The Daily Evolver

Inaugurated with bogus crowd claims and tales of voter fraud, the post-truth presidency of Donald Trump is upon us. Trump lives in a Red “warrior” worldspace alive with apparitions, rumors, conspiracies, and above all, scheming enemies. Placed in the context of cultural evolution Trump’s view actually represent a pre-truth mentality, typical of the world prior to modernity where warlords and monarchs ruled unconstrained by the divisions of power. This is a world where “might is right”, a world of plunder where the goal not just to defeat the enemy but to take their oil. A world where we don’t just build a wall, we make the Mexicans pay for it. (Take heart though; in an actual Red world Trump would not just make them pay for it, he would make them build it, as slaves. So there is that.) Modernity is fighting back against pre-truth thinking with objective facts, evidence and a plea for regular order, but it has been hobbled by the post-truth worldview of postmodernity, where all truth claims are suspect and feelings are privileged over facts. For a brilliant analysis of this phenomenon, check out Ken Wilber’s new essay Trump and a Post-Truth World on Integral Life. Also, look for my interview with Ken on the topic which will be posted in the coming days. The Trump presidency begs a crucial question: can a government that has evolved beyond Red consciousness contain a leader who hasn’t? If so, Trump may be the disruptive force we need to break up some calcified habits and thinking. If not … well, there are only 206 weeks left in his first term! In this podcast I look at how integralists can understand and relate to the fight over pre-modern, modern and postmodern conceptions of truth, and how a new integration of the three can help us build a more authentically inclusive world.

Ok, folks, we’ve had 45 consecutive mornings of waking up and wrapping our heads around the fact that Donald J. Trump is going to be the next president of the United States of America. What do we know now that we didn’t know before? To the degree that we can discern a pattern, we see that Trump will govern the same way he campaigned: as a disrupter. And he is doubling down on that approach with a team and cabinet of disrupters.

What will happen? Here is where I’m grateful for my Buddhist training in “don’t know mind,” a practice of watching one’s mind try to make sense of something that is unknown. The fruit of the practice is the realization that you are more happy and effective, and life is more rich and vivid, when you recognize that every moment is unknowable and thus full of possibility.

The Shrink and the Pundit is an ongoing discussion between Jeff and his longtime friend, Dr. Keith Witt, a leading Integral psychotherapist.

In this podcast they explore the topic of self-love. Dr. Keith traces the relationship that each of us has with our own “self-sense” from birth (actually gestation), when we fall from the paradise of the womb and begin the process of growth into ever new worlds of conditional love. That pattern continues until we reach higher stages of development, where a more integrated sense of self is able to love what has previously been in shadow.

Listen in as Jeff and Dr. Keith discuss how to cultivate “a warm sense of oneness with yourself as being good, caring and beautiful.”

My colleagues Diane Hamilton and Terry Patten are here at my home, preparing for the Integral Living Room gathering which begins tomorrow. They arrived a day early, yesterday (November 8), so we could celebrate Hillary Clinton's victory together. Ha ha!

Instead we, like millions of people, are trying to come to terms with the victory of Donald Trump. Suddenly we are embarking on a new adventure together -- one that Diane, Terry and I, at least, would never have chosen.

We recorded a conversation of our process to share with you, in case it might help you make sense of things as well.

Defeat Trump! Not because he is a big alpha figure who would bust up the establishment. Not because he's vulgar. Not because lacks a coherent policy vision. Those things can actually be evolutionarily potent in their proper measure. No, the real problem with Donald Trump is that in important lines of development he is arrested at the level of a five-year-old. Keep nukes out of the hands of children. Make sure to vote!

This episode was recorded on Monday, October 10th, the day after the second Presidential debate (the debate preceded by Trump’s press conference with four women who accuse Bill and Hillary Clinton of abuse). In it Jeff chats with Integral besties Diane Musho Hamilton and Terry Patten and test drives his theory that this campaign, as appalling as it is, is a powerful engine of cultural evolution and is moving us to a more intelligent and humane place.

If there's one thing that people on both ends of the political spectrum can agree on, it's this: the system is rigged. But an integral view asks, “which system?” A historical survey reveals that over time humanity has created a series of political/economic systems, each designed to right the wrongs of the previous system. Essentially, the workings of any system is seen as corruption by people at the next stage of development. This bigger “System” of cultural evolution continues to create “systems” that are ever more equitable and humane. In this podcast Jeff explores what corruption looks like now, and how it relates to the US presidential election.

Hey gang, I couldn't stay away another minute. There's just too much happening with this crazy, mixed up election. So here is a new Daily Evolver podcast I recorded over last couple days, to share some of the evolutionary impulses I see arising out of this astonishing play of events.

I focus on a new Integral sensibility that I see emerging among the Democrats. Their convention in Philadelphia was a beautiful example of a Green multicultural gathering, with every creed, color and progressive identity well-represented, including the first woman presidential nominee of a major party. I expected all that. What I didn’t expect was a gathering that was also lit up by Amber traditionalist values, old-fashioned values such as patriotism, humility, faith and optimism. But there they were: the flags, the prayers, and the sense of promise, even progress — all Integrated into a green, postmodern worldview that used to have antibodies to each of these things.

Years ago, a love relationship changed the course of Patricia Albere's life. "We entered into a very intensive awakening that we shared…and together we were being purified and processed by whatever this thing was." The Sufis refer to it, she says, as red sulfur, an intense awakening that can't be stopped. "It's like an orgasm that just keep going and going."

Peter, her lover, died suddenly in a car accident, but Patricia was forever changed and her curiosity about this experience of mutual awakening has just kept growing. Can it be practiced with groups? Can it be cultivated? Yes, and yes.

For the past several years Patricia's been at the helm of an extraordinary spiritual experiment called the Evolutionary Collective, which is asking these questions and exploring the territory of a post-autonomous enlightenment, transcendence in the interpersonal realm.

Patricia has brought many years of spiritual practice into her facilitation, from the years she spent with Werner Erhard to her studies with A.H. Almaas and years spent in the Rajneesh community.

Jeff's and Patricia's relationship goes way back to the early days of Boulder Integral, and it's a pleasure to eavesdrop on their conversation. Sometimes Patricia seems to emanate the sacred feminine, in the space between the words. So listen with your heart.

We hope you enjoy it. You can find more about Patricia Albere and her work at mutual-awakening.com and evolutionarycollective.com.

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

Jeff begins this episode with a heartfelt reminder of just how valuable integral theory is for opening our hearts and understanding our world. It helps us to see and accommodate more of reality, to make sense of competing worldviews and conflicting truth claims. "All schools of human wisdom find their place in the bigger integral view," he says.

Jeff invited special guest Theo Horesh on to the show to talk about candidate Bernie Sanders and the progressive movement he's leading. Theo is an integrally-informed author and thought leader. He’s been a political activist since the days of Ralph Nader and the Green Party, and is especially savvy about using social media to organize (check him out on Facebook).

Jeff and Theo talk about:

-Money in politics and income inequality: Sander's message of a moral economy

-Sander's policy proposals are not radical or untested: the European model of socialism

-The critique of Sanders: he's not integral

-Bernie or bust: supporting Sanders as a referendum on Hillary Clinton

-Are the two parties obsolete? What does the future of American democracy look like?

Also in this podcast:

-Pre-trans fallacy: a conservative Muslim scholar condemns America with help from the classic song "Baby, It’s Cold Outside"

-The perfect example of two first tier stages talking at each other: Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski confronts Donald Trump about his careless use of words

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