Integrated Intelligence

And the Future

By Marcus T. Anthony (PhD)

Email: mindfutures at gmail dot com

This article also appears at www.22cplus.blogspot.com

Some people ask me why my blog is called “22C+”. The short answer is that “22C”
stands for the twenty-second century, and the “+” symbol represents ‘more’, or perhaps
‘beyond’. So my blog, like my writing in general, is centered upon thinking about the
future within a timeframe extending beyond our current century. Sociologist Elise
Boulding developed the idea of the 200-year present – thinking of this moment in
history as spanning a timeframe from 100 years ago, to 100 years in the future.
Boulding’s perspective has much merit, and the same kind of thinking lies behind the
way I view the future, and particularly the idea of Integrated Intelligence. When we look
at our place in both history and the future, we tend to think in relatively short
timeframes. In part this is because it is so hard to speculate about what is going to
happen much beyond the present decade, and also because it is difficult to think outside
the worldview in which we are embedded.
I trust that your reading this book has helped you understand that the way you think,
and your very expression of consciousness is conditioned by the society you live in, and
the education systems which have shaped your mind. Science too has changed its ways
of knowing. The fathers of modern science used quite different mental processes than do
most modern scientists, when they formulated their paradigm-shifting theories of
knowledge. The idea of God was central to Copernicus’s, Newton’s and Descartes’
worldviews, and Copernicus was actually a priest. Newton’s spiritual bent included a
fascination with astrology, occultism and alchemy. He did not think that the universe
could be explained from material causes, but only through reference to God. Descartes
also believed that only the direct perception of God created the objectivity in the
universe. Darwin was far from being a dry empiricist, and believed that there was a
higher moral order to human life. A belief in Divine intelligence was therefore at the
core of worldviews of the first ‘scientists’.
I trust that Extraordinary Mind has communicated my belief that something important
has been lost in the increasingly narrow expression of mind and intelligence in the
modern world. Inner worlds and Integrated Intelligence are not just important, but vital
for the development of futures that are aligned with the deeper spiritual purpose of
humanity.
It is very difficult to see this from the viewpoint of being a typical person in the modern
consumer society. What chance does the materialistic, driven, busy person of today have
to understand that there is a deeper world than this? The answer is, not much.
Imagining the future is also difficult. How well would a person in the second decade of
the twentieth century have gone if they’d been asked to predict the world that we live in
today? I recall that when I was a primary school kid in Australia back in the late 1970s,
picking up a book about future from our little school library. Like many public school
libraries, it had a limited range of volumes, and this particular futuristic book was
probably about three decades old. I still remember the precise first sentence of the book:
“It is the year 1974…”. Of course for the writer, 1974 was decades into the future, while
for me, the reader, it had actually already passed. The most fascinating thing was
looking at the images on the facing page, which showed rockets firing off to space, and
men living in fancy orbiting space stations akin to 2001 a Space Odyssey. Even today, in
2010 as I write these words, there are no space stations to equal those depicted in that
book.
So, I am not going to make any specific predictions about the future here. Instead, like
any good futurist, I am going to think of futures in terms of their potentialities and
possibilities. Let’s not forget preferences either, because Foresight practice is all about
moving towards the kinds of futures that we would prefer to live in.
My idea of Deep Futures is a general idea, rather than prescriptive. I have not suggested
any particular political structure or ideology. Deep Futures is more about what people
do at an individual level to transform themselves, and thereby lift the consciousness of
the human race as a whole.
Interestingly, just as I finished writing that last sentence here in a little coffee shop
facing the sea in Discovery Bay, Hong Kong, my attention was captured by something I
saw out of the corner of my eye. On the table immediately beside mine, near my copy of
the South China Morning Post, a little green plant was sticking out from under the
paper. I’m wasn’t quite sure what it was. It seemed to be a type of grass, with a light
green stem, and three blades of grass sticking out from each side.
That plant becomes a perfect symbol for Deep Futures, if we just change the image into
a tree with branches. A tree takes its sustenance from the Earth and its immediate
environment, as well as the celestial warmth of the sun. Deep Futures are intimately
connected to Gaia and Spirit. The Earth and the environment keep us grounded to our
roots in nature, and stop our consciousness from becoming too dissociated and
fragmented (as when we are lured into the IT Trap
(http://22cplus.blogspot.com/2010/05/it-trap.html) or the enticements of the ego. The
Spirit is the guiding force of universal mind, which oversees all of life, and gently invites
us home. It is a gentle energy, but not beyond allowing us to go down the road of
suffering, if that is our choice.
The branches of the tree can represent the seven pillars of Deep Futures. Integrated
Intelligence potentially plays a role with each pillar.

• They inspire. Deep Futures instill us with passion, and ignite something deep
within us. Once we reconnect with the psyche and Spirit, it is only natural that we
become more creative. As previously stated, to be inspired is to breathe Spirit. It
is the breath that becomes restricted once we forget who we are, and
unconsciously attempt to blot out the trapped energy within the psyche. This is
why Creativity is one of the core cognitive capacities of INI.
• They are the big picture. They encourage us to see things in broader
perspective, including the cultural, national, civilisational, the Gaian, and the
spiritual. As psychiatrist and mystic David R. Hawkins points out, because the
rational mind works in linear fashion, it is incapable of properly contextualising
the full depth of human experience. INI, and in particular, Integrated Perception
grants an immediate and deeper realisation of the connectivity of mind, life and
cosmos.
• They honour both the head and the heart, permitting rational and
intuitive ways of knowing and living to co-exist. Integrated Intelligence is not
anti-rational. It allows the full expression of the rational mind. It is true however,
that at advanced states of enlightenment, that certain cognitive abilities
associated with rational intelligence may decline. This may not be an inevitable
process, but a result of the fact that such cognitive functions are no longer
necessary, and therefore wane from lack of use.
• They permit expression of multiple cultures and worldviews, not just
dominant ones. Many of the conflicts and power plays of modern culture are
fueled by the machinations of the ego, which is predominantly a ‘selfish’ bi-
product of evolutionary processes. INI encourages the movement into presence
and in the higher stages of spiritual; development such projections naturally
dissipate, along with their associated dramas. Therefore Deep Futures are
permissive of other cultural expressions. Another question altogether is whether
other cultures are permissive of Deep Futures.
• They are deeply meaningful, not merely interesting, amusing, or engaging.
With the application of INI, the individual is able to get in touch with her soul. In
particular, as I pointed out in Sage of Synchronicity, there is a greater
recognition of Soul Issues which require addressing; and the Soul Aptitudes
(particular unique skills and abilities that the person possesses). Many people
walk through life completely unaware of either, and thus never leave the starting
blocks of the spiritual journey, nor live their Bliss.
• They permit deep connection with each other, with nature, and with inner
and spiritual worlds. Deep Futures therefore value and permit the nurturing of
stillness, patience and presence. For genuine connection can only occur when one
stops being busy, and comes to rest in the moment.
• They honour universal human values: peace, beauty, freedom, justice, and
love (including freedom of thought and information, and financial freedom).
 Some postmodern relativists argue that values are random attributes that
societies make at convenience. This is not true. INI and the higher levels of
consciousness permit a deeper awareness of the guiding presence of Spirit, and
this guidance contains definite, intrinsic values. If one acknowledges the reality of
spiritual guidance and synchronicity, then it logically follows that there are
fundamental values which Spirit espouses. Otherwise, why would Spirit bother?
• People, community and Gaia lie at the heart of the future, not merely
money and machines. Money and Machines societies tend to be neo-Darwinian,
hyper-competitive and materialistic. The profit motive typically drowns out
higher human drives and the call of Spirit. Where lives become rushed and
aggressive, human relationships suffer, and community tends to disintegrate.
Deep Futures put people and their relationships with each other and the planet
first.

The obvious question to ask then is, “How do you, the reader, initiate the journey from
here to there, from the materialism of the modern age towards Deep Futures?” Given
that most government polices and corporate agendas are about Money and Machines,
and power and control, what can you possibly do to make any difference?

At a purely individual level, the key is your personal evolution. It is almost always the
refinement of your consciousness field that will do more for your personal evolution and
that of humanity, than any specific real-world action. This is why the focus of the
journey becomes an inner one. Instead of seeing the world as ‘real’, one turns one’s
attention to the space where perception and thought arises. This is what I teach people
in my Champion of the Soul workshops. Here the Champion does not wield power over
others through the expression of his physical superiority, but through the mastery of his
own mind.

Real world actions, including Community work and social activism are not discouraged
either. As just one example, the activism of Western human rights practioners has done
much to assist in the development of modern China (though perhaps not as much as
they’d hoped). However one must be careful not to get caught up in the consciousness of
judgment and anger, which is very easy to do when one becomes an activist. Remember,
the energy of judgment destroys presence and thus reduces your consciousness field to a
lower level of expression. Thus the worthy goal of trying to make a better world may
result in a paradoxical continuation of the same consciousness that has been central to
the existence of the problem all along. Remember, it is not so much the action, but the
energy behind it that becomes crucial as one hones Integrated Intelligence. Integrated
Intelligence allows you to sense, or even measure, whether a specific action is aligned
with Spirit.

Deep Futures, as I envisage them, may not unfold in the foreseeable future, and maybe
not for thousands of years. This is because their evolution requires a considerable shift
in the consciousness level of humanity. One cannot force visions upon people, as the
many disastrous utopian projects of history tell us. Mao Ze Dong’s Great Leap Forward,
for example, ironically almost sent China back to the stone age, and resulted in the
collapse of the economy and tens of millions of deaths. The consciousness level of the
Chinese people was simply not evolved enough at that time to accommodate Mao’s
vision.

A key point to remember though, is that even utopian thinking is useful if it instills a
powerful, consciousness raising vision within the mind. The vision can implant seeds of
a better future within the oversoul of humanity. As long as the vision stays true to
universal values like love, peace and harmony, it’s energy will manifest in the long term
(though not necessarily in the precise physical form any given individual may imagine).

If a man or woman earnestly commits him/herself to the development of Integrated

Intelligence, the voice of Spirit will guide them in the general direction of Deep Futures.

The invitation is always there, for you, and for us. But don’t delay, as there is no better
time than right now to live with Spirit.

Marcus T. Anthony

***

Have you ever felt you had a greater

calling, but been unable to put your
finger on what it is?

Marcus T. Anthony’s Sage of

Synchronicity is now available. Find out
more about the book at
www.sageofsynchronicity.weebly.com .

Marcus T. Anthony’s blog about the future:

www.22cplus.blogspot.com