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We put into focus wholeness from an integral perspective for IEC 2025. Most psychological and spiritual systems are there to help us get whole but there is a great difference in how they depict wholeness and how wide is their scope. Evolutionary development shows up in the pursuit of wholeness for which Integral Theory gives a wider understanding by bringing together some of the best approaches of inner and outer growth, both individually and collectively.
Experiencing genuine wholeness is actually the very essence of a real spirituality, and thus brings a deeper meaning and purpose to our lives. Wholeness is usually regarded as a state, and not so much a developmental stage, personality type, or developmental line. Integral Theory invites us to widen this view on wholeness.
As a matter of fact at any developmental stage you can experience wholeness, as there are many ways to experience wholeness. Still, the later we go in the stages of evolution, our wholeness widens, deepens, and gets more complex and rich. The nightmare of modernity is that it has deleted the interior dimensions of our being, and driven us to forget about the path of waking up. Material and consumer welfare of modernity just will never bring that level of wholeness, that postmodernity and the even deeper and more complex post-postmodern, in other words integral approach is bringing for us. At this stage an equal welfare society and its systems (outer life), and personality development along with spiritual growth (inner life) becomes intimately intertwined, and dependent on each other, bringing true wholeness to the planet.
One of the main callings of our times is thus to embody our spiritual values and experiences on earth, bring it to our personalities, and understand ourselves deeply. We need to manifest it in how we live our everyday lives, and how we behave in our relationships and society, even at work.
We need to renew our societal and political systems too to make a permanent home to the higher stages and potentials of human nature.We face very dark shadows of humanity today in the political situation as humanity becomes global and there is nowhere to hide anymore. We need to face ourselves, and save not only our tribe, our nation, or our allies, but all of us, the whole world. We are one human family, and the time has arrived to realise that. For that the early new age approaches will not be enough. We need a deliberately developmental cultural approach.
We need to bring more wholeness for a new integral age to unfold. It requires maturity in personality growth, personal experiences, understanding of the developmental stages, and new skills and practices both on our individual and collective domains. We might be some of the very pioneers in this, and feel called to gather and meet. We must meet to experience our true connection and deeply feel that we belong to this free, intelligent, caring and heartful global tribe of “the integral people”. Therefore conferences are very essential.
Especially in perilous times like now, when the world seems to be dangerous and VUCA, we shouldn’t be trapped in fear, but show up and act effectively: let’s find and hear our many ways to wholeness, to heal and to bring to the world all of what it needs to reach the next tipping point of an integral age.
Ken Wilber has published his new book “Finding Radical Wholeness” in 2024 in which he summarizes his integral psychology also called AQAL, short for All Quadrants, all Lines, all States and all Types through the lens of wholeness. Since about 2011, these branches of the integral theory are also known as:
Beyond these 5 “ups” integral theory also takes into account personality types that will show up in all cultures around the planet, no matter in what culture or developmental stage we live in.
IEC stands for Integral European Conference, as these gatherings started in Europe in 2014. At that time, there were also major integral conferences held in the USA, and inspired by that, leading integralists on the European continent joined forces and organized the first IEC in 2014 to create a continental gathering particularly focused on integral theorists and practitioners from any one of the fifty-one European countries, with guests from other continents as well.
Over the years, IEC has grown from being a European “local” conference to become the main global venue of the integral world, where integral experts and others interested in this approach can meet and exchange their latest findings. Due to its free, experiential, and fun nature, this conference is at the same time like a deeply meaningful holiday, and an opportunity for transformational personal growth.
At the first IEC event in 2014, we focused on „The Emergence of Integral Consciousness in Europe.” This title signaled the time had come for the integral circles and gatherings that had been happening locally to come together on a European scale. The goal was to birth a visible European, continental-scale integral scene, and we did it successfully. At the first IEC in Budapest, 500 people came from 32 countries. At the second IEC in 2016, the first one in Siofok, on the banks of Lake Balaton, the title and the focus was „Reinventing Europe,” and we worked on the burning questions of those times: refugee and migrant influx, as well as the “Teal” movement started by Frederic Laloux’ book. We had 500 people from 35 countries. In 2018 at IEC3, we felt we needed to invite the global integral world and start to focus on all: „Allies of Evolution,” as the title had it. We had 600 people come from 47 countries and since then we can truly call ourselves a global conference, also because by this time there were no large Integral gatherings in the US anymore. In 2020 we therefore chose the title “Global Integral Awakens”. Due to the pandemic, we held the conference online with more than 1000 participants from 56 countries! In 2021, instead of the usual regathering, we held another Online conference with 700 participants from 58 countries, with the title “The Future of Collective Evolution”. In 2022 during the time of slow opening up from the covid pandemic, we organized a HYBRID IEC partly in-person and partly online with the topic “World Peace with the Integral Approach”, with 100 participants in person and 300 online. In 2023, we were able to return to the fully in person conference with the title “Planetary Awakening 2.0”, with 400 participants from 46 countries. We returned to have IEC-s every 2 years, so after 2023 the next IEC will happen now in 2025 with 500 participants expected.
At integral conferences, participants experience a high concentration of presence and awareness, as well as a very stimulating and high-quality intellectual environment. “It is just impossible to have a boring conversation here,” is how Dr. Roger Walsh, renowned transpersonal and integral psychologist, put it. At these conferences, people have a positive openness towards each other, and besides enjoying an intellectual feast, they are also ready to open up, play, and engage in deeper experiential processes together. It is a purposeful, colorful, and fun community to be with.
One important aspect is the evolutionary orientation of positive growth: seeing the developmental potentials of people, organizations, and humanity at large that unfold in stages. In the integral view, evolution occurs not only in the objective, physical, exterior world as natural science has it, but also in the subjective interiors as psychology and spirituality describe it, and the integral framework helps connect the two. Thus, science, psychology, and spirituality are no longer separated but integrated, translated into what we call the four quadrants, the matrix of our interiors and exteriors, the individual and the collective.
Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory, a meta-theory that integrates over a hundred schools of psychology, spirituality, philosophy, sociology, and other human sciences, serves as a common denominator and theoretical reference point for IEC, because we consider it to be the most encompassing approach we know of today. Besides the expert Ken Wilber, IEC also brings together many other experts and practitioners from the evolutionary and developmental worlds. Thus, IECs are open and welcoming to people with all sorts of varying points of view and perspectives.
A useful metaphor for IEC might be a wide-open „tent,” where people with many evolutionary and developmental approaches gather, and where Wilber’s Integral Theory is the „central pole.” The overarching tent canvas houses many other „tribes” from around the globe, all coming together to share knowledge and have transformative experiences.
People and organizations who have come together at IECs are, to name just a few:
Susanne Cook-Greuter and Associates with Vertical Development; Terri O’Fallon and Kim Barta with STAGES; Integral Facilitators from Ten Directions with Diane Hamilton; Robert Kegan, developmental psychologist from Harvard; Stanislav Grof, Dr. Roger Walsh, Gabor Matè and other transpersonal psychologists, Don Beck and the Spiral Dynamics community; Frederic Laloux’s Teal world including Brian Robertson with Holocracy; Torbert’s Action Inquiry Leadership world; Otto Scharmer with his Theory U and Presencing for individual and societal change from MIT;
Thomas Hübl and his community; Tom Steininger and Elizabeth Debold from Evolve and One World in Dialogue; Circling Europe and the global Circling community; John Dupuy and the whole team from iAwake Technologies; Non Violent Communication; environmental activists;
Sri Aurobindo’s Integral Yoga and other yoga people; followers of Jean Gebser’s worldview stages; Zen, Vipassana, and Tibetan Buddhists; Christians and Christian mystics; followers of Sufism, the mystic tradition of Islam; native Hungarian shamans and other shamanic traditions and energetic approaches; near-death experience experts;
Enneagram experts; next stage technology and AI people; collective consciousness and We-Space practitioners like Integral Flow and other Constellation methods; ecology and sustainability practitioners; artists, painters, musicians, and actors inspired by the integral approach – all these and many others join together at IECs. Contributions range from academic presentations to general lectures, a great variety of experiential workshops, transformative processes, and all-community socializers.
We welcome you all at IEC 2025, which serves as a meeting place for the European, South and North American, African, Asian, and Australian integral communities to come together in a huge global gathering, providing an opportunity for the world’s integral movement to convene, get stronger and more connected!
You will meet many people whom you have heard about already; it is a delight to meet our heroes, friends, and colleagues in person. You’ll also meet a bunch of interesting people you weren’t aware of before. You may discover a global community that is richer than you thought! Nothing compares to the excitement of a real, live, pulsating integral community buzz that goes on for days in a fun and well-equipped venue. Finding and meeting our “global tribe” are often reported to be one of the most satisfactory experiences of IECs. It shapes our identity and creates a sense of place in the world, a sense of belonging. Also your presence is important because it co-creates the future of the global integral movement. In our communal events during IEC, us presenters and participants leave our roles and come together in one big unifying process of maximum flow, creativity, fun and true human connectedness!
IEC’s Call for Presenters attracts an overwhelming number of experts, practitioners, leading-edge thinkers, and change agents from dozens of fields and nearly 50 countries. To accommodate and manage this immense value, we have developed an innovative format which gives presenters the highest chance of contributing. We like to offer the stage to as many people as possible, across a wide spectrum of subjects, countries, continents, cultures, and gender. Around 180 people will be accepted as a presenter and have a slot to contribute in. We do our best to give presenters their dream slots, but due to the big number of players and richness, we kindly ask presenters to accept the given slot that we manage to offer, which at times might be just what the presenter wanted, and at other times might be shorter or put on a different day. Each applicant will be notified of their acceptance and the exact day and time of his or her presentation.
For practical reasons, we call all contributors „presenters,” whether they deliver a talk (usually called „presenter”) or lead an experiential process, artistic performance, etc. (usually called workshop facilitator, psychotherapist, coach, healer, spiritual teacher, artist, etc.). Each presenter will appear in two ways: in the given time slot, which is the actual presentation, and additionally, each presenter is invited to the main stage on the morning of his or her presentation to do an elevator pitch. This is a 30-second flash presentation, when the presenter stands in front of all the conference attendees (600-700 people) on the main stage and announces his or her presentation that will follow that day. In this way, we manage to give an equal chance to all presenters to be seen and heard by the entire conference audience. We support this 30-second elevator pitch with a slide projector that will show the title, time, and room of the presentation.
Please note: these following instructions apply to all of the contribution formats.
Whether you decide to offer informative talks, engaging workshops, morning practices to start the day; artistic performances to bring us into awe; visual posters in the lobby, or promotional tables in the main communal areas where everybody passes daily.
Instead of the application form, we started a membership site.
https://integraleuropeanconference.com/member/create-account/
After registration you will get an email with your username and password.
(If you have attended IEC before, you will not be able to register again with the same email address. In this case, please write an email to presenters@integraleuropeanconference.com)
https://integraleuropeanconference.com/member/account/
The first thing you do is create a “presenter” where you enter your name, address, long and short biography, and photograph. If you already did this in 2023, you can simply edit it.
If you have co-presenters, you can either add them as presenters from your account, or if they are logged in themselves, you can link them to your event.
You then create one or more “events,” which are your proposals for section presentations, workshops, etc. When they have been approved, this is the text that will appear on the website.
Please read the instructions below carefully, so that you understand the structure of IEC.
If you run into any problems, write to presenters@integraleuropeanconference.com.
Please send in your application by the 31st of January, 2025. Later submissions may be reviewed but the likelihood of admission drops by 80% after the deadline, since available slots will likely be taken.
Notification of acceptance (or rejection) is continuous and we hope to complete it by the end of February. However, if you have not had any communication from us by then, please write an email asking for the status of your application.
There is no additional fee to present at IEC. All applicants are required to register for the conference separately through our webshop. Registration is available here.
If a presenter has financial difficulty and this would discourage him or her from applying, we suggest the person let us know about it, so that we can see if we can help, individually. If this is your case, don’t hesitate to write to us.
You need to book your own hotel and food options separately in the ticket shop; this is no longer linked to registration with IEC (since 2023).
Please choose from the following formats when you fill out the application form. If you want to apply for more than one contribution, you can do that by creating a separate application for each contribution.
The keynote speakers for the main stage events have already been invited from our side. If you would like to apply for a main stage keynote in a future event, please write to info@integraleuropeanconference.com
For academic presentations we invite integrally informed scientists and researchers from all faculties to apply for a 20-minute TED-Style academic presentation. We will let you know whether we will ask you to send a paper.
If accepted, your presentation will be one of three presentations from the Academic or General Track about the same topic. Please check off as many topics as possible that your presentation would fit. This gives us more options when compiling the program. We ask you to see your contribution in a larger context, and remain open for new emergence. We will give you more information on the dialogue format once your proposal has been accepted.
Topics may cover:
In our selection process for this track we generally prefer:
Theoretical and practical applications. Paper not required.
This is a 20-minute, TEDx-style presentation within a thematic section.
Topics may cover:
It is preferable but not necessary to use Integral Theory terminology in your presentation, but you need to understand how your topic fits within the integral movement.
In our selection process for general presentations we will generally prefer:
Presentations will be grouped into 10 parallel thematic sections in the late morning hours before lunch, when the mind is still fresh and receptive for thinking.
Three presentations of 20 minutes each will take place in the same section room, one after the other, followed by a facilitated dialogue amongst the entire audience that was drawn to that subject.
The afternoons are reserved for experiential workshops with learning-by-doing practices, transformational processes and We-space and group practices. You are welcome to use known approaches or your own newly developed ones.
We expect you to be able to relate your workshop to the integral models in a non-superficial way. The workshop slots are limited, so we advise you to apply for a general presentation as well. Workshops will be offered after lunch, shifting comfortably into the state of relax-digest. Some examples:
Workshops will be categorized according to their level of depth (A/B/C), as well as length (Short/Long).
Is intensely experiential, deeply engaging for potential breakthroughs, emotional processes, etc.
Is experiential requiring more involvement,
Is dialoguing or presenting a subject that requires minimal and easy involvement,
The short format is 60-75 minutes for lighter and more introductory workshops.
The long format is 2.5 hours as a special container for deep group work to occur.
In our selection process for this track we will generally prefer:
Pre-conference workshop slots (half day and full day versions) on Tuesday and Wednesday are given to both famous, experienced therapists and also to applicants who did not qualify for a main conference slot.
Please don‘t forget to indicate in the comments if you would prefer to be placed in the pre-conference period, and also if you are not available during that time.
In a one hour slot before breakfast, you can apply to host meditation, yoga, Tai chi, voice practices, bodywork, chanting, or any other type of spiritual, health, or holistic practice – or any other technique suitable for a maximum of one hour. These can take place in one of the section rooms or outdoors in the garden, at the lake shore, or even in the lake!
Art is more than just decoration or design. If it is well done, it can be a powerful gateway for transforming our consciousness, transmitting the state of consciousness of the skilled artist, challenging our identity, opening up new horizons, or confronting us with the immediacy of our subjective experience. Let’s find out and enjoy how integral consciousness expresses itself through you in the aesthetic dimension.
If you are an advanced practitioner of any major art form, we encourage all Integral Artists to bring, exhibit your contributions: your paintings, photos, sculptures, (The transportation of artwork, instruments is self financed) or consider performance art, dance, music or other means of aesthetic expression. Earlier IECs mainly hosted painting and music, but we are always open for a surprise.
Music plays an important role at IEC, and usually there are two or more bands who perform, as well as a communal musical jam session. If you are a musician or singer and would enjoy joining the musical aspect of the conference, let us know. Other forms of art at IECs might include dance, theater, poetry, photography, or any other art that fits the program.
“Open Mic” Integral community jam sessions: either on the serendipitous evening of the Gulyás (Goulash) party around a bonfire, or at the Gala Dinner on Sunday. Come and show your musical side whether you are a professional or an amateur enthusiast.
Instruments: We also invite you to play the guitar, violin, flute, rattles, hand drums, or any other instrument you might bring. At previous IECs, the Ecstatic Dance night, Gulyás Party and the Gala Dinner on Sunday evening became amazing, spontaneous, open mic stage shows and drumming circle tribal events that exceeded any expectations of organizers and participants. Please indicate if you are willing and able to play and become part of IEC’s musical world.
Dance Performance and Poetry: So far, the conference format has only allowed for workshops and communal dance events, even though there are often many professional and evolutionary dancers and poets amongst the presenters and the audience. If you have been to IEC at Hotel Azur before and are familiar with the schedule and the premises, we welcome your ideas on how to fit such performances into the overall design, to enhance and enable spontaneous emergence.
The IEC will feature a constant poster exhibition in the lobby, where people pass by daily. One poster slot is free for each applicant (even if you do not get a presentation slot). Posters can be handed in independently or additionally to your contributions in any other format.
The first two evenings are free for mingling and networking, and the creators of a poster usually stand next to it to be available for questions and discussion of their topic.
Our venue has portable wooden paravans for vertical (portrait) posters in A0, or two horizontal ones in A1, or a collage of smaller elements. If you need more space, you can apply for a promotional table. It is not necessary in your application to send us the actual poster. But you need to apply for a poster presentation so that we know about your poster and its content. Please bring it with you or arrange for it to be printed at the local copy shop.
If you’d like to maximize your (organization’s) physical presence at IEC, it’s great to have your own table, whether it is a passive or active table.
An active table has the same elements plus you or your representative’s personal presence to interact with people, plus books and/or artifacts to sell. This is a great opportunity for book signing and promoting courses, programs, and services.
A passive table (only) has your flyers, rollup, and promotional materials in a well-positioned, visible spot, in the main common areas.
For any of these options, please write to our representative info@integraleuropeanconference.com.
Presentations will be grouped according to their themes. For example, if three presenters hand in applications on coaching, then we create an integral coaching section and have those presenters present in the same section room, one after the other, followed by a facilitated dialogue amongst the entire audience that is drawn to that subject. These presenters will appear in section rooms in the late morning hours before lunch. Each day we will have 10 thematic sections in parallel rooms, with three presentations in each section. Workshops that take place in the afternoon are not grouped into sections, so it is not necessary to tick matching categories for workshop applications.
By handing in your proposal, you automatically agree to grant us the right to document your contribution by photo, video, or audio. If you don’t want your presentation to be recorded, please let us know when you hand in your proposal. By applying you also grant us the right to share and distribute any of the texts, images, or slides you use for your contribution.
Since this is in our mutual best interest, all contributors are expected to reach out to their networks and actively support the marketing efforts of IEC 2023 in order to get the word out. Our marketing team will contact you with the respective material and requests. You can also download material like banners from our website. We thank you for your enthusiastic cooperation toward a more conscious, integral world!
Please send any questions you might have to info@integraleuropeanconference.com.
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