What is human development? Archives – Integral Life

The Highest Stages of Human Flourishing

Alexander Love — Fri, 17 Oct 2025 17:23:32 +0000

Keith Martin-Smith and Alexander Love explore Terry O'Fallon's STAGES model of human development, focusing on the rarely-discussed MetAware tier where transpersonal awareness becomes a structural feature of consciousness, leading to the dissolution of boundaries and recognition that all meaning is constructed.

This post was originally published on Integral Life.

STAGES: Cracking the Code of Human Development

Keith Martin-Smith — Fri, 05 Sep 2025 18:56:37 +0000

Keith Martin Smith and Alexander Love explore Terry O’Fallon’s Stages model as a powerful lens for understanding how humans grow, make meaning, and relate across vastly different realities. Together, they reveal how developmental precision — not content or ideology — holds the key to deeper empathy, cultural healing, and truly integrative practice.

This post was originally published on Integral Life.

Ready, Steady, Grow! The Art and Science of Vertical Development

Beena Sharma — Fri, 19 Jul 2024 18:56:14 +0000

Corey deVos and Beena Sharma explore the concept of vertical development and its importance in today's world. Beena, with over 30 years of experience in the field, shares her journey and evolving understanding of vertical development.

This post was originally published on Integral Life.

Radical Wholeness and the Five Paths of Transformation

Ken Wilber — Mon, 08 Jul 2024 22:54:16 +0000

Ken Wilber and Andrew Holecek explore the frontiers of integral theory and human consciousness. Ken shares some of the key insights from his latest book, "Finding Radical Wholeness," offering a novel and deeply insightful perspective on the nature of reality and human development.

This post was originally published on Integral Life.

Why Greater Depth Means Greater Responsibility

Dr. Keith Witt — Thu, 12 Oct 2023 07:10:00 +0000

Watch as Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVos delve into the profound interdependence between human development and responsibility, exploring how our deepening self-awareness shapes our relationships and societal roles in an ever-evolving world. At the heart of the discussion is the compelling notion that as we evolve in our understanding and self-awareness, we bear a greater onus to guide, uplift, and positively influence those around us. This responsibility is especially important in the realm of relationships, where the path to trust and understanding is often fraught with challenges, yet rich with opportunities for growth.

This post was originally published on Integral Life.

Vertical Development’s Many Gifts

Beena Sharma — Mon, 12 Sep 2022 18:37:08 +0000

Beena Sharma, president of the Vertical Development Academy (VeDA), gives a beautifully cogent explanation of the 8-stage, full spectrum model of adult psychological development, Vertical Development — illuminating us not only to the characteristics of each stage of development, but the implications and ramifications of each stage, the process of human development as a whole, and how this model can help us face our current metacrisis.

This post was originally published on Integral Life.

Supporting Development in Adolescents

Dr. Keith Witt — Wed, 13 May 2020 21:33:38 +0000

Watch as Dr. Keith and Corey take a close look at a critical phase of our own development, noting all of the things that can go right (and many of the things that can go wrong) during this period of growth, and how we can be more supportive and responsive to the needs of our own children as they navigate this turbulent period of their lives.

This post was originally published on Integral Life.

Coronavirus: Making Sense of Our Sense-Making

Beena Sharma — Thu, 23 Apr 2020 21:36:29 +0000

Watch as Beena Sharma and Susanne Cook-Greuter offer a must-see presentation to help us understand the many healthy and unhealthy responses we are seeing to the coronavirus pandemic, all the way up and down the spiral of development.

This post was originally published on Integral Life.

The Many Ways We Grow

Ken Wilber — Thu, 18 Apr 2019 00:11:17 +0000

Human development is uneven, which means that we are better at some things than we are at others. Some skills come more naturally to us, and others are more difficult to acquire. Watch as Ken and Corey explore each of these developmental capacities in detail, offering a powerful summary of human potentials, talents, and intelligences — a comprehensive map of the territory of “you” that will help guide your own ongoing growth and development.

This post was originally published on Integral Life.

Growing Up: A Guided Tour

Ken Wilber — Mon, 11 Mar 2019 16:00:15 +0000

In this episode of The Ken Show we explore one of the most central elements of integral metatheory: growing up through multiple stages of developmental maturity. Watch as Ken and Corey offer a guided tour through each of the major stages on the Path of Growing Up — an exploration of your own greatest, deepest potentials — and offer some simple practices to help you actualize those potentials.

This post was originally published on Integral Life.