There is a growing understanding that addressing the
global crisis facing humanity will require new methods for knowing,
understanding, and valuing the world.
Narrow, disciplinary, mechanistic, and reductionist perceptions of
reality are proving inadequate for addressing the complex, interconnected
problems of the current age. The
currently dominant worldview of scientific materialism, which views the cosmos
as a vast machine composed of independent, externally related pieces, promotes
fragmentation in our thinking and perception [5]. The materialist view of
natural systems as commodities to be exploited coupled with the ethos of consumerism
and social Darwinism has encouraged widespread destruction of our natural life
support systems [20]. The cancerous
spread of nihilism and dehumanization are driving the decay and disintegration
of techno-industrial culture [14,25].
A set of clearly discernable stages can be identified in
the history of human culture whose development or unfolding took place in
mutations of consciousness [7,14,20,23].
There is considerable evidence that the current age of “sensate” culture
is ending as a new structure of consciousness emerges, giving birth to the next
stage of cultural evolution. This nascent integral consciousness structure embodies
a new mode of perception which transcends the illusion of separateness to
discern the unity which underlies the diverse forms of existence [2]. Although this “higher level of thinking”
can be elaborated through science, its principal grounding is in spiritual experience. It supports an integrated epistemology that
embraces both the rational knowledge of scientific empiricism and the inner knowledge
of spiritual experience, diminishing the barriers separating scientific and
spiritual understanding. It realizes fundamental
sacredness and profound meaningfulness in all life, giving rise to a more
integrative, holistic, and ecological
perception of the cosmos. The ethos of materialism and selfishness gives way to
ecological sensitivity, reverent care for all life, dedication to world healing
and transformation, spiritual awakening, and celebration of the wonder of the
universe [27]. Individuals move beyond
the limits of their personal vantage points to embrace their unity with all
sentient beings and their participation in the conscious evolution of humanity.
This paper describes the
characteristics of the emerging integral “worldspace” and its potential to
transform modern culture.
Developmental psychologists have come to an understanding
that the self is not a static entity but a complex dynamic evolving system. The psychology of the mature human being is
an unfolding, emergent, spiraling process characterized by the progressive
subordination of older structures of consciousness to newer, higher order structures
[3,19,7]. Each stage or “worldspace”
of this developmental process is a state of consciousness that exhibits a particular
psychology. Each worldspace is a stage
through which developing people pass on their way to other states of being. Each person’s values, worldview, and general
outlook on life is appropriate to the worldspace that is prominent in their
consciousness. This approach recognizes
that there are many different values and worldviews which characterize an
individual’s state (of consciousness); that humans develop by progressing from
simpler to more complex states; that any individual may access various different
states depending upon their life situations; that more complex states provide
more “degrees of freedom” for problem solving then simpler ones; and that many
of the apparently insoluble problems that emerge within a give state can best be
addressed through the emergence of a more complex state.
Cultural evolution can be viewed as a progression of
worldspaces [7,23]. The character of a culture is determined by the worldspace
that dominates that society. Cultural
transitions can be viewed as periods when a new worldspace emerges to replace
an older one. The hunter-gatherer
culture was a period when mankind was dominated by the magical-animistic
worldspace, in which magical spirits seem to control everything, and ethnic
tribes and kinship bonds were central.
The dawn of agricultural culture corresponded to the emergence of the
mythical worldspace, based on conformist rule in a universe governed by a
righteous higher power which enforces a strict code of ethics. Modern culture arose with the emergence of
the rational/egoic worldspace, based on individualism and the pursuit of
material well-being in a rational world governed by mechanical laws which can
be mastered and manipulated for one’s own purposes. The future course of cultural evolution can be
mapped by studying the characteristics of relatively advanced worldspaces as
they manifest in highly developed individuals.
Evidence suggests that we are now in the midst of a
transition to the next phase of human culture as a new worldspace emerges. In the words of Peter Drucker [20], “every few
hundred years in Western history there occurs a sharp transformation. Within a few short decades, society- its
world view, its basic values, its social and political constructs, its arts,
its key institutions- rearranges itself. And the people born then cannot even imagine a
world in which their grandparents lived and into which their own parents were
born. We are currently living through
such a transformation”. According to
Vaclac Haval, “there are good reasons for suggesting the modern age has ended.
Many things indicate that we are going through a transition period, when it
seems that something is on the way out and something else is painfully being
born. It is as if something were
crumbling, decaying and exhausting itself, while something else, still
indistinct, were arising from the rubble”.
A great deal of evidence supporting these assertions has
been assembled by scientists. For
example, in what may be the largest and most thorough empirical study of social
change ever undertaken, Pitirim Sorokin [14] has concluded that the cultural decay
and upheavals of the past century are symptomatic of a transition between
“sensate” and “ideational” worldspaces.
The sensate value system, characteristic of scientific materialism,
views matter alone as the ultimate reality, all ethical values as relative, and
sensory perception as the only source of knowledge and truth. The ideational value system holds that
ultimate reality lies beyond the material world in a spiritual realm, that
ethics, truth, and beauty are expressions or reflections of attributes of this
transcendent reality, and that inner experience is the primary source of wisdom. “We are seemingly between two epochs: the
dying sensate culture of our magnificent yesterday and the coming ideational
culture of the creative tomorrow. We are
living, thinking, and acting at the end of a brilliant six-hundred-year-long
sensate day… The present crisis represents only a disintegration of the sensate
form of Western society and culture, to be followed by a new integration as
notable in its own way as was the sensate form in the days of its glory and
climax”.
In a extensive set of national interviews conducted over
thirteen years and reaching over 100,000 Americans, a research group led by
Paul Ray [21] has tracked the evolution of a number of subcultures in America. Prior to the 1960s two major subcultures
could be identified. The “Traditionals”,
representing the cultural manifestation of the mythic worldspace, and the
“Moderns”, representing the cultural manifestation of the rational worldspace,
each constituted about 50% of the
These Cultural Creatives are at the leading edge of
several forms of cultural change, deeply affecting both their own lives and the
larger society. This transformation
represents a major development in our civilization, suggesting that the
cultural shift being predicted by visionaries and futurists for well over two
decades is well under way. The major themes
of the emerging CC subculture include ecological sensitivity, long-term global
perspective, emphasis on relationships, commitment to spiritual and
psychological development, and disaffection with the materialism and
consumerism of modern culture. It appears to represent the emergence of two new
worldspaces in Western culture, the “relational” and the “integrative”. The following sections described the
attributes of these worldspaces as synthesized from the combination of many
studies. These attributes should be
viewed as tendencies, of which only a subset are likely to be expressed in any
particular instantiation.
The relational
worldspace emphasizes communitarian values, human bonding, ecological sensitivity,
and networking. Authenticity, personal
experience, and depth of personal relationships are valued as feelings and
caring supercede cold rationality. Spirituality in its diversity of forms is
honored while the blind intellectual acceptance of a religious message handed
down by external authorities is spurned.
Individuals at this stage are highly egalitarian, embracing diversity
and rejecting all that appears hierarchical, authoritarian, or paternalistic,
affirming that the human spirit must be freed from the constraints of greed,
dogma & divisiveness. The cultural
relativity of science and philosophy is emphasized, as well as the ethical responsibility
of science and technology to serve all of society, including the poor and
disadvantaged. Sustainability and cherishing
the earth are given high priority- in this worldspace Gaia is honored and all
nature is considered sacred.
The integral worldspace recognizes and accepts both the diversity of forms and the unity that underlies that diversity. Integral thinking moves beyond the relativism of the relational stage to recognize transcendent universals. Transcendental nondualism eclipses scientific materialism as the dominant worldview [9,17]. Werner Heisenberg expressed the ultimate goal of integral science and philosophy as the formulation of a common representation of the “one”- the unitary principle behind all phenomena, the ultimate source of all understanding [17]. Wholeness, healing fragmentation, transdisciplinary thinking, and transrational insight are emphasized. Individuals at this stage are highly idealistic, dedicated to world healing and transformation. Their thinking transcends the toxic battle between worldspaces to embrace the full spectrum of consciousness, recognizing each stage as a necessary and valuable step in the realization of human potential. No longer concerned with political correctness or the opinion of the peer group, they will adopt whatever framework can most efficiently address the problem at hand. The signatory characteristic of this stage is a strong focus on personal transformation, spiritual awakening, service to humanity, and inner work to develop human potential, augmenting the “green” values of the relational worldspace with dedication to personal growth and spirituality.
Within the integral worldspace, which subordinates the
rational worldspace of modern science to a higher order structure of
consciousness, scientific empiricism is easily integrated with spiritual
insight. In synchrony with the emerging
integral consciousness structure, the metaphysical foundations of modern
science have shifted away from the materialism of classical physics toward a
form more accommodating to the integral worldview. This revolution in thinking has initiated a
fundamental paradigm shift in our understanding of the nature of matter and its
relation to consciousness [5,17].
Wolfgang Pauli [11,17] has depicted the defining characteristic of this
new phase of science and Western thought
as “the integration of opposites, including a synthesis embracing both rational
understanding and the mystical experience of unity".
In the face of a multitude of paradoxes inherent in the
quantum mechanical description of the atomic and subatomic world, physicists have
come to the realization that their basic concepts, language, and materialist
worldview are inadequate for understanding the implications of their
experimental results. Perhaps the most
basic and pervasive feature of the quantum mechanical description of nature is
its “fundamentally holistic character” [15,22,2,10]. Observable aspects of
reality such as quantum nonlocality have given rise to descriptions of matter
in which each particle is fundamentally related to every other particle in the
universe, through its participation in an “unbroken wholeness” which lies
beyond the reach of science. According
to Stapp, “the fundamental process of Nature lies outside spacetime but
generates events that can be located in space-time”. It has become clear that science is not in
contact with ultimate reality, that it is describing “the waves, not the water
of the ocean of reality” [6,17].
Ordinary notions of space, time, and separately existent material
particles are being viewed as abstractions derived from this deeper order.
Increasing numbers of physicists are asserting that
consciousness is necessary to bring the universe into being [16,22,4]. Objects emerge from a transcendent
possibility domain into the realm of physical manifestation when (nonlocal) consciousness
“collapses the wave function”.
Consciousness is being viewed as an aspect of the “unbroken wholeness”
which is the source and ground of all existence [2]. Positing consciousness as
a more fundamental aspect of reality then space-time or matter-energy may be
necessary in order to resolve the many paradoxes inherent in materialist
interpretations of quantum mechanics [4].
The principle founders of modern science (including Einstein,
Schrodinger, Heisenberg, Pauli, DeBroglie, and Plank) rejected the positivism
and materialism of the rational worldspace and espoused (in one form or
another) an integral worldview [17].
Increasing numbers of scientists are concluding that -when the full
range of experience is considered- an integral worldview is more plausible then
scientific materialism [9].
Gebser [7] has provided a detailed description of the
nascence of the integral worldspace within mathematics, physics, biology,
psychology, philosophy, jurisprudence, sociology, economics, the arts, and
literature, concluding with the observation that the new mutation of
consciousness “receives its decisive stamp from the manifest perceptual
emergence of the spiritual”. The
integral stage of spiritual development, which can be most clearly observed in
the relatively advanced practitioners of the world’s spiritual traditions, embraces
profound transformation, a “quantum leap” in consciousness, understanding, and
perception [18,3]. Whereas in previous
stages the spiritual was approached emotionally, imaginatively, abstractly, or
conceptually, at the integral stage it is “perceptible concretely as it begins
to coalesce with our consciousness”. The belief character of religion is superceded
by “praeligion, i.e., ever present, evident, and conscious connection with the
divinitary whole” [7,29] which at this stage is revealed as an all-pervading spiritual nature which
permeates the universe. This
experience is viewed as utterly real, although it, like any truly unique
experience, cannot be communicated in terms understandable to those who do not
share it.
In the integral worldview humans are capable of a
continuum of consciousness, ranging from the nonlocal transpersonal dimension
that is coextensive with all others to the localized discrete focalization that
constitutes our unique individuality [12]. Matter, energy, and
spacetime emerge within the field of nonlocal consciousness as dreams emerge
within individual consciousness. Erwin
Schrodinger, while advocating
an integral worldview in his essay “Oneness of Mind” [13,17], quotes the sufi mystic Aziz
Nasafi: “The spiritual world is one single spirit who stands like unto a light
behind the bodily world and who, when any single creature comes into being,
shines through it like a window. According
to the kind or size of the window less or more light enters the world. The light itself however remains
unchanged”. The spiritual Origin, when
viewed from an internal perspective, is revealed to the realizing perception as
“Atman”, the eternal, beatific, universal Self.
When viewed from an external perspective, it is understood as “Brahman”-
the source and ground of all manifestation.
Hence, the essence of every human –the deepest part of every being- is
not temporal or relative, but eternal and absolute, participating in the
The spiritual Reality reveals itself as a numenous
presence underlying, enfolding, and shining through the forms of the cosmos, a
creative presence in which we “live and move and have our being”. The self-conscious ego, which is the root of
the experience of individuality, becomes transparent to the radiance of the
universal Self, the “Mind of Christ”, the eternal, unqualified source of Being. This emptiness
of ego-self, which constitutes true humility, is a release from the illusory
identifications which keep us bound to our personal vantage point. It is the ultimate release from enslavement
by the compulsion to define ourselves –to fill our “God-shaped hole”- through
knowledge, accomplishments, possessions- the freedom to simple be an expression
of the glorious radiance of that-which-is.
As the practice of mindfulness deepens, the focused and
illuminated consciousness pierces the veil of thoughts, images and emotions to
behold “that which transpires behind that which appears”. As we let go of the habit of viewing the world
as representation -mediating every percept with a concept- and begin to
perceive it as transparency, we dissolve the duality of mediated consciousness
and awaken to a new world of knowledge-by-identity. In the words of Jellaludin Rumi, “to the
extent that we are able to receive unveiled light we may behold with the eye of
the vast Ocean of Reality that which is now hidden from the eye of phenomena” [24].
In the “achronon” (the time-free
present) we awaken to the “translucence of the eternal splendor of the One
shining through the material phenomena”.
In this “long, loving look at the Real” we realize a new dimension of
reality which lies beyond time and space, infusing and informing the material
world. To quote the Koran (2,115)
“Wheresoever you turn, there is the face of God”. This experience awakens an intuitive understanding
of the “Unity of All Being” as we recognize the “Buddha Nature” -the radiance
of Origin- in the diaphaneity of all forms.
In the integral worldspace, nature is viewed as a focus
for the divine manifestation, as the medium par excellence through which that
uncreated beauty reveals itself and exercises creative activity. Integral spirituality is a celebration of the
sacredness of the natural world, grounded in the “numenous experience of the
holy”. Albert Einstein explained that
this mystical experience is the “source of all true wisdom”, which frees us
from the delusion of separate existence “by widening our circle of
understanding and compassion, to embrace all living creatures in the whole of
nature and its beauty”. In this awakened
state, all of nature is viewed as sacred, as an expression or reflection of the
splendor of the One. This realization
transforms one's relation to the rest of the cosmos. It cultivates awe and radical amazement at the
marvel of all that is.
The theory of evolution, which has been a major point of
contention between Traditionals and Moderns, finds a prominent and expanded
formulation within the integral worldview, in which physical, personal
(developmental), cultural, and spiritual evolution are all viewed as aspects of
a single process of concretion of the spiritual [23]. In the integral view of conscious evolution,
challenges awaken systems within people and societies designed to cope with or
adapt to those specific conditions. The
crisis of our times and our world is perceived as challenging humanity to access
the integral structure of consciousness.
It is the most visible effect of a process of complete transformation,
which could potentially lead to either global catastrophe or global renewal
[7,14,9,5]. Gebser wrote: “The way out of the dead end of the deficient
rational structure of consciousness is the way of personal participation in,
and cooperation with, the emergent mode of consciousness… If we do not overcome
the crisis it will overcome us; and only someone who has overcome himself is
truly able to overcome. Either we will
be disintegrated and dispersed, or we must resolve and effect
integrality”. The emerging integral
archetype can be envisioned as a noospheric attractor which is drawing humanity
beyond its limitations into further dimensions of consciousness and levels of
perception. As our inner work of
spiritual development nurtures the emergence of integral consciousness we contribute
to the global awakening of humanity.
One of the most
profound expressions of this integral vision of evolution has been formulated
by Sri Aurobindo [1] in his classic “Life Divine”. Aurobindo explains that as our spiritual
faculties awaken, “Matter reveals itself
to the realizing thought and to the subtilised senses as the figure and body of
Spirit, Spirit in its self-formative extension. Spirit reveals itself through
the same consenting agents as the soul, the truth, the essence of Matter. Both
admit and confess each as divine, real, and essentially one. Mind and life are disclosed in that
illumination as at once figures and instruments of the Supreme Conscious Being
by which It extends and houses Itself in material form and in that form unveils
Itself to Its multiple centers of consciousness. Mind attains its self-fulfillment when it
becomes a pure mirror of the Truth of Being which expresses itself in the
symbols of the universe; Life, when it consciously lends its energies to the
perfect self-figuration of the Divine in ever-new forms and activities of the
universal existence”.
Commensurate visions of conscious evolution have been
developed by visionaries of many spiritual traditions. From the Sufi perspective [12], the final
purpose of cosmic evolution is realized in the ultimate destiny of humanity as
the conscious reflection of the divine within the limitations of physical existence. “The
Universe is discovering and recreating itself as it evolves through the course
of our human lives. Thus our conscious
participation in creating the future can be seen as an extension of the
self-organizing activity of the universe”.
We begin to consciously participate in this process of “hominization”
[28] when we awaken to the profound meaningfulness and excruciating beauty that
is attempting to emerge in our being, as the eternal manifests in the temporal
through our acts, values, presence and countenance. This experience confers a profound sense of
both nobility and humility as we recognize the awesome majesty of our divine
inheritance dwelling within the impoverishment of our human condition. Through dedication to our “inner commission” to
self transcendence we serve as cocreators in this rebirthing process,
participating in the fulfillment of the purpose of creation.
Although any attempt to express these transconceptual
realities in common language is “already a nearly inadmissible concession” [29],
this concession must be made to accommodate the rationality of the currently
dominate worldspace. In wrestling with
this paradox of expressing the inexpressible Werner Heisenberg concludes that,
when seeking a common interpretation of the One, “the language of poetry may be
more important then the language of science” [11,17]. Hence,
at last abandoning concessions to the rational structure of consciousness, we
close with a rendition of poetry from the Sufi master Hafiz [26]:
Light
Will
someday split you open
Even
if your life is now a cage.
Little
by little,
You
will turn into stars.
Little
by little,
You
will turn into
The
whole sweet, amorous Universe.
Love
will surely burst you wide open
Into
an unfettered, booming new galaxy.
You
will become so free
In
a wonderful, secret
And
pure Love
That
flows
From
a conscious,
One-pointed,
Infinite
Light.
Even
then, my dear,
The
Beloved will have fulfilled
Just
a fraction,
Just
a fraction!
Of
a promise
He
wrote upon your heart.
For
a divine seed, the crown of destiny,
Is
hidden and sown on an ancient, fertile plain
You
hold the title to.
O
look again within yourself,
For
I know you were once the elegant host
To
all the marvels in creation.
When
your soul begins
To
ever bloom and laugh
And
spin in Eternal Ecstasy-
O
little by little,
You
will turn into God.
1. Aurobindo, S. 1983. The
Life Divine. All
2. Bohm, D. 1982. Wholeness
and the Implicate Order. Routledge
& Kegan Paul.
3. Beck, D. & Cowan, C.
1996. Spiral Dynamics. Blackwell Publishers,
4. Goswami, Amit, 1995. The Self-Aware Universe.
5. Capra, F. 1982. The Turning Point. Bantam,
6. Eddington, E. 1929. Science and the Unseen World.
7. Gebser, J., 1985. The Ever-Present Origin.
8. Grof, S. editor. 1984.
Ancient Wisdom and Modern Science.
9. Harman, W. 1998. Global Mind Change: The Promise of the 21st
Century. Berrett-Koehler.
10. Harris, E. 1988. “Contemporary Physics and Dialetical
Holism”. In
11. Heisenberg, W. 1974. Across the Frontiers. Harper and Row,
12. Inayat Kahn, V. 1999. Awakening:
A Sufi Experience.
13. Schrodinger, E. 1967. What is Life.
14. Sorokin, P. 1941. Crisis
of Our Age.
15. Stapp, H.P. 1982. “Mind, Matter & Quantum Mechanics”. Foundations of Physics, 12: 363-398.
16. Von Neuman, J. 1955.
The Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics.
17. Wilber, K editor. 1984. Quantum
Questions: Mystical Writings of the World's Great Physicists. Shambhala,
18. Wilber, K. 1998. The
Marriage of Sense and Soul, Random House,
19. Wilber, K. 2000. Integral
Psychology. Shambhala,
20. Drucker, P. 1994. Post-Capitalist
Society. Harper Business.
21. Ray, Paul & Anderson,
S. 2000. The Cultural Creatives. Harmony Books,
22. Kafatos, M. & Nadeau,
R. 2000. The Conscious
Universe: Parts and Wholes in Physical
Reality. Springer.
23. Wilber, K. 1995. Sex Ecology, Spirituality: The Spirit of
Evolution. Shambhala,
24. Nicholson, R. 1926. The Mathnawi of Jalaluddin Rumi. Trustees of the “E.J.W. Gibb Memorial”,
25. Sherrard, P. 1987.
The Rape of Man and Nature: An Enquiry into the Origins and Consequences
of Modern Science. Golgonooza Press.
26. Ladinsky, D. 1996. I Heard God Laughing: Renderings of Hafiz. Mobius Press,
27. Lerner, M. 2000. Spirit
Matters. Hampton Roads Publishing Co.,
28. Teilhard De
Chardin, P. 1976. The Phenomenon of
29. Feuerstein, G. 1987. Structures of Consciousness. Integral Publishing,