The Further Emergence of Interspirituality and the Integral Vision
by Kurt Johnson, Doug King, David Robert Ord
Interspirituality and Integral
Interspirituality and Integral are two of a number of potent vectors that have emerged with especial intensity over the last decade, as our planet’s inevitable progress toward globalization and multicultural continues. In a nutshell, Interspirituality contends that the only religion viable for our Third Millennium is “spirituality itself”.
“Spirituality itself” refers to a return to Source, to what religion and spirituality are really about—actual cultures of love, kindness, equanimity, and dedication to the wellbeing of all.
Such a return to Source will require a move away from religion as strict forms, which are often fear-based. Such elements of these forms as creeds and dogmas often embody conflicting, exclusive, and even apocalyptic claims.
The difference between the two approaches is either a world in which religion and spirituality continue to be part of the problem of ongoing world competition and conflict, or a future in which they become part of the solution, resulting in a world that might—just might—attain a healthy and prosperous globalization and multiculturalism.
Integral philosophy (Integral of Ken Wilber, Spiral Dynamics of Don Beck and Chris Cowan, etc.) holds the same vision and points to the same hope—that the religions and spiritualities of the world might still act as a “great conveyor belt” to bring shared and central values and ethics of the heart into a formative vector for actual world improvement and transformation.
Stark Differences Are Apparent
We see the glaring differences in what our future world might look like when we consider the vision above in the light of what’s being reported in the world’s news media from day to day.
For instance, reflecting the old paradigm of competition and conflict based on allegiances to disparate national, ethnic, and religious identities, we see Russians and Ukrainians rallying behind their competing and conflicting flags, national anthems, regional boundaries, and intensely held cultural and ethnic identities. Within a few weeks of a global Olympic Winter Games, in which the awarding of medals was celebrated with the raising of flags and playing of national anthems, the same allegiances now consist of armed force and a real threat to the life and health of real peoples in real time.
It’s a sad aspect of hominid behavior that Homo sapiens continues to act competitively and conflictingly across its global landscape. And yet it could be so different– as not only the Olympics illustrate, but the case of the recently missing Malaysian Airlines 777. The search for Flight 370 has cooperatively brought together nations that, only recently, still experienced hostility– all of them sending planes and ships in a common endeavor for wellbeing of people of multiple nations, as well as to contribute to finding the cause, so such catastrophes do not happen again.
In The Coming Interspiritual Age, a new area of science—the Cognitive Science of Religion—studies precisely the phenomenon of what the probabilities are that ongoing evolution of our species will result in a healthy attainment of global multicultural community. Will we be unable to achieve this threshold or, instead, experience increased difficulties, and perhaps even ultimate extinction?
It’s a vexing question, especially when we factor in not only the forces of nationally based competition and conflict, but also such issues as the erratic and often self-seeking behavior of our global financial community, the conditions of our planet’s environment, and many other urgent problems.
We are reminded of the poignant comment of Paul Hawken in his bestseller Blessed Unrest: If we still have hope for humanity, we haven't seen the data. But if we don’t have hope, we don’t have a heart. Globally, we find ourselves today squarely in the midst of this dilemma.
Perspectives
So, what are some perspectives that the growing Interspiritual and Integral movements can bring to this predicament?
Well, there are many, and certainly a reading of The Coming Interspiritual Age (Johnson and Ord, Namaste Publishing, 2013) and Integral Spirituality (Wilber, Integral Books, 2007) is not only advisable but probably indispensable to an understanding of the elements that are now at play worldwide.
Having said this, one of the most important of these perspectives is the one we spent the most time on recently in our discussions with Ken Wilber—the emerging global paradigm shift from what might be called First Tier Consciousness to a new Second Tier Consciousness. Again, it’s easy to describe the difference between these two tiers; and, as Ken Wilber emphasized in our conversations, one reason this transition is so difficult and complex right now is that we are not just trying to leap to some higher levels of cultural consciousness, but we are trying to ascend to an entirely new tier—one that’s crucial to our survival in these extremely challenging times.
In the old First Tier Consciousness, human consciousness needs (often desperately, because of deeply seated fears of ultimate rewards and punishments) precise and thus often restrictive boundaried forms with which to identify. Examples would be “I am a Christian”, “I am a Muslim”, “Christianity is ‘the only way’”, “Islam is ‘the only way’”, “strict reductionist science is the only valid or mature view of reality”, “so-called spirituality is simply a useless pre-rational superstitious activity”, and many more such boxes.
In contrast, Second Tier Consciousness, especially in the context of the absolute reality of a world going inevitably global and multicultural, realizes not only that the old boxes are basically fear-driven, but that just as a matter of consciousness “all form serves us, but we don’t need to bound by any particular form.”
Often this view is referred to as “going trans-form”. That this kind of worldview is arising rapidly on a global scale is borne out by an abundance of statistics across the entire media of current studies and books on consciousness, worldviews, and cosmology. Many of these were reviewed at length in The Coming Interspiritual Age.
Of course, as recognized by both Integral and Spiral Dynamics, this new consciousness is arising differentially globally; that is, at different rates in different cultures (especially depending on whether societies are more or less open or closed with respect to human rights, the media, and so on).
We think we can state confidently that this differential arising of a global Second Tier Consciousness is not only what may mediate our world’s future, but is the factor that might also determine whether the track to our inevitable globalization and multiculturalism will be gradual and smooth, or difficult and perhaps even catastrophic—in fact, tragically, a failed enterprise.
The Changes We See Taking Place
It’s easy to point to those sectors of world society and culture in which this transformation is taking place, in contrast to where it’s struggling to take place at all. As recently recognized by foundational documents of the United Nations Non-governmental Organization “Forum 21 Initiative” (in which all three of us are involved), the world’s spiritual and religious communities are clearly moving toward a Second Tier Consciousness. This is reflected in such influential views as The Charter for Compassion, The Earth Charter, and the Interspiritual Movement.
In science, we also clearly see mainstream emergence of persuasive and influential philosophical and methodological views that are more and more holistic and reflective of a quantum reality that unites in a single cosmology the realms of the infinitely small and infinitely large.
A simple perusal of the number of books about the implications of “scientific holism” or the “quantum reality” readily attests to these influential trends. In addition, new books abound debating and updating the basics of the philosophy of science to embrace not only the world’s general advance toward holistic thinking, but to explain complex data sets that simply don’t appear to be explainable by older scientific views.
It’s safe to say that such movements toward a Second Tier Consciousness are alive and well in civil society. And yet there is severe entrenchment, even retrograde and devolutive behavior, in the realms of social governance worldwide and across the world’s controlling financial structures.
Observers at nearly all the recent international conferences tending to the world’s dire challenges regarding environment, economics, and so on, summarize that “civil society is gung-ho for change,” whereas the world’s controlling corporations and governments are dragging their feet. In fact, there is a fear among spokespersons for civil society that decades of their own work may be cancelled out by the comparatively instantaneous actions of committees and groups of the far less progressive power elite. If so, Cognitive Science of Religion’s prediction that Homo sapiens may not be able to “go global” successfully could end up being true.
Conclusion
Our travels and discussions have shown us that our species is in the midst of critical tension and uncertainty concerning its future. Not only do a vast array of dire challenges face us planet-wide, but it’s a situation in which the variety of these challenges requires an equally varied and diversely skillful response across a large number of social and cultural arenas and disciplines. Historically, this is an exciting and crucial threshold.
Also obvious is the fact that the most powerful approach holists of all kinds can take to try to assure the successful ushering in of a more global Second Tier Consciousness is to continue to position and promulgate compelling holistic views like Interspirituality and the Integral Vision in all possible arenas. The ongoing positioning and promulgation of such views can hopefully intersect, meet with, and synergize what clearly appears to be a global trend toward the arising Second Tier Consciousness.
Let us hope that more and more people, worldwide and cross-culturally, will recognize and also promote the realization that the old boxes and boundaries of what has been a disparate and fragmented world culture are now inevitably fading and need to be rapidly replaced by the recognition that all forms may serve us, though we need not be bound by any particular form.
From the point of view of history, it would be wonderful if the last chapter written by scholars and historians of the Cognitive Science of Religion were to record that Homo sapiens in fact did achieve a successful and healthy globalization and multiculturalism. This would indeed be a cosmic “happy ending”.
----Compiled by Dr. Tony Verma .'. Celestial Trance Christos
by Kurt Johnson, Doug King, David Robert Ord
Interspirituality and Integral
Interspirituality and Integral are two of a number of potent vectors that have emerged with especial intensity over the last decade, as our planet’s inevitable progress toward globalization and multicultural continues. In a nutshell, Interspirituality contends that the only religion viable for our Third Millennium is “spirituality itself”.
“Spirituality itself” refers to a return to Source, to what religion and spirituality are really about—actual cultures of love, kindness, equanimity, and dedication to the wellbeing of all.
Such a return to Source will require a move away from religion as strict forms, which are often fear-based. Such elements of these forms as creeds and dogmas often embody conflicting, exclusive, and even apocalyptic claims.
The difference between the two approaches is either a world in which religion and spirituality continue to be part of the problem of ongoing world competition and conflict, or a future in which they become part of the solution, resulting in a world that might—just might—attain a healthy and prosperous globalization and multiculturalism.
Integral philosophy (Integral of Ken Wilber, Spiral Dynamics of Don Beck and Chris Cowan, etc.) holds the same vision and points to the same hope—that the religions and spiritualities of the world might still act as a “great conveyor belt” to bring shared and central values and ethics of the heart into a formative vector for actual world improvement and transformation.
Stark Differences Are Apparent
We see the glaring differences in what our future world might look like when we consider the vision above in the light of what’s being reported in the world’s news media from day to day.
For instance, reflecting the old paradigm of competition and conflict based on allegiances to disparate national, ethnic, and religious identities, we see Russians and Ukrainians rallying behind their competing and conflicting flags, national anthems, regional boundaries, and intensely held cultural and ethnic identities. Within a few weeks of a global Olympic Winter Games, in which the awarding of medals was celebrated with the raising of flags and playing of national anthems, the same allegiances now consist of armed force and a real threat to the life and health of real peoples in real time.
It’s a sad aspect of hominid behavior that Homo sapiens continues to act competitively and conflictingly across its global landscape. And yet it could be so different– as not only the Olympics illustrate, but the case of the recently missing Malaysian Airlines 777. The search for Flight 370 has cooperatively brought together nations that, only recently, still experienced hostility– all of them sending planes and ships in a common endeavor for wellbeing of people of multiple nations, as well as to contribute to finding the cause, so such catastrophes do not happen again.
In The Coming Interspiritual Age, a new area of science—the Cognitive Science of Religion—studies precisely the phenomenon of what the probabilities are that ongoing evolution of our species will result in a healthy attainment of global multicultural community. Will we be unable to achieve this threshold or, instead, experience increased difficulties, and perhaps even ultimate extinction?
It’s a vexing question, especially when we factor in not only the forces of nationally based competition and conflict, but also such issues as the erratic and often self-seeking behavior of our global financial community, the conditions of our planet’s environment, and many other urgent problems.
We are reminded of the poignant comment of Paul Hawken in his bestseller Blessed Unrest: If we still have hope for humanity, we haven't seen the data. But if we don’t have hope, we don’t have a heart. Globally, we find ourselves today squarely in the midst of this dilemma.
Perspectives
So, what are some perspectives that the growing Interspiritual and Integral movements can bring to this predicament?
Well, there are many, and certainly a reading of The Coming Interspiritual Age (Johnson and Ord, Namaste Publishing, 2013) and Integral Spirituality (Wilber, Integral Books, 2007) is not only advisable but probably indispensable to an understanding of the elements that are now at play worldwide.
Having said this, one of the most important of these perspectives is the one we spent the most time on recently in our discussions with Ken Wilber—the emerging global paradigm shift from what might be called First Tier Consciousness to a new Second Tier Consciousness. Again, it’s easy to describe the difference between these two tiers; and, as Ken Wilber emphasized in our conversations, one reason this transition is so difficult and complex right now is that we are not just trying to leap to some higher levels of cultural consciousness, but we are trying to ascend to an entirely new tier—one that’s crucial to our survival in these extremely challenging times.
In the old First Tier Consciousness, human consciousness needs (often desperately, because of deeply seated fears of ultimate rewards and punishments) precise and thus often restrictive boundaried forms with which to identify. Examples would be “I am a Christian”, “I am a Muslim”, “Christianity is ‘the only way’”, “Islam is ‘the only way’”, “strict reductionist science is the only valid or mature view of reality”, “so-called spirituality is simply a useless pre-rational superstitious activity”, and many more such boxes.
In contrast, Second Tier Consciousness, especially in the context of the absolute reality of a world going inevitably global and multicultural, realizes not only that the old boxes are basically fear-driven, but that just as a matter of consciousness “all form serves us, but we don’t need to bound by any particular form.”
Often this view is referred to as “going trans-form”. That this kind of worldview is arising rapidly on a global scale is borne out by an abundance of statistics across the entire media of current studies and books on consciousness, worldviews, and cosmology. Many of these were reviewed at length in The Coming Interspiritual Age.
Of course, as recognized by both Integral and Spiral Dynamics, this new consciousness is arising differentially globally; that is, at different rates in different cultures (especially depending on whether societies are more or less open or closed with respect to human rights, the media, and so on).
We think we can state confidently that this differential arising of a global Second Tier Consciousness is not only what may mediate our world’s future, but is the factor that might also determine whether the track to our inevitable globalization and multiculturalism will be gradual and smooth, or difficult and perhaps even catastrophic—in fact, tragically, a failed enterprise.
The Changes We See Taking Place
It’s easy to point to those sectors of world society and culture in which this transformation is taking place, in contrast to where it’s struggling to take place at all. As recently recognized by foundational documents of the United Nations Non-governmental Organization “Forum 21 Initiative” (in which all three of us are involved), the world’s spiritual and religious communities are clearly moving toward a Second Tier Consciousness. This is reflected in such influential views as The Charter for Compassion, The Earth Charter, and the Interspiritual Movement.
In science, we also clearly see mainstream emergence of persuasive and influential philosophical and methodological views that are more and more holistic and reflective of a quantum reality that unites in a single cosmology the realms of the infinitely small and infinitely large.
A simple perusal of the number of books about the implications of “scientific holism” or the “quantum reality” readily attests to these influential trends. In addition, new books abound debating and updating the basics of the philosophy of science to embrace not only the world’s general advance toward holistic thinking, but to explain complex data sets that simply don’t appear to be explainable by older scientific views.
It’s safe to say that such movements toward a Second Tier Consciousness are alive and well in civil society. And yet there is severe entrenchment, even retrograde and devolutive behavior, in the realms of social governance worldwide and across the world’s controlling financial structures.
Observers at nearly all the recent international conferences tending to the world’s dire challenges regarding environment, economics, and so on, summarize that “civil society is gung-ho for change,” whereas the world’s controlling corporations and governments are dragging their feet. In fact, there is a fear among spokespersons for civil society that decades of their own work may be cancelled out by the comparatively instantaneous actions of committees and groups of the far less progressive power elite. If so, Cognitive Science of Religion’s prediction that Homo sapiens may not be able to “go global” successfully could end up being true.
Conclusion
Our travels and discussions have shown us that our species is in the midst of critical tension and uncertainty concerning its future. Not only do a vast array of dire challenges face us planet-wide, but it’s a situation in which the variety of these challenges requires an equally varied and diversely skillful response across a large number of social and cultural arenas and disciplines. Historically, this is an exciting and crucial threshold.
Also obvious is the fact that the most powerful approach holists of all kinds can take to try to assure the successful ushering in of a more global Second Tier Consciousness is to continue to position and promulgate compelling holistic views like Interspirituality and the Integral Vision in all possible arenas. The ongoing positioning and promulgation of such views can hopefully intersect, meet with, and synergize what clearly appears to be a global trend toward the arising Second Tier Consciousness.
Let us hope that more and more people, worldwide and cross-culturally, will recognize and also promote the realization that the old boxes and boundaries of what has been a disparate and fragmented world culture are now inevitably fading and need to be rapidly replaced by the recognition that all forms may serve us, though we need not be bound by any particular form.
From the point of view of history, it would be wonderful if the last chapter written by scholars and historians of the Cognitive Science of Religion were to record that Homo sapiens in fact did achieve a successful and healthy globalization and multiculturalism. This would indeed be a cosmic “happy ending”.
----Compiled by Dr. Tony Verma .'. Celestial Trance Christos
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