Integral political practice: How to endure Ted Cruz. Plus, the Mormon faith crisis

There are good reasons why, traditionally, politics and religion are not discussed in polite company. “It’s because they express very deep patterns of our thinking and feeling,” Jeff says, “if you start screwing with my spiritual beliefs and my politics, you’re screwing with me and my whole sense of identity.”

In the podcast, Jeff talks about what he calls “integral political practice,” the act of observing our attractions and aversions to different political ideas and even to particular candidates. In so doing we are engaging in the most potent practice of consciousness evolution: turning subject into object. He describes what he calls “the remote control test”, which is noticing his instant compulsion to change the channel when Ted Cruz appears on the TV.

What exactly is happening there, and more importantly, what’s underneath it? Jeff plumbs the depths of his revulsion and finds some surprising truths!

Also in the podcast Jeff talks to author Thomas McConkie about his new book, Navigating Mormon Faith Crisis. Tom was born and raised in the Mormon Church in Salt Lake City and comes from pioneer ancestry. He describes his own crisis of faith and the falling out with his family. “That set me on my path in Buddhism and eventually integral adult development. It was just in the last few years that it felt like a deep soul urge of mine to really, on a personal level, integrate my own Mormon identity.”

I realized that all of my pain, all of my falling out and loss of identity in the Mormon church, that wasn’t just individual, that was collective, and there is an entire generation of people who are going through similar growing pains. –Thomas McConkie

If you think you know about Mormonism, you might be really surprised by Jeff’s conversation with Tom. Find out more about Tom’s work and Navigating Mormon Faith Crisis here.

Lastly, Jeff addresses a listener’s frustration with the Big History Project, which seems to be trying to answer a lot of the same questions as integral theory, but with much less explanatory power. So why is it so successful in spreading its message to the public?

“I’m a little frustrated about the inability of integral theory…to penetrate public discourse in a similar way,” the caller says. So are we! In the podcast, Jeff talks about the strengths of the Big History Project, it’s shortcomings, and why, for the time being, books on integral theory are still relegated to the New Age ghetto.

Send your questions and comments for the show to jeff@dailyevolver.com. Record a voice memo on your smartphone or use the Speakpipe button to the right.

Transcript