Contemporary theories of evolution span the extremes, from pure materialist science to purely subjective experience—and everything in between. Not surprisingly then, some of the most creative work in this burgeoning field is found in the high ground where science and spirit meet in a truly integral approach. These bold evolutionary theorists (we like to call them The Integralists) see evolution as a holistic, complex process simultaneously moving toward greater diversity of form and greater interior depth of consciousness.
In this wide-ranging conversation, Allan Combs, author, scholar, and director of the Center for Consciousness Studies at the Integral University, speaks with EnlightenNext's Andrew Cohen and Carter Phipps about the shape of evolution to come. Combs, like many cutting-edge scientists, theologians, and philosophers, believes that the next great leap forward in the evolution of life is one that will encompass our collective existence, transcending but including our highly developed individuality, knowledge, and creativity.
BIO
Allan Combs is a consciousness researcher, neuropsychologist, and systems theorist. He holds appointments at the Saybrook Graduate School, The California Institute of Integral Studies, the Assisi Conferences, and is past Director of the Conscious Evolution master's degree program at the Graduate Institute of Connecticut. He is also Professor Emeritus at the University of North Carolina-Asheville.
Professor Combs is a Director of the Center for Consciousness Studies at the Integral University, co-founder of the Integral Foundation and The Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology and the Life Sciences, a member of The General Evolution Research Group, the Integral Institute, the Forge Guild and the one-hundred member Club of Budapest. He is Associate Editor of Dynamical Psychology, and the serves on the Editorial Board of Science & Consciousness Review. Allan was the winner of the 2002-2003 National Teaching Award of the Association of Graduate Liberal Studies Programs, and in the same year the held the UNCA Honorary Ruth and Leon Feldman Professorship.
Allan is author of over fifty articles, chapters, and books on consciousness and the brain, including The Radiance of Being: Understanding the Grand Integral Vision; Living the Integral Live (winner of the best-book award of the Scientific and Medical Network of the UK, with a foreword by Ken Wilber); Changing Visions: Human Cognitive Maps Past, Present, and Future (with Ervin Laszlo, Vilmos Csanyi, and Robert Artigiani); Synchronicity: Through the Eyes of Science, Myth, and the Trickster (with Mark Holland); and Mind in Time: The Dynamics of Thought, Reality, and Consciousness (with Mark Germine and Ben Geortzel).
