The Future is Present: Integral Consciousness in the Social Imaginary

The Future is Present: Integral Consciousness in the Social Imaginary
with Jeremy Johnson

What if we situated this “moment” in cultural evolution. As the new integral ontology slowly gains a foothold in the social imaginary of the present, the outlived civilizational mentality holds on strong, preventing or at times capturing integral emergence in its fractured gaze. The evolution of “We-Space” rests on the fundamental understanding that cultural evolution is moving from a process of differentiation (which has now become dissociation) to coherence. The opacious self opens up into the open sky of integral transparency. In this mutational period, new sense making capacities are brought forth from the human being in order to creatively answer civilizational crisis. The presentation will conclude with exploring what the new integral ontology is inviting us to realize in our lives. There is a “poetics of the present,” a new sense of time in which the past and the future are entangled here and now. We will utilize the “social imaginary” to fold the human into the more-than-human world,… a truly planetary culture.

About
Jeremy D Johnson is a philosopher, editor, and Senior Research Associate at Perspectiva. His academic research, writing, and publishing advocates new forays into integrative thinking and praxis—aligning the scholastic, poetic, and spiritual—as existentially crucial work for pathfinding in a time of planetary crisis. He is the author of Seeing Through the World: Jean Gebser and Integral Consciousness, editor of Mutations: Art, Consciousness and the Anthropocene (2020) and host of the Mutations podcast. Jeremy currently serves as president for the International Jean Gebser Society and is working on his second book, Fragments of an Integral Future (2021). You can read more on his Patreon.

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In February, 2017 San Diego Integral began the Focused Integral Group Discussion (FIGD) which is a meta-structuring format where we briefly switch into an agreed upon process to optimally utilize the We-Space. The objective of FIGD is to collectively feel deeper into any topic and promote a causal state experience where we briefly switch from a collective I to a collective we. A Focused Integral Group process is "running in the background" until a salient moment rises that we want to explore. This may be derived from a presentation, a poignant comment by a member, a poem...whatever has resonance and can be horizontally expanded by the collective. This moment is identified by the "moderator" who helps maintain focus.

FIGD have three parts. It begins with a formal focus, followed by commentary on the process and then a discussion. Each segment lasts for 3-8 minutes. We have committed to a minimal of three FIGD per meeting. We have found that the intensity of these collective focused moments have increased with experience and skill and seem to delightfully persist throughout the three phases. This is very much an experimental process we have been Improving upon after each meeting.

As previously mentioned FIGD was initially described for the February, 2017. The sequential evolution of FIGD can be seen in the PAGES tab above. New or returning members are encouraged to read these brief papers in preparation for participation. Updates have followed each SDI meeting.

SDI is committed to the creative advance into novelty.

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