The Daily Evolver

For many of us in progressive, postmodern cultures, our spiritual evolution follows a similar trajectory: we move from the conventional religion of our childhood (which in the West is theistic) to secular humanism, which eventually gives way to postmodern explorations of Eastern philosophy and practice (which tend to be nondual in nature). From a developmental perspective, this journey represents movement through the traditional, modern and postmodern stages.

For some the journey continues with a new receptivity to God's love—a welcome next step to a post-postconventional relationship with the divine. Steve explores this idea in depth in his 2015 book The Presence of the Infinite.

This upwards spiral is fueled by what Steve calls an interdependent existential polarity – between the nondual and the theistic – and he wants to teach us how to consciously use it to deepen our relationship to Ultimate Reality: to God and to Emptiness.

Listen as Jeff and Steve discuss how this formulation of an integral, evolutionary spirituality lends itself to a method, a practice that can evolve consciousness.

Steve and Jeff will be exploring the nondual/theistic spiritual path at an upcoming gathering, The Integral Incubator, taking place this August at The Integral Center in Boulder. Check it out if you're interested in deepening your spiritual insight and practice.

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 the podcast by playing an excerpt from a commencement speech given by President Obama at Howard University recently, which had a distinctly integral feeling to it. Before challenging the graduates, Obama puts their place in history in context:

"If you had to choose one moment in history in which you could be born, and you didn't know ahead of time who you were going to be ... What nationality, what gender, what race, whether you'd be rich or poor, gay or straight, what faith you'd be born into ... You wouldn't choose 100 years ago. You wouldn't choose the '50s, or the '60s or the '70s. You'd choose right now."

It's an uplifting introduction based on the big picture, the arc of history, so often lost to us amid our daily toils as the cable news hijacks our amygdalae. "People realize," says Jeff, "that for all of our problems, that this is indeed the best time to be alive and that it's getting better."

Such a vision of progress is a stark contrast to the everyday attitude of first tier consciousness, which is predominantly motivated by fear and lack, or "a sense of not being enough, as sense that something went wrong," Jeff says. "Human beings drove this thing into a ditch and now we need to fix it or we're doomed."

Which brings us to our main story: a fresh look at Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in their respective roles as the presumptive nominees of their parties. While Clinton still has Sanders breathing down her neck and nudging her left, she has begun to reach out to his supporters. Alas, so has Trump, who may or may not go out of his way to unite the GOP but will definitely try to scoop up as many of those Sanders supporters as he can. Not an entirely mad plan, Jeff thinks.

We'll be spending a lot of time with these people in the coming months, these out-sized figures in the collective American psyche—each loved and reviled passionately by factions of the population. What are their values, their developmental centers-of-gravity? Can they still surprise us? Jeff looks at the criticism and praise heaped on each of them, and puts their candidacies in the context of the giant moneyed machine that is Washington D.C.

You'll also hear another familiar voice in the podcast–a certain conservative hockey mom from Wasilla that has a way with words, and she's talking up Trump!

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.

As humans evolve we are able to empathize with more and more life forms, beginning with other people and eventually extending to other species that may be very different from us–from elephants to insects.

Jeff talks about new research into the interiors of tiny critters and explores the idea that consciousness is an irreducible aspect of reality. The Wilberian notion that consciousness extends all the way up and all the way down, from humans to atoms, is rich for exploration.

Jeff is joined by a special guest who is working to implement basic rights for the elephants that have been held captive in temples and zoos and ill-treated for generations. Due to the controversial nature of her activism she has requested to remain anonymous. We’ve called her Annie.

When we reach a green, postmodern consciousness, the idea of stealing a baby animal from its family and training it for our own amusement–a process called phajaan–literally "crushing"–is abhorrent. Thank God for green!

Working only through social media, Annie has already begun to make an impact by educating people and encouraging her followers to write and take videos of elephant abuse.

Also, Jeff reviews the movie "The Witch", which he likes. It tells the story of a family dealing with an evil force in God-fearing New England decades before the 1692 Salem witch trials.

Plus, Trump has clinched the GOP nomination for president and Jeff wonders what exactly he's tapping into. Is Trump's populist brand of politics post-ideological or pre-ideological?

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.

Carl von Clausewitz famously said “war is the continuation of politics by other means.” From a developmental standpoint, Dr. Keith points out, it’s the other way around: politics is actually war by other means. The 1800 election between Adams and Jefferson was the first ever peaceful transition...

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 is 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 on dailyevolver.com.

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 at http://integraleuropeanconference.com/.

"Mutuality and love...that's the essence of Integral." –Bence Ganti

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 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 on dailyevolver.com.

In "Wicked and Wise", Alan and Ken use climate change as an example of a wicked problem. “Integral coherence”, or applying the integral map in a coherent fashion, is the essence of the solution. 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!

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...

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?)

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:

• The center of gravity of Mormon culture, and how to honor those who are different

• The Mormon practice of "ongoing revelation"—receiving inspiration from God

• The Mormon doctrine of "eternal progression" as an early evolutionary viewpoint

• What happens after we die. Does any part of us go on?

• Allowing a faith crisis to be an opportunity

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.