Origins

Ken Wilber's Integral theory is a synthetic metatheory, a theory whose subject matter he intended to organize and integrate pre-existing theories themselves,^[3] doing so in a clear and systematic way.^[4] A synthetic metatheory "classifies whole theories according to some overarching typology."^[4] Wilber's metatheory started in the early 1970s, with the publication of The Spectrum of Consciousness (1977), synthesizing eastern religious traditions with Western schools of psychotherapy and Western developmental psychology.^[5] In The Atman Project (1980), this spectrum was presented as a developmental model, akin to western structural stage theory, models of psychology development that describe human development as following a set course of stages of development.^[6]

According to these early presentations, which rely strongly on perceived analogies between disparate theories (Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga, stage theories of psychological development, and Gebser's theory of collective mutations of consciousness), human development follows a set course, from pre-personal infant development, to personal adult development, culminating in trans-personal spiritual development. In Wilber's model, development starts with the separation of individual consciousness from a transcendental reality. The whole course of human development aims at reconnecting spirit to itself through developing a transcendental consciousness that passes through and then dis-identifies from a mature adult ego. The pre-personal and personal stages are taken from western structural stage theories, which are correlated with other stage theories. In his early work he posited four stages of properly spiritual development, from the psychic to the subtle to the causal to the nondual (the last of which is not properly a stage, but the essence of all stages). This model has a broad resonance with many Eastern models of spiritual development, particularly those found in the Hindu and Buddhist Tantric traditions. They also find rough correlations with the concepts of the Great Chain of Being and Aurobindo's elaboration of the five sheaths or koshas in Hindu thought.^[7][8][9]

Wilber's ideas have grown more and more inclusive over the years, incorporating theories of ontology, epistemology, and methodology,^[10] creating that place as a framework which he calls AQAL, which is shorthand for "All Quadrants All Levels All Lines All States All Types." In this, Wilber's older frameworks are extended with a grid with four quadrants (interior-exterior, individual-collective), to comprehend individual development, collective mutations of consciousness, and levels or holons of neurological functioning and societal organization, in a metatheory, in which all academic disciplines and every form of knowledge and experience are argued to fit together.^[1]

Main influences

Four quadrants

The AQAL-framework has a four-quadrant grid with two axes, namely "interior-exterior," akin to the subjective-objective distinction, and "individual-collective." The left side (interior) mirrors the individual development from structural stage theory, and the collective mutations of consciousness from Gebser. The right side describes levels of neurological functioning and societal organisation. Wilber uses this grid to categorize the perspectives of various theories and scholars:

• Interior individual perspective (upper-left quadrant) describes individual psychological development, as described in structural stage theory, focusing on "I";
• Interior plural perspective (lower-left) describes collective mutations in consciousness, as in Gebser's theory, focusing on "We";
• Exterior individual perspective (upper-right) describes the physical (neurological) correlates of consciousness, from atoms through the nerve-system to the neo-cortex, focusing on observable behaviour, "It";
• Exterior plural perspective (lower-right) describes the organisational levels of society (i.e. a plurality of people) as functional entities seen from outside, e.g. "They."

Each of the four approaches has a valid perspective to offer. The subjective emotional pain of a person who suffers a tragedy is one perspective; the social statistics about such tragedies are different perspectives on the same matter. According to Wilber all are needed for real appreciation of a matter.

According to Wilber, all four perspectives offer complementary, rather than contradictory, perspectives. It is possible for all to be correct, and all are necessary for a complete account of human existence. According to Wilber, each by itself offers only a partial view of reality. According to Wilber modern western society has a pathological focus on the exterior or objective perspective. Such perspectives value that which can be externally measured and tested in a laboratory, but tend to deny or marginalize the left sides (subjectivity, individual experience, feelings, values) as unproven or having no meaning. Wilber identifies this as a fundamental cause of society's malaise, and names the situation resulting from such perspectives, "flatland".

The model is topped with formless awareness, "the simple feeling of being," which is equated with a range of "ultimates" from a variety of eastern traditions. This formless awareness transcends the phenomenal world, which is ultimately only an appearance of some transcendental reality. According to Wilber, the AQAL categories—quadrants, lines, levels, states, and types—describe the relative truth of the two truths doctrine of Buddhism.^{[note 9]}

Levels or stages

The basis of Wilber's theory is his developmental model. Wilber's model follows the discrete structural stages of development, as described in the structural stage theories of developmental psychology, most notably Loevinger's stages of ego development.^{[note 11]} To these stages are added psychic and supernatural experiences and various models of spiritual development, presented as additional and higher stages of structural development. According to Wilber, these stages can be grouped in pre-personal (subconscious motivations), personal (conscious mental processes), and transpersonal (integrative and mystical structures) stages.^{[note 12]}

All of these mental structures are considered to be complementary and legitimate, rather than mutual exclusive. Wilber's equates the levels in psychological and cultural development, with the hierarchical nature of matter itself.

Lines, streams, or intelligences

According to Wilber, various domains or lines of development, or intelligences can be discerned.^[34] They include cognitive, ethical, aesthetic, spiritual, kinesthetic, affective, musical, spatial, logical-mathematical, karmic, etc. For example, one can be highly developed cognitively (cerebrally smart) without being highly developed morally (as in the case of Nazi doctors).

States

States are temporary states of consciousness, such as waking, dreaming and sleeping, bodily sensations, and drug-induced and meditation-induced states. Some states are interpreted as temporary intimations of higher stages of development.^[35][36] Wilber's formulation is: "States are free but structures are earned." A person has to build or earn structure; it cannot be peak-experienced for free. What can be peak-experienced, however, are higher states of freedom from the stage a person is habituated to, so these deeper or higher states can be experienced at any level.^{[note 13]}

Types

These are models and theories that don't fit into Wilber's other categorizations. Masculine/feminine, the nine Enneagram categories, and Jung's archetypes and typologies, among innumerable others, are all valid types in Wilber's schema. Wilber makes types part of his model in order to point out that these distinctions are different from the already mentioned distinctions: quadrants, lines, levels and states.^[38]

Holons

Holons are the individual building blocks of Wilber's model. Wilber borrowed the concept of holons from Arthur Koestler's description of the great chain of being, a mediaeval description of levels of being. "Holon" means that every entity and concept is both an entity on its own, and a hierarchical part of a larger whole. For example, a cell in an organism is both a whole as a cell, and at the same time a part of another whole, the organism. Likewise a letter is a self-existing entity and simultaneously an integral part of a word, which then is part of a sentence, which is part of a paragraph, which is part of a page; and so on. Everything from quarks to matter to energy to ideas can be looked at in this way. The relation between individuals and society is not the same as between cells and organisms though, because individual holons can be members but not parts of social holons.^{[note 8]}

In his book Sex, Ecology, Spirituality: The Spirit of Evolution, Wilber outlines twenty fundamental properties, called "tenets", that characterize all holons.^[39] For example, they must be able to maintain their "wholeness" and also their "part-ness;" a holon that cannot maintain its wholeness will cease to exist and will break up into its constituent parts.

Holons form natural "holarchies", like Russian dolls, where a whole is a part of another whole, in turn part of another whole, and so on. Each holon can be seen from within (subjective, interior perspective) and from the outside (objective, exterior perspective), and from an individual or a collective perspective.^[30]

Integral movement

Wilber's work began to draw a good deal of attention following the completion of Sex, Ecology, Spirituality in 1995.^{[citation needed]} Some individuals affiliated with Ken Wilber have said that there exists a loosely defined "Integral movement".^[40] Others, however, have disagreed.^[41] Whatever its status as a "movement", there are a variety of religious organizations, think tanks, conferences, workshops, and publications in the US and internationally that use the term integral.

According to John Bothwell and David Geier, among the top thinkers in the integral movement are Stanislav Grof, Fred Kofman, George Leonard, Michael Murphy, Jenny Wade, Roger Walsh, Ken Wilber, and Michael E. Zimmerman.^[42] In 2007, Steve McIntosh pointed to Henri Bergson and Teilhard de Chardin as pre-figuring Wilber as integral thinkers.^[43] While in the same year, the editors of What Is Enlightenment? listed as contemporary Integralists Don Edward Beck, Allan Combs, Robert Godwin, Sally Goerner, George Leonard, Michael Murphy, William Irwin Thompson, and Wilber.^[44]

Gary Hampson suggested that there are six intertwined genealogical branches of Integral, based on those who first used the term: those aligned with Aurobindo, Gebser, Wilber, Gangadean, László and Steiner (noting that the Steiner branch is via the conduit of Gidley).^[45]

Applications and publications inspired by Wilber

In the early 2000s there was a recognition within Integral circles that, while the model might be compelling, there lacked methods and guidance concerning how to practically apply it.^{[citation needed]} This deficit was then taken up by a variety of students of Integral, resulting in a number of practical texts across a number of different domains.^{[citation needed]} SUNY Press published twelve books in their "SUNY series in Integral Theory" in the early 2010s,^[46] a number of which are mentioned beneath.

A number of texts have sought to apply Wilber's AQAL model to psychotherapy and psychopathology. Andre Marquis wrote The Integral Intake (2012),^[47] and Integral Psychotherapy: A Unifying Approach (2018).^[48] R. Elliott Ingersoll has helped produce three texts addressing Integral and mental health topics. The first is Psychopharmacology for Helping Professions: An Integral Exploration (2006) co-authored by Carl Rak; the second is a general overview called Integral Psychotherapy: Inside Out/Outside In (2010) co-authored by David Zeitler; and a third co-authored by Dr. Marquis examining all the major forms of psychopathology from an Integral perspective.^[49] Clinical psychologist Mark Forman has also offered a practical approach to utilizing Integral in psychotherapy in A Guide to Integral Psychology: Complexity, Spirituality, and Integration in Practice (2010).^[50]

The Missing Myth (2013) by Gilles Herrada utilizes an Integral framework to examine the topic of same-sex love and relationships from a biological, social, and symbolic/mythic perspective.^[51]

Reinventing Organizations (2014) by Frederick Laloux examines the topic of organizational developmental from an Integral and Spiral Dynamics perspective. It is perhaps the most successful text applying Integral in any domain not written by Wilber, though Wilber does provide a forward to the text.^[52] It has spawned the concept of a Teal Organization,^[53] which is roughly equivalent to the idea of an Integral organization.^{[citation needed]}

Elza Maalouf had used the AQAL-model in her corporate consulting worm in the Middle East.^[54] In his book MEMEnomics Said E. Dawlabani uses "Spiral Dynamics" to develop insights regarding the lead up and aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis. "Integral leadership" is presented as a style of leadership that attempts to integrate major styles of leadership.^[55] Don Beck, Lawrence Chickering, Jack Crittenden, David Sprecher, and Ken Wilber have applied the AQAL-model to issues in political philosophy and applications in government, calling it "integral politics".^[56]

Michael E. Zimmerman and Sean Esbjörn-Hargens have applied Wilber's integral theory in their environmental studies and ecological research, calling it "integral ecology".^{[57][58][59][60]}

Marilyn Hamilton used the term "integral city", describing the city as a living human system, using an integral lens.^[61]

Alternative approaches

Bonnitta Roy has introduced a "process model" of integral theory, combining Western process philosophy, Dzogchen ideas, and Wilberian theory. She distinguishes between Wilber's concept of perspective and the Dzogchen concept of view, arguing that Wilber's view is situated within a framework or structural enfoldment which constrains it, in contrast to the Dzogchen intention of being mindful of view.^[62]

Wendelin Küpers, a German scholar specializing in phenomenological research, has proposed that an "integral pheno-practice" based on aspects of the work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty can provide the basis of an "adequate phenomenology" useful in integral research. His proposed approach is intended to offer a more inclusive and coherent approach than classical phenomenology, including procedures and techniques called epoché, bracketing, reduction, and free variation.^[63]

Sean Esbjörn-Hargens has proposed a new approach to climate change called "integral pluralism", which builds on Wilber's recent work but emphasizes elements such as ontological pluralism that are understated or absent in Wilber's own writings.^[64]

Esbjörn-Hargens later expanded his interest in new approaches to meta-theorizing into engagements with French complexity theorist Edgar Morin as well as philosophy-of-science writer Roy Bhaskar. A multi-year exchange took place at multiple symposia between a group of Integral Theorists and a group versed in Bhaskar's Critical Realism, which included Bhaskar himself. The details of the meetings and its participants are recounted in a joint publication Metatheory for the Twenty-First Century (2015),^[65] which "examines the points of connection and divergence between critical realism and integral theory."^[66] P. Marshall's A Complex Integral Realist Perspective (2016), applying the "integrative metatheories" of Morin, Wilber and Baskar to "[outline] a ‘new axial vision’ for the twenty-first century,"^[67] and was also "informed, broadened and deepened" by these conferences.^[68]