Explore Integrative Metatheories
How do different academic and practical theories integrate to address complex real-world issues?
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The Content/Structure Fallacy: The Common Mistake Most Integralists Make
David Arrell and Keith Martin-Smith explore one of the most important (and misunderstood) dynamics within integral theory: the content/structure fallacy. They explore how developmental structures—our deeper worldviews and ways of making sense—shape the content of our beliefs, but not always in straightforward or predictable ways. The conversation touches on how integral theory can help us navigate the nuances of individual growth, leadership, and social dynamics, especially when it comes to assessing the developmental depth of others.
About David Arrell
David Arrell is an Executive Coach & Consultant with a background in Entrepreneurship and Leadership Development & Training. He is passionate about both personal and professional growth and supporting those making meaningful and positive change in the world.
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The Myth of Evil: Why Polarities, Not Villains, Drive Injustice
Barry Johnson introduces the concept of polarity thinking, offering a revolutionary framework for addressing complex societal issues like poverty, racism, and climate change. Rather than viewing problems as having singular solutions or evil sources, Barry explains how mismanaged polarities—such as justice vs. mercy and freedom vs. equality—are at the heart of many dysfunctions. By adopting a both/and mindset, we can break vicious cycles, foster balance, and create more sustainable solutions in our personal and collective lives.
About Barry Johnson
Founding Partner, Chairman & Creator of The Polarity Map® and Principles
Barry (he/him) created the first Polarity Map® and set of principles in 1975. Since then he has been learning And applying Polarity Thinking® with people and organizations all over the world. As Chairman of Polarity Partnerships, LLC., he continues to explore and promote supplementing Or-thinking with And-thinking to enhance our quality of life on our planet.
With humility And pride, Barry continues to create a collaborative international community of polarity practitioners, including Mastery Program graduates, who are dedicated to the study and application of Polarities in a variety of disciplines and situations.
Barry’s newest publication, And: Volume One – Foundations and And: Volume Two – Applications represent what he and his colleagues have learned about And-thinking since his first book, Polarity Management: Identifying and Managing Unsolvable Problems, came out in 1992.
Barry is an avid outdoorsman and intrepid traveler, and brings head And heart together in his teaching and consulting. Barry and his wife, Dana, have 5 children and 11 grandchildren.
Areas of Polarity Thinking application: Business & Industry, Government, Education, Not-for-profit
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Ready, Steady, Grow! The Art and Science of Vertical Development
Corey deVos and Beena Sharma explore the concept of vertical development and its importance in today’s world. Beena, with over 30 years of experience in the field, shares her journey and evolving understanding of vertical development.
About Beena Sharma
Beena Sharma, Founder | VeDA
Program Leader, Master Coach
Beena is the president of Vertical Development Academy and an international coach and consultant. Beena brings 31 years of experience in facilitating human and organizational development. She is committed to designing and delivering exceptional programs to build deep capability in individuals and organizations committed to evolving and creating a sustainable future for all. -
Radical Wholeness and the Five Paths of Transformation
Ken Wilber and Andrew Holecek explore the frontiers of integral theory and human consciousness. Ken shares some of the key insights from his latest book, “Finding Radical Wholeness,” offering a novel and deeply insightful perspective on the nature of reality and human development.
About Ken Wilber
Corey W. deVos is editor and producer of Integral Life. He has worked for Integral Institute/Integal Life since Spring of 2003, and has been a student of integral theory and practice since 1996. Corey is also a professional woodworker, and many of his artworks can be found in his VisionLogix art gallery.
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From Four Quadrants to Eight Zones
Corey deVos offers a simple tour through the 8 zones of Integral metatheory, resulting in a profoundly comprehensive and holistic view of reality. Whether applied to relationships, social justice, or personal development, the 8 zones offer a powerful tool for enhancing our capacity to address and resolve conflicts, enrich our connections, and create a more inclusive and harmonious world.
About Corey deVos
Corey W. deVos is editor and producer of Integral Life. He has worked for Integral Institute/Integal Life since Spring of 2003, and has been a student of integral theory and practice since 1996. Corey is also a professional woodworker, and many of his artworks can be found in his VisionLogix art gallery.
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Mathing the Loops: An Integral Perspectival Mathematics Approach to Transformational Learning Processes
Bruce 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.
About Bruce Alderman
Bruce Alderman, MA, is an affiliate faculty at John F. Kennedy University in the Consciousness and Transformative Studies and Holistic Counseling Psychology departments. After years of moderating several integral discussion forums of his own, including Integral Postmetaphysical Spirituality and Integral Scholarship and Practice, he is venturing into production of integral video content himself.
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Sex, Pronouns, and Prepositions: How an Integral Mathematics of Perspectives Can Stop the AI Apocalypse
Bruce 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.
About Bruce Alderman
Bruce Alderman, MA, is an affiliate faculty at John F. Kennedy University in the Consciousness and Transformative Studies and Holistic Counseling Psychology departments. After years of moderating several integral discussion forums of his own, including Integral Postmetaphysical Spirituality and Integral Scholarship and Practice, he is venturing into production of integral video content himself.
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Deepening Our Explorations of Reality
Bruce Alderman, poet, mystic, and spiritual explorer, is also an integral scholar and pioneer of the emerging field of metatheory, looking at how to put our disparate fields of information—spiritual, psychological, philosophical, environmental, scientific—together and integrate them into a useful whole.
About Bruce Alderman
Bruce Alderman, MA, is an affiliate faculty at John F. Kennedy University in the Consciousness and Transformative Studies and Holistic Counseling Psychology departments. After years of moderating several integral discussion forums of his own, including Integral Postmetaphysical Spirituality and Integral Scholarship and Practice, he is venturing into production of integral video content himself.
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Transforming Self, Society, and the Spaces Between Us
In this enlightening episode of The Ken Show, hosts Ken Wilber and Corey deVos embark on a profound journey through the multifaceted realms of systems theory, communication, and social evolution. They dissect the nuanced perspectives of “inside” and “outside” views in systems, delve into the transformative power of communication paradigms throughout history, and critically examine the influence of social media on the overall emergence of integral consciousness.
About Ken Wilber
Corey W. deVos is editor and producer of Integral Life. He has worked for Integral Institute/Integal Life since Spring of 2003, and has been a student of integral theory and practice since 1996. Corey is also a professional woodworker, and many of his artworks can be found in his VisionLogix art gallery.
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In Context: AI-Enhanced Strategies for Social Sector Evolution
Robb Smith is joined by Josh Leonard to explore together how IAM’s new AI-augmented mental model software, Context, can support Josh’s work as a social sector consultant, specifically in a project Josh is leading with the YMCA of San Francisco to revamp their leadership development program.
About Josh Leonard
Corey W. deVos is editor and producer of Integral Life. He has worked for Integral Institute/Integal Life since Spring of 2003, and has been a student of integral theory and practice since 1996. Corey is also a professional woodworker, and many of his artworks can be found in his VisionLogix art gallery.
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Revolutionary Social Transformation
This never-before published essay by Ken Wilber delves into the intricate dynamics of societal evolution, emphasizing the interplay between technological advancements, cultural worldviews, and governance systems.
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Sentio Ergo Sum: The Emotional Line of Development
Integral 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.
About Joanne Rubin
JOANNE RUBIN, Ph.D., is Co-Director of the Integral Mentors and Ministers Program at One Spirit Learning Alliance in New York City. Also in private practice for over 30 years, she has been developing integral applications to psychotherapy. She writes on emotional development and ego development, using Integral Theory to expand psychodynamic/ psychoanalytic theory toward later stages of development, and has presented papers on these subjects at the 2008 and 2010 Integral Theory Conferences in Pleasant Hill, California.
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Is Metamodernism Integral? Is Integral Metamodern?
Metamodernism 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.
About Brendan Graham Dempsey
Brendan Graham Dempsey is a writer whose work focuses on the meaning crisis and the nature of spirituality in metamodernity. He earned his BA in Religious Studies from the University of Vermont and his MA in Religion and the Arts from Yale University. His work has been deeply influenced by the writings of Ken Wilber and other integral thinkers. He lives in Greensboro Bend, Vermont, where he runs the holistic retreat center Sky Meadow.
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The 8 Perspectival Zones of Emergence
Ken 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.
About Ken Wilber
Corey W. deVos is editor and producer of Integral Life. He has worked for Integral Institute/Integal Life since Spring of 2003, and has been a student of integral theory and practice since 1996. Corey is also a professional woodworker, and many of his artworks can be found in his VisionLogix art gallery.
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The Highest Stages of Conscious Development
Terri O’Fallon and Keith Martin-Smith dive into a deeper and more detailed exploration of Terri’s STAGES model, focusing on a smaller section of the model: stages 3.0 – 6.0 (roughly Amber/Orange to Turquoise/Indigo). Terri outlines what makes each level of her model unique from the last, what causes people to shift from one level to another, as well as what the mature expressions look like for 3.0, 4.0, and 5.0 stages.
About Terri O'Fallon
Terri O’Fallon, PhD is an Integral scholar whose research spans 40 years, including eleven research studies conducted in various colleges, public schools, and private research venues. Her most recent theory, and the culmination of a lifetime of work, is the STAGES model of human development. STAGES integrates several developmental models and is informed by Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory and Terri’s own research, to form a robust and predictive map that is being used by numerous scholars, practitioners, and leaders throughout the world.
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Navigating the Meaning Crisis
John 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
About John Vervaeke
John Vervaeke is an award-winning lecturer at the University of Toronto in Psychology, Cognitive Science and Buddhist Psychology. His academic interests include wisdom, mindfulness, meditation, relevance realization, general intelligence, and rationality. He is the author of Awakening from the Meaning Crisis Youtube series and co-author of Zombies in Western Culture: A 21st Century Crisis. He has been engaging in Dialogos, alongside Jordan Hall and Guy Sengstock, and other conversations on Youtube.
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Where Is the Method to Our Integral Madness? An Outline for Integral Meta-Studies
The 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.
About Mark Edwards
MARK EDWARDS is a psychologist with a Masters degree in developmental psychology and a Ph.D. (distinction) in organisation theory from the University of Western Australia, one of the pre-eminent universities in Australia. He has worked with people with disabilities for more than 20 years. He is currently tutoring in strategic management and human resource management courses in the Business School at UWA. His academic publications have been in the areas of futures studies, leadership, management and organisation theory, and integral metatheory.
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Vertical Development’s Many Gifts
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.
About Beena Sharma
Beena Sharma, Founder | VeDA
Program Leader, Master Coach
Beena is the president of Vertical Development Academy and an international coach and consultant. Beena brings 31 years of experience in facilitating human and organizational development. She is committed to designing and delivering exceptional programs to build deep capability in individuals and organizations committed to evolving and creating a sustainable future for all. -
The Momentous Leap to Integral Consciousness
Ken 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.
About Ken Wilber
Corey W. deVos is editor and producer of Integral Life. He has worked for Integral Institute/Integal Life since Spring of 2003, and has been a student of integral theory and practice since 1996. Corey is also a professional woodworker, and many of his artworks can be found in his VisionLogix art gallery.
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The Integral Storycreator: Using Integral Methodological Pluralism to Create Fictional, Narrative Prose
The intention of this paper is to explore using Integral Methodological Pluralism (IMP) to construct a fictional, narrative story as part of a greater consideration into using the distinctions of Integral Theory in creating any kind of story or character driven work of art. The key component is using the mixed method information, especially the developmental knowledge, in combination with one’s own experience to make up the personality content of the characters and the moments of decision, discovery, and tension of the story; making sure to touch all the dimensions of the character’s life and the story’s world. The paper begins by discussing how and why IMP works for story creation, moving into a story I wrote using it. The second half of the paper is an in depth look at the process of locating and utilizing information and knowledge to craft the story, the characters and the relationships.
About Michael Ornst
MICHAEL ORNST specializes in assisting CEOs and media-makers in developing and producing integral content that appeals across levels. He sits on the Board of Directors for Lick the Lid Institute. As a visiting guest lecturer to film schools he teaches his lecture series “The Integral Filmmaker.” He is currently in script development for film and integral episodic TV. Michael lives in Boulder, Colorado with his long time partner and their son.
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An Integral Approach to Parenting in the First Three Years of a Child’s Life
This article provides an introduction to the possible span and depth considered when applying an Integral approach to parenting during early childhood. The relationship between Integral Theory and the practice of parenting is addressed, and key principles and concepts that underlie Integral Parenting are discussed. The task of parenting is placed within an evolutionary context and presented as a possible Integral practice. Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory serves as an inspiration and organizing matrix.
About Miriam Martineau
Miriam Mason Martineau, M.A., is trained in the areas of psychology, dance, choreography, and voice. She has a Masters Degree in Psychology from the University of Zurich, with a specialization in Youth and Child Psychology, and is also a certified teacher of Laban Modern Dance, as well as a singer and vocal instructor.
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Music and Personal Experience: Flows and Peaks
This article investigates music’s ability to facilitate flow states of consciousness as peak experiences. The research first uses two first-person methods, phenomenology and structuralism. The results of two second-person methods, hermeneutics and ethnomethodology, are then detailed. The final research section uses two third-person methods, empiricism and systems analysis. The empirical section utilizes a survey, while the systems analysis section investigates factors that contributed to the phenomenological research method. Results focus on tracking a conceptual understanding of the terms flow state and peak experience.
About Matthew Collins
MATTHEW COLLINS, M.A., recently graduated from John F. Kennedy University with a master’s in Integral Psychol- ogy. He wrote his thesis on the topic of the uses of musical practice for personal growth within an Integral Life Practice. Matt also possesses a B.S. in Psychology and a B.A. in Philosophy from Virginia Tech. He currently works with adults with severe, persistent mental illnesses at Rubicon Programs in Richmond, CA, where he conducts weekly music groups. In the future, he hopes to apply his understanding of the AQAL model to organizational development and wellness.
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In Pursuit of Wholeness: Making Room for Everything
This 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.
About Corey deVos
Corey W. deVos is editor and producer of Integral Life. He has worked for Integral Institute/Integal Life since Spring of 2003, and has been a student of integral theory and practice since 1996. Corey is also a professional woodworker, and many of his artworks can be found in his VisionLogix art gallery.
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Integral Critical Theory: The 8 Zones of Racism
Ken 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.
About Ken Wilber
Corey W. deVos is editor and producer of Integral Life. He has worked for Integral Institute/Integal Life since Spring of 2003, and has been a student of integral theory and practice since 1996. Corey is also a professional woodworker, and many of his artworks can be found in his VisionLogix art gallery.
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Re/Thinking Religion: Integral Postmetaphysical Spirituality
John 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.
About John Vervaeke
John Vervaeke is an award-winning lecturer at the University of Toronto in Psychology, Cognitive Science and Buddhist Psychology. His academic interests include wisdom, mindfulness, meditation, relevance realization, general intelligence, and rationality. He is the author of Awakening from the Meaning Crisis Youtube series and co-author of Zombies in Western Culture: A 21st Century Crisis. He has been engaging in Dialogos, alongside Jordan Hall and Guy Sengstock, and other conversations on Youtube.
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From the Big Bang to the Eight Primordial Perspectives
Ken 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.
About Ken Wilber
Corey W. deVos is editor and producer of Integral Life. He has worked for Integral Institute/Integal Life since Spring of 2003, and has been a student of integral theory and practice since 1996. Corey is also a professional woodworker, and many of his artworks can be found in his VisionLogix art gallery.
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Integral Mathematics: An AQAL Approach
This 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.
About Elliot Benjamin
ELLIOT BENJAMIN, Ph.D., is a professional mathematician and mathematics professor with an avid interest in psychology, philosophy, and classical piano. He has a number of published papers in pure mathematics and has self-published books on recreational number theory, spirituality and cults, and art and mental illness. He lives in rural Maine, and his association with Integral Institute began in November 2003, when he met with Ken Wilber to discuss his interest in developing Integral Mathematics. He is also interested in applying his writings in the area of spirituality and cults to Integral Spirituality.
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Quadrants as a Scanning and Mapping Device
Defining 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.
About Susanne Cook-Greuter
Susanne Cook-Greuter is internationally known as the leading expert in mature ego development and self-actualization. She does ongoing research and development on the Sentence Completion Test. She leads trainings in the Leadership Development Framework and introductions and certification training for SCT-scorers. She collaborates with other consultant in bringing the developmental perspective into corporations and executive teams.
Her clients appreciate her for her dedication, creativity and joyful, subtle inquiry as well as for her profound knowledge of the adult development field.
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AQAL: Beyond the Biopsychosocial Model
The 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.
About Baron Short
BARON SHORT, M.D., has studied Integral Theory and its application in medicine and psychiatry since 2000. He is in his fifth year of residency training in internal medicine and psychiatry at the Medical University of South Carolina. He is a primary investigator in a pilot study, “Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Meditation.” Dr. Short hopes to better understand the neurophysiology involved in the meditative experience as such knowledge could influence future clinical treatments and our ideas on the philosophy and spirituality of mind. In addition to his clinical rotations, academic presentations, and research interests, he is an avid teacher for medical students and new residents. He hopes to collaborate and offer one of the first Integral Medicine courses accessible at a medical university in the near future.
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Integrating Power
Ken 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.
About Ken Wilber
Corey W. deVos is editor and producer of Integral Life. He has worked for Integral Institute/Integal Life since Spring of 2003, and has been a student of integral theory and practice since 1996. Corey is also a professional woodworker, and many of his artworks can be found in his VisionLogix art gallery.
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An Analysis of Integral Coaching Canada Across Eight Zones and Five Methodologies
This 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.
About Lisa Frost
Robb Smith is a leading thinker on the Transformation Age and the global Integral movement. He is the creator of the augmented leadership platform Context, co-founder and CEO of Integral Life and founder of the Institute of Applied Metatheory.
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An Integral Age at the Leading Edge
This 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.
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The New Axial Age: A Complex Integral Realist Perspective
Why 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?
About Paul Marshall
Paul Marshall is one of only a handful of scholars who have mastered all three of today’s major metatheories, and he combines this rare breadth of knowledge with formidable synthesizing power to offer an intellectual integration of admirable scope and sophistication.
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Marx, Mysticism, and Mathematics: Navigating Our Epistemic Collapse
In 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.
About Ken Wilber
Corey W. deVos is editor and producer of Integral Life. He has worked for Integral Institute/Integal Life since Spring of 2003, and has been a student of integral theory and practice since 1996. Corey is also a professional woodworker, and many of his artworks can be found in his VisionLogix art gallery.
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Integral Epistemology
How do we know stuff? Like all of the great philosophical quandaries, it’s a fundamentally straightforward question that can lead us into an endlessly branching series of chicken-and-egg meditations on the nature of existence (ontology) versus the nature of knowledge (epistemology). In this fascinating episode of The Ken Show, we take a look at a dozen of the most popular schools of epistemological thought — idealism, pragmatism, empiricism, constructivism, etc. — noting their respective contributions and limitations, and how they can all be pulled together into a more Integral epistemology.
About Ken Wilber
Corey W. deVos is editor and producer of Integral Life. He has worked for Integral Institute/Integal Life since Spring of 2003, and has been a student of integral theory and practice since 1996. Corey is also a professional woodworker, and many of his artworks can be found in his VisionLogix art gallery.
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Awaken the Eye of Spirit
All 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.
About Ken Wilber
Corey W. deVos is editor and producer of Integral Life. He has worked for Integral Institute/Integal Life since Spring of 2003, and has been a student of integral theory and practice since 1996. Corey is also a professional woodworker, and many of his artworks can be found in his VisionLogix art gallery.
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Inhabit: Your Inner Theatre
Corey 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.
About Corey deVos
Corey W. deVos is editor and producer of Integral Life. He has worked for Integral Institute/Integal Life since Spring of 2003, and has been a student of integral theory and practice since 1996. Corey is also a professional woodworker, and many of his artworks can be found in his VisionLogix art gallery.
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An Integral Tour of Consciousness Studies
Consciousness 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.
About Allan Combs
Allan Combs is a Professor of Transformative Studies at the California Institute of Integral Studies.and director of the Integral Focus of the doctoral program. His background is in consciousness studies, neuropsychology, and systems science. His recent book, Consciousness Explained Better, is available at major booksellers everywhere.
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Consciousness as Embodied, Embedded, Enmeshed
Consciousness 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).
About Sean Esbjörn-Hargens
Sean Esbjörn-Hargens, Ph.D. is one of the world’s leading experts on Integral Theory and its application. Building on the vision of American philosopher Ken Wilber, he has played a significant role in creating the academic field of Integral Theory. He is co-author of Integral Ecology and editor of Integral Theory in Action and Integral Education.
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Integrating Shadow
Ken 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.
About Ken Wilber
Corey W. deVos is editor and producer of Integral Life. He has worked for Integral Institute/Integal Life since Spring of 2003, and has been a student of integral theory and practice since 1996. Corey is also a professional woodworker, and many of his artworks can be found in his VisionLogix art gallery.
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The Transformation Age: America Burning
America 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.
About Robb Smith
Corey W. deVos is editor and producer of Integral Life. He has worked for Integral Institute/Integal Life since Spring of 2003, and has been a student of integral theory and practice since 1996. Corey is also a professional woodworker, and many of his artworks can be found in his VisionLogix art gallery.
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COVID-19 Through the Lens of the Enneagram
How are different Enneagram types dealing with these new life conditions that are being imposed upon us all? What are the different coping strategies and pain points and opportunities for transformation? How can the Integral Enneagram help us bring more care, compassion, and connection to our own integral family? Watch this very special episode to find out.
About Leslie Hershberger
Corey W. deVos is editor and producer of Integral Life. He has worked for Integral Institute/Integal Life since Spring of 2003, and has been a student of integral theory and practice since 1996. Corey is also a professional woodworker, and many of his artworks can be found in his VisionLogix art gallery.
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Conversations From the Road
In 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.
About Robb Smith
Corey W. deVos is editor and producer of Integral Life. He has worked for Integral Institute/Integal Life since Spring of 2003, and has been a student of integral theory and practice since 1996. Corey is also a professional woodworker, and many of his artworks can be found in his VisionLogix art gallery.
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Coronavirus: Making Sense of Our Sense-Making
Watch 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.
About Beena Sharma
Beena Sharma, Founder | VeDA
Program Leader, Master Coach
Beena is the president of Vertical Development Academy and an international coach and consultant. Beena brings 31 years of experience in facilitating human and organizational development. She is committed to designing and delivering exceptional programs to build deep capability in individuals and organizations committed to evolving and creating a sustainable future for all. -
The Four Quadrants: A Guided Tour
Ken 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.
About Ken Wilber
Corey W. deVos is editor and producer of Integral Life. He has worked for Integral Institute/Integal Life since Spring of 2003, and has been a student of integral theory and practice since 1996. Corey is also a professional woodworker, and many of his artworks can be found in his VisionLogix art gallery.
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Big Time: Integral Historiography and You
Ken unpacks his own approach to integral historiography, helping us to better understand our own place in history — and history’s place in us.
About Ken Wilber
Corey W. deVos is editor and producer of Integral Life. He has worked for Integral Institute/Integal Life since Spring of 2003, and has been a student of integral theory and practice since 1996. Corey is also a professional woodworker, and many of his artworks can be found in his VisionLogix art gallery.
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Who Ate Captain Cook? Integral Historiography in a Postmodern Age
In 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.
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Polarities in Human Development
Beena Sharma and Corey deVos explore the important relationship between polarities and adult development — and how polarity thinking not only helps accelerate our development toward integral stages of maturity, but also helps us to be more of ourselves, wherever we happen to be in our developmental trajectory.
About Beena Sharma
Beena Sharma, Founder | VeDA
Program Leader, Master Coach
Beena is the president of Vertical Development Academy and an international coach and consultant. Beena brings 31 years of experience in facilitating human and organizational development. She is committed to designing and delivering exceptional programs to build deep capability in individuals and organizations committed to evolving and creating a sustainable future for all. -
Polarity Wisdom: The Mechanics of Integral Thinking
In 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.
About Beena Sharma
Beena Sharma, Founder | VeDA
Program Leader, Master Coach
Beena is the president of Vertical Development Academy and an international coach and consultant. Beena brings 31 years of experience in facilitating human and organizational development. She is committed to designing and delivering exceptional programs to build deep capability in individuals and organizations committed to evolving and creating a sustainable future for all. -
The Varieties of Integral Spiritual Experience
Watch as Ken and Corey explore the path of Waking Up — a guided tour through temporary states of consciousness that include everything from emotional states to chemically-induced states to the direct, immediate experience of timeless reality, revealing an infinitely renewable source of energy, resilience, and creative inspiration that rests at the very center of you.
About Ken Wilber
Corey W. deVos is editor and producer of Integral Life. He has worked for Integral Institute/Integal Life since Spring of 2003, and has been a student of integral theory and practice since 1996. Corey is also a professional woodworker, and many of his artworks can be found in his VisionLogix art gallery.
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The Many Ways We Grow
Human development is uneven, which means that we are better at some things than we are at others. Some skills come more naturally to us, and others are more difficult to acquire. Watch as Ken and Corey explore each of these developmental capacities in detail, offering a powerful summary of human potentials, talents, and intelligences — a comprehensive map of the territory of “you” that will help guide your own ongoing growth and development.
About Ken Wilber
Corey W. deVos is editor and producer of Integral Life. He has worked for Integral Institute/Integal Life since Spring of 2003, and has been a student of integral theory and practice since 1996. Corey is also a professional woodworker, and many of his artworks can be found in his VisionLogix art gallery.
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Growing Up: A Guided Tour
In this episode of The Ken Show we explore one of the most central elements of integral metatheory: growing up through multiple stages of developmental maturity. Watch as Ken and Corey offer a guided tour through each of the major stages on the Path of Growing Up — an exploration of your own greatest, deepest potentials — and offer some simple practices to help you actualize those potentials.
About Ken Wilber
Corey W. deVos is editor and producer of Integral Life. He has worked for Integral Institute/Integal Life since Spring of 2003, and has been a student of integral theory and practice since 1996. Corey is also a professional woodworker, and many of his artworks can be found in his VisionLogix art gallery.
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What’s Missing in the Intellectual Dark Web
Ken 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.
About Ken Wilber
Corey W. deVos is editor and producer of Integral Life. He has worked for Integral Institute/Integal Life since Spring of 2003, and has been a student of integral theory and practice since 1996. Corey is also a professional woodworker, and many of his artworks can be found in his VisionLogix art gallery.
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Is Free Will an Illusion?
In this episode of The Ken Show we explore one of the oldest and, in many ways, most profound and consequential philosophical questions in history: what is the nature of “free will”, and is it ultimately just an illusion?
About Ken Wilber
Corey W. deVos is editor and producer of Integral Life. He has worked for Integral Institute/Integal Life since Spring of 2003, and has been a student of integral theory and practice since 1996. Corey is also a professional woodworker, and many of his artworks can be found in his VisionLogix art gallery.
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How to Think Integrally
Ken and Corey explore some of the major qualities of integral thinking at the “vision logic” or “construct aware” stages of development.
About Ken Wilber
Corey W. deVos is editor and producer of Integral Life. He has worked for Integral Institute/Integal Life since Spring of 2003, and has been a student of integral theory and practice since 1996. Corey is also a professional woodworker, and many of his artworks can be found in his VisionLogix art gallery.
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The Intellectual Dark Web: An Integral View
Mark Forman and Robb Smith discuss the Intellectual Dark Web, the loose counter-cultural band of intellectuals recently profiled in the New York Times.
About Robb Smith
Corey W. deVos is editor and producer of Integral Life. He has worked for Integral Institute/Integal Life since Spring of 2003, and has been a student of integral theory and practice since 1996. Corey is also a professional woodworker, and many of his artworks can be found in his VisionLogix art gallery.
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The Stages of Leadership Maturity
Beena Sharma and Susanne Cook-Greuter offer a stunning overview of their Leadership Maturity Framework, which offers leaders, coaches, and change agents of all stripes a far more thorough understanding of human development and human potential, as well as a far more robust toolset to help others thrive at whatever stage of life they find themselves at.
About Susanne Cook-Greuter
Susanne Cook-Greuter is internationally known as the leading expert in mature ego development and self-actualization. She does ongoing research and development on the Sentence Completion Test. She leads trainings in the Leadership Development Framework and introductions and certification training for SCT-scorers. She collaborates with other consultant in bringing the developmental perspective into corporations and executive teams.
Her clients appreciate her for her dedication, creativity and joyful, subtle inquiry as well as for her profound knowledge of the adult development field.
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The Art of Evolving: What We Carry with Us, What We Leave Behind
Today Jeff and Corey respond to listener feedback, focused on how we evolve (both as individuals and as cultures) by “transcending and including” our previous stages of development. But, practically speaking, how do we know what to include and what to transcend?
About Jeff Salzman
Corey W. deVos is editor and producer of Integral Life. He has worked for Integral Institute/Integal Life since Spring of 2003, and has been a student of integral theory and practice since 1996. Corey is also a professional woodworker, and many of his artworks can be found in his VisionLogix art gallery.
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What NOW: What’s Sex Got To Do With It?
“The What NOW conference promises to be a real outpouring of creative information about new and Integral approaches to the world’s problems — environmental, economic, political, technological, spiritual, personal. I hope to see you there.”
About Ken Wilber
Corey W. deVos is editor and producer of Integral Life. He has worked for Integral Institute/Integal Life since Spring of 2003, and has been a student of integral theory and practice since 1996. Corey is also a professional woodworker, and many of his artworks can be found in his VisionLogix art gallery.
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The Many Ways We Touch
We 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.
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The Three Principles of Integral Thinking
Ken offers an in-depth summary of the three integrative principles, nonexclusion, enfoldment, and enactment, which he uncovered while putting together his Integral Methodological Pluralism framework — a robust meta-paradigmatic scaffolding that seeks to honor, include, and integrate multiple paradigms and methodologies and practices across all domains of human knowing.
About Ken Wilber
Corey W. deVos is editor and producer of Integral Life. He has worked for Integral Institute/Integal Life since Spring of 2003, and has been a student of integral theory and practice since 1996. Corey is also a professional woodworker, and many of his artworks can be found in his VisionLogix art gallery.
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Kosmic Address: Everything In Its Right Place
Ken Wilber explores the notion of Kosmic Address — a universal “indexing system” that uses the integral framework to situate and constellate all known phenomena (physical, mental, and spiritual), as well our capacity to discern that phenomena. This allows us to not only better understand the nature of each component part, but also how that part relates to every other part and fits into the whole, revealing the hidden architecture of knowledge itself.
About Ken Wilber
Corey W. deVos is editor and producer of Integral Life. He has worked for Integral Institute/Integal Life since Spring of 2003, and has been a student of integral theory and practice since 1996. Corey is also a professional woodworker, and many of his artworks can be found in his VisionLogix art gallery.
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The Four Faces of Truth
In 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.
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The Good, the True, and the Beautiful
Ken 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.
About Ken Wilber
Corey W. deVos is editor and producer of Integral Life. He has worked for Integral Institute/Integal Life since Spring of 2003, and has been a student of integral theory and practice since 1996. Corey is also a professional woodworker, and many of his artworks can be found in his VisionLogix art gallery.
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Integral Semiotics: The Language of Liberation
How 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.
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The Integral Vision
Integrative metatheory is arguably the only credible global philosophy of the 21st century. Ken Wilber’s The Integral Vision is one of the finest introductions to integrative thought and practice you can find.
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A Miracle Called “We”
How is it possible that you and I can come together, find resonance with each other, understand each other, even love each other, when we are each separate individuals that possess our own unique perspectives, our own diverse interpretations of reality, and our own unseen landscapes of interior consciousness? How on earth do you get in my mind, and I get in your mind, enough that we are in each other to the point that we both agree that we can each see what the other sees? However this happens, it is a miracle, an absolute, stunning, staggering miracle.
About Ken Wilber
Corey W. deVos is editor and producer of Integral Life. He has worked for Integral Institute/Integal Life since Spring of 2003, and has been a student of integral theory and practice since 1996. Corey is also a professional woodworker, and many of his artworks can be found in his VisionLogix art gallery.
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Being vs. Knowing: Ending the Debate Between Epistemology and Ontology
Ken Wilber offers a thorough examination of the classic philosophical conflicts between ontology and epistemology, while suggesting a way to seamlessly integrate the two and end this philosophical debate once and for all.
About Ken Wilber
Corey W. deVos is editor and producer of Integral Life. He has worked for Integral Institute/Integal Life since Spring of 2003, and has been a student of integral theory and practice since 1996. Corey is also a professional woodworker, and many of his artworks can be found in his VisionLogix art gallery.
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The Meaning of “2nd-person”
There 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.
About Ken Wilber
Corey W. deVos is editor and producer of Integral Life. He has worked for Integral Institute/Integal Life since Spring of 2003, and has been a student of integral theory and practice since 1996. Corey is also a professional woodworker, and many of his artworks can be found in his VisionLogix art gallery.
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Human 101: The Psychology of the Future
How can we formulate an approach to psychology that honors and embraces every legitimate aspect of human consciousness and pulls these multiple aspects together into a single coherent model of the human mind? Watch as Ken Wilber offers one of the finest and most complete summaries of an Integral approach to psychology he has ever recorded, while suggesting how a more comprehensive understanding of human consciousness can help shape a better, kinder, and more sustainable future.
About Ken Wilber
Corey W. deVos is editor and producer of Integral Life. He has worked for Integral Institute/Integal Life since Spring of 2003, and has been a student of integral theory and practice since 1996. Corey is also a professional woodworker, and many of his artworks can be found in his VisionLogix art gallery.
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Supermind and the Primordial Avoidance
Ken offers a fascinating preview of his upcoming book, The Religion of Tomorrow, where he describes the highest structure of conscious that has yet evolved — the all-pervading, all-embracing stage known as “Supermind” — making this one of the finest meditations on your own highest-possible self you could possibly ask for!
About Ken Wilber
Corey W. deVos is editor and producer of Integral Life. He has worked for Integral Institute/Integal Life since Spring of 2003, and has been a student of integral theory and practice since 1996. Corey is also a professional woodworker, and many of his artworks can be found in his VisionLogix art gallery.
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Allergies and Addictions: States of Consciousness
From the lowest depths to the highest peaks, there is no place our shadow will not follow us, even into the heart of nonduality itself. Listen as Ken Wilber offers a guided tour through the major states of consciousness described by all the world’s spiritual traditions, while pointing out the many ways that our shadows can impede or even sabotage our efforts to contact and stabilize these states.
About Ken Wilber
Corey W. deVos is editor and producer of Integral Life. He has worked for Integral Institute/Integal Life since Spring of 2003, and has been a student of integral theory and practice since 1996. Corey is also a professional woodworker, and many of his artworks can be found in his VisionLogix art gallery.
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From the Big Bang to the Big Three: The Evolution of the 3 Faces of Spirit
Ken Wilber takes us on a blistering guided tour through the evolution of the universe, describing how each of the “three faces of Spirit” has evolved from the Big Bang to this present moment.
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From Stardust to Supermind
Ken Wilber offers a substantive and far-reaching Q&A with some of his students — some of the “best and most difficult questions” that he’d received in quite a long time.
About Ken Wilber
Corey W. deVos is editor and producer of Integral Life. He has worked for Integral Institute/Integal Life since Spring of 2003, and has been a student of integral theory and practice since 1996. Corey is also a professional woodworker, and many of his artworks can be found in his VisionLogix art gallery.
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Tipping Points and the Eye of Contemplation
Ken Wilber explores the profound changes that occur when a newly-evolved set of visions, views, and values reaches a cultural tipping point and begin to saturate the rest of society. He then turns his attention to the question of how we come to know Spirit, and how that ‘knowing’ differs from other forms of knowledge.
About Ken Wilber
Corey W. deVos is editor and producer of Integral Life. He has worked for Integral Institute/Integal Life since Spring of 2003, and has been a student of integral theory and practice since 1996. Corey is also a professional woodworker, and many of his artworks can be found in his VisionLogix art gallery.
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The Shadow Vignettes: A Tale of Reintegration in Six Parts
Ken Wilber offers what’s got to be one of his most hilarious teachings to date. His focus is on shadow, but this time he adopts a more practice-oriented perspective, offering examples of shadow at each of six levels of development—featuring conversations with a stripper, a monster, a man burning in eternal flame, a radiant being, an oil tanker, and Gaia. As for what these conversations entail, you’ll just have to experience them yourself….
About Ken Wilber
Corey W. deVos is editor and producer of Integral Life. He has worked for Integral Institute/Integal Life since Spring of 2003, and has been a student of integral theory and practice since 1996. Corey is also a professional woodworker, and many of his artworks can be found in his VisionLogix art gallery.
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Consciousness Explained Better
Allan Combs, a pioneer of Integral thought and practice whose name may be familiar if you’ve ever heard of the “Wilber-Combs lattice”, speaks with Ken about a better way to explain the mystery of consciousness.
About Allan Combs
Allan Combs is a Professor of Transformative Studies at the California Institute of Integral Studies.and director of the Integral Focus of the doctoral program. His background is in consciousness studies, neuropsychology, and systems science. His recent book, Consciousness Explained Better, is available at major booksellers everywhere.
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States, Stages, and the Three Kinds of Self
Ken Wilber discusses the three kinds of self: the False Self (the broken or illusory self image), the Actual Self (the “authentic” or healthily-integrated self at any particular stage of development), and the Real Self (the timeless Self behind and beyond all manifestation).
About Ken Wilber
Corey W. deVos is editor and producer of Integral Life. He has worked for Integral Institute/Integal Life since Spring of 2003, and has been a student of integral theory and practice since 1996. Corey is also a professional woodworker, and many of his artworks can be found in his VisionLogix art gallery.
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Stairway to Heaven: Honoring Dr. James Fowler
Integral Institute paid a formal tribute to Dr. James W. Fowler’s extraordinary body of work, an incredibly moving 2-hour presentation of Dr. Fowler’s body of work led by Rollie Stanich, with additional commentary by Ken Wilber.
About Rollie Stanich
Rollie has played a vital part in the emerging Integral movement as the Chief Facillitator of Integral Spiritual Center, as a former managing editor of Integral Naked from 2004-2005, and as an ongoing contributor to Integral Life. Rollie's spiritual path is that of contemplative Christianity—he is a practitioner of Centering Prayer and a longtime student of Fr. Thomas Keating.