt sense of disgust, is examined as the basis of moral intuition. Integral Ethics includes the ethical framework of the previous stages and an examination of personal motivation for right action. By inquiring into the unconscious drives that move us, we may begin to recognize the cultural prejudices and excessive survival drives that can influence our determination of right action.
Developmental Engagement Field Theory
Dr. Keith WittThis article explores how social engagement is central to human functioning and development, and how it potentially provides agentic access to intersubjective and interobjective energy fields. An integrally informed developmental engagement field theory is described, with practical suggestions for applying it to living, parenting, and psychotherapy. The article concludes with a lifespan case study that embodies the presented research.
An Integral Taxonomy of Therapeutic Interventions
Andre MarquisGiven that therapists are confronted with literally hundreds of techniques or interventions to potentially utilize in their clinical practice — and a growing chasm separating research and practice — how do therapists dispel the confusion that so many of us feel as we confront this fragmented heap of techniques? In short, how do therapists decide which interventions to use with a given client?
“The Diplomat” Seeks the Bigger Picture
Mark Allan Kaplan and Jonathan SteigmanWhat makes a movie integral? Why are so many integral works science fiction or fantasy? Mark Allan Kaplan and Jonathan Steigman explore the Netflix series “The Diplomat” and how it reflects the Integral structure of consciousness
Integral Cinema Studio
Mark Allan KaplanIn 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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?
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Can the Intellectual Dark Web Save Western Culture?
Robb Smith“The question is, will the IDW be more than a counter-balancing force to the dominant intellectual ideology of Green postmodernism? Can they synthesize enough, in time, to articulate positive, coherent and integrative modes upon which culture might be reorganized as it enters the fourth phase in a few short years?”
The Tetra-Meshed Earth: Depth and Innovation in Climate Change Adaptation
Gail HochachkaGail presents the contours of the challenge that is climate change — namely how to grasp in meaning or action such a wicked problem and hyperobject: something not directly seen and experienced, so radically nonlocal and involving of multiple disciplines, that exists on timeline we can’t easily conceive of, and regarding a future we can only approximate. Making sense of an issue this complex is slippery and plastic, and how we then engage it even more so.
Star Trek: Discovery and the Moral Arc of the Universe
Corey deVosThe soul of Star Trek isn’t optimism or idealism or a roadmap to utopia. All of those are byproducts of the actual moral core of the series: exploring post-conventional morality, and owning the consequences of decisions made from that stage.
The Emergence of a New Activism
Elizabeth DeboldAt this historical moment, as the stakes with climate change and the pressure to regress accelerate across the planet, consciousness work at a collective level may hold new potential for change. What would it mean to hold this realization, not as a deep personal truth, but as a call to action? This is the essence of a new activism.
DJ Qbert: Alien Octopus Genius
DJ Qbert and Justin MilesPart mystic, part alien, part genius, and part octopus, Q was the perfect person to talk to about subjects that seem out of place in a conversation about djing. He’s delightfully bizarre and I knew talking with him would make for some great conversation. For me, interviewing him was a form of deity practice (how do you talk to a God about being God?) and I am genuinely appreciative for him allowing me to see through his eyes for a minute.
The 4th Spinning of Hip Hop
Justin MilesHiphop is largely studied from the outside in. We enjoy the music, the art and the dance. We judge, argue, evaluate and rank it, but not much attention is paid to what happens inside the artist. The 4th Spinning is an attempt to look at Hiphop from an Integral perspective, which simply means exploring the inside-and-outside of individuals (behavior, psychology and spirituality), and the inside-and-outside of groups (culture and society), to not only understand but to manifest Hiphop in all of its fullness.
The Many Ways We Touch
Ken WilberWe have the intuition that everyone is at least partially right, that no human being is capable of being 100% wrong. But how do you tell just how right everyone is? Some are more right than others — how do you tell the difference? And how do you handle interfacing with limited or partial perspectives when engaging with people in real time? This eBook, from the upcoming Vol. II of Ken Wilber’s “Kosmos Trilogy”, will help.
The Four Faces of Truth
Ken WilberIn an era when our collective notion of “truth” is being weaponized, balkanized, and smashed to smithereens, it’s important to remind ourselves how we go about discerning truth in the first place. In this introductory chapter from The Eye of Spirit, Ken Wilber explores the four primary methods we use to acquire and verify our knowledge, allowing us to escape our current “post-truth” quagmire by bridging the ever-widening divide between conflicting views, values, and verities.
No Boundary: A Union of Opposites
Ken WilberKen Wilber explores the intrinsic dualism of the mind, offering a simple but cogent way to “transcend the pairs” and discover the nondual heart of the Always Already.
Integral Semiotics: The Language of Liberation
Ken WilberHow do we derive meaning from the words we use? An integral approach fundamentally changes how we understand the nature of language, communication, and shared meaning. Integral Semiotics offers a comprehensive map or framework of most of the known worldspaces available to humans. Since most of these worldspaces do not possess simple location or material form, they are likely to be denied reality by most realist, empirical, or behavioral schools—where in fact they are home of the vast majority of those things most humans hold valuable. Integral Semiotics is thus a matter, not just of linguistics, but of emancipation.
How Zen Can Provide Leadership in a Post-Truth Trump World
Ginny WhitelawGinny Whitelaw offers some valuable advice on how presence, resilience, and centeredness can help us illuminate a better path forward in the midst of the “post-truth” collapse.
Making Sense of Trump’s Exit from the Paris Accord
Gail HochachkaLast week, Trump stated his decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement regarding climate change. Trump announced that the USA will withdraw based on the sense that it will negatively affect US jobs. To explore this, I turn to Integral Theory, which is a comprehensive transdisciplinary theory developed by contemporary philosopher Ken Wilber and applied by others across several professional fields. We can draw upon these ideas regarding the dynamics of social groups to make sense of Trump’s exit from the Paris agreement.
Shapes of Mind: The 10 Stages of Consciousness
Robb SmithAt Integral Life we sometimes refer to different stages of consciousness in order to make sense of various issues or complex situations. So I thought it might be useful to briefly outline the ten stages of consciousness-or what I often call the ten shapes of mind–in order to provide an orienting primer for those who are new to Integral Life. For those who have been with us a long time, hopefully you’ll enjoy a refresher.
Michelin 3-Star: The Culinary Art of Joel Robuchon
Robb SmithCan food be transformative? In this first-of-its-kind integral review of Michelin 3-star restaurant Joel Robuchon, Robb Smith explores why the world’s best dining has always been at the center of his aesthetic Integral Life Practice, and what integrative metatheory brings to a night at one of the world’s best restaurants.
Zen Leadership and Putting the “Happy” in Happy New Year
Ginny WhitelawWelcome to the New Year! In the Chinese system, we’re entering the Year of the Rooster and, my, doesn’t it already feel like a wake-up call?
We’ve Elected a Wartime President
Robb SmithI’ll get to the point. The United States has just elected a wartime president, a Commander in Chief who is already on a wartime footing and was on a wartime footing from the moment his campaign began last year. And he won because a significant portion of the country were the war’s first casualties and they wanted a president who could help them stop losing. This isn’t a military war. It’s a jobs war.
Always Already: The Brilliant Clarity of Ever-Present Awareness
Ken WilberIn this excerpt from The Eye of Spirit, Ken Wilber offers one of the most powerful (and beautiful) pieces of spiritual writing he has ever produced. This is the very first time these words have been reproduced on the web, and we invite you to share this chapter however you like.
Right Bucks: Money and Spirituality
Ken WilberIn dealing with this issue of money and Dharma—or money and spirituality in general—there are at least two very different items that need to be teased apart and addressed separately. The first is the appropriate monetary value of any relational exchange (from medical care to education to goods and services in general); and the second is, should monetary exchange ever be linked to Dharma teaching?
From Rationalism to Nationalism: How the Internet Ruined Everything
Corey deVosWe no longer enjoy a “shared reality” in any meaningful sense. We now live in a time-shifted honeycomb of mediated views and values, a flat and fragmented reality that has completely changed the shape of our consciousness, our culture, and our conduct in the public sphere.
The Morning After
Robb SmithAmericans have just elected Donald Trump as President-elect of the United States of America. I know that a few of you are elated and many more are terrified. I can understand both emotions. I am far from a natural-born Hillary Clinton advocate, but during the course of the campaign there was simply no possibility that I would be voting for Trump, a man who who speaks against many of my deepest principles. And yet he won — by the slimmest of margins — but a clear win nonetheless.
The Shape of Things to Come: A Singularity in All Four Quadrants
Corey deVosIt seems clear is that we are seeing a general pattern of accelerated returns in at least four irreducible dimensions of our lives. It is a “singularity in all four quadrants” — Post-Humanism, Post-Scarcity, Post-Irony, and Post-Metaphysics. Let’s take a brief look at each of these dimensions.
Campaign Fever: How We’ve Turned Indignation into a National Pastime
Ginny WhitelawIt seems we have caught a kind of fever, where anger and indignation are becoming an art form, where one-sided views are called news, and where we can get stuck in a place of no progress. That place could be called coping, as opposed to transforming, and it precedes what I call the “first flip” of Zen Leadership…
The 500 Lb. Gorilla Raging Through the World: Demographics
Robb SmithAvailable below is an adjustable data visualization for Europe. Adjust the year of analysis and retirement ages to see how the population shifts and worker:retiree support ratio changes.
What is Transformational Learning?
Robb SmithTransformation is the process by which a person “grows their mind” by building a broader worldview, deeper skills, better habits and expanded perspectives. Integral Life is a member community designed to offer experiences, media and practices that help you grow your mind and evolve your life.
Beauty and the Expansion of Women’s Identity
Vanessa FisherThe history of women’s beauty is written in bodily gestures that express both the constraints of their culture as well as the unfolding desire of their interiority. Embracing the power of beauty has always been problematic for feminism, and for good reason. This article offers an integrative analysis of the current views that dominate feminist discourse on women’s beauty, as well as a personal story of Vanessa’s own ongoing journey as a young woman trying to reclaim her beauty for the benefit of all beings.
Trump, Hamilton, and the Zen Leader Walk Into a Bar…
Ginny Whitelaw…the Zen Leader would want to learn from these two cultural phenomes how to message in a culturally resonant way — how to inspire people to pause in their busyness, connect with what is, to resource their lives and leadership from a place of centered connectedness.
The Meaning of “2nd-person”
Ken WilberThere has been, for quite some time, a considerable misunderstanding about how the Integral Framework views 2nd person (e.g., “you,” “thou”). Ken Wilber thought it was time to address it.
Why We Desperately Need an Integral Islam
Amir Ahmad NasrAmir tells his own story of coming to a more integral Islam, finding new ways to embrace and express this rich spiritual lineage while helping to carve a new path beyond the fundamentalist extremism so often associated with Islam in today’s world. This piece is heavily adapted from Amir’s book, My Isl@m: How Fundamentalism Stole My Mind–and Doubt Freed My Soul.
Brave New Future? An Integral Look at Super Artificial Intelligence
Michael E. ZimmermanThese days, discourse about intelligent robots—thinking machines—is as widespread as discourse about zombies. Both have been the subjects of recent bestsellers, which are the basis of two forthcoming films. Popular culture’s depiction of humankind under attack by either the undead or by the never alive (autonomous machines) suggests widespread anxiety about and fascination with technical developments that may generate a future out of human control (as if the future ever were under our control!)
Six Varieties of Christians and Their Churches: From Tribal to Integral
Paul SmithChristians and their communities of faith exist in rich diversity today. Why are there so many different kinds of Christians and churches? There are historical aspects, political factors, matter of taste, and personality types. However, from an integral perspective of evolutionary stages we can see a quite remarkable tendency for churches to fall into one of perhaps six different altitudes of understanding.
Discovering an Integral Civic Consciousness in a Global Age
John BunzlIn an age of global crisis, why does the idea of global governance remain a such a taboo topic? Here John Bunzl posits a civic line of development, suggesting only those possessing a worldcentric level of civic awareness can fully comprehend global problems and the need for binding global governance.
Yes, Virginia, Consciousness Goes All the Way Down. But Does It Go All the Way Up?
Michael E. ZimmermanAlthough the apparent confirmation of the Higgs Boson, the so-called God particle, has been attracting attention recently, the most vexing problem in science and philosophy remains the mind-body problem: What relation is there between material brain states and conscious, first-person experience? In the past few years, as we shall see in a moment, some neurosciences have now arrived at an answer that was anticipated by Ken Wilber’s version of integral theory.
Albert Murray’s Lines of Cultural Development
Greg ThomasGreg Thomas explores the fascinating intersection between the work of Albert Murray and Integral Theory.
Death, Rebirth, and Meditation
Ken WilberSome type of reincarnation doctrine is found in virtually every mystical religious tradition the world over. Even Christianity accepted it until around the fourth century CE, when, for largely political reasons, it was made anathema. Many Christian mystics today now accept the idea. As the Christian theologian John Hick pointed out in his important work Death and Eternal Life, the consensus of the world religions, including Christianity, is that some sort of reincarnation occurs.
An Integral Take on the Blues Idiom
Greg ThomasFrom an integral perspective, the blues has many dimensions, from the personal to the bio-behavioral aspects of the individual, to the cultural and social dynamics of collectives. The blues can be experienced from an egocentric, ethnocentric, and world-centric value level or stage of development. We can view the blues as a musical or cognitive or aesthetic line of intelligence or development also, and even as a philosophical proposition—an existential response to life in the late-19th through the 20th century.
Albert Murray Defines Art
Greg ThomasWhether or not Albert Murray’s thought and frameworks of analysis are Integral remains to be seen and decided by Integral readers and scholars; however, what’s indisputable is his deeply pluralistic and interdisciplinary approach to knowledge. A prime example, in which he elaborates definitions of art and aesthetic statement, follows.
Exploring Stages of Sexuality Through Buddhism
David DeidaDavid Deida explains how the three major schools of Buddhist thought reflect the stages of psycho-sexual maturity, and how these stages play themselves out in our spiritual practices and in our relationships.