The Daily Evolver

The long game of overcoming racism isn’t just a matter of how people are treated by the police or how the laws are written. The final piece happens in our hearts and minds. An integral take on the events in Baltimore.

Is fundamentalism fundamental? How do we encourage development? And what’s up with the whole Illuminati, reptilian alien, shape shifting conspiracy anyway? Jeff responds to these and other questions on the minds of listeners this week.

The traditionalists in Iran and in the US want to dig in their heels and fight the good fight. Meanwhile, the modernists are engaging with sanctions and diplomacy. Can this deal delay Iran’s progress towards a nuclear weapon long enough for cultural evolution to deliver a decisive political tilt toward modernity?

Jeff investigates the return of a 2nd person relationship to Spirit. Steve McIntosh joins the conversation to talk about "evolutionary spirituality" as a dialectical step beyond the progressive spirituality of the post-modern worldview. Also, the problem of evil.

Islamic culture in the Middle East is entrenched in a dialectical antithesis with modernity. Building on the work of moderate Muslim intellectuals, McIntosh argues that the Islamic cultural reform needed to overcome radical Islamism depends on the underlying reform of the religion of Islam itself.

On this episode of The Shrink & The Pundit, Jeff and Dr. Keith talk about one of the oldest and most dreaded of human afflictions. They consider not just the suffering, but also the wisdom and growth potential that depression offers. They look at the qualities of modernity that magnify the condition, the mixed blessing of pharmaceuticals and neuroscience, and how depression is experienced and best treated at different stages in the developmental journey. It seems that humanity is paying a heavy price for the “spectacularly tangible” achievements of modernity. The current generation has four times more depression than the last one, and ten times more than the one before that. Part of that story is increased self-awareness and over-diagnosis, but only part of it. Antidepressants are the most widely prescribed drugs in America. There is so much of these drugs in our waste that we’re actually poisoning the fish. What’s going on here? Generally, if you’re sufficiently bummed so that you can’t live the life you want to live, you could be depressed. But that includes a huge spectrum, says Dr. Keith. “When therapists talk about depression it’s like Eskimos talking about snow. There is a panoply of experiences that fall within the zone of depression.” All mammals have the capacity for it, but humans are particularly vulnerable because of genetic mutations that gave us an awareness of ourselves in the stream of time. The tradeoff for remembering a past and imagining a future is an increased capacity for depression and anxiety. Trusting your feelings only works when you are centered and connected with your higher self. ‘Trust your feelings’ does not work when you’re anxious, depressed or frightened. ~Dr. Keith Witt In the upper right quadrant of the AQAL maps (the physical body) there are many things that can contribute to depression—low testosterone, hyperthyroid, hypoglycemia and other endocrine imbalances, as well as chronic lack of sleep. The integral view is that there are causes of depression in each quadrant. It’s a bio-psycho-social condition, with genes, culture and individual choices all in play. Put any mammal into a situation of learned helplessness and they’ll get depressed, so groups of people with low socio-economic opportunity and a sense of oppression become very susceptible. Another way to depress people is to gradually give them more and more stuff to do so they never feel they have enough time to do what has to be done. Excerpt | Mammals have a natural capacity for depression, humans especially But the number one cause of depression is a sense of isolation. It’s an oft-remarked irony of the modern age that as connected as we are, we also experience more loneliness.  With increasing numbers of the population living in urban centers, uprooted from family and culture, there is a more pronounced sense of social isolation. So what to do? One in ten people are diagnosed with major depression at some point. Only about half of them get treatment and the most common treatment is drugs. In the podcast Dr. Keith tells Jeff how the drug companies hijacked the neuroscience back in the seventies to sell us the idea that depression is a biochemical imbalance, which is a partial truth. It was an easy sell, of course, because who wouldn’t want to believe that taking a pill could make everything better? Yet, they work barely better than placebos. “In 2007 the drug companies spent 23 billion dollars promoting antidepressants and 16 billion of that were free samples that they spread to doctors around the country,” he tells Jeff. And once you’re on them, it’s not so easy to get off. Of course, occasionally they do work. And when they work, they work really well. “If you’re at a ten on a 1-10 depression scale and they can take you down to an eight so you’re functional, that’s how they should be used—only for severely depressed people,” says Dr. Keith. An integrally informed psychotherapy is becoming the standard of the 21st century. It includes the possibility of pharmaceuticals but it will look at the issue from all four quadrants, with a developmental perspective, and the realization that different types of people are coming from different states of consciousness. People at different stages of development deal with different flavors of depression and anxiety. The source and the remedy depend upon your worldview. In addition to bio-psycho-social treatments, an integral approach can reframe the issue to include a larger embrace of all the aspects of being human, of being alive in a wonderful and difficult time. “At every stage in development there is a dark night,” says Jeff, “this is well mapped in the mystical traditions … and you’re supposed to be depressed, you’re supposed to be unhappy. It’s part of the path. In some ways we need to be friendlier to that.” In this way an integral perspective not only includes more, it can completely reframe the issue. Dr. Keith says there are many different kinds of depression, but in general, “if we see depression as a sign that the current worldview is breaking down, and that we need to push through to a new worldview, then that completely reorganizes our thinking around the experience. It’s not a sign of disease under that circumstance, it’s actually a reflection of development.” If your center of gravity is at an integral altitude, and you’re depressed, either you’re in the process of resolving that depression or you’re recognizing that you’re neglecting a major personal responsibility. ~Dr. Keith Witt In more developed stages we resolve to turn toward these emotions with more consciousness and more love, while staying connected to others. This is crucial. “People who try to get happy just to get happy are rarely successful,” says Dr. Keith, “people who do their best to engage in meaningful relationships, they get happier.” Find past episodes of The Shrink & The Pundit here, and more about Dr. Keith Witt here.

How does an integrally informed Navy SEAL sniper relate to the job he has to do, and the people he must engage in war? What is it like to re-enter civilian society? Jeff got to ask these questions and more in this conversation with Jake Bullock.

In advance of the Return to the Heart of Christ conference, Jeff and David Riordan of Integral Life talk about the questions that arise with an integral inquiry into Jesus’s life and teachings. Also, the postmodern view of miracles, and bringing back something we thought we lost.

Fifty Shades of Grey may be a terrible movie, but its popularity is indicative of a new friendliness in our culture towards the kink community, (formerly known as perverts). Jeff talks to New York author and theater producer Robin Reinach, who is an integrally informed explorer herself in the world of BDSM, and together they unpack the evolutionary potency of kink.

This week Jeff covers a range of topics, focusing on the controversy over Obama’s remarks about the historical sins of Christianity such as the Crusades, the Inquisition and slavery. Jeff also explores the mindset of the perpetrators of such brutalities, which we saw erupt anew this week with the immolation of the Jordanian pilot by ISIS. In other matters, Jeff notes the explosive growth in Chinese cinema, and it’s evolutionary power. Plus we revisit vaccines…and get to meet the Integral community’s own Navy Seal sniper. Did Obama blow it in his speech at the National Prayer Breakfast? He certainly got blow-back, especially for the following comments: Lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ. In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ. Murderous extremism is not unique to one group or one religion. There is a tendency in us, a sinful tendency that can pervert and distort our faith. I must say, when I first heard he had said this I thought, “No Barack, please! You let me say this shit, not you. You just stand up there and praise Jesus for another two years, and I’ll take care of this other stuff.” But he never listens to me, and so he has gotten creamed from pretty much all sides. Especially from the traditionalists (amber altitude) because his comments feed into their fears that this Obama, which rhymes with Osama, is not really a Christian at all and is actually tilling the land for the Enemy. But even moderates saw it as a gaffe, simply for the unfortunate timing and lack of context of larger events in the world. Indeed, his speech took place two days after the world saw a shocking demonstration of non-Christian atrocity: a thirty-minute, four-camera video edited like a video game with quick-cut graphics, sound effects and a grandiose narrative that led to a stark, brutal scene: a steel cage holding a man in an orange jumpsuit soaked in gasoline who is about to be burned alive. So two days after this, at the National Prayer Breakfast, Obama brings up Christian atrocities of a thousand years ago. Bad timing in my opinion but I will defend his comments on one count: they are 100% true. Christians did all of these things — in numbers that dwarf the deeds of today’s Muslim fanatics. But all of this is so much better understood in a developmental context — and Obama didn’t provide it. His explanation of ISIS was basically that they are evil criminals who are perverting Islam. This explanation represents the orange/green sweet spot that Obama generally tries to hit as President. I’m not sure how much he believes it versus how much he thinks espousing it is proper leadership for the country. The former view would be orange/green and the latter would be integral. Here’s how the view of ISIS evolves according to the altitudes of development: Amber traditionalists: For traditionalists, evil is evil. It’s what the Devil and his minions do in their battle with God and God’s people. For them the whole religion of Islam is evil. Conversely, for Islamic traditionalists Christianity is a religion of heresy and infidels. There’s one true faith and you’re either with us or against us. Orange modernists: ISIS is evil but Islam isn’t, and in fact ISIS is perverting a great religion. This is a more mature and complex view, but we’re still stuck with evil. Green postmodernists: This view of ISIS is that they are power-mad psychopaths. The Obama administration, for instance, is intent on identifying them by term such as “murderous extremists” not “Islamic extremists.” In this view ISIS is ultimately trying to gain power and are cynically using Muslim ideology as a veneer to do so. Thus we see headlines on progressive sites such as: “Charlie Hebdo has nothing to do with religion.” But yet the assassins didn’t shoot up a crowd of tourists at the Eiffel tower, which would have been much more effective in terrorizing the world and hurting France. Instead they took pains to hunt down cartoonists who had insulted their religion. So what’s the integral view of brutality? How does integral theory explain a rampaging mob of militants who blitz the countryside killing and crucifying people, stealing girls, beheading people and burning them alive? Integral has the most astonishing explanation of all: brutality is perfectly normal human behavior. Except, that is, for the last  0.1% of human history (a couple hundred years). Before that humans were busy with plunder, conquest, beheading and burning people alive — the whole horror show. This is simply standard-issue pre-modern behavior. But will it work for ISIS in the 21st Century? Clearly it has so far. But to be effective, terrorism has to constantly raise the shock value, and so last week we were subjected to the immolation of the pilot instead of “just another” beheading. From a military perspective, however, this latest atrocity may turn out to be a blunder on ISIS’s part. The deed — and its media dissemination — is so dastardly that it may actually galvanize the more civilized Arab world against them. Jordan for instance has been understandably ferocious in their response. This could be a turning point in the psyche of the Arab world. But whether or not it is successful actually misses the real point of ISIS’s motivation, which is: they believe in what they’re doing. They believe that Allah has sent them to rout the infidels and bring forth His kingdom on Earth. They are far less worried about being successful than they are about being faithful. We miss this point when we focus just on the brutality of ISIS and call it evil, crazy or power-mad. Because there is another feature of red/amber development that is equally significant: it is magical. Holy warriors don’t think rationally — heck, rationality is two stages in their future. They think magically. ISIS’s story goes something like this: “Look at you, you infidels, with your tanks and your planes and your bombs. You have no idea who you’re up against. We are army of Allah, the one true God. I’d much rather be on my side with Allah than on your side with your big army.” Don’t forget, this is the same God that parted the Red Sea for Moses and the ragtag Israelites, and then drowned the Pharaoh’s chariot army that was in pursuit. It’s the same God who empowered David to kill Goliath. This God, like all super-hero red/amber gods, specializes in miraculous victories against impossible odds. So ISIS warriors fight for the same reason people have always fought: because they think they will win, and gain something in the effort. History shows that people will fight against impossible odds when they think they can win. And they will only be disabused of this notion when they lose, lose, lose. And as for Obama, why did he bring up historical Christian atrocities? He had to know the reaction he was going to trigger. I think he, too, thought he was right. He was also taking into account that moderate Muslims are listening. As I said, this week’s immolation of the pilot may mark a turning point in the consciousness of moderate-leaning Muslims, and the prayer breakfast was a good setting to speak to them. It was, after all, attended by religious leaders from over 100 countries, and widely publicized throughout the Middle East. So Obama was apparently taking into account the politics of the world, not just the politics of the US, and was willing to risk the indignation of conservatives to do so. History may be kinder to this speech, and Obama’s world-centric sensibilities, than the knee-jerk reaction of the outrage industry here in the US. But still, some days it’s harder to be an Obamapologist than others. FULL PODCAST AND WRITTEN TRANSCRIPT The Daily Evolver | Episode 112 | The Banality of ISIS