For many years the Esalen Center for Theory and Research has been holding invitational gatherings of thought leaders on a wide variety of topics. A few years ago they held a series of meetings on the metaphysics of evolution which I would loved to have attended. Then earlier this year I was invited to come to the Esalen Center’s conclave for Conscious Capitalism, which convened last week.

Esalen, of course, is a magical setting on California’s Big Sur coast. And the event was fantastic. I made many new friends, including John Mackey, Byron Katie, Tony Schwarz, Jay Ogilvy, Eileen Fisher, Lynn Twist and others. The picture above shows our group. Carter Phipps and I gave a presentation on the evolutionary worldview and its application in our new think tank, the Institute for Cultural Evolution.  And I think it’s safe to say the presentation was very well received. Now I’m looking forward to future events at Esalen …

What follows is a simplified description of the emerging integral perspective as I understand it. The videos and book excerpts on this website provide an expanded discussion, but this is my crack at a 600 word summary.

Integral philosophy is a spiritual philosophy of evolution that emphasizes the evolution of consciousness and culture as a central factor in the process of evolution overall. Integral philosophy itself has evolved over the last century through the work of Henri Bergson, Alfred North Whitehead, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Ken Wilber, and others. This philosophy also draws on the discoveries of developmental psychology and other social sciences, and it has been influenced by related forms of social philosophy, such as the widely respected work of German philosopher Jürgen Habermas. Although these founders of integral philosophy differ on many points, they have all recognized that a greater understanding of consciousness is the key to a more complete conception of reality.

While the concept of consciousness is easier to illustrate than define, a common sense definition of human consciousness includes a person’s thoughts, feelings, intentions, values, memories, and sense of self. Consciousness can be understood as the inside of human experience, what it is like to be and know ourselves; and this sentient personality, this original identity, is also the unique subjective presence through which others know us.

What makes integral philosophy compelling and important is its demonstration of the connection between the personal development of each person’s values and character, and the larger development of human history overall. Through its insights into the evolution of consciousness and culture, integral philosophy offers realistic and pragmatic solutions to the growing global problems that are increasingly threatening human civilization. That is, from the perspective of this philosophy, every problem in the world can be understood, at least partially, as a problem of consciousness. So it follows that the solutions to seemingly intractable problems, such as environmental degradation and climate change, nuclear proliferation and terrorism, hunger and overpopulation, unregulated globalization and gross inequality, can all be effectively ameliorated by raising or changing the consciousness that is continuing to create (or failing to prevent) these problems.

Human consciousness can evolve in a wide variety of ways. It can be raised or evolved by increasing empathy and compassion, by cultivating knowledge, understanding and forgiveness, and by building political will and the determination to achieve social and environmental justice. Consciousness can also be raised by enlarging people’s estimates of their own self-interest, by expanding their notions of what constitutes “the good life,” and by persuading them to appreciate new forms of beauty and truth. The developed world’s relatively recent acceptance of women as the social equals of men provides a good example of how the human condition can be improved through the evolution of consciousness.

According to integral philosophy, however, the evolution of consciousness is largely dependent on the evolution of human culture. When humans evolve their culture through new agreements or new forms of organization, this results in a corresponding growth in human consciousness. Through the “network effect” of cultural transmission, when one person has a conceptual breakthrough or new realization, this advance can be shared with others. And as new discoveries or new skills are adopted within a larger cultural context, such advances become refined and reinforced. Consciousness and culture—the individual and the group—thus co-evolve together.

This understanding of the co-evolution of consciousness and culture leads to another central tenet of integral philosophy, which recognizes the sequential emergence of values-based stages of human cultural development. That is, integral philosophy’s view of cultural evolution sees history as unfolding according to a clearly identifiable developmental logic or cross-cultural pattern that influences the growth of human society. This developmental logic need not be construed as a “deterministic law of history,” or as implying a strictly unidirectional course of cultural development, but it does reveal a recurring theme in humanity’s narrative story. The unfolding of this theme or pattern results in a dialectical structure of conflict and resolution, which is created by the interaction of specific worldview stages or levels of historical development.

Another noteworthy development is the publication of my “Ted Talk” video from the recent What Next Integral Conference on the Integral Life website. While 18 minutes is not the ideal format for presenting my ideas, I appreciated the opportunity to speak to the largely integral audience of 450 people. Watching the video   you’ll see how I fare at compacting the ideas in Evolution’s Purpose into as small a space as possible.

Whole Foods Co-Founder and CEO John Mackey, together with business academic Raj Sisodia, recently published their book Conscious Capitalism, which is receiving a lot of attention in the marketplace of ideas. The book highlights integral theory in several places and even quotes from my 2007 book Integral Consciousness.

In connection with their mission to reestablish the credibility of free markets as essential to human flourishing and freedom, John and Raj have founded the Conscious Capitalism Institute. Their institute is putting on a variety of events, including an invitational conclave at Esalen, the storied retreat center on California’s Big Sur coast. 2013 will be the third year of Esalen’s Conscious Capitalism Conclave, which on March 24-27 will bring together high profile CEOs and business thought leaders to explore “more conscious ways of doing business.” And this year, in addition to a group of CEOs including Jay Ogilvy of Global Business Network, Chip Conley of Joie de Vivre, Scott Kerslake of Prana, and many others, they have also invited spiritual teacher Byron Katie and me. While I don’t hold myself out as a “business thought leader,” I know that integral philosophy has a lot to offer business organizations so I accepted the invitation gladly.

But it gets better. Esalen’s own institute, which has been hosting thought leader conclaves at their retreat center for over ten years, is in charge of the program for this Conscious Capitalism Conclave. And Esalen Institute’s chair, Sam Yau, was excited to see that integral philosophy would be included in the program. So Sam began to investigate the application of integral philosophy through the work of our new think tank, The Institute for Cultural Evolution. Then after reading through the think tank’s campaigns for climate change and political polarization Sam decided that these campaigns should be the focus for a full morning of the three day Conclave. He also requested that we bring in another of the think tank’s principals to participate in the presentation. So now both Carter Phipps and I will be presenting at the Esalen Conclave and the work of the think tank will be a significant focus of the gathering.

For more on the work of the Conscious Capitalism Institute, see: consciouscapitalism.org. And for more on the Esalen Institute, see: www.esalen.org

Throughout 2012 I have been working closely with my friends and colleagues Carter Phipps, Elizabeth DeBold, Michael E. Zimmerman, Gerard Senehi, and Andrew Cohen to create an integral political “think tank.” This nonprofit organization, called The Institute for Cultural Evolution (“ICE”), seeks to apply the insights of integral philosophy to solve difficult political problems such as building political will for action on climate change, and overcoming political gridlock. Our tag line is adapted from a famous quote from evolutionary biologist Theodosius Dobzhansky: “Nothing in politics makes sense except in the light of cultural evolution.“

The launch of the think tank corresponds with the on-line publication of two significant documents that demonstrate ICE’s novel political approach: The Campaign Plan for Climate Change Amelioration, and The Campaign Plan for Reducing Political Polarization. Both of these Campaign Plans show how the insights of integral philosophy can be used to solve seemingly intractable problems. They present unexpected and surprising solutions, and offer a path forward to address these perplexing problems.

At this point in the start-up phase of the think tank we are circulating the documents among our networks and working to build strategic alliances with like-minded organization. However, before we can pull the trigger on either of our Campaign Plans we need to secure philanthropic funding. Fundraising will thus be the primary focus of our activities for the first months of 2013.

At the moment, our website pictured above, www.culturalevolution.org, is merely a placeholder, but pdfs of ICE’s campaign plans can be downloaded from there. Also available for download on www.culturalevolution.org is ICE’s nonprofit Business Plan, a white paper on the Premises and Principles of the Evolutionary Worldview, and our first Media Release.

Once we have secured funding, we will build out the website and begin the political campaigns described in our documents. I thus invite you to visit ICE’s website and sign-up to our email list for updates and progress reports.

My “book tour” for Evolution’s Purpose is now complete. I gave presentations in Paris, Frankfurt, New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and in Denver and Boulder. Although I will be doing more public presentations in 2013, Evolution’s Purpose has now been officially launched and the book is being well received.

One of the fruits of the tour was the recording of two high-definition professional videos, which are now available to watch for free here on my website and also on YouTube. The primary video is an hour and forty minute presentation on the book, which I gave on November 16th at the Caritas Center in Boulder. This video records my basic “book talk” and includes a lively discussion with the audience. The second video, recorded in July at the beginning of the tour, is an hour interview with my close friend and fellow evolutionary Jeff Salzman.

I hope you will have a chance to watch one or both of these new videos. And if you feel so moved, please send me an email with any questions or to let me know what you think.

I originally created SteveMcIntosh.com back in 2007 in connection with the launch of my first book, Integral Consciousness. Although the site was updated to include all the new information associated with my 2012 book, Evolution’s Purpose, the site looked dated.

Recognizing the need for an update, my wife Tehya, who has been helping with my Facebook and Twitter author pages, encouraged me to redo SteveMcIntosh.com using the “Web 2.0″ style. So now, after some weeks of work with my capable webmaster Andy Schwarz, we are proud to announce the launch of this all-new website.

The new site is organized around high-definition videos that were recorded during my book tour for Evolution’s Purpose in 2012. It uses a WordPress theme and works well in a variety of formats. This new theme also allows us to update much of the website directly without needing Andy’s help.

I thus invite you to explore the new website and watch the videos. And please subscribe to this blog, or otherwise come back to the site in the weeks ahead to see it evolve. Also, please note my old blog, with posts from April 2007 through October 2012, can be found here: blog.stevemcintosh.com.