Evolutionary Enlightenment and Integral Theory

Spiral Dynamics and Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory describe eight structure stages of consciousness and culture.

The theory is that humanity has progressed, and is progressing, through these different stages in an ongoing spiral of development. Each one is color-coded, with the spiral ascending in the first tier from beige/infrared (survival) to purple/magenta (tribal) to red (power driven) to blue/amber (traditional) to orange (rational) and finally to green (sensitive). Here the spiral moves into a second tier, where yellow/teal (integral) emerges and evolves towards turquoise (holistic) and beyond.

Each higher stage transcends and includes the previous one, leading to ever greater complexity of both consciousness and culture. The later stages of teal and turquoise are still embryonic, in the very first stages of emergence – as such, they have not yet built tangible cultural worldspaces.

Unlike the green (sensitive/postmodern) structure stage, which you can experience definitively in, for example, the Netherlands or California, there is no place on earth where you can experience how it would be to live in a culture that embraces teal or turquoise consciousness. Only our most progressive and enlightened utopian science fiction and fantasy stories begin to imagine such a culture!

In Manifest Nirvana, our ambitious aim is to build a proof-of-concept spiritually enlightened culture at the turquoise stage of cultural development; one in which we create turquoise values and live turquoise lives. To use Ken Wilber’s vernacular, we are aiming to “grow up” into turquoise.

We see ourselves as evolutionarily inspired sovereign souls, radical spirits and integral pioneers. We embrace the perennial freedom that arises when we wake up to our True Self in deep meditation, and our Authentic Self in the ecstatic urgency of Eros – when we rise from our meditation cushion and become animated by the Evolutionary Impulse, we awaken to this new and dynamic expression of enlightened consciousness.

The five tenets of Evolutionary Enlightenment are both the path and the goal of our practice. We start with an unwavering commitment that puts our desire for liberation front and centre, as the highest priority in our lives – nothing less than a full and wholehearted surrender to spirit.

Within this elevated context, we take full responsibility for our lives here and now. We make every effort to see clearly, to face everything and avoid nothing, whether it be interior or exterior. We recognize that we are part of a single, ongoing and dynamic process that perpetually calls us to co-create the future.

Finally, we realize that we are on this path not for our own sake, but for the sake of the whole – for all of existence. We realize that this is not about ourselves alone, but rather about the evolution of both the inside and the outside of the universe itself.

These last two tenets of Andrew Cohen’s teaching are, and always have been, pointing directly towards the turquoise structure stage of development that is the context of this talk.

When the awakened condition and state of the Authentic Self shines through a Turquoise center of gravity, we recognize all of reality as deeply connected. All earlier structure stages are integrated and can be accessed at will, enabling us to connect effortlessly to the whole spiral.

We integrate our survival instincts without falling prey to them. We rediscover the power of rituals, without naively romanticizing tribal cultures. We know when and how to use our power. We are able to live a spiritually inspired life without the dogma of traditional religion. We rediscover the importance of intuition, without losing our ability for rational thinking, and without rejecting the advances of modernity. We express kindness and compassion – and we have sensitivity to our feelings, without being narcissistically focused on them.

We experience all of existence as one single, interconnected, ever-creative process moving through time; always leaning into the next possibility, uninhibited by the fears and desires of the small self or ego. We are free to be a vehicle for the creative impulse.

Most importantly, we are now free to come together with others and follow the deep call of our liberated Authentic Self. We are naturally compelled to connect with other Authentic Selves, seeing our own liberation within the other, as nothing less than the call of the One Self to itself.

When spiritually-awakened consciousness shines through the turquoise structure stage, we see without any doubt that coming together beyond ego is the key to solving the challenges of our world.

In this talk, Daniela Bomatter will explore the profound relationship between Evolutionary Enlightenment and Integral Theory, and how a fusion of these approaches offers us the potential to build a new future that is rooted in awakened turquoise consciousness.