Podcasts about layman pascal

The world is getting weirder every day… We need weirdness specialists. Maybe the best guy for the job is my friend, the brilliant “metashaman” (and possible octopus) Layman Pascal. In his own words, Layman “used to be a Canadian meditation teacher, yoga instructor & philosopher of Integral Metatheory but he's feeling much better now.” He leads the Metamodern Spirituality Labs, hosts The Integral Stage, Soulmakers+, and (forthcoming) Untegral Stage podcasts, and provides unique online courses. He is also a founding member of several think tanks in the developmental psychology and spirituality space, senior editor of Emerge online & is allied to numerous institutes across the field. In addition to many journal and anthology articles, he is the author of Gurdjieff for a Time Between Worlds, Sex, Death & the Occult, as well as an upcoming book about Nietzsche. Layman is known for his philosophical work on the metaphysics of adjacency, complex nonduality, coaxial developmental stage theories, sacred naturalism, archaic futurism, embodied spirituality & the “integration-surplus model of religion and spirituality” for a post-postmodern civilization facing numerous accelerating and converging crises. In this conversation we cover a lot of ground in a very short time, including: the nature of futurity and how humankind's relationship to the future is changing; how to surf intense peculiarity'; the abiding sociocultural role of “shamanoid” personalities and other useful weirdos; “wartime” mobilization for The Big Us; and other deep and delightful subjects. It's my honor to finally decant this year-old recording, now more pertinent than ever…✨ If you enjoy this conversation, please consider liking, subscribing, and commenting on your favorite podcast provider to help this work (and you!) find new allies: YouTube • Spotify • Apple Podcasts • Etc.✨ Our next Humans On The Loop book club discussion is for Wendell Berry's Standing by Words on Sunday February 15th! Become a member to participate in these calls, exclusive Discord members channels, and our monthly hangouts.✨ All of the unedited, unreleased episodes are available to founding members here.More links• Explore the archives for nine years of mind-expanding conversations• Browse (nearly!) all of the books we discuss on the show at Bookshop.org•Dig into the Humans On The Loop pitch deck• Explore the Google Notebook for How To Live In The Future, my five-week science and philosophy course at Weirdosphere• Contact me if you have burning questions!Cited pieces by Layman• The Soul of AI w/ Lee Chazen (YouTube)• The MetaModern Business Bureau (MMBB) (Substack)• Apocalyptarians (Substack)• The Society of Partial Deterritorialization (Substack)• The Two-Handed Demons (Substack)Cited pieces by others• Wendell Berry - Standing by Words• Hakim Bey - Temporary Autonomous Zone• Steven Johnson - The Revenge of the Humanities• Carol Dweck - Mindset• William James - On Some Mental Effects of the EarthquakeMentioned people with dialogues on my show• Jim Rutt (181)• William Irwin Thompson (42, 43)• Erik Davis (99, 132, 140)• Timothy Morton (223)Mentioned people without dialogues on my show• Terence McKenna (although I've interviewed Terence's brilliant close friends Ken Adams and Bruce Damer multiple times; check the archives for episodes 4, 109, 209)• Alexander Bard• Andrew Huberman• Harry S. Truman• Jacques Lacan• H.P. Lovecraft• Doug Irwin• Nassim Taleb• Friedrich Nietzsche This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit michaelgarfield.substack.com/subscribe

Layman Pascal is a Canadian "feral philosopher" and host of The Integral Stage podcast who has become a central connector and theorist in the overlapping worlds of metamodernism, integral theory, and Game B. His signature contributions—the Metaphysics of Adjacency, the Integration Surplus Model of spirituality, and Metashamanics—offer a sophisticated yet playful bridge between abstract philosophy and embodied transformation. Known for his capacity to hold complexity with humour, Pascal brings both philosophical rigour and playful irreverence to questions of meaning-making in an age of metacrisis.____________In this conversation, we talk Nietzsche, metashamanism, and the ontology and epistemology of entities.We delve into the role of personal experience in shaping philosophical thought, and the implications of neurodiversity in understanding shamanic practices. The dialogue also touches on the nature of imagination, creativity, and the unpredictability of inspiration, exploring our different approaches to life from the moist pragmatism to dry scholarism. ____________

This week we come at technology sideways with help from hyperspace explorer Carl Hayden Smith, Associate Professor of Media at the University of East London (Talks & Papers), Founder of The Museum of Consciousness at New College, University of Oxford , co-founder of the Cyberdelic Nexus, Director at Noonautics and head of Context Engineering at Eleusis.✨ Carl is currently teaching a course on Apocalyptic Hyperhumanism with Layman Pascal at Cadell Last's Philosophy Portal! More info and enrollment here.✨ Our next Humans On The Loop members hangout is this Sunday January 18th at 10:00 am Mountain Time! Calendar invite coming soon for subscribers.✨ All of the unedited, unreleased episodes are available to founding members here.✨ Show Links• Dig into nine years of mind-expanding conversations• Browse the books we discuss on the show at Bookshop.org• Learn more about the Humans On The Loop project and its goals• Explore the Google Notebook for How To Live In The Future, my five-week science and philosophy course at Weirdosphere• Contact me if you have burning questions✨ MentionsMax CooperHunter S. ThompsonDoug Rushkoff Friedrich NietzscheAndrew GallimoreJohn VervaekeK. Allado-McDowellDale PendellJoël de RosnayJoshua DiCaglioCharles EisensteinFred TurnerMark ZuckerbergMichael DouglasRichard BartlettGordon White This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit michaelgarfield.substack.com/subscribe

Brendan Graham Dempsey is a metatheory researcher at the Institute of Applied Metatheory and host of the Metamodern Meaning podcast. His work bridges evolutionary theory, developmental psychology, and worldview studies, bringing empirical rigour to questions about how human consciousness and culture evolve. His latest book, Psyche and Symbolic Learning, is the second in a planned ten-volume series exploring these themes through the lens of hierarchical complexity and neo-Piagetian developmental frameworks. You can find Brendan's work at: Metamodern Meaning podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@BrendanGrahamDempsey Brendan's Substack: https://brendangrahamdempsey.substack.com/ Brendan's website: https://www.brendangrahamdempsey.com/ Our previous chats: Philosophy Wisdom and MetamodernismCritiquing MetamodernismIn this conversation, Brendan introduces me to the ambitious world of metatheory – an attempt to create a unified, coherent understanding of all human knowledge by bridging disciplines from neuroscience to sociology to the humanities. We explore his new role researching worldviews empirically at the Institute of Applied Metatheory, where he's working to bring scientific rigour to questions that have long been speculative: Can we measure the complexity of worldviews? Do cultures develop through predictable stages? How complex is the Bible compared to Homer, or a text message to your mam? We dive deep into hierarchical complexity, a psychological framework that quantifies the sophistication of thinking across domains and time periods. Brendan shares fascinating research comparing the cognitive complexity of ancient religious texts, from early biblical narratives to the Epic of Gilgamesh, revealing how literacy transforms meaning-making structures. We discuss the difference between metatheory and interdisciplinary work, why spiral dynamics isn't quite a metatheory, and how this research programme aims to give metamodernism and integral theory the empirical grounding they've long needed. This is a conversation for those curious about the big questions: How does all human knowledge fit together? Can we study worldviews scientifically? And what does it mean to truly understand complexity? ⏳ Timestamps 00:00 James's Intro 01:30 Brendan's new role at the Institute of Applied Metatheory 03:24 What is metatheory? Situating theories within a bigger picture 06:05 Cognitive science vs. metatheory: Where are the edges? 07:37 Consilience and the unified theory of knowledge 10:27 What is the “normal science” of metatheory? 15:14 Applying metatheory: From integral medicine to worldview research 20:48 Systematising worldview terminology: Paradigms, gestalts, and meaning-making structures 23:03 Measuring cognitive complexity in texts 24:11 Can we validate developmental claims empirically? 25:08 Hierarchical complexity and neo-Piagetian psychology 28:30 Dynamic skill theory: Why you're not “at a stage” 32:30 What does complexity mean? Is it like IQ? 33:00 Complexity as a scale of task performance, not hardware 35:05 Skill webs and context-dependent performance 37:12 Measuring texts: From texting your mam to ancient scriptures 42:14 Scoring the Bible: Early narratives vs. scribal texts 44:43 The documentary hypothesis and complexity differences in biblical sources 45:09 Literacy's impact: Hunter-gatherer texts vs. scribal complexity 46:24 Homer, Gilgamesh, and the wisdom of Ptahhotep: Comparing ancient complexity 49:48 Translation challenges in measuring ancient texts 56:49 Education, zip codes, and complexity gaps 59:28 Why developmental models are more optimistic than IQ 1:04:24 Metatheory and metamodernism: How they relate 1:03:15 Testing metamodern and integral claims about worldview development 1:04:24 Metatheory and metamodernism: How they relate 1:10:21 Integral theory and the metamodern landscape 1:12:03 Guest recommendations: Layman Pascal and Nick Headland 1:14:08 Where to find Brendan

Rufus dives into the life story of the one and only Layman Pascal: exploring his unique childhood, what he found in Wilber's Integral, his relationship to intentional communities and what it means to live beyond a post-modern world. About the episode:In this interview with Layman Pascal and Rufus Pollock, Layman recounts his upbringing and the unique childhood in the Canadian Pacific Northwest that disposed him to become one of the metamodern scenes most interesting thinkers. Layman delves into the experience of the post-modern milieu of the late 1990s and efforts to find ways beyond it. They explore the value and limits of Ken Wilber's integral and the formation of his approach to dialogue and community in 'The Integral Stage' project. He closes envisioning precisely what's needed to move beyond culture war dynamics. Chapters:04:43 Layman's childhood in the Canadian Pacific Northwest15:00 From college to living in Belize16:48 Early Spiritual Teachers27:00 Layman's experience of the Post-Modern and Post-Post Modern35:00 Story of Ken Wilber, Integral and The Integral Stage45:24 going beyond post-modernism52:53 Rufus's View on Integral57:50 Integralist vs Integralites1:02:00 What Layman looks for in communities1:08 Culture War & What we need to build coherenceSpeakersLayman Pascal was incarnated on a remote island in the Pacific Northwest. He used to be a meditation teacher, yoga instructor & public speaker—but he's feeling much better now. He is a writer on themes of cultural philosophy, shamanism and organic spiritual development. www.laymanpascal.substack.com/ Rufus Pollock is an entrepreneur, activist and author as well as a long-term zen practitioner. He is passionate about finding wiser, weller ways to live together. He has founded several for-profit and nonprofit initiatives including Life Itself, Open Knowledge Foundation, and Datopian. His book Open Revolution is about making a radically freer and fairer information age. Previously he has been the Mead Fellow in Economics at the University of Cambridge as well as a Shuttleworth and Ashoka Fellow. A recognized global expert on the information society, he has worked with G7 governments, IGOs like the UN, Fortune 500s as well as many civil society organizations. He holds a PhD in Economics and a double first in Mathematics from the University of Cambridge. Get full access to Life Itself at news.lifeitself.org/subscribe

What would the divine feminine or Goddess nature want to ask or expect of a man today? If you were a man representing the divine masculine, and had the chance, what would you want to ask or say to a woman at this moment? Can we even imagine ourselves and each other as different expressions of a divine source, more than merely a personality?These were among the inquiries that helped inspire a profound exploration of the divine feminine and the Goddess archetype at this Fall's Metamodern Spirituality Lab. To learn more, Portals brought together Aviv Shahar and Lab organizers and metamodern leaders Layman Pascal and Brendan Graham Dempsey, along with participants Mariah Rose McKay and Antonia Louise.This is the newest conversation in the Portals series exploring metamodern spirituality.A central theme for this special collaboration of women and men was exploring the role of the Goddess, the feminine, in metamodern spirituality: an embrace, rather than historical denial, of the feminine presence at the heart of the human's universal nature. The Lab itself was a space where gatherings and rituals supported a freer expression of the divine feminine and masculine influences in both women and men.The openness allowed for the emergence of many facets of the Goddess nature: maternal, warrior, healing, wisdom. For many participants it produced a trust and chance for intimacy that in turn generated a deep sense of healing and release of ancient tensions between the genders.Other Lab insights include:It's the importance of community; we cannot do this alone. It's the practical elements, but also the deep and intimate bonds we form, and the healing power of deep relationships.There is the long-wave dimension and nature of this work: we need to include the generational transmission; a project of the next 100 years.When the god and goddess are prepared to embrace each other, inside each of us, a birthing process occurs; those two configurations merge into a third nature that liberates a new future.We don't know the ripple effects of how our hearts and consciousness can affect the world when we change our relationship to the goddess.This quality of intimacy and way of being with each other, where people are held in a place where they can begin a sentence without knowing how they will end it, takes time to build.We honor the broad spectrum of ways women show up from a “masculine” stance, and men from a “feminine” stance; these are potent and helpful ways of looking at the world and ourselves.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 “From the point of view of people who are interested in growth and development and depth and a transformation of civilization, a goddess who's also capable of growth and change and depth, and who could enter into more nuanced or richer relations with human beings, and in the masculine/feminine exchange, is something we would like to be able to facilitate through our thinking, and speaking, and hearts, and relationships.” (Layman)“This is a favorite topic of mine, polarity in masculine and feminine dynamics, and there is something really valuable about having these distinctions and having a spectrum between those poles, but being able to create a magnetism, being able to create something that pulls together and also something that repels, not necessarily in a bad way, just in a separation, individuation way. We are separate, and we can be as one. I feel like there is a lot of healing that we are doing collectively; how do we embody those in the most healthy and conscious way?” (Antonia) RESOURCES MENTIONED Portals of Perception WebsiteAviv's LinkedIn Aviv's TwitterAviv's WebsiteThe Goddess Arising

A multi-dimensional dialogue with philosophers and players in what has come to be called "The Liminal Web" about what this scene really is, how we relate with it and what historical potentials are being born through it and more. O.G. Rosehttps://www.og-rose.com/Tim Adalinhttps://www.timadalin.xyz/Layman Pascalhttps://laymanpascal.substack.com/Jacob Kisherewww.jacobkishere.com/

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

Layman joins me for further jamming on the human/biosphere relationship. We explore the idea of entropy reduction (negentropy) as a natural trajectory and its relationship to the evolution of consciousness. Folding in Nietzsche, we consider the "will to power" in terms of a natural drive related to such processes before turning to the "mereological question": Is humanity (the noosphere) part of the biosphere or is the biosphere part of the noosphere? This leads to further considerations of the unique human contribution to biospheric dynamics, and the question of anthropocentrism in how we frame such relationships. 0:00 Introduction1:28 Nature and Negentropy14:44 Towards a Qualitative Typology of Negentropic Systems25:00 A Natural Direction: The Role of Consciousness and Care35:41 Decentration and Ecologization 41:16 Negentropy and the Will to Power57:35 Mereology and Mutual Transformation 1:11:29 Art and Nature1:21:16 An Appetition for Noospheric Mapping1:39:44 Anthropocentrism and the Human Perspective1:57:43 Conclusion To hear more, visit brendangrahamdempsey.substack.com

Layman and I dig into the distinctions between similar terms like "nature," "natural," "naturalization," and "natural order" in an effort to better realize the relevant shades of the biosphere.0:00 Introduction2:56 'Nature' vs.19:36 'Natural' vs. 40:41 'Naturalization' vs.1:08:39 'Natural Order' vs...1:25:03 Conclusion To hear more, visit brendangrahamdempsey.substack.com

I continue my discussion with Layman Pascal about the role of the human in/as/and for the biosphere. After an elegant summary and recap of the topic so far, Layman offers thoughts on specific roles and projects that might be undetaken through collective action to traverse along the negentropic course of the "ecodrome." We chat economics, ideology, ethics, and religion, and also tackle the question of biosphereic consciousness. 0:00 Introduction2:03 Layman's Recap: Sacred Naturalism and the "Ecodrome"18:26 Gaian Demography I: Eco-Heirophants23:30 Civics: Green Mobilization Efforts25:52 Economics: Negentropy as Currency35:03 Ideology: A Post-Neoliberal Spirit of Eco-Cultus43:59 Lower- to Mid-Scale Enaction47:49 The Ethics of Biosphere Extension and Reproduction1:03:53 Gaian Demography II: Roles and Tribes1:21:42 Waking Gaia1:34:44 Religion: A Planetary Devotion1:40:20 Looking Ahead To hear more, visit brendangrahamdempsey.substack.com

In the first of a series of discussions, Layman Pascal offers his thoughts on the role of humanity in the biosphere. What new ways are there for appreciating our place on/as the planet and in/as the cosmos? Here we focus primarily on the role of the individual in biospheric processes. How do religion-like activities and sensibilities serve ecological viability and flourishing? How can this vision unite various approaches to value and knowledge in the 21st century? Timeline:0:00 Introduction 3:16 The Role of the Human in, for, and as the Biosphere 7:48 A Biophilic Universe 14:51 A Comprehensive Story for Our Time 23:30 Nurturing Nature 27:28 Minds and Societies as Systems of Gaia 38:42 Contingency and Teleology, Problems and Progress 44:22 Religionizing Eco-Consciousness: Promise and Pathology 1:04:09 Psychotechnologies and the Biosphere 1:14:08 The Center of the Mandala 1:20:38 Moving out of Flatland To hear more, visit brendangrahamdempsey.substack.com

Join our poetry Salon and Open Mic: https://parallax-media-network.mn.co/share/5hSLvQW7bNszFGEo?utm_source=manual Layman Pascal is an author, public speaker & retreat leader specializing in metamodern spirituality, nondualist theology, integral religion, and metashamanics. He hosts the popular podcast THE INTEGRAL STAGE (and the more elite SOULMAKERS series). He helped initiate the Parallax Academy and also works with Endemic, ICON, the Metamodern Spirituality Lab, the Foundation for Integral Religion & Spirituality, Emerge/Perspectiva, RESPOND, Limicon, the Transdisciplinary Leadership Review, Beyond Interfaith, and other leading-edge projects. His book “Gurdjieff for Time Between Worlds” was recently published as the first book from Sky Meadow Press

After the re-election of Donald Trump to the Presidency of the United States last night, I check in with Layman Pascal to get his take on the political landscape. What can we learn from what's going on? How can we be more open across differences instead of closed and blaming? In fact, how much internal energy should we expend on such matters at all? And what should we expect about the future of the public sphere that might help us better orient to what matters most? 0:00 Introduction 3:27 Surface vs. Structure 10:08 What Can We Learn from the Trump Moment? 14:11 Placing Blame 20:44 Valuing Nonrational Collective Intelligence 26:46 Failures of the Democratic Left 33:26 It Matters, and It Doesn't 39:53 What Does a Progressive Revolution Look Like? 48:47 Towards a Metamodern Politics of Spectacle 1:00:41 A Future of Astonishments 1:13:33 The Coming Carnival of the Public Sphere 1:17:52 Approaches to Media Consumption 1:22:26 Finding Equanimity anf Value in Disruption 1:25:35 Conclusion

In this episode, Layman returns to the show for the seventh time to discuss his recently published book, Gurdjieff for a Time Between Worlds. In it, Layman recounts Gurdjieff's fascinating life and approach to spirituality and why the book was a “hyperpersonal” endeavor that was appropriate for the metamodern age. Layman also clarifies some common misconceptions, explains why he has a unique take on Gurdjieff and bridges Gurdjieff's perspective on the body, emotions, and the mind with UTOK's conception of the three layers of mindedness (https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/theory-of-knowledge/202401/the-mind-versus-layers-of-mindedness).   Gurdjieff for a Time Between Worlds: https://www.skymeadowinstitute.org/press   - - - ℹ️ Find out more about Layman Pascal ℹ️ - - - Substack: https://laymanpascal.substack.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/liquidsyntax The Integral Stage on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaA4zkLRnR3lGm8Y7c5Tvdw   - - - 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   - - -

How do we reckon with a reckoning? We can look around at the many crises engulfing the planet and think that, yes, humanity is facing its day of reckoning, a time of consequences for many forms of unsustainable behavior throughout the modern era. The “twilight of the gods,” or unraveling of our inherited values and reality described in mythology and literature.Can we find a path forward from reckoning to renewal? In a post-guru era, the search for new intelligence and insight doesn't rely on any single external authority. We are inspired by gifted teachers, shamans, and enlightened companions, but this also is a time of distributed leadership.Each one of us has the natural capacity to connect with a universal source of knowledge and creativity — homo universalis. Each one of us carries a piece of the puzzle that together form a clear image of a collective new future. Doesn't it make sense to then together reckon new ways of creating community that liberate the best each has to offer?We are fortunate to again have a gifted guide as we navigate our way through this shape-shifting new reality. This is the third conversation between Aviv Shahar and Layman Pascal, a leader in Integral thinking and teaching, and a prominent voice on the Integral Stage YouTube channel and podcast.Among their insights:We're entrenched on this planet in patterns that are not accessing the spirit. We're not collectively mobilizing to solve the metacrisis. We need a new source of meaning and energy to mobilize outside our embedded patterns.Merging and harmonizing different realms of experience produces an “extra,” greater than the sum of the parts. The extra is a pragmatic way to think about what spirituality and religion point toward.We have to reckon with the fact the very instruments through which we are trying to solve our problems are generating another set of problems that are gaining on us very quickly.We can't trust anything socially; we're peripherally aware that we're not experiencing the same reality; the structure has been removed — a deeply uncanny and unsettling place to be; the time between worlds.Our sense of a shared consensus reality has been undermined. Any voice, image, or reference material can be generated by machine tools; what could give us the sense of proof has been taken away from us.We need to practice the emotional quality of trust individually, collectively and as a culture. There are many objective reasons to not trust our embedded systems, but we have a personal responsibility to be capable of trust.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 “So I think the emotional quality of trust is something that we need to practice more individually, collectively, and as a culture. When we look at the broader sociopolitical situation in the world there are many objective reasons to not trust the systems that we are embedded in. But we also have a personal responsibility to become capable of trust, because it's not just a response to what's out there, it's also kind of a faithful act that we make in ourselves.” (Layman) “We're just shifting to a new system, so that we have to develop new responses collectively for figuring out how to be together, how to be in reality. And, in order to do that, we have to be able to sample lots of different kinds of perspectives and different kinds of reality tunnels. But not only sample them and acknowledge the plurality, not only go into the post-modern kind of consciousness, we have to be able to bring them back together in a way that is coherent and empowering. So that's the shift beyond the post-modern into the meta-modern sensibility.” (Layman)“There is a body of work that's been emerging over the last few years inside the Portals project, which we call the epoch transition, or the epoch journey, where we tell the story of the epoch through sevenfold natures, or through the rainbow. But these colors mean something other than what they mean in the traditional integrative framework, or spiral dynamics, or any other they're talking about. They are describing recurring potencies in nature that are emergent throughout the epoch.” (Aviv) RESOURCES MENTIONED Portals of Perception WebsiteAviv's LinkedIn Aviv's TwitterAviv's WebsiteThe Time Between Worlds with Layman Pascal

Layman Pascal joins me to discuss his new book, Gurdjieff for a Time Between Worlds. Who was G. I. Gurdjieff and why is he keenly relevant to our present metamodern moment? In what ways can we see in his work anticipations of contemporary spiritual modalities, such as sincere irony, integration of pluralities, immanent transcendence, and the mythopoeic construction of new imaginal narratives gesturing beyond modernity? With classic flare and verbal acuity, Layman unpacks his "hyperpersonal essays for the grandfather of metamodern spirituality." 0:00 Introduction 1:38 Who was G. I. Gurdjieff? 5:21 Gurdjieff and Metamodernity 9:29 "The Sly Man": Serious Play, Sincere Irony, Crazy Wisdom 20:04 Integrating Pluralities 31:04 Gurdjieff the Shamanoid 36:51 Real vs. Imaginal Mythos 51:35 Eso-, Meso-, Exo-teric 56:31 Pascal's Imaginal Gurdjieff? 1:05:25 Transcendent Immanence Get the book here: https://www.skymeadowinstitute.org/press

Gregg Henriques is a professor at James Madison University, author of "A New Unified Theory of Psychology," and a leader in the Unified Psychotherapy Movement, with over 20 years of experience in psychology and psychotherapy, specializing in adult psychopathology.    Pascal Layman is a philosopher based in Northern Ontario, known for his groundbreaking work on the metaphysics of adjacency, the coaxial stages model, and metaprogressive politics.   Bruce Alderman is an accomplished musician, visual artist, and deep meditation practitioner. He is the producer of The Integral Stage podcast and the organizer of the Blue Sky Leadership Program at the California Institute for Integral Studies.    Does the universe hold inherent mystery, or is our scientific understanding merely inadequate?  In this episode of The Cognitive Science Show, John Vervaeke and Gregg Henriques are joined by Layman Pascal and Bruce Alderman to reflect on the Transcendent Naturalism series and explore its potential for fostering collective transcendence. The discussion covers a range of topics, including the importance of ethical and relational dimensions in our understanding of the world, the role of art and meaning-making in a meta-modern context, and the layered ontology of nature. Join us to explore this fascinating approach to understanding how transcendent naturalism can shed light on our world and guide us toward a deeper sense of purpose. Gain exclusive access to live Q&A sessions, early video releases, and more by supporting John's innovative work on Patreon.   —   “IPS (Integral Post-Metaphysical Spirituality) wants to leave room for the interplay of transcendence and immanence, but without needing to posit an unthinkable outside to reality. It's in strong accord with transcendent naturalism in this regard." - Bruce Alderman  [08:37]   "John's proposed simple move to arrive at an extended naturalism, getting science to more explicitly accept what it already presupposes, is genius. There's much more that could be said about that, but my simple response is bravo." - Bruce Alderman [08:49]   —   0:00 - Introduction: Series Finale and Overview of Transcendent Naturalism Series 4:00 - Integral Post-Metaphysical Spirituality and its Flexible Nature 14:10 - Influential Theories and Thinkers: Integrating Cognitive Science, Philosophy, and Transcendence 24:20 - Flexible Metaphysics and the Layered Ontology of Transcendent Naturalism 32:50 -  Theology, Art, and Literature: Navigating the AGI and Meaning Crisis 39:20 - Participatory Spiritual Practices and Metaphysical Rituals 45:20 - Strong Transcendence with Preeminent Imminence 53:40 - The Role of Art and Narrative in Transcendent Naturalism 57:00 - Cultivating a Transformative Curriculum: Reimagining Institutional Roles in Spiritual Growth 1:10:20 - Conclusion: Culminating Thoughts and Future Pathways    —   Help advance the pursuit of scientifically rigorous wisdom and make a meaningful impact by joining the Vervaeke Foundation. Learn more at The Vervaeke Foundation   Deepen your virtues and foster authentic connections in life by joining Awaken to Meaning. Start your journey today at Awaken to Meaning   —   If you're interested in learning more about transcendent naturalism, be sure to check out the Cognitive Science Show. Towards a Metapsychology that is true to Transformation w/ Gregg Henriques and Zachary Stein   —   Follow John Vervaeke: Website | X/Twitter  | YouTube | Patreon   Follow Gregg Henriques: Website | X/Twitter | UTOK   Follow Layman Pascal: Substack | X/Twitter | YouTube   Follow Bruce Alderman: LinkedIn | Facebook   —   Thank you for Listening!  

A conversation about movies, and about our upcoming course: PARALLAX MOVIE CLUB ‘24: SUMMER OF IMAGINATION For more information or to sign up:  https://www.parallax-media.com/courses/course-parallax-movie-club-24-summer-of-imagination-wf6cd About the course: Art and film expand our horizons, transport us out of our mundane, ordinary lives to places greater than heaven, more dreadful than hell, into a war-torn dystopia or a world full of romance, hope, and possibility. Join us on an eclectic journey exploring four powerful films and how their aesthetic, philosophical, and existential elements offer insights into the human condition, into ourselves. Each week we will explore and engage with a different film, unpacking the emotional and psychological factors, celebrating the technical craftsmanship and distinct storytelling, and answer questions about anything and everything related to the films. Andrew Sweeny will begin the Parallax Movie Club: Summer of Imagination with american classic Fight Club, appropriately about reclaiming their identities and transcending the boredom and predictability of corporate life, escaping into a full blown anarchist movement named Project Mayhem. Layman Pascal will host the second session with David Lynch's Fire Walk with Me. Fire Walk with me is as controversial as Layman, receiving boos at the Cannes Film Festival for it's shocking, controversial use of imagery and narrative. In Layman's words “‘Fire Walk with Me' has some of the most stark and disturbing commentary on abusive and violence in America, but also a truly spiritual emergence of transcendent goodness.” What's not to like! Robert Gray will reverse the darkness in the third session with Japanese Film-maker Akira Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress, as two bumbling military deserters are tricked into helping a princess and her most heroic general escape death and bring the princess to safety. One of Kurosawa's most well received films, the Hidden Fortress is a great introduction to on of the best directors of all times and a dramatic tale of power, deception, folly, and triumph - oh, and it inspired George Lucas' star wars (and is much better imo), so if you like adventure and fantasy films, this will be a great time for you! John Vervaeke will take us into the heroic fantasy of The Fall (2006). Critically acclaimed and then virtually lost to the internet due to poor distribution and lack of streaming, The Fall imaginatively challenges the art of storytelling with exotic locations (shot in 24 countries over 4 years of filming), stunning arrays of characters (over 1000 actors participated in the filming), and dramatic narrative as life and fantasy blur for the characters - mystics, warriors, explosive experts, and even a monkey - who grapple with the ups and downs of their complex inner and outer lives. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/podcast-c709ee4/message

Integrative thinker Layman Pascal joins me to talk about the meaning of "God" from a metamodern perspective. How does thinking in terms of "surplus cohesion" point us to a helpful way of relating to all the meanings of the term? Why and when is a 2nd person relationship with Reality warranted? Who is this Face in the Universe summoning us to greater communion and transcendence? How do we communicate about all this across the various memetic sensemaking structures of culture (traditional, modern, postmodern metamodern)? Finally, what can folks expect about the upcoming metamodern spirituality gathering on the topic, which will be hosted at Sky Meadow in May and led by Layman? 0:00 Introduction 1:21 Layman's "Surplus Cohesion" Framework 4:48 God as Ultimate Reality in the 2nd Person 9:52 The Face of the Universe: Seeking the 2nd Person in the Complexity Stack 16:27 Some Framing: Reality as Dynamic Becoming, Not Static Being 21:36 Reflecting on the Alpha and the Omega: Problematizing the "Creator" Image 27:46 But Is This Still God? Communicating across Memetic Tribes 37:22 "Real in What Way?" across Levels of Memetic Complexity 45:05 Summarizing a Metamodern Sort of God 47:06 "God" in Quotation Marks: Moving beyond Totality 52:10 The God Encounter 1:08:12 The Divine Other 1:13:33 Praxis: Courting Visio Divina 1:16:41 Pluralistic Mysticism 1:23:10 Trinity as Dynamic Architectonic Plurality 1:27:08 Naturalism and Metaphysics 1:30:46 God is Love 1:37:20 Talking about "The G Word" 1:39:40 The Upcoming Metamodern Spirituality Lab on "God" at Sky Meadow (May 24-26) More on the metamodern spirituality lab at www.skymeadowinstitute.org

This week marks the beginning of Embodied Ethics in The Age of A.I., a six-week online course led by writer and teacher Joshua Schrei, host of The Emerald Podcast.  This course is, in large part, inspired by an episode he wrote last year called “So You Want To Be A Sorcerer in The Age of Mythic Powers” — exploring the mythic dimensions of tech innovation and calling for a reclamation of initiatic mystery schools in order to provide us with the requisite self-mastery to wield tools like generative language models. I'm honored to be part of the all-star crew lined up to co-facilitate this course and as part of our pre-game sync and prep, I met with Josh to talk about the forces we've unleashed and how to live responsibly in a world where tech is, in Arthur C. Clarke's words, now undoubtedly “indistinguishable from magic.” We explore the need to pace ourselves and anchor novelty production in ecologies of accountability; what it means to raise kids well amidst the A.I. revolution; and why humans cannot seem to stop invoking power and powers greater than our understanding.If you enjoy this conversation, join us — and several dozen other awesome people — from 4/18-5/16 to learn and grow together and answer the call to better ourselves in service of this great historical unfolding!(Big big thanks to former Center for Humane Technology Innovation Lead Andrew Dunn, founder of The School of Wise Innovation, for everything you've done to help inspire and organize all of this…)Right after this course I will be in Denver for the 2024 ICON Future Human Conference and would love to see you there!  Use my link to grab yourself a conference pass and spend 5/16-5/19 with me and folks like Daniel Schmachtenberger, Marianne Williamson, Ken Wilber, Jeremy Johnson, Layman Pascal, and many more…✨ Support This Show & The Family It Feeds:• Subscribe on Substack or Patreon for COPIOUS extras, including private Discord server channels and MANY secret episodes• Make one-off donations at @futurefossils on Venmo, $manfredmacx on CashApp, or @michaelgarfield on PayPal• Buy the music on Bandcamp. This episode features:Tålmodighed (from Live at The Chillout Gardens, Boom Festival 2016)Gamma Pavonis (from Pavo: Music For Mystery)The Cartographers (from Get Used To Being Everything)• Buy the books we discuss at the Future Fossils Bookshop.org page and I get a small cut from your support of indie booksellers• Browse and buy original paintings and prints or email me to commission new work✨ Mentioned & Related Links:“Modern culture is ‘ahead of the one.' Modern culture is rushing to get somewhere.”* Josh Schrei on Howl In The Wilderness Podcast Episode 120Sam Arbesman's Cabinet of WondersDetermined: A Science of Life Without Free Will by Robert SapolskyRick Rubin and Dan Carlin discuss magicMichael Garfield w/ host Kiki Sanford on This Week In Science Episode 965“Information overload is a personal and societal danger” by Rensselaer Polytechnic InstituteThe Glass Cage by Nicholas CarrFuture Fossils 172 - Tyson Yunkaporta on Indigenous Systems Thinking, Fractal Governance, Ontopunk, and Queering W.E.I.R.D. ModernityCenter for Humane TechnologyThe Age of Em by Robin Hanson“Scan Lovers” from How to Live in The Future by Michael Garfield at Boom Festival 2016Wisdom 2.0 Summit”The Techno-Optimist Manifesto” by Marc AndreessenIron John by Robert Bly“The Model Isn't The Territory, Either” by Douglas RushkoffDarwin's Pharmacy: Sex, Plants, and The Evolution of The Noosphere by Richard Doyle“Chief Philosophy Officer” by Peter Limberg“The Next Tech Backlash Will Be About Hygiene” by Jonnie Penn at TIME MagazineDouglas Rushkoff at Betaworks in 2023: “I Will Not Be Automated”Zohar Atkins (Website, Twitter)My comments on “Hallucination Is Inevitable: An Innate Limitation of Large Language Models” by Xu, et al.“For The Intuitives” (Part 1, Part 2) on The Emerald Podcast This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit michaelgarfield.substack.com/subscribe

We're living in a time where increasingly we see what's happening in the world around us and have to wonder how, or even if, we can find deep truth in the age of the “deep fake”. Artificial intelligence can distort or manipulate many forms of data and information we take in through our physical senses. Sights, sounds and “facts” on a page can all be faked. How then do we with confidence make sense and meaning in a life when even what we see with our own eyes may not be true?There are clues in the name itself: “artificial” intelligence. What about natural intelligence? We know from Portals conversations that the human is designed with the capability to connect with larger, universal sources of intelligence, creativity and inspiration, beyond the reach of even the most powerful AI.It's a deep truth explored throughout history by spiritual teachers, shamans and wise men and women attuned to the finer, energetic, subtle realms as a living reality. Sources of profound revelation and learning that can transform lives and communities, and reconnect the human to its natural birthright.In this conversation we are once again fortunate to have as our guide Layman Pascal, a leader in integral thinking and teaching, and a prominent voice on the Integral Stage YouTube channel and podcast. He joins Aviv Shahar for part two of their conversation, begun with Protecting the Sacred.Among their ponders:AI is going to touch everyone and every type of reality, with inevitable distressing effects, including a reduction of cognitive capacities, and an increasing distrust in all information sources.How do we bring the spiritual and sociological closer together? Integrate a life of deep spiritual practice, freed from dogmatic interpretations, with an emerging cultural and community experience?How do we balance the notion of God with our current notion of reality? Or of creating healthier existing religious structures versus cultivating new emergent religion-like experiences?A big-picture model of deep history shouldn't accept mainstream neo-liberal media or academic consensus as reality, but be open to surprises and anomalies that could reverse consensus going forward.We don't want to be naive utopians, but also not nihilistic, pessimistic, or to give up. Let's invest our imagination, heart, and actions in trying to figure out what a better world actually looks like.Just because someone can enter or produce a state — an unusual chemical, energetic, or psychological condition — doesn't mean they have an established stage of development.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 up to that point, what I'm mostly thinking about is something vaguely like enlightenment. Right? So that I'm undertaking experiences very deliberately, because I want to transform my consciousness.” (Layman) “One of the most prominent ways that people have sort of subtle experiences in the modern world is with entities that they feel are extraterrestrial, right? And the work of Jacques Vallee in the 1970s did a lot of under laboring to support the idea that in a previous time period, you might have interpreted these as elves or angels or something like that.” (Layman)“A lot of these communities are centered around meta models, by which we mean attempts to do transdisciplinary philosophical integrations that take many different models and many different disciplines and many different types of perspective taking into account coherently.” (Layman)“There's a phrase I used in that series which was 'to naturalize the sacred and to sacralize the natural'. And I think this goes along with trying to bring the rational and the intuitive together. So you want to say, we embrace a natural science universe, not a reductive natural science universe, but an expanded natural science universe, and at the same time, it's only relevant to us if it can produce the cultural meaning and the individual transformation that's necessary for a human life.” (Layman)“Is it better for you to treat something like a person or not? You can't objectively have perfect knowledge of whether you're dealing with something that's sentient or not. But is it actually better for you to respect everything you're dealing with as if it was another sentient being? And that makes a lot of spiritual and emotional sense. Or is that the gateway to a path of delusion where we lose important distinctions, and we end up over attributing capacity and depth to things that don't have them and lead our society further down a pathway of simulation and meaninglessness?” (Layman) RESOURCES MENTIONED Portals of Perception WebsiteAviv's LinkedIn Aviv's TwitterAviv's WebsiteA Conversation with Layman Pascal Part 2 - Pursuing Integral Wisdom

Layman Pascal is a prominent thinker in the Liminal, Metamodern, Game B, and Integral spaces. His work explores post-metaphysics, nonduality, metamodernism, integral metatheory, new shamanism, the future of religion, developmental philosophy, and meta-progressive politics. He is also the co-host of the mind-bending Integral Stage podcast. This episode was a live event recorded during Limicon 2024 and explored some of Layman's ideas from his two popular essays “The Metamodern Business Burea” & “Make Game A Pay for the Wall”. After our dialogue, we opened the floor for participants to ask questions and share reflections. We navigated a wide range of topics including transforming the money & meaning relationship on a personal and societal level, developing a more conscious approach to business, new economic experiments, starting liminal business crews, bridging left and right brain ways of knowing, our relationship to dopamine and so much more.

At a time when cultural and existential crises threaten the wellbeing of our global community, shouldn't the search for wisdom and a more enlightened path forward embrace all sources of insight and new intelligence? Twenty-first century technology, side by side with ancient and sacred traditions? The intuitive, and the scientific?There is growing awareness that real transformation, personal and collective, needs a fuller integration of many approaches, including the ancient shamanic, and more mystical or contemplative spiritual practices and personal development. Right alongside the speed and computational power of artificial intelligence.So how do we get even deeper tethered in the natural human capacities that help create the space and receive the impulses of new evolutionary energy feeling its way into humanity, and integrate newly emerging technologies and sources of knowledge? How do we facilitate this integration in a meta-modern global landscape that is constantly evolving? In this special Portals conversation, Aviv Shahar is joined by Layman Pascal, a leader in integral thinking and teaching, and a prominent voice on the Integral Stage YouTube channel and podcast. Among their considerations:There is an enormous appetite among people to create rituals, to create beauty, to come together in the kinds of events that tell our subconscious we're part of a community that's worth fighting for, worth working together for.There's no way to change the world without including people we don't like. There needs to be an anti-fragile attitude of how to make use of the people we feel are problematic, not just the people we think are pure.The risks of a YouTube channel and podcast are that we begin to believe that talking heads and words are a sufficient pathway to an enlightened future. What about embodiment work, community, purpose and friendship?If you can fall in love with the unique spirit of special people — thinkers, writers, saints — that you feel have depth and brilliance, then you can see the same in versions of yourself.Other sources of intelligence, such as the subconscious, collective consciousness and AI, are where we're likely to see breakthroughs that our conscious minds are not going to figure out.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 more fundamentally, it's the exploration of and refinement of our capacity to consecrate things. And different groups of people in different styles might do that consecration in different ways. For some people, it's the evolutionary process. For some people, it's a magical hill, or an image or historical events. And we need to be thinking very broadly about how different people perform this in different cultural contexts and through different languages.” (Layman) “Culturally, I'm looking at an overlapping series of communities or networks where they aren't all exemplary cases, but where you get a higher concentration of people who exhibit these competencies. And I would throw into that competencies list humor, and also the willingness to go into what seemed like negative aspects, right, the ability to explore our shadow.” (Layman)“I'm a little bit biased by my own temperaments. But it seems to me there are a lot of people asking how do we break out of the personal and collective discussion circles and play in a wider skill set? Right, the people who are in high level metacognitive construct aware integrally informed mindsets have a tendency to feel like they've included different forms of intelligence, but not practice those different forms of intelligence.” (Layman)“I think we constantly are at risk of having the most dynamic aspects of cultural and individual transformation subtly replaced and sabotaged by things that sound good and look good, that the superficial mechanisms of our culture, our media, our economy, the gossipy part of our own minds, our allegiances, our symbolism, all this sort of social architecture has the tendency to enter and replace the sacred.” (Layman)“I think there's a problem in getting different aspects of these networks linked up to each other. The people who are interested in ecology don't necessarily know what the crypto people are doing, who don't necessarily know what the psycho spiritual people are doing. They all in general recognize the same problem and want to work on it, but they don't understand each other's areas well enough to take action on them and generate projects on that basis. And so leaders need to be able to see and cause people to challenge the limiting boundaries that have traditionally surrounded change communities.” (Layman) RESOURCES MENTIONED Portals of Perception WebsiteAviv's LinkedIn Aviv's TwitterAviv's WebsiteA Conversation with Layman Pascal Part 1 - Protecting the Sacred

Bonnitta Roy is an author and a teacher. Her work focuses on breaking away from limiting patterns of thought. She is the founder of Alderlore Insight Centre, a non-profit educational organisation focusing on secondary education and insight training for post-formal thinkers. She is Professor in Residence for the MA in Consciousness Studies and Transpersonal Psychology at the Graduate Institute, and an Associate Editor of Integral Review. Bonnitta is among a brilliant cast of metamodern thinkers. In this regard, her work considers how the sense of crisis many of us feel has as much to do with how we perceive the world as with what goes on within it. We are living through a period of disruptive change and Bonnitta sees these times as an invitation to grapple with the limitations of our inherited toolbox of linear and causal ways of thinking. In this episode we reflect on the limitations of human consciousness and discuss the potential for good that stems from reimagining the way we think. Bonnitta's work can be found here: https://bonnittaroy.substack.com/ https://www.kosmosjournal.org/contributor/bonnitta-roy/ https://tllp.org/people/bonnitta-roy/ https://systems-souls-society.com/origin/people/ Keep up with Bonnitta on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bonnittaroy We discussed: “Complex Potential States: A theory of Change that can account for beauty and generate life” in The Side View, November 2021 https://thesideview.co/journal/complex-potential-states/ “Time, Change and Causality: Notes toward metamorphosis of mind” in Dispatches from a Time Between Worlds: Crisis and emergence in metamoderntiy (Pespectiva, 2021) (ed. Jonathan Rowson & Layman Pascal)

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"

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!

An exploration of meta-shamanism in a time between worlds, with host of the Integral Stage podcast, general thinker and spiritual practitioner Layman Pascal, and philosopher Tim Adalin. This is a fun one that explores an important angle of the meta-shamanic function of Voicecraft. Learn more about Voicecraft podcasts, events, courses and membership network @ https://www.voicecraft.io Access the show notes for this podcast at @ https://www.voicecraft.io/content/e80-the-meta-shamanic-w/-layman-pascal-tim-adalin Listen to the full intro song by Cantrips titled 'The Big Break' @ https://youtu.be/Qaj-stBL4W0 Find more of Layman's work with fellow integral thinker and collaborator Bruce Alderman @theintegralstage8140 YouTube channel.

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 eleventh episode, Layman, John, and Bruce explore the question of subtle energy -- its nature, its scientific or religious status, and the roles that subtle energy cultivation and awareness may play in transformative processes. They discuss a number of the major paradigms on subtle energy, including one John has offered; its capacity to bridge subject and object, and psychological and contemplative domains; its moral dimensions; and towards the end of the talk, the reasons this topic is more important than ever for our communities to begin to explore.

CATALYZING CONNECTION: A CONVERSATION MID-STREAM For episode 6 at the Liminal Café, we drop in mid-stream on a conversation between Tim Adalin and Layman Pascal. Although we drop in on the couch as eavesdroppers after the conversation has already begun, we can pick up soon enough that this is a rich conversation on conversation itself ... on cultivating the field, working with emergent criticality, and catalyzing connection across challenging boundaries. Towards the end of the conversation, they discuss the religion that is not a religion, dreams of pilgrimages and new formats for collective events, and Tim gets Layman closer than he's ever been to admitting his alien origins. Tim Adalin is the founder and producer of the Voicecraft podcast and a transformative philosopher. Tim's work focuses on the relation between participation and transformation, and integrates metaphysical and scientific modes of understanding. The primary medium of this work lives in embodied relationality with friends, family, and peers. He is concerned with the vital connections between psyche, culture, and nature, and is developing networks and communities that support wiser contexts for education, contribution, and belonging. Voicecraft Podcast https://voicecraft.io/about/

Are there any essences left? --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/podcast-c709ee4/message

Bruce joins Layman Pascal under the Wayne mansion to explore Layman's infamous Facebook group, Pascal's Integral Batcave, and the art of metaphilosophical meme-ing. Pascal's Integral Batcave https://www.facebook.com/groups/162945624115898 Follow The Integral Stage on Fathom! https://hello.fathom.fm/ Like, subscribe, and support The Integral Stage on Patreon to make more of these conversations possible! https://www.patreon.com/theintegralstage

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 tenth episode, Bruce, Layman, and John reflect on the groundbreaking work of 4E cognitive scientists, Francisco Varela and Evan Thompson, especially their perspectives on the role of the imaginal in perception, healing, self-transformation, and the development of wisdom; the five criteria for the wise use of the imaginal in education, therapy, and religious practice; the need to rehabilitate the 'place' of the imaginal in common understanding; and the potential risks of the exploitative commodification and commercialization of the fruits of the cognitive scientific study of religion and spirituality (along the lines of "McMindfulness"), and how that can be avoided with a fuller, more integral understanding and practice of cognitive science. 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."

In the Integral community, we tend to show too little love to the Lower Right quadrant. In this new series, Love the System, Layman Pascal and his guests will take deep dives the nature of living and man-made systems, and explore the most promising systemic approaches to managing the challenges of our day. In Episode 22, Layman meets with James Redenbaugh, the founder and creative director of Iris Co-Creative, an integrally informed, international team of website designer, artists, and branding experts. IRIS stands for Intuitive, Relational, and Intersubjective, and Layman and James explore what is meant by each term, how they relate to creative work, and how they inform emergent ways of working in the world. James Redenbaugh is a director, facilitator, and designer. He directs creative processes for paradigm-shifting organizations around the world. He has 10+ years experience working with globally recognized thought-leaders, game-changing companies, and high-impact NGOs. Iris Co-Creative website https://www.iris-cocreative.com/

In Episode 65, Gregg welcomes back Layman Pascal. This is Layman's sixth time on the podcast, so he needs no introduction. Both Gregg and Layman have been following John Vervaeke's After Socrates, and in this episode they sync up to explore some of the key concepts, such as constructive versus destructive opponent processes and its implications for clinical psychology and spirituality.   - - -  ℹ️ Find out more about Layman Pascal ℹ️ - - -   Substack: https://laymanpascal.substack.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/liquidsyntax The Integral Stage on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaA4zkLRnR3lGm8Y7c5Tvdw   - - -  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   - - -  

Layman Pascal interviews Jim about the principles and strategies that could transform Twitter into infrastructure for collective intelligence. They discuss Jim's motivation in engaging the topic, Musk's current lack of strategic intent, the least bad unfairness, avoiding point of view moderation, distinguishing between style and content, decorum, user-controlled filters, GameB's erroneous ban from Facebook, principles of fair enforcement, setting thresholds between private & public domains, whether Twitter is a public utility, advantages & risks of open-sourcing Twitter's code, two kinds of censorship, culpability around links, replacing the ad model with a subscription service, a connection with liquid democracy, issues with de-platforming, modulating viscosity, social media choices as socially consequential, adding groups, risks of the downvote, gradient rating systems, emergent engineering & why no one's using it, identity authentication, likely near-future problems, automating sophisticated moderation, experimenting with character limits, wild-card content, a community disinformation immune system, optimizing for time well spent, and much more. Episode Transcript "Musk and Moderation," by Jim Rutt (Quillette) "Saving Twitter—A Roundtable," featuring Jim Rutt (Quillette) JRS Currents 080: Joe Edelman and Hellie Hain on Rebuilding Meaning weco.io Hylo Coordinape MetaGame Layman Pascal is a public speaker, nondual theologian and yoga & meditation teacher based in Victoria, British Columbia. His family has lived in the coastal islands for five generations. He is a writer on themes of cultural philosophy, shamanism and organic spiritual development.

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!

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!

In this new mini-series, Layman Pascal talks with Marc Gafni about an emerging model he is developing together with Zak Stein and others, which they call Cosmo-Erotic Humanism. For episode one, Layman and Marc discuss the origins of this project, and Marc's work on exploring and unfolding a model of Certainty and Uncertainty for addressing the meaning crisis, grounding moral value, and wrestling with perennial theodicies. Dr. Marc Gafni is a visionary thinker, social activist, passionate philosopher, and author of ten books. He is the co-founder of The Center for Integral Wisdom, and a rabbinic lineage holder in Bible, Talmud, and Kabbalah. He self-describes as a “citizen” of both Integral World Spirituality and classical Hebrew practice. He has been an editor of the Journal of Integral Theory and Practice on issues of Integral spirituality and a faculty member of J.F.K. University. In 2014, Dr. Gafni co-initiated the Success 3.0 Summit and Rise Up movie, with John Mackey and Kate Maloney whose method and movement is to bring together key thought leaders and change-agents to collaboratively evolve a bold new Integral vision of Success, rooted in the entrepreneurial values of Wake Up, Grow Up, Show Up, and Evolutionary Love. Professional Website https://www.marcgafni.com/ The Center for Integral Wisdom https://centerforintegralwisdom.org/ Please consider supporting The Integral Stage on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/theintegralstage

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 seventh episode, they reflect on the koanic and emotional dimensions of Christ's cry from the cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"; grief and the feeling of God-forsakenness in a time between worlds; the failure of legacy religions to grapple adequately with our greatest challenges; the death and resurrection of tradition; propositional truths as limiting and enabling constraints; and in light of all of these concerns, some possible expansions and additions to our ecologies of practice. "Awakening from the Meaning Crisis" Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLND1JCRq8Vuh3f0P5qjrSdb5eC1ZfZwWJ 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 Please like, subscribe, and consider supporting The Integral Stage on Patreon to make more of these conversations possible! https://www.patreon.com/theintegralstage

Layman Pascal talks with author and expressive arts therapist, Sally Adnams Jones, about the integral dimensions and the transformative, healing power of creativity. How does it show up across the quadrants, and across the stages of the spiral of development? How is it related to Eros and kundalini? How are we to better cultivate and develop it, in ourselves and our children, and what are the risks of its greater expression? Sally Adnams Jones is Director of TransformArta and has taught art education at The University of Victoria, Canada. Her PhD research explored how survivors of the HIV/AIDs pandemic in Africa transformed through their art practice. Currently she participates on Integral forums on Clubhouse, leads retreats and workshops, offers counselling and creative coaching, and is an artist and author. Professional website http://sallyadnamsjones.com/

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

In the seventh episode of the Integral Stage Authors Series, Layman Pascal is joined by Lonny Jarrett to discuss his new book, Deepening Perspectives on Chinese Medicine. The conversation is rich and wide ranging, touching on Lonny's early fascination with the Chinese classics as a child, and his concurrent educational journeys in Western science and medicine, Chinese medicine and martial arts, and entheogenic experimentation and the contemplative arts. Together they explore Western and Eastern conceptions of health, the importance of care for the body and its organ systems in cultivating integral development, the nature of chi and the chakra system, the potential emergence of a truly integral, world medicine that integrates the strengths of East and West, and much more. Lonny is recognized worldwide as a leading practitioner, author, scholar and teacher of East Asian medicine. Throughout his career he has been devoted to advancing the practice of this medicine. Lonny has been practicing Acupuncture and Herbology in Stockbridge, Massachusetts since 1986. He holds Master's Degrees in Neurobiology (University of Michigan) and Acupuncture (Traditional Acupuncture Institute) and studied Contemporary Pulse Diagnosis with Dr. Leon Hammer for 10 years. Personal website https://lonnyjarrett.com/ Books https://www.spiritpathpress.com/

In episode sixteen, Layman Pascal convenes with the six witches of High Pitch -- Bonnitta Roy, Nora Bateson, Ria Baeck, Miriam Mason Martineau, Schuyler Brown, and Ece Utkucan Anderson -- to talk about their new podcast series on the Stoa. Together they feel into just what it is they are brewing in their magical dialogical cauldron, where boundaries are porous and much of what happens, happens between. The Stoa's "High Pitch" Series https://youtu.be/YBnG_rsqOEw

Drawing inspiration from the Salon des Refusés, the French "exhibition of the rejected," The Integral Stage brings you Salon of the Banned. In this series, we check in with individuals who have been kicked out, de-platformed, or threatened with suppression in ostensibly advanced philosophical, spiritual, or political discussion forums, or putatively free modern communication media. In the age of cancel-culture and anti-cancel-culture, we explore the thorny questions of who should be in which conversations, and why? In Episode 3 of Salon of the Banned, Layman Pascal welcomes systems thinker and Game B co-creator, Jim Rutt, to The Integral Stage to discuss his recent banning from Facebook. Several weeks prior to this recording, Jim and other administrators of a Game B Facebook group found their accounts suddenly suspended, without warning, explanation, or chance for appeal...until a sizable protest led to their reinstatement. In the following conversation, Jim talks with Layman about the problematic AI technology likely responsible for these mass bannings; the inability of present-day AI to differentiate ungrounded conspiracy or hate speech from actual thinking; his choice words for Zuckerberg for deploying such indiscriminate hunter-killers; his efforts to create an alternative social media platform based on Game B principles; his history with the origins and evolution of the world wide web and the internet; his work with Jordan Hall and others to create or foster various Game B ventures and communities; his thoughts on religion, spirituality, mystical experience, and consciousness; and much more. The Jim Rutt Show https://www.jimruttshow.com/

In this Integral Stage reboot of Point/Counterpoint, Bonnitta Roy challenges Layman Pascal to debate the nature of nature. When we say "human nature," do we mean something different from "nature," or not? Is there a gap between "us" and everything else? Welcome to Liminal Point/Counterpoint, the game show where Layman does his best to try to disagree with someone and the results become... increasingly subtle.

In the second episode of this Integral Stage reboot of Point/Counterpoint, Bonnitta Roy challenges Layman Pascal again to a debate, this time on the nature and existence of free will. Inspired by Rick Repetti's writings on free will, they take up the philosophical question of determinism vs. indeterminism, and consider what possibilities might exist beyond that impasse. Bonnitta and Layman fail pretty badly to have an actual ("side-taking") debate, but they do have a great discussion on free will in light of complexity science; Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Reich; contemplative experience; integrative metaphysics; magickal practice, and more.

For the sixth episode of the Fire from Heaven series, we are joined by Frank Marrero, a long-time student of Adi Da and the curator of several web resources on Adi Da's teachings including the incomparable Beezone. Frank talks with Layman Pascal about his experiences of transmission with Adi Da, his understanding of the nature of consciousness, and some of the unique characteristics of the spiritual transmission process. Additional Resources and Links: Frank Marrero: http://www.frankmarrero.com/ The Beezone Library: https://www.beezone.com/ A Monkey's Tale on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Monkeys-Tale-Divine-Person-Beloved/dp/0967326591/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=A+Monkey%27s+Tale+Marrero&qid=1585389957&sr=8-1

For the first episode of our Sexuality Series, Layman Pascal talks with Paths of Transformation tantra teachers, Jon and Rose Skelton Pearson. Together, they explore a wide range of topics, including the stages of sexuality, sex as practice and conscious play, the concept of masculine-feminine polarity, working with thresholds and subtle energy, preparatory steps for tantric practice and conscious sexual relationship, and even more arousing topics than you can shake a stick at. Rose has a background in massage therapy and also as a teacher of ‘Heart in Motion' therapeutic dance. She began her tantric journey in 2007 and has studied with John Hawken since 2014, when she undertook a year-long training in Tantra Massage. Since that time, she has facilitated workshops both in the UK and Australasia as a teacher of the Paths of Transformation. Currently she lives in Brighton, UK, and offers workshops and sessions with her husband, Jon. J on's experience is a braid woven of many strands. As a UKCP Registered Psychotherapist, he trained, lectured, supervised and practiced for 20 years, from the Manchester Institute for Psychotherapy in the UK. He has practiced and taught yoga and meditation since 1983 and ran the Calderdale Yoga Centre for eight years. He has undertaken extensive trainings in Buddhism and Western Hermeticism. Active in Ken Wilber's Integral Movement since the 1990s, he is an Associate Integral Life Coach. He has been a student of John Hawken since 2017 and is a Teacher of the Paths of Transformation, which he considers to be the most integrated, effective, and enjoyable system of psycho-spiritual development for anybody wishing to explore what it is to be a human being in the 21st Century. He brings a deep knowledge, warmth and humor to the workshops and individual sessions he offers with Rose, his wife. Shiva Shakti Embodied Awakening https://shivashaktiembodiedawakening.com/

In the conversation Rebel Wisdom has been tracking, what's missing? Layman Pascal believes we're not paying enough attention to the irrational, the realms of the imaginal and the occult.  "Layman Pascal was incarnated on a remote island in the Pacific Northwest. He used to be a meditation teacher, yoga instructor & public speaker — but he's feeling much better now." He is one of the hosts of the podcast The Integral Stage: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaA4zkLRnR3lGm8Y7c5Tvdw