An Interview with Steve McIntosh

In this wide-ranging interview Enlightenment.com founder Jordan Gruber and author Steve McIntosh discuss how the integral worldview is transforming our world. Instructive, impassioned, and articulate, Steve McIntosh provides a provocative summary of integral philosophy and its relevance for our contemporary context.

LISTEN TO THE ENTIRE INTERVIEW: HERE

McIntosh's new book, Integral Consciousness and the Future of Evolution, is both historical retrospective and moral-evolutionary prognosis. His efforts challenge us to test what we already know against what we hope may one day be possible.

Integral Leadership in Action

From EnlightenNext:

Reports from the Integral Leadership Conference

PODCAST: with Jeff Carreira, Elizabeth Debold, Steve McIntosh and Carter Phipps.

Carter Phipps reports on the initial presentations, including the seminar he will be leading with integral philosopher Steve McIntosh discussing the leading edge of integral philosophy. If time and technology permit, Carter may ask several of the integral leaders to speak with us live from the event.

Carter will be asking people at the conference to tell us their thoughts on the question "What is it really going to take for all of us to make the kind of significant impact on the future that we are all working for?"

In addition to the news from the Integral Leadership Conference, we will also share some audio highlights from the AGNT conference that I attended this past weekend.

Download this episode (60 min): Here

The Synergy Between Evolutionary Enlightenment and Integral Leadership

PODCAST: with Jeff Carreira, Elizabeth Debold, and Carter Phipps

This past weekend Elizabeth and I had the opportunity to teach at the Integral Leadership in Action conference in Boulder Colorado. Andrew Cohen and Carter Phipps also presented, making this the first event of its kind, where the leading integral community and the leading Evolutionary Enlightenment community met, worked together, learned from each other, and began to talk about other ways we can collaborate in the very near future to push the edge of philosophical/spiritual culture forward. It was a dynamic time, and there is a lot to discuss and reflect on. This week's call will be devoted to exploring the unique synergy between Evolutionary Enlightenment and integral leadership.

Download this episode (62 min): Here

Integral Embrace: A Plea for Solidarity

In a recent letter to the readers of the Integral World website, author and Now & Zen founder Steve McIntosh sounded the call for solidarity among the diverse community of people interested in the Integral Movement.

Steve suggests attempting “to build cohesion within the integral movement and to exhibit a sense of ownership and commitment to this emerging new worldview.”

READ THE FULL LETTER: HERE

An Interview with Daniel Gustav Anderson

Below is a transcript of an interview Erik S. Thornquist conducted with Daniel Gustav Anderson by email between 30 April and 26 May 2009, originally published by Integral World.

Daniel Gustav Anderson is a literary scholar, cultural critic and integral theorist currently teaching literature and cultural history in Washington D.C. Along with Mark Edwards, Steve McIntosh and Sean Esbjörn-Hargens, Anderson is one of the most innovative thinkers to emerge out of the integral movement.

This interview highlights the importance of evolving a much more radical approach to integral thinking, being and doing. Daniel and Erik challenge us to reconceptualize what it means to intentionally explore an ever expansive worldview. Enjoy.

Nonviolence of Nonmetaphysics
An Interview with Daniel Gustav Anderson

Erik: How did you become interested in integral theory?

Daniel: How I came to be interested in integral theory and integral culture is a separate question from how I came to be committed to an integral project. I'll try to address both of them.

The first has to do with everyday life for me. I am an intellectual by trade and a practicing Buddhist. My politics have always been to the left as a matter of conscience. There are other factors but I don't think my life is interesting. I find memoirs rather dull and, as the great American sage Steveland Morris observes, I don't want to bore you with my troubles. The gist of it: my commitment to this project comes from an unwillingness to endure the sufferings of others when that suffering could be avoided. I don't want to see children who should be developing into responsible adults go hungry and not learn to read, for instance. There's something wrong with me that I can't tolerate it, like you can't just sit there and watch your grandmother trip and fall down a flight of stairs with a disinterested attitude. I can't do that, I'm not that cool, so I have to step in and do what I can. This has meant that I have spent most of my adult life learning how to do certain things, and learning what is possible for me to do well. I read a lot. I am slowly losing my hearing, so I will never be a revolutionary piano tuner, but I have found that I can write American English. So, I write American English.

How specifically did I become committed to integral theory? I was teaching English Literature surveys as a lecturer at the University of Idaho. My students were struck by some passages in Matthew Arnold that I had asked them to read, which reminded me of some materials I had been studying on my own in Aurobindo Ghose. I have long been an admirer of Aurobindo's poetic work, and had some notes on a paper regarding some problems in Aurobindo's poetry and also his theories of time and race. So I put all this together in a tidy package and submitted it on a lark to the Integral Review. The editors at that journal did a remarkable thing: they decided to publish it but more importantly they challenged me.

Read More: Here

Also by Daniel Gustav Anderson: New Theses on Integral Micropolitics

Integral Leadership In Action

Announcing the 3rd Integral Leadership in Action Collaborative: Leading from Goodness Truth and Beauty, Oct 9 - Oct 12, 2008 in Boulder, Colorado.

The program will feature presentations and workshops from: Steve McIntosh, Diane Hamilton, Jeff Salzman, Elizabeth Debold, Terry Patton, Robb Smith, Michael Garfield and many others.

The focus of this interactive conference is on "building community with many opportunities for sharing, socializing, and exploring how we can all lead ever more integrally from within our own unique expressions of 'The Good, The True, and The Beautiful.'" And participants are encouraged to learn to "creatively apply integral leadership concepts to your every day (professional, personal, family and community) life. Be an every day integral leader - from parenting children to managing employees, to organizing a neighborhood watch group – be prepared to lead through an integral lens."

More Information: Here

An Approach to Integral Consciousness and Politics

An Interview with Steve McIntosh

By Russ Volckmann

Excerpt: “Integral philosophy is primarily a philosophy of evolution. And as we come to better see and understand evolution, when we see it in cosmology, biology, consciousness and culture, we can begin to detect certain things about the overarching master system of evolution, or how evolution works overall, especially in the realm of consciousness and culture. This reveals the process that is being enacted by evolution. And it exists across scale; that is, it is a process of development that acts at the micro and macro levels of development. Of course, this process is the well-known dialectic of development.

The term “dialectic” can be found in Ancient Greek philosophy, where it was more about a dialogue between people. However, since Hegel, the dialectic has been understood as a process whereby conflicting systems overcome themselves through a kind of transcendent synthesis. Most people are familiar with the terms “thesis,” “antithesis” and “synthesis.” But those terms have been criticized as a kind of vulgarization of the dialectic. There is a danger when you break this process down into its parts that you could lose the essential truth of the dialectic—that it is more of an integrated process as a whole rather than a series of steps.”

Read Full Interview from the Integral Review (PDF): Here

Latest Issue of The Integral Leadership Review Online

The Integral Leadership Review Vol. 8 Issue 3 is now published! Among the interesting articles featured are: a continuation of the discussion between Mark Edwards and Russ Volckmann, a critical response from Steve McIntosh, a conversation with Robb Smith, CEO Integral Institute, and other quality articles.

Description from the website:

The Integral Leadership Review is the world’s premier publication of integrated approaches to leadership. It serves leaders, professionals and academics engaged in the practice, development and theory of leadership. The Integral Leadership Review offers a comprehensive framework that provides insights and tools leaders can utilize to solve problems. Appropriate guidance is a key to solve the challenges of the world. Today’s approaches are fragmented, incomplete, and inadequate for the world’s multidimensional, multilayered global issues.

Read the full issue: Here