Thank you for purchasing Integral Spirituality: A Deeper Cut—the essential guide to

the theories, the stories, and the applications surrounding Ken Wilberʼs groundbreaking
book Integral Spirituality. In this document you will find a wealth of information about
the Deeper Cut product, including chapter and audio summaries, useful charts and
graphics, and a collection of beautiful art from some of our favorite integral artists.

Table of Contents:

Introduction: The Integral Approach

Chapter 1: Integral Methodological Pluralism
Chapter 2: Stages of Consciousness
Chapter 3: States of Consciousness
Chapter 4: States and Stages
Chapter 5: Boomeritis Buddhism
Chapter 6: The Shadow and the Disowned Self
Chapter 7: The Miracle Called “We”
Chapter 8: The World of the Terribly Obvious
Chapter 9: The Conveyor Belt
Chapter 10: Integral Life Practice
Appendix I: From the Great Chain of Being to Postmodernism in 3 Easy Steps
Appendix II: Integral Post-Metaphysics
Appendix III: The Myth of the Given Lives On....
Introduction: The Integral Approach
It's a new day, it's a new dawn, it's a new man, it's a new woman. The new human is
integral, and so is the spirituality.

The familiar Chinese proverb, “May you live in interesting times,” is no doubt fulfilled in
our time. For the first time in history, we have access to all the world’s wisdom, to the
musings of saints, sages, and scientists through the ages. That access is growing
exponentially. Scarcely a century ago, the first trans-Atlantic wireless signal was
transmitted; now, we venture out every day on the information superhighway. We are
inundated with information, and today, more than ever, there is an impulse to make
sense of it all.

Philosophy (literally, “love of wisdom”) might well be the oldest human pursuit. For as
long as human beings have existed, we have questioned our existence. And whereas
our close evolutionary relatives have demonstrated the ability to create tools and
perhaps even display a sense of humor—traditional criteria for what makes us unique
as humans—we have not yet observed in them the capacity to make meaning. Perhaps
it is meaning itself, and the search for it, that sets us apart.

Every human age has its priceless contributions, its startling insights. Premodernity
discerned, beneath the myriad forms of manifestation, “the Great Chain of Being,” a
majestic progression from matter to body to mind to spirit. Modernity informs this view
considerably; it tells us that we
live in a universe that has
evolved over roughly 14 billion
years. Matter evolved to the
point at which life emerged; life
evolved to the point at which
consciousness emerged. And
postmodernity points out that
each of us is embedded in a
context, largely invisible to
ourselves, from which we
i n t e r p re t o u r e x p e r i e n c e .
Rather than a pregiven world,
we enact a worldspace, the
product of the phenomena we
observe and the viewpoint
from which we make the
observation. We are, quite
literally, viewing manifestation
through a set of lenses, lenses
that we never knew we were
wearing. And in the process of
development, we swap those lenses for new ones, viewing phenomena in increasingly
more precise, nuanced, and sophisticated ways.

At the leading edge, most developmental theories posit a stage that might be called
“integral,” for its hallmark attempt to make sense of everything, to find the pattern that
connects. One such theory is “AQAL,” short for “all quadrants, all levels, all lines, all
states, all types.” The AQAL model, proposed by American philosopher Ken Wilber, is
perhaps the most comprehensive view ever taken of how all manifestation, all matter,
all life, all thought, and all experience can fit together in a coherent whole. AQAL itself
is content-less, which makes it infinitely applicable to any particular area of inquiry.

Any field (e.g. business, medicine, politics) can be viewed through an AQAL lens. And
this view can vastly enrich our understanding of the contours, limits, and possibilities of
that field. Touching in on the five aspects of the model ensures that we have covered
all of our bases. We can be sure that we are viewing a given situation from every
conceivable angle, and can proceed with the best information possible.

But what if AQAL was applied to spirituality itself? What if we were to view the ancient
pursuit of spirit from the highest viewpoint we can possibly take at this time? What
would we learn from the journeys of those who have gone before, and what
implications would there be for the road ahead? Remembering that there is no pregiven
world, but rather, worldspaces that arise when a new perspective is taken from a new
altitude, what is the worldspace that arises when spirituality is viewed from integral?

Integral Spirituality is a description of precisely that. It is a depiction of the view, from

50,000 feet, of spirituality, described by one of the great thinkers of our time. The book
yields extraordinary theoretical insights, such as the fact that states of consciousness
(which religious traditions guide us through) are always interpreted from stages of
consciousness. And it provides practices that help us to navigate these states and
stages in a breathtakingly conscious manner, ensuring that we are living as freely and
fully as we can. It makes the bold proposition that religion—far from being obsolete—is
the conveyor belt that will enable humanity to progress safely through the stages in its
evolutionary past, and with great hope into its evolutionary future.

01. Ken’s Introduction (1:26)

Ken offers a very brief prologue to the Integral Spirituality series, discussing how
the newest phase of his work (Wilber V) represents a shift from seeing holons as the
most fundamental “unit” of the Kosmos, to seeing perspectives as the bedrock of
reality.

02. Markers of Development (19:09)

Ross asks Ken whether there are events or markers which show up in each of the
four quadrants as signs of spiritual health and positive development, which could
help a practitioner affirm that they are on the right path. Conversely, are there
events or markers which show up in each of the four quadrants which are signs of ill
health or pathological development?
03. Full Enlightenment (30:43)
Speaking from his own experience of meditation teachers, Richard asks whether
culture is a factor in preventing "vertical enlightenment." Ken goes on to give a
description of "full enlightenment" (which involves both "horizontal enlightenment"
or being at one with all states, and "vertical enlightenment" or being one with all
states) and some of the obstacles that prevent people from attaining it.

04. Uniting Multiple Disciplines (20:47)

Edith suggests that a neutral framework such as IOS might help us "get to the
door," allowing a common terminology between disciplines, but it doesn't
necessarily get us past hidden assumptions, interpretive frameworks, and
paradigms, as Ken contends....

05. Misinterpreting States and Stages (33:07)

Thomas and Ken engage in a superb discussion of states and stages, and how
those terms can be misinterpreted, leading to much confusion. Ken memorably and
humorously shares his frustration with the difficulty of naming these aspects of
reality that he has so clearly pointed out!
Chapter 1: Integral Methodological Pluralism
The stunning insight of Ken Wilber’s Sex, Ecology, Spirituality is that there are four
irreducible dimensions to every occurrence. In seeking to construct a theory of
everything, Ken Wilber made a distinction between the individual and the collective,
and one between the interior and the exterior. Taken together, the individual/collective
and interior/exterior axes result in four dimensions, or what are commonly referred to
as “the four quadrants.”

In the course of beginning to write Volume 2 of the Kosmos Trilogy, Wilber made
another critical distinction. Any occurrence can further be viewed from the inside or
from the outside. For example, the interior of the individual (or the upper-left quadrant)
can be viewed from the inside, via introspection, or from the outside, via structuralism.
The same occurrence, viewed via two
different methodologies, results in two
completely different views.

In fact, the four quadrants, viewed from

the inside and from the outside, result
in eight irreducible methodologies for
gaining reproducible knowledge.
Without exception, every observation
ever made was done so by means of
one of them.

The eight methodologies which taken

together compose Integral
Methodological Pluralism, are of
immense importance to the idea of
Integral Spirituality. The world’s
religious traditions have not fared well
in the face of attacks from modernity
(which demanded evidence for their subjective claims) and postmodernity (which
pointed out their ignorance of intersubjectivity). Having been thoroughly deconstructed
by modernity and postmodernity, the traditions can now be reconstructed via Integral
Methodological Pluralism, allowing them to take their rightful and important place in the
future.

01. Quadrants and the "Big Three" (30:40)

Applying the principle of Ockham's razor, Jim asks whether the Upper Right and
Lower Right quadrants might be collapsed into the "Science" of the Big Three. Ken
relates his own experience in wrestling with the question, and how he came to the
conclusion that they are irreducible....
02. 4th-, 5th-, and 6th-Person Perspectives (51:41)
John asks Ken for a "transmission" on what 4th-person, 5th-person and 6th-person
perspectives really mean. Does one need to be at a turquoise altitude to really
understand these perspectives? And how far down does the rabbit hole go?

03. Kosmic Address and the Pauli Exclusion Principle (20:28)

Quoting Ken from page 54 of Integral Spirituality Chapter 1, IMP, "...holon's address
equals its altitude plus perspective... all of this is important because it relates to
being able to "prove" the existence of anything, whether a rock, a proposition, or
God." Beth asks Ken if this can be related to the Pauli Exclusion Principle in
quantum mechanics. Can two events have the same address?

04. Spiritual Practice and Cultural Embedment (42:14)

Yotam begins by quoting Ken: "while contemplative prayer or vipassana might free
you from your ego, it will not free you from your culture, whose prejudices remain in
the hidden intersubjective background never brought to consciousness and thus
never transcended." So if meditation helps you grow in the values and cognitive
lines, wouldn’t this process help you shed your cultural biases? And if not, what can
free you from your intersubjective background?
Chapter 2: Stages of Consciousness
In contrast to states of consciousness, which
human beings have cultivated for tens of
thousands of years, stages of consciousness
are a relatively new discovery of the modern
west. The reason for this is quite simple:
introspection, a methodology by which humans
view their interiors from the inside, has been
around for millennia, whereas structuralism, a
methodology by which humans view interiors
from the outside, is scarcely a century old.

This view “from the outside” began to take form

when researchers asked individuals a series of
questions and followed their answers over time,
looking for patterns in the way the answers
unfolded. For example, Lawrence Kohlberg
posed “Heinz’ dilemma” to his respondents,
asking them if they would be justified in stealing
medication which they could not afford, in order
to save the life of their ailing spouse. Kohlberg
noticed that, of those who initially said
“yes” (because nobody should tell them what to
do), a subgroup later began to answer
“no” (because the rule of law should be upheld).
A further subgroup later returned to answering
“yes” (because the value of life was greater
than the value of the law). These patterns gave
evidence to developmental structures, which
couldn’t be observed as objective reality, but
also couldn’t be detected by an individual
simply looking within. Only the outside view of
the interior (which structuralism provides) was
able to disclose these structures.

The great developmentalists thus posed

questions around various topics (e.g. Kohlberg:
moral reasoning, Piaget: cognition, Loevinger:
self-identity, Maslow: needs, Graves: values)
revealing structures in various lines of
development (or “multiple intelligences”).
Research has demonstrated that development
in the cognitive line (which Jean Piaget mapped
out) is necessary but not sufficient for
development in the other lines. This is due to the fact that the cognitive line helps us to
understand what an individual is aware of; the other lines help us to understand, of that
which one is aware of, what is needed, what is valued, etc.

Ken Wilber has made a significant addition to developmental theory with the notion of
altitude. The various developmental lines give different views of how individuals
develop, but what exactly are they measuring? Ken proposes that it is consciousness
itself through which the lines of development move, and that an individual’s level on a
particular line is literally the amount of consciousness they bring to that line. Wilber has
proposed a content-less line he refers to as altitude, calibrated by means of the
rainbow colors, which can be used as a reference point when discussing the various
other lines of development.

01. Ken's Introduction (29:02)

This is perhaps the best introduction anywhere to the idea of stages of
development. Ken summarizes the staggering amount of evidence for the existence
of developmental stages, and refers to numerous theorists whose work has been
important in this area.

02. Privileging Those Without Privilege (45:11)

Cameron asks why many of our great religious teachers have tended to "privilege
those without privilege" and practiced a sort of "sacred subversion" toward those
who sat at the top of the socio-cultural hierarchy.
03. Moving Multiple Lines (29:30)
Cameron poses the question: does vertical growth happen in only one
developmental line at a time? Or do a whole collection of developmental lines move
to their next stage as a person furthers their own vertical development?

04. The Role of Will (25:27)

Janet asks what the role of will is in spiritual practice, and whether there is any way
to activate it when one feels its distinct lack. It becomes clear that while she may be
lacking the will to meditate, she is certainly not lacking the will to practice! Ken
discusses the role of meditation in development (i.e. it helps people to traverse
states and therefore to loosen identification with one's current stage). But he points
out that meditation is a classically masculine form of practice, and one can certainly
engage in more feminine forms of practice to similar effect....

05-06. Spheres of Existence (1:15:10)

Ken and Martin begin an extraordinary exchange with Martin relating his own
journey, from his beginnings in Czechoslovakia, to teaching philosophy at Purdue,
to his joy at discovering Ken's work. Martin then poses a stunning question: might
there be a need for a third, transversal axis, in addition to states and stages, to
account for Kierkegaard's spheres of existence?

07-08. The Mysterious Presence (59:56)

Ken and Dee dive into a 2nd-Person relationship with Spirit that has sustained her
through a great deal of hardship. Enjoy this beautiful dialogue about the mysterious
Presence, closer to us than our very selves....
Chapter 3: States of Consciousness
States form a key element of Ken Wilber’s AQAL model, and states of consciousness
are perhaps some of the most abiding features of human awareness. As Ken points
out, every individual, every day, journeys through the great states of consciousness:
waking, dreaming, and deep sleep. Viewed one way, the world’s religious traditions
provide means of consciously navigating this journey, ushering us into ever deepening
meditative states that bear an incredibly close resemblance to waking, dreaming, and
deep sleep.

States of consciousness are disclosed

by means of introspection, which
provides an inside view of the interior
of the individual (as opposed to
structuralism, the outside view of the
interior of the individual, which
disclosed stages of consciousness).
This ancient technique is common to
most cultures and religious traditions,
resulting in the development of
extraordinary cartographies tracking
individuals’ experience of journeying
through states of consciousness. While these maps were challenged by modernity
(with its demand for objective evidence) and postmodernity (with its demand of
recognition for intersubjective factors), the AQAL approach can help to situate them
appropriately (in the upper-left quadrant), allowing their truths to endure.

While states of consciousness come and go (distinguishing them from stages, which
persist), some states can in fact be trained and stabilized. Many religious practices
actually have this as their goal. Observation of this unfolding in countless individuals
and numerous cultures indicates that some states do in fact emerge in a predictable
order; thus, the term “state-stages,” as opposed to “structure-stages.” This is not to
discount the fact that states can be encountered as peak experiences, whereas
structures cannot. And this leads to another incredibly important observation: a state
experience will necessarily be interpreted from the stage at which an individual is at.

01-02. Masculine and Feminine Paths to Nonduality (1:14:00)

Tom, a psychologist from Wyoming, asks a riveting question about masculine and
feminine routes to arriving at state of Nondual awareness. Could a spiritual map be
developed that outlines and honors practices from different spiritual traditions,
including practices along both the masculine and feminine routes, so we can help
people make more informed choices regarding their particular spiritual path, and at
the same time, promote their growth in conscious development?
03. Structuralist and Hermeneutical Approaches to Meaning (35:31)
Ken and Mike embark upon a "phenomenal" discussion of the structuralist and
hermeneutical approaches to the ways people perceive, understand, and make
meaning. The dialogue goes deep, and at the root, we find perspectives.

04. Taking Perspectives on Perspectives (16:59)

Ken and Mike continue their discussion. Mike speculates that perhaps Husserl
was, in fact, aware of Pure Awareness, but that his students were unable to take the
perspective of "perspectives." Ken concurs....
Chapter 4: States and Stages
Accounting for both states and stages of consciousness provides us with an
extraordinarily precise view of human development. Such a view incorporates both the
ancient human practice of developing through deepening states of consciousness, and
the insights of modern psychology, which points out the types of contexts through
which humans understand their experiences.

States of consciousness have been with us for the whole of human history. Every
human, every night, journeys from the gross, waking state, to the subtle, dream state,
to the causal, deep sleep state. For millennia, the religious traditions have sought to
push wakefulness into these deepening states. They are often first experienced as a
peak state; later, with practice, these deepening states can be stably experienced, so
that one’s very sense of identity shifts from ego (gross) to soul (subtle) to Self (causal)
to suchness (nondual, or the union of all states).

Stages of consciousness first became clearly visible through the contributions of the
modern West. The German Idealists were the first to begin seeing stages clearly,
starting with Immanuel Kant’s elucidation of a priori (knowledge which is based not
experience but on the forms of all experience) structures, followed by Hegel’s
reasoning that these structures must evolve, and Fichte’s call for a genealogy of
consciousness. James Mark Baldwin was the first to provide such a genealogy, and
today’s many developmental models can be traced back to his initial breakthrough.

It is important to understand that

humans journey through states and
stages of consciousness in a
relatively independent manner. The
Wilber-Combs Lattice illustrates this
dynamic, which becomes apparent
from an Integral altitude. Individuals
necessarily interpret any state
experience from the stage of
consciousness they are at. One is
never outside one’s context; no
matter what sort of experience one
has, their altitude is the lens through
which they will understand the
experience.

The exact form of the W-C Lattice

will depend on the stage
conception we make use of and the
number of states we allow for. For
example, if we use Jean Gebser’s
worldviews (archaic/magic/mythic/rational/pluralistic/integral) and allow for four states
of consciousness (gross/subtle/causal/nondual), it becomes apparent that there are 24
distinct types of spiritual experiences. In other words, four broad categories of spiritual
experience can be interpreted from six different worldviews.

The W-C Lattice illustrates not only the types of spiritual experience that humans can
have; it is also a map of the human journey. Every human starts at “square 1”;
stabilized in the gross, waking state, holding an archaic worldview. As they develop,
they inhabit increasingly high levels of development (magic, mythic, rational, pluralistic,
integral) and stabilize increasingly high states of consciousness (subtle/causal/
nondual). Thus, the W-C Lattice can helps us to see both the contexts in which we
have our experiences, and our life’s journey, which leads us to fullness and freedom—
through a deepening of both our context (stages) and experience (states).

01. Ken’s Introduction (25:42)

Ken introduces the extraordinary concept of structure-stages and state-stages. The
world's religious traditions have for millennia ushered us through deepening states
of consciousness, but these states are ever interpreted from a stage....

02. Skillful Communication (35:00)

As both a student and a teacher of meditation, Meg asks Ken about ways of
languaging stages of spiritual development in orange, green, and post-green terms,
so as to skillfully learn and teach the practice.

03. The Relationship Between States and Stages (18:25)

Pelle poses a number of questions about states. How long can a state last? Does
the attainment of a state allow access to skills normally associated with a higher
stage, or simply the use of skills associated with the present stage, in a more
inspired manner? Can one achieve a new stage, then regress to a previous stage in
times of stress?

04. Peak and Plateau Experiences (25:31)

Tim poses a question about peak and plateau state experiences. Specifically, can a
state occur that is associated only with a particular line of development?

05. The Darth Vader Move (41:42)

Martin asks about the "Darth Vader move," by which one of an exceptionally high
level of development uses that level for purposes deemed to be "wrong." Has there
ever been a case of one who has stabilized the nondual state-stage, then used that
realization for a clearly wrong end? If so, what would be the cause, and what would
be the cure?
Chapter 5: Boomeritis Buddhism
Along with the notion of development comes the notion of pathology. In the course of
taking on increased complexity, something can always go wrong. Anything with a
moving part can break down….

Pathologies can occur in any quadrant, level, line, state, or type. One example of a line
or stream pathology (more technically, a developmental line dysfunction or DLD) is
what Ken Wilber calls Boomeritis. Boomeritis refers specifically to a form of the pre/
post fallacy whereby post-conventional/worldcentric levels become infected with pre-
conventional/egocentric levels. Most commonly, this takes the form of a green/red
complex, whereby red, narcissistic impulses are relabeled with green, postconventional
names. Though this dynamic can occur with respect to any tradition, Buddhism in the
West has been particularly susceptible to it; thus the term Boomeritis Buddhism.

The adoption of Buddhism from a green altitude poses a number of potential

difficulties. First, Buddhism guides its practitioners through a variety of state
experiences, but as always, those states will be
interpreted from the stage of development the
practitioner is at. Because this distinction is not
well known, those state experiences will tend to
reinforce the stage (in this case, green) currently in
place.

Second—again, due to the fact that a development

is not well understood by many spiritual teachers,
Buddhist texts, which are often written from
extremely high altitudes, are frequently translated
down into green terminology. Worse still, since
green pluralism often supports red narcissism, the
very techniques for developing enlightened
awareness may actually solidify not only the green
altitude, but the dysfunctional version of it! And because these pathologies are
manifesting in zone-#2, they are completely invisible to the zone-#1 techniques that
Buddhism offers.

Another shortcoming of the Boomeritis version of Buddhism has to do with “Right

View,” one of the eight precepts. The defiance toward authority that comes with green/
red dynamics can work its way into spiritual practice. The focus on “Emptiness” can
become so great that “Form” (and conversely, Right View) can be held with some
contempt, completely contrary to Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism.

Wilber makes several recommendations around the topic of Boomeritis Buddhism.

First, most spiritual traditions do a great job of navigating the territory of zone-#1, so
nothing needs to change in this respect. Second, with respect to zone-#2, it is
important to continue one’s development through stages of development, as the
deepening context in which states will unfold. Third, the adoption of a model such as
AQAL in which to situate one’s spiritual practice is highly recommended.

01. Ken’s Introduction (32:43)

Ken introduces the topic of Boomeritis Buddhism. When adopted from a green
altitude, Buddhism can start to look a lot more like green, and a lot less like the
profound path that it actually is, as characteristics from that altitude are projected
onto the tradition.

02. The Integrity of Emptiness (11:39)

Quoting Thanissaro Bhikku from a Buddhadharma article entitled "The Integrity of
Emptiness," Kate suggests that a lack of grounding in the Hinayana understanding
of Emptiness has resulted in the use of Emptiness as an excuse for bad behavior in
Mahayana sanghas....

03. Gauging Development (23:40)

Many spiritual practitioners stuck in the green wave are in denial. Likewise, many
practitioners with lack of balance in the 4 quadrants are "unaware." What practical
strategies or tools are available for them to "gauge" their stage of development?
And, secondly, once they are aware how do they address this and confront their
developmental challenges when their sangha and teacher may continue to be in the
dark or even in opposition?

04. Worldcentric Buddhism (39:44)

Bryan points out that many Buddhist traditions emphasize the imperative to move
from an egocentric perspective to a worldcentric one, and wonders whether this is
not at least a proto-acceptance of the zone-#2 insight of stage development.

05. Buddhism and Postmodernity (33:25)

Richard points out that many Buddhist teachers seem to be unaware of modern
insights, such as levels of development (though they have clearly gone through
them, themselves). He asks how Buddhism and postmodernity are alike, how they
are different, and how they might be skillfully combined (as opposed to clumsily
mushed together).
Chapter 6: The Shadow and the Disowned Self

One of the great discoveries of modern Western psychology is the dynamic by which
1st-person impulses can become dissociated, disowned or repressed, consequently
appearing as 2nd-person or 3rd-person events in one’s 1st-person consciousness. From
before we are born, we encounter a never-ending stream of experience; some of it, we
can digest in a healthy way, and some of it, for a variety of reasons, remains
undigested. The sum total of a person’s undigested experience is what is referred to as
their shadow.

Perspectives are very helpful in understanding the dynamics by which the the shadow
is formed. Consider how an impulse of anger, for instance, becomes repressed. Upon
having a 1st-person experience of anger, the self may choose to push the impulse
outside of its I-boundary, at which point it becomes experienced as a 2nd-person
occasion. It is no longer me or mine—but I am on speaking terms with it. If the
repression continues, it can become completely dissociated, a 3rd-person occasion
that I am no longer on speaking terms with. In either case, the feeling or quality
remains, but the ownership does not. Rather than a conscious subject, that experience
becomes a hidden subject, making itself known via various neurotic symptoms (usually
at the worst of times!). The goal of psychotherapy is to re-own the sum of undigested
experience that makes up the shadow.
Sigmund Freud is considered a brilliant pioneer in our understanding of the shadow. By
using a combination of phenomenology (zone-#1) and hermeneutics (zone-#2), he was
able to spot the dynamics by which impulses are pushed beyond the “I” boundary.
Understanding how early stages of development might be conceptualized from without
and from within constitute some of the truly great discoveries of the Modern West.
Freud's famous statement “where the id was, there ego shall be” is actually more
properly translated, “where the it was, there I shall become.” This statement beautifully
summarizes the goal of psychotherapy.

Developmental studies point out that the fundamental process of development is the
subject of one stage becomes the object of the subject of the next stage (Kegan), or
simply, the self of one stage becomes the tool of the next (Gebser). AQAL helps us to
see that, more precisely, in healthy development, the I of one stage becomes the me
(or "mine") of the I of the next stage. By contrast, in unhealthy development, I is
converted not to "me," but rather, to "it," thus constituting not development, but
pathology.

01. Ken’s Introduction (28:43)

Ken introduces the concept of the shadow as it has been understood by the
modern West. From our earliest moments, we are bombarded with experience,
some of which we can't be adequately incorporated as part of our conscious "I." It
thus becomes part of our unconscious "I," perhaps being projected onto a "you" or
even an "it." The goal of psychotherapy is to re-incorporate that experience. As
Sigmund Freud, pioneer of the modern understanding of the shadow, summarized
it: "where it was, there I shall become...."

02. Shadows and Disassociation (1:00:12)

Maria asks a series of superb questions regarding the shadow. For those who are
highly conceptual, how can 3-2-1 shadow work be practiced without dissociating?
How does the doctrine of karma relate to shadow work? And how can practitioners
ensure that, in following the bodhisattvic injunction not to be angry, that they are not
simply repressing their anger?

03. Practicing Ethics (35:25)

Sam asks how to practice ethical behavior in a way that doesn't reinforce shadow
and limiting beliefs. Also, he points out, during the second step of the 3-2-1
process, we're supposed to engage in conversation with disowned aspects of the
self. From an integral perspective, how are we to understand realized beings who
claim to be conversing with Buddhas, spirits, or demons?

04. Shadow Hugging (32:52)

David asks about "shadow hugging," by which we project our good points onto
others, and also inquires about the dynamics of micro-disidentification, by which
our experience of states helps us toward stage development.
05. Approaching the Authentic Self (34:49)
Durwin asks how we can move toward a lofty notion such as "the authentic self"
without falling into typically masculine pathologies such as dissociate-and-repress
(considering that the erotic/agentic mode is normally the one that gives us the
necessary "escape velocity" to go beyond our habitual atmosphere.

06. Is 3-2-1 Too Superficial? (27:51)

Arthur asks whether the 3-2-1 process might be too superficial—specifically, too
cognitive or intellectually focused—to do really deep shadow work. With respect to
the process, what happens when fear arises?

07. The Shadows of Shadow-Work (41:41)

Arthur asks if, as Robert Augustus Masters contends, every practice has a shadow
side, what is the shadow of 3-2-1 shadow work? What are its strengths and
weaknesses? What is the turquoise shadow?

08. The Collective Shadow (29:10)

Arthur and Ken discuss the way in which shadow processes manifest in social
holons. What is the collective shadow, and what is the collective Integral shadow?
Chapter 7: A Miracle Called “We”
It’s not a stretch to see something miraculous in
our evolution—our dizzying trajectory—since
matter was scattered into space 14 billion years
ago. Along the way, matter emerged, seemingly
from nothing; then, life emerged from matter; then,
life became conscious of itself. But beyond these,
perhaps the deepest miracle is that we have found
one another.

The relationship of individual holons to social

holons has been the source of no end of confusion,
one of a dozen or so major, recalcitrant issues that
thinkers have been grappling with for millennia. The
notion that reality is composed of holonic
sequences is appealing; there is, for example, a self-evident quality to the sequence:
atoms to molecules to cells to organs to organisms.

But if we attempt to posit a single, grand holarchy that is central to the universe, we
begin to run into problems. Consider what happens, for instance, if we add—as is done
in a popular version—families, communities, nations, species, ecosystems, biosphere,
and universe to the above holarchy. The implications is that ecosystems cannot
emerge until nations have! Initially, the sequence holds, but the problem occurs as
soon as we attempt to jump from an individual holon (e.g. organism) to a social holon
(e.g. families) in the same sequence.

So important is this distinction that Ken Wilber recognizes it as one of the most
fundamental of all (together with the interior/exterior distinction), thus resulting in the
four quadrants. Wilber contends that you can’t have singular without plural; nor can
you have exterior without interior. The quadrants are correlative dimensions of the
same thing; in the Lower-Left quadrant, we approach the interior, collective dimension
of reality.

This allows us to make some important conclusions. Once we allow that societies are
not made from organisms in the same way that organisms are made from cells, once
we understand that the “we” is not a “Super-I,” we can observe that, while an
individual holon has a dominant monad, a social holon has a dominant mode of
discourse. Where individuals go through mandatory stages, social holons do not.

We can further examine the “we” by looking from the outside (3rd-person) and the
inside (1st-person). This provides us with the “look” and the “feel” of the We. The look
of a we is described by zone-#4 methodologies such as semiotics, and the feel of a we
is described by zone-#3 methodologies such as hermeneutics.
01. Ken’s Introduction (22:31)
Ken introduces the "Miracle Called 'We'" conference call. The Great Chain of Being,
thought to be the core of the world's religious traditions, posits a holarchical view
which starts to break down when jumping from "I" to "super-I." But AQAL, which
makes the crucial distinction between the individual and the collective,
demonstrates that everything in reality has four aspects, including the interior of the
collective, the mysterious and miraculous "We" space in which we come into
mutual resonance with one another.

02. Relating With Amber (32:13)

Keith Witt points out that it is skillful means to begin spiritual discussions by
pointing out how someone's favorite methodology and zone naturally leads to God.
This makes the other methodologies seem less threatening. But while this works
well with orange, green, and even red, it does not seem to be effective with amber.
So, how to converse with someone with turquoise cognition and an amber
worldview, regarding Integral spirituality and I/we/it interfaces to Spirt?

03. A "We" in Time (26:29)

If the four quadrants give a snapshot of a holon at any given moment, asks Erich,
how can we begin to look at holons in terms of progression through time? What
beautiful thing happens between the transition from a lower "we" to a higher "we?"
Is it Eros? What is Eros other than a We with a monad in motion?

04. Creating Intentional Communities (26:43)

Liz discusses intentional communities with Ken. If there is no dominant monad, how
exactly do groups develop, and what is the relationship between the level of the
group and the level of its participants? With respect to the sex-positive movement
(at a green level of development), how can it be integrated into the Integral
movement?

05. Skillful Means and Mixed Altitudes (22:45)

Brit asks what skillful means exist to have a "We" in the company of mixed
altitudes? Taking, as an example, the failure of green to adequately convey
environmental concerns in terms that impact other altitudes, how can we proceed
differently from Integral? Also, is there an integral approach to communication with
the mentally ill?

06. Zones of Emergence (29:00)

Dennis Wittrock asks whether there are structural preconditions for the enacting of
certain zones, whether zones unfold with respect to increasing cognitive
development, whether certain zones were even available at earlier times in history,
and whether there are "premodern," "modern," and "postmodern" zones.
Chapter 8: The World of the Terribly Obvious
As we have noted previously, all of
manifestation has an external
aspect and an internal aspect.
This distinction, combined with
the distinction between the
individual and the collective,
results in the four quadrants; the
two right-hand quadrants refer to
exteriors. We can make the further
distinction that reality can also be
viewed from the inside or from the
outside. This further results in 4
zones (zones 5 thru 8), each with
the corresponding methodologies
that disclose them.

The scientific world has brilliantly

(perhaps too much so) described
that which occurs in the Upper-
Right (exterior individual)
quadrant. What began as a
healthy differentiation of arts, morals, and science during the Renaissance became an
unhealthy dissociation within a hundred years, as the supremacy of science challenged
the very legitimacy of phenomena in the other quadrants. The absolutization by
modernity is one mistake that can be made with the UR; the other is the outright denial
of the UR that postmodernity tends to commit.

Zone-#6 is the view from the outside of the exterior of the individual; this zone is
disclosed by classic methodologies such as behaviorism and empiricism. Zone-#5, the
inside view of the exterior of the individual, was pioneered by Maturna and Varela and
their biological phenomenology, or autopoesis (literally, self-making). Their aim was to
examine not the phenomenology of a given organism, per se, but rather, what was
available in the subjective-cognitive world of the organism, objectively speaking.

Maturna and Varela’s “view from within” was originally developed for individual
organisms, with the assumption that social systems were simply the next level in their
hierarchy of autopoesis. However, Niklas Luhmann pointed out that what is internal to a
social system (or social holon) is not its members, but rather, their exchanged
communications. That being said, it is nonetheless possible to take the autopoetic
perspective and apply it to the internal system of communications of a collective; this
yields the zone-#7 approach of social autopoesis, the exterior of the collective, as
viewed from the inside. By contrast, classic systems theory takes the outside view of
the exterior of the collective, a zone-#8 approach. Chaos/complexity theory is another
example of a zone-#8 approach.
The “world of the terribly obvious,” as the right-hand quadrant view—taken by itself—is
sometimes called, is in fact terribly vulnerable to what is variously referred to as the
myth of the given, monological empiricism, the philosophy of the subject, and the
philosophy of consciousness. The myth of the given includes the belief that reality is
simply given to me, that the consciousness of an individual will deliver truth, that “the
mirror of nature” (or reflection paradigm) is an adequate methodology, and a failure to
understand that the truth a subject delivers is constructed in part by intersubjective
cultural networks. This “myth” has been thoroughly devastated by the postmodern
critique; only an integral approach can transcend and include the truths of the right-
hand quadrant views, taken together with the postmodern insight.

01. (31:38)
Here is the introduction to the "World of the Terribly Obvious" call. Ken discusses
what an enormous leap the emergence of rational consciousness was. But, he
points out, modernity was simply unable to withstand the criticisms of
postmodernity. As always, the Integral approach seeks to transcend and include
them both....

02. The Mirror of Nature (42:48)

"The myth of the given" takes many forms in contemporary thought. Angela asks
Ken about the particular version which is referred to as "the mirror of nature."

03. Evolution and the Bodhisattva Vow (25:45)

Ken and Angela discuss evolutionary consciousness (perhaps the single most
important insight of Integral spirituality) and how it relates to the Bodhisattva vow.

04. Mental Perspectives vs. Soul Perspectives (43:20)

Bruce asks Ken about person-perspective spaces. He points out that most altitudes
observed in the world today (e.g. from amber to turquoise) still inhabit a general
"mental" person-perspective space, which presupposes that we are isolated,
knowing subjects at some ontological and epistemological distance from both
objects and other knowing subjects. How can we begin to shift into a soul- or spirit-
level person-perspective space?

05. Art and the Terribly Obvious (25:14)

Where does art fit in with "The World of the Terribly Obvious?" Seth and Ken
discuss how right-hand quadrant artifacts can be used to profound effect in left-
hand quadrant expressions.
Chapter 9: The Conveyor Belt
Excerpt from Integral Spirituality:

Here is the overall picture I wanted to convey in this chapter:

Everybody is born at square one. There will always be people at red, and that is fine.
There will always be people at amber, and that is fine. There will always be people at
orange, and that is fine (and so on). An enlightened society would always make room
for that by recognizing that stages in development are also stations in life. And
somebody can stop at any of those stations (of Spirit's own unfolding) and they deserve
honor and respect at whatever station they are at.

But the earlier stations—archaic to magic to

mythic—involve stages that, nonetheless,
are ones that humanity's leading edge
passed through in its infancy, childhood,
and adolescence. But because religion
alone is the repository of the myths created
during those times, religion alone is the
institution in today's world that gives
legitimacy to those earlier stages and
stations for men and women. Religion
alone gives legitimacy to the myths. And
religion alone awns that 70% of the world's
population at those stages.

All of which is good and beautiful. But

precisely because of its ownership of the
pre-rational heritage of humanity (and the
pre-rational corpus of the great myths),
religion alone can help its followers move from the pre-rational, mythic-membership,
ethnocentric, absolutistic version of its message to the rational-perspectival,
worldcentric, postconventional versions of its own message. This jump from
ethnocentric amber to worldcentric orange is the great leap that religions alone can help
humanity make.

The great religions alone can thus be the conveyor belt that gives legitimacy (in both the
sociological and religious sense) to the orange (and higher) versions of their essential
story and their essential spirituality. This is a difficult jump, as everything from terrorists
to closeted college students attests.

This, surely, is the great role for religion in the modern and postmodern world.

-Ken Wilber, Integral Spirituality

01. Kenʼs Introduction (44:10)
Is it ever too early for integral spirituality? Bill asks Ken about the possibility of
creating integrally-informed Sunday School teachings designed to help kids grow
into the orange/rational stage of development, while simultaneously speaking to kids
who may never grow beyond the amber/mythic stage. Ken proceeds to offer a 45-
minute overview to the subject.

02. Integral Sunday School (44:55)

Following a blistering 45-minute introduction to the concept of the spiritual conveyor
belt, Ken finally gets around to answering Billʼs question.

03. Gaps in the Conveyor Belt (19:03)

Stefano asks Ken how individuals might apply their spiritual intelligence to help relax
and overcome many of the fixations that might occur with particular altitudes, easing
the transition from pre-modern to modern waves of development. He mentions a
friend of his, a Pakistani immigrant whose parents are described as “ultra-
conservative, even by Pakistani standards,” and whose rejection of those traditional
values have made him an outcast from his own family. These are precisely the sorts
of pain points that are so common throughout the developing world, and so urgently
in need of integral relief.

04. The Energetics of Awakening (24:38)

Here Mary Linda asks Ken about the actual physical correlates of enlightenment, the
energetic bodies that hold and transmit all the extraordinary states of consciousness
we commonly associate with spiritual awakening.

05. How to Self-Assess? (14:18)

Kerry asks Ken how we can best assess our own place and progress in the
conveyor belt, and what sorts of practices might help us to personally impede,
neutralize, or facilitate the health of religion in the world.

06. What About Race and Racism? (23:26)

Here Greg Thomas talks to Ken about the role of race, ethnicity, and cultural
heritage in our spiritual evolution. Is the very notion of race a flawed concept in and
of itself? How might our racial identities help or hinder our progress through the
many stages of psychological and spiritual growth?

07. Applying the Conveyor Belt to Organizational Development (21:37)

Maurice works for a Christian organization dedicated to the eradication of hunger
and poverty in the world, which is currently experiencing some tension between
those who want to see the group grow into a more modern, evidence-based
organization with a more global reach, and those who are resistant to this kind of
change because they feel they will lose their traditional Christian roots and identity in
the process. How can Maurice's company—or any company with several different
sets of values at play—break through this stalemate and find a way to bring
themselves to the next level of organizational development?
Chapter 10: Integral Life Practice
Excerpt from Integral Spirituality:

AQAL is a theoretical approach to reality—but what about the practical approach, the
actual practice of an integral approach? What about an "Integral Praxis"? Or, we might
say, what about an Integral Life Practice (ILP), where I could actually exercise, in my
life, all the aspects of an Integral view, since those are, in fact, aspects or dimensions of
my own being-in-the-world? How could I practice a full me?

Integral Life Practice has 4 core modules, 5 or so auxiliary modules, and dozens of
elective modules. Although we have what we consider "gold-star practices" in each
module, the whole point of a modular approach is that you can select from among
dozens of legitimate and time-tested practices in each module. The basic rule is simple:
pick one practice from each module and exercise them concurrently. This
transformational cross-training accelerates growth, increases the likelihood of healthy
development, and vastly deepens one's capacity for transformational living.

ILP recommends 4 core modules:

• The Integral Framework Module:

Since cognition is primarily the
capacity to take perspectives,
studying the AQAL framework helps
to open up all 8 perspectives in a
conscious, clarifying, luminous
fashion. Since the cognitive line is
necessary but not sufficient for all of
the other major lines, the more
integral and inclusive your cognitive
framework, the more complete and
fulfilling your life can become.

• The Spiritual or Meditative

Module: "Spiritual," of course, can
mean many things; here it
particularly refers to meditative or
contemplative states training. There
are many approaches to meditation
and spiritual experiences, of course. ILP uses Big Mind Process coupled with an
awareness training (Integral Inquiry) that is a concentrated distillation of several major
types of meditative training, visionary experiences, and centering prayer.

• The 3-2-1 Process, or the Shadow Work Module: Working with one's shadow, or the
repressed unconscious, is an absolutely essential component of any transformative life
practice. We have designed a simple but very effective process of accessing and
integrating one's personal shadow material, which helps convert the shadow from 3rd-
person symptoms to 2nd-person presence to 1st-person consciousness.

• The 3-Body Workout Module: This is a workout that exercises all 3 bodies—gross,
subtle, and causal. Where the first modules particularly address the 3 states on the
Upper Left quadrant, this muddle addresses the 3 bodies in the Upper Right.

Along with these 4 core

modules, we recommend 5 other
modules as being particularly
helpful, or auxiliary. These are:

• Ethics
• Sex or Sexual Yoga
• Work in the World, or Karma
Yoga
• Transmuting Emotions
• Relationships

Ethics involves linking behavior

in the UR quadrant to
postconventional moral
awareness in the UL. Sex (or
Sexual Yoga) focuses on the
tantric aspects of relationship,
especially using UL and LL as a
bridge to awakening. Work in the World (or Karma Yoga) uses professional work and
institutional behavior (LR) as an intrinsic part of oneʼs ILP. Transmuting Emotions is
advanced work in the UL dealing with transmuting negative emotions into their
corresponding wisdoms, which includes Sexual Yoga. Relationships focuses on using
oneʼs most significant relationships (LL) not only as a means of transformation, but as
an expression of integral awareness, with practices spanning parenting, couples, and
conscious marriage.
-Ken Wilber, Integral Spirituality

01. The Difference Between ITP and ILP (34:10)

If youʼve been paying attention for awhile now, you may have noticed that before it
was called “Integral Life Practice,” Ken used to frequently reference ITP (Integral
Transformative Practice) as the quintessential integral cross-training model. But
there were very particular reasons why Ken broke from the ITP approach as
conceived by Mike Murphy and George Leonard, which he discusses here.
02. Bringing ILP to Walmart (29:07)
How do you teach non-cognitive versions of integral to non-integral people? In this
discussion, Kimberley asks Ken for some guidance to help her translate the very
best of integral ideas and practices to a wider community. Is there a one-size-fits-all
approach? Or does it require something more finely-tuned than that?

03. Selfless Service as Practice (13:27)

Here Stanley asks whether or not it is time to make selfless service (i.e. charity.
volunteer work, etc.) a core element of any well-balanced Integral Life Practice
regimen.

04. Personal Will, Unique Will, and Enlightenment (15:38)

As we become more and more enlightened, what becomes of this elusive thing
called “free will”? Does our personal will begin to dissolve the more awakened we
become, or does it simply surrender to a higher, deeper, impersonal will? Ken talks
in depth about the role of will in the awakening process, and how important it is for
each of us to discover our own “Unique Will” that transcends and includes both
relative and absolute expressions of being.
Appendix I: From the Great Chain of Being to
Postmodernism in 3 Easy Steps

A billion times God has turned man

Into Himself

You stand in line for the

Highest gift
For his generosity cannot end.

But best to bring an instrument along

While waiting in the cold desert

And make some dulcet sounds

To accompany the palms’ swaying arms
That are casting silhouettes
Against the sky’s curtain
From our fire.

Remind the Friend of your desire

And great patience.

A billion times God has turned man

Back into Herself.

We all stand in line

For the highest gift.

~Hafiz

One of the most venerable insights of the world’s religious traditions is the way in which
we move—through our personal story and through our collective history—from matter to
body to mind to soul to spirit. East and West, this journey has been mapped out, a
common thread woven between the traditions, uniting them in the vision of what Arthur
Lovejoy called "The Great Chain of Being." The Great Chain, alas, was thoroughly
dismantled by modernity and deconstructed by postmodernity, leaving its links broken
and scattered across the barren landscape we look out upon today.

The integral impulse has ever sought to unify thought, ancient and new. In this tradition,
Ken Wilber embarks upon a formidable task: to reconcile the Great Chain with modern
and postmodern thought, preserving its enduring insights while negating those aspects
which fail to stand up to the scrutiny of our day. In this week’s featured audio, Ken takes
us "from the Great Chain to postmodernism in three easy steps…."
The first step involves the modern turn, with its demand for evidence. According to the
Great Chain, matter is considered the bottom rung in the spectrum of existence. This
leads to the awkward conclusion that, for instance, the human brain—the most complex
object we know of in the universe—ranks below the emotions of an earthworm. Such
conclusions simply crumbled in the face of modern science, for where was the
evidence? To this objection, Ken suggests that we consider matter not the lowest rung
of the spectrum, but rather, the exterior form of every rung.

The second step involves the postmodern turn, with its recognition of the context in
which all content arises. What the ancients thought to be eternal, given truths are in fact
culturally molded, conditioned, and relative. By allowing a collective dimension to
individual experiences and interpretations, they can
be held and beheld, honoring both the content that
has so beautifully arisen, and the context in which it
arises.

The third step involves the roles of various forms of

energy which have long been discerned—gross,
subtle, and causal—and their place in the
framework we are building. In Ken’s thought, as
matter becomes increasingly complex, so too do the
energies it supports. And those energies, as
Teillhard de Chardin theorized, support the
deepening of consciousness—the substance of the
Great Chain that has arisen for millennia in the
awareness of human beings.

Of course, the Great Chain, while discerned in the interiors of individual human beings,
has traditionally been burdened with the demand to explain everything. Step one simply
adds the right-hand quadrants, representing the exteriors, and step two, the lower
quadrants, representing the collective. Liberated thus from its impossible demand, the
Great Chain resides quite comfortably in the Upper-Left quadrant, held and supported
by matter and energy in the Upper-Right quadrant (step three). Three easy steps, and
this most ancient of insights sees—and is seen in—the light of our day. In the pure
Perception of Spirit arise the primordial Perspectives, interior and exterior, individual
and collective. And then the Great Banquet begins, where, a la Hafiz, we all stand in line
for the highest gift….

01. Ken’s Introduction (31:12)

Here Ken offers the finest overview of the “Great Chain to Postmodernism in 3 Easy
Steps” he has ever presented, describing how can we talk about spirituality in a way
that can actually survive the criticisms of modernity and postmodernity.

02. The Cutting Edge of Physical Evolution (10:38)

A major piece of Ken’s work has been to show us just how dramatically our
consciousness has evolved over the years, the centuries, and the millennia, while
also describing the correlation between consciousness and levels of physical
complexity. So how do we reconcile the fact that consciousness has been evolving
in human beings for a very long time, yet the physiology of human brain has
remained largely unchanged for 50,000 years? Ken goes on to clarify the mysterious
SF1, SF2, SF3 notations on his famous Four Quadrant diagram (see graphic on
Page 4 of this document).

03. What’s the Evidence for Involution? (22:13)

Ken talks a lot about the dynamic between evolution and involution, but Richard
wants to know whether there is there any real evidence for involution or involutionary
givens. Can involution be proven? Or is it something like some physicists’ idea of
string theory: ultimately untestable, but makes such elegant sense of the data it just
has to be correct....

04. Involution and Practice (9:28)

Following his 3rd-person theoretical description of involution, Ken goes on to
describe how we can directly experience involution in our practice by simply feeling
the texture of each and every breath.

05. The Future of Consciousness, Energy, and Eco-systems (16:19)

Richard asks how the future of spirituality might influence our natural eco-systems,
prompting Ken to offer his own prognostications about future technologies that can
one day measure subtle energies and be used to help restore and replenish our
natural systems.
Appendix II: Integral Post-Metaphysics
The term “metaphysics” (literally, “beyond physics”) first came about when Aristotle’s
students wrote a book to follow his Physics. While metaphysics has been a
respectable term through most of its history, Immanuel Kant’s critical philosophy
thoroughly dismantled that credibility. Kant’s philosophy replaced ontological objects
with structures of the subject. He showed that what appears as a pregiven reality is
really a co-creation of the knowing subject and the known object.

Kant’s (and subsequent)

thought has necessitated—at
the very least—a complete
rethinking of the way we
approach spirituality. Take, for
instance, the Great Chain of
Being, which is thought to be
the central core or deep
s t r u c t u re o f t h e w o r l d ’s
religious traditions. Modern
and postmodern thought has
a t l e a s t t h re e p ro f o u n d
implications here. First, even if
we accept the levels that the
Great Chain posits, we must
allow for them to be con-
structures of the knowing
subject, or structures of consciousness. Second, the “proof” for such assertions must
satisfy both modernity’s demand for objective evidence and postmodernity’s demand
for intersubjective grounding. Third, these structures must be seen as having
developed in time, evolution, and history.

So too, the very idea of enlightenment itself bears re-examining. If we define

enlightenment as “being one with everything,” that is, with Emptiness and form, we
must admit that form—and therefore enlightenment itself—evolves! If we can allow for
the levels of the Great Chain to have evolved over time—i.e. evolution is the Great
Chain, temporalized—we will have moved a long ways toward the resolution of the
problem. Thus, from this point of view, enlightenment can be defined as the realization
of oneness with all states and all structures that are in existence at any given time.

The Great Chain of Being and the notion of enlightenment are two examples of the far-
reaching implications of Integral post-metaphysics. The bottom line, in general, is that
there is no pre-given world, but rather, worldspaces that arise when something is
viewed from a given altitude, through a given perspective. Thus, we can situate
everything perceived—and indeed, every perceiver—by their altitude and perspective,
that is, their Kosmic Address. Among other things, the Kosmic Address of a perceiver
specifies an injunction which the subject must perform in order to access and enact
and access the worldspace of the object. Thus, the meaning of a statement is the
means of its enactment. And in the light of Integral post-metaphysics, problems like the
proof of God’s existence, long a thorn in the side of metaphysical approaches, are
problems no more….

01. Why Is Enlightenment Important? (25:12)

Steve asks Ken a series of fascinating questions around the topic of metaphysics.
Why is the notion of enlightenment important in the first place? How does "oneness
with all form" fit in with the notion of Kosmic Address? If the given is a myth, where
does God fit in?

02. Why the Kosmos? (52:14)

Integral post-metaphysics describes the "what" and the "how" of manifestation. But
"why the Kosmos?," asks Glenn. Ken responds with a beautiful description of the
Kosmos as the Play of Spirit.

03. Metaphysical Baggage (34:16)

What do you need to get a universe going? Ken discusses this question with
Brendan, emphasizing that part of the "baggage" of traditional metaphysical
systems is the number of involutionary givens they require. Ken then specifies the
absolute minimal involutionary givens required to start a universe.

04. The Integral Daemon (23:23)

The "Daemon" is an ancient notion that has inspired countless human beings to
reach their highest calling. How can the Daemon be viewed from an Integral
Altitude, asks Brendan. Ken responds that the idea is as relevant as ever, though at
Integral, it takes somewhat of a different form.

05. The Evolution of Perspective (32:01)

Author Allan Combs discusses with Ken the evolution of multiple perspectives (or
zones) within the structural development of the person.

06. Constructing Reality (36:21)

Given that what we experience is constructed in part by us and in part by our
culture, asks Ilmar, what are the constraints of such constructions? What is it that
remains invariant? If, to some extent, experience has primacy over interpretation,
and experience is not "given," what is it that gives experience its primacy?

07. State-Stages and Kosmic Grooves (20:30)

Whereas structure-stages are being laid down by each subsequent generation,
state-stages are as ancient as the spiritual journey itself. Ewan asks Ken to discuss
the relationship between state-stages and Kosmic Grooves.
08. Integral Calculus, Integral Perspectives (15:51)
Integral calculus is a revolutionary way of understanding and expressing
perspectives. How, asks Ewan, does the equation change when one is taking an
explicitly integral perspective?

09. The Science of Spirit (34:07)

Ken has often pointed out that the three strands of valid knowledge—which have
been so valuable in the validation of scientific knowledge—are equally applicable to
spiritual knowledge. Cameron asks whether this is reducing the spiritual journey to
a scientific experiment, and where the role of faith comes in to this formulation.

10. Meaning, Enactment, and God (21:12)

If the meaning of a statement is the means of its enactment, doesn't this mean that
understanding a given statement about spirituality (e.g. God is Love) requires that
one follow a set of prescribed steps? If so, asks Cameron, isn't that just another
form—albeit more sophisticated—of exoteric spirituality?

11. Quadrants and the Myth of the Given (11:12)

Cameron asks whether the four quadrants and eight indigenous perspectives are, in
fact, still other versions of "the myth of the given." Ken responds that to posit some
evolutionary givens is not necessarily to fall into the myth, and that the primordial
distinctions between interior/exterior and individual/collective may well be among
the involutionary givens of this universe.

12. A Post-Metaphysical Approach to Synchronicity (35:58)

"Enlightenment is an accident," Ken often
says, "and practice just makes you more
accident-prone." Here we take a closer look
at the nature and the mechanics of these
accidents. "Synchronicity" is a word that is
rarely used in Integral circles, largely because
of its susceptibility to New Age gibberish and
the Pre/Trans fallacy. But in this gem from the
"World of the Terribly Obvious" call, Integral
Life’s own Corey deVos engages Ken in a
lively and provocative discussion of the topic,
describing synchronicity as an experience of
UL intention, UR actions, LR circumstances,
and LL sense of meaning and context all
falling into perfect symmetry with each
other....
Appendix III: The Myth of the Given Lives On
At the second gathering of the teachers of Integral Spiritual Center, Patrick Sweeney
famously asked Ken Wilber, “what can we do to stay out of Appendix III of Integral
Spirituality?” In “The Myth of the Given,” Ken surveys some major modern approaches
to spirituality, and demonstrates via AQAL their partiality—and how that partiality might
be remedied.

It’s sobering to consider that so many of

today’s most eminent teachers are
partial! But as Ken points out, Appendix
III (and the Integral approach in general)
is meant not so much to point out that
partiality as to highlight expertise in a
highly specialized area. AQAL is an
incredible tool for both situating various
approaches and for understanding how
they are related to each other. To the
extent that the conclusions of these
approaches fall within their area of
expertise, they are most assuredly true.
But to the extent that their conclusions
overstep their area of expertise, a
broader context such as AQAL can be
enormously helpful.

The potency of AQAL to situate various

approaches derives from its own
formulation. Take, for example, the field
of psychology. Ken points out that there
are six major schools of psychology, each advanced by brilliant researchers who
pioneered a particular approach to the field. Ken’s approach was to ask “what must be
the characteristics of the human mind, such that the major conclusions of each of
these schools could hold true?” His goal, rather than to work within one of the major
schools to further its particular conclusions, was to reverse-engineer the human
psyche—indeed, the entire Kosmos—altogether. The result of that inquiry was AQAL,
perhaps the most complete map yet of the Kosmos we inhabit and the awareness in
which it arises.

“The Myth of the Given” highlights a number of otherwise brilliant modern approaches
to spirituality that fail to take into account the insights of postmodernity, thus
unwittingly perpetuating the myth. Postmodernity, Ken demonstrates, deconstructed
not only the mythical formulations of premodernity; with the same ferocity, it
deconstructed the rational formulations of modernity! Postmodernism shows—rightly
so—that nothing is apart from its context. But in doing so, and especially in its more
recent turns, it throws out both the premodern and modern babies with the bathwater.
Context, contends the integral approach, is not everything—but it is something! The
integral approach is the first to take the truths of premodernity and modernity, consider
their context as postmodernism necessitates, and locate them in a larger map. Once
this blind spot is acknowledged, says Ken, it is easily remedied, leaving us with
enduring truths, properly contextualized, and situated in a greater whole. And that
changes just about everything….

01. Ken’s Introduction: Reverse-Engineering the Kosmos (5:55)

In this first segment, Ken introduces the concept of "The Myth of the Given." He
discusses how AQAL was formulated, and demonstrates how it is able to highlight
blind spots in many modern approaches to spirituality.

02. New Thought, New Age, and Beyond (23:20)

Ken discusses the Theosophical movement and its various incarnations with Mary
Thesa Kelly. He demonstrates how, though relatively unknown in modern circles,
the movement is nonetheless vastly influential on today's thought.

03. Technology and Consciousness (10:09)

Ken speaks about technology and consciousness and the link between them.
Using the telegraph (which led to the spread of Theosophy) as an example, Ken
speculates about what the implications of the internet, as a Lower-Right quadrant
artifact are for Upper-Left consciousness in our time and in the future.

04. Ancient Practice, New Understanding (19:10)

Ken discusses the problem of harmful spiritual movements with Jacob. Using the
concepts of structure-stages and state-stages, he demonstrates what sorts of
things go wrong with these movements.

05. Is the Future Spinning Out of Control? (13:52)

Ken discusses the premise of his unreleased novel, The Many Faces of Terrorism,
as one possible future scenario which, when played out, has disastrous
consequences. When worldwide democracy in put in place from a green altitude,
the amber altitude elects its favored party, with radical implications.

06. After Enlightenment, What’s the Point? (17:45)

Ken discusses with Gabrial the importance of "coming back" to the relative plane
once absolute enlightenment is attained. Structure-stages and state-stages are
used to highlight the necessity of both relative and absolute.

07. The Finger Pointing to the Moon (5:10)

Ken shares a beautiful set of pointing-out instructions, designed to highlight the
Witness of the sensations, emotions and thoughts that we conventionally take
ourselves to be.
08. Beyond the Fourth (8:41)
After pointing out the Witness of all that is arising, Ken demonstrates that this is not
the end of the spiritual journey, pointing the way to a further development in which
the Witness merges with all that is witnessed, in One Taste.

09. Involution, as Never Before Seen (8:46)

Ken Wilber discusses how our moment-to-moment experience cascades down from
nondual suchness to precisely the structure-stage and state-stage that it finds us
at....

10. Arhats and Bodhisattvas (10:57)

The “call of Isaiah” from the Hebrew scriptures is a beautiful example of a feature
that has been essential in paths East and West for several millennia—though not
always. After an ascent there must be a descent. Your enlightenment or salvation is
not given for you alone, but is given in order that it might be shared with your fellow
beings. Why come back at all? Why be a bodhisattva (one who “comes back” from
their realization) rather than an arhat (one who has “laid down the burden”)? In this
week’s featured audio, Ken Wilber and Gabriel discuss two reasons for doing so.

11. Eternity in Love (5:59)

"Eternity," says William Blake, "is in love with the productions of time." The yogic
traditions depict Shiva—the masculine partner, representing Emptiness—and Shakti
—the feminine partner, representing all of manifestation—in the lotus position, facing
one another, in sexual union. East and West, love has long been intuited as that
which underlies all that is. Ken points out that, in all of Buddhist iconography, this
particular icon is completely unique, and in Dzogchen, represents the very highest
state.

12. The Self-Liberating Nature of Reality (12:40)

In this week’s featured audio, Ken Wilber quotes a formula from the Mahamudra
Buddhist tradition: “all is mind, mind is empty, empty is freely manifesting, freely
manifesting is self liberating.” In this place is found the proof of the omnipresence of
God. No human being is God, but every human being is one with God. Every
person intersects God in the Supreme Identity. And God arises in 1st-, 2nd-, and 3rd-
person perspectives; look all the way up through any of these perspectives, and you
shall see God.

13. Perspectives and Practice (7:16)

Quadrants and levels are two of the most fundamental insights of the AQAL model.
With the very first emanation—i.e. level—of absolute, unqualifiable spirit into the
relative, manifest realm, the quadrants arise. In this week’s featured audio, Ken and
Gabriel discuss this first emanation and arising, and their profound implications for
spiritual practice.
14. The Three Faces, From Altitude (10:21)
The Three Faces of Spirit meditation reveals an exquisite view of the Divine, in each
of its primordial manifestations (1st-person, 2nd-person, and 3rd-person perspectives).
The quadrants, after all, go all the way up. But, as Ken points out, the view will vary
significantly depending on the developmental altitude of the one who is viewing.

15. Three Truths (11:50)

That Spirit—and our understanding of it—evolves is one of the most important
implications of Integral theory. Spiritual traditions long ago recognized two important
truths: the relative reality that we conventionally experience, and the absolute reality
that spiritual practice points out to us. A third truth was subsequently realized: the
relative and the absolute are—as Ken Wilber entitled his famous 1997 journal—of
One Taste....

16. To Get a Universe Going (14:05)

Janet poses the captivating question to Ken Wilber: how does AQAL account for
creativity? Given that the model makes space for so much of reality, what does it
have to say about the mysterious force behind reality, fashioning this moment as
none other than precisely the one that comes to us?
 Credits

Produced by Corey deVos

Edited by Corey deVos
Text by Rollie Stanich and Corey deVos
Design by Joel Morrison and Angie Hinickle

Images:
Bo Bartlett (pg. 22, 38)
Michael Bergt (pg. 35)
Diane Calvario (pg. 10, 17)
Stuart Davis (pg. 28)
Michael Harris (pg. 7, 31)
Carl Jacobson (pg. 32)
Sheri Munce (pg. 20)
De Es Schwertzberger (pg. 19, 34)
Steve Self (pg. 2, 8, 12, 30)
Bryce Widom (pg. 16)

Special Thanks to Ken Wilber, Rollie Stanich, Colin Bigelow, Brian Berger, Clint Fuhs,
Angie Hinickle, David Riordan, Robert MacNaughton, Devin Wilson, Robb Smith, Kelly
Bearer, Nicole Fegley, Nomali Perera, Jeff Salzman, and to everyone who contributed
their questions and their time to the Integral Spirituality teleconference series.