The Daily Evolver

Today integral psychotherapist Dr Keith Witt joins Jeff for a look at the human brain. Dr Keith shares new research about brain health and specific actions we can take to maintain cognitive capacities into elderhood. They discuss the various types of dementia and Alzheimer’s, the most current understandings of their causes, as well as some surprising and simple ways we can keep our brains operating efficiently and adaptively.  

Today Jeff and Corey consider the choice of John Bolton to become Donald Trump’s national security advisor (replacing Gen. H.R. McMaster), as well as the promotion of Mike Pompeo to be Secretary of State (replacing Rex Tillerson). The shakeup represents a major worldview shift from orange modernity to amber traditionalism in the war cabinet of a President who often operates from the red power stage. So long status quo, which has avoided nuclear war for 75 years and brought about significant disarmament in the last 25. The upside: a grand bargain. Kim Jong Un, knowing we really do have a bigger nuclear button, doesn’t trust Trump and Bolton not to use it any more than the rest of us do. Therefore he will be pliable in negotiations that eliminate missiles that could hit the US, and perhaps even more in return for decreasing the American military presence in South Korea, which Donald Trump would like to do anyway. The downside: war. Bolton means what he says about the necessity of a first strike, and Trump goes along for the ratings. Can we trust Donald Trump, who has consistently decried the folly of “stupid” wars, to not get us into another one? The appointment of John Bolton radically recasts the odds.

Public intellectuals don’t get any hotter than Jordan Peterson. Virtually unknown 18 months ago, he has today amassed over a million subscribers to his YouTube channels and countless millions of views. His new book “12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos” is an international bestseller, nearing the million copy milestone. Peterson, a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto, sparked his fame by posting a lecture announcing his refusal to abide by a new civil rights code in Canada that appeared to legally require the use of gender-neutral pronouns with people who prefer them. Through subsequent postings critical of the political and cultural left, he has become a hero for advocates of free speech, and a idol to people who are opposed to the postmodern promulgation of multiculturalism and gender fluidity. So where does Jordan Peterson fit in the integral schema? In these two episodes of the Daily Evolver Jeff examines Peterson’s message as expressed through his book and his most popular lectures and interviews. In Part One Jeff made the case that Peterson is tantalizingly close to integral thinking, and is making a potent contribution to a large population of primarily (but by no means exclusively) young men, who are inspired by his transmission of traditional values, starting with his exhortation to “stand up straight with your shoulders back.” In this episode, Part Two, Jeff points how Peterson misses the integral mark by seeing postmodernity as a poisonous political ideology rather than a fully fleshed out stage in human evolutionary development, which, like all stages has its gifts and baggage. This misreading kicks off a cascade of conflict and consternation that, while stoking the culture wars, does not provide an authentic evolutionary path forward. Enjoy the episodes and let us know what you think!

Public intellectuals don’t get any hotter than Jordan Peterson. Virtually unknown 18 months ago, he has today amassed over a million subscribers to his YouTube channels and countless millions of views. His new book “12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos” is an international bestseller, nearing the million copy milestone. Peterson, a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto, sparked his fame by posting a lecture announcing his refusal to abide by a new civil rights code in Canada that appeared to legally require the use of gender-neutral pronouns with people who prefer them. Through subsequent postings critical of the political and cultural left, he has become a hero for advocates of free speech, and a idol to people who are opposed to the postmodern promulgation of multiculturalism and gender fluidity. So where does Jordan Peterson fit in the integral schema? In these two episodes of the Daily Evolver Jeff examines Peterson’s message as expressed through his book and his most popular lectures and interviews. In Part One Jeff makes the case that Peterson is tantalizingly close to integral thinking, and is making a great contribution to a large population of primarily (but by no means exclusively) young men, who are inspired by his transmission of traditional values, starting with his exhortation to “stand up straight with your shoulders back.” Check out Part Two as well, where Jeff points how Peterson misses the integral mark by seeing postmodernity as a poisonous political ideology rather than a fully fleshed out stage in human evolutionary development which, like all stages, has its gifts and baggage. This misreading kicks off a cascade of conflict and consternation that, while stoking the culture wars, does not provide an authentic evolutionary path forward. Enjoy the episodes and let us know what you think!

Today Jeff talks with integral teacher Terry Patten about his latest book, A New Republic of the Heart: An Ethos for Revolutionaries. Patten is pioneering a robust and dynamic new form of activism that fuses the “inner work” of personal transformation and awakening with the “outer work” of service and commitment to social justice. He calls this evolutionary activism. Such activism can include social entrepreneurship, conscious business, community building, lifestyle innovation, and much more. It interweaves spiritual evolution with social and political engagement and recognizes that the two are interdependent. The purpose of evolutionary activism is to create whole system change. That means transforming everything from our economic system to how we have conversations. “Changes in consciousness and culture may be as essential to our shared future as reducing our dependence on fossil fuels,” says Patten. It is with integral evolutionary activism that we can bring about the profound transformation of self and world that our era requires. Get your copy of “A New Republic of the Heart” here.

Today Jeff and Corey talk to integral author Chris Grosso about his new book, Dead Set on Living: Making the Difficult but Beautiful Journey from F#@king Up to Waking Up, which features a number of deeply insightful encounters between Chris and various spiritual and cultural luminaries, including Ken Wilber, Ram Dass, Sharon Salzberg, Noah Levine, JP Sears, and many others. The book pivots around Chris’s provocative journey out of the shadows of addiction and the endless empty parade of substitute gratifications, and into the light of spiritual awakening and healthy living. Most importantly, Chris offers the reader a breadcrumb trail of practices and insights to help illuminate their own path to recovery, an invaluable resource for anyone who is struggling with any sort of addiction — whether drugs, alcohol, sex, video games, or any other fixation we use to avoid the inevitable pains and sorrows of our lives. Get your copy of “Dead Set on Living” here.

This week I am happy to share an interview with leading integral philosopher Ken Wilber where he discusses his new book, The Religion of Tomorrow: A Vision for the Future of the Great Traditions. Ken talked for well over an hour about the evolution of human spirituality from its roots in magic and myth and into modernity and postmodernity where, as Ken puts it, “we went from a world where God is everywhere to one where God is nowhere.” But evolution does not stop there, and Ken lays out what we can expect as we continue to wake up and grow up to higher stages: an ever great sense of wholeness, and the dawning of an identity that expands beyond our temporal minds and bodies. Enjoy the episode!

Today Jeff talks with John Mariner, who at the age of 78 is a practicing psychotherapist and writer focusing in the area of elderhood from an integral perspective. As John writes: There have always been Elders at every stage of humanity’s development. They were the wise and compassionate older men and women, never very many, and not always honored and revered during their lifetimes, who lived for the good of this world. John describes elderhood as a stage of development that includes – and transcends – adulthood. He describes his own experience entering this new territory: From age 70 until about 74 the question of ‘who am I?’, ‘who am I now?’ was constantly on my mind. At first I didn’t know I was growing out of Adulthood. At first I was an elder masquerading as an adult, carrying on my adult commitments, many of which I have continued into Elderhood. Gradually, I began to recognize the contours of my new home in Elderhood, the smell and the taste and the feel of this new stage of development. I have been transcending and including Adulthood for several years now. It is both joyful and life giving for me to do so, and I hope it may be useful to you. You can find more of John Mariner’s insights into elderhood, including his beautiful letter to the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school, here.

In this episode Jeff talks with Corey DeVos of Integral Life about the exhilarating emergence of virtual reality technology and the far-reaching implications it has across the full spectrum of human experience, from entertainment to education, to medicine, art, journalism, spiritual practice, sexuality, communication, and any number of other exciting and potentially groundbreaking applications.

Today Jeff talks with integral psychotherapist Dr. Keith Witt about the arising of big data and its effect on our individual and collective psyches. They share their insights on the fascinating new book, Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are. Keith and Jeff discuss: How technology (LR quadrant) and culture (LL quadrant) power evolve in tandem How we deceive ourselves and each other about about sex and self-image – and how we get real How transparency normalizes previously marginalized behavior, in a good way (as Dr. Keith says, “The standard of, ‘Would I do this act if everyone was watching?’ adds a whole new dimension to moral development.”). How to bring discriminating wisdom to today’s world of fake (and true) news