Ken Wilber shares a beautiful set of pointing out instructions on the "Myth of the Given" conference call....

In this third and final installation of David and Ken's dialogue, we explore the role of sports as a "hidden religion," an age-old tradition with the extraordinary ability to evoke powerful states of transcendence—spiritual experiences, by any other name. As they discuss, when the rational materialistic worldview began to emerge, one of the first things it did was to debunk the mythic religious worldview that came before, effectively discarding the entire notion of spirituality along with it. When this occurred, spirituality was forced to "go underground," sneaking itself into some fairly surprising corners of human activity—and thus sports have grown to offer some of the most widespread forms of covert spirituality in the modern world, for athletes and fans alike. Listen as David and Ken explore some of the contours of this "hidden religion," and discuss what it takes to be a genuinely Integral athlete, both on and off the field.

In this dialogue, Brother David and Ken Wilber discuss the concept of Integral panentheism—the belief that God imminently exists within the manifest universe, interpenetrating all that we can touch and see, while simultaneously existing infinitely beyond the universe in timeless transcendence. Contrasted with theistic, deistic, and pantheistic belief systems, Integral panentheism brings new life to traditional Christian practices and doctrine, such as gratefulness, prayer, and the Holy Trinity, while also offering a stable foundation for truly inter-religious conversations in the modern and post-modern worlds.

Ken Wilber discusses harmful spiritual movements with Jacob Bartels, and how an understanding of stages and shadow can help to see why things go wrong....

Dr. Warren Farrell and Ken Wilber discuss some of the ingredients of an Integral account of human sexuality, while exploring the nuances of relationships between men and women, the many attempts of feminism to redefine sex and gender, and the historic causes behind the division of labor and the rigid patriarchies that followed….

The advent of the telegraph—the farthest reach of communications technology at the turn of the 20th century—can be directly correlated with the spread of the theosophy movement. Given that historical example, asks Mary Theresa Kelly in this week's featured audio, what are the implications for today? For tomorrow?

The author of one of the most searing, courageous personal memoirs of our time shares how an Integral Approach helped him reconcile a life of fierce inner struggles with what it means to be a gay man in today’s culture, the difference between genuine spiritual experiences and psychotic episodes, and the thorny intersection of homosexuality and Christianity.

Theosophy (literally, “god-wisdom”) is a surprisingly little known but nonetheless highly influential movement of the past several centuries in Europe and North America. In this week’s featured audio, Ken Wilber traces the development of theosophy and its descendents, down to the New Age movement.

In the last chapter of Up from Eden ("Republicans, Democrats, and Mystics"), I made the observation that, when it comes to the cause of human suffering, liberals tend to believe in objective causation, whereas conservatives tend to believe in subjective causation. That is, if an individual is suffering, the typical liberal tends to blame objective social institutions (if you are poor it is because you are oppressed by society), whereas the typical conservative tends to blame subjective factors (if you are poor it is because you are lazy). Thus, the liberal recommends objective social interventions: redistribute the wealth, change social institutions so that they produce fairer outcomes, evenly slice the economic pie, aim for equality among all. The typical conservative recommends that we instill family values, demand that individuals assume more responsibility for themselves, tighten up slack moral standards (often by embracing traditional religious values), encourage a work ethic, reward achievement, and so on.

This blog is a response to Ken Wilber's video commentary on Integral Politics. Let me preface this with saying that Ken Wilber has blown my mind in general and I have the greatest appreciation for his work. Let's get to work.