Podcast appearances and mentions of brendan graham dempsey

How can a forward-looking, evolution-inclined spirituality, not tied to dogma or history, offer us a sense of meaning and purpose in a time of cultural upheaval powered by AI? Can a metamodern spiritual path also include a new perspective and appreciation of Christianity and the many faces, or dimensions, of Jesus Christ?In the newest conversation in the Portals series exploring metamodern spirituality, Aviv Shahar welcomes back metamodern leader Brendan Graham Dempsey. Brendan is a unique voice who combines a deep personal experience with Christianity and a pioneering study and exploration of metamodern thinking and philosophy.Together, he and Aviv trace the amazing evolution of the human notion and idea of God, from ancient cultures through the Enlightenment and into today. There are new insights into the appearance of Jesus and the rising importance of the individual, which explodes in the modern era with its elevation of self-actualization. (You can also see the discussion about Jesus excerpted below.)The conversation does not just look back, but also forward; in a learning, growing universe, what's next? What's on the horizon with our concept of God? Is there a metamodern integration of perceptions that can activate a more powerful inner conductivity and capacity for universal connection?Other ponders and insights include:The cutting edge of spiritual and Christian thought might be to include mystery school ideas without abandoning modern and postmodern reality, while pushing beyond scientific dogma.We are co-participating with the divine to unfold in new directions; to build on what we've already done and continue the dreams we've set up; to live the arc of this emergence; to move forward, not back.How do we know? Which faculty of knowing are we talking about when we talk about knowing? New sense organs? Can we integrate conceptual and head ways of knowing with other sources of knowledge?The Christ archetype is how we find the Christ in us; to show up in a Christ-like fashion; a profound universal engagement. These are the depths a metamodern Christianity should explore.We can't put the genie back in the bottle, or try to reengage an older operating system. The challenge is harvesting the best of the ancient system, and hospicing what needs to be left behind.We're talking about a metamodern move to address what can be described as a Tower of Babel of perspectives: confusion and chaos that give rise to polarization politics, and everything breaking down.This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel. TWEETABLE QUOTES “This gave a new way of looking at all this, in terms of development, that as we go through learning our conceptions of God change. And that really kind of hit home, because as I studied very deeply a lot of the developmental literature, the psychological literature, people who had looked at what they call like stages of faith or religious judgment, and there was a clear way in which the learning process that we go through as people impacts the conceptions that we have of the divine, and the meaning of life, and value, and all these things.” (Brendan)“My entryway into this was through a breakdown of meaning, to go all the way back to my own existential crisis, was the occasion by which I felt the need to find a new way of being in the world. Talking about these things might sound like concepts following concepts, but this is ultimately a lived experience. This is the story of humanity, but it's the story of humans. And so human beings are moving through the world, and we're experiencing the social and collective consequences of all living together with each other through time, figuring out things together, and changing the world around us as a consequence.” (Aviv) RESOURCES MENTIONED Portals of Perception WebsiteAviv's LinkedIn Aviv's TwitterAviv's WebsiteGod: An Evolving Revelation with Brendan Graham Dempsey

Thank you to Brendan Graham Dempsey for hosting this live Limicon event. We explore evolution, consciousness, death, mysticism--it's a good ride!

A laboratory is where we'd expect to find a safe space of discovery and purpose; an environment that supports experimenting with diverse ideas and mysteries in the search for truth. Add in an atmosphere of mutual trust and acceptance, and now we've created an ecology that invites something even deeper — a God lab.Imagine a God lab as an intensified spiritual retreat, a gathering of like-minded and like-souled individuals seeking new understanding and experience with the divine. In this conversation, we are invited to appreciate a metamodern God lab as a community, created through the shared exploration of the sacred by people who each represent a unique expression of universal possibility.In a metamodern God lab, every person is recognized and accepted as they experiment with creating and evolving their own vision, practices and art; an ecology where people find the inner balance that allows them to embody more fully at the spiritual leading edge of themselves.We get to explore in this conversation the nature and possibilities of emergent metamodern spirituality with two metamodern leaders, Layman Pascal and Brendan Graham Dempsey. (This is the latest in a series of conversations sensing deeper into metamodern spirituality.) Layman and Brendan discuss with Aviv Shahar the recently completed Metamodern God Lab at the Sky Meadow retreat in Vermont.This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel. TWEETABLE QUOTES “I think what I'm seeing, what I'm taking away from this weekend, is the sheer importance of setting up these kinds of hive-like fields for the bees to go to and from. And if you get a few new ones each time it starts to spread. And ideally, we would have dozens or hundreds of things like this around the world to be a generator of the leading edge of the culture. As much as we need all these different subsets, what we fundamentally need is the right kind of a scene that's just a constant generator of all the different tentacles of the leading edge.” (Layman)“I think there's something deeply important about having a place where we come together and gather, and connect, and feel this vibe and these energies with each other, and sort of remember our connections with each other and to what we're doing, and the sorts of aims and goals that we have, and the shared vision and the friendship, the relational connections. And being able to continue to deepen; increasing deepening into the relational field of it all is something that I find deeply renewing, and it's kind of like returning to that well of relationship with this incredible community.” (Brendan) RESOURCES MENTIONED Portals of Perception WebsiteAviv's LinkedIn Aviv's TwitterAviv's WebsiteNormalizing the Extraordinary: In the Metamodern God Lab with Layman Pascal and Brendan Graham Dempsey

Jim talks with Brendan Graham Dempsey, picking up on a disagreement they had on Facebook about the teleology of the universe. They discuss Aristotle's influence on the topic, Terrence Deacon's work on naturalizing teleology, the distinction between purpose & goal-directed behavior, cosmic teleology, Teilhard de Chardin's "Omega Point," Whitehead's relational teleology, Ilya Prigogine's dissipative structures, energy efficiency comparisons between organisms & stars, the cosmic imperative of entropy production, energy rate density as a complexity measure, whether entropy is the goal or a byproduct of complexification, origin of life as contingent or necessity, Alexander Bard's emergence vectors, questioning of the heat death hypothesis, cosmic expansion possibly preventing maximum entropy, Webb telescope findings, Lee Smolin's evolutionary universe theory, philosophical implications of cosmological narratives, the deepening of interiority in cosmic evolution, Nick Chater's "The Mind Is Flat" argument, the importance of intersubjectivity, language's role in human experience, AI development & emotions, critique of transhumanism, the need to defend your emergence vector, and much more. Episode Transcript Jim's initial Facebook post JRS EP268 - Brendan Graham Dempsey on the Evolution of Meaning The Evolution of Meaning: A Universal Learning Process, by Brendan Graham Dempsey JRS EP157 - Terrence Deacon on Mind's Emergence from Matter Cosmic Evolution: The Rise of Complexity in Nature, by Eric Chaisson The Mind Is Flat, by Nick Chater "The Last Question," by Isaac Asimov Brendan Graham Dempsey is a writer, researcher, organic farmer, and the director of Sky Meadow Institute, an organization dedicated to "promoting systems-based thinking about the things that matter most." He graduated summa cum laude with a BA in religious studies and classical civilizations from the University of Vermont and earned his master's from Yale University, where he studied religion and culture. He is the author of Metamodernism: Or, The Cultural Logic of Cultural Logics and host of the Metamodern Spirituality Podcast. His primary interests include theorizing developments in culture after postmodernism, productively bridging the divide between science and spirituality, and developing sustainable systems for life to flourish. All of these lead through the paradigms of emergence and complexity, which inform all of his work.

How do we measure the depth of human meaning-making across history, traditions, and intellectual paradigms? In this fascinating presentation, Brendan Graham Dempsey introduces his Cultural Complexity Index (CCI) initiative, a pioneering research project that empirically maps how humans structure knowledge, solve problems, and make sense of their world. Utilizing the Lectical Scale, a highly refined framework for measuring hierarchical complexity, the project analyzes sacred and significant texts from different historical periods. Its early findings suggest fascinating correlations between social complexity and the evolution of meaning-making, while also challenging some common assumptions about cognitive development in different historical eras. What do we mean by “culture”? While integral theory typically enacts “culture” as representing our collective interiors (LL), the CCI investigates a broader dimension — the complexity of symbolic information processing as a whole. Brendan's use of the term aligns closely with Gregg Henriques' description of “culture” as representing the human noosphere in general, the sphere of knowledge, symbolic representation, and individual sense-making, rather than the Lower-Left (LL) quadrant of Integral Theory, which focuses on relational, intersubjective, and cultural meaning-making. While the two are connected and often isomorphic with each other, they require distinct methodologies to be properly analyzed. This is important because, as Brendan points out, he is not making claims about a given culture's overall developmental center of gravity, but rather on the cognitive performance of certain individuals within a culture, as measured by the Lectical Scale. Brendan's presentation covers the theoretical foundations, core methodology, and preliminary results of the study — particularly its examination of texts from forager and archaic societies. In the ensuing discussion, participants explore crucial questions, such as:
 - The origins of the CCI framework and how it measures individual cognitive complexity, - How cognitive complexity relates to cultural evolution — and why they are not the same thing, - The shift from mythic narratives to rational-scientific models—and how each stage builds upon the last, - The hidden structures of meaning-making and how they shapes everything from politics to personal identity - How the CCI helps dispel myths about cultural development, such as challenging the notion that early societies were incapable of producing later-stage artifacts or ideas, and clarifying the sequential-but-nonlinear nature of human evolution
 For integral thinkers, the CCI aspires to provide both empirical validation and refinement of existing developmental models. While supporting key developmental insights, it also suggests nuanced updates to conventional correlations between social and cognitive complexity. Most importantly, the findings point toward practical applications — helping to frame new “stories of wholeness” that are adequate to the challenges of our time. This research represents a significant step in bringing empirical rigor to cultural evolution theories while refining and deepening our understanding. By applying careful measurement and analysis, it enhances our understanding of both our developmental past and the challenges of constructing more complex and integrative meaning systems for the future.

Jim talks with Brendan Graham Dempsey about the ideas in his new book, The Evolution of Meaning: A Universal Learning Process. They discuss Jim's love for the book, the thinking behind the title, future books in the series, why Brendan avoided the word "religion," the nature of meaning, dissipative systems, Shannon information vs semantic information, relations vs static objects, meaning as adaptive information, the meaning of value, Gregg Henriques's Unified Theory of Knowledge, the meaning of learning, why the world is full of bogus learning, whether complexity increases over time, information overload, John Vervaeke's relevance realization, wisdom, evolution as learning, the meaning & evolution of sacredness, and much more. Episode Transcript The Evolution of Meaning: A Universal Learning Process, by Brendan Graham Dempsey JRS EP 172 - Brendan Graham Dempsey on Emergentism JRS EP 176 - Gregg Henriques Part 1: Addressing the Enlightenment Gap UTOK: The Unified Theory of Knowledge, by Gregg Henriques JRS EP 159 - Bobby Azarian on the Romance of Reality JRS EP 143 - John Vervaeke Part 1: Awakening from the Meaning Crisis Brendan Graham Dempsey is a writer, researcher, organic farmer, and the director of Sky Meadow Institute, an organization dedicated to "promoting systems-based thinking about the things that matter most." He graduated summa cum laude with a BA in religious studies and classical civilizations from the University of Vermont and earned his master's from Yale University, where he studied religion and culture. He is the author of Metamodernism: Or, The Cultural Logic of Cultural Logics and host of the Metamodern Spirituality Podcast. His primary interests include theorizing developments in culture after postmodernism, productively bridging the divide between science and spirituality, and developing sustainable systems for life to flourish. All of these lead through the paradigms of emergence and complexity, which inform all of his work.

In this episode, we are joined by Doug Scott, LCSW, MA, an experienced therapist and counselor based in Dallas, Texas, who has a deep interest in the intersection of psychology and spirituality; and Brendan Graham Dempsey, a writer, poet, farmer, and the director of Sky Meadow Institute, an organization dedicated to promoting systems-based thinking about the things that matter most. (see below for more information on Brendan). Doug shares insights from his private practice and his master's degree in pastoral ministry, focusing particularly on how metamodern spirituality can facilitate positive change in the world. Doug introduces the SH!PS Approach, a conceptual and practical framework designed to help individuals navigate their spiritual and psychological journeys. The acronym SH!PS stands for Solidarity, Hope, Interview, Process, and Service, with each component playing a crucial role in fostering meaningful transformation and connection. The discussion explores Doug's fascinating background, including his early years in Saudi Arabia, time in Nicaragua with the Capuchin Franciscans, and his education at Boston College. He also delves into the importance of relational connection, self-awareness, and the transformative power of loving service. Tune in to learn more about Doug's innovative tools and how they can be applied to enhance personal growth, build solidarity, and cultivate hope. Whether you're interested in psychology, spirituality, or the intersections of the two, this episode offers valuable insights and practical advice for anyone looking to deepen their understanding and practice of metamodern spirituality. For more information, you can visit Doug's websites at www.dougscottcounseling.com and www.cosmicchrist.net  ---- Brendan Graham Dempsey is a writer, poet, farmer, and the director of Sky Meadow Institute, an organization dedicated to promoting systems-based thinking about the things that matter most.  ​ He holds a BA in religious studies from the University of Vermont and a master's in religion and art from Yale University. He is the author of the 7-volume Metamodern Spirituality Series and, most recently, Metamodernism: Or, The Cultural Logic of Cultural Logics.   His primary interests include theorizing developments in culture after postmodernism, productively bridging the divide between science and spirituality, and developing sustainable systems for life to flourish. All of these lead through the paradigms of emergence and complexity, which inform all of his work.

Brendan Graham Dempsey is the director of Sky Meadow Institute and the author of the Metamodern Spirituality Series. He explores the evolution of spirituality and the integration of science and religion in contemporary culture. To learn more about his latest book release, "A Universal Learning Process," which is the first volume in his series "The Evolution of Meaning," please visit this link.   Can Metamodern Christianity breathe new life into ancient religious frameworks?   In this episode of "Voices with Vervaeke," John Vervaeke and Brendan Graham Dempsey continue their exploration of MetaModern Christianity in part two of their discussion. Building on their previous conversation, which addressed the potential for metamodern spirituality to rejuvenate the Christian faith, they delve deeper into the integration of ancient doctrines with contemporary thought. They tackle the limitations of traditional religious frameworks, explore the concept of ultimate reality and the sacred through a non-theistic lens, and emphasize the significance of dialogical relationships in meaning-making. Vervaeke and Dempsey connect these insights to broader philosophical and cultural themes, examining the evolution of spiritual maturity, the interplay between personhood and the universe, and the integration of scientific and mystical perspectives.   —   Embark on a journey of personal growth and meaning with us. Join our Patreon Patreon community, where shared wisdom fuels transformation.   —   00:00 Introduction and Recap of Part One 00:45 Brendan's Work on Metamodern Spirituality 02:45 Ultimate Reality and the Sacred 13:25 Integrating Critiques: Schellenberg, Transcendence, and Non-Theism 16:50 Meaning and Learning in Sacred Evolution 29:20  Dialogical Relationship with the Sacred 41:45 God as Cosmic Self-Realization 50:00 Prayer and Maturation in Deep Time 54:30 Prayer and Transpersonal Dialogue 58:30 Prayer and Ultimate Reality 01:15:05 Conclusion: The Evolution of Meaning and the Sacred   —   The Vervaeke Foundation is committed to advancing the scientific pursuit of wisdom and creating a significant impact on the world. Become a part of our mission.   Join Awaken to Meaning to explore practices that enhance your virtues and foster deeper connections with reality and relationships.    —   Ideas, People, and Works Mentioned in this Episode   J.L. Schellenberg Gregg Henriques Rudolf Otto  Clifford Geertz Carl Sagan Meister Eckhart Paul Tillich Iain McGilchrist Martin Heidegger Michael Levin Epicurus Bobby Azarian Kasra Mirzaie Leonard Angel Spinoza John Hick Dan Chiappe Paul Tillich Dionysus Brendan Graham Dempsey, A Universal Learning Process (The Evolution of Meaning) ​​Matt Rossano, Ritual in Human Evolution and Religion Joseph A. Bracken, The Divine Matrix: Creativity As Link Between East and West Leonard Angel, Enlightenment East and West   Relevant Episodes   Reviving Faith with Metamodern Spirituality and the Future of Christianity | Brendan Graham Dempsey   Follow John Vervaeke: Website | X | YouTube | Patreon Follow Brendan Graham Dempsey: Website | X | Facebook   —   Thank you for Listening!  

In this episode, the philosopher Brendan Graham Dempsey joins Gregg to talk about his new book, A Universal Learning Process. It is the first installment of a larger work on The Evolution of Meaning. The book frames the complexification in the universe across the arc of cosmic evolution from the Big Bang to present as a kind of learning that goes through phases. Grounded in the ontology provided by the Tree of Knowledge System and Periodic Table of Behavior, the book charts this evolution starting with Energy and Information and then frames the complexification in Matter as “structural learning,” in Life as “genetic learning,” in Mind as “cognitive learning,” and in Culture as “symbolic learning.” Ultimately, the book culminates on the implications for what is sacred.    ℹ️ - - - Find out more about Brendan Graham Dempsey - - - ℹ️ Book: The Evolution of Meaning - A Universal Learning Process  Press | Sky Meadow Institute Homepage: https://www.brendangrahamdempsey.com/   ℹ️ - - - Find out more about Gregg Henriques - - - ℹ️ Psychology Today: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/contributors/gregg-henriques-phd Medium: https://gregghenriques.medium.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/henriqgx  

In light of the recent Christian revival, what is Christianity's place in the metamodern world, and how did Christianity fit into George Gurdjeff's fourth way? Links: COURSE: GURDJIEFF'S CHRISTIANITY (WITH LUKE BEHNCKE): https://www.parallax-media.com/courses/gurdjieffs-christianity-with-luke-behncke Homepage: https://www.parallax-media.com/ Academy: https://www.parallax-media.com/2024-courses-and-events Substack: https://parallax.substack.com/ Parallax Network: https://parallax-media-network.mn.co/share/ND8NVO1oMB3RjEyi?utm_source=ma Brendan Graham Dempsey is a writer, poet, farmer, and the director of Sky Meadow Institute, an organization dedicated to promoting systems-based thinking about the things that matter most. He holds a BA in religious studies from the University of Vermont and a master's in religion and art from Yale University. He is the author of the 7-volume Metamodern Spirituality Series and, most recently, Metamodernism: Or, The Cultural Logic of Cultural Logics. His primary interests include theorizing developments in culture after postmodernism, productively bridging the divide between science and spirituality, and developing sustainable systems for life to flourish. All of these lead through the paradigms of emergence and complexity, which inform all of his work. Website: https://www.brendangrahamdempsey.com/bio; ​Luke Bhencke: Raised in rural and outback Australia, Luke's background in biomedical science and physical education, with diverse interests in philosophy, religion and art - ultimately drew him to Gurdjieff's system where he has been a practitioner working with groups and individuals from around the world since 2000. Explorations related to Gurdjieff's Fourth Way and Christianity can be found on his blogsite at 'Faith made Flesh'" Blog: https://www.faithmadeflesh.com/

Doug and Matt begin by discussing Brendan Graham Dempsey's work on metamodern spirituality, and particularly metamodern Christianity. Matt highlights the differences between how Eastern and Western spiritual traditions have been adopted and critiqued within this framework, noting that Western Buddhism has been largely stripped of its cultural and cosmological context due to the nature of the modern colonial encounter out of which it arose. He contrasts this with Christianity, which he thinks is more challenging to separate from its cosmological and ritual elements. Matt praises Brendan's efforts to challenge Biblical literalism and explore a version of Christianity that aligns with contemporary scientific understanding. However, Matt expresses feeling somewhat constrained by Brendan's approach, suggesting there are other ways to interpret, for example, the Christ event, that respect scientific perspectives without being reductionistic or literalistic. Doug agrees on the importance of balancing esoteric and exoteric elements in spirituality, using an analogy of understanding a Lamborghini by both driving it and examining its engine. He appreciates Brendan's honest grappling with these spiritual issues but notes the need for incorporating rituals to ground spiritual practice. They both stress the significance of ritual in religious practice, not as mere metaphors but as enactments that transform consciousness. Matt argues that rituals help bridge the gap between our limited, individual perspectives and a more expansive, collective and even cosmic understanding. Doug adds that rituals lay the groundwork for collective human experience and help us connect with the deeper truths of existence. Doug also brings up the challenge of modern political discourse, emphasizing the need for empathy and understanding in political conversations. Matt agrees, suggesting that political engagement should be centered in the heart, aiming for persuasion rather than force. They both acknowledge the difficulty of navigating political polarization in an increasingly “post-liberal” era, but stress the importance of seeing the humanity in others and striving for a more compassionate and inclusive dialogue.

Brendan Graham Dempsey is an author and speaker specializing in metamodern spirituality, exploring the intersections of traditional faith and contemporary thought. How can ancient faith traditions adapt to the complexities of the modern world? In this episode of Voices with Vervaeke, John Vervaeke and Brendan Graham Dempsey explore the potential for metamodern spirituality to breathe new life into the Christian faith. Dempsey shares his transformative journey from traditional beliefs to a metamodern perspective that integrates ancient doctrines with contemporary thought. Their discussion addresses challenging issues such as historical and postmodern critiques of the Bible, the complex relationship between faith and science, and the psychological underpinnings of religious practices. This conversation aims to rejuvenate our understanding of Christianity and enrich our engagement with reality, setting the stage for future dialogues on the essence of God and the sacred. Support John's groundbreaking work and gain exclusive access to live Q&A sessions, early video releases, and more by joining our Patreon community!  --- "I'm interested in the ways that spirituality begins to dovetail with the sciences, where that antagonism many of us are familiar with is transcended and healed in a profound way." - Brendan Graham Dempsey [00:04:00] "We need the language of explaining because the language of explaining is the language of science. If we don't have a properly cultivated language of explaining, the gulf between spirituality and science will remain. That is one of the significant drivers of the meaning crisis." - John Vervaeke [00:15:33] "What's the point of the religious relationship to Jesus? Is it to accurately capture the past or wisely prepare you for the future? I think the latter is exactly what it's most properly for." John Vervaeke [00:39:28] ---   0:00 Introduction: Brendan's Christian Roots and Academic Journey  06:20 Modern and Postmodern Biblical Critiques 10:15 Metamodern Christianity and Its Challenges 13:40 Training vs. Explaining in Religious Contexts 20:45 Bridging Historical Jesus and Imaginal Christ 43:05 Faith, Maturation, and the Interplay of Training and Explanation 51:50 Imaginal Recovery and Theological Continuity 01:02:45 Navigating Order and Chaos: Spiritual Growth Dynamics 01:27:30 Conclusion: Exploring the Numinous - God, Sacredness, and Ultimate Reality   ---   Become a part of The Vervaeke Foundation's  mission to promote the scientifically rigorous pursuit of wisdom and create a lasting impact on the world.    Join Awaken to Meaning to explore practices that enhance your virtues and foster deeper connections with reality and relationships.   --- The Meaning of Meaning | Transcendent Naturalism #7   The Future of Faith | Transcendent Naturalism #8   Unlocking the Mysteries of Meaning: An Intellectual Odyssey The Artful Scaling of the Religion that is not a religion w/ Layman Pascal & Brendan Graham Dempsey --- Ideas, Authors, and Works Mentioned in This Episode: Metamodernism  Transcendent Naturalism Jesus of Nazareth  Biblical Studies  Postmodern Critiques  Nietzsche  Foucault  Derrida Spinoza Plato  Xenophon  Aristophanes Solon Aristotle  Henry IV, V, and IV (Shakespeare)  Shakespeare's early works  Plato's Socrates  H.G. Gadamer T.S. Eliot J.R.R. Tolkien C.S. Lewis G.W.F. Hegel J.L. Schellenberg J.Campbell C.Jung  Jordan Peterson Jared Morningstar Dr. Johannes A. Niederhauser (Halkyon Academy) J.A.S. Kelso Paul (Apostle) Brian McLaren  D.C. Schindler Paul Vander Klay The Language of Coaching by Nick Winkelman ---    Follow John Vervaeke: Website | X/Twitter | YouTube | Patreon   Follow Brendan Graham Dempsey: Website | X/Twitter | Facebook   ---   Thank you for listening!  

Ep. 134 (Part 2 of 2) | Author, podcaster, farmer, and poet, Brendan Graham Dempsey, brings passion, dedication, clarity, and outstanding scholarship to the fascinating and enormously important study of cultural evolution, which operates on both a personal level and a collective one. He illuminates how, when, and why we shift from one cultural worldview to the next, using his own life's journey through the cultural stages as a map and paints colorful portraits of the outstanding characteristics of each stage: traditional/premodern, modern, postmodern, and metamodern. Brendan enlightens us as to the tumultuous and often lonely and despairing time that occurs when our prior stage has been deconstructed and we find ourselves between worldviews in a liminal space where sensemaking fails. As he puts it, we live in certain worlds to help us navigate reality. But then things change, and we bump up against the limits of things. Now the time has come to update our sense of the world; we are invited to expand and grow.We come to understand why it is necessary for cultures to evolve—to accommodate ever increasing complexity—and why culture wars and confusion result from misunderstanding a worldview that infiltrates your psyche before it's ready. Brendan explains why postmodernism does not serve us now, introducing and inviting us to the new, emerging worldview of metamodernism, where there is hope in positivity, affirmation, and aspirational idealism. Hope, and the promise of coming together in a new understanding among peoples, a prerequisite for dealing with the challenges of the global crises that affect us all. Brendan brings a big heart, keen mind, and a lot of verve to these complex subjects, which come alive under his brilliant tutelage. As he points out, deconstructing the psyche can help save the world, adding, this is a lot of what the metamodern community is trying to get the word out about. Recorded May 1, 2024.“Metamodernism is a worldview of worldviews, a cultural logic of cultural logics, trying to expand beyond the frame we have been working in…to a framework where we can relate to each other in deeper ways, and find deeper modes of understanding, compassion, and empathy with one another.“(For Apple Podcast users, click here to view the complete show notes on the episode page.)Topics & Time Stamps – Part 2How do the Civil Rights movement and other awareness expanding movements fit into cultural evolution? (00:57)Postmodernism in academia (06:21)Postmodern art, films, punk, grunge—a response to how superficial the suburban world has become (07:30)To move out of the cynical and skeptical, your critique can't be all cynical too—you've got to start affirming things (08:22)Thus metamodernism: a turn to sincerity, earnestness, moving through irony (10:54)How metamodernism shows up in the arts—like with many worldviews, the artist often shows up as forerunner of the shift in stages (14:28)Metamodernism is a move towards hope, values, aspirational idealism—from negativity to positivity (16:23)Postmodern academia profoundly needs a paradigm shift because all categories of knowledge have been deconstructed (19:52)Culture wars and the confusion that results from misunderstanding a worldview that infiltrates your psyche before it's ready to assimilate it (23:32)Metamodernism offers tools to help bring clarity...

Ep. 133 (Part 1 of 2) | Author, podcaster, farmer, and poet, Brendan Graham Dempsey, brings passion, dedication, clarity, and outstanding scholarship to the fascinating and enormously important study of cultural evolution, which operates on both a personal level and a collective one. He illuminates how, when, and why we shift from one cultural worldview to the next, using his own life's journey through the cultural stages as a map and paints colorful portraits of the outstanding characteristics of each stage: traditional/premodern, modern, postmodern, and metamodern. Brendan enlightens us as to the tumultuous and often lonely and despairing time that occurs when our prior stage has been deconstructed and we find ourselves between worldviews in a liminal space where sensemaking fails. As he puts it, we live in certain worlds to help us navigate reality. But then things change, and we bump up against the limits of things. Now the time has come to update our sense of the world; we are invited to expand and grow.We come to understand why it is necessary for cultures to evolve—to accommodate ever increasing complexity—and why culture wars and confusion result from misunderstanding a worldview that infiltrates your psyche before it's ready. Brendan explains why postmodernism does not serve us now, introducing and inviting us to the new, emerging worldview of metamodernism, where there is hope in positivity, affirmation, and aspirational idealism. Hope, and the promise of coming together in a new understanding among peoples, a prerequisite for dealing with the challenges of the global crises that affect us all. Brendan brings a big heart, keen mind, and a lot of verve to these complex subjects, which come alive under his brilliant tutelage. As he points out, deconstructing the psyche can help save the world, adding, this is a lot of what the metamodern community is trying to get the word out about. Recorded May 1, 2024.“It's absolutely essential that some folks, anyway, try to break through to this other way of seeing that can get us beyond the limits of our worldviews at the moment…in a way that allows us to keep moving forward rather than back.“(For Apple Podcast users, click here to view the complete show notes on the episode page.)Topics & Time Stamps – Part 1Introducing cultural evolution pioneer, author, poet, farmer, and spiritual podcaster, Brendan Graham Dempsey (01:35)What are the stages our culture has been through? (03:13)Premodern is the traditional stage, linked to the great Axial Age religions that started up around 500 BC (04:56)Modernity was initiated with the move out of the Middle Ages into the Renaissance; postmodernity flowered in the mid 20th century; metamodernity dawned around 2000 (06:14)What are the more subtle differences that constitute these shifts between cultures or worldviews? (07:19)Language is the medium that shapes us individually and shapes how culture plays out: using a psychological lens to look at the complexification process of modes of thought (08:59)The relation between metamodern and integral thought and the new emerging stage of consciousness (12:10)Cultural evolution plays out at the individual level too (16:37)Brendan's characterization of cultural stages based on his own life's development, beginning with his youth in a traditional household, where faith relates to day-to-day living and miracles happen (17:58)Brendan's...

 @grailcountry  Trying to make sense of the Traditional Shift and Meta-Modern Christianity https://www.youtube.com/live/7IByI5R64Q4?si=w6j9bHDCQsR5ur-T   @arono9304  Metamodern Christianity w/ Brendan Graham Dempsey & Bas van Os https://youtu.be/ZZyNrGOAeuA?si=IRX1eqdop4b5Fpic    Paul Vander Klay clips channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX0jIcadtoxELSwehCh5QTg Bridges of Meaning Discord https://discord.gg/JpHtVgXW https://www.meetup.com/sacramento-estuary/ My Substack https://paulvanderklay.substack.com/ Estuary Hub Link https://www.estuaryhub.com/ If you want to schedule a one-on-one conversation check here. https://calendly.com/paulvanderklay/one2one There is a video version of this podcast on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/paulvanderklay To listen to this on ITunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/paul-vanderklays-podcast/id1394314333  If you need the RSS feed for your podcast player https://paulvanderklay.podbean.com/feed/  All Amazon links here are part of the Amazon Affiliate Program. Amazon pays me a small commission at no additional cost to you if you buy through one of the product links here. This is is one (free to you) way to support my videos.  https://paypal.me/paulvanderklay Blockchain backup on Lbry https://odysee.com/@paulvanderklay https://www.patreon.com/paulvanderklay Paul's Church Content at Living Stones Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCh7bdktIALZ9Nq41oVCvW-A To support Paul's work by supporting his church give here. https://tithe.ly/give?c=2160640

Several months ago, seasoned integral content creators watched with a mix of amazement and dismay as the integrally informed video, "Levels of Thinking," on a relationship and dating advice channel called Hoe_Math, blew up and got numbers in a couple weeks that no integral video in history has ever approached. Poor Corey DeVos needed to go get therapy, and I'm still recovering. So Layman wanted to find out who the guy behind the viral video is. Check it out. Hoe_math channel    / @hoe_math   Follow The Integral Stage on Fathom! https://hello.fathom.fm/ Remember to like, subscribe, and support The Integral Stage on Patreon to make more of these conversations possible!   / theintegralstage   Special thanks and big love to Shai Newman, the LIMITED HANGOUT guys, Brandon LaChance, Mike McElroy, Brandon Norgaard, Brendan Graham Dempsey, Francesca, and all of our other Patreon supporters!

Brendan Graham Dempsey is an author, thinker, and youtuber who has thought deeply about the topic of metamodernism. We discuss what that even is, and what is means for a vibrant Christianity going forward. We mention  @johnvervaeke  , Jordan Hall, Soren Kierkegaard, Virginia Woolf, Hans Nollein, Fr. Stephen DeYoung, Athanasius, James Tabor, and many more. Brendan Graham Dempsey's youtube channel :  @BrendanGrahamDempsey  Sky Meadow Institute: https://skymeadowretreat.com/institute/ Brendan Graham Dempsey on  @PaulVanderKlay  : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ee8wKcBRyy4

In this episode, Brendan (@brendangrahamd1)and Jason talk about the meaning of metamodernism and how it relates to permaculture, the interplay of various forms of meaning-making, and how it translates into a theory of change and pragmatic action. Brendan also talks about his work at the Sky Meadow Institute, a retreat center and permaculture homestead in Vermont Brendan Graham Dempsey is a writer, poet, farmer, and the director of Sky Meadow Institute, an organization dedicated to promoting systems-based thinking about the things that matter most. He holds a BA in religious studies from the University of Vermont and a master's in religion and art from Yale University. He is the author of the 7-volume Metamodern Spirituality Series and, most recently, Metamodernism: Or, The Cultural Logic of Cultural Logics. His primary interests include theorizing developments in culture after postmodernism, productively bridging the divide between science and spirituality, and developing sustainable systems for life to flourish. All of these lead through the paradigms of emergence and complexity, which inform all of his work He hosts the podcast Metamodern Spirituality which can be found here: https://www.brendangrahamdempsey.com/metamodern-spirituality

What does it Mean for Christianity to get Beyond Modernity? First Convo with Brendan Graham Dempsey https://youtu.be/qfeY-Fz8sBc?si=J5TnIzj1jh8o0UAX   @johnvervaeke  Navigating Complexity and Transformation with Jordan Hall Part 2 https://youtu.be/6rZRSGNlEmE?si=8nRTqUkdLt6TFsw6   @AfterSkool  Why Smart People Believe Stupid Things https://youtu.be/5Peima-Uw7w?si=OICbP3CncTVlbBGG  Audience Questions and Answers March 22 2024 https://www.youtube.com/live/7XE3sBrMAdw?si=l_9Ziuytd38YAl8Z   @triggerpod    Can We Live Without Religion? - Alex O'Connor https://youtu.be/GRdwWQu5OBU?si=ODnFBOuW0XEz3_Lt   @fatherbigmac  Open Mic: Todayism, Peterson vs. Destiny, Lemonade Ocean, Resistance is Useful, Faery in Space https://www.youtube.com/live/kBQbkBiRPNU?si=un2tXpq4ZXcbHNX7   @SeenUnseenMag  Jonathan Pageau: What atheists get wrong about the Bible, religion and Jordan Peterson https://youtu.be/ToWHWrmN2xY?si=EDE1aD-ioYmkvgKc  Vanderklips channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX0jIcadtoxELSwehCh5QTg  Paul Vander Klay clips channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX0jIcadtoxELSwehCh5QTg Bridges of Meaning Discord https://discord.gg/J6BqymNg https://www.meetup.com/sacramento-estuary/ My Substack https://paulvanderklay.substack.com/ Estuary Hub Link https://www.estuaryhub.com/ If you want to schedule a one-on-one conversation check here. https://calendly.com/paulvanderklay/one2one There is a video version of this podcast on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/paulvanderklay To listen to this on ITunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/paul-vanderklays-podcast/id1394314333  If you need the RSS feed for your podcast player https://paulvanderklay.podbean.com/feed/  All Amazon links here are part of the Amazon Affiliate Program. Amazon pays me a small commission at no additional cost to you if you buy through one of the product links here. This is is one (free to you) way to support my videos.  https://paypal.me/paulvanderklay Blockchain backup on Lbry https://odysee.com/@paulvanderklay https://www.patreon.com/paulvanderklay Paul's Church Content at Living Stones Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCh7bdktIALZ9Nq41oVCvW-A To support Paul's work by supporting his church give here. https://tithe.ly/give?c=2160640  

Here I lay out my conception of what a metamodern version of Christianity looks like. Drawing on the insights of all the previous cultural paradigms, the revelation of God's nature and the deepening quality of the relationship between God and man can be understood as progressing through a series of covenants/dispensations that map to a learning process unfolding through time. Such a perspective helps us non-arbitrarily coordinate tribal, imperial, traditional, modern, and postmodern conceptions of God that have manifested across sacred history. All of these are necessary and contribute to a coherent story of deepening understanding about and relationship with the ever-transcendent Divine. 0:00 Introduction 0:56 "Metamodern" 5:50 "Christianity" 9:00 Sacred History as Learning and Expansion 11:43 Dynamics of Learning: Assimilation and Accomodation 16:47 Learning as Complexification of Thought 18:04 The Revelation of God as a Learning Process 24:34 1. The Sacred Relationship in the Tribal Epoch 26:12 2. Relationship with God in the Monarchy 29:02 3. Deepening Divine Relationship in the Prophets and Gospels 31:10 Recap: The Arc of Learning God Better 33:41 4. Revelation in the Modern Era 40:05 5. The Way of Jesus in Postmodernity 42:09 6. Metamodern Christianity: Embracing All Stages of Revelation 53:37 Conclusion

For the 39th episode of the Integral Stage Authors Series, Layman cozies up in a yurt with Simon Cox to talk about his recent book, The Subtle Body: A Genealogy. Simon tells Layman about his history studying martial arts, including six years under a kung fu master on Wudang Mountain in China, and the path that led him to a deep, graduate-level comparative exploration of conceptions of the subtle body in Taoist and Tibetan Buddhist / Bon traditions. What are the similarities and differences between Eastern models of the subtle body and those we have inherited from the Neo-Platonists? How have these models been conflated in past scholarship? What did Crowley bring to the subject? What are the practical and onto-epistemological implications of a deep understanding of subtle body tradition and practice? What are some promising paths of future research? What does this tradition have to contribute to the rising interest in neo-animism in our time, or even the strange stories about interdimensional beings now circulating in the halls of Congress following the recent UAP hearings? Join Layman and Simon as they explore these questions and many more. Simon Cox, Ph.D., is an independent scholar and translator who works primarily in Chinese, Tibetan, and Greek. His research focuses on mysticism and the body. He is also a teacher of Chinese Martial Arts at the Okanagan Valley Wudang center, and a collaborator at the Esalen Institute. The Subtle Body https://www.amazon.com/Subtle-Body-Ge... Okanagan Valley Wudang https://www.okanaganvalleywudang.com/ Follow The Integral Stage on Fathom! https://hello.fathom.fm/ Remember to like, subscribe, and support The Integral Stage on Patreon to make more of these conversations possible!   / theintegralstage   Special thanks and big love to Shai Newman, the LIMITED HANGOUT guys, Brandon LaChance, Mike McElroy, Brandon Norgaard, Brendan Graham Dempsey, Francesca, and all of our other Patreon supporters!

Brendan Graham Dempsey is a writer who's work focuses on the meaning crisis and the reconstruction of spirituality after postmodernism. He holds a BA in religious studies from the University of Vermont and a master's in religion and art from Yale University. He is the author of the 7-volume Metamodern Spirituality Series and, most recently, Metamodernism: Or, The Cultural Logic of Cultural Logics. In this episode, we discuss metamodernism. What is it? How did it emerge? What will religion look like in the metamodern era? https://www.youtube.com/@BrendanGrahamDempsey Exclusive access to the full, unedited 2-hour conversation is available to patrons: https://www.patreon.com/posts/exclusive-access-94836558?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link Become a patron on Patreon and get bonus Q&A Episodes, resources, opportunities for live discussions on Zoom, and access to our community Discord server: www.patreon.com/deeptalkstheologypodcast

To shake things up a little on The Integral Stage, we are dropping down a few chakras to explore all the ins and outs of awakened sexuality, conscious relationship, and sensuously embodied spiritual practice. For episode 22, Layman is joined by Catherine Auman and Greg Lawrence of The Transpersonal Center in LA, to talk about the tantric arts, transpersonal dimensions of development, sexuality as a doorway to mystical or psychedelic experience, psychic integration before and after extended lovemaking, the science of creating a soulmate, the importance of friendship for intimate tantric sexuality, life as lovemaking, and much more. Professional website: https://www.thetranspersonalcenter.com/ Explore The Integral Stage on the Fathom app https://hello.fathom.fm/ Support The Integral Stage on Patreon!   / theintegralstage   Special thanks and big love to Shai Newman, the Limited Hangout guys, Brandon LaChance, Mike McElroy, Brandon Norgaard, Brendan Graham Dempsey, Francesca, and all of our other Patreon supporters!

Several years after the original Integral UFOlogy series was published, the Integral UFOlogy panel reconvenes to discuss the latest UAP news and disclosures, and the latest developments in their own research and experiences in these areas. Panelists: Sean Esbjorn-Hargens, Stuart Davis, Chris Dierkes, Giorgio Piacenza, Layman Pascal, and Bruce Alderman. Original Panel Discussion:    • Integral Ufology Panel Discussion   RESOURCES and REFERENCES Sean Esbjorn-Hargens' Exo-Studies Master Course: https://www.exostudies.org/ Stuart Davis' media Man Meets Mantis:    • MAN MEETS MANTIS   Stuart's episode on Weird Studies podcast: https://www.weirdstudies.com/37 The IS Language:    • Creating The IS Language   The Art of Is:    • THE ART OF IS   Aliens and Artists: https://www.aliensandartists.com/ Explore The Integral Stage on the Fathom app https://hello.fathom.fm/ Support The Integral Stage on Patreon!   / theintegralstage   Special thanks and big love to Shai Newman, the Limited Hangout guys, Brandon LaChance, Mike McElroy, Brandon Norgaard, Brendan Graham Dempsey, Francesca, and all of our other Patreon supporters! Credits Intro and Outro Music: Remix of Sparkspitter's "Pretty Wave"

For episode 23, Layman is joined by Dr. Tina Schermer Sellers, a sex educator and psychotherapist, to explore questions around gender and sexual development; the impact of shame on sexual development, and the relationship of shame and guilt; the problems in recent and contemporary sex education in the United States; the possibilities for a hedonic education; deeper forms of sexual identity and development available through tantra and entheogens; and much more. Dr. Tina Schermer Sellers is a nationally known speaker, educator, and writer on sexual health and the biopsychosocial-sexual impact of sexual shame and trauma. She is professor emerita of sexuality and marriage & family therapy at Seattle Pacific University. As a past board member for The American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors, and Therapists (AASECT), Tina is at the forefront shaping change in the lives of professionals and families. As a preeminent voice on the impact of abstinence education, purity culture, and the failure to provide comprehensive sex education Dr. Sellers is frequently featured on podcasts, TV, documentaries, articles, and radio, including Spirituality & Health magazine, and NPR's All Things Considered. In her acclaimed 2017 book, Sex, God and the Conservative Church – Erasing Shame from Sexual Intimacy, Dr. Sellers reveals how the western conservative church in collusion with American consumer-driven culture and politics, has infiltrated our core ability to attach to our partners and instruct our children to attach to theirs. Professional Website https://www.tinaschermersellers.com/ Shameless Parenting https://www.amazon.com/Shameless-Pare... Explore The Integral Stage on the Fathom app https://hello.fathom.fm/ Support The Integral Stage on Patreon!   / theintegralstage   Special thanks and big love to Shai Newman, the Limited Hangout guys, Brandon LaChance, Mike McElroy, Brandon Norgaard, Brendan Graham Dempsey, Francesca, and all of our other Patreon supporters!

For the 37th episode of the Integral Stage Authors Series, Layman meets again prolific metamodern author and friend of the channel, Brendan Graham Dempsey, to talk about his latest book, "Metamodernism: Or, The Cultural Logic of Cultural Logics." In this much needed work, Brendan surveys the variety of "metamodernisms" that have emerged in recent years and, using some integrative distinctions, argues for their deep kinship and complementarity. Brendan Graham Dempsey is a writer whose work focuses on the meaning crisis and the nature of spirituality in metamodernity. He earned his BA in Religious Studies from the University of Vermont and his MA in Religion and the Arts from Yale University. He lives in Wolcott, Vermont. Metamodernism: Or, The Cultural Logic of Cultural Logics https://www.amazon.com/Metamodernism-... Follow The Integral Stage on the Fathom app https://hello.fathom.fm/ Support The Integral Stage on Patreon!   / theintegralstage   Special thanks and big love to Shai Newman, the Limited Hangout guys, Brandon LaChance, Mike McElroy, Brandon Norgaard, Brendan Graham Dempsey, Francesca, and all of our other Patreon supporters!

Layman Pascal and Bruce Alderman meet with Terri O'Fallon to discuss her recent course exploring the intersections of Mahamudra practice and the STAGES model; the relationship of states and stages, and the role of states in higher psychospiritual development; the linguistic dimensions of development, and developmental assessment; nonduality and the embodied dimensions of language; prepositions and other grammatical forms at the subtle and metaware tiers; AI, grammar, and higher development; and much more. Terri O'Fallon is a researcher, teacher, coach, spiritual director, and designer of transformative containers. She does ongoing research on the Integral STAGES developmental model, which supports a MetAware tier with four later levels of development. Her latest research probes into the relationship between states and stages. Terri is a founder of STAGES International, offering programs based on the STAGES model. She holds Masters degrees in Special Education and Spiritual Direction, and an Integral Ph.D. in Transformative Learning and Change. The Royal Seal: An Introduction to Mahamudra and STAGES course https://www.stagesinternational.com/M... Stages International website https://www.stagesinternational.com/ Follow The Integral Stage on the Fathom app https://hello.fathom.fm/ Support The Integral Stage on Patreon!   / theintegralstage   Special thanks and big love to Shai Newman, the Limited Hangout guys, Brandon LaChance, Mike McElroy, Brandon Norgaard, Brendan Graham Dempsey, Francesca, and all of our other Patreon supporters!

On the transition from the postmodern to the metamodern worldview, Brendans new book Metamodernism: Or, The Cultural Logic of Cultural Logics, the relationsship between MM and systems-theory and how to deal with money/capitalism in a metamodern way. Subscribe to our Substack: https://parallax.substack.com/ Parallax: https://parallax-media.eu Brendan Graham Dempsey is a writer, poet, farmer, and the director of Sky Meadow Institute, an organization dedicated to promoting systems-based thinking about the things that matter most. He holds a BA in religious studies from the University of Vermont and a master's in religion and art from Yale University. He is the author of the 7-volume Metamodern Spirituality Series and, most recently, Metamodernism: Or, The Cultural Logic of Cultural Logics. His primary interests include theorizing developments in culture after postmodernism, productively bridging the divide between science and spirituality, and developing sustainable systems for life to flourish. All of these lead through the paradigms of emergence and complexity, which inform all of his work. Tomas Björkman is an entrepreneur and financier, and has over the past 25 years built innovative international companies in the areas of banking and real estate. His entrepreneurship combined with a keen interest in both society and science led to the creation of the the Ekskäret Foundation in 2008. Tomas himself describes in the forewords of the book ‘Changing the world we create' why he started and is still very involved in foundation: “In my twenties, I had the choice between an academic career in theoretical physics or the world of commerce. I chose the latter and spent twenty-five years in business. Eventually, I sold my company to one of Switzerland's larger banks continuing for a time to serve on its board. But the call of the world of ideas was irresistible. My background in theoretical physics and as an entrepreneur in information technology, investment banking and property development had allowed me to learn about and view our existence from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. My personal drive increasingly became to unlock the hidden structures of the world around me. I sought to bridge many academic fields including cognitive neuroscience, developmental psychology and sociology. I started searching for connections that form the evolving whole. This curiosity led me to spend a decade researching and writing “The World We Create”. I also established the Ekskäret Foundation to facilitate the co-creation of a more conscious society. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/podcast-c709ee4/message

Gregg welcomes Brendan Graham Dempsy back to the program (Episode #50; Toward a Metamodern Spirituality). Brendan is a writer whose work focuses on the meaning crisis and the nature of spirituality in metamodernity. He is also the host of the Metamodern Spirituality podcast, and has recently released a new book, Metamodernism: The Cultural Logic of Cultural Logics. Gregg loved this book, and the episode is a tour of the book, highlighting its key points and its overarching logic. The book explicates how metamodernism relates to aesthetics, complexification of culture, philosophy, grand metanarratives, and can be thought of as an important worldview for our times.   ℹ️ - - - Find out more about Brendan Graham Dempsey - - - ℹ️ Homepage: https://www.brendangrahamdempsey.com/   ℹ️ - - - Find out more about Gregg Henriques - - - ℹ️ Psychology Today: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/contributors/gregg-henriques-phd Medium: https://gregghenriques.medium.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/henriqgx  

Modernism gave us scientific certainty, which ultimately pushed back against the faith claims of Christianity (and religion in general). Postmodernism taught us there was nothing to be certain about, nothing real to be claimed. Is there a better way? In this episode, Aaron speaks with his guest Brendan Graham Dempsey about what metamodernism is as a new(ish) paradigm for engaging with the world and the potential it holds for Christianity and religions in general.

For the 36th episode of the Integral Stage Authors Series, Layman beams Andrew M. Davis up to his orbital studio to talk about his recently published book, Metaphysics of Exo-Life. In this wide-ranging discussion, they talk about the renewed interest in and relevance of the field of cosmo-theology, as scientists are detecting possible indicators of life on remote planets and the government is apparently taking the topic of UAPs more seriously; the implications of extra-terrestrial life for human religions and soteriological models; the nature of God in an evolving universe, and whether humans and alien species could ever arrive at similar theological or moral understandings; the relevance of A.N. Whitehead's process theology for these questions; the strengths and limitations of Steven J. Dick's naturalistic cosmo-theology, and what Whitehead has to offer in response; and much more. Andrew M. Davis is a process philosopher, theologian, and scholar of cosmological wonder. He is program director for the Center for Process Studies where he researches, writes, and organizes conferences on various aspects of process-relational thought. An advocate of metaphysics and meaning, he approaches philosophy as the endeavor to systematically think through what reality must be like because we are a part of it. He holds B.A. in Philosophy and Theology, an M.A. in Interreligious Studies, and a Ph.D. in Religion and Process Philosophy from Claremont School of Theology. Metaphysics of Exo-Life https://www.amazon.com/Metaphysics-Ex... Fathom app https://hello.fathom.fm/ Support The Integral Stage on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/theintegralstage Special thanks and big love to Shai Newman, the Limited Hangout guys, Brandon LaChance, Mike McElroy, Brandon Norgaard, Brendan Graham Dempsey, Francesca, and all of our other Patreon supporters!

For the ninth episode of The Soul of AI, Layman meets with coach and Circling facilitator, David Swedlow, to thread thoughtfully between the usual utopian and dystopian narratives on AI; and given the degree of speculation in the face of the unknown that even experts in the field are forced to do, to consider the roles and responsibilities each of us has to think these issues through carefully and creatively. David's professional website https://metastorming.com/ Follow The Integral Stage on Fathom! https://hello.fathom.fm/ Remember to like, subscribe, and support The Integral Stage on Patreon to make more of these conversations possible! https://www.patreon.com/theintegralstage Special thanks and big love to Shai Newman, the LIMITED HANGOUT guys, Brandon LaChance, Mike McElroy, Brandon Norgaard, Brendan Graham Dempsey, Francesca, and all of our other Patreon supporters!

In a swanky high-rise apartment, just beyond the Thunderdome, Layman sits down with Jason the McClain to talk about the attractions and the limitations of libertarianism, Jason's early formative experiences with it, and the experiences and insights that eventually led him to leave it behind. From a meta-level, they also discuss what it means, and what it takes, to be ready to let go of one's earlier convictions and to remain open, ongoingly, to further learning, growth, and transformation. Evolutionary Companies website https://evolutionarycompanies.com/ Fathom app https://hello.fathom.fm/ Support The Integral Stage on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/theintegralstage Special thanks and big love to Shai Newman, the Limited Hangout guys, Brandon LaChance, Mike McElroy, Brandon Norgaard, Brendan Graham Dempsey, Francesca, and all of our other Patreon supporters!

Dr. John Vervaeke and Brendan Graham Dempsey explore the intricacies of meaning, spirituality, and the human experience. The episode commences with a succinct recap of their previous discussion, touching on Neoplatonism and Zen, before diving into Brendan's recent work on the concept of meaning. The conversation spans a wide array of topics, from the epistemic aspects of meaning to the philosophical underpinnings of mindfulness and meditation. The duo also delves into the influence of historical figures like Plotinus, Dante, and Proclus, examining how their ideas can be integrated into a modern understanding of spirituality. With a focus on the potential for a synthesis between cutting-edge science and ancient wisdom, this episode offers a fresh perspective on some of the most pressing questions of our time.  Brendan Graham Dempsey is a respected voice in the realm of metamodern spirituality. With a BA from the University of Vermont and a master's degree in religion from Yale, he brings a strong academic background to his work. Authoring the influential 7-volume "Metamodern Spirituality Series" and host of its companion podcast, Dempsey is a thought leader who navigates the intricate corridors of post-postmodern culture.   Resources:   Brendan Graham Dempsey: Website | YouTube | Facebook   Books: Aspects of Truth: A New Religious Metaphysics - Catherine Pickstock  Bonaventure: The Soul's Journey into God, The Tree of Life, The Life of St. Francis Routledge Handbook on the Philosophy of Meditation - Rick Repetti (Editor) God Without Being - Jean-Luc Marion Plato's Critique of Impure Reason: On Goodness and Truth in the Republic - D.C. Schindler   Publications: The phenomenological given and the hermeneutic exchange: which holds priority? - Catherine Pickstock   Videos: Metamodern Spirituality | Updating Neoplatonic Spirituality (w/ John Vervaeke) Part 1 Neoplatonism and the Path of Transformation | Dr. John Vervaeke  The Cognitive Science Show | Transcendent Naturalism Series   Misc: PLOTINUS, Ennead, Volume IV Auguries of Innocence by William Blake | Poetry Foundation   People: Gregg Henriques Martin Heidegger John Hick Benedict De Spinoza Immanuel Kant  Dante Alighieri Alicia Juarrero Emmanuel Levinas Martin Buber Ludwig Wittgenstein   Timecodes: 00:00:20 — Dr. John Vervaeke introduces Brendan Graham Dempsey and revisits the topics of Neoplatonism and Zen from the previous conversation, which can be found on Dempsey's YouTube channel. 00:02:30 — Dempsey outlines his work in metamodern spirituality and post-postmodernism.  00:06:35 — Dr. Vervaeke discusses the model of meaning, focusing on its epistemic aspects.  00:08:20 — Adding a layer of depth to the conversation, especially regarding a cosmological view, Brendan shares his fascination with historical figures like Plotinus, Pseudo-Dionysius, and Dante. 00:10:00 — A constructivist Piagetian developmental framework is introduced by Dempsey, shifting the conversation towards understanding the developmental aspects of meaning. 00:14:00 — The topic shifts to conformity as Vervaeke discusses its role in drawing something out of the subject. He also calls for more discourse around the Neoplatonic framework. 00:15:20 — Brendan expresses excitement about the potential of Neoplatonism in contemporary times. 00:21:00 — A mystical experience from the Ennead, IV by Plotinus, is brought up, opening the door to a discussion on the nature of mystical experiences. Dr. Vervaeke responds with an analogy about complexification, adding scientific rigor to the spiritual discussion. 00:28:11 — Dempsey introduces the concept of a principle of differentiation, suggesting that experiencing this principle could lead to a mystical experience. 00:30:44 — Referencing his work on mindfulness and the philosophy of meditation, Vervaeke introduces the idea of two movements in mindfulness practice. 00:37:36 — Dr. Vervaeke expands on Brendan's point about the contextual relationship of an individual's experience, discussing the idea of complexification. 00:44:10 — Dante's work is discussed and the concept of agape, a form of love that alters the direction of relevance realization. 00:51:28 — Brendan Graham Dempsey discusses the face as a representation of meaning, suggesting that it acts as a portal to increasing meaning. 00:58:30 — Dr. Vervaeke discusses the limitations of science when it comes to probing into its own presuppositions, introducing the concept of truths that are only disclosed through significant transformation. 01:01:03 — Brendan introduces the topic of the narrative that science provides about the origins of the universe, including the Big Bang, adding a cosmological layer to the discussion. 01:09:25 — The conversation shifts to exclusivity claims and how they can mislead us into believing something is more than just indispensable, but rather metaphysically necessary.

In Episode 9 of the Transcendent Naturalism series, Dr. John Vervaeke, Gregg Henriques, and guest Brett Andersen delve into the intricate relationship between complexity, criticality, and consciousness. The episode explores the concept of self-organized criticality and its role as a linchpin in understanding a variety of scientific topics. Andersen introduces his work on the diametric model of autism and psychosis, and the trio discusses the growing consensus around criticality as a framework for understanding brain function. The episode also touches on the psychology of meaning, the nature of sacredness, and the transformative power of psychedelics. This intellectual journey culminates in a discussion about the role of individual and collective consciousness in shaping society. Whether you're interested in the cutting-edge theories of cognitive science or the philosophical implications of modern neuroscience, this episode offers a comprehensive look at how these ideas are shaping our understanding of the world.   Brett Andersen, a Ph.D. student in Evolutionary Psychology at the University of New Mexico, is a compelling voice at the intersection of cognitive science, complexity science, and the philosophical underpinnings of morality and religion. With a penchant for delving into controversial topics, Brett crafts thought-provoking essays on Substack and produces insightful YouTube videos. He's also in the process of writing a book, slated for a free PDF release, that encapsulates seven years of rigorous research across scientific and philosophical literature.    Resources:   Brett Andersen: Substack | YouTube | X Gregg Henriques: Website | Facebook | X   Books: Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief - Dr. Jordan Peterson How Nature Works: the science of self-organized criticality - Per Bak The Life of the Cosmos - Lee Smolin The Cortex and the Critical Point: Understanding the Power of Emergence - John M. Beggs The Structure of Scientific Revolutions - Thomas S. Kuhn The Romance of Reality: How the Universe Organizes Itself to Create Life, Consciousness, and Cosmic Complexity - Bobby Azarian  The Voyage of the Beagle - Charles Darwin   Publications: Predictive processing and relevance realization: exploring convergent solutions to the frame problem - Brett P. Andersen, Mark Miller & John Vervaeke  Relevance, Meaning and the Cognitive Science of Wisdom - John Vervaeke and Leonardo Ferraro  Flow as spontaneous thought: Insight and implicit learning - John Vervaeke, Leonardo Ferraro, and Arianne Herrera-Bennett The self-organization of cognitive structure. - Stephen and Dixon The entropic brain: a theory of conscious states informed by neuroimaging research with psychedelic drugs - Robin L. Carhart-Harris et al. Gaining Insight Into the ‘‘Aha'' Experience - Sascha Topolinski and Rolf Reber The Experience of Presence in the Mars Exploration Rover Mission - Dan Chiappe, John Vervaeke Distributed Cognition and the Experience of Presence in the Mars Exploration Rover Mission - Dan Chiappe, John Vervaeke The Enactment of Shared Agency in Teams Exploring Mars Through Rovers - Dan Chiappe, John Vervaeke Perception and self-organized instability - Karl J Friston, Michael Breakspear, and Gustavo Deco Psychological Entropy: A Framework for Understanding Uncertainty-Related Anxiety - Jacob B Hirsh, Raymond A Mar, and Jordan B Peterson   Video: Intimations of a New Worldview, Part 7.1: The Evolutionary Psychology of Meaning - Brett Andersen   MIsc. The REBUS Model    People: Per Bak Brendan Graham Dempsey Bobby Azarian Jean Piaget  Ann Taves Elkhonon Goldberg Terence McKenna Jonathan Pageau Émile Durkheim Ludwig Wittgenstein J. A. Scott Kelso David Wolpert and William Macready ("no free lunch" theorem) Samantha Heintzelman   Time Codes:   00:00:20 — Dr. John Vervaeke opens the discussion, welcoming co-host Gregg Henriques and guest Brett Andersen. 00:00:48 — Gregg Henriques provides a recap of previous episodes. He highlights Brendan Graham Dempsey's vision on the emergence and meaning of meaning. 00:02:09 — Brett Andersen introduces himself and his work. He discusses his YouTube series 'Intimations of a New Worldview' and the diametric model of autism and psychosis. 00:03:46 — Andersen introduces the concept of self-organized criticality. He explains its significance in understanding scientific topics and their relationship to transcendent naturalism. 00:05:40 — Per Bak's work is discussed. Andersen elaborates on the phenomena of complexity in nature and the concept of self-organized criticality. 00:07:40 — The conversation turns to how complexity emerges at the border between order and chaos. Andersen explains why this concept is pivotal in various scientific disciplines. 00:09:20 — Dr. Vervaeke introduces the concept of relevance realization and maps it onto self-organizing criticality. 00:13:00 — The growing consensus around criticality as a framework for understanding brain function is discussed. Dr. Vervaeke highlights its increasing acceptance in neuroscience. 00:16:20 — Gregg Henriques introduces the concept of behavioral investment theory and aligns it with the criticality framework. 00:18:20 — Brett Andersen discusses the epistemological implications of criticality. He relates it to the functioning of the brain's two hemispheres. 00:21:41 — Henriques introduces the concept of the microscopic and macroscopic fractal of criticality. He suggests it can be observed in everyday situations. 00:25:50 — Andersen gives insights into the complexity of human existence and its sense of sacredness. He argues that humans not only manifest this complexity but also participate in it. 00:27:40 — Dr. Vervaeke argues about our ontological significance. He suggests that in terms of the universe's capacity to produce properties, we are apex and ontologically privileged. 00:32:23 — The concept of nested language is introduced. Andersen and Vervaeke discuss its implications for understanding hierarchies and change. 00:41:00 — Andersen explores the clash that occurs when an anomaly disrupts a tradition. He discusses the tension between adherents of the tradition and those who perceive the anomaly. 00:50:36 — Dr. Vervaeke talks about the ability of collective intelligence to detect hyperobjects. He suggests that these are too complex for any individual to understand. 01:00:29 — Dr. Vervaeke introduces the concept that intelligibility is almost like a living entity. He links this to the inexhaustible nature of the complexifying world. 01:02:55 — The conversation turns to the concept of affordance coupling. Dr. Vervaeke argues that internal peace is not just about the inner state but also about being in contact with reality. 01:08:36 — Dr. Vervaeke elaborates on how psychedelics can induce transformative processes. He suggests that experiences like flow states are insights into having an optimal grip on the world. 01:09:20 — Dr. Vervaeke expresses his interest in discussing the Trinitarian model in their next discussion. Gregg Henriques appreciates the concept of criticality and its implications on our ontology and cognitive grip. He expresses his interest in discussing the worldview implications.  

Dr. John Vervaeke and Gregg Henriques once again welcome Brendan Graham Dempsey to engage in profound explorations of transcendent naturalism, wisdom traditions, and the crucial significance of adaptive insight within our current existential landscape. Through discussions on religious reconstruction, animism, hyper-agents, and the role of wisdom in technology, the episode explores the connections between the sacred and the modern world. Dr. Vervaeke emphasizes collective intelligence and agency, while Brendan Graham Dempsey passionately speaks on the unfolding process of the sacred. Gregg Henriques proposes concepts like "wise NAGI" and reflects on collective awakening. Together, they inspire listeners to rethink the integration of religion, science, and reality, emphasizing the need for understanding and harmony.   Resources: Brendan Graham Dempsey Unified Theory of Knowledge   Publications: Relevance, Meaning and the Cognitive Science of Wisdom - John Vervaeke and Leonardo Ferraro  Approaching awe, a moral, spiritual, and aesthetic emotion. - Dacher Keltner, Jonathan Haidt    Videos:  Ep 67 | UTOKing with Howard Bloom | The Blooming Universe Neuroenlightenment: John Vervaeke at TEDxUofT John Vervaeke: Artificial Intelligence, The Meaning Crisis, & The Future of Humanity. John Vervaeke and Paul Vanderklay Dialogue about the Quest for a Spiritual Home   Books: Mentoring the Machines: Orientation - Part One: Surviving the Deep Impact of the Artificially Intelligent Tomorrow - John Vervaeke, Shawn Coyne  The Romance of Reality: How the Universe Organizes Itself to Create Life, Consciousness, and Cosmic Complexity - Bobby Azarian    Quotes: "I think the key here is to appreciate the roles that individuals can play when culture has reached its limits, and that is something that we have to take up the task of individually, of saying, alright, how do I explore this domain of the sacred, what are my intuitions, what are my sensitivities to the transcendent, and begin to give voice to those, to write them down, to externalize them, to objectify them, to put them back into culture so that we can collectively bring these new symbolizations together, ideally in a new networked way that allows for new collective representations of the sacred of the God concept of the divine." - Brendan Graham Dempsey "There's a reconceptualization of the sacred, not as the perfect or complete, but as an inexhaustible fount of intelligibility that simultaneously always shines in and always withdraws from our grasp because relevance realization is incompletable and the world contains radical uncertainty, not just unfound or uncalculated risk." - Dr. John Vervaeke Timecodes: [00:00:20] Dr. John Vervaeke introduces Brendan Graham Dempsey's work on merging Vervaeke and Gregg Henriques's work related to transcendent naturalism. [00:06:38] Dempsey discusses the Religious Reconstruction Project and the learning process, confronting the limits of world models. ​​[00:11:40] Gregg Henriques reflects on the idea of finding meaning at the edge of what we know. [00:13:55] Dr. Vervaeke introduces the concept of the sacred as an always-beyond intelligibility, challenging traditional views. [00:21:03] Delving into schemas, animism, and the risk of misunderstanding reality. [00:28:03] Brendan Graham Dempsey introduces the concept of a new God, an iconic representation of the infinitely receding and illuminating element of reality, suggesting this could help us better understand our world.  [00:32:00] Gregg Henriques introduces the concept of the "fifth joint point" and the need for collective awakening and understanding of the underlying structure. [00:35:00] Vervaeke mentions his upcoming book, suggesting that the proposals that prepare us for the future should have authority, and mentions the internet as a potential common ground for dealing with the advent of AGI. [00:38:37] Speaking on the transformative power of encountering the "really real" and how it's woven into everything else suggests that this profound understanding of reality has a sense of authority. [00:45:20] Dr. Vervaeke and Dempsey discuss logos and multi-layered symbolic articulation underscoring the importance of language in expressing this multi-layered form. [00:49:18] Emphasizing intermediary models in learning complex concepts. [00:52:19] Brendan Graham Dempsey discusses the idea of humans as a way for the cosmos to know itself, and how this perspective gives meaning to his life. He emphasizes the need for these truths to work at an embodied, lived reality. [00:59:15] Stressing the need for alignment between religious conceptions and reality. [01:02:02] Gregg Henriques shares his perspective on the enlightenment gap and the inadequacy of science in grounding our fundamental relevance realization across all modes of being. [01:04:22] Proposing a trans-subjective epistemology, recognizing interplay over time. [01:05:44] Discussing naturalism's role in framing the context for science.  

In Episode 7 of TN, John and Gregg welcome Brendan Graham Dempsey. Brendan is a writer, theologian, and theorist whose work focuses on the meaning crisis and the nature of spirituality in metamodernity. He is also the host of the Metamodern Spirituality podcast, and he runs the Skymeadow Retreat, which has hosted several metamodern spirituality events. In this episode, Brendan shares about his recent work, which he wrote about in Emergentism, and from his in-progress work on the meaning of meaning. He shows how his work, UTOK, and Bobby Azarian's unified theory of reality can provide a framework to delineate the history and development of cultural meaning-making systems (i.e., large-scale systems of justification). This episode is full of powerful convergences between Brendan's vision and the worldview for bridging science and spirituality that is emerging in TN.    Resources: Brendan Graham Dempsey  Oika  Claude E. Shannon: Founder of Information Theory - Graham P. Collins The Levin Lab UTOK   Publications: A Spirit of Trust: A Reading of Hegel's Phenomenology - Robert B. Brandom The information theory of individuality - David Krakauer Semantic information, autonomous agency and non-equilibrium statistical physics - Artemy Kolchinsky and David H. Wolpert   Videos: The Reality of Meaning: Knowledge, Value, and Complexity | Consilience Conference '23   Books: The Romance of Reality: How the Universe Organizes Itself to Create Life, Consciousness, and Cosmic Complexity - Bobby Azarian  Context Changes Everything: How Constraints Create Coherence - Alicia Juarrero Cosmic Evolution: The Rise of Complexity in Nature - Eric J. Chaisson   Quotes: "Transcendent naturalism is trying to articulate a new worldview that holds science and spirituality, [and] orients us towards a frame of understanding for the 21st century that can enable a collective orientation toward wisdom.” - Gregg Henriques "Meaning equals information relevant to enhancing viability of an entity in context, and meaning is inherently transjective. It's not in the subject, it's not in the object, it's in the relationship between the two." - Brendan Graham Dempsey "Earth burns like a quasar of complexification in the night sky. So if our measure is mass, then yes, but if our measure is complexification, especially an ontic epistemic conformity that affords awareness, experience, potentiality, growth, oriented towards a potential future, et cetera, that is an area in which we find ourselves quite uniquely situated in the universe in terms of the everyday knowledge that we have of things in the world. " - Gregg Henriques   Timecodes: [00:00:00] Dr. John Vervaeke introduces the episode and the guests, Gregg Henriques and Brendan Graham Dempsey. The episode focuses on Transcendent Naturalism within the Cognitive Science Show. [00:02:34] Gregg Henriques introduces transjective epistemology, detailing its relation to pragmatism. [00:03:13] Collective awakening towards wisdom is discussed, focusing on its societal implications. [00:07:55] Brendan Graham Dempsey explains the principle of a naturalistic universe and the energy-information relationship. [00:10:40] Dempsey reveals the concept of figure-ground distinction in information theory. [00:16:28] The discussion revolves around the learning process in cosmic evolution and complexification. [00:20:10] The concept of symbolic learning and its relevance to the spiritual and sacred is discussed with emphasis on the need for a focus on this area in the conversation.  [00:27:52] Dr. Vervaeke explores the idea that humans are symbols, connecting to collective intelligence. [00:30:14] Dempsey discusses the role of symbolic information in forming justification systems and the enculturation of individuals. [00:35:00] The conversation shifts to penetrating the unknown and restructuring it for higher complexity. [00:39:16] Henriques connects to justification systems theory, revealing the alignment with Habermas's structure. [00:45:23] Dempsey delves into the progression from modernity to post-modernity and new integrations. [00:53:41] Dr. Vervaeke criticizes postmodernism and its impact on the understanding of reason and wisdom. [00:56:26] Dempsey responds to Dr. Vervaeke, discussing faith in the emergence of new understanding. [01:00:39] Henriques shares his agnostic stance, addressing the expansion of knowledge within ambiguity. [01:04:09] Discussion of trust and cosmic history in response to Dr. Vervaeke's post-Hegelian, Neoplatonic faith. [01:07:12] The importance of pattern recognition in navigating a chaotic world. [01:07:39] Henriques describes his role in carrying a "baton of energy information" within the greater story, and discusses the importance of being a good ancestor and considering the ripple effects of our actions across time, emphasizing the need for a better understanding of our human natures and our relationships.  

Brendan Graham Dempsey is a writer whose work focuses on the meaning crisis and the nature of spirituality in metamodernity. Brendan is also very active in the Metamodern community, which many people recognize as an “integrally-adjacent” constellation of hearts and minds that are trying to usher in a more meaningful and fulfilling way to participate with humanity's unfolding — not just to navigate the extreme complexity of our times, but also striving to find the simplicity on the other side of all that complexity. Sound familiar? Metamodernism and the integral paradigm share a lot in common, yet also differ in important ways. To what degree should these terms be conflated or kept apart? What unites them, and what constitute the meaningful distinctions? What role do things like sensibility, generation, emphasis, and epistemology play? This gathering provided an opportunity to dig into this topic. To this end, metamodern thinker Brendan Graham Dempsey offers some history and a bit of compare/contrast perspectives on the topic. So is metamodernism integral? Is integral metamodern? Watch this discussion with Brendan Dempsey, and let us know what you think!

The queer, liminal, and shamanic all point in their own ways to working fruitfully with 'betweens' and 'crossings,' and yet the possible relations between these worlds and their sensibilities are seldom discussed in the liminal / metamodern communities. Layman sits down with Rachel Hayden to explore these overlaps and to consider what might follow from their more conscious integration. Rachel tends to fret about what to write on a bio. Fortunately, her Personal Medicine of doing tai chi to become calmer is helping her at the moment. She has long been fascinated with mind-body practices, and uses many of these regularly - tai chi, Eastern and Western meditation and philosophy, and karate, to name a few. These have gotten her through some rough patches, kept her generally healthy, and pointed her toward greater insight and meaning. One of her other favorite things is music - listening, playing guitar, singing, and writing songs. Three years ago Rachel switched from being primarily a bodywork therapist and co-op grocery manager to being primarily a peer supporter. It has become part of who she is, and is probably the job she has loved the most, being with people through life's ups and downs. Being a queer trans woman herself, she often works with LGBTQIA+ people and others who are marginalized by society. Rachel became a CPMC to deepen and expand her approach to peer support, and help people find connections to their inner wisdom. She has a profound faith in authentic Personal Medicine, having realized its power in her own life. Remember to like, subscribe, and consider supporting The Integral Stage on Patreon to make more of these conversations possible! https://www.patreon.com/theintegralstage Special thanks and big love to the Limited Hangout guys, Shai Newman, Brandon LaChance, Mike McElroy, Brandon Norgaard, Brendan Graham Dempsey, Francesca, and all of our other Patreon supporters!

For the fourth episode, Layman sits down with Tada Hozumi to explore his thoughts on how a Shinto, animist approach to the world of living intelligences might help us wisely interface, also, with new AI systems, and to recognize some of their affordances perhaps not as readily apparent within our pervasive, materialist and reductionist worldviews. As their discussion deepens, they also get into tantric and Kabbalistic dimensions of AI, and an exploration of the possibilities of a techno-shamanist ethics and etiquette for our technological and social media landscapes. Tada Hozumi launched his career in 2017, when he started doing coaching work around undoing racism through somatic approaches. This piece of work evolved into something he referred to as ‘cultural somatics', which is an approach to both individual and cultural change that posits that cultures are in fact bodies made of bodies. Because of this, individual change and collective change are necessarily embodied processes that have a fractal relationship. One of the great benefits he saw in this kind of ‘cultural-somatic' approach was that it showed us that everything we learn about our own somatic process can be applied to an understanding of how to work with social transformation. Through these efforts, he met Dare Sohei, who had a great impact on his work as they introduced him to foundational concepts of what he could call contemporary liberatory animism, which led Tada to develop a cultural somatic framework that saw the ancestors and other intangible presences our cultures speak of as beings that live in the ‘cultural nervous system' of our ‘cultural somas'. Professional website https://tadahozumi.com/ Remember to like, subscribe, and consider supporting The Integral Stage on Patreon to make more of these conversations possible! https://www.patreon.com/theintegralstage Special thanks and big love to the Limited Hangout guys, Shai Newman, Brandon LaChance, Mike McElroy, Brandon Norgaard, Brendan Graham Dempsey, Francesca, and all of our other Patreon supporters!

Layman is joined by Matt Segall, this time to discuss his new book, Crossing the Threshold: Etheric Imagination in the Post-Kantian Process Philosophy of Schelling and Whitehead. Matt describes his book as "a philosophical experiment in thinking, feeling, and willing beyond the transcendental threshold of Immanuel Kant's critical philosophy" -- an exercise in opening to a "descendental aesthetic ontology," which places us back into participatory relation with reality, and roots us again in cosmic creativity. In thinking together with Schelling, Whitehead, Nietzsche, and other philosophers, Matt is interested in showing that there are resources for transformative spiritual practice, for a new shamanism, here but often overlooked within the Western philosophical tradition. Matthew D. Segall, PhD, received his doctoral degree in 2016 from the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness program at CIIS. His dissertation was titled Cosmotheanthropic Imagination in the Post-Kantian Process Philosophy of Schelling and Whitehead. It grapples with the limits to knowledge of reality imposed by Kant's transcendental form of philosophy and argues that Schelling and Whitehead's process-oriented approach (described in his dissertation as a "descendental" form of philosophy) shows the way across the Kantian threshold to renewed experiential contact with reality. He teaches courses on German Idealism and process philosophy for the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness program at CIIS. He blogs regularly at footnotes2plato.com. Crossing the Threshold book https://www.amazon.com/Crossing-Thres... Follow The Integral Stage on Fathom! https://hello.fathom.fm/ Remember to like, subscribe, and support The Integral Stage on Patreon to make more of these conversations possible! https://www.patreon.com/theintegralstage Special thanks and big love to Shai Newman, the LIMITED HANGOUT guys, Brandon LaChance, Mike McElroy, Brandon Norgaard, Brendan Graham Dempsey, Francesca, and all of our other Patreon supporters!

Metamodern sociologist Daniel Görtz joins Brendan Graham Dempsey to dig deeper into the nuances of developmental theory and how it can be applied at the individual and collective levels. Are individuals "at" a stage of development, or do they occupy a range of complexity? With all the distributional ranges involved in individual development, how can we make assessments about entire cultural worldviews? Daniel digs into the nuances of the Model of Hierarchical Complexity, exploring unpublished theories and ideas of Michael Commons and himself as they relate to thinking about conceptual complexification for people and societies. 0:00 Introduction Part I: Individual Development 2:28 Are People "at" a Stage or Thinking/Behaving Across a Distribution? 5:12 The MHC vs. Holistic, Whole-Person Models 10:11 Transjective Behavioral Complexity: Context and Scaffolding 25:17 Cognitive Ranges, Cognitive Ceilings 30:22 Piaget and Beyond Part II: Cultural Development 33:04 Are Ideas "at" a Stage? 42:16 Are Cultural Worldviews "at" a Stage? 56:44 The Dynamics of Cultural Evolution 1:20:36 Pattern and Medium 1:32:16 Problems and Progress: Nothing for Granted

Layman meets with the founding framer of The Reconstitution project, Ari Allen, to talk about the genesis and goals of The Reconstitution: a collective experiment in revising the United States' Constitution and drafting a series of amendments responsive to some of the deepest challenges confronting the country, its people, and its governing bodies: polarization and corruption, the influence of money in elections, limitations to meaningful participation in government and self-governance, imbalances in representation, the status of corporations and the need to address corporate influence on democratic process, the role of advertising in a free society, and much more. Ari reflects on the historical justification for such an experiment, what he has learned through convening this imaginal Constitutional Convention, and how the resulting document might be used going forward, to foster dialogue, stimulate creative thinking, and hopefully catalyze meaningful change. Ari Allen earned his JD from Georgetown Law and has worked at Sidley Austin, representing clients on Capitol Hill during the 2008 financial crisis and the subsequent Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform. He holds a Masters in Psychology degree from the California Institute of Integral Studies, and currently works in the education technology industry. He is also a writer, philosopher, and a DJ. The Reconstitution Project https://www.thereconstitution.com/ Follow The Integral Stage on Fathom! https://hello.fathom.fm/ 2Subscribe, and support The Integral Stage on Patreon to make more of these conversations possible! https://www.patreon.com/theintegralstage Special thanks and big love to Shai Newman, Brandon LaChance, Mike McElroy, Brandon Norgaard, Brendan Graham Dempsey, Francesca, and all of our other Patreon supporters!

Layman meets with returning guest, Aydan Connor, to discuss the global problem of food waste, the shortcomings of the modern food production system, Aydan's experience in the craft beer industry, and his thoughts on personal and systemic steps we can take to reduce waste and promote greater abundance of healthy, locally sourced foods. Follow us on Fathom! https://hello.fathom.fm/ Subscribe, and support The Integral Stage on Patreon to make more of these conversations possible! https://www.patreon.com/theintegralstage Special thanks and big love to Shai Newman, Brandon LaChance, Mike McElroy, Brandon Norgaard, Brendan Graham Dempsey, Francesca, and all of our other Patreon supporters!

Jim talks with Gregg Henriques about his book A New Synthesis for Solving the Problem of Psychology: Addressing the Enlightenment Gap. They discuss the book's audacious attempt to explain the universe, definitions of metaphysics & whether it's needed, 4 bins for the history of the universe, the tree of knowledge system, psychology's ontological confusion, the Enlightenment gap, one-world naturalism & the mind-body problem, scientific knowledge's relationship with subjective knowledge, the metamodernist synthesis, psychology's disagreement about its own building blocks, the absence of a meta-paradigm, John Vervaeke's recursive relevance realization, definitions of mind, empiricism, mapping the internal/external relationship, the unified theory of knowledge, the meaning of biopsychosocial, 3 meanings of mind, Global Workspace Theory, justification systems theory, question-answer dynamics, positive & negative space in communication, justification dynamics, motivated reasoning, and much more. Listeners may be interested to know that Gregg is organizing a conference. Consistent with his book, it is called Consilience: Unifying Knowledge and Orienting Toward a Wisdom Commons. It will be held online March 17 and 18th. It is a Zoom event, and free to the public. Jim will be talking about Game B, and will be joined by Jordan Hall. John Vervaeke will give the keynote. And there will be over 40 presentations by many folks who have been featured on the Jim Rutt Show. Links below: Register for the conference. UTOK Conference 2023 - Clip Conference Flyer Episode Links: Episode Transcript A New Synthesis for Solving the Problem of Psychology: Addressing the Enlightenment Gap, by Gregg Henriques JRS EP59 - Gregg Henriques on Unifying Psychology JRS Currents 009: Gregg Henriques on Theory Of Meta-Cultural Transition JRS EP116 - Doug Erwin on the Cambrian Explosion JRS EP 172 - Brendan Graham Dempsey on Emergentism The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, by Thomas S. Kuhn JRS EP143 - John Vervaeke Part 1: Awakening from the Meaning Crisis JRS EP108 - Bernard Baars on Consciousness JRS EP 159 - Bobby Azarian on the Romance of Reality The Symbolic Species: The Co-evolution of Language and the Brain, by Terrence W. Deacon Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts, by Carol Tavris & Elliot Aronson The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion, by Jonathan Haidt Ego Defenses And The Legitimation Of Behavior, by Guy E. Swanson Dr. Gregg Henriques is Professor of Graduate Psychology at James Madison University in the Combined Doctoral Program in Clinical and School Psychology. He received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Vermont and did his post-doctoral training at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a theoretical psychologist and has developed the “Unified Theory of Knowledge,” which is a consilient scientific humanistic worldview to unify psychology. He is the author of A New Unified Theory of Psychology (Springer, 2011), and A New Synthesis for Solving the Problem of Psychology: Addressing the Enlightenment Gap (Palgrave McMillian, November 2022). His scholarly work has been published in the field's best journals, and he has developed a popular blog on Psychology Today, Theory of Knowledge, which has received over eight million views. He is a fellow of the American Psychological Association, the 2022 President of the Society for the Exploration of Psychotherapy Integration, and founded the Theory of Knowledge academic society.

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 9th episode, Bruce, Layman and John continue the themes from the previous discussion and focus in on the roles of art and the imaginal in state training and cross-cultural mediation; the question of normativity and rationality in ritual and contemplative aesthetics; the importance of the participatory dimension of art, and the need to emphasize shifts in tonality, rhythm, time, and structured performance, beyond the typical emphasis on the visual, in religious art and practice. They also touch on the broader social roles (to be) played by integral spirituality or the religion that is not a religion. John Vervaeke is a cognitive scientist, a professor of psychology at Toronto University, and the creator of the popular YouTube series, "Awakening from the Meaning Crisis." After Socrates playlist https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIJuIN6kUcU&list=PLND1JCRq8Vuj6q5NP_fXjBzUT1p_qYSCC&index=1&t=0s Voices with Vervaeke: Metamodern Wisdom about Religion with Layman Pascal: https://youtu.be/bPy6W-c5_9Y Vervaeke and Hall Begin to Design the Religion That is Not a Religion: https://youtu.be/nl48eFZGRq8 Support The Integral Stage on Patreon to make more of these conversations possible! https://www.patreon.com/theintegralstage Special thanks and big love to Shai Newman, Brandon LaChance, Mike McElroy, Brandon Norgaard, Brendan Graham Dempsey, Francesca, and all of our other Patreon supporters!

Brendan Graham Dempsey is a writer whose work focuses on the meaning crisis and the nature of spirituality in metamodernity. He earned his bachelors in religious studies from the University of Vermont and his masters in religion and the arts from Yale University. He is the host of the Metamodern Spirituality podcast where he interviews leading thinkers in the metamodernism, integral, synthesist, and Game B spaces about the topics of meaning-making and spirituality in today's world. He is also the author of a series of books including the most recent “Emergentism: A Religion of Complexity for the Metamodern world”. In this episode, we speak about the meaning crisis, the problem with spiritual but not religious, four levels of complexity, evolving our concept of God, and transcending nihilistic spirituality.

What is Black Metamodernism? What distinguishes metamodernism from modernism, postmodernism, and hypermodernity? In this special Integral Stage episode, Layman sits down with metamodernist thinker and writer, Germane Marvel, to explore these questions, and to take a deep dive into Germane's thoughts on diunital cognition; the role of emotional intelligence in both/and thinking; nihilism and the meaning crisis; the concepts of meta-existence and metatheology; metamodern spirituality, Taoism, and Ifa; the nature of light surpremacy; and the contributions of the global south to the resolution of the postmodern aporia. Germane Marvel's Medium page https://medium.com/@germanemarvel Layman's write-up of Marvel's work https://www.whatisemerging.com/profiles/black-metamodernism Fathom app https://hello.fathom.fm/ Support The Integral Stage on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/theintegralstage Special thanks and big love to Shai Newman, Brandon LaChance, Mike McElroy, Brandon Norgaard, Brendan Graham Dempsey, Francesca, and all of our other Patreon supporters!

For the twenty-seventh episode of the Integral Stage's Author Series, Layman meets with author and artist, Brian George, to talk about his book, Masks of Origin: Regression in the Service of Omnipotence; about speaking the unspeakable; and about his creative life and work in general. From the book description: "Brian George's debut collection of personal essays invites the reader on a journey beyond the normal categories of space, time, and narrative structure, toward a further shore of multidimensional and more-than-human experience. These are 'essays' in the sense of attempts or explorations of a subject which is too vast, and too profound, yet also, paradoxically, too familiar (to some deepest part of us) to be exhausted by any one expression or approach. As George puts it, 'The book is not quite a collection of essays, or the fragments of an autobiography, or a record of inter-dimensional journeys, or a work of metaphysics, or a sociopolitical critique, or an attempt to formulate a contemporary mythology—although it has elements of all of these.'" Brian George is the author of five books of poetry and two books of essays. He is a graduate of the Massachusetts College of Art, an exhibited artist and former art teacher at several Boston area middle schools, a former member of the Boston Visionary Cell, and a former organizer for Evolver Boston. He was a founding member of MAAP SPACE, a multimedia performance series, as well as of the Revolving Arts Salon and the current Cedar Square Arts Salon. He often tells people first discovering his work that his goal is not so much to be read as to be re-read, and then lived with. Links Masks of Origin book https://untimelybooks.com/book/masks-of-origin/ Masks of Origin blog https://masksoforigin.blogspot.com/ Fathom app https://hello.fathom.fm/ Please consider supporting The Integral Stage on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/theintegralstage Special thanks and big love to Shai Newman, Brandon LaChance, Mike McElroy, Brandon Norgaard, Brendan Graham Dempsey, Francesca, and all of our other Patreon supporters!

For the twenty-sixth episode of the Integral Stage's Author Series, Layman sits down again with Middle Way philosopher and author, Robert M. Ellis, this time to discuss his new book, Absolutization -- the first book in a planned 9-part series on the Middle Way. Layman and Robert explore the essential arguments of the book; the many ways absolutizing tendencies in thought show up psychologically, culturally, and politically; and the relationship of Middle Way philosophy to integral postmetaphysics and Layman's Metaphysics of Adjacency. From the book's description: "What do dogma, repression, and conflict have in common? They all result from human judgement blocked from wider understanding by a false assumption of completeness. This book puts forward a theory of absolutization, bringing together a multidisciplinary understanding of this central flaw in human judgement, and what we can do about it. This approach, drawing on Buddhist thought and practice, philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, embodied meaning, and systems theory, offers a rigorous introduction to absolutization as the central problem addressed in Middle Way Philosophy, which is a synthetic approach developed by the author over more than twenty years in a series of books. It challenges disciplinary boundaries as well as offering a substantial framework for practical application." Robert M. Ellis is a philosopher, writer and teacher. He has produced a series of books about the Middle Way, understood as a principle of judgement that throws us onto experience by avoiding absolutes, both positive and negative. He has also founded the Middle Way Society to support the development and practice of the Middle Way understood in this way, and he has recently opened a retreat center, Tirylan House, in rural South Wales. Absolutization on publisher's website: https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/absolutisation/ Fathom app https://hello.fathom.fm/ Support The Integral Stage on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/theintegralstage Special thanks and big love to Shai Newman, Brandon LaChance, Mike McElroy, Brandon Norgaard, Brendan Graham Dempsey, Francesca, and all of our other Patreon supporters!

Jim talks with Hanzi Freinacht about his book 12 Commandments: For Extraordinary People to Master Ordinary Life. They discuss the book as a response to Jordan Peterson & his "12 rules" books, metamodernism, fostering sober crazy people, magical thinking in highly developed personalities, integrations of science & spirituality, stabilizing higher phenomenological states, lower average states as a phenomenon of late-stage Game A, living in a mess moderately, fucking like a beast, sincere irony, quitting, doing the walk of shame, reverse death therapy, Carl Roger's idea of congruence, healing with justice, burning your maps, the pernicious belief that our maps are complete, killing your guru & finding the others, Jung's golden shadow, playing for forgiveness, and much more. Episode Transcript 12 Commandments: For Extraordinary People to Master Ordinary Life, by Hanzi Freinacht JRS EP36 - Hanzi Freinacht on Metamodernism JRS EP53 - Hanzi Freinacht on the Nordic Ideology JRS EP82 - Hanzi Freinacht on Building a Metamodern Future JRS EP 172 - Brendan Graham Dempsey on Emergentism JRS EP 170 - John Vervaeke and Jordan Hall on The Religion That Is Not a Religion JRS EP143 - John Vervaeke Part 1: Awakening from the Meaning Crisis Hanzi Freinacht is a political philosopher, historian and sociologist, author of The Listening Society, Nordic Ideology, and the upcoming books The 6 Hidden Patterns of History and Outcompeting Capitalism. Much of his time is spent alone in the Swiss Alps.

Jim talks with Brendan Graham Dempsey about his book Emergentism: A Religion of Complexity for the Metamodern World. They discuss the meaning crisis & its symptoms, reciprocal narrowing, the pre-modern & the modern, the emergence of reductionism, the meaning of complexity & emergence, sacralizing the scientific creation narrative, Prigogine's theory of dissipative systems, the universe as a process of endless complexification, marrying Bobby Azarian's Unifying Theory of Reality & Gregg Henriques's Unified Theory of Knowledge, consciousness vs sentience, Integrated Information Theory vs John Searle's biological functionalism, the odds that intelligent life evolved only once in our galaxy, tying complexification to the God concept, making the "religion that is not a religion" accessible through mythopoeia & storytelling, the Omega Point, whether approaching the Omega Point implies pushing for a techno-Singularity, Emergentist ethics & practices, and much more. Episode Transcript Emergentism: A Religion of Complexity for the Modern World, by Brendan Graham Dempsey "Awakening from the Meaning Crisis," by John Vervaeke - YouTube series JRS EP143 - John Vervaeke Part 1: Awakening from the Meaning Crisis The Emergence of Everything: How the World Became Complex, by Harold Morowitz The Romance of Reality: How the Universe Organizes Itself to Create Life, Consciousness, and Cosmic Complexity, by Bobby Azarian JRS EP 159 - Bobby Azarian on the Romance of Reality JRS EP105 - Christof Koch on Consciousness JRS EP 167 - Bruce Damer on the Origins of Life JRS EP 171 - Bruce Damer Part 2: The Origins of Life – Implications JRS EP40 - Eric Smith on the Physics of Living Systems Brendan Graham Dempsey is a writer whose work focuses on the meaning crisis and the nature of spirituality in metamodernity. He is the host of the Metamodern Spirituality podcast and the writer behind the six-volume (and counting) Metamodern Spirituality Series. He earned his BA in Religious Studies from the University of Vermont and his MA in Religion and the Arts from Yale University. He lives in Greensboro Bend, Vermont, where he runs the holistic retreat center Sky Meadow.

Anticipated for several centuries by prescient individuals, the Meta-Crisis is the defining challenge of our time -- the convergence of multiple wicked problems, at global scale. In this special Integral Stage episode, Dr. Roger Walsh, a renowned transpersonal psychologist, integral scholar, and Professor of Psychiatry and Philosophy at UC Irvine, sits down with Layman Pascal to discuss the wisdom skills needed to apprehend, navigate, and respond to the daunting complex of issues, challenges, and changes that confront us. Roger Walsh, M.D., Ph.D. DHL. graduated from Australia's Queensland University with degrees in psychology, physiology, neuroscience, and medicine, and then came to the United States as a Fulbright Scholar. He is now at the University of California at Irvine where he is professor of psychiatry, philosophy, and anthropology, as well as a professor in the religious studies program. Professional website https://drrogerwalsh.com/ Fathom app https://hello.fathom.fm/ Support The Integral Stage on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/theintegralstage Special thanks and big love to Shai Newman, Brandon LaChance, Mike McElroy, Brandon Norgaard, Brendan Graham Dempsey, Francesca, and all of our other Patreon supporters!

Having lived in a cave so long, the puppet hermit Adyahanzi sometimes leaves unseemly messes when he goes out in public ... at hotels, restaurants, restrooms ... anywhere, really. And it is the task of poor Brendan Graham Dempsey to follow behind him and do the dirty clean-up work. Such is the case with this video. Listen in as Brendan gives Layman the (re)overview of Emergentism that it truly deserves! Emergentism book: https://www.amazon.com/Emergentism-Religion-Complexity-Metamodern-Spirituality/dp/B0BF28PC2L/ Brendan Graham Dempsey is a writer whose work focuses on the meaning crisis and the nature of spirituality in metamodernity. He earned his BA in Religious Studies from the University of Vermont and his MA in Religion and the Arts from Yale University. He lives in Wolcott, Vermont. Professional website: www.BrendanGrahamDempsey.com Support The Integral Stage on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/theintegralstage

For the twenty-fourth episode of the Integral Stage's Author Series, Layman sits down with the very animated, Adyahanzi, to talk about his latest book, Emergentism, which he co-authored with that rather sneaky post-Kierkegaardian writer, Brendan Graham Dempsey. As a cave-dwelling hermit, Adyahanzi doesn't get out much -- you might be able to tell that from his unkempt beard and his enthusiastic oracular bursts -- but he's found a good listener in Layman, and soon spills all the book's secrets. "The new sciences of complexity have completely revolutionized our understanding of the universe as well as our place in it. At a time when nihilism and meaninglessness are affecting more people than ever, the new cosmic story of complexification comes as a genuine revelation. Evolution, we now know, is not some senseless meandering, but part of an ever-deepening learning process by which the universe is waking up to itself. And, as highly complex, conscious beings, we have a unique role to play in this cosmic drama." Emergentism book: https://www.amazon.com/Emergentism-Religion-Complexity-Metamodern-Spirituality/dp/B0BF28PC2L/ Brendan Graham Dempsey is a writer whose work focuses on the meaning crisis and the nature of spirituality in metamodernity. He earned his BA in Religious Studies from the University of Vermont and his MA in Religion and the Arts from Yale University. He lives in Wolcott, Vermont. Professional website: www.BrendanGrahamDempsey.com

For this episode, Layman hooks up with Metamodern writer and process theologian, Jared Morningstar, to talk about Islam -- its ritual practices, its history, its internal and external movements and divisions, its theological and metaphysical insights, its social challenges, its relationship to ecology and care for the earth, its potential futures, and much more. Jared is a writer and educator with academic interests in philosophy of religion, Islamic studies, comparative religion, metamodern spirituality, and interfaith dialogue whose work in these areas seeks to offer robust responses to issues of inter-religious conflict, contemporary nihilism, and the "meaning crisis" among other things. You can find his work on YouTube and Medium. Jared works for the Center for Process Studies and the Cobb Institute where he supports these organizations promote a process-relational worldview and flourish in a digital world through aiding in a variety of marketing and communications tasks. He also works for the Psychedelic Medicine Association where he helps communicate the latest insights in psychedelic research for mental health conditions to an audience of clinicians and other healthcare professionals. Jared is also the founder and director of 'Alif: Traditional Wisdom in Review, a digital Islamic studies publication which seeks to build intellectual and spiritual bridges between the Islamic tradition and Western cultural, religious, and philosophical sources. Professional Website https://jaredmorningstar.com/ Please like, subscribe, and consider supporting The Integral Stage on Patreon to make more of these conversations possible! https://www.patreon.com/theintegralstage Special thanks and big love to Shai Newman, Brandon LaChance, Mike McElroy, Brandon Norgaard, Brendan Graham Dempsey, Francesca, and all of our other Patreon supporters!

On this episode of Conversations in Process, Jay McDaniel and Jared Morningstar are joined by Brendan Graham Dempsey to discuss metamodern spirituality and possible connections with process theology. Brendan is a podcaster, author, community-builder, philosopher, and poet whose work focuses on the meaning crisis and the nature of spirituality in metamodernity. He has a BA in Religious Studies from the University of Vermont and an MA in Religion and the Arts from Yale University. Brendan lives in Greensboro Bend, Vermont, where he runs the holistic Sky Meadow retreat center and hosts metamodern gatherings. In this conversation, Jay, Brendan, and Jared discuss metamodernism and its relationship to various other intellectual/philosophical modes—such as modernism and postmodernism—and also consider its relationship with process thinking and contemporary religiosity. The discussion begins with Brendan's own journey with metamodernism and how this was intricately intertwined with his own spiritual path of deconstructing and eventually reconstructing a religious worldview. Based on his work in his pseudonymously authored book Building the Cathedral: Answering the Meaning Crisis through Personal Myth, Brendan explains the centrality of narrativizing and personal myth-making in a metamodern spiritual project. Jay builds on these ideas, introducing process ideas such as Whitehead's “consequent nature of God,” showing how not only our own religious sensibilities are in process, but actually so is the Divine itself. However, there is still the question of communal and collective spirituality and myth-making, and Jay wonders if the collectivity involved here may even be beyond our merely human communities. The conversation closes with a discussion of the relationship between metamodernism and the established religious traditions. Jay asks, “can a Methodist be metamodern?” and Brendan beautifully responds in the affirmative, stating that these traditions have the potential to be expressed and understood in a variety of different moods, from pre-modern to metamodern and everything in between. The goal of a metamodern standpoint, however, is to accept all of these different moods for what they are and the value they bring, and weave a coherent whole of this diversity, without losing the unique individuality of the various standpoints. LINKS: Brendan's websiteBrendan's book Building the Cathedral: Answering the Meaning Crisis through Personal MythA conversation with Brendan, Layman Pascal, and John Vervaeke: “The Artful Scaling of the Religion that is not a Religion”Matt Segall on Brendan's Metamodern Spirituality podcast: “Process Philosophy and the Metamodern Metanarrative”Sky Meadow RetreatThe Cobb InstituteOpen Horizons https://youtu.be/2iWelOi0fQ4

The short answer to what MetaModern spirituality is that it is what comes after New Age spirituality. The New Age, popular from the 1970's onwards, was strong in the sense that its progressive outlook brought together all the various spiritual traditions of the world, but weak in the sense that it was rather shallow and whimsical in this approach. The MetaModern view keeps the openness to the rich variety of traditions and practices from around the world but makes a point of situating that within the rigour of the scientific method and the potency of sustained and faithful practice of traditional spiritual techniques. Brendan Graham Dempsey is a writer whose work focuses on the meaning crisis and the nature of spirituality in metamodernity. He earned his BA in Religious Studies from the University of Vermont and his MA in Religion and the Arts from Yale University. He lives in Greensboro Bend, Vermont, where he runs the holistic retreat center Sky Meadow. He is known to sometimes answer to the names Julian, A. Severan, Sadie Alwyn Moon, and others… He moderates a Facebook group called MetaModern Spirituality.   To find out more about Brendan's work please visit: https://www.brendangrahamdempsey.com/   For more information about my work please visit www.bodyheartmindspirit.co.uk   To hear more of my music please visit my soundcloud page www.soundcloud.com/ralphcree   My youtube channel is https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUfQp5jM16pPB7QX2zmMYbQ   My Facebook page is www.facebook.com/bodyheartmindspirituk/   My Evolving Spiritual Practice Podcast can be found on all major podcast platforms P and C owned by Ralph Cree 2022 ​

In Episode 58, Gregg welcomes back Layman Pascal. This is Layman's fifth time on the podcast, so he needs no introduction. Gregg joined Layman in May for the first “metamodern spirituality retreat” hosted by Brendan Graham Dempsey, and aligned more deeply Layman's approach to spirituality with UTOK's metapsychology. A point of contact that needed more elaboration was the organization of the self and the nature of self-esteem and the relational world. In this episode, Layman takes the opportunity to flesh out how UTOK's Influence Matrix frames social influence, relational value, and self-esteem, and the implications this has for spirituality.   - - -

In this fourth episode of our Exploring Social Transformation series, Nathen Fitchen and Brendan Graham Dempsey discuss the rise of the meaning crisis, how it has perpetuated throughout the world and its symbiotic nature to the environmental crisis and other crises we face today. In addition, they unpack a potential antidote to the meaning crisis, metamodern spirituality. Through identifying the core characteristics of metamodern thinking and how one might engage in metamodern spirituality, this conversation is a perfect place to orient oneself with the metamodern ideology and to be inspired to find greater meaning individually and as a collective. Brendan Graham Dempsey is the author of several books, his work focusing on the meaning crisis and the nature of spirituality in metamodernity. He also hosts a podcast called metamodern spirituality, is a public speaker, course facilitator and has released a series of insightful videos titled after postmodernism. Learn more: Brendans website - https://www.brendangrahamdempsey.com/ Metamodern spirituality podcast - https://www.brendangrahamdempsey.com/metamodern-spirituality Facebook group - metamodern spirituality - https://web.facebook.com/groups/492060442032036 Book - Building the Cathedral https://www.amazon.com/Building-Cathedral-Answering-Meaning-Personal/dp/B0915PKWBY/ Our residency page - https://lifeitself.us/upcoming-residencies-gatherings/

In Episode 50, Gregg welcomes Brendan Graham Dempsey. Brendan is a writer whose work focuses on the meaning crisis and the nature of spirituality in metamodernity (see here). He is also the host of the Metamodern Spirituality podcast, in which he interviews prominent voices on metamodernism and contemporary spirituality. In this episode, he recounts for Gregg his journey, and he and Gregg explore the metamodern spirituality movement, and why the time is right for knowledge systems that can generate a coherent integrative pluralism in a way oriented toward wisdom.   --- ℹ️ Find out more about Brendan Graham Dempsey ℹ️ --- Homepage: https://www.brendangrahamdempsey.com/ Metamodern Spirituality Homepage: https://www.metamodernspirituality.org/about YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendanGrahamDempsey   --- ℹ️ Find out more about Gregg Henriques ℹ️ --- Psychology Today: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/contributors/gregg-henriques-phd Medium: https://gregghenriques.medium.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/henriqgx   ---

Brendan Graham Dempsey joins us to talk about the explosive creative relationship between Wagner and Nietzsche, and debate the approaches to art and mythology that appear in metamodern and dark renaissance thought. Brendan can be found here https://www.brendangrahamdempsey.com/

Brendan Graham Dempsey talks to Julyan Davey about his immensely prescient and rich essay, "Towards a Metamodern Spirituality," a must-read for anyone interested in the topic of religion and spirituality in metamodernity: https://medium.com/the-phoenix-project/towards-a-metamodern-spirituality-6d71f958a2e0.

We discuss Brendan's issues with strawmanning and developmental question, Jeremy's take on stage theories and challenge to historical linearity, Models themselves vs how people hold them, Contextualizing the book via meta-analysis, Indigenous critiques of modernity and its critique, Escaping the confines of a narrow (modernist) lens, Fractalizing developmental maps, Decoupling development from modes of production, Complexifying the patterning, deeper dives into the book's “strawmanning/shadowboxing”, interpretive styles and missing information, who was the book written for? And it being misconstrued, the “What is Politics” Youtube critique, emphasizing material conditions/structure vs agency/volition, stage theories infantilizing indigenous peoples and the preconditions for “development”, specific insights folks appreciated from the book, a deep dive into “schismogenesis”, competing perceptions of our ancestors, “returning” to previous states of affairs and the dangers of reactionary romanticisms, and Ryan's M. Night Shyamalan “The Village” epistemic thought experiment.

Daniel Görtz, one of the authors behind the Hanzi Freinacht works, explores the topic of metamodern spirituality with Brendan Graham Dempsey in a rich and illuminating discussion. After some initial exposition highlighting important distinctions between the metamodern and integral paradigms, Görtz and Dempsey dive into considering the implications of metamodern developmental thought for religion and theology, tracking the evolution of "God" into metamodernity. Meta-religious frameworks, as well as the relationship of the Model of Hierarchical Complexity to theories of "consciousness evolution," are also considered. The conversation concludes with a look towards metamodern mythopoetic and praxipoetic possibilities on the horizon, and the challenge to shape new containers for spiritual expression in metamodernity. 0:00 Introduction 1:02 Metamodernism vs. Integral: In Search of Post-Postmodern Social Transformation 19:09 Millenarian Woo vs. Gradual Spiritualization 28:08 Towards a Metamodern God: Teleology, Oscillation, and the Development of Religion 43:34 The Headless God: The Relentless Murder and Resurrection of Spirit 48:32 Meta-Religion? A Stage-Model Metanarrative for the Evolution of God 1:00:40 Cognitive Development or Consciousness Evolution? 1:12:00 Metamodern Prophets and Sincerely Ironic Saints 1:26:55 A Challenge to Co-Create New Religious Praxis www.BrendanGrahamDempsey.com

Timotheus Vermeulen talks with Brendan Graham Dempsey about the development of "metamodernism," a paradigm for understanding art and culture after postmodernism. After discussing the original impetus for and formation of the idea, he reflects on the continued relevance of the paradigm today, more than a decade after he and colleague Robin van den Akker first proposed it in their seminal 2010 article, "Notes on Metamodernism." More recent applications and deployments of the term "metamodernism" outside cultural studies proper (e.g., by Hanzi Freinacht, Lene Rachel Andersen, Tomas Björkman, Jonathan Rowson and Layman Pascal) are also considered. The conversation concludes with a look to the future of metamodernism, and a consideration of how it is playing out in the realm of contemporary spirituality. 00:00 Introduction 01:56 Beginnings: Coining "Metamodernism" for a New Cultural Sensibility 09:25 Is Metamodernism the "Dominant Structure of Feeling"? An Uneven Distribution 17:57 Roots: The Meta-Crisis, Internet 2.0, and a New Generation 27:23 Manifestations: Pragmatic Idealism on Left and Right: Informed Naivete and Relativist Absolutism 38:41 On Recent Developments: Cultural Metamodernism vs. Political/Developmental Metamodernism 56:19 Currents and Horizons: Depthiness and Metamodern Spirituality: 'Truth,' 'Transcendence,' and the Search for Meaning after Postmodernism 1:09:52 Political Metamodernism as Metamodern Cultural Production 1:15:36 Where Are We Going? Metamodernism as a Time Between Worlds

Alexander Bard talks with Brendan Graham Dempsey about syntheism, a movement exploring the "creation of God in the internet age." Envisioning "God" not as the creator at the beginning of time, but rather as the networked Event in the future to which we all are tending, Bard's syntheist philosophy challenges us to consider the coming Sensocracy, which is even now emerging in both pluralist and totalitarian guises. Taking issue with "evolution of consciousness" models and the idea of developmental spirituality, Bard argues rather for technology's development as the core dynamism in a world that knows only Process and Event. 0:00 Introduction 1:22 Contextualizing Syntheism: Religion and Technology Since the Bronze Age 7:40 Cultural Code Development: Process and Event---and Technology 13:30 Metamodernism vs. Syntheism: Human Development or Technological Development? 29:48 Metamodernism vs. Syntheism: The Development of God and the Ultimate Event 40:17 The Barred Absolute: God as Relative Utopia (Syntheos) 45:20 Creating Syntheos: The Coming Sensocracy (Totalitarian or Pluralistic?) 54:31 Development vs. Novelty vs. Event 1:04:27 Humanism, Metamodernism, Syntheism and Religion 1:19:39 Dividual Co-Creation: Living Archetypally www.BrendanGrahamDempsey.com

How do we talk about metamodern spirituality, especially when traditional religious terminology is so fraught with baggage from the past? Do we rename our terms, or reclaim them? In this conversation with Brendan Graham Dempsey, Layman Pascal defends the reclamation of religious language, offering his own definitions of words like "God," "spirit," "heaven and hell," and more. With this reformulation of familiar ideas, we can glimpse a vital and viable framework for a truly metamodern spirituality, one that retains its connection to the traditions of our ancestors and their age-old explorations of matters of ultimate concern. 0:00 Introduction 3:30 Defending Conservation: The Right in the Right/Left Polarity of Metamodern Spirituality 5:24 Redefining: "Spirituality" 7:36 "Spirit" 8:51 "Numinous" 12:10 "God" 26:38 "Telos," the "Will of God," and "Sin" 34:31 (On Mingling Symbol Sets) 38:35 "Sacred Geometry" 46:05 "Religion" 54:35 "Myth," "Pantheon," and "Divinities/gods" 1:17:44 "Heaven" and "Hell" 1:21:09 "Afterlife," nihilistic vs. life-affirming Transcendence 1:32:23 Meta-Praxis or Meta-Narrative? The Primacy of Experience over Theory 1:42:52 Navigating Different Terminological Contexts 1:51:33 Spiritual Timidity vs. Spiritual Trauma www.BrendanGrahamDempsey.com

Brendan Graham Dempsey talks to Jeremy Johnson about structures of consciousness, mapping the whole, and metamodern spirituality. 0:00 Introduction 2:32 A Trans-Disciplinary Approach 4:17 Seeking the Whole: Gebser 7:39 Seeking the Whole: Gebser vs. Wilber? 10:27 Modern Totalizing: The Limits of Developmental Maps 15:37 Our Meta Moment between Worlds 20:20 Living the Between: A Non-Totalizing Meta-Narrative? 25:47 The Meta-Crisis, The Meaning Crisis, and the Narrative of the In-Between 36:03 A Felt Sense of the Whole: Metamodern Reclaiming of the Non-Modern 48:28 Approaches to Modern Systems Transformation 58:47 Meta Spirituality: Being Present to the Whole 1:15:40 Concretizing Presence: Practices for Meta Living 1:23:24 Living Out Our Composite Natures: Concretizing Multiple Structures of Consciousness 1:38:48 The Whole Beyond Everything 1:41:24 A Myth of the Whole: "God" as Originary Presence? More on Jeremy at mutations.blog www.BrendanGrahamDempsey.com

Brendan Graham Dempsey talks to Lene Rachel Andersen, author of Metamodernity: Meaning and Hope in a Complex World, about navigating different cultural codes, updating traditions, and sense-making in today's world. 0:00 Introduction 3:20 Metamodern-ism vs. Metamodern-ity 5:34 Seeing All Four Previous Cultural Codes 11:15 Updating through Addition 13:01 Metamodern Oscillation between Postmodern and Pre-postmodern (Indigenous, Classical, Modern) 18:08 Cultural Code-Switching 27:02 Code Antagonism and Limits 23:29 Code Pluralism and Sense-Making 34:44 A Corner of the Iron Age in 2021 39:03 Premodern Beliefs in a Metamodern World? 47:07 Invention and Religion/Inventing Religion 57:53 Transcendence in the Cultural Codes 1:04:11 Making Meaning, Sense, and Identity after Postmodernism More on Lene's work at: www.NordicBildung.org www.BrendanGrahamDempsey.com