Integral Transitions and Change

If you enjoyed our first meeting, make a note in your diary for Get Together No 2 on Thursday July 30th, 7-9pm at the St. Albans Community Centre.
Last time we looked at Don Beck’s informative DVD on Spiral Dynamics and we began to uncover some of the core foci from the work of Ken Wilber - on the emerging Integral Mindset/Consciousness and a response to this work from Steve McIntosh (I know we gave up on this a little).This exploration has been sparked by our current ecological predicament and a desire to understand how Integral Philosophy might shed light on the pervading disillusionment that many current responses to Peak Oil concerns indicate.
We included in our enquiry what Ken Wilber refers to as the, ‘flatland’ perspective of the Green movement and began to explore the possible limitations of this view. So why should we be concerned about flatland responses to ecological concerns?
I guess that part of the answer to this is that ‘flatlanding’ doesn’t allow us to glimpse beyond the horizon - and as Galileo and Copernicus experienced (I’ve added both because I can’t remember which one), ‘reality’ is compromised by subjective and distorted views that focus on what is ‘quasi apparent’ rather than ‘actual truth’ or ‘ultimate reality’ that may be viewed with greater clarity when we jump into a helicopter.
Because of our ‘privileged’ position in the West, we are able to understand more clearly the processes at work in the evolution of our species and the planet. We think we ‘know’ that it is likely that adaptive responses will counter-correct our current ‘out of control’ spiral. As Integral (centauric) levels emerge - as shown in Wilber’s lower left (interior-collective, cultural) quadrant, a corresponding level of Vision-Logic (interior-individual) in the upper left quadrant appears to be emerging ‘just in time’.
With reference to Vision-Logic, Wilber has indicated that while current ecological concerns will be recognised as, ‘ the enduring contribution of the Greens’, (we) will have to go much further and deal specifically and non-reductionistically with the noosphere(collective mindset) and its distributions and distortions. We will have to do so with other than reductionist web-of-life theories if we are to freely engage the motivation of the entire globe’. Wilber summarises this position with a recognition of the need to work towards specific theories of free noospheric (consciousness) exchange that include but transcend ecological concerns’. (Sex, Ecology and Spirit).
I guess the recent positing of “The Great Integral Awakening www.greatintegralawakening.com” series of conversations - facilitated by Integral Enlightenment’s Craig Hamilton, could indeed be addressing Wilber’s perceived need. It could be that social media - with its self-correcting authenticity and transparency attributes, may just be ‘what the doctor ordered’.

Will Ning sites, Facebook and Twitter become the secular/spiritual or integral/evolutionary spirituality version of the network of Roman roads that facilitated the Christian Diaspora two thousand years ago?

Looking forward to seeing you on the 30th….do come and bring anyone else who you think might be interested

Take care,
Linda