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21st century Integral Metatheory

The Fourth Turning: A Sacred Revolution Begins

The Fourth Turning: A Sacred Revolution Begins

In this visionary keynote, John Churchill explores the collision between exponential technological power and humanity’s lack of spiritual maturity, warning that without sacred initiation, our civilization risks becoming the sorcerer’s apprentice—enchanted by tools we cannot control. But alongside this Fourth Industrial Revolution, he reveals a parallel awakening: a Fourth Turning of consciousness, where psychedelics, contemplative traditions, and the science of the heart converge to birth a planetary culture rooted in coherence, compassion, and soul.
The Sacred Mandala of Being: A Spiritual Journey with Kabir Kadre

The Sacred Mandala of Being: A Spiritual Journey with Kabir Kadre

What if awakening isn’t the absence of limitation, but the presence of love within it? In this luminous dialogue, Kabir Kadre and Lama Kimberley Lafferty explore the path of embodied realization — where vulnerability becomes a teacher, the body becomes a mandala, and compassion becomes the clearest expression of truth.

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The Highest Stages of Human Flourishing

The Highest Stages of Human Flourishing

Keith Martin-Smith and Alexander Love explore Terry O'Fallon's STAGES model of human development, focusing on the rarely-discussed MetAware tier where transpersonal awareness becomes a structural feature of consciousness, leading to the dissolution of boundaries and recognition that all meaning is constructed.
Cybernetics and the Intelligence of Love

Cybernetics and the Intelligence of Love

Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVos explore how cybernetics — the science of self-correcting systems — reveals the hidden logic of love, power, trauma, and societal evolution. Through the lens of integral theory, they trace feedback loops across all dimensions of life, showing how everything from personal healing to political dysfunction is shaped by the quality of communication and coherence in our systems.
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Journal of Integral Theory & Practice

How to Connect with Your Students: An Integral Approach to Higher Education

How to Connect with Your Students: An Integral Approach to Higher Education

This article explores why focusing on the subject matter alone in the student/teacher relationship is a restrictive and non-comprehensive approach to higher education. Such a narrowly focused relationship seems to impede the overall health and development of both the teacher and student. The process of avoiding so much of our lives “to teach” leaves many dissatisfied and thirsting for something deeper and more whole.
Integral Diversity Maturity: Toward a Postconventional Understanding of Diversity Dynamics

Integral Diversity Maturity: Toward a Postconventional Understanding of Diversity Dynamics

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.
What Feels Right: An Embodied Perspective on the Ethical Line of Development

What Feels Right: An Embodied Perspective on the Ethical Line of Development

This 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...
Developmental Engagement Field Theory

Developmental Engagement Field Theory

This 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.
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All-Time Classics: The Best Of Integral Life

In this section you will find a curated sampling of some of the very best practices, perspectives and presentations available in the Integral Life archives. Spanning over 15 years of publishing, these resources are invaluable for anyone who looking to wake up, grow up, clean up, and show up more fully in your life and in the world.

Starfleet Values Are Integral Values

Starfleet Values Are Integral Values

Today Jeff is joined by fellow integral nerds Cindy Wigglesworth and Corey deVos in this integral appreciation of the venerable Star Trek franchise. Open hailing frequencies, set phasers to stun, and prepare to boldly go where no Star Trek review has gone before.
Beyond the Nation-State: Globalism, Plutocracy, and the Integral World Federation

Beyond the Nation-State: Globalism, Plutocracy, and the Integral World Federation

Ken and Corey explore how today’s transnational challenges and realities may be hastening humanity’s eventual growth toward increasingly inclusive and global forms of governance, what government might look like at the level of the global holon, and how we might actually be able to get there from here.
On Being Human: A Reflection

On Being Human: A Reflection

In this deeply touching keynote address, Susanne Cook-Greuter offers a personal account on what truly matters in life, beyond one's stage of ego development.
The Meaning of the Earth

The Meaning of the Earth

What is our purpose? Why are we here? What does the Earth need from us? Listen as Jacob and Ken take an in-depth look at The Unknown World, framing man's role on the planet in a completely new and fresh way and moving beyond the usual environmental concerns to reveal how the care and maintenance of a...
Transforming Trauma Into Resilience

Transforming Trauma Into Resilience

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

Practice the Wound of Love

Watch as Ken and Corey explore the ongoing unfoldment of love along the paths of Waking Up, Growing Up, Opening Up, Cleaning Up, and Showing Up. What follows is one of the most powerful, transformative, and touching conversations that Ken Wilber has ever recorded.
Kosmos: An Integral Voyage

Kosmos: An Integral Voyage

Ken Wilber and Corey deVos ponder the evolutionary mysteries of the universe, speculating on how abundant life might be in the kosmos, why we haven’t met any of our galactic neighbors yet, and what might happen if a UFO landed on the White House lawn. It’s a fun conversation — and one that takes its subject...
Learn Integral by Watching Movies (and Playing Video Games!)

Learn Integral by Watching Movies (and Playing Video Games!)

Take 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.
Centering Prayer: Its History and Importance

Centering Prayer: Its History and Importance

Distilled from the profound teachings of the Christian contemplative heritage, Centering Prayer has aimed to bring a living spirituality into an age where God is typically reduced to the New-Age vicissitudes of emotionality, if not simply pronounced dead. Listen as Fr. Thomas Keating and Ken Wilber discuss the remarkable history and importance of Centering Prayer.
Searching for Wisdom in the 21st Century

Searching for Wisdom in the 21st Century

Climate change, wealth inequality, ideological polarization, terrorism, religious radicalization — these are some of the truly wicked problems of the world. And none of our most pressing global challenges can be navigated or overcome without a momentous leap of collective wisdom, as well as a commensurate increase in our ability to recognize and leverage that wisdom....
On the Front Line of the Culture War — Give Me Some Real Examples, Not Just Theories!

On the Front Line of the Culture War — Give Me Some Real Examples, Not Just Theories!

Watch as Ken and Corey offer their views on some of the most controversial policy debates of our time, each of which has become a battle line in our constantly escalating culture wars.
A Heart Blown Open: A Tale of Enlightenment, Debauchery, and Infinite Jest

A Heart Blown Open: A Tale of Enlightenment, Debauchery, and Infinite Jest

In this provocative and exhilarating dialogue, Jun Po Roshi and Ken Wilber take an in-depth look at Keith Martin-Smith's new book: A Heart Blown Open: The Life and Practice of Zen Master Jun Po Denis Kelly Roshi. For most of us, we would need to reincarnate at least 50 times in order to attain such an...
Race, Rooted Cosmopolitanism, and Hope in the 21st Century

Race, Rooted Cosmopolitanism, and Hope in the 21st Century

The political storm that has visited the United States over the past few years have exposed a number of crises: cultural, political, and environmental. One of these crises is our society's ongoing struggles with how we define and treat one another according to our ideas of "race." The moment is ripe for bringing together healthier understandings...
Star Trek: Discovery and the Moral Arc of the Universe

Star Trek: Discovery and the Moral Arc of the Universe

The 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.
Hardcore Spirit: Wisdom for a New Generation

Hardcore Spirit: Wisdom for a New Generation

Chris Grosso and Ken Wilber explore a radical new evolution of the spiritual life — one that is so all-inclusive, nothing gets left out. So all-embracing, it literally has no opposite. So all-pervading, even sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll can find their rightful place on the altar of transformation. This is not your grandma's spirituality....
No Boundary: A Union of Opposites

No Boundary: A Union of Opposites

Ken 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.
The Integral Artist

The Integral Artist

The creator of some of the most transcendent art of our time explores why it is necessary to go beyond the faded postmodern milieu of today's art world, how psychedelics can play a role in discovering and manifesting one's deeper realms of being, and how the "two kinds of higher" can impact artists and their work.
Empty Spaces: Liberation Upon Hearing

Empty Spaces: Liberation Upon Hearing

Empty Spaces is an 80-minute musical meditation, featuring Alex Grey, Ken Wilber, Sally Kempton, and Alan Watts. A soundtrack for Dark Nights. Liberation upon hearing.
The Gift of Contemplation

The Gift of Contemplation

Father Thomas Keating offers a detailed account of the conditions that catalyzed a massive reawakening of Christian contemplative practice in the late 20th century.
Technology, Evolution, and God: Exploring the Technium

Technology, Evolution, and God: Exploring the Technium

Wired magazine's own "Senior Maverick" talks with Ken Wilber about some of the ideas behind Kevin's blog The Technium, which explores the various ways humanity defines and redefines itself through the interface of science, technology, culture, and consciousness. Kevin also shares some of his own thoughts about the role of spirituality in the 21st century, going...
Perls of Wisdom: Introflection, Retroflection, and Other Games People Play

Perls of Wisdom: Introflection, Retroflection, and Other Games People Play

Ken Wilber offers insight into the high-level features of two major therapeutic approaches, the role that a defense called "retroflection" plays in the process of projection, and some of the ways in which we can objectify the role-based psychological games we play while interacting with each other.
Transforming Trauma Into Resilience

Transforming Trauma Into Resilience

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

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.
Does Quantum Physics Prove God?

Does Quantum Physics Prove God?

This conversation sheds clarity on a very confused notion in the area of spirituality today—namely, the "tao of physics" and all its variations, as exemplified by the recent film What the Bleep. So what relationship, if any, does God actually have with quantum physics?
Integral Epistemology

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...
Dream Yoga: Open Your Doors of Perception

Dream Yoga: Open Your Doors of Perception

Andrew Holecek talks to David Riordan about his new Dream Yoga teachings, presenting an opportunity to develop a liberating flexibility in your identity, transforming your very sense of Self, and exploring your mind in new and creative ways.

Helping you make sense of everything with the world’s most comprehensive philosophy

Humanity is entering the Transformation Age, a new era of human civilization, with Integral Consciousness rising at its leading edge. We help you learn to use Integral Philosophy so you can shape the future that’s emerging.

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Who Is Ken Wilber?

Often referred to as the "Einstein of consciousness studies", Ken Wilber is a preeminent scholar of the Integral stage of human development. He is the originator of the world's first truly comprehensive or integrative philosophy, aptly named “Integral Theory” — something that is becoming increasingly necessary in order to navigate and thrive in today’s world.

“I have one major rule: Everybody is right. More specifically, everybody — including me — has some important pieces of truth, and all of those pieces need to be honored, cherished, and included in a more gracious, spacious, and compassionate embrace.” – Ken Wilber

Learn more about Ken Wilber

Kosmic Creativity: How to Manifest a Universe

Kosmic Creativity: How to Manifest a Universe

Ken Wilber explains how we can connect with the creative spark at the core of every moment, and how we can harness that creativity to manifest our own unique vision and purpose in our lives.
Divine Pride and the Integral Movement

Divine Pride and the Integral Movement

"Divine Pride" is a simple recognition of our holy heritage, and an acknowledgement of the tremendous responsibility that comes along with this recognition. This is not the braggadocio of a new age narcissist — it is a pride stripped of all arrogance, tempered by humility, and held with unwavering devotion to an intelligence infinitely greater than our own.
The Four Quadrants: A Guided Tour

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.
The Baby and the Bathwater: Saving Liberalism

The Baby and the Bathwater: Saving Liberalism

In this episode of The Ken Show we explore five themes near and dear to the liberal heart — tolerance, nonviolence, power, privilege, and gender — celebrating the healthy aspects of each that we want to include in a more integral embrace, while weeding out the unhealthy regressive narratives that most of these have devolved into.
To the Best of Our Knowledge: Science, Spirituality, and the Future of Technology

To the Best of Our Knowledge: Science, Spirituality, and the Future of Technology

In 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.
On the Front Line of the Culture War — Give Me Some Real Examples, Not Just Theories!

On the Front Line of the Culture War — Give Me Some Real Examples, Not Just Theories!

Watch as Ken and Corey offer their views on some of the most controversial policy debates of our time, each of which has become a battle line in our constantly escalating culture wars.
Growing Up: A Guided Tour

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...
Wicked Problems: Gun Violence

Wicked Problems: Gun Violence

In this exclusive series, Ken and Corey take an in-depth look at America’s ongoing struggle with gun violence, using the four quadrants to track many of the most critical and commonly-blamed factors, conditions, and causes that seem to be contributing to this terribly wicked problem.
Integral Critical Theory: The 8 Zones of Racism

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...
Integrating Shadow

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.
To the Best of Our Knowledge: Science, Spirituality, and the Future of Technology

To the Best of Our Knowledge: Science, Spirituality, and the Future of Technology

In 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.
Integral Critical Theory: The 8 Zones of Racism

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...
Divine Pride and the Integral Movement

Divine Pride and the Integral Movement

"Divine Pride" is a simple recognition of our holy heritage, and an acknowledgement of the tremendous responsibility that comes along with this recognition. This is not the braggadocio of a new age narcissist — it is a pride stripped of all arrogance, tempered by humility, and held with unwavering devotion to an intelligence infinitely greater than our own.
The Four Quadrants: A Guided Tour

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.
Growing Up: A Guided Tour

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...
Kosmic Creativity: How to Manifest a Universe

Kosmic Creativity: How to Manifest a Universe

Ken Wilber explains how we can connect with the creative spark at the core of every moment, and how we can harness that creativity to manifest our own unique vision and purpose in our lives.

In Case You Missed It

Ann Coulter’s Piece of the Truth: Critiquing Trump From the Right

Ann Coulter’s Piece of the Truth: Critiquing Trump From the Right

We in integral land often say stuff like “everyone is right” and “no one is capable of being wrong 100% of the time.” But what about Ann Coulter? What is her piece of the truth? Listen to find out!
The 3-2-1 Shadow Process: Face It, Talk to It, Be It

The 3-2-1 Shadow Process: Face It, Talk to It, Be It

A crucial aspect of any integral practice is a way to be profoundly honest with ourselves about our shadow, or unconscious, or false self, or dishonesty, or disowned self. The 3-2-1 Process is a simple and effective tool for working with the shadow — any part of ourselves that we unconsciously repress or deny.
Race, Rooted Cosmopolitanism, and Hope in the 21st Century

Race, Rooted Cosmopolitanism, and Hope in the 21st Century

The political storm that has visited the United States over the past few years have exposed a number of crises: cultural, political, and environmental. One of these crises is our society's ongoing struggles with how we define and treat one another according to our ideas of "race." The moment is ripe for bringing together healthier understandings of ethnic identity that can replace the largely toxic idea of race from our...
Integral Without Borders: International Development in a Post-Trump World

Integral Without Borders: International Development in a Post-Trump World

How might the integral framework help facilitate healthy growth and sustainabilty in developing societies around the planet? Gail Hochachka and Paul van Schaik talk to Ken Wilber about how Integral Without Borders is actively working to meet people's struggles and challenges head-on and help them to gain more perspective and better adapt to their present circumstances. Gail, Paul, and Ken also discuss the earth-shaking election of Donald Trump, the social...
The 8 Horizons of Love

The 8 Horizons of Love

In this episode of Witt and Wisdom, Corey deVos introduces a comprehensive relationships framework he is currently developing, designed to help partners navigate the staggering complexity of our relationships — whether romantic, familial, or platonic. Corey highlights the eight fundamental territories or horizons within which all relationships unfold, detailing the common factors, everyday examples, key questions, common challenges, and the risks of neglecting each of these horizons.
Overflowing Purpose: An Inside Look

Overflowing Purpose: An Inside Look

In this short 14-minute video, we give you an exclusive inside look at Overflowing Purpose, a transformative new course that brings together renowned thinkers like Ken Wilber, John Vervaeke, Robb Smith, Cindy Wigglesworth, Gail Hochachka, Peter Merry, Greg Thomas, and others to address the complex challenges of our time — and your unique role in meeting those challenges.
The Seven Deadly Sins of DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion)

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

Join Keith Martin-Smith as we question whether DEI initiatives are achieving their intended goals of increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion, or whether they may be perpetuating any number of unseen biases that take us further away from those shared goals. Are we oversimplifying the narrative around privilege and diversity? How do factors like poverty impact issues like police violence? How might we rethink and reshape the DEI discourse, moving towards...
Hope for the Christian Contemplative Movement

Hope for the Christian Contemplative Movement

In celebration of Father Thomas Keating’s life and his tireless effort to help people discover their innermost intersection with divinity, we invite you to watch the following free video where he shares some of his own hopes for the future unfolding of contemplative christianity.

Integral Life is a member-driven digital media community that supports the growth, education and application of Integral Philosophy and integrative metatheory to complex issues in the 21st century. Integral Life offers perspectives, practices, analysis and community to help people grow into the full capacities of integral consciousness in order to thrive in a rapidly-evolving world.

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