Pioneers in an Integral Approach

Below is an excerpt from the book Integral Psychology (2000), by Ken Wilber – kindly provided by the folks at Integral Life:

Some Important Modern Pioneers: Baldwin, Habermas, Aurobindo, and Maslow

by Ken Wilber

What I would like to do in this section is introduce several modern pioneers in an integral approach, an approach that, in important ways attempts to be "all-quadrant, all-level." What all of these pioneers have in common is that they were fully cognizant of the important differentiations of modernity, and therefore they were increasingly aware of the ways in which science could supplement (not replace) religion, spirituality, and psychology. All of them, as we will see, used modern discoveries in the Big Three to elucidate the Great Nest.

Early modern pioneers of an integral approach abound, such as Goethe, Schelling, Hegel, Fechner, and James. The early pioneers increasingly had access to scientific data on evolution, and thus increasingly understood something about the Great Nest that the premodern pioneers usually did not: it shows development not just in individuals, but in the species; not just ontogenetically, but phylogenetically. In this century, although pioneers also abound-from Steiner to Whitehead to Gebser - I would like particularly to mention James Mark Baldwin, Jurgen Habermas, Sri Aurobindo, and Abraham Maslow.

Read More: Here

- thanks to William at IOC for bringing this to our attention.

Geography and Emergence

The Broadest Pattern of Human History

By Jared Diamond

As world travel developed in recent centuries from 1492 onward, it quickly became obvious that peoples with very different economies, technologies, and political organizations coexisted in the modern world. At one extreme were the large Iron Age states occupying much of Europe, Asia (except Siberia), and North Africa, plus the smaller Iron Age states of West Africa. Comparable in political organization, but lacking in iron technology, were the Inca Empire of the Andes and the Aztec state of Mexico.

The range of societies continued through the Neolithic settled chiefdoms of other parts of the Americas and Polynesia, with some of those societies (such as Polynesian Hawaii and the Mississippian civilization of Indian North America) verging on the level of states. The list went on to the Neolithic tribal farming societies of New Guinea and the remainder of the New World and concluded with the hunter-gatherers of the Arctic, Australia, and scattered areas of the Americas, Africa, and Asia.

This snapshot of the diverse world as of 1492 was subsequently illuminated by archaeologists, who obtained in effect a series of snapshots at earlier times. It then became clear that the geographic differences among human societies as of 1492 resulted from differences, extending back over at least 10,000 years, in the dates of first appearance of developments such as stone tool grinding, metallurgy, pottery, and plant and animal domestication. For example, mass production of copper tools, which was beginning to be widespread in the Andes in the centuries before 1492, was already spreading in parts of Eurasia 5,000 years before that. The stone technology of the Tasmanians, when first encountered by literate observers in 1642, was simpler than that of Upper Paleolithic Europe tens of thousands of years earlier.

The collisions among these disparate peoples shaped the modern world through conquest, epidemics, and genocide. These collisions set up reverberations that have still not died down after many centuries and that are being played out in some of the most troubled areas of the world today (such as South Africa and the former Soviet Union).

In the present essay, I shall explore the hypothesis that these differences between human societies resulted not from differences between the peoples themselves, but from effects of environment and geography - that is, from contrasts between the real estate that different peoples inherited. Two caveats are necessary at the outset, since many people may initially consider this topic an unfit one for polite discussion. First, this whole subject stinks of racism, because nineteenth-century Europeans explained the observed geographic differences in complexity of human societies in terms of supposed parallel differences among peoples in their mental abilities.

Despite much effort to document these supposed differences, no sound supporting evidence has been forthcoming. Available evidence even supports the reverse conclusion.

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JARED DIAMOND is Professor of Geography at UCLA. He is the author of the recently published Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Guns, Germs, and Steel: the Fates of Human Societies. Dr. Diamond is also the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship - "Genius Award".

Crunching the Numbers

Good Magazine takes a look at some of the numbers that had an impact this past year. Sometimes statistical knowledge helps frame the kinds stories we all need to hear.

State of the World Forum

From Integral Life:

State of the World Forum: An Integral Approach to Climate Change

Longtime friends and collaborators Ken Wilber, founder of Integral Institute and Integral Life, and Jim Garrison, founder of the State of the World Forum with Mikhail Gorbachev, have teamed up to present the Forum’s 2009 Washington D.C. conference: "Saving Civilization: An Integral Approach to Climate Change and the Global Commons."

As Ken and Jim agree, by looking through a truly AQAL-integral lens, this three-day gathering could change the way thought-leaders and policy-makers worldwide engage the global concern of climate change. With over thirty speakers, and half a dozen of them hailing from the Integral academic world, this promises to be a world-class event.

For more information, click here

What Will Change Everything?

Every year, John Brockman – creator of the nonprofit Edge Foundation in New York -- asks a gaggle of forward-thinking people a provocative question. This year’s question: "What will change everything?"

Writer David Bodanis suggests that some kind of massive technological failure would be game-changing. Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence, says that reinventing industry to have less impact on the environment will alter the way we live. And Sherry Turkle, a psychologist at MIT, looks forward to the day when robots will serve as companions to humans.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi predicts the end of analytic science - the realization that it is more important to understand events, objects, and processes in their relationship with each other than in their singular structure. Western science has achieved wonders with its analytic focus, but it is now time to take synthesis seriously.

And Joel Garreau, a staff writer at The Washington Post and author of Radical Evolution:

"Financially, politically, climatically and technologically, the ground is moving beneath our feet. Our narratives of how the world works are not matching the facts. Yet humans are pattern-seeking, story-telling animals. Human beings cannot endure emptiness and desolation. We will always fill such a vacuum with meaning."

From the Edge.org website:

New tools equal new perceptions.

Through science we create technology and in using our new tools we recreate ourselves. But until very recently in our history, no democratic populace, no legislative body, ever indicated by choice, by vote, how this process should play out.

Nobody ever voted for printing. Nobody ever voted for electricity. Nobody ever voted for radio, the telephone, the automobile, the airplane, television. Nobody ever voted for penicillin, antibiotics, the pill. Nobody ever voted for space travel, massively parallel computing, nuclear power, the personal computer, the Internet, email, cell phones, the Web, Google, cloning, sequencing the entire human genome. We are moving towards the redefinition of life, to the edge of creating life itself. While science may or may not be the only news, it is the news that stays news.

Read More Answers: Here

Personally, I think that our current pathological economic systems will continue to collapse, and that advances in many areas of science will prove to be intensively profound. What do you think?

Ken Wilber - The JKF Weekend 2003

In 2003, philosopher Ken Wilber sat down with students from JFK University and talked about his work and answered questions on the nature and application of his AQAL theory.

Below is just a sample of audio recordings from that weekend. Find more audio links at Formless Mountain. Enjoy:

1. Introduction (5:24)
2. How to use your mind here (5:46)
3. Ken's health and his interpretations (6:02)
4. Stages & States with David Deida (8.21)
5. The Integral Institute, integralnaked.com, and Multiplex (6:10)
6. What are you passionate about in your writing? (4:03)
7. Finding a gifted spiritual teacher (15:18)
8. Social holons or heaps? (8:33)
9. Boomeritis, MGM, and going integral (8:53)
10. Integral politics (5:56)

More: Here

More Ken Wilber audio: - The JKF Weekend 2002

The Intersubjective Worlds of Science and Religion

The Intersubjective Worlds of Science and Religion

By B. Alan Wallace

Science is often characterized as providing objective knowledge of the world as it exists independently of consciousness, whereas the humanities in general, and religion in particular, pertain to human experience. In this way, science is commonly viewed as being "objective," whereas religion is "subjective."

In contrast to this popular idea, in this paper I shall argue that both scientific and religious truths cover a spectrum in terms of their invariance across multiple cognitive frames of reference. A highly objective truth, for instance, is one that is invariant across a wide range of cognitive frames of reference, including different modes of observation and different types of conceptual frameworks. A highly subjective truth, on the other hand, is one that is valid only for a very limited range of cognitive frames of reference.

Following this model of intersubjective frames of reference, the validity of a truth-claim is tested, not in reference to some purely objective realm of existence, independent of all modes of inquiry, but in reference to multiple modes of perceptual and conceptual knowledge. With this criterion of truth, both scientific and religious modes of knowledge are seen to be inextricably embedded in human experience. Moreover, following this model, human consciousness--so long omitted from the scientific worldview--is seen to play a central role in both the natural world of science as well as the world of religious truths.

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B. ALAN WALLACE is a Buddhist Monk ordained by H. H. the Dalai Lama in 1975, and holds a Ph.D. in religious studies from Stanford University. He has lectured and taught on Buddhism and the philosophy of mind for over 30 years. Wallace is currently the founder and president of the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies.

Integral Theory and Mapmaking

A General Introduction to Integral Theory and Comprehensive Mapmaking

By Sean M. Saiter

While attempting to keep to the larger vision of integral studies as a whole I shall be proposing a rudimentary outline of an underlying assertion primarily based upon the works of Ken Wilber, Jean Gebser, Don Beck and Christopher Cowan (based on the work of Clare Graves), and Mark B. Woodhouse. Robert Kegan, Howard Gardner, James Mark Baldwin, Susan Cook-Greuter, and Carol Gilligan are influences working in the background.

Perhaps the most important thing to keep in mind when trying to understand integral studies as a field is that a fundamental, underlying message in Wilber's, Graves', Beck's, Gebser's, and Woodhouse's work is that we are currently in a pivotal transition from one age to another.

The idea, and this is a rather popular idea, is that we are in the throes of a rather deep and penetrating shift in collective consciousness complete with its own once-in-a-lifetime phenomena. In my humble opinion, the works exemplified in this essay are among the most sophisticated, timely, and comprehensive manifestations of this general perception of global transformation.

The main function of this essay is to serve as a preliminary introduction to the new field of integral studies by looking into four particular theorists. Three of these, Wilber, Beck, and Gebser, are highly influential and central to the field. This has much to do with Wilber's highly influential work. Woodhouse, on the other hand, exemplifies an "outsider" perspective yet remains, I believe just as inclusive.

This is an argument for the validity of the integral approach and a call to awareness about the transition that is represents. By proposing a context for the field within the boundaries of the common underlying message of a profound shift in human consciousness, we can come to a greater comprehension of what can be considered to be among the most refined manifestations of human potential to date.

Read More: Here

SEAN M. SAITER is a doctoral student in the Residential Doctoral program in Transpersonal Psychology at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto, California. The image above is original artwork by Sean Saiter - All Rights Reserved.

Self Awareness: the Last Frontier

Self Awareness: the Last Frontier

By V.S. Ramachandran

One of the last remaining problems in science is the riddle of consciousness. The human brain—a mere lump of jelly inside your cranial vault—can contemplate the vastness of interstellar space and grapple with concepts such as zero and infinity. Even more remarkably it can ask disquieting questions about the meaning of its own existence. "Who am I" is arguably the most fundamental of all questions.

It really breaks down into two problems—the problem of qualia and the problem of the self. My colleagues, the late Francis Crick and Christof Koch have done a valuable service in pointing out that consciousness might be an empirical rather than philosophical problem, and have offered some ingenious suggestions. But I would disagree with their position that the qualia problem is simpler and should be addressed first before we tackle the "Self." I think the very opposite is true. I have every confidence that the problem of self will be solved within the lifetimes of most people reading this column. But not qualia.

Read More: Here

V.S. RAMACHANDRAN is a Neuroscientist, Director, Center for Brain and Cognition, University of California, San Diego; Author, Phantoms in the Brain.

Capra and Prigogine on a Systems View of Life

Fritjof Capra (1939) is a theoretical physicist best known for his bestselling book The Tao of Physics. Capra has done extensive research on particle physics, human ecology and systems theory.

In this lecture, Capra outlines the new understanding of life that is now emerging at the forefront of science. This ‘web of life’ conception is based on systemic thinking and the innovative concepts and mathematical techniques of complexity theory. Capra argues that a systems perspective of evolution allows us to integrate our understanding of the biological, cognitive, and social dimensions of life.

Yet, some have argued that his theoretical view is inherently reductionist and does not take into account the intangible and qualitative nature of consciousness-as-such. Of course, you can judge for yourself.

Ilya Prigogine (1917–2003) was a renowned Belgian chemist noted for his work on dissipative structures, complex systems, and irreversibility. Prigogine is known best for his theories of thermodynamic systems far from equilibrium, which won him the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1977.

Prigogine’s work on 'dissipative structures’ led to pioneering research in self-organizing systems, as well as philosophic inquiries into the formation of complexity of biological entities, and the quest for a creative and irreversible role of time in the natural sciences. His work is seen by many as a bridge between natural sciences and social sciences.

Below is an interview with Ilya Prigogine where he describes his understanding of the kosmos as a emergent, living, fluctuating, mysterious reality.

Living in the Moment

We live in the age of distraction. Yet one of life's sharpest paradoxes is that our future hinges on our ability to pay attention to the present. Living in the moment -- also called mindfulness -- is a state of active, open, intentional attention on the present. Mindfulness involves being with your thoughts as they are, neither grasping at them nor pushing them away. Instead of letting your life go by without living it, you awaken to experience.

Research confirms the benefits: it reduces stress, boosts immune functioning, reduces chronic pain, lowers blood pressure, and helps patients cope with cancer. Mindful people are happier, more exuberant, more empathetic, and more secure. In this in-depth Psychology Today article, Jay Dixit shares six helpful tips for living in the moment:

The Art of Now: Six Steps to Living in the Moment
By Jay Dixit

A friend was walking in the desert when he found the telephone to God. The setting
was Burning Man, an electronic arts and music festival for which 50,000 people descend on Black Rock City, Nevada, for eight days of "radical self-expression"—dancing, socializing, meditating, and debauchery.

A phone booth in the middle of the desert with a sign that said "Talk to God" was a surreal sight even at Burning Man. The idea was that you picked up the phone, and God—or someone claiming to be God—would be at the other end to ease your pain.

So when God came on the line asking how he could help, my friend was ready. "How can I live more in the moment?" he asked. Too often, he felt, the beautiful moments of his life were drowned out by a cacophony of self-consciousness and anxiety. What could he do to hush the buzzing of his mind?

"Breathe," replied a soothing male voice.

My friend flinched at the tired new-age mantra, then reminded himself to keep an open mind. When God talks, you listen.

"Whenever you feel anxious about your future or your past, just breathe," continued God. "Try it with me a few times right now. Breathe in… breathe out." And despite himself, my friend began to relax.

Read More: Here