The Daily Evolver

In this week’s Daily Evolver live Jeff takes an in-depth look at the beautiful and mysterious desert kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which he refers to as “our Arab frenemy”. President Obama spent several days there last week—his 4th visit, more than any sitting president.

Saudi Arabia has officially been an ally to the US since 1933. They’re our biggest customer in terms of arms sales, and we rely heavily on their oil. And yet, recent legislation would provide U.S. citizens with recourse to sue Saudi Arabia for culpability in the September 11 attacks (Obama says he’ll veto it). There is also a growing chorus of voices demanding the US government declassify 28 pages of a congressional investigation said to detail Saudi relations with, and support for, the Al Qaeda terrorist network before September 2001. Most Americans know that of the 19 hijackers who carried out the 9/11 attacks, 15 were citizens of Saudi Arabia.

Needless to say, the relationship between the US and Saudi Arabia is complicated.

The Saudi peninsula was populated by Bedouin nomads for thousands of years. Jeff takes us through some history of how these people went from humble nomadic goat herders to the richest per-capita nation on the face of the earth. Obviously, oil plays a starring role in that story.

So what happens when a Red, warrior people suddenly have such wealth and power to wield in the world? Well for one thing, it creates a struggle between their red, warrior values such as ethnocentrism, patriarchy, and jihad, and the new, modern cultural values like science, commerce, and individual freedoms that want to come online. Jeff uses integral theory to shed some light.

Jeff also speaks with Bence Ganti about the 2nd Integral European Conference taking place in Hungary this week. Bence explains the multiple wisdom streams that will be converging: Ken Wilber’s AQAL Theory, Don Beck’s Spiral Dynamics, the “Teal movement” inspired by Frederick Laloux, circling practice, and Stan Grof’s transpersonal psychology.

As the refugee crisis continues, it’s a particularly poignant time to think about what it means to be a European. Bence and Jeff talk about how integral theory can help illuminate, and maybe even ameliorate, the humanitarian crisis engulfing the continent.

Send your questions and comments for the show to [email protected]. Record a voice memo on your smartphone or use the Speakpipe button to the right.

In this short episode, Jeff speaks with Bence Ganti about the 2nd Integral European Conference taking place in Hungary next week, at beautiful Lake Balaton. Bence explains the multiple wisdom streams converging at this event: Wilberian integral theory, Don Beck’s Spiral Dynamics, the Teal movement inspired by Frederick Laloux, circling practitioners, and Stan Grof’s transpersonal psychology.

As the refugee crisis continues, it’s a particularly poignant time to think about what it means to be a European. Bence and Jeff talk about how integral theory can help illuminate, and maybe even ameliorate, the humanitarian crisis engulfing the continent.

Tickets are still available for IEC 2016, “Reinventing Europe”. Find out more here.

Send your questions and comments for the show to [email protected]. Record a voice memo on your smartphone or use the Speakpipe button to the right.

Jeff often talks about how politics offers us opportunities to do integral practice, because politics has a lot of juice. “It really reaches down to our lower strata of development, down to our power and security chakras, which determine how we see the world,” he says.

Interestingly, and perhaps for the first time ever, we have presidential candidates whose developmental centers-of-gravity span four entire stages of development. Hence, they each speak to different parts of ourselves.

Trump, for instance, has classic Red (warrior) tendencies. Red is chaotic, unpredictable, and often sees the world as divided into predator and prey, perpetrators and victims. Trump doesn’t talk about policy ideas or his vision for the country. He brags, and postures, and says “I’m going to be the best jobs president God ever created.” No need to explain how. When asked why he would torture, he replied they did it to us first. Which is perfectly reasonable to an eight year old.

Senator Ted Cruz represents the traditional, Amber stage of development. “This is a strata that is well occupied by candidates in history. This is Republican territory. This is social conservatives, religious, nationalistic, pro-American to the point of being anti-immigrant.” Traditional is an absolutistic mindset—you’re either on the side of God, or the side of the devil. There’s no middle ground.

Kasich most likely represents the modern, Orange stage of development. These are not the die-hard believers. It’s harder to get people fired up at this stage—they’re just so rational. Which may explain why Kasich is losing (though polls say he would give Clinton and Sanders a run for their money in a national election). Hillary may even be a modernist, with post-modern and even integral tendencies. It’s a bit harder to pin her down.

Jeff brings integral author and teacher Terry Patten on to the show to talk about the Clinton/Sanders race. Terry is one of the few people in the integral/evolutionary world that is an activist in the political realm, (in 2012 he created a PAC to raise money for Obama in the integral community). With Hillary’s victory in New York, Jeff wonders if we can begin to look past the Bernie-Hillary rivalry and embrace the Bernie-Hillary reconciliation.

Sanders has brought a challenge from the progressive wing (Green altitude) of the Democratic Party that is akin to a political revolution. The Democratic Party cannot unite behind Hillary without Hillary embracing some essence of Bernie’s message. He has to be reckoned with, says Terry. “I have hopes that a Clinton presidency can actually be a unifying force in the nation, but she’s not going to get there unless she first acknowledges and really validates this revolution that Bernie has fought and won.”

All that, plus your comments and questions.

Send your questions and comments for the show to [email protected]. Record a voice memo on your smartphone or use the Speakpipe button to the right.

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few years ago Alan Watkins noticed, while watching a news story about a global crisis, that he kept hearing about the same problems over and over again. “Why is it that these problems are intractable?” he asked himself. Thus was born Wicked and Wise: How to Solve the World’s Toughest Problems, which he co-wrote with Ken Wilber.

In Wicked, Alan and Ken use climate change as an example of a wicked problem, which they define as a situation with multiple dimensions, multiple stakeholders, multiple causes and symptoms, and which is evolving. Using the integral map they explicate its component parts and provide solutions, which is where the “wise” part of the title comes from.  “Integral coherence”, or applying the integral map in a coherent fashion, is the essence of the solution.

Wicked is the beginning of a series of books applying integral wisdom to our thorniest problems. The second book, Crowdocracy, has already been published as well.

In the podcast, Jeff and Alan discuss climate change, the problems of globalization and democracy, getting CEO’s to do the right thing, and even Donald Trump! We hope you enjoy this fascinating conversation. The paperback version of Wicked and Wise is available now on Amazon.

Alan Watkins has multiple degrees and is recognized as an international expert on leadership and human performance. He’s written numerous academic papers and academic book chapters in multiple fields as well as authoring five books himself. He lives in Hampshire, England. Find out more about Alan and his work at www.complete-coherence.com.

Send your questions and comments for the show to [email protected]. Record a voice memo on your smartphone or use the Speakpipe button to the right.

Gender norms have never been fixed. The emerging edge of this conversation is gender expression. When famous people transition (Chaz Bono, Caitlyn Jenner, the Wachowski siblings) we’re fascinated. Some people are just scared. States have started passing laws barring people from using the restroom that doesn’t match the gender on their birth certificates, (if there was ever a solution in search of a problem…). Some say the fight for transgender equality is the last civil rights movement.

Under the cultural milieu of the bromance (love between two straight men) and men-in-heels is the polarity of masculine and feminine, the most basic, primal typology there is. These qualities are distinct from gender, and yet rooted in them.

Dr. Keith has been working with men for decades as a psychotherapist. When he talks about masculinity, he focuses on the Warrior archetype, and beyond that, what he calls the “Man of Wisdom”. The Warrior is that part of us that is willing to put our own welfare second to our principles or our passions, he says. (It originates in a man’s primal desire to defend his family). If all goes well, the warrior eventually paves the way for the Man of Wisdom to emerge.

These archetypes are embodied at every stage of development.

In the podcast, Dr. Keith and Jeff expound on:

• The nature of masculinity, and how evolution is creating bigger categories for us to inhabit

We hope you enjoy this episode of The Shrink & The Pundit. Find more episodes here.

The Star Wars saga is a good cultural example of the archetypes Dr. Keith and Jeff talk about in this podcast. In the first movie, Star Wars Episode IV, made in 1977, we’re introduced to a young Luke Skywalker. He lives on a desert planet and complains to his mother and step dad about his chores. In the next movie we watch him answer the call to adventure, and finally in the third installment, he fully embraces the identity of the Warrior and becomes a Jedi Knight.

In the recent movie, The Force Awakens, Episode VII, released this past December, a lot of time has passed since those days, and at the end we’re briefly introduced to a man who has become a myth. He’s older and wise; a hermit on a water planet, with flowing robes and a grey beard. It’s Luke Skywalker, Man of Wisdom, who resembles the Obi Wan Kenobi (“Old Ben”) who was his mentor in the first movie.

Send your questions and comments for the show to [email protected]. Record a voice memo on your smartphone or use the Speakpipe button to the right.

Activity in the Mormon church seems to be declining – particularly in the West – and Thomas McConkie is witnessing what he calls a “faith crisis.”

Many people are questioning the stories being passed down to them, especially Millennials, who are effortlessly modern or even postmodern. Gold plates with Egyptian writing on them? Lost tribes of Israel in the Americas? Where is the proof? (And what about the sexism, racism and homophobia?)

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Thomas, who was born and raised in the Mormon Church in Salt Lake City and comes from pioneer ancestors, left the church at thirteen. This was unprecedented in his family at the time – a major transgression.

When he returned to the Mormon church twenty years later, he brought an awareness of Buddhism, integral theory and adult development with him. It became clear that this faith crisis was systemic, and not just isolated to the individual. He was moved to find a way to re-integrate his Mormonism, perhaps providing a bridge for a new generation of Latter-day Saints to authentic worship.

“A faith crisis might just be a developmental shift gone unrecognized,” he tells Jeff. “I hope that we can normalize this process of falling apart and coming back together again as new beings that see and experience the world in a new way.”

The Mormon church has a strong amber (traditional) base, but developmentally, a lot of orange, modern consciousness has emerged and is looking for evidence of the religion’s supernatural claims. Is there a way of going through this stage without completely leaving your religion behind? It’s unclear. Why do some people stay and some people go?

“Someone who has more of an atheistic bent, how can we honor their Mormonism?” Thomas asks. “What does a ‘strategist’ or a teal Mormonism look like? Someone who’s into turquoise, indigo and beyond, what is that experience – to relate to this tradition from those levels?”

Some of the things Thomas and Jeff discuss include:

Send your questions and comments for the show to [email protected]. Record a voice memo on your smartphone or use the Speakpipe button to the right.

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he ability to remember the past and to imagine the future sets us apart from other animals. A zebra doesn’t worry about the lion until the lion is upon it, at which time it reacts. If it escapes it will shake for hours afterwards to release the trauma, and then it’s free. But humans have the special ability to imagine that lion attacking over and over again. It must give us some kind of evolutionary advantage or else we wouldn’t have developed this ability. Anxiety is part of the price we pay for our imaginations, and a self-aware consciousness.

This subject is close to Jeff’s heart. He describes a four-year period in which he suffered debilitating anxiety as “a black hole of self-focused rumination”. He tells Dr. Keith about the medications, the treatments, screaming his head off, and what finally drew him out of that terrible place.

Chögyam Trungpa used to say that anxiety is just the feeling of being a separate self. Research has shown that when we’re connected to each other our anxiety goes way down. Other things that help are assertive action and deep relaxation.

Regardless, all emotions have relevance to our lives and we want to act on them in a healthy, functional way. We can begin by looking at anxiety itself with compassion, acceptance and caring intent.

Some of the things that Jeff and Dr. Keith talk about in the podcast:

• The different types of anxiety disorders and especially the difference between anxiety, fear, and panic

We hope you enjoy The Shrink & The Pundit series. Send your questions and comments for the show to [email protected]. Record a voice memo on your smartphone or use the Speakpipe button to the right.

Looking at the current political climate in America, Steve writes, “Polarization now extends far beyond the uncompromising logjam in the legislature. Numerous studies have shown that much of the American public is afflicted by ‘affective polarization’ wherein opposing political camps increasingly dislike, and even loathe, their opponents.”

The American political landscape is a big polar contest between the political left and right, and inside these polarities exist other, more refined polarities with values that tug and pull at each other—a “dialectic fractal”. Realizing that these naturally-occurring polarities exist, and that they’re meant to be there, can make the whole system friendlier and open up space for greater cooperation.

The ideas that Jeff and Steve explore in the podcast include:

Send your questions and comments for the show to [email protected]. Record a voice memo on your smartphone or use the Speakpipe button to the right.

Einstein’s general theory of relativity got its final proof this month as scientists detected the bending of space and time that he predicted one hundred years ago.

The world that Einstein showed us is so much stranger than what we could have imagined. It blew up our safe perceptions about time and space and light and gravity. But the mechanistic universe we inhabited until then wasn’t wrong, it was just partial. General relativity includes and transcends Newtonian physics.

So what effect does a four-dimensional reality, one that is interpenetrated with time, have on our view of the world? Is everything that has ever happened still reverberating in this very moment? Jeff looks at general relativity through the lens of integral theory and considers the implications.

In the second segment Jeff is joined live in the studio by Steve McIntosh, integral author and president of the non-profit Institute for Cultural Evolution (ICE). It’s a perfect time to discuss Steve’s new paper “Overcoming Polarization by Evolving Both Right and Left: How Polarity Theory Provides a Path to Political Progress”.

Within a hour of the announcement of the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia last week, the Republican leadership announced they would not even consider a nominee put up by President Obama to replace the conservative icon. This is an illustration of just how divided and dysfunctional our political process has become. Is it any wonder that the two “revolution” candidates, Trump and Sanders, the ones that want to blow up the system, are surging in the polls?

Steve and Jeff talk about progressive and conservative as indestructible polarities that need each other to grow and become better – like the poles of masculine and feminine—they’ll never merge, but they do change over time, taking on the best aspects of each other. So how do we help the left and the right evolve on their own terms? Listen to the podcast, and for those that want a deeper dive, you can find Steve’s new paper here.

Lastly, Jeff takes a question from a listener, Marilyn, who lives in Canada and works in Oklahoma, and is wondering if she’s taking her life in her hands every time she has a layover in Dallas.

…I find the apparent strengthening of the gun lobby, very, very troubling. I am looking for an integrally informed point of view…and some hope. Thanks for any insights you can offer on this particularly American dilemma of the Second Amendment.

Why are we so different in this regard to every other advanced Western nation, including our gentle neighbors to the north? Jeff explains the American psychograph to Marilyn, and why guns are still such an important part of our identity.

Send your questions and comments for the show to [email protected]. Record a voice memo on your smartphone or use the Speakpipe button to the right.

With Donald Trump currently leading the Republican presidential field, the race is finally getting interesting. Few people think he will ultimately prevail, but Trump can absolutely affect the outcome — and not in the Republican’s favor. By alienating young and minority voters he exacerbates the party’s demographic decline, and if he mounts a third party candidacy it would virtually ensure a Democratic victory in November. (Which may be fine with him, as he has supported many liberal causes in the past including Hillary Clinton’s senate campaign.)

What makes this eccentric, egocentric billionaire so popular among Republicans, the very people whose interests he threatens? Simple: he’s strong, he’s capricious, he shows no fear and has little respect for the rules of the game that so many see as rigged against them. He’s vainglorious, thin-skinned, surrounded by beautiful women and apparently willing to offend anyone and say anything, whether he believes it or not.

In integral terms he’s “red meme”, operating from the warrior stage of development that still lives in the belly of our collective beast. As such Trump is a tonic for the poll-driven drivel that most professional politicians deal in.

In this short audio I share some thoughts on what integral theory can tell us about the cultural — and now political — phenomena of Donald Trump.