Self-Identity Archives – Integral Life

Cybernetics and the Intelligence of Love

Dr. Keith Witt — Fri, 10 Oct 2025 18:49:15 +0000

Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVos explore how cybernetics — the science of self-correcting systems — reveals the hidden logic of love, power, trauma, and societal evolution. Through the lens of integral theory, they trace feedback loops across all dimensions of life, showing how everything from personal healing to political dysfunction is shaped by the quality of communication and coherence in our systems.

This post was originally published on Integral Life.

Trauma, Transcendence, and the Beauty that Breaks Us Open

Kimberley Lafferty — Fri, 25 Jul 2025 20:02:55 +0000

Geoff Fitch, Abigail Lynam, and Kimberley Lafferty explore how deep suffering, spiritual awakening, and developmental transformation often intertwine in the transition into meta-aware consciousness. Through personal stories, group process insights, and reflections on collective shadow work, they illuminate how real relationship and sacred community can hold and catalyze the most disorienting — and most liberating — phases of human evolution.

This post was originally published on Integral Life.

Redefining the Masculine (Without Losing the Man)

Keith Martin-Smith — Fri, 18 Jul 2025 18:31:32 +0000

In this episode of Integral Edge, Keith Martin-Smith explores the modern crisis of masculinity and offers a powerful framework for reclaiming the healthy strengths of traditional, modern, and postmodern masculine expressions. Rather than choosing between power and empathy, discipline and vulnerability, Keith shows how wholeness means learning to embody all of them—at the right time, in the right way.

This post was originally published on Integral Life.

Between Two Infinities: What Does It Mean to Live a Good Life?

Dr. Keith Witt — Fri, 09 May 2025 19:47:59 +0000

What does it really mean to live a good life—and how does that meaning evolve as we grow? In this candid and illuminating conversation, Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVos explore how progress on meaningful needs, conscious relationships, and a deeper sense of purpose all contribute to a life well-lived.

This post was originally published on Integral Life.

Every Scar Has a Story: Rewriting the Narratives That Shape Us

Dr. Keith Witt — Fri, 02 May 2025 18:52:50 +0000

Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVos explore how trauma shapes the stories we tell about ourselves — and how those stories can be transformed into resilience, wisdom, and self-leadership. Drawing from developmental theory, the Enneagram, and decades of clinical experience, Keith offers a four-stage model of trauma healing rooted in radical acceptance, narrative re-patterning, and the cultivation of a compassionate “wise self.”

This post was originally published on Integral Life.

How Can DEI Survive? (And Should It?)

Keith Martin-Smith — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 18:54:21 +0000

Keith Martin-Smith offers a bold, developmental critique of modern DEI, tracing its evolution from fairness-based policy to postmodern orthodoxy. He explores how inclusion can become exclusion when empathy gives way to ideology—and outlines how DEI might survive by embracing complexity, dissent, and shared humanity.

This post was originally published on Integral Life.

The Occupational Hazards of Awakening

Kimberley Lafferty — Thu, 20 Mar 2025 19:39:07 +0000

In this profound dialogue, Kimberley Lafferty and Santiago illuminate the occupational hazards of awakening, exploring the bliss and challenges of ego dissolution and emptiness within daily life. They offer deep insights and practical wisdom for integrating profound spiritual experiences into authentic human living.

This post was originally published on Integral Life.

Men, Meaning, and the Rise of the New Right

Keith Martin-Smith — Fri, 14 Mar 2025 19:36:05 +0000

The modern world is demanding more from men than ever before—strength and sensitivity, resilience and vulnerability, leadership and collaboration—yet many feel lost without clear role models or cultural support. This conversation explores the forces shaping modern masculinity, the allure of strongman archetypes, and the path toward a truly integrated, evolved form of masculinity that balances power with presence, agency with empathy, and tradition with transformation.

This post was originally published on Integral Life.

Evolving Love: The Secret Path to Awakening

Kimberley Lafferty — Fri, 21 Feb 2025 20:31:35 +0000

This conversation explores how love evolves alongside human development, revealing how our relationships reflect and shape our consciousness. Through personal stories, integral psychology, and esoteric wisdom, Kimberley Theresa Lafferty, Dr. Daniel Stickler, and Dr. Mickra Hamilton uncover how intimacy, shadow work, and sacred partnership can become profound paths of transformation and awakening.

This post was originally published on Integral Life.

The Wonderful (But Flawed) Ideals of DEI

Keith Martin-Smith — Fri, 13 Sep 2024 19:47:16 +0000

Keith Martin-Smith takes a careful look at the diversity, equity, and inclusion movement when he began to notice the damage it was causing people he knew under the guise of progress, or equity. Putting his keen mind to the task, Keith identified seven key areas where the DEI movement goes markedly astray from the values it aspires to.

This post was originally published on Integral Life.