The Daily Evolver

Star Wars is one of the most treasured film franchises in history, and one of the very few that is enjoyed by such a massive and cross-generational audience. The original trilogy is often collectively referred to as a pop culture masterpiece, and even the less-renowned prequel trilogy has earned its place in the hearts of fans around the world. Now we are in the midst of the third trilogy in the franchise, inspiring yet another generation of young padawans across the galaxy — well, across the planet at least. Today Jeff is joined by Cindy Wigglesworth and Corey deVos, and together they dive deeply into the rich mythology and mysticism of the Star Wars universe — sharing their personal connection to Star Wars, their integral appreciation of its central themes and allegories, and their best guesses as to where the Force may be taking us next. *SPOILER WARNING* Cindy, Corey, and Jeff get into some of the plot details of The Last Jedi, so enter at your own risk!

Imagine a world that is lit up with the loving intelligence of the Divine. Where spiritual practitioners realize their identity as evolving beings in an evolving kosmos, a kosmos that is teeming with life including all sorts of of celestial beings, angels, seraphim, and extraterrestrials from billions of inhabited worlds like ours. And that these beings love us, communicate with us, and guide us as we grow toward ever-greater expressions of goodness, truth and beauty. Welcome to The Urantia Book, a spiritual revelation that came into being in the early 20th Century and has inspired generations of adherents since. Today Jeff talks with Byron Belitsos, author of the new book, Your Evolving Soul: The Cosmic Spirituality of the Urantia Revelation, about the principles of these deep and beautiful (and controversial!) teachings, and how they can illuminate our spiritual development.

In this episode we look at the continued emergence of postmodern consciousness (green altitude), using a current example from the U.S. financial sector. Last week Laurence D. Fink, founder and chief executive of BlackRock, the world’s largest investor fund, informed business leaders that if they want any of the the $6 trillion he invests they are going to have to serve a social purpose. “To prosper over time,” he said, “every company must not only deliver financial performance, but also show how it makes a positive contribution to society.” This is a sentiment that was anathema to the business community a generation ago, and actually opposed as counterproductive by respected economists such as Milton Friedman. But yesterday’s financial heresy is going mainstream today. What’s up? Emergence, the one thing we can count on…

Donald Trump has just completed the first year of the most unlikely, outrageous presidency in modern history. What do we make of it? In this episode Jeff looks at Trump’s impact on the exterior aspects of American life (actual policies and their effects on people) as well as his impact on the interior aspects (the culture and individual consciousness).

Today Jeff responds to Harry, a listener who offers a critique often heard within and about the integral world. Harry writes: There’s an unspoken, and unconscious, assumption that integral was just invented a few years ago by Wilber, Gebser, et al., and that anyone exhibiting similar insights and behaviors earlier, or anyone currently exploring similar turf who languages it differently, is “proto-integral.”  I believe there have been integral (and beyond) sages since time immemorial. Jesus, Gautama Buddha, Lao-Tzu, the list goes on. I think there’s a shadow of hubris that dogs the integral narrative that’s worth dragging into the light. So is integral arrogant? Jeff explains how integral theory itself helps to answer the question. Illustration:  After Hubris Comes Nemesis by Theodore Gericault

Today Jeff welcomes his friend Diane Musho Hamilton to discuss the latest turnings in the #MeToo movement and the cultural education we’re all receiving regarding sex and power. Diane and Jeff look at the upside of the movement, as well as its inevitable overreach. They look at how it heals historic patterns of abuse, and what it is blind and hostile too. And they look to integral consciousness, the ability to hold multiple perspectives, as a way forward. Diane Musho Hamilton is a teacher of Integral Spirituality and Zen, as well as a mediator, facilitator and author. Her latest book is The Zen of You and Me. See her new blog post: #MeToo: On Perspectives, Listening, and Risk Taking.

Let’s welcome 2018 with the recognition that in terms of human flourishing – nutrition, health, lifespan, peace, freedom – we are living in the best of times. Acknowledging this fact is not to turn away from the suffering of the world or to minimize the dangers we face. The integral move is to include all of it, and to take heart even in the midst of a cultural narrative of anger and despair. Jeff notes that more people seem to be able to hold both perspectives more fully, including thought leaders like Nicholas Kristof and Andrew Sullivan. It is a quality of integral consciousness worthy of practice and development.

A conversation with Doshin Michael Nelson, founder of Integral Zen. The upside of the Green postmodern stage of development is astonishing. After countless centuries of brutality, culminating in the horrors of World War II, this new leading edge of consciousness emerged with an ethos of sensitivity and a mission to rehabilitate the victims of history, including the slaves of the Red power stage, the sinners of the Amber traditional stage and the losers of the Orange modern stage, as well as to grant a new moral status to the domains of animals and nature. The downside of the Green altitude is that it has lost faith in humanity. It is allergic to truth claims, it ridicules convention and is deeply suspicious of power. It’s role is deconstructive, which it often plays so thoroughly that there is nothing left for its adherents to hold on to. Welcome to the cutting edge of human evolution in the 21st-century! In this episode Jeff is interviewed by Doshin Michael Nelson, founder of Integral Zen, about the nature o

In this episode I talk with Corey deVos of Integral Life, and Episcopal priest Fr. John Forman about the message of Christmas and how we can enjoy a deeper experience of the season. Father John Forman answered the call to priesthood in mid-life, after a career in business (he was a co-creator of the original Integral Institute business seminars) and is now Rector of the Episcopal Church in Burion, Washington. He was drawn to the Episcopal / Anglican lineage for its commitment to, as he puts it, “the protection of the mystery of God”, and his teaching emphasizes direct experience over belief. I love visiting with my old friend Father John and am grateful to join with him as we celebrate the birth of Christ and the perpetual rebirth of love in the world.

In this episode Jeff looks at yesterday’s victory of Democrat Doug Jones over Republican Roy Moore in the special U.S. Senate election in Alabama. It is a vivid show of integral stage theory and represents the waning of the state’s Old Testament and Old Confederacy identity, as more Alabamans resonate with modern values that demand respect for minorities and women. Though the election was state-wide the implications are national — and ominous for President Trump. As the Wall Street Journal writes, “The GOP voters who ignored Mr. Trump and rejected Mr. Moore also want a President who acts presidential.” Jeff starts the episode by checking in on Puerto Rico, as political and business forces align to create a state-of-the-art, low-carbon power grid.

Today we look at the case, heard last week in the U.S. Supreme Court, of the Colorado baker who refuses to bake a cake for a gay couple’s wedding. The case pits competing American values of freedom of speech (and freedom from compelled speech) and the principle of tolerance and equal access in the public spheres of life. It’s a very significant case, the first to deal with on-the-ground ramifications of the 2015 ruling that legalized gay marriage nationwide, and it will lay out a powerful precedence going forward. Jeff and Corey have a split decision. What do you think?

The emergence of the internet and social media has been spectacularly fruitful for the evolution of humanity. They connect the world, put all information at our fingertips and provide endless opportunities for self-expression, community and creativity. In recent times, however, we have seen the dark side of technology arise: customized newsfeeds that seal us off from opposing world views, stoking our tribal identities. Data collection systems that compromise our privacy in ways we not may not understand. Sophisticated feedback loops that keep us hooked and threaten our peace of mind. In this episode Jeff talks with David Riordan, Vice President of Media for Integral Life, about some of the ways we can inhabit the virtual world more safely and intelligently.

The rise of capitalism, starting a couple hundred years ago, has been a spectacularly positive development for humanity, creating enormous material wealth that raised billions of people out of poverty. In the last 40 years, however, it has been gamed so that the vast majority of economic growth flows to the elites who own and manage the systems of wealth creation. The Republican tax plan doubles down on that trend, reducing taxes for corporations and the rich at the expense of social programs that help the poor. Jeff and Corey discuss the ramifications.

Jeff talks with Dr. Keith Witt about the great consciousness raising our culture is going through regarding sexual harassment. Dr Keith’s prescription for a healthier, safer future: more sex! He advocates for a pro-sex culture where sexuality is normalized from childhood, where power dynamics are above board, and where sexual polarity is given its full, juicy expression in a container of mutual adult consent.

The hopes and fears surrounding the advent of artificial intelligence are fantastical, from Ray Kurzweil’s promise of spiritual machines to Elon Musk’s warnings of killer robots. And yes, some version of that future is barreling toward us at an ever-increasing speed, says philosopher of technology professor Michael Zimmerman, who is Jeff’s guest today. In this episode Michael and Jeff make important distinctions between artificial intelligence and consciousness itself. Machines have become proficient at handling information (e.g. the phone in your pocket), they are learning how to self-observe and learn, and they may soon be able to “present” as human. But will they ever hope and dream – or plot and scheme? Jeff argues that a system of material components, however complex, will never create a shred of interiority. Michael is not so sure, and offers a couple scenarios that give Jeff a scare!

Steve McIntosh joins Jeff and Corey for an in-depth exploration into the energetic qualities of the three primary virtues of Goodness, Beauty, and Truth. Steve describes how these virtues can both enrich our cognitive understanding of the universe around us, while also deepening and reinvigorating our own ongoing spiritual practice. If you’d like to go deeper into Steve’s work, you should pick up his wonderful book, THE PRESENCE OF THE INFINITE: The Spiritual Experience of Beauty, Truth, and Goodness. For a brief synopsis of the Good, the Beautiful, and the True, be sure to check out this video by Ken Wilber, as well as the written text by Corey deVos.

Today Jeff considers comments from “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski which imply that women have an extra responsibility to resist Donald Trump. He also quotes former first lady Michelle Obama saying that if a woman voted for Trump it is because “[you] don’t like your [own] voice. You like the thing you’re told to like.” This is a projection of progressive (green altitude) values on all women, and is rightly seen as disrespectful by women who don’t share those values. But as a feature of culture it is nothing new. It turns out that women have long been held to higher ideals of moral development, a history that Jeff sketches starting with the famous frontier story of Cynthia Ann Parker, who was kidnapped by the Comanche Indians for 24 years — and refused to be rescued.

Ann Coulter’s provocative personality often obscures two aspects of her that are far more important: she is a devoted Christian and committed nationalist. She thinks multiculturalism is dangerous and that Western culture rooted in a Judeo-Christian tradition creates superior societies. She advocated for Trump enthusiastically, and wrote a popular book In Trump We Trust, E Pluribus Awesome! to support his election. So how is she feeling a year in to Trump’s presidency? Not altogether happy, considering her recent column, Headlines From an Administration That is Not Putting American First. In this episode Jeff contemplates the views of Coulter and her nationalist comrades on the right.

Thanksgiving is such a wonderful holiday: few obligations, a nice dinner and a reminder to be grateful for life’s blessings – and the blessing of life itself! Gratitude is itself a practice in many spiritual traditions and it is a worthy part of an integral practice. In this episode I take a look at the power of gratitude through an integral lens. Happy Thanksgiving!

In this episode I reflect on a conversation Corey DeVos and I had with African American scholar Greg Thomas, where we explored what a more integral approach to race relations might look like. Greg is influenced by his mentor, Albert Murray, who, writing in the 60’s challenged the postmodern narrative that reduced race (and much of human relations in general) to hard constructs of victim and oppressor.   A more adequate view includes human interiority, the making of meaning, and the lived experience of people who are fully inhabiting their lives and culture. It includes a connection to the land and all the flavors of heritage that make up what Murray called the Omni-Americans, who have been given the best of culture from all times and places.   I further consider these insights in light of a column, “This American Land”, written by David Brooks and published in the New York Times a few months ago. In it Brooks seeks to soothe our cultural polarization by finding a common identity in the American land. He offer