MURRAY, Tom

(United States)

Title of contribution:

Wisdom of the masses? Ascending & descending growt

Where & when:

Presentation:

Presentation: Wisdom of the masses? Ascending & descending growt

We hear so often that “we live in a VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous) world, and humanity needs to increase the *complexity* of its thinking” to meet the challenges of our “meta-crisis.” We also hear that human consciousness needs to undergo a radical *transformation*, which, for integralists, includes deep individual and collective shadow work. I suggest that our integral community is somewhat unclear on the relationship between the *ascending* path of increased developmental complexity, the ascending path of “spiritual” competency, and the *descending* path of shadow work. We will experience several activities aimed at clarifying when a context calls for increasing complexity, vs *releasing* complexity. I will offer a model that integrates hierarchical complexity theory, ego development theory, and trauma healing research.

About Tom Murray:

Tom Murray is Director of Internal Research at STAGES International, Chief Visionary and Instigator at Open Way Solutions LLC, and a Senior Research Fellow at the UMass School of Computer Science. He is an Associate Editor at Integral Review, is on the editorial review board of the International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education. He has published articles on developmental theory and meta-theory as they relate to wisdom, education, we-space practices, ethics, and epistemology.