Stages of Integration: The Cutting Edge – From Consensus to Coherence

Pondering on the progress of human integration, it occurs to me that we are now moving beyond the stage as consensus as the goal within communities.  Consensus requires some degree of compromise of the individual’s unique stance in order to benefit the Whole.  It is like everyone agreeing to play their musical instrument on a note that they can all live with, as the culture of their group.  This is an important step in realizing our possibility to live harmoniously and contentedly with others.  It requires putting the new system or organism- the whole community to the centre of one’s own well-being.  It brings with it an expanded sense of identity – integrated with others to form a new whole.   It is the basis of cohesive families, tribes and larger groups that live in relative harmony while living and working together.  It is challenging particularly to our egos’ competitive nature who desire to be noted for their individuality and requires harnessing that force for a higher purpose.  This has been species specific – within the human family.

Now, however, it seems to me that humanity is on the brink of moving to a higher possibility of integration and cohesion both within our human family and beyond.  This is the aspiration of moving from consensus to coherence within a whole.  Coherence seems like moving from all agreeing to play the same acceptable musical note as a homogenized group, to playing a complex symphony as an orchestra.  Here, every instrument can play their unique sound in harmony with all the others.  Every unique instrument’s input is appreciated for the diverse richness it brings to the symphony.  Creative improvisation is appreciated when it is in the flow of the orchestra’s music.

As we move from a system based on consensus to one of coherence, it frees us to allow ourselves and each other to expand to the fullest, most creative version of ourselves, while being in harmony with the rest of the orchestra.  We give ourselves and each other this freedom which then allows us as an orchestra, community, organism to play far beyond the limitations of the scripted music.  This brings us into a whole new possibility, both on an individual and a collective level, even beyond the individuals’ imagination.

Of course, the question then becomes: Who is the conductor who keeps everyone in tune and in harmony to play the best version of the music?  I think, this has been the stumbling block in the past when some groups may have progressed to this point.  Until now, we’ve been focussed on the external world for most of our cues, laws and regulation.  It has been a mind/brain-based system that leads through the logic of linear progression because that represents the stage of our evolutionary development.  Now, however, humanity seems to be elevating our consciousness beyond that ceiling of perception.  Once we can perceive or imagine beyond the physical appearance of separateness we can respond to life in a more expanded capacity.  Though, we retain the diverse uniqueness, as beings of our particular experience and information, we also realize our intrinsic Oneness.  This is similar to a human body made up of trillions of individual cells yet they all intrinsically work for the good of the whole body in their unique capacities (liver, heart, blood, skin, brain cells,…).  They don’t need an external “conductor”, for they are all tapped into the internal one.  Only when they are dis-eased (cancer, autoimmune disorders, ..) do they forget their specific, integrated role and perform as random individuals despite, and to the detriment of, the whole in which they belong.  As we are finding our way Home to our original state of belonging with each other and to the whole creation, we need to tap into the One internal conductor, found in every human heart that connects us.

Once we start this process with our fellow human beings, it is a natural progression to expand the process to embrace and integrate with our non-human family.  The borders that separate human beings from other creatures is solely based on stories we’ve told ourselves from very partial and consequently misleading information, which are now being revealed as obstacles to a fuller understanding of both who we are and of life itself.