Integral Consciousness
The integral worldview represents the next crucial step in the development of our civilization. Through its enlarged understand- ing of the evolution of consciousness and culture, the emerging perspective known as integral consciousness provides realistic and pragmatic solutions to our growing global problems, both environ- mental and political. As Steve McIntosh convincingly demonstrates, the integral worldview’s transformational potential provides a way to literally become the change we want to see in the world.
This is really two books in one: the first half serves as an accessible and highly readable introduction to the power of integral conscious- ness, with the second half making a variety of original contributions to the integral perspective and breaking new ground in the applica- tion of integral philosophy to politics and spirituality. Moreover, McIntosh provides a much-needed contextualization and critique of the integral worldview’s leading author, Ken Wilber, which helps make integral philosophy relevant to a larger audience.
INTEGRAL CONSCIOUSNESS
And the Future of Evolution
Steve McIntosh
Paragon House, St. Paul MN . 2007
I don’t often come across a book that makes me respond with “Now just whatcould that be all about?” But “Integral Consciousness” was not a term I had remembered ever seeing before. I was therefore quite surprised to find myself soon reacting with thoughts like “Yeah, that’s it! Right On!” I found that McIntosh was presenting concepts that seemed to bring together thoughts that had floated in the back of my mind, not quite clear and not quite even conscious. He presents numerous labels and terms that require re-reading and mental effort to become clear about, but as that happened, it was like seeing a vast landscape which I had only seen in small and disparate sketches before.
From my career in family therapy I had long been accustomed to the “systems” view of human relationships and had also, from studies in world religions, been comfortable with the expansion of the systems view of the universe. But McIntosh’s presentation of Integral Consciousness gives a more lucid view of the different facets of the systems (and systems within systems) than I had yet encountered. And his book is both thorough and extensive, citing those who created the philosophical foundations upon which Integral Conscious would later be built, and the pioneers who then built it on those foundations.
I appreciated the humble yet direct manner in which he gave respect to the early pioneers of the subject, yet offered what he considered to be their shortcomings. Ken Wilbur, who is considered the most notable of the creators of Integral Consciousness, is highly praised but is not considered to be the final voice in the field.
What I most appreciated was his presentation of the “States of Consciousness”, in chapter 2. Like a wonderful new lens, it has given me a new and much valued perspective on almost everything I have read in news magazines and seen on the TV news channels since I read the book. I invariably now see what stage of consciousness is operating in the individuals and groups involved in today’s tumultuous events the world over.
These states presented in chapter 2 are:
Tribal Consciousness is listed as the mot primitive, followed by Warrior Consciousness, then Traditional Consciousness, Modernist Consciousness, Post Modern, then Integral Consciousness.
McIntosh makes clear that a person, group, or whole culture is in more than one of these states at any given time, and that as we move, individually or as a group up the scale, we continue to include all the prior states.
I have been astounded and delighted as I have repeatedly seen and read of current events that clearly indicated that one state of consciousness is being challenged by a higher state, usually accompanied by evident strain and resistance by some involved. My first experience of this was quite recent. Let me explain;
The Warrior state of consciousness is characterized by
Oppressive tribal control. . . . craves honor, fears shame, the world is a jungle full of threats and predators. . . fight to gain control at any cost. Trust yourself and no one else.
I’m sure I was one of many who were surprised when General Petraeus made clear that our usual pattern in combat of simply going in and “defeating” the enemy had to be replaced in Afghanistan by “winning over” the Afghans and getting their cooperation. I read this as a very clear step in moving from what McIntosh and Wilbur call the “Warrior” state of consciousness toward the Traditional and Modern states of consciousness. I have since then seen numerous news items that indicate movement from one state to another, as I will note later.
The States of Consciousness concept states that, in spite of the fact that there has been almost no biological evolution in the human brain since we became homo-sapiens, there has nevertheless been major evolution in man humans in their states of consciousness. I say “many”, because, remarkably, there are humans alive in various locations on our planet who still are at the earliest stages, continually moving from place to place to follow the game animals on which they survive. Those in these small groups have not yet evolved to the level of living in villages, growing crops, making pottery, building stable dwellings. Yet these same people, if placed within a modern culture, can acquire the knowledge and skills to do higher math, drive cars, and use computers.
While McIntosh has very little to say directly about religion throughout the book it is clear that what he calls “Integralism” is a very spiritual concept in which there is room for all world faiths, from primitive to highly developed. It might be described as a great umbrella, giving shelter to all religions.
Along with the evolving cosmos, all human life is seen as inevitably moving along a course which includes both greater diversity and greater unity. While I would normally think of this as a very slow process taking many hundreds or thousands of years, looking through the “Integralism” lens recently I have been astounded by the number of events signaling significant evolution on that path. I will mention just five examples:
1. The world’s most powerful nations are now so economically interdependent that the threat of a future major war has drastically diminished.
2. Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, who have both given huge amounts to projects to improve the lives of downtrodden peoples the world over, have joined together to encourage other wealthy Americans to contribute large amounts to charitable purposes. Many Americans have, on their own, put both time and money toward relieving poverty and fighting disease. Philanthropy has become “fashionable” among the wealthy and the middle class to a degree never seen before.
3. The world’s first “leaderless revolt” occurred in Tunisia , made possible by cell phones, twitter and Facebook. A few days later an Egyptian official tells why that won’t happen in Egypt . Before his words are published, riots wrack Alexandria and Cairo . Again, cell phones, Twitter and Facebook were instrumental. Similar riots are possible in other autocratic nations. At this writing the outcome is unknowable.
4. TV ads for such as Chevron and other large corporations now tout their focus on caring for people and for the environment. This is a new and drastic change.
5. It took 38 years for radio to reach 50 million people. It took the Internet 4 years. It took Facebook 2 years.
McIntosh’s book was published in 2007. It is my guess that he would at that time have found it hard to imagine some of the states of consciousness changes that have occurred since he wrote it. And while there is an abundance of examples of how much of the world is still at the Tribal and Warrior levels, there is also much evidence that as a specie we are moving much more rapidly along the scale than we did in any prior similar period of time.
Moving toward what? Because Integral Consciousness is seen as something encompassing the whole human race, it is psychological, social, philosophical, artistic, political, and spiritual. All aspects of human life, from the inner life of individuals, to the culture of ethnic groups, nations, and the entire human population are transformed toward a common valuing of each other and a change from the “we – them” division to the totally “WE” state.
While McIntosh doesn’t attempt to describe an “ultimate” state for the human race he does predict a future that he terms “global governance”. He has clearly given the issue a lot of thought and is very aware of what a very complex process such a step would be to achieve and then maintain.
While many in the United States who would hear or read of his predictions would be not merely irate, but threatened and horrified, a clear comprehension of his writing and an unbiased view of world events in the last few decades, made such predictions not only plausible, but even likely, not soon, perhaps, but within a few generations. Current world events are just too powerfully pushing us to move beyond the threatening and challenging conditions in which we now all exist.