The Philosophy of Integration: Start Here!
The Philosophy of Integration is a framework that describes human experience using cause and effect.
It is not based on religion, morality, spirituality, or any other existing belief system. It does not prescribe outcomes nor does it determine right and wrong. It works on the neutral idea that if there is a cause there will be an effect. I can talk and you can ignore me. The cause is me saying something. The effect is being ignored. Both things are neutral when they exist outside of human perception and belief.
Human perception is the thing that makes any cause and effect non-neutral. Hurricanes don’t have opinions but they can cause significant problems for the people they affect. The hurricane is a neutral part of nature until it is perceived by or impacts a human being.
The framework is not designed to correct or change our perception of experience. It attempts to identify how and where human narrative, explanation, belief, or meaning-making overlay the experience. How do those things affect the natural sequence of cause and effect already in motion?
The framework identifies a sequence of cause, effect, awareness, and choice that every human being uses to interpret and interact with their experience.
The cause is the event itself.
The effect is the automatic internal thoughts and feelings a person has in response to their experience. These are not under our conscious control.
The awareness is the first moment the conscious mind allows us to process our experience.
The choice is what we do based on our awareness of and the effect of the cause.
New chain sequences interact with every other existing chain sequence. The framework refers to this as Relational Loop Theory. Nothing happens in isolation. Our awareness and choice are affected by beliefs, previous experience, current experience, mood and stress levels. Those things are pre-existing causal chains or sequences that affect how we perceive the new chain.
There is no judgment of whether the chain should or should not exist. Every event has a cause. The effect of that cause is logical when the cause is understood through a neutral lens. Logical effects are not the same as wanted effects. What people want and don’t want is based on human emotion and preference.
Our preferred outcome has no effect on the outcome of the causal sequence. A hurricane doesn’t care that you don’t want it to hit your house. The outcome of the hurricane is logical given existing weather patterns, water temperature, and so on. The logical outcome is not always preferred, but it is logical in the context of cause and effect.
Every single experience across human history, when looked at through this lens, can be explained logically. It doesn’t make those experiences any more or less horrific, it just separates the cause and effect sequence from the human interpretation of it.
Unlike most existing belief systems, trauma is not left outside the system as an anomaly. Human life shows us that trauma is just part of the human experience, therefore it can and should be explained through cause and effect. When the cause is traumatic it slows down the sequence.
The cause is the event itself.
The effect is the automatic thoughts, feelings, or physical effects that occur. This could be a fight or flight response, post-traumatic stress disorder, or other emotional, mental, or physical effects or injuries. All of these things are outside of our conscious control.
Awareness is the first opportunity for conscious thought. However, if there are lasting emotional, mental, or physical effects, our awareness is delayed or not available at all.
Choice is delayed until awareness is restored.
The chain essentially hangs or pauses until awareness and choice are available. An example of this would be somebody in an abusive relationship for years that decides, seemingly out of the blue, to leave. Awareness and choice stalled until the person gained just enough awareness that allowed them to make the choice to leave.
Awareness only needed to be present briefly for the person to make a conscious choice. The chain will pause until the person does so or until life ends, whichever happens first.
Most of us have chains that are paused or hanging because we don’t have the mental awareness or ability to deal with them. We have experiences in our lives that we have been unable to work through. That is a paused or hung chain because awareness is not yet available. No choice has been made.
Those stalled chains continue to effect present experience. Just because we’re not acting on a given chain, doesn’t mean it’s not having an effect. We think we’re isolating it because in some cases we’re just ignoring it, but in truth it continues to affect our every day life. Ignored chains can and do impact other chains.
Every single experience we have creates a chain that is impacted by other already existing chains. Chains are opened and closed depending on experiences and outcomes. The framework fully explains how causal chains work and how human interpretation, belief, and meaning-making affect those chains.
These are the fundamental concepts of the The Philosophy of Integration framework. What will follow in subsequent posts is a shorter, more accessible explanation of the framework for those that are curious but don’t want a new project.
You can find the entire framework here.
Della