At a time when cultural and existential crises threaten the wellbeing of our global community, shouldn’t the search for wisdom and a more enlightened path forward embrace all sources of insight and new intelligence? Twenty-first century technology, side by side with ancient and sacred traditions? The intuitive, and the scientific?

There is growing awareness that real transformation, personal and collective, needs a fuller integration of many approaches, including the ancient shamanic, and more mystical or contemplative spiritual practices and personal development. Right alongside the speed and computational power of artificial intelligence.

So how do we get even deeper tethered in the natural human capacities that help create the space and receive the impulses of new evolutionary energy feeling its way into humanity, and integrate newly emerging technologies and sources of knowledge? How do we facilitate this integration in a meta-modern global landscape that is constantly evolving? In this special Portals conversation, Aviv Shahar is joined by Layman Pascal, a leader in integral thinking and teaching, and a prominent voice on the Integral Stage YouTube channel and podcast. Among their considerations:

• There is an enormous appetite among people to create rituals, to create beauty, to come together in the kinds of events that tell our subconscious we're part of a community that's worth fighting for, worth working together for.
• There's no way to change the world without including people we don't like. There needs to be an anti-fragile attitude of how to make use of the people we feel are problematic, not just the people we think are pure.
• The risks of a YouTube channel and podcast are that we begin to believe that talking heads and words are a sufficient pathway to an enlightened future. What about embodiment work, community, purpose and friendship?
• If you can fall in love with the unique spirit of special people — thinkers, writers, saints — that you feel have depth and brilliance, then you can see the same in versions of yourself.
• Other sources of intelligence, such as the subconscious, collective consciousness and AI, are where we're likely to see breakthroughs that our conscious minds are not going to figure out.

This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.