The Integral Paradigm

Just cross-posting this on Gaia com (formerly Zaadz) as well.

My book, previously called Integral Metaphysics and Transformation, will now be called The Integral Paradigm (with apologies to Thomas Kuhn!). I feel that Paradigm is a broader and hence more useful term than metaphysics, even if it is a bit New Agey.

Also, the phrase the Integral Movement (which I previously used) is inappropriate for anything other than the Wilber-Beck-Cohen-etc movement (which I previously called "Integral Movement sensu stricta"). Because it is not a movement as such, but rather a frame of reference (hence "paradigm" a la Fritjof Capra).

Basically I define the Integral Paradigm in terms of seven central interrelated and interweaving themes:

1) Manysidedness (in Jainism Anekantavada), Broadness, All-Inclusiveness)
2) Metaphysics, Esotericism, Gnosis, (Absolutre Reality, Great Chain of Being, evolving body of godhead, etc)
3) Evolution, (includes Spiritual evolution, but also scientific e.g. Darwinian, evolution), Creativity, spontaneity
4) Empathy for all beings, Sentientism, I-Thou (Buber), Participatory epistemology & spirituality
5) Co-Creation, Transformation of self and society, and of all aspects of the being
6) Synthesis of all partial perspectives and practices in a larger or universal integral whole
7) Singularity, Divinization, Perfection (Omega Point, Supramentalization, Transhumanist Singularity, etc)

This represents a radical revisioning previous definitions of Integral philosophy.

Previously, the definition of Integral visionaries has been mostly limited to those recommended or described by Wilber (Integral Psychology), the EnlightenNext editors, and others. So Aurobindo, Gebser, and Wilber are considered integral but not Teilhard. Or Aurobindo, Teilhard, Gebser, and Wilber are integral but not Mahatma Gandhi, Fritjof Capra, or Peter Russell. Hence an emphasis on developmental psychology, postmodern philosophy, Tibetan Buddhism, and so on, which can be found in many Integralist blogs. These are all worthy topics, but they reflect Wilber's interests, not teh Integral Paradigm as such. So the whole thing quickly deteriorates into yet another (albeit benign and useful) New Age religious movement based around a charismatic leader.

In my book I take a very different tack. This is different even to my previous essays, where I was looking for some common stream or thread that can define "Integral". But any such approach is self-limiting.

While it is easy to make fun of the belief that only those who advocate Wilber's AQAL philosophy represent the evolutionary elite, the top 2%, or whatever, what is harder is to define what the Integral Paradigm actually is. My current position is that the classic New Age movement is just as much, or as little, Integral as the Wilber-inspired movement that currently bears the name. Which isn't in any way to denegrate the latter. Or the former.

I emphasise Classic New Age, what Hanegraaff (New Age Religion and Western Culture) calls the New Age sensu stricta. By this is meant people like David Spangler, Jose Arguelles, etc, not dumbed down stuff like The Secret (my original comment on this here, while Stuart Davis provides a more detailed critique). David Spangler rightly attacks such "New Age glamour"; is it any wonder he has decided to distance himself from the whole movement!

Then there is Russian Cosmism; and you have people like Barbara Marx Hubbard; in fact it soon becomes apparent that the Integral Paradigm is much vaster than what is currently referred to as the "Integral Movement".

I've several times even considered scrapping the term "integral" altogether. This is so I don't have to be limited to the Wilber-inspired movement (which is but one contemporary stream of the Integral paradigm, albeit an important one). Unfortunately, there are no good alternatives. "The Cosmic Paradigm" sounds pretentious and silly. So it looks like Integral it is!

New insights

Following a hiatus of several months (due to a cycling accident) I've come back to my book again, although I won't be doing much or any work on it until I have finished a revision of my website. Basically though, my metaphysics and methodology have changed, as in both these I no longer give priority to any intellectual systems of thought that lack gnosis.

From this new perspective, my old arrangement or metaphysic was based too much on a mental interpretation of an old fashioned interpretation of the "Great Chain of Being". In the revised book I will retain the "Great Chain of Being", but only as one orientating perspective or partial understanding of Reality among many. Otehr perspectives are nonduality, supramentalisation, etc. There is still a hierarchy though, in that Supramentalisation is a far more profound and all-encompasisng Realisation than Nonduality, just as Nonduality is far more profound than Avidya/Maya/Samsara (relative consciousness).

So rather than ontological realities, the emphasis will be on the hypostases (levels of being, e.g. Manifest Absolute etc) as states of greater or lesser Enlightenment and trans-enlightenment; as different ways of experiencing the Absolute. This does not mean that i am buying into some sort of postmodernist wilber-V interpretation that says there is no such thing as metaphysics, levels of being etc, as I still fully acknowledge such realities.

In any case, I believe this approach is truer to Sri Aurobindo and the Mother's position, which remains my central orientating perspective

Book update

An update on my book in progress.

Currently the manuscript is being reorganised. I've renamed it Integral Metaphysics and Transformation. Some of the material in the early chapters has been moved to other chapters. There will be less stuff on the Wilberian (current mainstream) Integral Movement, which basically I have to say is just another exoteric philosophy and intellectual new age religious movement, and more on my own unique Integral Vision. Rather than just reacting to and writing within the context of the current Integral Movement, which I find to be very limiting (because of its exoteric religious and overly mental nature), I'm presenting a more active and unique worldview based on gnosis and practical transformation. This will be a new definition of "Integral", going back to Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, the real founders. Also I'm making the language a bit snappier and more provocative; the previous drafts were rather too tame. I was trying to hard to be polite, and a think a lot was lost as a result. There are times when one has to speak out strongly and boldly.

Progress report on my book Integral Metaphysics

I haven't posted anything in a whole because I've been so busy on my book, which will now be called Integral Metaphysics

From the preface

The present book is the end result of my own long path of exploration in and experiences with the teachings and practice of science, esotericism, occultism, spirituality, the alternative movement, the New Age movement, and the Integral movement. The result is both a bringing together of all these fields, and a new description of reality that builds on those foundations.

Although the intention here is to present a visionary rather than an academic account, I have tried as much as possible to provide references and footnotes to the various concepts. But because I am an intuitive thinker rather than an academic, there are more details and much better references when it comes to subjects I know about, and much less, or only secondary or tertiary references, on topics I am not. I have also tried to write this book in a way that anyone can understand, yet at the same include complex and subtle topics. This has meant wherever possible replacing a difficult word with a simpler one. Whether or not I have succeeded is up to the reader to decide.

From the introduction: (about the title)

The title, “Integral Metaphysics”, refers to the synthesis of two topics that have grabbed my interest over the years. “Integral” (in the philosophical and spiritual context) is a poorly defined concept that refers to a universal explanation of everything in terms of an evolutionary philosophy of personal and social transformation. “Metaphysics” refers to all the big questions about the nature of life, the universe, and Reality as a whole. It pertains not just to the visible physical world, but the invisible, non-physical reality as well. “Integral Metaphysics” combines both these themes. It also describes an evolutionary transformation culminating in personal and global divinisation.

Tentative table of contents (without indenting, and the minor sections in parts IV to VII are not generally worked out, and those that are listed are not numbered). Note that this list and arrangement of topics will almost certainly change as the book proceeds. I am very interested in any comments and feedback, inclyuding suggestions for further topics that should be included.

Preface
Acknowledgments
Contents
Part I. Introduction
1. Introduction
1-i Outline of the Present Book
1-ii How this book came to be written
1-iii. Don't take this book as dogma
2. Biographies
2-i. Difficulties facing the biographer
2-ii. Sri Aurobindo
2-iii. The Mother
2-v. Avoiding the fundamentalist trap
Part II Integral
3. Exoteric and Esoteric
3-i. Religion and Science, Exoteric and Esoteric
3-ii. Esotericism is not Elitism
4. Going beyond the current Consensus
4-i. The Consensus Western Worldview
4-ii. Religionism
4-iii. “Religious” versus “Spiritual”
4-iv. Secular knowledge, Science and Scientism
4-v. The Limitation of Reason
4-vi The need for a new, more Universal understanding
5. The Universal Approach
5-i The Blind Men and the Elephant
5-ii The Fox and the Hedgehog – Relativism and Universalism
6. The Integral Alternative
6-i. “Integral” in the spiritual-philosophical sense
6-ii. Sri Aurobindo and his influence
6-iii. Pitirim Sorokin's social theory
6-iv. Jean Gebser's structures of consciousness
6-v. Counter-Culture, New Age, and the Alternative movement
6-vi. Ray and Anderson's Cultural Creatives
6-vii. Ken Wilber's Integral theory
6-viii. Other Integral thinkers
6-ix. Exoteric Integralism
6-x. Kuhn's Paradigm hypothesis, and follow-up interpretations
6-xi. Is there such a thing as an “Integral Paradigm”?
6-xii. The Moral dimension
6-xiii. Exoteric Integral – a definition
Part III Metaphysics
7. Metaphysics
7-i. The many definitions of Metaphysics
8. What is Consciousness?
8-i Philosophy of Consciousness - The Mind-Body problem
8-ii. Consciousness in Kashmir Shaivism
9. Esotericism and Gnosis
9-i The recovery of spiritual wisdom
9-ii. Reason, Faith, and Gnosis
9-iii. Epistemology and Gnosis
9-iv. Occultism
9-v. Esotericism
9-vi. The Perennial Philosophy
9-vii. The Mystical Experience
9-viii. Beyond the refusal of the Ascetic
9-ix. A personal definition of Gnosis
10 Reply to the Academic Critique
10-i. Reply to empiricist-based physicalism
10-ii. Reply to the “myth of the given”.
10-iii. Reply to postmodernism
10-iv. Why sceptical reductionism cannot understand esotericism
11. The Esoteric Integral Alternative
11-i. Defining the Esoteric Integral Paradigm
11-ii. Fundamental premises
Part IV. First Philosophy (chapters to be revised)
12. The Supreme Reality
o The Absolute Reality
o The problem of defining God
o (more)
13. Emanation, Polarity, and Change
o The Ontological Gradation and the Theory of Emanation
o Polarity
o From One to Many
14. Causality, Karma, and Empathy
o Dependent Origination
o Change
Part V. Being
15. Occultism and Cosmology (the macrocosm)
o The Concept of Planes of Existence
o Dualism versus Ontological Gradation
o Hierarchy and Unity
o Multiple Parameters
o Noospace – Dimensions of Consciousness
16. Psychology (the microcosm)
17. The Physocosm (Larger Physical Reality) and its subdivisions
o The Physocosm and its four states
o Physical-Mundane Reality (or state)
o The Mundane Physical Mind
o Etherophysical (paraphysical) Reality
o Subtle physical (esoteric) Reality
o Causal physical Reality
o Inner Divinity
18. Astral Reality - Orectocosm
19. Mental Reality – Noocosm
Part VI. Process
20. Process
21 Kalpas and Universes
22 Tohu and Tikkun
23 Rounds and Dimensions
24. Evolution and Hypostases
Part VII. Divinisation
25 The Yoga of Ascent and the Yoga of Descent
26. Enlightenment / Self-Realisation
27. Divine Soul / Soul-Realisatrion
28. Higher revelation and gnosis
29. Cosmic revelation – God-Realisation
30. Supramentalisation (Cosmic Redemption)
Appendices
o Appendix 1 - “The Divinisation Of Matter - Lurianic Kabbalah, Sri Aurobindo, and the New Physics” by M.Alan Kazlev
o Appendix 2 - “Towards a Foundation of a Universal Esoteric Science”, by M.Alan Kazlev, (with additional comments by Steven Guth and Arvan Harvat)
o Appendix 3 – “Multidimensional Science” by Robert Searle
Glossary of names and teachings
Glossary of technical terms
Index