The Integral Way of Jean Gebser (Part 1) with Jeremy Johnson

Jean Gebser (1905-1973) was a Swiss poet, integral philosopher and phenomenologist of consciousness. His magisterial work, The Ever-Present Origin (1949) has made significant contributions to both Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory and the field of Integral Studies at large. Gebser describes — in vivid detail — the unfoldment of human consciousness across the span of history: from our origins in the archaic to the magic, mythic, and mental, and still further onto our collective integral futures. The great breadth and depth of his knowledge of art and culture, shared through the unique prose of a man who was both a poet and a contemplative, allows for a truly radiant vision of human consciousness that shines through and past concepts of linearity and hierarchy.

In this liminal epoch, marked by the throes of social fragmentation and a warming planet, our species finds itself under the immense pressure of a world, and worldview, in painful transition, the outcome of which is uncertain and potentially terminal—not just to us, but to all life. This makes it not just an opportune, but a crucial moment to revisit this seminal architect of integral philosophy. His work opens us to seeing, as he did, that we are already being shaped by tomorrow. As Gebser shows so transparently, it is only through a deep, senseful communing with a living present we can understand and integrate the past. Within this understanding of time, our voice can truly become an echo of our future.

In this two part introductory series, participants will explore a brief — if experiential — journey through the structures of consciousness, discovering how they continue to live in and through us and our world.

In part two, we will turn to Gebser’s unique transmission of integral consciousness, drawing from contemporary examples of art, culture, and philosophy to help illustrate the emergence of “integral time.” It is through living this integral mode of time that we can begin to cohere the complexity of our Anthropocene present and wayfind towards habitable tomorrows.

[ironjohnjohn]

Is it me or is Gebser's way of describing his experiences actually incredibly pretentious? I'm seeing some of these quotes of him describing Spain, the subconscious, dreams, etc, and they are borderline indecipherable. On the one hand, he is a giant that integral is stood on, on the other side there seems to be an incredible amount of woo shrouding his thinking. If Ken sometimes gets criticized for being too left-brained and concrete, Gebser seems like the opposite extreme.

[dntbeevil]

Connecting the dots, was Gebser? Decoding intuitively the quotidien... I'm new to his name/work but something inside resonates with that.

[orangetuono]

Amen! I sense an Integral Non-Religion Religion birthing, and these are the High Priests. We no longer grounded, no longer meaningful, no longer spiritually connected. THANK YOU for gaslighting the world.