Ankur Delight: 10,000 Heroes Podcast

I challenge his thesis from an integral perspective. Growing from a cultural conversation dominated by a modern worldview to one where many perspectives are online may feel like going backward (kind of like a sweet 12-year-old becoming a sour 13-year-old). But every new stage of development looks like a regression to the stage it is emerging out of. In this episode I make my case. Enjoy!

From a Live Fireside Chat at Integral Life, this recording is from earlier in the summer of 2023.

In this episode, Ankur kicks off our discussion by asking: “What can we do for Israel and Palestine? What really helps?”

We discussed a Kosmo-centric view and how it transcends (and includes) the world-centric view of green postmodernity. Also the evolution of empathy, the role of meditation, Sam Harris’s “presentism” error and more. Enjoy the episode!

Jeff Salzman

Jeff Salzman – The Daily Evolver

Ankur Delight – 10,000 Heroes

TWO WAYS TO JOIN ME LIVE:

Fireside Chats with the Integral Life Practice Community

• First and Third Wednesdays of every month @ 1 PM Pacific / 8 PM GMT
• It’s a relaxed and free-flowing discussion of current events and cultural evolution.
• Zoom link to join
• Join other live events at Integral Life.

The Daily Evolver Live, with Ankur Delight

• Thursdays @ 10 AM Pacific / 5 PM GMT
• Join here on YouTube Live

For the last few Thursdays, my buddy Ankur Delight and I have been quietly showing up on YouTube Live to “talk integral” about what’s happening in the world. It’s been fun and fruitful, and we love for you to join us!

PART 1 of this podcast is my talk to the Developmental Alliance, a monthly Zoom group sponsored by the Institute for Cultural Evolution. PART 2 is a more personal chat with my weekly conversation partner Ankur Delight, host of the 10,000 Heroes podcast.

Thanks for tuning in! – Jeff Salzman

Join the ongoing conversations …

• The Developmental Alliance, every 2nd Wednesday of each month at 7pm ET.
• My chat with Ankur Delight is live every Thursday at 1pm ET on the Daily Evolver YouTube Channel.
• Live Fireside Chat with the Integral Life Practice Community, every 1st and 3rd Wednesday of each month, 4pm ET.
• And follow me on Twitter/X!

Presentism: a moving target * The power (and limits) of consent * Green sexuality’s great contributions and what it keeps in shadow * Cancellation, big media, and the evolution of collective consciousness * The emerging practice of holding multiple opinions.

Enjoy the podcast!!

Jeff Salzman, The Daily Evolver

Ankur Delight, 10,000 Heroes

My friend Ankur Delight is hosting an in-person coaching event in Seattle this fall (December 7th-10th). It’s called The Night Vision Summit and the point is to help every participant make major breakthroughs towards their personal and professional goals. You’ll get personal coaching from Ankur in a deeply supportive community environment of authenticity, connection, and delicious food. For more info, check out his description here, or email ankur@momentumlab.com

The New York Times has published two major columns by columnist David Brooks criticizing the modern meritocracy and the postmodern therapeutic culture.

• What if We’re the Bad Guys Here?
• Hey America, Grow Up!

It’s always interesting when somebody stops and tries to see the world of their opponents and I deeply appreciate Brooks and the New York Times for doing it.

New stages of culture seek to dissolve the value structures of the stages they are emerging out of. Brooks helped me understand how he, I and our cool friends have participated in deconstructing the values of traditionalism with little regard to the price paid by the people who hold them.

Based on the readers’ comments, I appreciated Brooks’ columns a lot more than the NYT’s subscribers did. But oh how Brooks and his argument would benefit from an evolutionary view, one that sees culture and consciousness becoming more mature in all its beautiful but not pretty ways. I make my case in the podcast. Enjoy!

– Jeff Salzman

PS: The next Fireside chat will be on September 20th. Here’s the Zoom link. Check out other Integral Life Live Events here.

Barbie tells the story of the cultural evolution of women in three stages. In the traditional world girls play with baby dolls, practicing the sacred roles of domesticity and motherhood. The Barbie doll, introduced in 1959, represents a modern sensibility, first as a fashion doll with which girls could express themselves, then as a feminist trailblazer who could do anything and go anywhere, including the moon and the White House.

A billion dolls later, Barbie, the movie, tells this developmental story in a thoroughly postmodern way. It’s a frolicking, hot-pink, meta-mishmash of feminist critique, teenage angst, existential dread, gender-fluidity (asexuality featured), power-dynamics and a perpetual war on the patriarchy. All of which gets us … not very far. Margot Robbie is perfection in the role. More in the episode – enjoy!

Jeff Salzman

Ankur Delight – 10,000 Heroes podcast
Jeff Salzman – The Daily Evolver podcast

_________________________

Join me at the live Fireside Chat

I do two Fireside Chats a month, on the first and third Wednesday. The next one is on Wednesday, August 2nd at 2pm MT, 4pm ET. Join us – it’s freewheeling integral fun! Zoom link here. You can also add it to your calendar here. Join other events at Integral Life here – many free events open to all.

In this episode, I look at the evolutionary significance of our emerging mediaverse, with its gusher of entertainment coming to us from all over the world. How do we navigate it? We ask our friends! In that spirit I offer:

• My favorite TV series of all time
• My least favorite movie of the year, and why it’s my fault
• The Flintstone Effect: projecting modern consciousness onto premodern times
• The battle (in my head) between Robert Eggers (yay!) and Taylor Sheridan (boo!)

This episode is edited from the regular Fireside Chat I host with the Integral Life Practice community. Check out all their offerings on integral living at www.integrallife.com/calendar

Join me for the next live Fireside Chat
I do two a Fireside Chats a month, on the first and third Wednesday. The next one is this coming Wednesday, July 19th at 2pm MT, 4pm ET. Join us – it’s freewheeling integral fun! Zoom link here.

Enjoy the episode!

Jeff Salzman

Enjoy! – Jeff

Ankur Delight – 10,000 Heroes podcast
Jeff Salzman – The Daily Evolver podcast

Lee Mead’s Anthem
(for a taste of integral patriotism)

Jeff Salzman

And check out a new transformational offering, The Elephant in the Room, from my friends at Momentum Lab … 

Jeff Salzman, The Daily Evolver Podcast
Ankur Delight – 10,000 Heroes podcast

As integral practitioners, we have insights that help us harmonize cultural polarities, which is why it’s too bad Bill Maher didn’t invite me on his recent show with Elon Musk where they decried the “woke mind virus”.

Woke is the activist/fanatic arm of the emerging mass culture of postmodernity. Every stage of human development has activists and fanatics whose job is to fully bring forth the worldview (call it the “mind virus”) of their age.

Our job is to see what they so desperately want us to see and to critically consider what they want us to do. We do the same with their opponents, cultivating the integrated wisdom that arises when one is able to hold multiple perspectives.

I hope you enjoy the episode, edited from the ‘fireside chat” I hold regularly with the Integral Life Practice Community. Next chat is June 7th at 1 pm Pacific Time, Zoom link here. Join us!

This week, we look at the big shakeup in the mainstream news media. Days ago, and within an hour of each other, Fox News and CNN fired two of their biggest stars: Tucker Carlson and Don Lemon. What does this say about the modern news business, the evolution of our culture … and the possibility of a President Carlson?

Hope you enjoy.

This week I look at a rising star in the mainstream commentariat: Peter Zeihan.

To me he is a good example of a proto-integral thinker in that he is a master synthesizer, weaving compelling narratives about our world that include economics, demography, geography, politics and history. He gives me a far more integrated understanding of a variety of issues from the Russia / Ukraine war to the workings of the drug cartels, to “Is it Oklahoma’s time to shine?”

Yet, as with so many contemporary thinkers, his analysis misses the core value of integral thinking: that human consciousness and cultures have evolved and that they continue to. In this episode, I look at this missing piece that integral thinking offers, and which adds an invaluable element to any analysis of human events.

I hope you enjoy the episode! – Jeff Salzman

A long-time listener asked ChatGPT to write a poem expressing Ken Wilber’s developmental stages. The result (below) is mind-blowing. How is it possible for a machine to create three verses that capture the essence of developmental theory so well?

Mind-blowing, yes, but is it beautiful? Can it be beautiful when it was written by a machine? Welcome to humanity’s next stage of understanding itself and our place in the cosmos.

ALSO, it’s Trump’s turn in the dock with his indictment in Manhattan. Is this good or bad for democracy? For the answer, we look to the old Chinese farmer …

I hope you enjoy the episode! – Jeff Salzman

PS – This is an edited version of a live “Fireside Chat” I do with the Integral Life Practice Community every first and third Wednesday of the month. Join me this Wednesday, April 19, at 1 pm Pacific Time (Zoom link).

On Ken Wilber’s Developmental Theory

by ChatGPT

Ascending the steps, we embark,
On a journey through levels so stark,
Wilber’s wisdom reveals,
That development heals,
As we climb, a new consciousness sparks.

In the spiral of growth, we find,
Our perceptions and thoughts intertwined,
With each stage that we pass,
A more intricate grasp,
Of the depths of humanity’s mind.

From the shadows to radiant light,
Through these stages our souls take flight,
In a dance of ascent,
Where our hearts find content,
In the wisdom that guides us to unite.

My guest today is Diane Musho Hamilton, who has been on the front lines of the DEI movement for over two decades, starting as a diversity trainer in the Utah Supreme Court. Diane is also a transmitted Zen teacher in the White Plum Tradition, and a highly respected leader in the integral community.

Diane’s specialty is working with groups under stress, of which there is no shortage when it comes to DEI initiatives. She is a master of metabolizing group energies and emotions thereby making space for new levels of collaboration and community to emerge.

Diane is currently enrolling a new cohort in her Real LIFE Facilitator Program, a seven-month training in leadership, Integral theory, facilitation skills and the dynamics of working groups. It focuses on how to engage conflict, polarities and group shadow, as well as how to work creatively with them.

We start our conversation by looking at the Integral movement in general and the unique perspectives it brings to the project of diversity, equity and inclusion. I hope you enjoy! – Jeff Salzman

In this Daily Evolver I explore a variety of topics: 

• A telling difference between green art and integral art  – Learn more about the Lost Birds music here.
  
• Yes, stages exist but maybe the spiral is spiked
• Traditionalism’s hot war on modernity in Ukraine
• Ghosts: an integrally-flavored tv comedy!

This episode is recorded from the live “Fireside Chat” I do twice a month (1st and 3rd Wednesdays) for Integral Life.  Join us live if you can this coming Wednesday the 29th at 1 PT, 4ET. 

Integral Life is building an impressive community of integral practitioners, and you can check out all the opportunities to participate here.  

I hope you enjoy this episode!  

Jeff Salzman

• Avatar: The Way of Water – James Cameron’s latest movie in his great green myth of Pandora, a pristine planet attacked by modernity (and a few pre-trans fallacies).

• Bros – A gay romantic comedy produced by Judd Apatow, where the triumph of queer ideology is a moral imperative.

• Our Skin: A First Conversation About Race – A picture book for preschoolers that shows how we would live in a world without regard for skin color – if it weren’t for white people.

All contain developmental truths enmeshed with us-versus-them resentments that power the culture wars. Welcome to the beautiful-but-not-pretty evolution of consciousness!

• Jeff Salzman

PS: I’m posting more on Twitter these days and you can “follow” me there @dailyevolver.

There are three major worldviews currently in contention in our culture:

• Traditional (order and conformity),
• Modern (secular and rational),
• Postmodern (sensitive and egalitarian).

They all have goodness, truth and beauty to offer, and they all hate each other. Most people live in one worldview, can function adequately in another, and polarize against the third. If you can embrace the polarization and inhabit all three, then you are entering the next emerging worldview: Integral (evolutionary synthesis).

If you can integrate all that (adequately, not perfectly) and add the lagging-edge worldview, the pre-traditional Warrior/Empire worldview, then you may be Elon Musk. In this episode, I explain. Enjoy!

– Jeff Salzman

PS: I’m posting more on Twitter theses days. You can “follow” my feed @dailyevolver.

• Transgenderism: The ever-increasing awareness and practice of gender fluidity, particularly among young people, is fueling the culture war. Does it represent cultural evolution? Yes, we agree. If so, what are we learning and how can we bring more wisdom and compassion to the struggle? Here we differ.

• Abortion: The US Supreme Court’s revocation of the right to an abortion has thrown jurisdiction to the states, many of which are racing to legislate the agenda of their dominant worldview. Is this progress? Keith argues the negative and I take the affirmative.

We focus on English scientist Rupert Sheldrake, who argues that “science should be set free” from the boundaries of mechanistic materialism. Sheldrake is well known for his theory of the morphic field, an evolving collective mind that all living beings are both accessing and creating.

A spiritual practitioner, Sheldrake seeks to include subtle and spiritual dimensions to create a more integral view of reality. He also offers the best explanation yet of how the heck dogs know when their owners are coming home!

• Nature—the unique combinations of temperaments and constitutional strengths and weaknesses that each of us is born with.
• Trauma—the Big T and small t traumas that are ubiquitous in human development, and which leave us more sensitized and vulnerable rather than more resilient.
• Nurture—the sum total of our family, cultural, and environmental experiences that help shape who we are and how we deal with the world, for better or worse.

Dr. Keith and I dive into these three sources of suffering, explaining how each contributes to the challenges of human existence. We show ways to use this knowledge to grow towards living a happy ending at the beginning of something wonderful.

• H—honesty/humility.
• E—emotional resonance/empathy.
• X—extraversion.
• A—agreeableness.
• C—conscientiousness.
• O—openness to new experiences.

This system raises important questions about human development, and what influences success/failure, intimacy/alienation, and happiness/misery.

• Playing is a cooperative activity with an agreed-upon set of rules. Sometimes play is pure fun, and sometimes winning/losing dynamics are painful. But any engaged activity under an external set of rules is considered play.
• Fighting is trying to dominate the other, with little or no regard for a shared set of rules. Three outcomes of fighting are domination, submission, or a shift to cooperation (play).

Both playing and fighting are human superpowers that can be used for better or worse. Dr Keith and I explore the play/fight current through all of humanity, delivering surprising insights into intimate relationships, politics, and evolution.

The event is called Integral: What’s the Future and What Can We Do About It? It is designed in the spirit of a lineage of powerful gatherings that I (and perhaps you) participated in many moons ago. Jose and Lynn bring up golden memories for many of us when they write on their website:

Somewhere between an Integral Living Room, an Integral Incubator, and a What Next Conference, there is a field – meet us there!

Especially touching for me is that Lynn and Jose are invoking the spirit of our dear, departed Brother Terry Patten, who was integral to those historical events, and they are explicitly carrying on Terry’s transmission of joyful activism. As they write about the upcoming conference:

We are gathering to consider how we can make a positive difference in the world. Come prepared with an open heart and mind, some great ideas for strategically inserting an integral consciousness into the world, and a desire to have fun doing it.

I hope you enjoy my conversation with Lynn and Jose Fuentes and are inspired to check out the conference!

Integral: What’s the Future and What Can We Do About It?

November 3-6, 2022

Poco Diablo Resort, Sedona, Arizona

$499 early bird ends August 15th

“Preserving the health of our natural environment is crucial for our collective well-being, which is why we can no longer indulge in the idealistic fantasy that America’s economy and energy systems can be immediately and radically transformed. Some prominent progressive voices are calling for the overthrow of capitalism, but this kind of absolutistic rhetoric only serves to block the formation of a larger national consensus around the most timely and realistic near-term approaches.”

Steve’s ideas are fully fleshed out in the Institute for Cultural Evolution’s Policy Paper on Climate Change. It is one of a series of innovative “Win-Win-Win” policy analyses created by the think tank that address the issues of the day with the goal of providing key “wins” for each of the three major worldviews. I hope you enjoy the episode! – Jeff Salzman

****

Steve McIntosh is president of the Institute for Cultural Evolution and author of Developmental Politics, How America Can Grow Into a Better Version of Itself. I am a senior fellow of the Institute and a member of its board of directors.

• America’s enneatype, frontier culture, “traditionalism with guns”
• Integrating the MSNBC and FOX News worldviews
• Recognizing budding criminality
• Matthew Yglesias’s positivity blowback
• How about the first part of the second amendment?
• The ever-widening circle of moral consideration
• What our grandchildren will know
• Blessings to all

This is my last regular weekly episode of the season – see you in September!

– Jeff Salzman

In his new book, Liberalism and its Discontents, Fukuyama updates his argument, which he sums up in his recent feature article in the Wall Street Journal: “The Long Arc of Political Progress: A democratic world order is not the inexorable outcome of historical forces, but even amid setbacks, societies are clearly evolving towards equality and individual freedom.”

I’m always happy to see any ideas of cultural evolution reach the mainstream, and Fukuyama does an excellent job of tracing the patterns of human history, including the herky-jerky nature of progress. He makes a strong case that human conditions are getting better in the aggregate. But … what is powering this development? In human terms, how is it that an eight-year-old becomes a twelve-year-old? Is it just because they “make better choices” or “social structures change”?

Alas, this is territory that Fukuyama and most mainstream political writers do not explore. In this episode, I add some insight that I think creates a more integral view. Enjoy! – Jeff Salzman

This week I want to share one of my favorite conversations with two of my favorite people: John Dupuy and Roger Walsh.

John and Roger invited me on their wonderful podcast, “Deep Transformation”, to talk about how the developmental view helps us explain – and befriend – our crazy, mixed-up world. We has such a good time talking and I trust you’ll enjoy listening in!

This is the theme of the work of my guest today, developmental psychotherapist Kim Barta. He discusses his approach to personal growth, which is based on the STAGES Model of Development created by well-known developmental theorist Terri O’Fallon (who is also Kim’s sister.). Using psychotherapeutic practices, shadow work and meditation, Kim has devised a comprehensive system of self-exploration with stopovers at every stage of development, designed to bring the gifts and powers of that stage online.

Shoring up our developmental scaffolding in this way makes us able – and worthy – to grow into the higher stages of integral consciousness, which Kim and the STAGES model also beautifully illuminate. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Kim Barta!

– Jeff Salzman

Kim is launching an intensive year-long program, “Shadow and Light” for a cohort of 16 people. (As always when I discuss a product with a guest, I get no compensation.) You can find out more about Kim and all his offerings at Kimbarta.org.

How the STAGES Model lines up with Integral Theory

Post-doomers find meaning in surrendering to this inevitable doom, much as a hospice patient might find peace – even joy – in the acceptance of their death. Or that their loved ones might find in reconciliation and mourning.

I’m not a doomer. I’m an “I-think-we’ll-muddle-througher” and a chronic both-sidesist. I am allergic to alarmism as well as to those who dismiss their opposition.

But might I be a post-doomer? Can one get the transmission without swallowing the doctrine? Yes, there is no end to environmental suffering, and any path to sustainability will continue to be painful and frightening. Witnessing and grieving this along the way makes us worthy to create a new and better world.

Evolution proceeds through destruction and creation. Fortunately, since the Big Bang, at least, creation wins. I have not only hope but faith that will continue.

Enjoy the episode! – Jeff Salzman

Blue Pearl is itself a fascinating example of integral consciousness arising in an established art form. In its structure it is a classical oratorio, defined as a “large-scale musical work for orchestra and voices, typically a narrative on a religious theme, performed without the use of costumes, scenery, or action. Well-known examples include Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Handel’s Messiah, and Haydn’s The Creation.”

While Bue Pearl is rooted in the western sacred choral tradition, Steve’s spiritual inspiration is explicitly integral. Fusing several musical styles, his work celebrates the unity-in-diversity of the integral vision. The central image is of the earth as seen from space, the ‘blue pearl”, a fragile, living, conscious planet. The lyrics come from writings by Ken Wilber, Thich Nhat Hanh and Steve himself.

The world premiere is May 14th at the St. Giles Cripplegate Church in  London. It will be performed by the London Mozart Players and two choirs: the Excelsis Choir and Vox Farnham Chamber Choir. You can check out Steve’s website, Stevebanks.info for a prototype of the work, all the lyrics, and information on how to attend in person or online.

I hope you enjoy my conversation with Steve Banks as well as his wonderful new work, Blue Pearl: A One World Oratorio.   – Jeff Salzman

David shares his journey of development and how it led to the creation of Rebel Wisdom. He describes how the platform has itself evolved, morphing beyond its initial association with Jordan Peterson, who has gone hard anti-left. Rebel Wisdom has moved forward into new arenas, most notably sense- and meaning-making, and is currently exploring the territory beyond atheism. “Maybe even a world of spirit?”, I ask? David’s answer gives me faith in the continued evolution of Rebel Wisdom’s terrific contribution to global awakening. Enjoy the episode! – Jeff Salzman

PS – Rebel Wisdom has featured several integral thinkers, including Ken Wilber. You can check out a recent conversation David hosted with Diane Musho Hamilton, Steve McIntosh and me here.

PPS – One slight technical matter: My side of the conversation recorded in audio only, no video. So when I speak you’ll see a still photo of me – which is why I’m so stiff and my lips aren’t moving!

In our wide-ranging conversation we address: Trauma and resilience as forms of memory * The differences – and similarities – between ongoing trauma and “major event” traumas such as accidents, violence and illness * Trauma through human history * Sensitive vs sensitized: the healthy and unhealthy poles of postmodern consciousness * What child-centered parenting misses * The biological drive to have a spiritually-awakened brain * Updating your autobiographical narratives * Trauma and the self-transforming mind.

I really loved this conversation and I hope you do, too! – Jeff Salzman

You can find out more about Dr. Keith Witt here.

Over time, however, the emerging stage wins, not only because it brings on new capabilities (traditional order, modern rationality, postmodern sensitivity) but also because every stage contains the capabilities of the previous stages, often repressed but available when the chips are down. Thus, Zelensky, with his media-savvy modern and cool postmodern vibe, reveals in battle the heart of a lion and calls it forth in his people — much to the surprise of Putin, the world, and perhaps the Ukrainians themselves.

The pattern continues in modernity’s misreading of postmodernity (I use a clip from Bill Maher’s show to illustrate this), and in the challenges being put to the emerging integral stage of consciousness and culture.

I finish the episode with stunning excerpts from the book, Bloodlands, the story of Stalin’s war on Ukraine, and how its karmic echoes are resounding today.

I hope you enjoy the episode! – Jeff Salzman

• 0:42 – How the stages of consciousness are arising “simultaneously”.

• 5:34 – The shocking strangeness of premodernity and its challenge to modern culture.

• 15:13 – “The world, even Russians, seem to be more unified and sensitized to the abhorrence of war.”

• 17:20 – “Why do I care more about people who look and think like me?” The challenge of moral growth.

Thanks for listening – you can write me at jeff@dailyevolver.com, or leave a voicemail here. – Jeff Salzman

Vladimir Putin’s romantic Russian nationalism has metastasized into megalomania. Will  Russian society go along?  Will the modern world?  Witnessing the heartbreak and resistance of the Ukrainian people.

As Diane recounts, Terry was “the consummate integralist”, awake to his own mind, body and spirit, and dedicated to the wellbeing of all: family, friends and the world at large. I think of him as Integral’s “Zorba the Greek”, whose warmth, laugh and sheer ecstatic transmission could turn any gathering into a celebration. Above all Terry was an activist, championing what he called the “revolution of the heart”, an integration of:

• The “inner work” of self-awareness and personal transformation
• The “interpersonal work” of authentic, compassionate relating
• The “outer work” of practical, beneficial action in the world

In our conversation, Diane and I reflect not just on our extraordinary friend, but also on the history of the Integral movement, the evolution of its ideas and practices, and the countless people who have been uplifted by the evolutionary vision. For anyone watching this episode, there is a photo show at the end. I hope you enjoy! – Jeff Salzman

Terry Patten’s life’s work is articulated in his final book “The New Republic of the Heart, An Ethos for Revolutionaries”. You can find out more about Diane Musho Hamilton, and contact her about her offerings, here.

The cover version of the song Spirit in the Sky is credited to Black Feathers.

And the sheer cinematic transmission! From the iconic opening, with its call-and-response whistle echoing through the tenements of New York City, the film’s every moment is lit with the sparkle of humanity. It exudes the passion of youth, the grittiness of street life, and the deep liquid space of the gang and family. What a joy to be in the hands of a great artist (and leader of great artists, as cinema is our most collaborative of art forms) at the height of his power.

West Side Story tells a tale of race, culture and class conflict with a flamboyantly American flavor. It is the story of star-crossed young lovers (inspired by Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet), ethnic warfare, and the relentless march of modernity. In Spielberg’s hands, all of these conflicts are woven into a drama that is both particular and universal, and ultimately heartening. As Time Magazine’s critic Stephanie Zacharek wrote: “I had no idea I needed this West Side Story until I saw it.”

I hereby nominate this beautiful film for status as an integral work of art, and in this episode, I make my case. I hope you enjoy it and the movie too! – Jeff Salzman

Cultural evolution proceeds through a process of 1) differentiating and 2) integrating. As we learn and grow we see that there are more dots to connect and more ways to connect them. New views arise which we disagree about, even with our friends. What had been a shared worldview morphs into multiple worldviews which often find themselves at odds. Thus it is with the current unfolding of the political left.

Holly Muir and Spencer Greenberg, co-authors of the essay, Understanding the Divide Between Social Justice Advocates and the Left-Leaning “Anti-Woke” Community, describe their work:

“We have been investigating the perspectives of two groups in contemporary U.S. society: 1) those who advocate for social justice, and 2) the newly emerging left-of-center “anti-woke” movement (i.e., liberal-leaning people who tend to oppose identity politics, cancel culture, and critical race theory).

“In recent years, we’ve witnessed a meteoric rise of this anti-woke community, with a number of writers within it gaining large followings, including Coleman Hughes, Sam Harris, Jesse Singal, Katie Herzog, and Bari Weiss. Naturally, they have received a large amount of criticism from some social justice advocates.

“Given that the two groups we are discussing both lean left on the political spectrum, a major question is: what do they fundamentally disagree about? To help answer this, we have attempted to map the opposing perspectives on 13 topics where disagreement between these two groups tends to arise. In some cases, it may be that there is little genuine disagreement between the groups, and the issue in question is simply described from a different perspective.”

Rather than argue for either side, or even to find common ground, Muir and Greenberg perform a more integral move: they present each side on its own terms with good faith. It is a masterful example of the differentiation necessary for a true integration to emerge.

Integral consciousness is not about reconciling opposing worldviews as much as it is about accommodating them, factoring in their blind spots, and appreciating the goodness, truth and beauty each of them brings. This article is a great example. Check it out and enjoy the episode!

Now, apparently, we have the whole book version! “The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity,” by anthropologist David Graeber and archaeologist David Wengrow makes a similar case, aiming, as the New York Times writes, “to upend the narrative of social evolution.”

Several listeners have written for my opinions about the book. I have kept up with David Graeber, the self-described “anarchist economist,” since he arose as a philosophical leader of the Occupy Wall Street movement a few years ago. I’m looking forward to reading the book and may have more to say on it when I do. In the meantime (it is 706 pages after all!) I’ll get the ball rolling by examining several key ideas behind the book using clips from a video that the authors recorded before Graeber’s untimely death prior to the book’s publication.

I hope you enjoy the podcast! – Jeff Salzman

PS – I also wanted to let you know about a special event in which I will be a guest. This Monday and Tuesday, Integral Institute Brazil celebrates its 10th Anniversary with a zoom conference featuring Ken Wilber and an exciting slate of Integral luminaries. Check it out here.

I occasionally appear as a guest on other peoples’ podcasts. Below are links to a few of my favorites over the last few months. Hope you enjoy and share.

• How the Culture War Creates Integral Consciousness, The Stoa with Peter Limberg
• Key Themes of the Daily Evolver, The Integral Stage, with Layman Pascal

– Jeff

Stage theory…
Is BS.
Always was.
And it is colonial as hell.

Sorry, but that has got to go.

— nora bateson (@NoraBateson) August 10, 2021

In a high-profile response to her social media posts, author Hanzi Freinacht shared a short essay defending stage theory as being both true and beneficial to society.

The result has been an online controversy that has generated both heat and light in the Integral / Spiral Dynamics world. In this episode, I offer a shamelessly integral analysis of the ideas in contention, and how the conflict itself is contributing to the evolution of evolutionary thought.

Let me know what you think at jeff@dailyevolver.com.  And here’s more about Nora Bateson and Hanzi Freinacht.

Our guest today is David Storey, a professor of philosophy from Boston College. David discovered integral thinking outside of academia, as did most of us, but is now bringing its principles to bear on his teaching. Whether the subject is history, religion or the emerging ethics of environmentalism, David’s focus is on helping his students to learn how to communicate across worldviews.

David, Steve, and I cover a lot of territory in our conversation. In the first part, we talk about how academia is itself evolving, particularly in its warming to developmental theory and in its engagement with the culture at large. In the second half, we discuss how to bring more cultural intelligence to humanity’s climate challenge, and highlight David’s new essay in the Post-Progressive Post: Why We Will Grow Together or Grow Apart.

I hope you enjoy the episode – and check out the Post-Progressive Post! – Jeff Salzman

David Storey also hosts the podcast, Wisdom@Work, where he talks with philosophers who have gone beyond the Ivory Tower to build careers outside of academia. Steve McIntosh is the founder of the Institute for Cultural Evolution, and author of many books on integral theory including his latest, Developmental Politics.

I have also occasionally spoken about my experience years ago when an intense period of mindfulness meditation triggered a multi-year siege of anxiety which began to heal only when, after much suffering, I cast off the instructions of my teachers to “just keep meditating” and got up from the cushion and fled a retreat.

A few weeks ago I ran across an essay written by meditation teacher, Dan Lawton, called When Buddhism Goes Bad; How My Mindfulness Practice Led Me to Meltdown. A committed meditator for ten years and a full-time teacher in the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction system, he described his similar (though perhaps more extreme) experience of anxiety and dissociation triggered by meditation.

When I read his story, I felt an instant siblinghood. His essay validated my experience and brought clarity to the risk inherent in lifting a transformational spiritual practice out of its traditional culture where any resulting “hell realms” and “dark nights” are recognized and metabolized.

He writes:

As meditation practices have exploded in popularity in the West, they have brought with them an array of adverse experiences far beyond the typically-billed benefits of lower stress, decreased anxiety and reduced pain. The terrain of fractured, disruptive and altered states of consciousness has often been explored in Buddhist teachings through the centuries, but when these practices made their journey into Western culture, a sufficient understanding of the downsides of meditation was lost in transit.

One way to avoid adverse effects is to integrate mindfulness practice with somatic, psychological and interpersonal work. For instance, both Dan and I ultimately found relief from our psychic pain through a trauma therapy called Somatic Experiencing, founded by the psychologist Peter Levine.

My ordeal also undoubtedly fueled my later participation in developing Integral Life Practice (ILP) at the Integral Institute in the early 2000’s. ILP is a comprehensive synthesis of transformational practices and is currently offered in many forms through Integral Life. I just wish I had had it 10 years earlier!

If an online search of “adverse effects of meditation” is any indication, the potential dangers of modern mindfulness practice are becoming more apparent. Dan highlights the work of Dr. Willoughby Britton, Director of the Clinical and Affective Neuroscience Laboratory at Brown University, who studies both positive and negative effects of meditation and has found that 37% of meditators studied report negative impacts on functioning and 6% had “lasting bad effects.” Dr. Britton has founded Cheetah House, a non-profit organization “that provides resources about meditation-related difficulties to meditators-in-distress and teachers of meditation-based modalities.”

Meditation is a powerful and precious tool and I offer this podcast in the spirit of helping us to develop a less naive and more mature relationship with it. I hope you are enlightened by my conversation with Dan Lawton.

***************

If you haven’t already, check out my new YouTube show, “This Week in The New York Times”, hosted by the Post-Progressive Post, where I look at news stories through the lens of cultural and consciousness evolution.

Today’s topic is what Dr. Keith calls the “post-issue relationship”, and here’s how he describes it: In a post-issue relationship, each problem is an opportunity to grow and love. A post-issue relationship may still have problems, resentments, doubts, and selfish or thoughtless injuries, but there is always an adjustment to love in response to pain or distortion.

Second-tier living really is more good, true and beautiful! Our conversation starts at 3:16; I hope you enjoy it!.

You can find out more about Dr. Keith Witt here.

I am very much an outlier on this movie, which has received rave reviews and a 97% critical approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The rapturous response — The Guardian called a “masterpiece” — gave me pause and made me reconsider a movie that I would have otherwise written off as being shockingly bad.

Upon reflection I realize that Pig is not a bad movie, it may even be a great movie if you like your nihilism served up as ugly as possible.

There is a strain of postmodern (green altitude) identity that sees modern culture as hopelessly corrupt and exhausted, facing an existential meta-crisis. A significant sliver of them, self-described “doomers,” see a world so degenerated that withdrawal is the only moral choice.

This view is defensible, of course, but inadequate. What’s missing is what integral thinking brings to the party: an evolutionary understanding that its meta-crises all the way down.

Most of human history has been a rolling catastrophe. Welcome to evolution! The modern (orange altitude) stage of development, for all its soulless avarice, has been a boon to humans in terms of security and wealth, giving rise to life conditions that can generate a social critique like Pig, which is postmodern deconstruction at its platonic perfection, establishing once and for all that there is nothing good, true, or beautiful to be found.

In the podcast, I draw a distinction between the aesthetics of ugliness and nihilism, both of which can deeply move me. But you have to give me something more than the told-not-shown love of a pig. These days I require my social critiques to have faith in life, movies like Minari, or even Nomadland. I’ll do a review of these soon! Let me know what you think at jeff@dailyevolver.com.

Jeff

PS. I love listening to podcasts at fast speed. Last week I learned you can also speed up YouTube videos. It’s great, try it! Just click the gear icon while playing a video and select the “speed” option.

In this episode, I map the idea of progress in our culture. Maher’s comments were widely praised in the mainstream media, from Morning Joe Scarborough on MSNBC (center left) to Peggy Noonan at the Wall Street Journal (center right). Together these represent the modern worldview (orange altitude). Traditionalists (blue/amber altitude) see no progress in this wicked world, only the opportunity for redemption or transcendence. Progressives (green altitude), who also have a fallen-world narrative, see the idea of progress as an insult to all who continue to suffer.

The arising integral stage has a chance to revalorize the message of progress. Not as a march to a triumphal future, but as the ever-widening circle of moral consideration we have, individually and collectively, for each other and all aspects of our world. Onward to upward!

On a personal note, many of you may know that our Brother Terry Patten, who I have worked with and hosted on the Daily Evolver many times, is fighting a battle with cancer. I invite you to join me and many of his friends and fans in supporting him at his GoFundMe site.

~ Jeff Salzman

Subtitled, “A Home for the Politically Homeless” the Post-Progressive Post seeks to be a meeting place for integral thinkers, folks who see value in many sectors of the political spectrum and want to join the effort to form an “omni-inclusive” worldview.

In this podcast, Steve guides us on a tour through the site, including:

• Post-progressivism defined: the 100-word version, the 700-word version and the multi-page version
• An ever-growing array of news analysis, opinion columns, blogs and podcasts by leading integral thinkers
• Win-win-win positions on the issues of the day which honor traditional values, modern values and postmodern values
• Quizzes and exercises to help you explore your own integral consciousness
• Portals to the post-progressive Facebook and Twitter feeds, and more ways to get involved

The Post-Progressive Project as a whole is an initiative of the Institute for Cultural Evolution. Steve McIntosh is the president of the Institute and I am on its board of directors. I hope you enjoy the podcast, and The Post-Progressive Post! 

As Charles explains, “Our work today is to bring big-picture, long-term perspectives to the human condition. While these kinds of insights can initially stretch people’s understanding, with time, most people find them seeming like common sense. What is new is that this is a degree of common sense that before now we could not have fully grasped — or tolerated. It would have overwhelmed us. Today, it has become essential.”

I hope you enjoy our conversation and check out his latest books:

• Creative Systems Theory—A Comprehensive Theory of Purpose,Change, and Interrelationship In Human Systems (With Particular Pertinence to Understanding the Times We Live In and the Tasks Ahead for the Species) 
• Perspective and Guidance for a Time of Deep Discord: Why We See Such Extreme Social and Political Polarization—And What We Can Do About It.

Post-Progressive Inquiries is a co-production of the Institute for Cultural Evolution and the Daily Evolver Podcast. Steve McIntosh will join the series in the next episode.

Part 2: I play excerpts from a fascinating conversation between John McWhorter and Bill Maher on race relations, and imagine how an understanding of developmental theory would have improved it.

Here’s to another week in cultural evolution!

~ Jeff Salzman

• Alexei Navalny’s heroic, near-death fight for modern values in Russia.

• “Our people are not perfect, but our culture is superior to others.” Pew research on how Eastern and Western Europeans respond to that statement.

• How “mean modernity“ blinds us to the deep identity and fulfillment found in healthy traditionalism.

• Practicing to deepen multi-perspectivalism with individuals and cultures.

Plus, I welcome Integral teacher and coach Lee Mason to tell us about his new program, The Essence of Integral Flourishing, now available at Integral Life. Enjoy! You can learn more about Lee on www.practicalintegral.com.

I will be a panel member at the upcoming online Integral European Conference along with many other great presenters, practice groups and discussions. Hope you will join!

When: Sunday, May 23rd, 4:00 CEST / 8am PDT / 11am EDT /  1am AEST  | Duration: 1 hour

In this panel discussion Steve McIntosh, John Bunzl and Jeff Salzman will look at the evolutionary causes, manifestations and possible solutions to the culture wars of our time. They will tackle questions such as:

• How might integral theory interpret political polarization?
• Is polarization an inevitable clash of developmental worldviews?
• How do we avoid its worst manifestations?
• In what ways could it be fruitful?
• Is a post-polarization culture possible, and what would it look like?

About the panel members:

Steve McIntosh is president of the Institute for Cultural Evolution, and the author of several books on integral theory, including his latest, Developmental Politics: How America Can Grow Into a Better Version of Itself.

John Bunzl is the founder of the Simpol (Simultaneous Policy) campaign for global cooperation, and co-author of The SIMPOL Solution. He has also authored a number of papers on global governance published in Journal of Integral Theory & Practice.

Jeff Salzman is the host of The Daily Evolver podcast, now in its 10th year, and co-founder of the Boulder Integral Center.

In it, Nissim Mizrachi, former head of the department of sociology and anthropology at Tel Aviv University, describes what he calls the blind spot of liberals, who, he says, “do not see themselves as ‘classifiable’ from the outside.”

“I think the most blatant phenomenon in world politics today is the resounding defeat of the liberal vision,” Mizrachi says. “It’s a double breakdown: one involving the government, in the sense of the left’s inability to gain a political foothold among the masses; and more deeply, one involving an inability to imagine an order that accommodates opposition groups.”

Integral theory shows us that all first-tier worldviews, not just liberalism, are stuck in their ideological bunkers. And that the way forward is to explore and open to the world of others, particularly our political opponents.

In the second part of the episode, I apply this thesis to the culture war currently being fought within the African-American community, where the antiracists, led by Ibram X. Kendi, are sparring with the anti-antiracists, led by Glenn Loury and others.

What does a diversity of worldviews look like? It’s deceptively simple, says Professor Mizrachi, “We think the other side’s concerns are not mine, but they should be because I care about him or her. We share something in common here. We are sharing this land and this nation. It sounds horrible, but he or she needs to become part of us. Because they are part of us.”

Sounds kind of beautiful to me, but getting there sure ain’t pretty. I hope you enjoy the episode!

The good news is that in the long run friending wins. In this episode of The Shrink and the Pundit, integral psychotherapist Dr Keith Witt explains how sociability is latent in most interactions, even those that are marked by hostility. And how human beings at every scale, from individual children to collective nation-states, invite constraints to provide a delineated space for new growth. Dr. Keith’s insights help us normalize – and realize the potential – in the inevitable conflicts of life.

NOTE: We apologize for the buzz you might hear at times from Dr. Keith Witt’s mic.

Harry and Meghan are exemplars of postmodernity’s most powerful creed: to relieve human suffering that has been unseen in previous structures …

• suffering in the collective, with a new dedication to those people and groups who have been previously marginalized or discounted by society, and

• suffering in the individual, with a heightened awareness of psychic pain, trauma, and “mental health”.

To some, the interview was a display of hypersensitivity and self-indulgence; to others a noble challenge to right the blind spots of history. In this episode, I explore this latest skirmish in the culture war. With a burst of sunshine by John Denver!

• 05:44 – Amy Dickenson, writer of the popular advice column “Ask Amy” counsels a woman who is offended that her sick husband’s caregiver offered to pray with him.

• 17:49 – In the essay, “My Generation Isn’t Suffering Enough,” a wise young writer looks at Gen Z (under 25 years old), and asks why they are so hopeless and sad.

Along the way, I look at how a divine Other can be brought through modernity, cleansed of fundamentalism, and experienced directly as the 2nd Person of Spirit. The deep meaning this brings to life (and death) is the ultimate antidote to anxiety and depression. Enjoy the episode!

President Joe Biden leads a memorial to COVID victims and offers consolation to their survivors in a way that brings on the best of “good green”. Green consciousness, “the sensitive self”, is drawn to ever-deeper levels of empathy and care, especially for those who are typically unsung in society. It is the leading edge of human evolution and the part of green that we want to integrate into 2nd tier consciousness. Joe Biden, uniquely qualified by virtue of his personal suffering, is leading the way.

TwinsthenewTrend is the moniker for twin brothers Tim and Fred Williams, now 21, who have become YouTube sensations recording “reaction videos” of themselves listening to all types of music. Their effortless flow and guileless friendliness to all are magnetic and, I argue, represent qualities of integral consciousness that are native to a new generation of young people, two more of whom I profile.

• 13:00 – TwinsTheNewTrend
• 24:15 – Zoë Jenkins of Civics Unplugged
• 31:15 – Young friend from Stockholm

Enjoy the episode! – Jeff

Pia Malaney is Co-Founder and Director of The Center for Innovation, Growth and Society and Senior Economist at the Institute for New Economic Thinking.

Her own professional research has focused on economic, biological, and sociological approaches to human welfare. She has held positions at the Harvard Institute for International Development and the Center for International Development at Harvard’s Kennedy School where she worked in collaboration with Asian and African governments on the development of health care and economic policies. She received a BA from Wellesley College and a PhD from Harvard University.

Learn more about the Institute for Cultural Evolution and Steve McIntosh.

I also look at last week’s Real Time show, where Bill Maher makes a good case about the religious qualities of Trumpism, but … if only he understood development.

Finally, I highlight his guest, Charlotte Alter, who attempts an integral analysis of the cultural “cancellation” of actor Armie Hammer. It may fall flat with Bill — but you’ll get it!

Enjoy the episode and let me know what you think. You can write at jeff@dailyevolver.com or leave a voicemail here.

• Inspiring+++ Worth sharing! I shared to a Greta Thunberg Facebook group. – Pierre Hamel
• Very inspiring! Hopeful! Refreshing integral worldview in action. – Pat Veenema
• This is so inspiring and hopeful. I was imagining that Jeff and Steve may have felt like proud parents! These young people “get it.” – Mary Reese Folger

In this episode, Steve McIntosh and I visit with two young leaders, Gary Sheng and Zoë Jenkins, who are activating higher consciousness in Generation Z through their organization Civics Unplugged. 

Civics Unplugged is a community of Gen Z leaders committed to strengthening democracy through civic entrepreneurship in the U.S. and around the world. The organization has received significant attention with partners like Andrew Yang, the Smithsonian, Duane “The Rock” Johnson, and National Geographic.

Wisdom is rarely married to youth, but meeting these two young people gave me greater confidence in our future, and I hope it will for you as well.

– Jeff Salzman

Gary Sheng, a former software engineer with Google, is on Forbes Magazine’s “30 Under 30” list of young innovators. Zoë Jenkins is a 17-year-old equity and justice advocate from Lexington Kentucky.

__________________________________________________

Announcement

Are there higher “stages” to friendship? 

My friend, Terry Patten, will be offering a major address on one of our key leverage points in a fragmenting world: our capacity for generosity and friendship.

You’re invited to register for Spiritual Friends Amidst Cultural Madness: The Power of Our Grateful Generosity. The free online event will be Wed, February 3rd 2021 @ 12 Noon PST, and you can watch or listen to the recording at any time.

Enjoy and let me know what you think at jeff@dailyevolver.com. – Jeff

Photo of National Mall: AP Photo/Alex Brandon

Epic interview. Brilliant and inspiring ideas (and strategies and tactics) around leadership development and how to work with “power” in the service of cultural transformation – Accelerating Leadership

Rand Stagen is well known in the integral world as founder of the Stagen leadership academy. Stagen is the gold standard for leadership training, focused on long-term, disciplined, “leadership practice” which integrates psychological and even spiritual dimensions. I consider Rand to be one of most effective practitioners of applied integral thinking out there, and I enjoyed this conversation immensely. I hope you do too.

“Post-Progressive Inquiries” is a co-production of the Daily Evolver and the Institute for Cultural Evolution. My co-host is the founder of the Institute, Steve McIntosh.

You can find out more about Rand Stagen and the Stagen Leadership Academy here.

Last Wednesday we saw a mob assault the US Capitol Building in an attempt to stop the certification of November’s presidential election. Five people have died.

This insurrection was incited by a sitting president of the United States – whose flags then waved from the broken windows beneath the Rotunda. As these astonishing events have sunk in over the past few days, there is a growing sentiment that Trump and rabid Trumpism must be condemned and contained. And that Trump’s political energies – “mean red” in developmental terms – are poisonous to the hard-won civility of a modern society.

In this episode, integral psychotherapist Dr. Keith Witt and I try to add some integral perspective. Let me know what you think at jeff@dailyevolver.com.

– Jeff Salzman

• (01:34) Who’s more mean, trads or pomos? Responses to my critique of the famous “toast scene” in the movie Five Easy Pieces. 
• (18:39) How can the mythic impulse in religion be integrated?
• (22:55) My ebullient resilience, and how to capture integral in four bullet points
• (26:25) My products of the year, decade and millennium so far
• (34:40) Gratitude to the Integral movement’s leading light

Let me know what YOU think! Write to me at jeff@dailyevolver.com or leave me a voicemail.

And farewell to a no-fun but probably quite fruitful year. Hope you all have a Happy Holiday! – Jeff Salzman

• 01:23 – Clips and observations from the Jericho march on Washington DC earlier this month featuring evangelical leaders (and Alex Jones), and the backlash it has caused with others in the movement.
• 21:25 – How mainstream punditry is seeking to explain the seeming paradox of Trump-loving Christians.
• 35:50 – Bill Bryson and Jack Nicholson demonstrate why the hatred of the left still unites traditional conservatives – and why we deserve it.

I hope you enjoy the episode!

Announcement: 

The Institute for Cultural Evolution think tank, where I serve on the Board, is recruiting an Executive Director to help run our operations. The job description for this new position can be found here. If the possibility of working with ICE sounds intriguing, I encourage you to check out this opportunity.

– Jeff Salzman

Sue describes the cutting edge of consciousness being pioneered by women who are now entering – and thriving – in elderhood. Based on 100 interviews with women age 50 – 70+, Sue shares 10 themes that capture the emerging essence of this creative, exciting and spiritually-rich stage of life.

I hope you enjoy the episode! – Jeff Salzman

Though inspired by the mendacity of his election fraud claims, the reporters hew closer to the truth than Trump does (The National Report), except when they opt for a good old-fashioned rant (Diamond and Silk). The result is a more differentiated mediaverse, required for the integration to come.

I end on a happy note, with uplifting evidence of the evolution of consciousness in the person of five-year-old Tianna.

This is intellectual champagne!!! – Alexander Husum

Welcome to Post-Progressive Inquiries, a new podcast series coproduced by the Daily Evolver and The Institute for Cultural Evolution (ICE). In each episode, ICE President Steve McIntosh and I explore new territories emerging in politics and culture.

We are happy to have as our inaugural guest Tomas Bjorkman, an “applied philosopher and social entrepreneur” who has founded and funded many initiatives dedicated to the co-creation of a more conscious society.

Steve and I talk with Tomas about his work, and particularly his association with the Metamodern movement that has emerged out of European developmental thought.

Tomas Bjorkman is the founder of the Ekskäret Foundation and Retreat Center on Ekskäret Island in the Swedish Archipelago. He is the author of several books, most recently The World We Create, From God to Market.

Integral philosopher Steve McIntosh is the author of several books on integral philosophy, including Developmental Politics, and Evolution’s Purpose.

Dr. Keith kicks off this episode with research showing that although virtually everybody lies, most people vastly prefer to tell the truth and believe other people are doing the same. But how do we as integralists make sense of competing truth claims, particularly from different sides in the culture war?

How do the facts and logic of modernity stack up against the allure of premodern myth and story? And what are the effects to the body politic of the long-term diet of lies served up by our newly-certified Loser-in-Chief?

“The Shrink and the Pundit” is my ongoing conversation with integral psychotherapist Dr. Keith Witt. 

As always, Jeff gives us an outstanding talk about the user of Integral Theory to understand and navigate our world. – Nils Montan

On last week’s edition of CNN’s Global Public Square, host Fareed Zakaria ardently condemned Donald Trump’s attack on the election, drawing dark parallels to the rise of Hitler and Nazism after World War 1.

His first guest, former National Security Advisor, General H. R. McMaster, chided Fareed for “misusing history”, arguing that the US has modern institutions specifically built to withstand the will of an autocrat.

There is an essential truth in both of these perspectives. Fareed is right that pre-rational tiers of human consciousness can be dangerous and violent. They hunger for great myths, and thrill to the warrior leader who has come to set the world right.

McMaster is correct that the US government is designed to check these non-rational impulses, and seems to be doing so effectively against the onslaught of Trump the Red.

In this episode, I argue that integral thinking provides a next possibility beyond trusting leaders and trusting institutions. It is to trust in development itself, which in modernity and postmodernity has installed reliable new structures of rationality and sensitivity that dilute and contain (but do not eliminate) the premodern ones.

Maybe the lesson of Germany in the ‘30’s is not that it could happen again in the US., but is found in the subsequent evolution of Germany into a world-leading nation less than a lifetime later. And that the odious Trump, if not Trumpism altogether, is headed to the ash heap of history.

After four years of The Trump Show, we’re happy to be changing the channel. To what, we don’t exactly know, but we’re happy to share our musings with you! Share back at jeff@dailyevolver.com.

This is a co-production with Terry’s podcast “State of Emergence”. You can find out more about Diane here. 

Very good podcast Jeff. Puts a lot of calm into a very chaotic time. – Nils Montan

The day before this week’s US presidential election one of my favorite public intellectuals, Sam Harris, released a podcast where he announced a breakthrough in his understanding of what had heretofore been a mystery: the appeal of Donald Trump to his followers. His revelation:

Trump offers what no priest can credibly offer: a total expiation of shame. His personal shamelessness is a kind of spiritual balm. Trump is fat Jesus. He’s grab-them-by-the-pussy Jesus. He’s I’ll-eat- cheeseburgers-if-I-want-to Jesus. He’s punch-them-in-the-face Jesus. 

How painfully partial and depressing is Harris’s denigration of the 30% of the population who love Trump, and the 47% who voted for him. And we thought Trump was insulting (he is)!

Integral thinking offers so much more in the way of understanding – and appreciating – people with different worldviews. We see the dignities and disasters of all three developmental stages currently fighting the culture war and seek to integrate the best of each. Harris, in contrast, offers a “mean modernism” that marks all non-rational reality as deluded and dangerous.

Enjoy the podcast and let me know what you think at Jeff@DailyEvolver.com.

Watch full video of “The Love – @Black Eyed Peas and Jennifer Hudson | Joe Biden for President 2020″

_ _ _

• That is great piece! Real manifestation of 2nd tear in practical terms. And eye opening even for people from abroad USA, which have bit different racial issues.
  – KuboF Hromoslav
• Powerful. Extremely informative. Thank you – Sue Brooks
• This is really good. Cindy Wigglesworth has a great balance between a lot of knowledge/wisdom with true humility. She’s doing good work in our world, y’all. – Michael Gott
• Whoa, such a great conversation! – Sarah Foster Barrett

This week I welcome back my dear friend, Cindy Wigglesworth, a Teacher known and loved by many in the integral world.

Several years ago, Cindy turned her considerable insight to the issue of racial reckoning in America, particularly on the part of privileged white people, and has helped build a vanguard program of diversity training through her church, Unity of Houston.

As always with Sister Cindy, whether we’re talking about spiritual intelligence or Star Trek, I received a transmission of new consciousness in this conversation, and ended it with an enlarged view of what is happening and how to be helpful. I hope you do, too!

Cindy Wigglesworth is author of SQ21: The Twenty-One Skills of Spiritual Intelligence, and you can find out more about her and her work here. Cindy is also an accomplished watercolorist and painted the illustration above.

Friends, don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel and Like us on Facebook! Thank you!

I remember hearing something like “any behavior is appropriate in some context”. Your presentation really brings this out! – George Shepherd

Moral development involves increasing the categories of people who are inside one’s circle of compassion.

At the green postmodern stage, we include people who have been marginalized because of race, looks or sexual identities, as well as folks with mental and emotional conditions that deviate from behavioral norms (which are themselves questioned).

One of the most challenging frontiers in the mainstreaming of abnormal behavior is the “anti-social personality disorder,” which includes psychopathy and sociopathy. These conditions range from people who lack empathy and capacity for guilt, to people who lie and bully, to violent criminals.

In this episode, I look at two examples of our culture’s reconsideration of people who exhibit this spectrum of traits:

1. The author of last Sunday’s New York Times’ Modern Love column, “He Married a Sociopath: Me”, who describes her journey from a sociopathy diagnosis in her early twenties to a functional life today as a wife, mother and doctor of psychology (specializing in anti-social personality disorders).
2. A certain resident of the White House.

Hope you enjoy!

I recently checked in with Corey DeVos, Editor-in-Chief of Integral Life, about their long-awaited debut of Integral Life Practice (ILP), a “personal-evolution” program that integrates the best practices of spiritual, psychological, interpersonal and cognitive development. Integral Life has brought together dozens of deeply-experienced Practice Leaders to provide live, daily guided ILP practice sessions that you can experience from the privacy of your own living room. Check it out here.

But being integralists and old pals, Corey and I couldn’t stop our conversation there, so we also took on our mostly-concurring integral interpretations of today’s news in politics and culture, as well as the evolution of the integral community. And Corey’s new integral hobby which you can also purchase! We hope you enjoy. – Jeff Salzman

1:51 – Introducing Integral Life Practice: the new online community practice platform on IntegralLife.com

11:44 – What’s going on in the Integral community regarding politics, culture and news

55:34 – Corey’s amazing AQAL woodwork!

With less than a month left in the campaign, Trump, knocked back with Covid, stokes his base with new cries about “the Russia hoax”. Meanwhile Joe Biden, up in the polls, goes to Gettysburg to talk about faith in “One America.” In this episode I share my observations on another week in the evolution of American politics.

By the way, I hope you’ll join me for my live show every Wednesday at 1pm US Mountain Time. The Daily Evolver Live is hosted by IntegralLife – and now simulcast to my Facebook page! As always, I love hearing what’s on your minds and hearts, so keep your comments, questions and critiques coming! You can write me at jeff@dailyevolver.com, or leave me a voicemail (which I may play on the show). And don’t forget to Like us on Facebook and Follow us on Twitter…

Hey Folks! In this episode, I respond to provocative comments from my very smart listeners, and share some photos from my trip to Trumplandia!  See topics and timestamps below.

I love hearing what’s on your minds and hearts, so keep your comments, questions and critiques coming! You can write me at jeff@dailyevolver.com, or leave me a voicemail (which I may play on the show). And don’t forget to Like us on Facebook and Follow us on Twitter…

THIS EPISODE:

• 0:45 – “What’s up with these Trump people?” Trump supporters seen through the lens of Piaget’s developmental theory.
• 13:06 – The devilish details in the political integration of left and right.
• 24:16 – Rapper J Cole’s “vulnerable rap with a sword” displays integral consciousness.
• 30:52 – “Isn’t woke culture really warrior red, and critical theory amber fundamentalist?”
• 39:30 – Peak Barbra: a 24-year-old Barbra Streisand transmits early green consciousness in her signature song.

Both systems promised – and delivered – big results from easy effort, enabling both Keith, a master practitioner, and I, a serial dilettante, to tap into new vitality from rethinking some basic biological functions. I hope it inspires you too!

__________________________________

Attn: Apple Podcast users – please resubscribe

Our link to Apple Podcasts broke, so new episodes may not be showing up. To fix, simply delete the Daily Evolver from Podcasts – then resubscribe. All fixed!

“Claire and I listened to Jeff’s latest podcast on Sunday and it was a breath of fresh air. Highly recommended if you’re upset by the current culture wars. (if you’re not, are you still alive?) Yes, Jeff uses some integral jargon from time to time but I think anyone will appreciate his view from 10,000 feet.”
– Bill Epperly, PhD, of Integral Awakenings

Every stage of human development is experienced by its subjects as an awakening into a new world.

• Traditional religious believers (amber/blue meme) “wake up” to the reality of a transcendent God or Nirvana.
• Modern rationalists (orange meme) create “the Enlightenment,” a world freed from the bondage of ignorance and superstition.
• Postmodern (green meme) progressives “get woke” to how the historic karmas of oppression continue to manifest, including in our own hearts and minds.

People at each of these stages tend to hate and fear those who have not awakened into their world, and each has their orthodoxy, thought police and cancellation of heretics. This provides the fuel for today’s culture war (and the endless wars of history).

I receive a lot of questions about what integral thinking can reveal about woke culture, and the challenge it brings to the established modern and traditional views. In this episode, I respond to a message I received from a listener who sums up his argument with a sincere question: “What’s so good about WOKE?”

I’m mostly stable at teal and turquoise helping my clients at whatever Kosmic address they occupy, but I find that much more difficult when considering the larger social struggles. It’s as if a primitive part of me wants war so I can attack and defeat enemies, while the mature part of me wants to turn enemies into allies, even brothers and sisters. I can do this on the local, individual level, but keep struggling with it on larger cultural levels. I objectify and attack individuals, institutions, and groups, knowing I’m objectifying them, knowing that it is not the most beautiful, good or true reaction. I feel like I’m missing something that’s just on the edge of awareness. WDYT?

Together, I think Keith and I found some answers, and may even have caught a glimpse of what can happen when the cats and dogs stop fighting. Enjoy and let us know what you think!

Dr. Keith Witt is a practicing psychotherapist and author of many books and courses on integral psychotherapy.

Here’s the blurb I wrote for the book:

I’m happy to have my old friend Jason Digges on the show and I hope you enjoy our conversation!

Jason Digges has been working in the Integral space for over 15 years. He co-founded Authentic Relating Training International and has led courses in 20 cities around the world.