Rufus dives into the life story of the one and only Layman Pascal: exploring his unique childhood, what he found in Wilber’s Integral, his relationship to intentional communities and what it means to live beyond a post-modern world.

About the episode:

In this interview with Layman Pascal and Rufus Pollock, Layman recounts his upbringing and the unique childhood in the Canadian Pacific Northwest that disposed him to become one of the metamodern scenes most interesting thinkers. Layman delves into the experience of the post-modern milieu of the late 1990s and efforts to find ways beyond it. They explore the value and limits of Ken Wilber's integral and the formation of his approach to dialogue and community in 'The Integral Stage' project. He closes envisioning precisely what's needed to move beyond culture war dynamics.

Chapters:

04:43 Layman’s childhood in the Canadian Pacific Northwest

15:00 From college to living in Belize

16:48 Early Spiritual Teachers

27:00 Layman’s experience of the Post-Modern and Post-Post Modern

35:00 Story of Ken Wilber, Integral and The Integral Stage

45:24 going beyond post-modernism

52:53 Rufus’s View on Integral

57:50 Integralist vs Integralites

1:02:00 What Layman looks for in communities

1:08 Culture War & What we need to build coherence

Speakers

Layman Pascal was incarnated on a remote island in the Pacific Northwest. He used to be a meditation teacher, yoga instructor & public speaker—but he’s feeling much better now. He is a writer on themes of cultural philosophy, shamanism and organic spiritual development.

www.laymanpascal.substack.com/

Rufus Pollock is an entrepreneur, activist and author as well as a long-term zen practitioner. He is passionate about finding wiser, weller ways to live together. He has founded several for-profit and nonprofit initiatives including Life Itself, Open Knowledge Foundation, and Datopian. His book Open Revolution is about making a radically freer and fairer information age. Previously he has been the Mead Fellow in Economics at the University of Cambridge as well as a Shuttleworth and Ashoka Fellow. A recognized global expert on the information society, he has worked with G7 governments, IGOs like the UN, Fortune 500s as well as many civil society organizations. He holds a PhD in Economics and a double first in Mathematics from the University of Cambridge.

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