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Brad Reynolds did graduate work at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) before leaving to study under Ken Wilber for a decade, and published two books reviewing Wilber's work: Embracing Reality: The Integral Vision of Ken Wilber (Tarcher, 2004), Where's Wilber At?: Ken Wilber's Integral Vision in the New Millennium (Paragon House, 2006) and God's Great Tradition of Global Wisdom: Guru Yoga-Satsang in the Integral Age (Bright Alliance, 2021). Visit: http://integralartandstudies.com

An Integral Response
to COVID-19

PART 2: Four Quadrants of Integral Wisdom

Brad Reynolds

A nother primary epistemological tool offered by Ken Wilber's Integral “Theory of Everything”[1] is what's called the “Four Quadrants,” which refers to a map outlining the (1) interior and (2) exterior domains of both the (3) individual and (4) collective human holons (“a whole that is part of larger wholes”[2]). This idea has been repeated endlessly in Wilber's work over the past twenty-five years, and is readily used by integral thinkers in multiple disciplines of knowledge (thus I will not review the details here).[3] These “Four Quadrants” are then combined with the evolutionary sequence of the developmental stages—“All Levels”—to generate what Wilber calls the “AQAL Approach” (All Quadrants, All Levels, plus all lines, states, types, etc.). The figure above maps out the basic four quadrant domains and some of their principle qualities, which will be needed for an adequate integral response to COVID-19.

Specifically, each quadrant reflects the developmental sequence and evolution of complex forms or holons, each in their own unique way, while all four are “tetra-meshed” or interrelated together as whole. Next, let's review in more detail below the interior and exterior domains for the individual and collective holons specifically in relation to enacting an integral response to the COVID-19 pandemic crisis.

T he individual person is mapped by Integral Theory as being the “Upper Quadrants,” with the Upper-Left (UL) being the interior mind and psyche of the individual—the domain of “I”—while the Upper-Right (UR) is the exteriors, often correlated with individual behavior and the body—the “It” domain (of an individual holon). In the case of disease, such as with COVID-19, the Upper-Right involves the health and bodily functions of the internal organs and the body as a whole. Let's begin by reviewing these “quadrants” of the individual human holon, starting with the exteriors of the individual, best examined by “it” science (or the objective perspective). In relation to an integral response to COVID-19, we discover how all four quadrants are activated in a variety of ways. Let's take a brief tour of the contents of each quadrant in serving our integral response to these dangerous times:

Upper-Right: Exterior Body & Behaviors

T he “Upper-Right” (UR) quadrant is the domain of “It” or objective individual holons, from atoms to molecules to organisms to body tissues, nervous systems to complex triune brains, etc., evolving up the holarchy (or “nested hierarchy”) of existence. This is the quadrant, therefore, of cells and bacteria, of viruses and vaccines, hence of vital importance during this COVID-19 crisis. It is in the Upper-Right that science is most active and effective, measuring individual holons and calculating their structures and processes to exist. Therefore, science needs to be supported and adequately funded for the best response to our health and in countering disease. This includes monitoring data as the coronavirus spreads throughout the population, dramatically effecting individual lives and causing untold deaths and suffering. It also includes testing and generating adequate medical responses, from hospitals to staffs to supplies, etc., culminating with therapeutic drugs (to fight the disease) and vaccines (to prevent the disease).

The other important area of the Upper-Right is that of dietary and bodily well-being, individual health and safety, such as access to good food, adequate medical care, prescription drugs, and healthy lifestyles, etc. For one, since many of these coronaviruses are zoonotic or a disease transmitted from animals-to-humans, then perhaps one approach for future safety would be a shift to organic vegetarian diets, a practice already highly recommended by Yoga and esoteric religious practices. The exotic animals (such as bats) eaten and sold in China, for example, seem to be the root cause behind this particular pandemic (possibly originating in Wuhan virology laboratories[4]). In other words, people's lifestyles and dietary choices are important for our safety and health.

This also includes our behavior choices, including those that influence the climate crisis and degradation of the environment, from the use of fossil fuels, to over-consumption of meats (which uses great quantities of fossil fuels), the consumption of plastics, an insatiable consumerism, and so on, in addition to the need to shift to ecologically-sensitive fuels (such as solar and wind power sources). Many of these suggestions might sound trite to many readers, but science tends to support these facts and suggestions, so we have a responsibility to address our personal choices. Importantly, as the economic crisis from the 2020 pandemic increases, food scarcity becomes more and more important, let alone access to healthy, organic foods. Our entire food production chain, from farmers to truckers to grocery stores, food banks, etc. (systems also involving the Lower-Right quadrant), become vitally important in maintaining a fully integral response to COVID-19.

Behavior is an individual choice, which is why it is mapped in the Upper-Right quadrant (in conjunction with the intentions of the Upper-Left). Therefore, love and compassion, service and other actions (such as wearing masks), become active in this quadrant as a personal response to not just a health crisis, but to life in general. During a social crisis where people are ordered to stay at home, the home environment becomes crucial. For one, this means that while social crime might go down in the streets, domestic violence is going to rise while people are sheltered at home. Our responsibility, not simply as an integral person, but as a person of higher morality, is to treat everyone with kindness, compassion, and understanding, including family members as well as other social relationships. This is why psychological health in the Upper-Left quadrant is crucial as well, which is why any genuine integral response to life in general (not just COVID-19) involves ALL quadrants, as well as using ALL Eyes of Knowing. Indeed, this is the reasoning behind Wilber's so-called AQAL Approach, an acronym for “All-Quadrants, All-Levels” that intends to fully include the interior and exterior dimensions of human and cosmic existence.

Upper-Left: Interior Mind & Intentions

T he “Upper-Left” (UL) quadrant is the domain of “I” involving the subjective interior mind and mental processes (and its intentions), including psychology and spiritual growth. This quadrant is most active in individual human life and moral development, as we grow from babies to buddhas, i.e., if all the stages (and states) in the spectrum of consciousness are allowed to evolve in their natural sequence of developmental unfolding. Psychological health, cultivated by opportunity and socio-cultural environments (in the Lower Quadrants), is crucial for a well-functioning ego and spiritual human being. During this COVID-19 pandemic crisis, we discover our mental health and well-being is being thoroughly tested. For one, we probably have all noticed that our minds have become hyper-sensitive to the body's pains: do I have symptoms of the coronavirus? Do I feel a tightness of my chest? Is that a sore throat, and so on? Such anxiety of the unknown can be quite frightening. Fear of our own and our family's health will unleash a cascade of fears and anxieties that we must be attentive to without slipping into paranoia and debilitating fear.

Control of our thoughts and our mind (what the Buddhists call “monkey-mind,” the untamed, wandering mind), naturally, will be better handled if we were already using meditative and contemplative practices, and for children too. If one is not already a meditation practitioner, this downtime might be a good time to begin practice, since one is restricted to staying indoors. Many Internet classes are being offered to assist in this instruction. Truly, we owe it to ourselves (and others) to calm down, to be quieter (at times). Imagine, a global shift to meditation as being an integral response to COVID-19! You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one!

Psychological health (in the Upper-Left) is always important, whether during crisis or in normal life. Integral life practices have always been highly supportive of engaging a range of disciplines, from physical to psychological to spiritual health practices, including exercising the gross, the subtle, and causal bodies.[5] Learning how to manage fear and paranoia, while still being attentive to proper safety and health measures, is vitally important. Maintaining nonaddictive relationships to alcohol, drugs, food, pornography, and media, etc., is vital for our health, especially under stress. In addition, by cultivating compassion, empathy, and love for others, we become predisposed to serving other people by increasing highly developed moral values, a revered integral practice at all times (not just during crisis, though emphasized during crises). Indeed, integral philosophers suggest this is a primary purpose of evolution: the development of moral values and ethics.[6]

In terms of higher transpersonal development, when ordered by officials to stay inside, to shelter at home, this actually provides a greater opportunity for going inside the mind and soul, such as with meditation, prayer, and other contemplative practices—thus effectively opening the Eye of Spirit. This includes intellectual study and reading (including home-study for school children), not just watching endless TV and movies (or too much news), and by offering other social support strategies. We need to exercise the mind and soul, not just the body.

Being indoors provides an opportunity to access local centers of religion by untraditional methods, such as with Internet church services and other houses of worship, etc. Psychologically, it is very important to stay connected to others, to your religious leaders and psychotherapists or other support groups, to be refreshed by your chosen beliefs and faith, whatever one's preferred religion or practice. In other words, in many ways this can be a time of retreat and renunciation, practices that are always highly recommended (even demanded) by advanced esoteric religious and yogic disciplines. We don't have to succumb to despair due to COVID-19, although we are being challenged, but can use the opportunities now provided for our inner growth.

In this way, this slower period becomes not only a time to serve ourselves but to a time to serve others (beyond self), while still staying safe and healthy. While practicing social distance to halt the spread of the coronavirus, our distance from our inner mind, from our soul and spirit, has not increased during this crisis; they're here right now. Ironically, if used rightly, COVID-19 can draw us closer to what is most real and truly spiritual. Once again, we can see the great value in exercising the Eye of Spirit in the Upper-Left individual interior domain, especially now.

Lower Quadrants of the Collective

T he collective systems of human society (and the Kosmos as a whole) is mapped by Integral Theory as being the “Lower Quadrants,” with the Lower-Left (LL) as including the interior cultural worldviews and “worldspaces” of our societies—the domain of “We”—while the Lower-Right (LR) involves the exterior systems of natural collectives and human societies—or the “Its” (of holonic systems). Here we will concentrate more on the human domains, although the domains of Nature as interacting systems, from the microscopic to macroscopic, are also extremely important since the coronavirus itself exists in (and spreads throughout) natural eco-environments.

Lower-Right: Exterior Social Systems and Environment

T he “Lower-Right” (LR) quadrant is the domain of “Its” involving interobjective social exterior holons and operating systems, including the modes of production, the operations of government and military, hospitals, emergency care workers, sports and arts, and every other community-based activity, which is beyond calculation. Hence, the Lower-Right has been dramatically affected by the COVID-19 crisis (perhaps more than any other quadrant), for all of our societal systems have been disrupted, bar none.

The stress on our governments and health systems is staggering; the economic collapse is global and is unprecedented, where millions have become instantly unemployed catapulting families and people into fear for survival. This danger cannot be underestimated; therefore, our governments, and society as a whole, must be strong and resilient. The government stimulus packages (“bail outs”) to maintain employment and the economy is part of the price that must be paid to overcome this disaster and lead us on the road to recovery. It would have been less expensive to have been better prepared; another lesson to learn.

Recovery, no doubt, will be slow, thus causing even more stress to our collective systems and individuals. The systemic operations of society will not return to “normal” (or the “new normal”) until testing and vaccines are widely available, so the disruption has been thorough. Yet, people's response, including with our governments (on local, state, and national levels), and with businesses of all sizes, has been exemplary. Everyone has been cooperating, up and down the societal hierarchy, since everyone realizes, as is often said: “We are in this together!” And together we will find our way out.

I will not go into many details here, but will leave this for the reader to explore on their own, once they understand the Integral Map recognizes the Lower-Right of social systems as being crucial in any integral response to COVID-19. Let me simply outline some of the more obvious activities in this community quadrant (LR), which is really the exterior forms of “We” (more than simple “Its”), since this quadrant is intimately coupled (or “tetra-meshed”) with the interior dimensions of the Lower-Left cultural quadrant (as well as in the individual Upper Quadrants).

To begin, the response of national and local governments starts with our elected leaders leading the larger community to engage in safety measures to slow down and stop the pandemic spread, implemented with varying degrees of success. In addition, our business and corporate leaders must rise to the occasion and become a crucial dimension of our collective response to COVID-19. The first and primary measures have been social-distancing, or maintaining a personal space of six feet or more from other people when out in public; obviously, this is more accurately physical-distancing, for people are still socially connecting via conversations, smartphones, computers, and other interactive Internet platforms. Nonetheless, our social interactions have been drastically curtailed, especially with strangers and friends, since all restaurants, schools, churches, businesses, clubs, gyms, and other social encounters have been shut down. As one saying put it: “We stand apart today, so we can be together tomorrow.”

Amazingly, the vast majority of the world's population (over 90%) have followed the shelter-in-place orders of their governments, since the community at large realizes the danger involved by spreading the disease. This is especially true because COVID-19 is infectious from asymptomatic people or those showing no symptoms yet are still carriers of the virus. The worldwide web or Internet has shown its amazing ability to connect people with written emails, voice and face-to-face interactions (e.g., Zoom, the video conferencing program, has zoomed in popularity during this shut-in crisis). The weakness of this approach seems to be the slow response and recommendations of the national governments, for example, even as of this writing in mid-April 2020, the United States has failed to set national policies by leaving it up to local and state officials to act on their own, not the best or most effective approach for containing the spread of a killer virus; nor has it provided national testing, a crucial step to reopen the country.

The Lower-Left quadrant of social systems is also what's going to contribute the most to leading us out of this global crisis. This includes all of those who are helping the ill and dying to recover and recuperate. Most important, of course, is the response of scientific medical experts, from doctors to nurses to hospital workers, emergency responders, medical supply lines, even morgues and funeral operations (which are being overwhelmed with the onslaught of deceased bodies). Even the supply of PPE (personal protective equipment), especially for medical workers, has been vastly underestimated and underprovided, which is a horrible oversight (that needs to be fixed immediately). As former President Barack Obama, in response to COVID-19, said today: “Facts matter, science matters, government matters, good government matters, elections matter.”[7] A good lesson to learn indeed.

In addition, this quadrant is where the medical laboratories operate—science-at-work—including those running tests for the coronavirus infections, which are lagging far behind the demand. Plus, there are those labs researching vaccines, neutralizing antibodies, and running trial runs for their effectiveness, all very complicated procedures run under the guidance of scientists and doctors. Of course, regular medical emergencies are still needed for people with other illnesses and traumas as well, creating an overload for our heroic health care workers. This is true for the other vital needs in the community too, from food production and distribution, to the running of “essential businesses,” such as gas stations, laundries, pharmacies, etc., that must continue their operations to serve people's basic needs. Everyone working for others are our everyday heroes—we are all very grateful.

With the COVID-19 crisis, our governments are bearing the brunt of this pandemic, assuming responsibility to assist and supply overworked, understaffed, and supply-strapped hospitals and medical care facilities. Effective government operations, therefore, are crucial, with different levels of success, often dependent on the effectiveness of the elected leaders; most have shone brightly in their call of duty (such as the state governors of New York, California, and Washington, plus many others), while others have failed miserably (such as the governor of Florida, and, most noticeably, with the President of the United States, who is at least advised and countered by proper medical authorities in his administration, such as Dr. Anthony Fauci, a real American hero). In many rural areas, for example, where anti-government sentiment is highest, people have been slow to respond to social-distancing orders, thereby making their communities more vulnerable. It is in this time of need and danger that we realize how truly important good, effective, honest, and transparent government is for the people. Another lessons we should never forget.

Overall, people's response has been exemplary, yet the tragic loss of jobs and employment has skyrocketed unemployment to numbers unseen in generations (at least since the Great Depression of the 1930s). In the future, better government preparedness and response will be a vital part of the lessons learned from this horrible, death-dealing disease. We must elect, and demand, that our leaders and government agencies be better equipped to deal with these types of emergencies, including (as I've mentioned above) the upcoming future global climate crisis. We must take steps, including a vast overhaul of our energy operations and economy, to properly deal with this inevitable worldwide existential danger. It is crucial, as many people already understand (but not enough of those in positions of authority) that we must listen to and follow the recommendations of science! All of these actions, now and in the future, are part of an effective integral response to COVID-19.

Lower-Left: Interior Culture & Worldviews

T he “Lower-Left” (LL) quadrant is the domain of “We” involving intersubjective cultural interior holons and the developmental perspectives of our societies and communities. From an integral perspective, the Lower-Left involves the development of socio-cultural worldviews, most simply stated as the growth from the premodern to modern to postmodern to integral stages of cultural development. This evolution of consciousness corresponds to the development of morality and values (in the Upper-Left), essentially moving from egocentric (tribal) to ethnocentric (traditional) to worldcentric (modern) to pluralistic (postmodern) to universal (integral) values—or, more simply, from “me” to “us” to “all of us.”[8] In societal terms, this involves the development from religious ethics to feudal systems to modern democracies and egalitarianism to postmodern pluralism to integral and transpersonal (or spiritual) ethics.

For our current global world order, this means a focus on worldcentric modernism, which has been involved in “culture wars” for decades, if not centuries, the battle between traditional religious-based values versus modern scientific-based worldviews. In its extreme forms, it is the battle between religious fundamentalism and modernity, a disruptive error that needs to be overcome and healed, which the Integral Vision accomplishes by promoting further growth and education. This battle of worldviews has been a long evolving struggle spanning generations, for even after legal and human rights have been established on paper and in law, the actual implementation and socio-cultural change can take lifetimes (as witnessed, for example, with the African-American civil rights struggle in the United States). Nonetheless, we must persist, for example, since lower income and minority communities have been hit hardest by COVID-19, we must remedy this in the future (another valuable lesson gained from this crisis). As an emerging global society, the worldcentric integral perspective maintains we must overcome this clash of cultures through education, economic development, and authentic (transformative) spiritual practice.

Yet, remember, the Lower-Left is our community, thus promotes values we all share from being innately human and developing our own ethics and worldviews. Our values can be cultivated by simply being a decent human being, treating others equally—“do unto others as you would have others do unto you” (the Golden Rule)—whether learned from religion, family upbringing, schools, national heritage, etc., or your own conscience. This is where our “heroes” come from, and in the case of this COVID-19 pandemic, it's most obvious with the frontline medical workers, the doctors and nurses and support staff, the first responders, from police to ambulance personnel, to all the grocery store clerks, food banks, etc., all of those who go to work every day during a universal pandemic (possibly exposing themselves to the disease) in order to serve everyone else. They are exemplars of enacting “everybody-all-at once” principles in action, which we can all learn from. The everyday heroes are the many members of society who are self-sacrificing their own needs to help others. These common people, and respected authorities, who are responding on each and every level of society, are the true Heroes of Humanity.

The incredible response of fellow human beings to help others at risk to themselves is one of the most noble traits of humankind. The compassion, care, love, empathy, and service, beyond the call of duty, is heart-warming and inspirational to everyone. Not only them, but everyone who stays home, who respects the need for social distancing, who follows the recommendations of medical and governmental authorities, deserve thanks; for again, “We are in this together.” We all stand up and honor them all—and thank them most sincerely—clapping our hands, singing their praises, and honoring them with our gratitude. This too, whether one knows it or not, is part of the integral response to the COVID-19 global pandemic in the year 2020. Indeed, we are all one.

Being Integral: We Are All One

A lthough the Integral Map or Metatheory, as we've just reviewed the basic outlines, likes to subdivide and dissect reality into separate categories, such as with levels and stages, quadrants and lines, even the different “Eyes of Knowing,” and so forth, it is very important to remember that “the map is not the territory.” The territory of reality is one whole united system that is interconnected and interdependent, a wholeness that's more than the sum of its parts. Thus, the four quadrants, for example, are only partially effective as a human map, for obviously the lines blur between the individual and the collective societies in which we live, for we are all interrelated or tetra-meshed throughout all four quadrants (as Wilber says). We, as individuals, are largely products of our socio-cultural worldviews and our upbringing, which spans a diverse spectrum of possibilities. So, truly, the map itself can only be taken with a grain of salt, so to speak, for a map is used only for guiding us on our way, not in taking the actual journey itself.

The usefulness of an Integral Map is that it provides guideposts (quadrants, levels, lines, states, etc.) to what already exists in our everyday experience; thus, we can easily recognize them when they're pointed out, just like a mountain or river on a map corresponds to a real mountain and river flowing in the great outdoors. Or, on an interior level, the cognitive and emotional capacities of each individual vary from one to another; nevertheless, we all share certain qualities that are unmistakably human. For example, some identify more with traditional religious values, while others are more scientific and modern, while others strive to more universal spiritual and integral values. Nonetheless, we are one human race, one humanity—and COVID-19 has emphasized this truth—which can be part of the positive value we gain from going through this crisis together, as an emerging global society. In reality, we are one team, one global collective living on one fragile planet Earth, so we must hang together and help one another at all times, and not just during crisis. Is this not one of the most important lessons to learn in 2020?

There is much to learn about how we can better cooperate, among nations and businesses, among communities of diverse people, that will better serve us as a global community as the twenty-first century continues to unfold. This crisis too shall pass. But there are still more lurking around the corner, many that are inevitable, like many scientists are already warning us today. The human polluting and degradation of our global eco-system and ecology is leading us into a climate crisis of unimagined magnitude, if we don't respond more quickly to the warnings that have been sounded for decades. We are already seeing the extreme weather effects of global warming, the melting of ice sheets, rising sea levels, the depletion of our atmosphere, and the dying of plants and species, among other unsustainable disasters. There is no time to waste, as the COVID-19 pandemic has reminded us. Mother Nature is teaching us a valuable lesson here that we must wake up to. Our lives, literally, depend upon it!

We must learn to cooperate better, on a global scale. Think globally, act locally. Withdrawing into nationalism or racism, religious intolerance, economic disparity is nothing but a ticket to future disaster. We must not let our fears rule the day, ostracizing others (or certain races and minorities), for ALL of us are human beings, members of the same human species, members of the same human family: Homo sapiens sapiens. As our history over the millennia has proven, we are capable of unspeakable cruelties, war, and genocide, but these are failings of improper human development and missteps in the lack of cultivating of higher human potentials.

Science, in the form of psychology (and other insights), has outlined developmental guidelines to correct the curve into darkness; while comparative religious studies, as another example, have identified the universals hidden in the diversity of our religious systems. Transpersonal psychology, and the new emerging Integral Philosophy, has shown that we have profound spiritual potentials inside us, which has, in the past, only been accessed by the advanced-tip few, the Shamans, the Yogis, Saints, and Sages, etc., of humankind. But these potentials are inherent for all of us to realize if we take proper actions and cultivate our highest good. God, or the Divine Ground of Being, is the light that will lead us to our fullest evolutionary possibilities, that is, if we respond appropriately.

To become wise and compassionate is innate to our human condition, and, if not, we suffer the consequences. Yet, such enlightened potentials must be taught and developed, educated and served, in order to blossom forth, to awaken us into fulfilling our full human capacity. Each and every child, born in any time or place, carries all human potentials within from the moment they are born, from good to bad. It is up to us, as parents and teachers, as friends and compatriots, as professors and Gurus, as everyone, to honor and serve the next generations so they may reach what we ourselves might not have been able to attain. Yet, this is our gift to all future generations, to our sons and daughters. Let's start by giving them a healthy planet to live and thrive on. Mother Nature, acting through the evolution of consciousness, expects as much.

We cannot give up in striving and evolving to be a better human race. Science has shown that we are all biologically related as one species, regardless of our racial or ethnic heritage. Indeed, we are even biologically related to all living creatures and plants on Earth (even to viruses and bacteria), since we have all descended from a common ancestor born from life billions of years ago (as evolution proves). Transpersonal spirituality, revealed by the evolution of consciousness, embraced and outlined by the Integral Vision, shows us we are all united in Divine Light, whether we call “It” (“He” or “She”) God or Tao (or whatever): WE ARE ALL ONE! We are, in fact, truly divine alive as Spirit-in-action evolving together right now—that is the main tenet and thesis of the Integral Vision as an evolutionary impulse.

Therefore, an integral response to the COVID-19 pandemic will help us become more integral by being sure to cover all our bases (in all four quadrants, on all levels, etc.), but it also encourages us to become more human in continuing our individual and collective evolution to our highest potentials. Only then may everyone come to know the Truth beyond all fear, in realizing our Prior Divine Unity! Everybody, all at once, must realize and embrace reality as it IS, then get to work and play.

We must thus Grow Up and Wake Up (Clean Up and Show Up), as Integral Theory maintains, to become more compassionate, creative, and loving human beings better protecting our life together on this beautiful Earth. We must protect our planet to protect ourselves. The life we share together on Earth is a sacred school, as Mother Nature is trying to teach us. Time to learn our lessons, Humanity, for real… or people will die beyond what is necessary.

Sometimes, our human experience is one of tragedy, death, and challenges, but, even then, in the midst of the darkness, there is a light that shines brighter than all of that, a Divine Light that transcends death and even being human. It is a Conscious Light filling our human life with love, knowledge, and wisdom, if we learn our lessons adequately—for we are always already That; we are God manifest as humankind; we are Spirit, as our enlightened leaders teach and our hearts know (deep inside). So, to that Nondual Divine Gift we set our sights and sail on, sail on, Humanity, sail on! Indeed, Mother Nature expects nothing less from us before we can come out of our rooms.

Godspeed to everybody-all-at once!

NOTES

[1] See: PART 1: Three Eyes of Knowing—An Integral Response to COVID-19 by Brad Reynolds.

[2] Ken Wilber, The Eye of Spirit (1997), p. 40: “Arthur Koestler coined the term 'holon' to refer to that which, being a whole in one context, is a part of a wider whole in another”; this defines an individual holon and social holons.

[3] See: Ken Wilber, Sex, Ecology, Spirituality (1995, 2001); A Brief History of Everything (1996, 2017); The Marriage of Sense and Soul (1998, 2011); Integral Psychology (2000); Allan Combs, Consciousness Explained Better (2009); also see: AQAL: Journal of Integral Theory and Practice.

[4] See: “State Department Cables Warned of Safety Issues at Wuhan Lab Studying Bat Coronaviruses” by Josh Rogin, Washington Post, April 14, 2020.

[5] See, for example: Integral Life Practice: A 21st-Century Blueprint for Physical Health, Emotional Balance, Mental Clarity, and Spiritual Awakening (2008) by Ken Wilber, Terry Patten, Adam Leonard, Marco Morelli; Transformations of Consciousness (1986) by Ken Wilber, Jack Engler, and Daniel P. Brown; Integral Consciousness and the Future of Evolution (2016) by Steve McIntosh.

[6] See: for example: Evolution's Purpose (2012) and Developmental Politics (2020) by Steve, McIntosh; Purpose Rising: A Global Movement of Transformation and Meaning (2017) edited by Emanuel Kuntzelman and Dustin DiPerna; The Coming Waves (2014) Dustin DiPerna and H. B. Augustine; Man's Search for Meaning (1946, 2006) by Viktor E. Frankl.

[7] Barack Obama endorses Joe Biden for President, April 14, 2020.

[8] See, for example: Steve McIntosh, Developmental Politics (2020); Zachary Stein, Education in a Time Between Worlds: Essays on the Future of Schools, Technology, and Society (2019); Hanzi Freinacht, The Listening Society: A Metamodern Guide to Politics, Book One (2017); Jeremy Lent, The Patterning Instinct (2017); Tomas Björkman, The World We Create (2019); Ken Wilber, The Marriage of Sense and Soul (1998), etc

[9] “Everybody-all-at-once” is a phrase created by Adi Da Samraj; see: Not-Two-Is-Peace: The Ordinary People's Way of Global Cooperative Order (4th Edition, 2020) by The World-Friend Adi Da.

Please see: "PART 1: Three Eyes of Knowing—An Integral Response to COVID-19" by Brad Reynolds