• Spirituality: Inspiration is ultimately drawn from a focus on the Divine as the ultimate goal of being
• Integral Yoga as a holistic practice: connecting inner and outer realms, vision and realism, ground and embody all striving for a better world
• Development of self and world: all life is a process of unfolding of higher potentials (combining man’s striving towards the Divine with the Divine’s descent into the world), no step can be skipped
• World-centric perspective (humanity united as a political vision)
• Integral anthropology: body, vital/emotions, mind and spirit/supermind need to be integrated and balanced for a healthy existence
• Political institutions designed to organize human unity (on various levels) must be based on corresponding inner qualities (“psychic unity”); inner/psychic (soul) dimensions tend to be the driving force (precondition for institutions to function well; "an order is only healthy if it comes from within").
• There is a natural dynamic in favor of unfolding, development and growth that cannot be acted against in the long run; all development processes are fundamentally path-dependent, i.e. follow their own natural logic and inherent dynamics.
• There will and should always be a coexistence of unity and variation to allow all entities to develop at their own speed.
• Politics needs to acknowledge, respect and ideally support the different needs for growth and provide enabling environments for development at all levels.
• Holonic concept of politics: individual and collective life needs to be healthy and balanced at all levels; collective life feels more comfortable when it can concentrate in small spaces; those need to be “healthy” in order to join together to build larger entities.

Sources:
Aurobindo, Sri (1999). The ideal of human unity. Lotus Press.

Further reading:
IO 1 chapter 1

• Sequence of unfolding structures of consciousness and culture culminating in "integral" structure
• The term "integral" describing a particular cultural epoch that goes beyond the predominantly rational or "mental" consciousness of modernity.
• Structures of consciousness as mental dispositives, evolving filters or whole-body contact lenses that shape our perception of the world as individuals and societies.
• Methodology: combining a spiritual foundation with interdisciplinary empirical humanities and cultural studies research, evidence-based model of cultural development.
• empirical observation and description of five successive, cross-culturally valid structures of consciousness: archaic, magical, mythical, mental, integral.
• Spiritual foundation of his model: spiritual/divine source of all structures of consciousness and of the process of human becoming conscious; human being has the task to actively contribute to the promotion of the new structure that brings him "closer to spirit/origin".
• Consciousness develops out of the origin in ever new, more complex mutations, integrating ever wider horizons of inner and outer perceptions.
• Man is the totality of his mutations.
• New structures emerge when the prevailing structure of consciousness can no longer effectively deal with the given challenges.
• No new mutation is "better" than its predecessor structure. Each is both gain and loss (increasing differentiation implies increasing distance from the origin/wholeness).
• Political relevance of the structures: all structures are permanently present in every human being.
  archaic: very limited consciousness, projection screen for holistic utopias and social harmony.
  magical: detachment from and attempt to tame nature; consciousness focused on the outside (nature, tribe/clan), through punctual experience; no inner consciousness and no independent self yet. Nature is animate (psychic energetics). No consciousness and concept of space and time, no abstract concepts, no rationality. Current relevance in group contexts where the ego gives itself up.
  mythical: awareness of the inner world/soul (inner ups and downs); experience of time; two-dimensional polarity, search for truth (meaning/values), security in mythically closed universe; great high cultures and religions; deficient forms lead to absolutism.
  mental: spatial dimension: man locates himself in the universe; goal-oriented, rational, abstract, dualistic thinking, anthropocentrism: man as doer and master of the world; quantifying and sectoring science (measurement), perspectivisation of the world; deficient form: domination and exploitation of the world with disregard for natural cycles, alienation from one's own basic references.
  integral: urrently emerging structure, integrating and making whole what has been differentiated and separated before, anthropology: the human being is the whole of his mutations; simultaneous enactment of all structures and their ways of perceiving and sensemaking; can only be experienced practically in an embodied way, not purely theoretically; overcoming mental dual-isms through holistic shadow work and (aperspectival) integration of perspectives. Lightness and humor are a core feature of this structure.

Sources:
Gebser, Jean (2020).The ever-present origin. Ohio University Press.
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Further reading:
IO 1 chapter 2

• Based on life-time clinical work on adultpsychological development and conceptions of maturity
• Levels of being as evolving systems of perceiving, thinking and behaving
• Methodology: gathering conceptions of maturity from students over 15 years, empirical observation, field testing and double-blind definition of clusters and categories for sorting the material, leading to an evidence-based model of adult human development
• Description of eight consecutive levels of existence, shifting between “express self” and “sacrifice self”, increasing in complexity and repeating at a higher order at every seventh level
• No end to development as long as humans face new life challenges. Psychological development is an infinite, open-ended, hierarchical process of increasing one’s capability to manage complexity.
• Graves’ 7^th level largely corresponds to Gebser’s “integral” structure, seen as the globally emerging new cultural force.
• Overview of Graves’ levels of existence:
  - AN/automatic (later: BEIGE): behavior is driven by physical needs and instincts as that of other animals. No excess energy or cognitive capacity for thinking; the individual is one with the world.
  - BO/animistic (later: PURPLE): tribal existence creates strong social bonds and vital communi-ties, the world is made sense of in a magical way, tribal ways, rituals and taboos govern social life.
  - CP/egocentric (later: RED): totally self-centered, egocentric thinking, primarily concerned with “what’s in it for me?” Dominant-submissive mindset: might makes right, pursuit of power, no sense of abstract rules
  - DQ/absolutistic (later: BLUE): submits to a higher (often religious) authority that defines what is good and true, explains the order of things and provides safety & security, rules are followed strictly.
  - ER/multiplistic (later: ORANGE): self-empowerment and goal-orientation (accomplishing, getting and having more), rational thinking, scientific method, pragmatic experimentation, conquer nature, capitalism, entrepreneurship, secular power, individualism, rule of law (my rights), liberal democracy
  - FS/relativistic (later: GREEN): questioning the materialistic ER lifestyle, search for subjective happiness, inner peace, good relationships and harmony, overcome individualism through community, altruism, deep empathy and spirituality. Deliberation, participation and deep democracy
  - A’N’/systemic (later: YELLOW, integral): new order of conceptual thinking: global, systemic, flexible, differentiated and kaleidoscopical perspective, largely ego-free, coherence between thought and actions, free of fear, striving for self and societal development, best prepared to develop the coming mode of life through wisdom, quality and end-orientation, healing man’s misuse of his world
  - B’O’/intuitive (later: TURQUOISE): deep exploration of the meaning of human existence
• Graves’ theory has gained widespread attention via Don Beck/Chris Cowan’s “Spiral Dynamics”.
• Practical socio-political benefits: a much more adequate understanding of socio-political problems enabling decision-makers to come up with much more effective responses, solutions and cures.

Sources:
Graves, Clare W. (2005).The Never Ending Quest. ECLET Publishing.
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Further reading:
IO 1 chapter 3

• Founder of "Integral Theory", Integral Institute and author of over 40 books on the many dimensions of consciousness (Wilber came to be know as the “Einstein of consciousness studies”)
• Methodology: Synopsis of a large number of Eastern and Western approaches to explore scientific and spiritual knowledge about the development of consciousness in individuals, as well as its implications for socio-cultural evolution, which are condensed into a “Theory of Everything”
• Holons, holarchies and holonic development
  Reality is composed of holons (entities which are wholes in themselves and at the same time parts of even larger wholes, Koestler). Everything must therefore be considered in its embedding (holonic) context. Healthy development is holonic development, i.e. expanding/growing in complexity while respecting the health of all constitutive parts (holons). Vertical complexity development occurs through processes of transcending and including the (qualities of the) original holon(s).
• Wilber’s integral AQAL (all quadrants, all levels) model consists of five dimensions:
  - four quadrants of looking at reality (consciousness, behavior, culture and systems)
  - vertical complexity development in all four quadrants (drawing on adult development research)
  - differentiating multiple lines of development in each person (dito)
  - states of being and existence in all quadrants and their influence on perception and behavior
  - types and typologies in all quadrants, helping to understand differences on a horizontal level
• A truly integral approach needs to take into account all five dimensions for understanding whatever phenomenon. How a specific perspective does this determines its “kosmic address” (its location in the AQAL matrix).
• Every perspective (everyone) has a part of the truth (the big picture). Nobody is smart enough to be wrong all the time. Yet, higher levels contain more truth than lower levels.
• Each stage of development is adequate, but each higher stage is more adequate (Wilber, 2016: 90).
• In 3 books, Wilber offers more explicit applications of his Integral Theory topolitics:
  - “Integral Politics” (2018) shows how to “classify, index and track (…) any political theory (and) all of the major political movements to date (…) using the AQAL matrix”.
  - “Wicked & Wise” (with Alan Watkins, 2015) offers a process for addressing wicked complex challenges with the help of the AQAL matrix and an Integral Coherence model.
  - “Trump and the Post-Truth World” (2016) proposes an integral, developmentally informed interpretation of the deeper reasons of Donald Trump’s election as a US president. According to Wilber, the “Green” socio-political and cultural code, the leading edge in the US and in most western countries, has itself considerably contributed to the rise of “populist” movements, including that of Trump, through its culture of nihilism and narcissism, its lack of a developmental understanding of political dynamics, and its own performative contradictions resulting from both.

Sources:
Wilber, Ken (2000). The Collected Works of Ken Wilber. Shambhala Publications.
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Further Reading:
IO 1 chapter 4:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BypQuu8BO3uwe_f-8nb2TMtV8YLI6fnU/view?usp=share_link

• Theory U emerged out of Scharmer’s studies into the secrets of successful leadership at the MIT.
• Focus: working with collective states. “Presencing” as an attitude of maximum conscious awareness in the present moment which allows to sense into future possibilities that want to materialize.
• Core claims:
  ‍- The success of any intervention depends on the inner condition of the intervener and hence, we should deepen the quality of our present awareness in order to achieve better results.
  - On societal (and global) level, we are collectively producing results that nobody wants. Therefore, we must shift the focus of our awareness from outside behaviors and effects to their inner sources.
  - Presencing requires us to slow down our mental activity, suspend habitual patterns of thinking and to be open to what wants to emerge from the field of not-knowing. It then creates a sense of connectedness with our fellow (human) beings from which a sense of commitment and empowerment to work towards desirable futures can emerge.
• Essentials of Theory U:
  -Theory U explains the art of deliberatively working with social fields of attention and awareness.
  - The deeper and more intense the quality of awareness, the more powerful and effectively transformative are the solutions that emerge from a social field.
  - The U Process is the art of modulating social fields in order to take participants from habitual, more superficial qualities of awareness into deeper and deeper ones.
• The seven field qualities of a U Process:
  - Downloading: habitual thinking and acting strongly pre-structures what is considered to be possible
  - Seeing/Debate: becoming fully aware of all available data in a given situation (infinite curiosity)
  - Dialog: Sensing into the situation with body and mind and seeing/experiencing oneself as part of it
  - Presencing: suspending all previous modes of awareness and becoming fully present for what is
  - Crystallizing: staying connected to the source while clarifying the vision and intention to go forward
  - Prototyping: producing a prototype as quickly as possible to obtain feedback from the field
  - Co-creating/Performing: fine-tuning the prototype and implementing it in real life systems
• Each field quality has an opposing, antagonist quality (blinding, de-sensing, absencing, manipulating, blaming, abusing etc.). Together, these build an absencing cycle. Qualities of awareness can be shifted purposefully from absencing to presencing (and vice versa).
• In order to implement systems change, we have to address three fundamental divides: the ecological, social, and spiritual-cultural one and heal the respective disconnects through more presence.
• In view of using Theory U for transformative systems change, integral politics can work with eight “acupuncture points” to intervene more effectively, i.e. on a deeper level of awareness.
• We need infrastructures to co-initiate, co-sense, co-inspire, (and) for prototyping and co-evolving.

Sources:
Scharmer, C. O. (2009).Theory U: Learning from the future as it emerges. Berrett-Koehler.
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Further Reading:
IO 1 chapter 5: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EDmtDni2BA2yjuGmFPe69ohPcQzPXH-d/view?usp=share_link

• The TEAL paradigm is emerging as a new way of designing and running Organizations based on a more holistic, integral consciousness.
• Book “Reinventing Organizations”: presents examples from over 12 organizations from across all sectors who have implemented different variations of the TEAL paradigm in their everyday work.
• Method: Field work including intensive participant observation in multiple TEAL organizations.
• Core claims:
  - Our ways of organizing work evolves as our thinking becomes more complex.Each level of consciousness development (as of Clare Graves/Spiral Dynamics)has brought forward a new paradigm.
  - The TEAL paradigm is characterized by a shift from fear/deficit motivation to strength, trust/abundance motivation, and by the desire to express one’s fullest potential in service of the larger whole.
• Essential principles of the TEAL paradigm:
  - Self-management: TEAL organizations have flat, functional hierarchies and trust their basic entities (teams) to fully self-organize. Those who are dealing with a problem/challenge are in charge of solving it. Yet, they must seek advice from others before taking a decision.
  -> Inspiration for politics: decentralize decision-making and include the wisdom (and collective intelligence) of the crowd more flexibly and more systematically!
  - Wholeness: Everyone is invited to show up as a whole person, not just in their respective professional role or identity. This culture of honesty and integrity fosters responsibility and commitment.
  -> Inspiration for politics: facilitate cooperation beyond formal (party) affiliations; create safe spaces to allow for more integrity, shadow work and being comfortable with not-knowing.
  - Listening to Evolutionary Purpose: all TEAL organizations are built around a deeper purpose, serving whom defines their structures, daily work processes and organizational culture. Self-preservation is no aim in itself. The organization changes (and may even dissolve) as the purpose evolves.
  -> Inspiration for politics: replace competition for power and zero-sum logics with cooperation in service of a larger (global) common purpose: to provide and preserve life and sustainable living conditions on planet Earth
• Ideas for a TEALsociety:
  - politics serving the above deeper purpose would engage in a radical de-growth agenda and support the necessary shift of consciousness for re-purposing our lives, up until spiritually “re-enchanting the materialistic world of modernity”
  - Small units that people take ownership for are excellent drivers of change, also beyond themselves.
  - Democracy is an evolving entity and a living organism that can and should be further developed into TEAL directions.

Sources:
Laloux, Frederic (2014). Reinventing Organizations: A Guide to Creating OrganizationsInspired by the Next Stage in Human Consciousness (Brussels, NelsonParker). 
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Further Reading:
IO 1 chapter 6: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-3OYDU41_laGCHHq-wE9mAIHgNXRI-q7/view?usp=share_link

• Metamodern Politics as proposed in the books of Hanzi Freinacht (a pseudonym used by Daniel Görtz and Emil Ejner Friis) is work in progress, combining integral theory with metamodern philosophy. It also identifies as “the Nordic School of Metamodernism.
• Main publications: “The Listening Society” (2017) and “Nordic Ideology” (2019)
• Aims at transcending and “outcompeting” our current democratic and capitalist systems through personal development and psychological growth, to be supported and scaled by politics and society.
• Core concepts: individual cognitive development (as of Piaget, Commons/Model of Hierarchical Complexity), cultural code (as ofGraves/Spiral Dynamics), subjective state and psychological depth.
• Metamodern Politics suggests a “Master Pattern” of six new political forms (policies) which, carefully woven together, would constitute a balanced equilibrium of a more holistic, listening society.
• The six forms of Metamodern Politics:
  ‍- 1. Democratization Politics: aims to widen and deepen the quality of democratic participation throughout society in view of a more “listening society” that truly hears and considers the needs and perspectives of its citizens.
  - 2. Gemeinschaft Politics: aims to rebuild connection, trust and mutual support between citizens in their everyday lives and as a precondition for deepening democracy.
  - 3. Existential Politics: addresses our deepest questions of meaning and purpose and our existential relationship with reality and turns them into shared concerns worth public attention and political support, thereby reconnecting us with our roots and visions.
  - 4. Emancipation Politics: aims to address and counter the inevitable, new subtle forms of oppression that emerge in the course of an increasing “intimacy of control” as our societies develop.
  - 5. Empirical Politics: aims at raising the level of conscious awareness and critical thinking within society, thus enabling it to intersubjectively cross-check, verify and empirically test the knowledge that is used as a basis for public decision-making.
  - 6. Politics of Theory: aims at formulating a new, more complex metamodern theory and narrative as a basis for reframing how we see and interpret what is going on in the world.
• New kinds of Ministries should be in charge of developing, implementing and promoting each of these new policies with the necessary power and resources.
• Practical implementation is envisioned through a “metamodern aristocracy” (i.e. community of practitioners) and a “process oriented party”, seeding and spreading the metamodern virus throughout society and facilitating cross-sectoral and transpartisan dialogues about the future of politics.

Sources:
Freinacht, Hanzi (2017): TheListening Society: A Metamodern Guide to Politics. Book One. UK:Metamoderna.
Freinacht, Hanzi (2019): NordicIdeology. A Metamodern Guide to Politics. Book Two. Ibid.
Freinacht, Hanzi (2022). 3 DesignPrinciples for Protopian Governance, online.
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Further Reading:
IO 1 chapter 7: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yXPIxITwj72geN55Q2qbjBJdG6q1Bn83/view?usp=share_link