A New Overview of AQAL Integral Theory

Integral Life and ecologist Sean Esbjorn-Hargens have published a new introduction to philosopher Ken Wilber’s AQAL Integral Theory. This new introduction purports to be an ‘up to date’ summary of Wilber’s theory – and is oriented towards helping people approaching integral theory for the first time.

From the author: “Our hope is that this new introduction will help fill this gap, and offer individuals another resource to help communicate the basics of integral theory. This introduction is also written in a way that even seasoned integral practitioners will find illuminating, with new details of integral theory being explored.”

Read this new introduction below:

An All-Inclusive Framework for the 21st Century: An Overview of Integral Theory

By Sean Esbjorn-Hargens

The world has never been so complex as it is right now—it is mind boggling and at times emotionally overwhelming. Not to mention, the world only seems to get more complex and cacophonous as we confront the major problems of our day: extreme religious fundamentalism, environmental degradation, failing education systems, existential alienation, and volatile financial markets. Never have there been so many disciplines and worldviews to consider and consult in addressing these issues: a cornucopia of perspectives. But without a way of linking, leveraging, correlating, and aligning these perspectives, their contribution to the problems we face are largely lost or compromised.

We are now part of a global community and we need a framework—global in vision yet also anchored in the minutiae of our daily lives—that can hold the variety of valid perspectives that have something to offer our individual efforts and collective solution building.

In 1977 American philosopher Ken Wilber published his first book, The Spectrum of Consciousness. This groundbreaking book integrated the major schools of psychology along a continuum of increasing complexity, with different schools focused on various levels within that spectrum. Over the next 30 years he continued with this integrative impulse, writing books in areas such as cultural anthropology, philosophy, sociology of religion, physics, healthcare, environmental studies, science and religion, and postmodernism.

To date, Wilber has published over two dozen books and in the process has created integral theory. Wilber’s books have been translated into more than 24 languages, which gives you an idea as to the global reach and utility of integral theory. Since its inception by Wilber, integral theory has become one of the foremost approaches within the larger fields of integral studies and meta-theory. This prominent role is in large part the result of the wide range of applications that integral theory has proven itself efficaious in as well as the work of many scholar-practitioners who have and are contributing to the further development of integral theory.

Integral theory weaves together the significant insights from all the major human disciplines of knowledge, including the natural and social sciences as well as the arts and humanities. As a result of its comprehensive nature, integral theory is being used in over 35 distinct academic and professional fields such as art, healthcare, organizational management, ecology, congregational ministry, economics, psychotherapy, law, and feminism. In addition, integral theory has been used to develop an approach to personal transformation and integration called Integral Life Practice (ILP).

The ILP framework allows individuals to systematically explore and develop multiple aspects of themselves such as their physical body, emotional intelligence, cognitive awareness, interpersonal relationships, and spiritual wisdom. Because integral theory systematically includes more of reality and interrelates it more thoroughly than any other current approach to assessment and solution building, it has the potential to be more successful in dealing with the complex problems we face in the 21st century.

Read the entire PDF: Here

The Financial Crisis, Climate Change and Energy

In January 2007, The London School of Economics launched its first public podcasting project: 'Public lectures and events: podcasts'. Those interested can browse the podcasts by year and month – or subscribe to the RSS feed.

Here is one of many interesting lectures offered by their website:

LSE Podcast: The Financial Crisis, Climate Change and Energy

Speaker: Prof. Anthony Giddens

Political action and intervention, on local, national and international levels, is going to have a decisive effect on whether or not we can limit global warming, as well as how we adapt to that already occurring. At the moment, however, Anthony Giddens argues controversially, we do not have a systematic politics of climate change.

This event was recorded on 28 February 2009 in Sheikh Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building.

Available as: mp3 (approx 75 minutes)
Event Posting: The Financial Crisis, Climate Change and Energy

Personal to Planetary Transformations

Personal to Planetary Transformation

By Monica Sharma

We are living in a time of whole system transition on a personal and planetary scale that affects every aspect of life as we know it. Patterns of possibility are emerging that have never before been available to all the earth's people and to the whole planet. Two million organisations are working toward ecological sustainability and social justice, according to Paul Hawken. Millions of individuals are self-organising to make a better world in spite of the negative factors that threaten to destroy us.

Technological innovations and collective wisdom have created unprecedented opportunities for change. The revolution in communication technologies and the Internet have made it possible to connect all people in the world for the first time in human history. The new science of consciousness is revolutionizing our attitudes and worldviews, and the interdependence of all life is now an established scientific fact.

Yet, in 2007 three billion people barely manage to eke out an existence. Poverty, malnutrition, lack of employment and inadequate shelter, combined with an ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor, have resulted in human suffering and violence on a massive scale. Almost a billion people live on less than a dollar a day. Each day is a life-and-death struggle for those faced with chronic hunger, illness and environmental hazards in a world that has enough food to feed everyone, the money to tackle disease, and the power to make decisions to create a hazard-free environment. Over 40 countries are scarred by violent conflict. Three million people die of AIDS every year, and 40 million live with the virus. Some 115 million children of primary school age are denied schooling. At least 180 million children are engaged in the worst forms of child labour; there are some 300,000 child soldiers; 1.2 million children are trafficked every year—that is more than 3000 a day; and 2 million children, mostly girls, are exploited in the sex industry.

We have the technology and the resources: so what is missing? Too few see how limited our current responses are for the enormity and complexity of global problems which ultimately affect human well-being. In explaining the causes of our global crises, we generally focus on economic, social and political forces. Governments, corporations, the United Nations (UN), civil society, and other institutions focus on financial and monetary parameters, technological (e.g., medical, educational, informational), political, administrative, military, diplomatic, legal, and economic resources, measures and approaches. These approaches are necessary, but partial. Not until we see the global problematique as symptoms of a more fundamental, deeper-rooted crisis can we begin to mount a more integral and profound response that is likely to move us forward in a more sustainable way. That crisis is in our individual and shared mind-sets, where psychological and cultural factors and forces reign. That crisis challenges all of us, in the Northern countries and in the Southern countries alike!

Read More: Here

MONICA SHARMA, M.D. is the Director, Leadership and Capacity Development, at the United Nations. She is responsible for whole systems transformation and leadership development worldwide, with a focus on least developed countries. She is pioneering generative and integral approaches leading to transformation on a global scale.

- Also by Monica Sharma: Conscious Leadership at the Crossroads of Change -

Gebser and Integral Consciousness

The Integral

By Algis Mickunas

Because of its compass, complexity, and depth, Gebser's work has been highly regarded, both by serious scholars of comparative cultures, and by a variety of seekers for a new age and salvific spirituality. While such regard may be warranted, the task Gebser assumes is much more profound and indeed relevant for deciphering diverse human cultures, their interconnections, and above all the ways that the so–called "past" human modes of awareness continue to play a dominant—although unrecognized—role in our times.

Moreover, his work has shown correlations among the most diverse domains of cultural creations, from poetry through sciences. The correlations led Gebser to the conception that despite various proclamations of the end of the Western world, there is evidence of an emergence of a different mode of perceiving—the integral. This emergence offers a clue to broader scholarly ventures and correlations of cultural phenomena during different periods and at different places of cultural creations. This is to say, Gebser points out that our age is not the only one that experienced a vast transformation in awareness. He undertakes the task of tracing the correlations of such diverse phenomena in order to show their connections and through the latter to decipher the types of structures of awareness that connect such phenomena.

To Gebser's own surprise, the phenomena suggest vast periodic transformations—mutations— of awareness that restructure human modes of perceiving, conceiving, and interacting. Such mutations not only yield novel structures of awareness, but also integrate and position other modes of awareness within the requirements of a predominant structure.

Read More: Here

ALGIS MICKUNAS is a scholar, consciousness researcher, author, international organizer and Professor Emeritus at Ohio University.

- See Also: Evolution of Consciousness According to Jean Gebser, By Ulrich J. Mohrhoff -

World Water Day 2009

With so much to be serious about these days, no other issue seems to me to be more immediate and in need of engagement than the coming global water shortage.

In fact, the global water crisis is one of the largest public health issues of our time. Nearly 1.1 billion people (roughly 20% of the world’s population) lack access to safe drinking water. The lack of clean, safe drinking water is estimated to kill almost 4,500 children per day. In fact, out of the 2.2 million unsafe drinking water deaths in 2004, 90% were children under the age of five. (source)

And in 1999 over 200 scientists in 50 countries identified 'water shortage' as one of the two most dangerous problems for the new millennium (the other being global warming).

So today marks the 16th annual World Water Day. The UN began this initiative in 1993 as a means of celebrating freshwater resources around the world, and of raising awareness about the need to keep these resources clean and available to people everywhere who need them. This year's activities are focused on 'transboundary waters'.

Although predictions about the growing danger of water-related conflict are a heightening concern in the face of global population growth, unsustainable development, rampant pollution and climate change, the UN website offers hope:

The total number of water-related interactions between nations are weighted towards cooperation. There have been 507 conflict-related events as opposed to 1,228 cooperative ones. This implies that violence over water is not a strategically rational, effective or economically viable option for countries. In the 20th century, only seven minor skirmishes took place between nations over shared water resources, while over 300 treaties were signed during the same period of time.

Yet, humans have available less than 0.08% of all the Earth's water - as most of it is unusable due to high concentrations of salt. Researchers suggest our use is estimated to increase by about 40% in the next two decades. i'm no mathematician, but i know that more demand with less supply tends to breed conflict.

So is there likely to be violent conflict over water in the future? With growing demand, corporate manipulations, the decline in freshwater availability (through privatization, groundwater mining and pollution), and the adverse health effects from poor water quality, scarcity may result in massive violence and full scale water wars. Hopefully humans will be able to work together to ensure this does not happen.

Below is the trailer to Irena Salina's award-winning documentary film FLOW. Salina builds a case against the growing privatization of the world's dwindling fresh water supply with an unflinching focus on politics, pollution, human rights, and the emergence of a domineering world water cartel.

Interviews with scientists and activists intelligently reveal the rapidly building crisis, at both the global and human scale, and the film introduces many of the governmental and corporate culprits behind the water grab, while begging the question "CAN ANYONE REALLY OWN WATER?"

Beyond identifying the problem, FLOW also gives viewers a look at the people and institutions providing practical solutions to the water crisis and those developing new technologies, which are fast becoming blueprints for a successful global and economic turnaround:




Some More Water Facts:

• The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency currently does not regulate 51 known water contaminants. (www.foodandwaterwatch.org)
• While the average North American uses 150 gallons of water per day, those in developing countries cannot find five. (www.charitywater.org)
• The water and sanitation crisis claims more lives through disease than any war claims through guns. (www.water.org)
• According to the National Resources Defense Council, in a scientific study in which more than 1,000 bottles of 103 brands of water were tested, about one-third of the bottles contained synthetic organic chemicals, bacteria, and arsenic.
  (www.nrdc.org)
• Water is a $400 billion dollar global industry; the third largest behind electricity and oil.

Get Involved! Here

Emergence, Panarchy and Civilization

Our Panarchic Future

by Thomas Homer-Dixon

Buzz Holling, one of the world's great ecologists, is a kind and gracious man, with a shock of white hair and a warm smile. Born in Toronto and educated at the University of Toronto and the University of British Columbia, he worked for many years as a research scientist for the government of Canada, where he pioneered the study of budworm infestations in the great spruce forests of New Brunswick. Later, as an academic researcher and eventually as director of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Austria, he created powerful mathematical models to explain the ecological phenomena he saw in the field. Using these models, he achieved major breakthroughs in understanding what makes complex systems of all kinds-from ecosystems to economic markets-adaptive and resilient.

Since the early 1970s, Holling's research has attracted attention in disciplines ranging from anthropology to economics. His papers have been distributed like samizdat through the Internet, and Holling himself has become something of a guru for an astonishing number of very smart people studying complex adaptive systems. Some of these researchers have coalesced into an international scientific community called the Resilience Alliance, with over a dozen participating institutions around the world. Although Holling is now retired from his last academic position at the University of Florida, he's still terrifically vigorous and focused on furthering the Resilience Alliance's work.

Holling and his colleagues call their ideas "panarchy theory"-after Pan, the ancient Greek god of nature. Together with anthropologist and historian Joseph Tainter's ideas on complexity and social collapse, this theory helps us see our world's tectonic stresses as part of a long-term global process of change and adaptation. It also illustrates the way catastrophe caused by such stresses could produce a surge of creativity leading to the renewal of our global civilization.

Read More: Here

THOMAS HOMER-DIXON holds the Centre for International Governance Innovation Chair of Global Systems at the Balsillie School of International Affairs in Waterloo, Canada. He received Ph.D. from MIT in international relations and defense and arms control policy. Dixson's research focuses on threats to global security and on how societies adapt to complex economic, ecological, and technological change. His books include The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity, and the Renewal of Civilization, The Ingenuity Gap, and Environment, Scarcity, and Violence.

An Interview with Steven Pinker

From Greater Good Magazine:

Truth in the Balance
An Interview with Psychologist Steven Pinker

By Jeremy Adam Smith

Americans' trust in the media, their government, and each other has declined over the past four decades. And yet, according to many national surveys, trust in science and scientists remains high. In a 2006 Harris poll, for example, 77 percent of respondents said they trust scientists to tell the truth–roughly 60 percent more than the number who trusted the president.

In recent years, however, several areas of scientific research—from global warming to stem cell research to evolution—have become highly politicized, in ways that threaten the credibility of prominent scientists and their findings.

Cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker is no stranger to these debates. In a recent essay for The New Republic, for example, Pinker argues that the work of the President's Council on Bioethics "springs from a movement to impose a radical political agenda, fed by fervent religious impulses, onto American biomedicine."

Pinker is Harvard College Professor and Johnstone Family Professor in Harvard University's psychology department. He is famed for his research on language acquisition, and has published extensively on the idea that both language and moral intuitions are biological adaptations that arose from a process of natural selection.

In addition to being a working scientist, Pinker is a leading public intellectual, consistently offering an informed perspective on scientific debates. As one of America's most popular science writers, Pinker was named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world in 2004 and one of Foreign Policy's 100 top public intellectuals in 2005. His recent book The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature, is a New York Times bestseller.

While on a 10-city tour to support the paperback release of The Stuff of Thought, Pinker talked with Greater Good about science, politics, and trust.

Read the Full Interview: Here

Embracing Integrated Complexity

Embracing Integrated Complexity: Integrating Innovation and Performance in Humane Organizations

by John Forman

For decades, organizations have turned to the sciences for inspiration and models. In the past ten years, the sciences of complexity have captured the imagination of businesses and other organizations interested in understanding the deep dynamics of organizational reality. There is a great deal of leverage available in the understanding provided by this growing body of theory, research and application. However, as many have discovered, complexity alone does not account for the influence of human consciousness.

This article offers one approach to bridging the gaps and differences in an attempt to bring appropriate disciplines into alignment with the dimensions of human experience they were meant to explore. A presentation of this article has been offered to several graduate level business classes and to multiple private organizations.

Read More: Here

JOHN FORMAN is a consultant, executive coach, author, guest lecturer, founder and the Managing Partner of Integral Development Associates. For more than 15 years, John has advised organizational leaders and managers in areas ranging from change management and executive coaching to strategic planning, organizational development, cultural diversity and complex communications issues. John is also a founding member of the Integral Institute.

A Primer for Integral Ecology

From IntegralLife.Com:

A Comprehensive Approach to Today's Planetary Issues

By Sean Esbjorn-Hargens and Michael Zimmerman

This primer basically serves as a 15 page summary of the 800+ page Integral Ecology book that was recently published by Shambhala. Michael and Sean have intentionally removed all integral "jargon" and have made this as accessible to a wide audience as possible. So for those of you who want the cliff notes version of Integral Ecology, here it is—but keep in mind that all the juicy endnotes (all 200 pages of them) are only in the book!

Get the PDF: Here

SEAN ESBJÖRN-HARGENS, Ph.D., is associate professor and founding chair of the Department of Integral Theory at John F. Kennedy University in Pleasant Hill, Califorina. Sean is also an integral coach and consultant through Rhizome Designs (www.rhizomedesigns.org).

MICHAEL E. ZIMMERMAN, Ph.D., is professor of philosophy and director of the Center for Humanities and the Arts at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

See Also: Uniting Multiple Perspectives on The Natural World

Climate Change, A Broader View

From IntegralLife.Com:

Responding to Climate Change: The Need for an Integral Approach

By Karen O’Brien

Climate change is now recognized as one of the most challenging and complex problems facing humanity -- the problem is real, the stakes are high, and there is no single solution. No measure will be met with the instant gratification that is often expected by people in modern, high-energy consumption societies…

In this article I discuss why an integral approach is not only necessary for addressing climate change, but urgent. I argue that an emphasis on understanding climate change from an objective, systems perspective has downplayed the importance of subjective, interior dimensions of climate change, when in fact the integration of both aspects is needed. I then present six reasons why an integral approach can be considered both useful and necessary for responding to climate change.

Finally, I consider what integral theory might offer to current policy debates about one of the world's climate change hot spots -- the Arctic region.

Read More (PDF): Here

KAREN O’BRIEN is Professor of Human Geography at the University of Oslo and lead author of the adaptation chapter of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report.

Uniting Multiple Perspectives on the Natural World

Integral Ecology: Uniting Multiple Perspectives on the Natural World

by Sean Esbjorn-Hargens, Ph.D. and Michael E. Zimmerman, Ph.D.

Today there is a bewildering diversity of views on ecology and the natural environment. With more than a hundred ecological schools of thought and methodologies—and scientists, economists, religious leaders, activists, and others often taking completely different stances on the issues—how can we come to agreement to solve our toughest environmental problems?

In response to this pressing need, Integral Ecology unites the valuable insights from multiple perspectives into a comprehensive theoretical framework—one that can be put to use right now. Real-life applications of integral ecology are examined, including work with marine fisheries in Hawaii, strategies of eco-activists to protect Canada’s Great Bear Rainforest, and a study of community development in El Salvador.

Available Today to Purchase: Here

Integral Vision and the Search for Peace

From Integral Review Issue 2:

Integrity, Integral Vision and the Search for Peace

By Mark Gerzon

"The purpose of life is . . . to know oneself. We cannot do so unless we learn to identify ourselves with all that lives." — Mohandas K. Gandhi

I have never seen a conflict in which everyone could see the whole. On the contrary, I have only experienced conflicts in which some, and usually all, of the “part-ies” were identified with the “part.” They were, literally, “partisan.” This is the basic human condition, the natural worldview of organisms that are born, live and die as seemingly separate entities. When our bodies shout “Me first!” — we listen. We are wired to survive, and to put our survival before others (an instinct which can be trumped by only one other: protecting our offspring). As a natural extension of our survival instinct, we tend to care more about the welfare of those near and dear to us than those who are, by whatever definition, far away. Our language provides convenient words for each: the first we call “us;” the latter, “them.”

The challenge of integrity—or integral vision, which literally means “seeing” or “holding” the whole—is to balance this very natural allegiance to the part (“partisan”) with an allegiance to what it is but a part of. If we think of a conflict which affects us—whether personal, professional or political—we notice that we tend to be more identified with “I” than “you,” and more with “us” than “them.” This tyranny of pronouns not only affects our tongue; it is in our cells. Integrity is our fallible, human attempt to counteract this in-built self-centeredness by cultivating a whole-centeredness.

Read More: Here

MARK GERZON is an author, mediator and leadership consultant focused on fostering global leadership. Hailed by the New York Times as an “expert in civil discourse,” Mark has worked as a facilitator and leadership trainer for the United Nations, the US House of Representatives, and a wide range of corporate and civic organizations around the world.

Integral Leadership Review - Jan 2009

A bit belated, but nonetheless:

Integral Leadership Review
Volume IX, No. 1 - January 2009

Meaningful Work through Passion

At the Dreamforce conference in San Francisco, Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point and Outliers, gives two examples of hard work that later was deemed "genius": Bill Gates - who got up at 2am to program as a teenager; and the Beatles - who played together 1200 times, far more than most bands, before they ever become famous.

Success, Gladwell believes, is most often the result of putting your heart and mind into something and cultivating successful, meaningful work.

Here is that lecture:

Art and Consciousness

Creative States and Structures

By Lynne Roff

This paper explores the states of consciousness associated with creative work and intimations of specific structures of consciousness that develop over the life of an artist or other creative individual. Creative states are transitory phenomenological experiences that are recurrent and predictable aspects of the creative process. Collectively they form a continuum experienced in the course of a creative work.

Creative structures are developmental conditions of consciousness that emerge and incorporate one another in succession. A structure cannot be omitted in individual cognitive development, and, barring damage to the brain, structures are permanent and irreversible.

Read More (PDF): Here

LYNNE ROFF is a graduate student at the California Institute of Integral Studies, with research interests in communities or art, integral art and performance.