Integral Vision
The All Quadrant, All Level (AQAL) framework that Ken Wilber developed has become an essential tool for understanding how aspects of people's lives and health are being affected and from what direction it would be best to approach them to regain a greater state of stability and integration so they can get on with the business of growing in their lives.
What is the point in having an Integral Operating System or IOS? Wilber sates 'whether you are working in business, medicine, psychotherapy, law, ecology, or simply everyday living and learning, the Integral Map helps make sure that you are "touching all the bases.". That is we can be aware that every person, every situation as it arises contains the 5 Integral elements of Quadrants, Lines, Levels, States and Types. Which when put into the process of 'drawing a comprehensive map' for each person, gives us a much better picture of all the elements that might be enacting upon that individual and in what way those elements arise.
An Integral approach ensures that you are utilizing the full range of resources for any situation, with the greater likelihood of success. In short, the Integral Approach helps you see both yourself and the world around you in more comprehensive and effective ways. But we mustn't forget that the Integral Map is just a map, but it is the most complete and accurate map we have at this time. By using the Integral Approach-by using an Integral Map or Integral Operating System-we are able to facilitate and dramatically accelerate cross-disciplinary and transdisciplinary knowledge.
Some of the features of the integral map refer to subjective realities in you, some refer to objective realities out there in the world, and others refer to collective or communal realities shared with others. Although all of those realities are whole within themselves, they are also partial, they belong to the bigger whole. The more of those features we can be aware of in our experience of the world, the more comprehensive a view you can generate of any situation.
An IOS prompts us to be aware of different states of being such as gross waking, subtle dreaming, causal dreamless or even non-dual states of awareness. These subjective spaces are a critical part of our reality and their acknowledgement is necessary in any comprehensive map. There are no exteriors without interiors. But all of these are temporary, to a degree, they come and go. We can have peak moments which can be naturally or unnaturally induced, but we do not remain in them. There is also a 'body' for each of these states. The wisdom traditions define 'body' as a 'mode of experience'. So there is a gross body or mode of experience, a subtle body or mode of experience which is more refined and relates more to our emotions; and there is a causal body which is even more subtle and refined. These are what philosophers would call "phenomenological realities," or realities as they present themselves to our immediate awareness. These bodies also relate into the development of the complexities of our brain from reptilian, to mammalian, to the neocortex of the triune brain. Each one becomes more refined than the previous. Which also connects into our next section on levels.
An IOS also acknowledges Stages of development, which are permanent acquisitions. Representing 'developmental milestones' of growth in individuals, cultures and their societies. These are not peak states or passing experiences, they endure. Depending on the system you are looking at there can be many stages or levels of development; the chakra system suggests 7, Jean Gebser the anthropologist suggests 5, other models have 8 or 12. Which is right, well they all are as they are looking at dividing the space slightly differently as you would find between centigrade and Fahrenheit, both correct, but measuring the same space differently. It's important to realise in the Integral approach we are talking about each stage or level representing an increase in levels of complexity, where the previous level is transcended but included to make up part of the next whole.
An easy example of this comes with a 3 stage developmental structure that represents the levels of Egocentric or selfish, Ethnocentric or care for one's family/tribe and Worldcentric or care for all. Each grows upon the other and stages cannot be skipped, they have to be grown through in order and generally speaking one does not revert back to earlier stages. These stages could also be represented by pre-conventional, conventional and post-conventional or Body, Mind and Spirit. Each being an evolution through the former to the latter.
In Ken's words: "For now, all that is required is to understand that by "stages"we mean progressive and permanent milestones along the evolutionary path of your own unfolding. Whether we talk stages of consciousness, stages of energy, stages of culture, stages of spiritual realization, stages of moral development, and so on,we are talking of these important and fundamental rungs in the unfolding of your higher, deeper, wider potentials." As Interiors stages of consciousness develop so so exterior levels of complexity.
With stages of development we must also take into account Lines of development. This is represented by Howard Gardener's idea of multiple intelligences. We all know that we are better at some things than others, perhaps better at maths than music, or sport than cooking. This is because we all have multiple capacities for development in various areas and we are naturally better in some of those than others. We can train ourselves to improve in just about any area. Use of an IOS allows us to acknowledge that we are all at different levels in these different capacities and so we shouldn't expect someone who is good at one thing to be good at anything else. It helps us to be aware of our strengths and weaknesses (as well as our pathologies).
The IOS also allows us to identify and incorporate Types. This can be represented in the the most basic way by masculine and feminine. Capacities which are present in variable levels in each person. Each type can also be developed to various degrees and each type can also have a pathological or 'sick' side to it. We can find various forms of these typologies through Ayurveda, Chinese 5-Element types, astrology, Bio-typing, blood group typing, Enneagram and so on. All of which can show healthy and unhealthy aspects. Its not a case of which one is right, but which one is useful in defining aspects of what is being presented.
The IOS is about looking at the places where these connect and interlink with one another. To recognise that these components are all important and have a place within the whole, just as no element of the individual should be ignored in its contribution to who they are and how they have got here.
The Quadrants of Integral Theory relate into the dimension perspectives that can be taken on any situation. They relate into the I, We and It of any situation, or as Greek philosophers defined it, the Beautiful, the Good and the True, or Art, Morals and Science of every occasion. Understand that the the It or True or Science is split into singular and plural or individual and collective aspects, giving rise to the right hand or external quadrants. These then become the four fundamental perspectives of every occasion or four basic ways of looking at anything.
We have the Upper Left (UL) which deals with the interior of the individual where your own thoughts, feelings and sensations are experienced. There is the Upper Right (UR) quadrant which is what an individual looks like from the outside, so our behaviour and the physical matter of our bodies is found here. Note how these are different to and can't be reduced to our thoughts and feelings and vice versa. The Lower Left (LL) quadrant relates to internal collective or our cultural influences, the inside awareness of the group we are in, its shared values and shared feelings. Lastly there is the Lower Right (LR) quadrant which is the exterior of the collective or the social or physical environment of the culture i.e horticultural, agrarian, industrial or informational.
"All 4 quadrants show growth, development, or evolution. That is, they all show some sort of stages or levels of development, not as rigid rungs in a ladder but as fluid and flowing waves of unfolding."
So in a nutshell, Ken defines the IOS as "That Integral Model-"all quadrants, all levels, all lines, all states, all types"-is the simplest model that can handle all of the truly essential items. We sometimes shorten all of that to simply "all quadrants, all levels"-or AQAL-where the quadrants are,for example, self, culture, and nature, and the levels are body, mind, and spirit, so we say that the Integral Approach involves the cultivation of body, mind, and spirit in self, culture, and nature". Sounds simple enough doesn't it??
Its relation into health comes from when we apply the quadrants and other elements into the sphere of health.
At a very basic level, our medical system can be seen to be mainly focussed on the Upper Right quadrant (UR), the physical body and its components and behaviours. We can also see this quadrant holds the key for our nutrition, what components do we put into repair this body. But also part of the effect of yoga or Qi Gong is viewed from this perspective in its effect on the physical, subtle and causal bodies. As could be the external effects of physiotherapy, massage, Bowen Technique, Chiropractic etc.
"More and more over the last 30 years with developments in psychoneuroimmunology and metaphysical causation we have seen in the UR the effects on changes in the Upper Left (UL) quadrant. The placebo effect alone shows that the perception of the mind can have a massive effect on the health of the organism for good or ill. The research looking at the benefits to health of meditation and contemplative practice is conclusive in its benefits for people and its not hard to observe how increased mental stress and pressure create a down turn in overall health and wellness.
But the state of mind is not something created in isolation. It is grown through our exposure to our culture and the beliefs and world views that are held within that. This Lower Left (LL) quadrant and its views on health and illness, whether it views them with compassion or disdain, can have a direct impact on how any individual or culture deals with an illness. This can then have a direct and significant effect on the individual's state of mind regarding the illness (UL) which will then change the progression of the illness at a physical level (UR). The lower left also contains the range of inter subjective interactions that may take place with an individual such as communication with Doctors or healthcare providers, attitudes of friends and family to the illness and how that is expressed or communicated to the individual. The cultural acceptance (or not) of the illness can also have a significant effect here. If there is rejection of the individual because of the assumptions about how the illness was created (e.g.AIDS) or perhaps an over acceptance of the illness such as the fear that surrounds cancer and the inevitability of it killing you if you don't use the conventional methods of treatment. Or the repeated lack of dietary advice for say colon cancer patients who are told by their oncologists that it makes no difference to their situation. All of these factors have some level of both causative and corrective quality to them, simply because every occasion has the four quadrants present.
In this, as with all the quadrants, we also need to focus on those aspects that can effectively be engaged such as communication between care providers and the individual, support from friends/family/support groups and an overall understanding of how cultural judgements have an effect on health and illness. For example studies show that cancer patients in support groups live longer than those with less support.
The Lower Right (LR) quadrant highlights all the material, economic and social factors that are perhaps the least recognised to have both a causative and a curative contribution. For example a social system that cannot provide food will kill you. More functionally, lack of suitable nutrition (LR) will not provide the body with the resources it needs to heal (UR). This would also affect state of mind (UL) due to inability of the body to produce neurotransmitters because of the lack of nutrition. So a social system that cannot deliver the treatment options to you for the illness you have will also affect your ability to overcome it. The LR quadrant also includes such factors as economics, insurance, social delivery systems and things like environmental toxins. Aspects of both cause and cure are seen in each quadrant.
But remember none of these quadrants arises in isolation. Wilber's term for this is that they 'tetra-arise', they all happen together. All 4 quadrants have both causative and curative aspects to them which need to be considered together to give the most complete assessment for the 'why' of any illness as well as the source of the 'how' we change that.
So for our health to really thrive we must ensure that we are not only aware of but engaging all of these quadrants and their associated lines, levels, states and types, to give us the most complete map, the most complete model for ensuring we combine all aspects of support and awareness when it comes to being as healthy as we can.
This is part of the Integral Vision of Ken Wilber and this is the Vision we have for the Centre for Integral Health.
Content for this page has been taken in part from:
- IntegralLife.com
- The Integral Vision by Ken Wilber
- Health is a 4 Quadrant Affair by Ben Calder