All Things Integral

Or Another sleepless night!

At about four thirty in the morning I found myself thinking of ways that the web connects ideas, about “Cultural Creatives” and imagining how expressions of “Integral Art” might look in 3D… would they take on a thread-like quality that physically mimics a world wide web?

Who are these Creatives and what defines this group?

How can we predict their behaviour?  What matters to them?

According to Ray and Anderson their values are as follows:

•          Authenticity, actions must be consistent with words and beliefs

•          Engaged action and whole process learning; seeing the world as interwoven and connected

•          Idealism and activism

•          Globalism and ecology

•          The importance of women

•          Core “Cultural Creatives” also value altruism, self-actualization, and spirituality. [1]

Meanwhile, the Wilberian world of “Integral Theory” is all about awareness.

Made up of a variety of intellectuals, academics, writers, and perhaps even artists…(essentially those I would put in the group of Core Cultural Creatives) who have advanced the field of Integral theory.

Integral thought is claimed to provide “a new understanding of how evolution affects the development of consciousness and culture.” [2]

Integral practice aims to support and encourage the realization of human potential, it integrates theories, philosophies and faiths.

Involving all areas of our lives the physical, emotional, creative and the social, it is secured by introspection, meditation and finally the spiritual.

At its core the objectives are wholeness and well-being, which inevitably leads to personal and societal transformation.

This is the web integrating our ideas and it depends on us participating.

The Cultural Creatives are committed to personal and spiritual development and “meld the best of traditionalism and modernism…” [3]

While much has been written about the Cultural Creatives, and much criticism has ensued, it comes down to the question of where the web will take us from here.

It is awareness, self-consciousness and the intense desire to learn, stretch, and research that gives us the ability to change the world and that provides our society the strength to prosper.

Like a self-fulfilling happiness loop, knowledge gives life.

By Boky and Blake

 

[1]         Ray, Paul H.; Sherry Ruth Anderson (2000). The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World (illustrated ed.). New York: Harmony Books. ISBN 978-0-609-60467-0. Retrieved 2010-01-28.

[2]         Steve McIntosh, Integral Consciousness and the Future of Evolution, p.2

[3]         Bobbye Middendorf, The Integral Culture – Cultural Creatives Making a Difference for the    Future, Conscious Choice, January 1999.