Seeds of a Second Renaissance Issue 3 (Apr 2025) - Integral Theory II: Mapping "Levels" of Development
A basic introduction to Integral "levels": a hopeful map of personal and societal evolution. Plus, events & opportunities in the field of inner-led change.
Welcome to Seeds of a Second Renaissance* — a monthly newsletter for explorers of inner-led change towards radically wiser societies.
For both seasoned travellers and those new to these shores, each edition offers a bite-sized exploration of keystone ideas and thinkers whose work you may wish to know more deeply.
(For curated events, opportunities, and resources from around the ecosystem, just skip to the end.)
Integral Theory: the basics - part 2
Let’s continue our very basic digest of Integral Theory. Last time, we introduced the AQAL (“All Quadrants, All Levels”) model, based on Ken Wilber’s synthesis of knowledge systems and wisdom traditions across history and cultures. We explored the “quadrants”: four irreducible perspectives to touch base with for a more thorough understanding of a given reality. Today, we’ll tackle “levels”: the Integral map of “holonic” human growth, which suggests hopeful possibilities for personal and societal evolution.
Levels: A Developmental Perspective on Human Consciousness, Cultures, and Systems
According to AQAL, throughout all quadrants, reality is composed of “holons” — whole entities in themselves, which are also part of larger wholes. Ascending “levels” represent holons of increasing complexity and entail new capacities. For example, within the interior-individual quadrant, psychological development is mapped across a spectrum from egoic to transpersonal awareness. Meanwhile in the exterior-collective quadrant, we might observe the development of social systems through stages of increasing complexity: from tribes to empires to mass democracies to global networks.
Integral “levels” are most commonly applied to human consciousness and culture — or, psychological, spiritual, social, and moral growth. Here, levels progress from: egocentric (self-focused) through ethnocentric (in-group) to worldcentric (care for all humanity) and ultimately kosmocentric (transpersonal union with manifest and unmanifest reality). (The model has roots in Jean Gebser’s Structures of Consciousness.)
In the Integral framework, each stage of development “transcends and includes” the previous. Ideally therefore, higher levels do not reject or dismiss the insights or values of earlier ones as inferior — but build upon and integrate them. For example, a toddler is less (cognitively) complex than a grown adult, but we don’t consider them inferior — simply at an earlier developmental stage.
This principle can be harder to observe in a stage model of cultural evolution. History is littered with examples of more complex cultures that have treated different modes of social organisation as inferior. Integral might respond that such an attitude represents an advance in social organisation (lower right quadrant) to a higher stage of complexity, while worldview (lower left) remains at a less developed (ethnocentric) level. The tension reinforces the value of understanding which quadrant we’re operating in.
Integral isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, and the framework is often criticised for its too-linear or tidy picture of human transformation. Wilber himself points out that in reality “development is a very messy affair! The basic levels or basic waves simply represent some of the more noticeable bends in the great River of Life, nothing more, nothing less.”1
Integral theorists also emphasise that “the map is not the territory” — and that any scale of measurement is somewhat arbitrary. Nonetheless, Wilber distilled over 100 models of human consciousness from psychology and spiritual traditions into his schema. As maps go, few are this ambitious or holistic.
Why do levels matter?
Understanding levels can help us to navigate conflicts and foster empathy. For example, our deepest values and identities reflect levels of both individual and cultural development. Where painful conflict arises between political groups, it’s often possible to identify clashes between different levels of worldview. Awareness of quadrants and levels can help us to understand the values of others and even integrate polarities.
Lastly, levels offer a hopeful vision of future cultural evolution towards awakened consciousness and widening circles of care — rooted in centuries of contemplative and psychological teachings, across many different cultures and traditions.
In our time of intense polarisation, an Integral understanding could be vital: supporting real appreciation of differing perspectives, expanding our capacity to hold polarities as part of rich and complex systems, and reminding us of ever-present potential for human transformation.
Explore the field of inner-led change…
A selection of events, opportunities, and resources recommended by readers, friends, and allies in the arena of inner-led regeneration.
👋 Help us to showcase the best opportunities and resources: please suggest items to include in the Second Renaissance forum thread.
Upcoming Events & Courses
Summer Course: Integral Theory for Idiots with Layman Pascal
📍Online 📅 6-27 July 2025 💸 Early Bird tickets available now for €280
“There are three kinds of people in this world. There are many folks who feel they don’t know enough about Integral Theory, some folks who still think it’s the best thing ever, & an unknown number of integral cynics who think it is limited, flawed, misleading, and already outdated. Integral Theory for Idiots is for all three types. Layman Pascal will put you all in a blender together — framing the discussion as part of the general field of developmental metatheories, liminal culture & adaptation to the new bio-informational planetary situation. This carnivalesque educational and participatory journey will be part (lively) introduction, part (dancing) critique, and part (enthusiastic) appreciation.”
UTOK Conference on Consciousness
📍Online 📅 25-27 April 2025 💸 $0 to $25
“UTOK, the Unified Theory of Knowledge, is a groundbreaking naturalistic worldview for the 21st century, developed by Professor Gregg Henriques. Professor John Vervaeke, a world-renowned cognitive scientist, has pioneered a cutting-edge theory of cognitive agency known as recursive relevance realization. Together, they have developed Extended Naturalism, a framework that offers a transformative understanding of emergence, ontology, epistemology, phenomenology, and human psychology …. Join them and other leading thinkers at this conference to explore this potentially revolutionary perspective.”
European Bildung Days 2025: How to Promote Bildung
📍Hamar, Norway 📅 8-10 May 2025. N.B. Ticket sales close on 25 April. 💸 Standard ticket: €269. Concessions for students.
Conference, workshops and public event hosted by the Global Bildung Network: “How do we promote bildung? How do we educate so that we promote students’ bildung? How do we promote awareness about bildung in society? Particularly among politicians and other decision makers? Join us for some thought provoking, creative, and festive European Bildung Days in Hamar with other bildung professionals, semi-professionals, volunteers, researchers, and perhaps even some politicians.”
Resilience Rucksack Workshop
📍Online 📅 7 May, 3-4:30pm or 8 May 2025, 12:30-2pm BST 💸 Free taster sessions
From our friends at The Resilience Project: “Our Resilience Rucksack workshop is one of our most popular offers - exploring themes of climate anxiety, wellbeing and resilience. … Learn how to face eco anxiety head-on and leave with tools that will help you to stay grounded, avoid burnout, and keep showing up for the planet.”
Jobs & Opportunities
Volunteer at Inner Development Goals Summit 2025
📍Stockholm, Sweden 📅 15-17 October 2025
“The Summit is the annual flagship event of the IDGs. It highlights best practice stories from business, governments, civil society & academia on how inner skills can lead to outer change and explores tools & methods on how to develop these skills individually, in teams and as organisations. The Summit aims to create a lived experience of the IDGs that will foster a feeling of inspiration, hope & community and shift the narrative on sustainability and human development. … IDG Volunteers play a critical role in ensuring the success of the event and creating a welcoming and engaging atmosphere for all attendees.”
Youth 4 Climate: Call for Solutions 2025
📍Open to youth from 159 countries and territories covered by UNDP 📅 Apply by 26 May 2025
“Y4C’s Call for Solutions is a global innovation challenge for Youth and Youth-led organizations working on climate action focused projects. The Call aims to fund new and existing youth-led solutions that are ready to implement or scale, and to support the further development of young people's ideas and projects by providing relevant learning opportunities with the support of partners. … In 2025, the Youth4Climate Call for Solutions launches its third round of funding opportunities for young people aged 18 to 29 and youth-led entities. Applicants to the Call for Solutions can request up to USD 30,000 in seed funding.”
2025 Ecoversities Residencies Program – Open Call for Proposals
📍Multiple 📅 Apply by 30 April 2025
“The Ecoversities Residencies Program is a relational, co-learning experience. Through this program, the PER Circle offers seed funds and companionship for your journey, providing ongoing support before, during, and after your residency. We invite members of the Ecoversities Alliance and participants of an Ecoversity (community, organization, project or collective that is member of Ecoversities Alliance), to immerse themselves in a different Ecoversity context, cross-pollinate knowledge, and strengthen the Ecoverse fabric by engaging deeply with local practices, wisdom, and communities. This is an opportunity to co-create meaningful experiences that go beyond a temporary visit and instead foster long-term relationships.”
The Commons: General Manager
📍San Francisco, California, USA 📅 Apply by 15 May 2025
“The Commons is a community-based “Fourth Place” that catalyzes each member’s path to authenticity, full self-expression, and aliveness - rooted in the belief that community is essential to that journey. …We’re now seeking a General Manager to take on day-to-day leadership—operationalizing and expanding the Commons, and ensuring it remains both soulful and sustainable as it grows.”
Climate Psychology Alliance: Communications Coordinator (Temporary, part-time)
📍UK-based 📅 Apply by 5pm on 25 April 2025
Climate Psychology Alliance (CPA) is “a membership organisation whose purpose is to explore psychological responses to the climate crisis in order to strengthen relationships and resilience for a just future.” They are looking for “a new temporary communications coordinator for four months” to “lead on our internal and external communications and administration”.
Second Renaissance
*“Second Renaissance” is one way of framing current times as a period of civilisational crisis and potential renewal – and of pointing to an ecosystem of people and organisations working to catalyse the emergence of a new, regenerative, cultural paradigm. If you recognise terms like metacrisis, Metamodern, Regenerative, Liminal Web, Game B, Integral, conscious evolution and so on, then you’re on familiar ground. Explore the core thesis and theory of change in more detail here.
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Finally, we leave you with some —
Art to nourish the soul…
A poem by Irish poet David Whyte (1955-present), which invites us into the beauty of vulnerability and opening to intimate contact with the world.
This is an excerpt from ‘Intimate Invitation’:
… But come here now,
into the arms
of the waiting world,
put down
that heavy burden
you have carried so long,
and rest
from the hard,
every day labour
of not hurting,
or not feeling,
or not hearing,
or not saying
or seeing.
Stop keeping
the tears at bay.
Give it all up,
just come home.
Listen to a beautiful reading of the whole poem by David Whyte on this episode of The Point of Relation podcast with Thomas Hübl [19:05-22:08].
Wilber, Ken (2000). Integral Psychology: Consciousness, Spirit, Psychology, Therapy. Boston & London: Shambhala Publications. p.7.
Thank you for reading the third issue of Seeds of a Second Renaissance.