How Does William James’s Definition Fit Biology?

🎙️Episode 34: Is Everything Agential!? (Intelligence, coherence, and the living world through the ideas of Michael Levin) 🎧

Hey there, this is James Tripp — and welcome (back) to Agents of Everything. This is episode 34 - a bit of a reboot, really. It’s October 2025 as I record this, and I haven’t released as many episodes this year as I’d have liked. So this one’s both a reorientation and a deep dive - a return to why I began this project in the first place…AoE Sponsors…

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Remembering the “Why”

Simon Sinek’s famous idea — Start With Why — feels particularly relevant here. When we first begin something, there’s a reason, a pulse, a purpose that fuels it. But over time, as we find what works, the process takes over and the why drifts into the background.

That’s what happened to Agents of Everything for me. It started as a free-form space to explore ideas beyond my hypnosis and change-work content — a space for curiosity, philosophy, systems thinking, and the art of living creatively and intelligently in a complex world.

I began this because I wanted to explore:

* How we adapt to an ever-changing world.

* How we engage creatively and intelligently with that world.

* How we bring about better outcomes — for ourselves and for others.

That curiosity led me from martial arts and Qigong, through NLP and hypnosis, into complexity science, Daoism, and philosophy. All of it points toward the same question:How can we live artfully and intelligently within an uncontrollable and largely unpredictable, living, dynamic reality?

Adaptive vs. Adapted

Before we dive into the main topic, here’s a quick distinction that’s been travelling with me for a long time:

* Adapted means fitted to an environment — optimized for what is.

* Adaptive means capable of transforming when the environment changes.

We need both. Being adapted gives us stability; being adaptive keeps us alive in motion. When we lose adaptiveness — whether as individuals, institutions, or societies — we lose our capacity to grow.

That balance between adaptation and adaptability is part of what I mean by agency. It’s also part of what Agents of Everything explores.

Enter the Word “Agential”

The theme of this episode is a single word: agential.

I came across it through the work of Michael Levin, a biologist doing extraordinary research on intelligence in living systems. Levin explores how intelligence shows up in biological materials — not just in brains, but in tissues, cells, and even sub-cellular systems.

He uses the term agential materials to describe biological matter that demonstrates goal-directed, adaptive behavior. In other words — materials that act as if they have intelligence.

Intelligence All the Way Down

Levin’s research shows that intelligence isn’t confined to the human brain. It’s distributed throughout life — all the way down.

He’s famous for creating xenobots (made from frog cells) and anthrobots (made from human cells) — tiny living entities that, remarkably, repair damaged tissue and even build replicas of themselves. What’s astonishing is that their DNA contains no explicit instructions for doing this. The organizing intelligence seems to arise through bioelectrical fields — the invisible patterns of communication and coherence between cells.

This echoes what Rupert Sheldrake called morphic fields, or organizing patterns that shape form and function. It also resonates with Plato’s “realm of forms,” and with countless metaphysical traditions that see consciousness or intelligence as fundamental, not emergent.

Levin’s conclusion?All matter is potentially agential.

That means everything — from a cell to a person to a planet — possesses some degree of agency, intelligence, and purposefulness.

The Nature of Coherence

If everything is agential, then intelligence isn’t just about thinking — it’s about cohering.

Each cell in your body is an intelligent agent, but they’re not all doing their own thing. They cohere into a larger intelligence: you. When coherence breaks down — as in cancer — the cells start operating as independent entities, no longer participating in the collective intelligence of the organism.

Levin’s approach to cancer research is fascinating: instead of destroying “bad” cells, he explores ways of restoring coherence — reestablishing communication so that cells reintegrate into the whole.

That idea applies just as beautifully to the psyche as to the body.

Psychological Coherence

In changework, when people struggle, it’s often because inner parts are out of sync. There’s a loss of internal coherence — a kind of inner “civil war.” The solution isn’t to cut out the “bad parts,” but to help the system rediscover harmony.

When the parts realign, creativity and agency return. The same is true for societies. When coherence is lost — when individuals and groups stop relating, stop resonating — fragmentation follows.

Coherence and the Collective

A healthy society, like a healthy body, requires both individuality and coherence — both freedom and connection. It’s a yin–yang dance. Too much collective pressure, and individuality dies. Too much individualism, and coherence collapses.

This is where I think our modern world is struggling. The internet — for all its potential — has become a coherence-destroying machine. Social media algorithms thrive on outrage, dogma, and ideological rigidity. They reward fragmentation, not nuance.

True coherence doesn’t mean conformity or uniformity. It means resonance through relationship — the ability to stay in creative contact even when we differ.

That’s something our left-hemisphere-dominated culture struggles with. The left brain craves certainty and categorization; it wants this or that. The right hemisphere, by contrast, can hold paradox, relationship, and pattern. It’s better suited to coherence.

Ian McGilchrist’s work explores this beautifully — the left hemisphere as the manager, the right as the master, and how the manager has usurped the master’s role in modern culture.

Animism Revisited

This brings me to something more ancient.

I’ve long thought that the most fundamental form of human consciousness is animistic — the sense that everything is alive. Early humans saw intelligence everywhere: in rivers, rocks, winds, trees. The world was not a mechanism but a living conversation.

Modern materialism flattened that out. We began to see the world as dead matter, and ourselves as separate from it. The cost has been immense — ecological, spiritual, psychological.

So when Michael Levin says “everything is agential,” he’s not only advancing biology — he’s, in a way, reviving animism. He’s re-enchanting the world with intelligence.

And that changes how we live in it. If everything is intelligent, then everything is also in relationship. We are participants in a vast, dynamic, living web.

Dancing with the Living World

To live agentially means to live as part of that dance.

It means:

* Recognizing intelligence everywhere.

* Seeking coherence without losing individuality.

* Acting adaptively within change.

* Engaging creatively, not mechanically, with reality.

Life moves. It moves towards. And we move with it — each of us a node in the intelligence of the whole.

The question isn’t whether everything is agential. It’s how we participate in that agential dance — how we bring more coherence, creativity, and responsiveness into the world around us.

If this exploration resonated with you, you can subscribe to Agents of Everything on Substack — it’s free, and it helps keep the fire going. You can also leave a review on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you listen.

Thanks for tuning in — and for being part of this ongoing conversation with the living world.

— James TrippAgents of Everything, Episode 34: “Is Everything Agential?”

🔍 Timestamps:

00:00:01Opening & IntroductionJames Tripp welcomes listeners, introduces the episode as a “reboot,” and sets up the central question: “Is everything agential?”

00:01:44Purpose & Philosophy of the PodcastJames references Simon Sinek’s “Start with Why,” then reconnects with the overarching purpose of “Agents of Everything”: exploring human adaptability, agency, and understanding beyond just change work or hypnosis.

00:02:39Personal Journey and Neuro LinguisticsJames shares how his personal exploration into martial arts, change work, and neuro linguistics influenced his interest in the patterns of human adaptation and agency.

00:04:10Adapted vs. Adaptive DistinctionJames explains the difference between “being adapted” and “being adaptive” within constantly shifting environments, highlighting the yin-yang balance between stability and change.

00:05:47Exploration, Understanding, and AgencyHe discusses the dual purpose of the podcast: directional agency and open-ended exploration, emphasizing the importance of understanding as the foundation for effective action.

00:08:58Podcast Format ShiftJames describes his intention to return to shorter, more focused episodes and how the format evolved over time. He sets expectations for the episode’s length moving forward.

00:09:39Defining “Agental”He introduces the word “agental,” explains its origin (inspired by biologist Michael Levin), and sets up a deeper investigation of what it means for something to be agential.

00:12:04Mike Levin, Experimental Biology, and Agential MaterialsJames recounts Mike Levin’s groundbreaking biological experiments with xenobots and anthrobots, discussing the implication of agency at various biological scales.

00:15:15The Limits of DNA and FormExploration of how organism form and behavior are not strictly determined by DNA, referencing both Mike Levin and Rupert Sheldrake’s ideas on bioelectrical and morphic fields.

00:18:01A Deeper Definition: What is Agental?James reads a practical definition of “agental” and links it back to Mike Levin’s idea that all biological materials are agential/intelligent—not merely mechanical.

00:19:50William James and IntelligenceReference to William James’ definition of intelligence: the ability to reach the same end by different means, tying this into adaptiveness.

00:21:20Coherence, Collectives, and CancerComparison of biological and psychological coherence, and the consequences of losing coherence in systems (e.g., cancer, internal psychological conflict).

00:24:54Social and Societal CoherenceAnalogy between cellular coherence and the need for healthy social coherence, explaining the tension between individuality and collectivity as a yin-yang relationship.

00:25:40Left vs. Right Hemisphere ThinkingJames discusses left-hemisphere (binary, paradox-averse) vs. right-hemisphere (holistic, relational) ways of engaging with complexity and coherence.

00:28:06Internet, Algorithms, and CoherenceExploration of how internet and social media algorithms contribute to the breakdown of social coherence, and the challenges of online discussion (e.g., politics, religion).

00:33:43Back to Agential PerspectiveTying the episode back to the theme: recognizing agency at every level and acknowledging our part in larger intelligent systems.

00:34:34Teleology and Movement in LifeBrief reflection on the inherently goal-seeking, moving nature of life and how we might contribute positively to the world.

00:35:18Animism and Human ConsciousnessConnecting agential philosophy to animism—seeing intelligence and ‘spirit’ everywhere—and discussing the implications for mental health and sense of belonging.

00:36:53Modern Disconnection and Mental HealthCommentary on how mechanistic worldviews foster feelings of separation, referencing the current mental health crisis.

00:37:16Other Realms & Exploratory TranceJames speculates on shamanic and trance phenomena possibly interfacing with real, non-local intelligences.

00:38:08Conclusion and Call to ActionJames wraps up philosophically and invites feedback, subscriptions, and sharing of the podcast.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jamestripp.substack.com