Learn Integral by Watching Movies (And Playing Video Games!)

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Hey everyone, here is a new resource page I created, taking the multiple film and game clips from our episodes of Inhabit and putting them all together in one interactive place. Have a look, and if so inclined, share with your social networks!

Take a cinematic journey through the major stages of human development, using a series of 22 carefully-curated film clips (and more than 30 video games) to illustrate some of the most important qualities of each stage.

Because these stages are so difficult to point to in our immediate experience, we’ve compiled a series of short clips from some very popular films and games, each of which demonstrates some aspect of that stage — the view from that stage, the values of that stage, or the general leadership styles associated with that stage — offering some well-known cultural reference points to help flesh out our understanding of these stages of growth and development. What’s more, these clips will help demonstrate how integral ideas can be applied to any medium or genre, and help deepen our appreciation and enactment of our most treasured cultural artifacts.

As you watch, try to remember: all of this is actually happening inside of you. You may be viewing these film clips on a screen in front of you, but the stages we explore here are all alive within you right now, either as capacities you’ve already developed or as potentials that are waiting to be unleashed. The Witness itself is the ultimate movie screen — the effortless, simple feeling of being behind all of our perceptions. All of this is just a fleeting dance of light, sound, and shadow projected within your consciousness against that empty, all-pervasive awareness.

Note: The films and characters below are typically far too complex to be described by a single stage, which is why the qualities below are only being applied to the specific film clips included in each section, and not to the rest of the film, character arc, or filmmaker’s perspective. We are not, for example, saying Lord of the Rings is a “magenta movie”, as it includes multiple combinations of views, values, and ideas from multiple different stages.

Meanwhile, for the video game examples we used three separate categories for our analysis — a) the surface content and world-building of the game, b) the general themes and storytelling perspectives, and c) the gameplay mechanics themselves, which roughly correlate to views, values, and cognition.

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I’m trying to place the Elder Scrolls, lol.

There is magic, so of course there is a huge literal mythic storyline to it.

But the storyline isn’t clear good vs bad - nor is it relativist either. Your Hero does stuff that might turn out good or bad in the end - or many times both choices are bad.
For example, in one quest a performer wants the hero to find ancient spirits with knowledge about the secrets of comedy. The hero discovers that these spirits take comedy deadly serious and giving the quest giver this knowledge will result in his death. The Hero has to make a decision - a) lie to the quest giver and say there was no knowledge in the ruins, and leave his dreams unfulfilled. Basically “save” the quest giver from himself or b) allow the quest giver to fulfill his ultimate dream and learn the ultimate secret to comedy, but die.
Many quest lines has this kind of multilayered moral choice.

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Great stuff, Integral Life, and great idea to break the videos down into shorter segments.

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Now would be an appropriate time to do “Dune”.
Unfortunately spoilers would be necessary to adequately discuss it.

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Start a new thread, and mark it for spoilers!

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Netflix Series Damnation might cover half a dozen Integral Stages of Development. It’s a mind bender well worth watching.

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I was reading a article posted (see article below) by our most prolific poster, and while reading it I was reminded of a computer game that was popular in the late 1990’s - Sid Meyer’s Civlization.

I was reminded of it because there seems to b a kind of worship of the United States Republic as the best form of government possible for all time forevermore. Then I started thinking how prophetic this game is as events unfolded in 2020.

In the game Civilization, the player is in “God Mode” and creates a Civilization that advances from the stone age to the space age and beyond and competes against either AI or human competing civilizations. You can win by either Reaching Alpha Centauri (peaceful) or killing all other Civilizations (obviously not peaceful).

One of the earliest forms of government a civilization can learn is “The Republic”, and it’s bonuses outweigh its drawbacks up to about the early modern period. After the Early modern period, Democracy is best for advancing Civilization peacefully while Fanaticism or Communism is best for conquest by warfare. In the game if running a Democracy, you can be overruled by the Senate and forced into a peace treaty, while in a Republic you can “overrule the Senate”, lol. But the Democracy is far superior in generating revenues, production and technology than the Republic.
It’s a game of course and doesn’t address the full spectrum of reality, but it is true that a Republic is only “kind of” a Democracy, but it is even less “kind of” a Dictatorship. One thing is clear is that the Republic is a hybrid, and like all hybrids, does nothing well but most things “ok”. The Republic is a compromise.
What this article and the Right are usually opposed to is moving The Republic into a true Democracy. This is where new Conservatives part ways with old Conservatives. Old Conservatives through most of my lifetime wanted to preserve “The Republic”, while New Conservatives (even though they mostly won’t admit it) want either a Dictatorship - the most primitive and inefficient form of Government in all areas of developing a Civilization, or Fanaticism - only really useful in prolonged warfare / conquest and only after reaching a higher technology than opponents.
What the Right are going to find out is that their Dictatorship or Fanaticism under Trump post 2024 will be completely unable to function in all areas as civil unrest breaks out in city after city after city - reducing production and tax revenues in an already strained system. Since the only tool in his toolbox is bullying through force, this will lead to increasing unrest.

Anyone else ever play Civ and been in that situation trying to keep a Republic going but city after city erupts in anarchy but you don’t have the infrastructure to keep the citizens happy in a Democracy - so you move to Communism? lol

If you want an analogy to where we are in the US right now, pick up a game of Civilization II.

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I have nothing substantial to add, other than to say that the Civilization series is still going on strong, and we are currently up to Civilization 6 :slight_smile:

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Sounds as if you think the computer game Civilization is proof enough to scrap the Republic and go with a simple Majority Rules Democratic system?

Hansen does a pretty good job here weighting the individual / collective rights pros and cons, which the US Founders comprehended in founding the US.

Enjoy!

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Where did I say this?
You really have a strong straw man problem combined with an absolutist “all or nothing” mindset.

Besides, no I didn’t even say the United States can even go to a Democracy if it was “in the game”, even if it wanted to. I actually said IN THE GAME, in a similar situation where the USA started going in 2020 and will return to if Trump regains office - Communism would be the only alternative if reality mirrored the game.

Democracy requires more infrastructure to create happy citizens than a Republic. A second option would be if I wanted and had the ability to wipe the board of all other players, then I would pick Fanatacism.

Also what I said is that straight up the worst Direction is Dictatorship - where the Republican Party is headed since 2016, and more strongly since 2020.

Individual vs collective rights is belief. Like I said in another post - good for a tear jerking ending to a Star Trek Movie but other than that - it’s just people’s opinion which should have more weight and where the balance is.

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I briefly checked the online rankings of the versions and it seems opinions differ if IV of V is the best. I might try out IV and see how the AI has changed. One thing that discouraged me from these kinds of games is that the AI kind of hit a stone wall in the 1990’s but I haven’t looked into any of them in the past 5 years.

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Personally I prefer Civ 2 of all the versions. I’ve tried 4 and 5, but eventually went to Frreeciv (4.7? Maybe) as its closest to 2.
The later versions just seem to add more movie battles, which slows game play.

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Civ V (with all the DLC) is commonly seen as the best, but I also enjoy VI. Going from a square grid to hex was a big deal, so they both beat 4 in my book :slight_smile:

AI is still pretty notoriously bad. Loads better than it was in the 90s, but still pretty rough. But I kinda suck at the game after all these years so I still tend to get rolled :slight_smile:

There’s a new 4X game that twists the formula a bit, called Humanity. Needs a few more upgrades or DLC to catch up with a Civ, but it’s solid. Battles are much more interesting in H than in Civ, I think.

@FermentedAgave I am not sure what you mean by “movie battles”? I don’t seem to remember cut scenes or anything in the game, but maybe you mean something else!

Over and out, back to Halo for me!

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I played freeciv a few times in a large multiplayer games. I also played it way back when I was messing around with Linux around 2000-2008.

Freeciv web has servers set up and dozens of players join and the turns are once a day. It’s really interesting to play against good human opponents. My first game I tried doing my standard aggressive start against my neighbor and plowed through him, but then my other neighbors rolled up my rear. Against the computer AI there is usually more leeway.
https://www.freecivweb.org/

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Understandably - Crimson tier seems to not have much in the way of entertainment listed in the article. I think (thankfully) a lot of society is completely unfamiliar with Crimson (archaic) survival level, and audiences tend to walk away emotionally disturbed and even angry “how dare they make such a movie”.

Most movies with crimson level themes depict only a short period of individual or contained crisis. Examples are “Castaway”, more visceral War Movies like “Hamburger Hill” and so on. The difference between these movies and an actual Crimson world is that in our movies at some point the Crimson is resolved. The exception to this are the various Apocalypse or Doomsday “The World is Ending” movies and games.

I think many actual Crimson tier Movies have been banned. Yes, they are also unpleasant to watch and usually trashy, like “Cannibal Holocaust”. It’s difficult to give audiences a true Crimson Experience that hits them in the “gut”, so to speak. Probably the most well-done of such movies that I have seen is “Irreversible”.

I can’t say I actually “like” to watch these kinds of movies - but there is an element that interests me in that I get to take a peek at how my brain-body reacts to such themes.

There is actually a whole category of games out there in the Genre “Survival”, and an element is added to these games when they are “Massive Multiplayer” because you have thousands of people acting out their shadows and worst natures in such these survival games. Games like RUST actually allow under 18 so you can even interact with the baser nature of 12 year olds (I don’t, lol). Such games also tend to attract what are referred to as “toxic people”, and “rage quit” is a term that was coined for someone who get so mad at a game that they quit playing it when the reality of losing steamrolls their inflated ego that was built up by other more forgiving game genres. The game I played most in this Genre was Conan Exiles, which makes the movies starring Arnold as Conan seem like a fairy land.

All in all - I would recommend Integral people to “dip their toe” into these games. It’s fascinating to not just observe people behaving at their worst, but also to observe one’s own mind-body interacting with others in this environment, then trying to rise above judgments and emotions and say to oneself “It is only game” (in a fake accent, lol - that’s an inside joke).

Games in this Genre (most I haven’t played):
RUST
Conan Exiles
Day Z
Valheim
Life is Feudal
Scum
The Long Dark

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I think the recent movie “The Father” with Anthony Hopkins playing a character with dementia has crimson elements to it. His sense of self, and reality, is fused with his living environment. While there are glimpses of his formally rational “strive drive,” losing his bearings, his mental capacities–which is obvious to observers, but not (initially) to him–is the theme, and while his physical survival is not threatened through lack of food and such, the deterioration of mind leads to greater and greater dependence, towards infantilism. An achingly beautiful story, creatively produced, with a great actor.

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I ran across this yesterday, but I’ve never played it: