A Comprehensive Framework

Integral Theory is the life work of Ken Wilbur, an American philosopher and teacher. Wilbur studied the teachings of ancient wisdom traditions around the world, and the discoveries of contemporary study of psychology, social science and human development, and synthesized it into one comprehensive ‘meta-map’ that both delineates differences and creates connections between all these different ways of understanding ourselves.

Major aspects of this theory include four quadrants of human domains (individual interior, individual exterior, collective interior and collective exterior), levels of human development, lines of intelligence (different ways that human intelligence can be expressed), and states of consciousness (from normal to ‘altered’).

Coming to know this meta-map creates an ‘operating system’ in your mind that allows so many things to make sense in a deeper, more comprehensive manner.

Seeing where you are in this meta-map can illuminate where you are on the lifelong journey toward becoming a mature and whole person, and clearly designate all the exiting and scary bits there are to explore and cultivate in order to develop your own maximum human potential. Big questions like ‘Why do people have such a hard time getting along?’,  ‘What is enlightenment?’ and ‘Where is the human race going?’ start to become more clear with an understanding of Integral Theory. The psycho-active nature of this information, if it is digested and embodied, will work in mysterious ways to evolve you forward into higher levels of consciousness, wisdom, and inner peace — and in so doing, move us collectively closer to the tipping point of consciousness needed to shift to a sustainable culture.

For the Integral curious, start by checking out:

Integral LIfe — the go-to website for the primary Integral community

The Daily Evolver — a loving and entertaining podcast by Jeff Salzman on all things Integral.