Integral Institute and Integral Life

Interview via Skype with Ken Wilber
Fri, August 6th, 9pm

The integral theory acknowledges and combines the insights from pre-modern, modern and post-modern times and thus serves as comprehensive frame of reference – in some ways as a ‚new operating system’ that forms the basis for the development of numerous, comprehensive applications in medicine, politics, education, science, business, ecology, spirituality and much more. For this purpose Wilber alongside several dozens of researchers has founded the non-profit organization "Integral Institute" (I-I) as a transdiciplinary think-tank for applications and extensions of the integral approach. The commercial sister organization "Integral Life" serves as online portal for building community and for conveying integral content via various media.

AQAL – the Integral Approach

The abbreviation "AQAL" stands for „all quadrants, all levels, lines, states and types“ which are at the same time main components of Ken Wilber’s model.

The quadrants point us to the basic perspectives of being in the world that are present in every moment – „1st person, 2nd person, 3rd person“, or „I, We, It“, or „aesthetics, moral, science“, or „the beautiful, the good, the real.“ Systematically including these perspectives in our acting expands the horizon of our mind in a fundamental way.

„Levels“ refer to the fact that the whole cosmos evolves – our interior being as human being also moves through certain stages as described in psychological evolutionary models (e.g. Spiral Dynamics).

Human beings do not evolve on a one-dimensional scale, this is what we are reminded of through the component „lines“: we all have multiple intelligences, multiple lines of development, cognitive, emotional, kinesthetic, artistic, spiritual etc., whose focal points can be distributed in different ways resulting in a complex psychogramme.

Next to permanent achievements of the psyche (levels) there are additional changed „states“ of consciousness that are considerably more fleeting and fluid. These comprise the three great natural states of being awake, dreaming and sleeping deeply but also changed states like peak experiences, flow or meditative states.

The element „types“ finally does justice to the fact that there are repeating differences and ‚cosmic habits’ that emerge on all levels. This includes the basic distinction „male/female“ but also other typologies like the enneagram, the temperaments, the Myers-Briggs typology etc.

All in all AQAL reminds us in all we do of these basic dimensions of reality and directs our attention to aspects that we have been unaware of so far, so that we can navigate the terrain of reality more skilfully with a more comprehensive map.

www.kenwilber.com
www.integralinstitute.org
www.integrallife.com