Beena 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Polarity Matters: Are You Thinking In Pairs?
Beena Sharma and Corey deVosHow do polarities help us see ourselves and our world more clearly and completely? Watch as Beena Sharma answers your questions about her Integrating Polarities training, while offering a simple introduction to the practice you can follow along with at home.
Welcome to the Integral Approach
Ken WilberWhat if we attempted to find the critically essential keys to human growth, based on the sum total of human knowledge now open to us?
Learn Integral by Watching Movies (and Playing Video Games!)
Corey deVosTake a cinematic journey through the major stages of human development, using a series of 22 carefully-curated film clips (and more than 30 video games) to illustrate some of the most important qualities of each stage.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Your Enneagram Type: An Introduction
Integral LifeWelcome to the Integral Enneagram Practice series! On this page you can find some introductory material by practice leader Lee Mason to help familiarize yourself with the Integral Enneagram and the nine different personality types it describes.
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.
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.
The Roots of Integral Theory
Steve McIntosh and Jeff SalzmanSteve McIntosh takes us on a tour through his view of the origins of integral theory, starting with Georg Friedrich Hegel, who first explained the mechanisms of evolution in human history, and on through a stream of philosophers who unified the evolution of matter, consciousness and spirit.
Integral Liftoff: Listeners Share the View from Second Tier
Jeff Salzman and Corey deVosIn today’s episode Jeff uses your reflections to chart out some of the landmarks of the new integral territory, as well as characteristics of the pioneers who seek to inhabit it.
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.
The Good, the True, and the Beautiful
Ken WilberKen Wilber explores the three fundamental discernments of the human mind: the Good, the Beautiful, and the True. Ken discusses how all three are simultaneously parts of a single indivisible whole, yet each possesses its own means of disclosing and verifying knowledge.
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.
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.
What Is the Integral Movement?
Corey deVosCorey deVos offers a brief overview of a new cultural, artistic, and philosophical movement that is currently taking shape all across the planet. Features dozens of breathtaking images from the Integral Life Art Gallery, as well as music by our own Stuart Davis.
What Is Your Native Perspective?
Integral LifeA big part of having better relationships is clear and meaningful communication. If you’re interested in improving how you communicate and listen to others, this exercise can provide you with a fresh perspective on the way you communicate and how it shapes your instinctual way of being, seeing, and doing in the world.
The State of the Integral Art
Roger WalshRoger Walsh explains how we can bring the Integral vision into our personal and professional lives and use it to make a meaningful impact in the world.
Holons: Turtles All the Way Up, Turtles All the Way Down
Ken WilberKen Wilber explores the idea of “Holons” — a word coined by Arthur Koestler to describe wholes that are simultaneously parts of other greater wholes (a whole atom is also part of a whole molecule, which is part of a whole cell, etc.)
What Are the Four Quadrants?
Ken WilberKen Wilber offers a brief summary of his Four Quadrants model, one of the most important elements of Integral Theory and Practice.
The Five Elements of AQAL
Ken WilberKen Wilber offers a brief summary of the theoretical formulation known as AQAL (pronounced “aw-qwal”) — which is shorthand for “all quadrants, all levels, all lines, all states, all types”.
The Pre/Trans Fallacy
Ken WilberIn this clip from Volume 1 of the Ken Wilber Life Footnotes collection, Ken offers a brief explanation of the pre/trans fallacy: the confusion of pre-rational and trans-rational, pre-personal and trans-personal, pre-conventional and post-conventional, etc.
A Brief History of Integral: The Story So Far
Ken WilberKen Wilber chronicles the emergence of integral consciousness and culture in recent decades. Ken describes this emergence as the latest in a historic series of transformations stretching all the way back to the birth of humanity, bringing humanity through several distinct stages of consciousness — namely archaic, magic, mythic, rational, pluralistic, and integral stages.
The Integral Movement: Past, Present, and Future
Roger Walsh and Ken WilberRoger Walsh offers one of the finest overviews of the integral movement that we have ever seen — where we’re at, where we’ve been, and where we’re going. Now more than ever, the integral movement is poised to make a tremendous impact upon the world.
The Integral Vision: Origins and Applications
Ken WilberGaspar Segafredo, the Editor-in-Chief of Argentinean cultural magazine Myriades 1, interviews Ken Wilber on the origins of the Integral approach, how it applies to important real life issues, the dangers of post-modernity, and the mechanics of growth and development.
To the Best of Our Knowledge: Science, Spirituality, and the Future of Technology
Ken WilberIn his first interview for NPR in over 20 years, Ken Wilber offers one of the finest, most sweeping introductions to his work he has ever recorded, presenting a profound new way to integrate science, spirituality, and technology — along with every other facet of the single ever-expanding gem of human knowledge.