The Daily Evolver

In this episode I share some thoughts on the evolutionary power of Greta Thunberg, the young Swedish climate activist, and her visit (via sailboat!) to the UN Climate Summit.

This week I examine the roster of Democratic contenders vying to unseat Donald Trump. It’s fascinating to watch them trying to create a larger public identity and harness the cultural forces they need to stand out. For my jumping-off point I consider two articles in last week’s Sunday Review in the New York Times: “Donald Trump Is Not A Sinister Genius”, by Ross Douthat, which makes the case that Trump is beatable, and “Tinder the Vote”, by Eve Peyser, a comic take on each of the Democratic candidates in the form of a quick dating profile. If article #1 is correct then one of the people profiled in article #2 will be the next President of the United States. In this episode I share which of them is – and isn’t – getting my heart fluttering. Let me know what you think at jeff@dailyevolver.com!

This summer marks the finales of two multi-chapter fantasy epics that have both reflected and shaped our evolving culture. HBO’s Game of Thrones presented its eighth season, earning a record-breaking 32 Emmy nominations (it has 161 overall). Over at the movies, the Marvel franchise based on The Avengers comic books released its eighteenth and final installment, Avengers: Endgame, which has already become the world’s highest-grossing movie of all time. What are the cultural forces behind these entertainment juggernauts? Today I bring an integral lens to that query with my guest, Los Angeles-based filmmaker and evolutionary guide Jason Lange. Jason wrote and directed the award-winning sci-fi short film SHARE, and is currently crowdfunding a new webseries, Stuck in Development. (See if you can find the integral easter egg in the background of the kickstarter video!)

“We have to accept the reality that to one extent or another everyone has chronically amped-up distress, and a persistent negativity that generates confusing, distorted stories and emotional pain.” This statement kicks off another fascinating conversation with my pal, integral psychotherapist Dr. Keith Witt. What makes our distress difficult to accept, Keith says, is that we live in a culture that preaches zero tolerance for emotional pain. We have convinced ourselves that when we feel it we should be able to fix it — with therapy, pills, spiritual practice or one of the thousands of products that promise to make us happy. And if/when we can’t fix it we are a failure. It’s a double-bind that contributes to psychological conditions such as anxiety and depression, now at record levels. In this episode of our ongoing series, The Shrink and the Pundit, Dr. Keith and I talk about evolving a more mature relationship with our own – and other peoples’ – emotional discomfort and pain.

Sebastian and Ken Today’s guest, Sebastian Siegel, is the screenwriter and director of the upcoming movie, Grace and Grit. The film tells the true love story of iconic, Integral philosopher Ken Wilber and his wife Treya. Based on the acclaimed book that chronicles Treya’s journals, they fall madly in love in 1980’s California and are immediately faced with illness and challenges that tear them apart. They overcome by finding a connection beyond this world, and love beyond life. The film stars Mena Suvari and Stuart Townsend as Treya and Ken, and features supporting performances by Frances Fisher, Rebekah Graf, Nick Stahl, and Mariel Hemmingway, In our conversation, Sebastian, who is an integral practitioner, friend, and long-time fan of Ken’s work, talks in depth about many elements of making the film from writing, development, and casting, to directing, storytelling, and production, and his overriding mission to serve not just this epic love story, but also the emergence of Integral consciousness itself. Sebastian Siegel is author of the book, “The Consciousness Revolution”, and is the creator of two documentaries: “Awakening World” and “Spirit of Evolution.” You can find out more about Grace and Grit at the movie’s website, Sebastian’s instagram account. , and his website.

My vision of a peaceful Colorado summer of slowed-down punditry and ramped-up gardening has been disturbed by a specter of menace entering the scene. While never reaching a crisis level, it has nevertheless presented a real-life dilemma that has taxed whatever integral capacities I have, and has proven to be potent grist for my daily evolving. In this podcast I share the story of my bully and me.

Every first-tier worldview wants to dominate the world, and given a chance they will run roughshod over all who dissent. But as humanity grows (and we individual humans grow) each worldview has to contend with opposing worldviews, a process that constrains the totalitarian impulses of each. In this way, worldviews, even as they stay true to their essence, become less dangerous as they arise in an ever more complex, multi-stage world or person. * For more on the first tier stages of human development see the theory section of this site. But they’re still there, or rather here, living and breathing in our developmental stack, and we just have to click on a news site to see that the worst of humanity can break out at any time. In this episode I explore this phenomenon of horizontal development as it applies to red “warrior” consciousness and culture, using examples from General Butt Naked, an infamous Liberian warlord turned evangelical Christian minister, to current popular art such as Game of Thrones, to the President of the United States, a master of red energy. I also discuss the integral practice of relaxing the repression of worldviews within ourselves and liberating the precious gifts that each stage brings.

My guest, Fleet Maull, is a criminal justice activist and integralist who shares the story of his time in prison and the work it has inspired. In the 1980s Fleet was a contemplative psychology graduate and student of Buddhist teacher Chogyam Trungpa. But a double life caught up with him as he was convicted of drug trafficking, and he ended up serving 14 years in prison. While behind bars, Fleet sought to put his Buddhist training to work and began teaching meditation in the prison chapel, eventually founding the Prison Mindfulness Institute and The Prison Hospice Association. Today Fleet continues his work in what he calls mindfulness-based emotional intelligence training, which has proved to be remarkably successful in sparking transformation for people inside and outside of prison. In this conversation Fleet shares wisdom gained from decades of work with countless prisoners, virtually all of whom, he discovered, had been victimized themselves, the realization of which was central to their healing. Fleet reflects on the evolution of the social justice movement, and the challenge that woke activism brings. He seeks to integrate the best of the personal- and social-responsibility models, as well as brain science, into a more inclusive view of whole system transformation. I talked to Fleet as he took a break from an in-depth training program he was conducting for law enforcement and corrections officers in Ottowa, Canada. Fleet Maull’s’ new book, Radical Responsibility, is available for pre-order. Anyone who pre-orders it between now and May 13th will be enrolled in his 8-module, $397 Radical Responsibility online course for free.

In this episode, I talk with Dr. Keith Witt about what he calls “the seductive power of quadrant absolutism,” riffing on the quadrant model (part of the AQAL Model) developed by integral philosopher Ken Wilber. Quadrant absolutism denotes the propensity each us of has to see the world through the lens of a preferred dimension of reality – the inner world vs. grounded reality, for instance, or through relationships rather than tasks (see illustration). These preferences, innate and learned, help us create internal models of everything – the world, ourselves, other people – and rely on these models to function. We project our models onto events to better understand and put them in context. We resist input that contradicts our models and struggle with people who see the world differently. As a result we may miss out on the fruits of entire dimensions of reality. The good news is that seeing our native perspective is a powerful way to expand beyond it and to grow into integral stages of consciousness. As Dr. Keith says, “The awakening to a stable teal worldview involves being much more open to high-velocity shifts in perspectives.”

By Jeff Salzman The Democratic field for US president is taking shape fast. Today I have a freewheeling conversation with Corey DeVos of Integral Life about our impressions of the emerging landscape, with a special focus on Marianne Williamson, Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg.