Introduction to Integral Theory and Practice IOS Basic and the AQAL ...

complexity. The greater the consciousness, the more complex the system
housing it.
For example, in living organisms, the reptilian brain stem is accompanied by
a rudimentary interior consciousness of basic drives such as food and hunger,
physiological sensations and sensorimotor actions (everything that we earlier
called “gross,” or centered on the “me”). By the time we get to the more complex
limbic system, basic sensations have expanded and evolved to include quite
sophisticated feelings, desires, emotional-sexual impulses and needs (hence, the
beginning of what we called the subtle body, which can expand from “me” to “us”).
As evolution proceeds to even more complex physical structures, such as the
triune brain with its neocortex, consciousness once again expands to a
worldcentric awareness of “all of us” (and thus even begins to tap into what we
called the causal body.)
That is a very simple example of the fact that increasing interior
consciousness is accompanied by increasing exterior complexity of the systems
housing it. When using IOS, we often look at both the interior levels of
consciousness and the corresponding exterior levels of physical complexity, since
including both of them results in a much more balanced and inclusive approach.
We will see exactly what this means in a moment.
And Now: How Do They All Fit Together?
IOS—and the Integral Model—would be merely a “heap” if it did not suggest a
way that all of these various components are related. How do they all fit together?
It’s one thing to simply lay all the pieces of the cross-cultural survey on the table
and say, “They’re all important!,” and quite another to spot the patterns that
actually connect all the pieces. Discovering the profound patterns that connect
is a major accomplishment of the Integral Approach.
Introduction to Integral Theory and Practice. Page 22