The Integral Stage Expanded Universe (ISEU)

For the fourth episode, they turn from reflection on grieving the death of God and the loss of the transcendental sacred, to grieving the state of the world and the impending loss of the immanent sacred.  They  discuss Nietzsche's insights into the pervasiveness of affective  nihilism in modern cultures, and the strengths and shortcomings of his  prescriptions; the problem of "...

For the third episode, we continue our discussion of griefwork and reflect on the meaning of the "death of God," the factors that have forestalled many in the modern world from properly grieving this loss, and what such a grief process would look like.

Layman is joined by Jason Medland to talk about the wisdom and insight from both software engineering and long-running Western esoteric traditions, such as the Free Masons, for organizing effectively, preventing system stagnation, maintaining high-level sensemaking and moral commitment, promoting the continued growth of members, and much more.  Jason Medland is an OpenSource Software/Systems...

In Re/thinking Religion, a new Integral Stage series, John Vervaeke joins Bruce Alderman and Layman Pascal to explore possible points of contact and confluence between their respective approaches to religion and spirituality.  For the second episode, we discuss the distinction between absolute and relative in traditional and modern metaphysics, the Two Worlds mythology, and the Ascender and D...

In this episode of New Education Systems, Layman is joined by Bonnitta Roy to talk about her new experiment in serial, transformative education: The Pop-Up School.  They discuss her inspirations and intentions for the school; her life-long history as an educator; the shortcomings of many current educational models; her ideal transformational curriculum; and the importance of education for the...

In this special Integral Stage episode, Layman Pascal is joined by Cadell Last to inquire into the concept of self-relating negativity; the place of lack and the 'gap' in our thinking; the importance of Hegelian and Zizekian perspectives for emerging integrative and metamodern worldviews; the status and problem of the "One"; the question of suffering and our relationship to psychopathology and the...

John Bunzl joins Layman to take a deeper look into Simpol, following his Integral Stage presentation for the Eutopia series.   What was the origin of the Simpol idea?  How does it relate to evolutionary process?  How can it serve worldcentric and healthy nationalist interests simultaneously?  How does it manifest in all four quadrants?  How can it serve global health and f...

For episode 15 of LOVE THE SYSTEM , Layman is joined by Welf von Hören to talk about his work co-founding the company, and launching the app, Potential, which aims to transform users' phones to help them unlock better choices.  Together they explore the potential for technology to help individuals strengthen agency, set and keep intentions, outgame the attention economy, and interface with AI...

Layman is joined by Krishna Gauci, a spiritual teacher and a disciple of HWL Poonja, to discuss the traditional and contemporary value of satsang; his experience and understanding of the nature and dynamics of spiritual transmission; the qualities needed in students and teachers to amplify and most benefit from satsang or other 'transmissive' contexts and encounters; healthy, unhealthy, and diffic...

Layman is joined by Charlotte Cecil and Sophie Allen, the founders of Thrivespring, an organization dedicated to fostering community resilience and disaster preparedness.  Layman introduces his new Ontario Depth Adaptation (ODA) project, and then discusses with Charlotte and Sophie the genesis and mission of their Thrivespring project, and the practical,  political, and psychological dyn...

In Re/thinking Religion , a new Integral Stage series, John Vervaeke joins Bruce Alderman & Layman Pascal to explore possible points of contact and confluence between their respective approaches to religion and spirituality.  For this inaugural episode, we feel into some of the commonalities and differences between Integral Postmetaphysical Spirituality and Integral Transformative Practic...

In this episode of new Education Systems, Layman Pascal talks to Jim Rutt about potential pathways to Game B models of education.  Jim Rutt is the former CEO of Network Solutions. The New York Times once referred to him as “the Internet’s bad boy” due to his reputation for creative mischief. He sold Network Solutions at the peak of the Dot Com boom and then went into scientific research. Jim...

Layman is joined by Creston Davis, Ph. D., to discuss his innovate, blockchain-modeled higher education project, The Global Center for Advanced Studies (GCAS).  They discuss the genesis and intentions for the project; the problems of the debt-strapping of so many students, and the overwork of faculty, under our current system; the promise of P2P, decentralized approaches to education going fo...

Layman is joined by Rich Tafel, a conservative, gay, integrally informed and mystically inclined Swedenborgian pastor and Washington political operative, to talk about communitarian conservatism, the pragmatic dimensions of post-postmodern political change, the spiritual dimension of the American zeitgeist, the opportunities for a hybrid of healthy progressive and conservative values that just mig...

In the early 2000s, Ken Wilber began to publish excerpts from his long-awaited follow-up to Sex, Ecology, Spirituality, tentatively titled "Kosmic Karma and Creativity" or "Sex, Karma, Creativity."  In it he was no longer writing, as he said, for the general public; he was writing for serious students of his vision.  That version of a promised second volume of the Kosmos Trilogy never ap...

For episode 10 of the LOVE THE SYSTEM series, Layman is joined by Dr. Marc Gafni, the co-founder of the Center for Integral Wisdom and the author of multiple books and essays on integrative spirituality and spiritual activism.  Marc presents his vision of what a planetary politics could and should be, and together they explore the question of AI and the enormous challenges manipulative algori...

In this episode of the Metamodels series, Bruce and Layman are joined by Ken Wilber, one of the greatest metatheorists of the past century, and a primary inspiration for many of us on this channel.  Armed with vision-logic machetes, Bruce and Layman take a trek into the Wilberness to explore the guiding drive or call behind Ken's metatheoretical work for the past 50 years; his thoughts on wha...

Bruce Alderman, Layman Pascal &Gregg Henriques continue their trialogue on the meaning and promise of a sacred or sophianic naturalism for our time.  In part three of the discussion, they take a deep dive into the topic of shamanism -- considering the nature and function of the shaman historically, in contemporary cultural and psychotherapeutic expressions, and as an archetype for the kin...

Bruce Alderman, Layman Pascal, & Gregg Henriques continue their trialogue on the meaning and promise of a sacred or sophianic naturalism for our time.  In this second episode, they reflect on the relevance of insights from " The Elusive I " & " An 'I' for an Elusive I " discussions for this project, and the relation of John Vervaeke's and Gregg's models to evolutionary spirituality; t...

Layman is joined by Forrest Landry, philosopher of Immanent Metaphysics, a great lover of trinities, a possible mentat, and through his work on human assembly and ephemeral group processes, among other things, a serious contributor to both the theory and practice of more agile, more benevolent, and more satisfying group behavior.  In their conversation, they focus on some of the core concepts...

Layman welcomes author, entrepreneur, and psychometric AI pioneer, Avi Tuschman, to talk about the pollution of the knowledge ecology through rampant dis- and misinformation, and how Wikipedia might be used as a model for bringing greater integrity to our social media knowledge commons.   Avi Tuschman, Ph. D., is an evolutionary anthropologist, an expert on the hidden roots of political orien...

Layman is joined by evolutionary enlightenment teacher, Andrew Cohen.   Andrew recounts his early experiences with his teacher, H.W.L. Poonja, and he explores with Layman the questions of what factors might serve to amplify transmission in certain people or places; the nature and role of subtle energy in relation to transmission dynamics; transmission in intersubjective or group contexts; the...

Layman and Bruce continue their trialogue with Alexander Bard, this time focusing in Nietzsche and nihilism -- the types of nihilism and its stages; its role in paradigm transition; its relationship to cynicism and enlightened false consciousness; the roles of the trickster, priest, and chief; Dionysian vs. Cybelian sensibilities; sutric vs. tantric orientations; transformation in light of the dyn...

Bruce Alderman sits down with Lee Nichol to discuss some of the intricacies of David Bohm's work.  In our broader integrative meta-community, and here on The Integral Stage as well, there has been a lot of concern recently with what John Vervaeke calls the 'meaning crisis.'  Back in the late 70s and 80s, dimensions of this crisis were already quite apparent to a number of thinkers, from...

For the seventh episode of the FIRE FROM HEAVEN series, Saniel Bonder and Linda Groves-Bonder return for a follow-up dialogue with Layman, this time to discuss an upcoming book, and then to explore the concept of spiritual democracy ; the place and dynamics of transmission in a democratized spiritual context ; the importance of embodiment and ecological awareness in developing or emerging spiritua...