The Presence of the Future - Jean Gebser’s gift to Integral consciousness, with Jeremy Johnson

by Jeff Salzman

Today I’m joined by one of our most impressive young integral thinkers, Jeremy Johnson. Jeremy is a scholar of the 20th century poet/philosopher Jean Gebser, and is currently president of the international Jean Gebser Society. Gebser is a major (if eccentric) figure in the integral lineage, most famous for describing the structures of human consciousness as archaic, magic, mythic, mental and integral.

Surprisingly (to me at least) Gebser did not see these structures as evolutionarily continuous, but as “mutations” which are all online now in various states of “efficiency” and “deficiency”. Further, not only are the structures of history online, but so are the structures of the future – and they are calling to us right here and now.

This presents a terrific koan to the integral practitioner, and Jeremy Johnson transmits it in a way that left me inspired and the world reenchanted. May he – and Gebser – do the same for you!

“What is gaining importance now is the spiritual light reigning between objects – the tension and the relation between them.”
– Jean Gebser

Jeremy Johnson has a degree in sociology from Fordham University, the Jesuit College in Manhattan, and a Masters in Consciousness Studies from Goddard College. Jeremy is the founder of Nura Learning, a conscious media learning platform, and is an editor and writer for numerous publications. He is currently working on his first book, Seeing Through the World: Jean Gebser and Integral Consciousness, from Revelore Press.