The Daily Evolver

This week I take a look at the Coronavirus pandemic and humanity’s response to it. The integral lens helps us see more clearly the myriad forces rising out of this crisis, which increases our wisdom and compassion in dealing with it. The situation is changing day-to-day and I will no doubt comment further in future podcasts. Let me know what you’re thinking at jeff@dailyevolver.com.

As a psychotherapist, I have conducted over fifty thousand therapy sessions with men, women, couples, teens, kids, and families over the last thirty-seven years. And I’m here to testify that secret affairs literally screw everybody up. So says Dr. Keith Witt in this fascinating exploration of infidelity in marriage, which arises out of human beings’ two competing sexual drives: to pair-bond and to cheat. From an integral perspective, affairs arrest the development of both the couple and each individual partner. Keith explains the reasons people have secret affairs (and how they justify them), how to recognize and derail the cascade of behaviors that lead to infidelity, and how healthy couples recover and move forward in its aftermath.

What a difference a Super Tuesday can make! Last week I and many others wrote off Joe Biden’s candidacy as hopeless. Now he is the front runner for the Democratic nomination in a two-man race with Bernie Sanders. What happened? And what might it reveal about the race going forward? To ponder these questions, I invite onto the podcast two of my favorite Integral political pals, Diane Musho Hamilton and Terry Patten.

It’s the high political season here in the U.S., and like all good citizens I am called on to cast my vote. My fellow Coloradans and I are part of Super Tuesday, where one-third of the Democratic electorate will decide who we want to go up against President Trump in November. In this podcast, I attempt to bring an integral sensibility to my decisions on the six major candidates, and to share how I’ve come up with my own final three.

In the lineage of Integral philosophers, Jean Gebser is a mystic. Famous for delineating the structures of human consciousness as archaic, magic, mythic, mental and integral, he regarded them as arising not just sequentially in history but also vividly in an ever-present now. “While it is clear that adults possess various mental and physical capacities not possessed by children, and modern cultures possess scientific and technological capacities unknown in primal cultures, it is equally clear that children possess profound imaginal capacities greatly diminished in most adults, and primal cultures take for granted a deep connection with, and intimate knowledge of nature that is impossible to achieve in modern cultures, a connection and knowledge for which many of us harbor a profound yearning.” – Jean Gebser (1905-1973) My guest, integral philosopher Jeremy Johnson, president of the Jean Gebser Society, explains how Gebser’s vision is uniquely relevant to contemporary life, and how it offers an integral

In this episode integral philosopher Steve McIntosh and I discuss his new book: Developmental Politics—How America Can Grow Into a Better Version of Itself. Steve employs integral political philosophy to help overcome America’s hyperpolarized cultural condition. He offers a pragmatic yet inspiring approach to our national political dilemma through a new politics of culture—one that goes right to the heart of this entrenched, complex issue. Steve’s proposals for overcoming hyperpolarization are founded on an emerging form of “cultural intelligence” that directly addresses the conflicting values underlying our poisoned politics. This new way of seeing leads to an inclusive vision of social progress—a new American Dream—that can help revive our collective sense of common cause and thereby restore the functionality of our democracy. Developmental Politics provides the fresh thinking we need to transcend America’s contemporary political impasse. In his book, and this episode, Steve offers one of the best app

Like everything, the practice of psychotherapy is evolving. Emerging in the field today is a new integration of modalities that have previously been siloed, each claiming to be the best. But best for who – and what? My guest today is integral psychotherapist and Zen priest, Chad Bennett, who explores the new integration of therapeutic processes that is taking shape. He starts by describing the three major streams of psychotherapy: Shadow work seeks to penetrate psychological issues, which are resolved by thinking and insight. Trauma work deals with biological issues, which are resolved by sensing the body. Attachment work addresses issues that are ultimately spiritual in nature, and are resolved, as he puts it, by “being”. In this episode, Chad explains how each modality works – separately and together – and maps their integration in a way that serves as a guide for both choosing and managing your therapeutic adventure. Our conversation made a lot of pieces fall into place for me, and I trus

My longtime friend and integral comrade Terry Patten and I have argued for many years about the state and trajectory of the world. And though we both strive to bring an integral perspective to the question, we do see it differently, and in ways that I think reflect differences of views within the integral community, and maybe within your own psyche. In this episode, we share the latest of our ongoing discussions. We enjoyed the heck out of it and, as always, finished a little bigger than we started. We hope you do the same! This episode is a co-production of The Daily Evolver and Terry’s new podcast, State of Emergence.

President Trump’s drone assassination of Iran’s General Qassim Suliemani has dramatically increased the tensions between the US and Iran. It also raises concerns about Donald Trump’s motives and judgment in carrying out a U.S. President’s most deadly option, and what the ramifications may be. In this episode, I attempt to shed some integral light on the situation.

Today my guest is Bence Ganti, the driving force behind the upcoming Integral European Conference, a major six-day event for the Integral community which will commence on May 26th at the Azur Resort at Lake Balaton in Hungary. This fourth biennial conference will be the biggest and most comprehensive yet, with over 700 participants from 50 countries. Titled Global Integral Awakens, the conference will offer 250 programs on a wide range of integral issues, from contemporary politics to organizational development to art, culture and spirituality, in a potent goulash of presentations, workshops and experiential processes. And there’s goulash night too, the Hungarian specialty cooked in cauldrons over an open fire … then trance dance … then a firewalk! To extend your integral immersion, consider the pre-conference training on human development with Dr.Robert Kegan, as well as a post-conference 3-day sightseeing tour by bus. Click here to find out more about the Integral European Conference.

Integral philosopher Steve McIntosh helps us usher in the new year (and decade) with a fresh look at an ancient formula for living a happy, productive and meaningful life. In this episode he explains “the virtues”, a philosophical concept with living roots reaching back to antiquity, including Plato and Confucius, as well as modern validity in the findings of positive psychology and social science. Virtues practice is a powerful means of personal growth, and Steve gets us started by introducing The Character Exercise, an eight-minute internet quiz that helps us clarify our highest ideals and create a personalized “portrait of the good”. You are invited to do the quiz midway through the podcast … your answers generate a printable chart that serves as a practice tool for cultivating happiness and fulfillment. I took the quiz a few months ago and I can honestly say that it has significantly changed my life for the better. I am surprised at its power and trust it will be helpful to you too (let me know!). (let me

In this episode, I point out some integral insights bursting forth from the world of comedy: Bill Maher, who ended his season of Real Time on HBO with a surprising sort-of-integral message Joel Stein, author of In Defense of Elitism, Why I’m Better Than You and You’re Better Than Someone Who Didn’t Buy This Book Eliza Schlesinger, who dissects her wedding – and worldview – in her Netflix comedy special, Unveiled PLUS a quick visit from the Comedian-in-Chief himself. Enjoy the episode!

In this episode, Dr. Keith Witt and I discuss evolutionary biologist David Sloan Wilson’s latest book, This View of Life: Completing the Darwinian Revolution, where he challenges mainstream science to broaden its inquiry to include cultural and consciousness evolution, two pillars of integral theory. 

“All of us – researchers, practitioners and activists – are all looking for what it means to meet the call for transformative change. If we can bring in developmental psychology as one of the knowledge sets, I think we’re going to have some really exciting times ahead.” – Gail Hochachka Can developmental psychology help us respond more effectively to climate change? My guests, Terri O’Fallon and Gail Hochachka, say yes. In this episode, we discuss Gail’s Ph.D. project at the University of Oslo, where she has utilized Terri’s STAGES model to gain insight into how people at various developmental stages make meaning about climate change. Her findings, using data drawn from populations in El Salvador and Guatemala, show how multiple levels of meaning appear within the traditional, modern and postmodern worldviews. Traditional, conformist meanings are concrete, atomistic and related to the present and recent past. Modern, expert and achiever meanings are more abstract, involving cause-and-e

As the star of Judge Judy, Judith Sheindlin presides over the #1 show in US daytime television, where she rules on small-claims disputes drawn from real-life litigants across the country. Now in its 23rd year, Judge Judy attracts 10 million viewers a day who are eager to watch the 76-year-old grandmother transform into a Valkyrie for Justice, laying waste to the mendacities of cheating lovers, thieving landlords, lying teenagers and meddling mothers-in-law. In this episode I examine her genius and her enormous contribution to the evolution of consciousness and culture.

“While we can easily plateau in our adult development, we don’t have to. In fact, there seems to be no upper limit to how much we can grow. The latest stages of human development remain a Mystery waiting to be lived.” … so says Thomas McConkie, founder of Lower Lights, a spiritual community that is practicing a new approach to integral spirituality. Based in Salt Lake City as well as operating virtually, Lower Lights seeks to integrate the three pillars of mindfulness, adult development and the wisdom traditions to discover Universal patterns of growth and transformation. In our conversation, Thomas discusses the doctrines, practices and rituals he and his community have developed to, as he says, “address the whole human being, always in relationship to a larger whole.” I consider Thomas to be one of the brightest young innovators in the emergent field of integral spirituality. I hope you enjoy our conversation! Thomas McConkie has joined with Integral theorist Terri O’Fallen to create Spectra, a 9-month “jou

President Trump has given us a taste of his America-First foreign policy by withdrawing from Syria, and his Trump-First foreign policy by arm-twisting Ukraine for political dirt. In all of the chaos there are patterns of a new integration arising in the way US voters think about who we are and our place in the world. This is edited from my live weekly webcast, hosted on Integral Life, every Wednesday at 1pm MT, 7pm GMT. If you’d like to participate with a question or comment, use this link: https://zoom.us/j/392949640. Or you can watch without participating here: https://integrallife.com/live

The culture war heats up and President Trump is fighting with gloves off, trashing precedent, propriety — and apparently the Constitution. Liberals can’t fathom how conservatives have chosen a lying, cheating philanderer as the standard-bearer for traditional values. In this episode I try to shed some integral light on the subject. This is edited from my live weekly webcast, hosted on Integral Life, every Wednesday at 1pm MT, 7pm GMT. If you’d like to participate with a question or comment, use this link: https://zoom.us/j/392949640. Or you can watch without participating here: https://integrallife.com/live

In this week’s episode, edited from the live webcast, I focused on listener response to my earlier podcast on Greta Thunberg and the environmental movement. Enjoy these highlights and tune in live when you can!

Many integralists are fans of Otto Scharmer, MIT professor and developer of “Theory U”, a brilliant tool for activating higher stages of consciousness that has gained wide acceptance in organizations. As a leading public intellectual Dr. Scharmer also writes about politics and culture. In this episode, integral psychotherapist Dr. Keith Witt and I discuss Scharmer’s political theory as presented in a popular and much-shared article, Axial Shift: The Decline of Trump, the Rise of the Greens, and the New Coordinates of Societal Change. Enjoy the episode! – Jeff Salzman