Allan Combs (born 1942) is an American psychologist and parapsychologist who attempts to combine his ideas of consciousness and systems theory.
Allan Combs (born 1942) is an American psychologist and parapsychologist who attempts to combine his ideas of consciousness and systems theory.
Combs attended Ohio University in the early 1960s, first studying physics and then switching to psychology. During these studies, he overcame impediments due to dyslexia, something he later noted would influence his thinking about psychology. [1] : 178
He then restarted his graduate education in clinical psychology at the University of Georgia, and at the same time started taking courses and doing research on single-cell recordings of neurons, and mathematically modeled their activity on early versions of the computer. [1] : 179 Through this time he was reading Carl Jung, European phenomenology, Eastern spirituality Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, and John C. Lilly; he also participated in gestalt therapy and human potentials workshops. [1] : 179
After graduating he taught biology and psychology for a year at Earlham College in Indiana, then for about a decade at a small college in Missouri. While he was there he read Charles Tart and was inspired by his application of systems theory to psychology. In the early 1980s he moved to a college in North Carolina. [1] : 180 In the mid-1990s he started corresponding and then collaborating with David Loye, [2] who invited Combs to join a group formed around the ideas of Ervin László. [1] : 183 Reading László furthered his interests in systems and consciousness and he was soon invited to join László's General Evolutionary Research Group. In 1989 Combs learned of the work of Frederick Abraham, who was beginning to meld chaos theory and psychology, and worked with him to found The Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology and the Life Sciences. [1] : 185 [3]
As of 2020 Combs held appointments at the California Institute of Integral Studies, [4] where he built the program in consciousness studies in 2015,[ citation needed ] and The Graduate Institute in Connecticut. [5] He also was Professor Emeritus at the University of North Carolina-Asheville. [6]
As of 2020 he had authored over 200 articles, chapters, and books on consciousness and the brain. [7] Much of his work has been accomplished in collaboration with colleagues Ervin Laszlo [8] [9] and Stanley Krippner. [10] [11] He is also known for his collaboration with Ken Wilber. [12] [13]
He is the founder, Academic Advisor, and President Emeritus of The Society for Consciousness Studies,[ citation needed ] co-founder of The Laszlo Institute of New Paradigm Research [14] and a member of the one-hundred member Club of Budapest. [7] He is the Senior Editor of Consciousness: Ideas and Research for the Twenty First Century, [15] co-editor of the Journal of Conscious Evolution, [16] Associate Editor of Dynamical Psychology. [17]
Combs won the National Teaching Award of the Association of Graduate Liberal Studies Programs for 2002/2003 and in the same year held the UNCA Honorary Ruth and Leon Feldman Professorship. [4]
Consciousness, at its simplest, is awareness of internal and external existence. However, its nature has led to millennia of analyses, explanations and debate by philosophers, theologians, and all of science. Opinions differ about what exactly needs to be studied or even considered consciousness. In some explanations, it is synonymous with the mind, and at other times, an aspect of mind. In the past, it was one's "inner life", the world of introspection, of private thought, imagination and volition. Today, it often includes any kind of cognition, experience, feeling or perception. It may be awareness, awareness of awareness, or self-awareness either continuously changing or not. The disparate range of research, notions and speculations raises a curiosity about whether the right questions are being asked.
Systems theory is the transdisciplinary study of systems, i.e. cohesive groups of interrelated, interdependent components that can be natural or artificial. Every system has causal boundaries, is influenced by its context, defined by its structure, function and role, and expressed through its relations with other systems. A system is "more than the sum of its parts" by expressing synergy or emergent behavior.
Kenneth Earl Wilber II is an American theorist and writer on transpersonal psychology and his own integral theory, a four-quadrant grid which purports to encompass all human knowledge and experience.
Transpersonal psychology, or spiritual psychology, is an area of psychology that seeks to integrate the spiritual and transcendent aspects of the human experience within the framework of modern psychology.
Andrew Cohen is an American spiritual teacher. He is an author, former editor of What Is Enlightenment? magazine, and founder of the global spiritual community EnlightenNext, which dissolved in 2013.
Collective consciousness, collective conscience, or collective conscious is the set of shared beliefs, ideas, and moral attitudes which operate as a unifying force within society. In general, it does not refer to the specifically moral conscience, but to a shared understanding of social norms.
Sex, Ecology, Spirituality: The Spirit of Evolution is a 1995 book by integral philosopher Ken Wilber. Wilber intended it to be the first volume of a series called The Kosmos Trilogy, but subsequent volumes were never produced. The German edition of Sex, Ecology, Spirituality was entitled Eros, Kosmos, Logos: Eine Jahrtausend-Vision. The book has been both highly acclaimed by some authors and harshly criticized by others.
Erich Jantsch was an Austrian-born American astrophysicist, engineer, educator, author, consultant and futurist, especially known for his work in the social systems design movement in Europe in the 1970s.
Integral yoga, sometimes also called supramental yoga, is the yoga-based philosophy and practice of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. Central to Integral yoga is the idea that Spirit manifests itself in a process of involution, meanwhile forgetting its origins. The reverse process of evolution is driven toward a complete manifestation of spirit.
Haridas Chaudhuri was an Indian integral philosopher. He was a correspondent with Sri Aurobindo and the founder of the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS).
Systems philosophy is a discipline aimed at constructing a new philosophy by using systems concepts. The discipline was first described by Ervin Laszlo in his 1972 book Introduction to Systems Philosophy: Toward a New Paradigm of Contemporary Thought. It has been described as the "reorientation of thought and world view ensuing from the introduction of "systems" as a new scientific paradigm".
Ervin László is a Hungarian philosopher of science, systems theorist, integral theorist, originally a classical pianist. He is an advocate of the theory of quantum consciousness.
Jorge N. Ferrer is a US-based Spanish psychologist who wrote about the applications of participatory theory to transpersonal psychology, religious studies, integral education, and sexuality and intimate relationships.
Integral theory is a synthetic metatheory developed by Ken Wilber. It attempts to place a wide diversity of theories and models into one single framework. The basis is a "spectrum of consciousness," from archaic consciousness to ultimate spirit, presented as a developmental model. This model is based on development stages as described in structural developmental stage theories; various psychic and supernatural experiences; and models of spiritual development. In Wilber's later framework, the AQAL model, it is extended with a grid with four quadrants, synthesizing various theories and models of individual psychological and spiritual development, of collective mutations of consciousness, and of levels or holons of neurological functioning and societal organisation, in a metatheory in which all academic disciplines and every form of knowledge and experience are supposed to fit together.
Alexander Laszlo (*1964) is a polycultural systems scientist, currently residing in Argentina.
Conscious evolution refers to the theoretical ability of human beings to be conscious participants in the evolution of their cultures, or even of the entirety of human society, based on a relatively recent combination of factors, including increasing awareness of cultural and social patterns, reaction against perceived problems with existing patterns, injustices, inequities, and other factors. The realization that cultural and social evolution can be guided through conscious decisions has been in increasing evidence since approximately the mid-19th century, when the rate of change globally began to increase dramatically. The Industrial Revolution, reactions against the effects of the Industrial Revolution, the emergence of new sciences such as psychology, anthropology, and sociology, the revolution in global communication, the interaction of diverse cultures through transportation and colonization, anti-slavery and suffrage movements, and increasing lifespan all would contribute to the growing awareness of social and cultural patterns as being potentially subject to conscious evolution.
Dana Klisanin is a psychologist, futurist, and game designer. She is known for her research and writing in the field of digital altruism, and the impact of the digital era on heroism.
Spiral Dynamics (SD) is a model of the evolutionary development of individuals, organizations, and societies. It was initially developed by Don Edward Beck and Christopher Cowan based on the emergent cyclical theory of Clare W. Graves, combined with memetics as proposed by Richard Dawkins and further developed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. A later collaboration between Beck and Ken Wilber produced Spiral Dynamics Integral (SDi). Several variations of Spiral Dynamics continue to exist, both independently and incorporated into or drawing on Wilber's Integral theory. In addition to influencing both integral theory and metamodernism, Spiral Dynamics has applications in management theory and business ethics, and as an example of applied memetics.
David Elliot Loye was an American author, psychologist, and evolutionary systems scientist.
The Society for Consciousness Studies (SCS) is a professional scholarly organization founded in San Francisco. The Society aims to promote a multidisciplinary approach to human and animal consciousness studies. Allan Combs is the founder and president, and founding members of SCS include Combs, Imants Barušs, Julie Mossbridge, Jeffrey A. Martin, Ben Goertzel, Stephen A. Schwartz, Chris Fields, Laurel McCormick, Stanley Krippner, Carolyn Cooke, Frank Echenhofer, Jayne Gackenbach, Eugene Taylor, Etzel Cardeña, Zoran Josipovic, James Clement van Pelt, and Kate Noble.
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