The Big Integrity Movement

[GliderGuider]

The Big Integrity Movement

The Big Integrity movement is about to burst onto the scene. A google search for "Big Integrity" today (October 2009) produced 515 results. I predict that by January 2011, googling "Big Integrity" will result in tens of thousands of references. Within five years, the results will be in the millions.

How can I be so sure? Because what I'm calling "the Big Integrity movement" includes everyone who is either working toward a better understanding of the nature of reality or helping humanity come into right relationship with reality. The movement encompasses the countless individuals and organizations around the world committed to ushering our species into greater alignment with objective and subjective truth—with the way things really are. Currently, of course, most of us don't see ourselves as part of a unified whole or worldwide movement. This will change...soon, I predict. In fact, the shift has already begun.

Paul Hawken points to what I'm calling "the Big Integrity movement" in his book, "Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Social Movement in History is Restoring Grace, Justice, and Beauty to the World." His WiserEarth website is designed to help people within this movement learn about and connect with one another. Sociologist Paul Ray and psychologist Sherry Ruth Anderson refer to the more than 50 million Americans who identify with Big Integrity values as "Cultural Creatives".

Big Integrity is the art and science of coming into right relationship with Reality and supporting others in doing the same. It can be spoken of as "getting right with God," but religious language is not necessary and may in some circles be counterproductive, given the fact that so many people still have trivial, unnatural views of the divine. (Indeed, atheist scientists such as PZ Myers and Richard Dawkins are playing traditionally prophetic roles in this process when they speak on behalf of reality.) Thus, I prefer thinking of Big Integrity simply as "being in right relationship with Reality"—both objective reality: the actual, physical Universe that dozens of scientific disciplines help us understand, and subjective reality: the inner realm of meaning, values, inspiration, and interpretation that has historically been the focus of religion, psychology, and spirituality.

As an atheist who is discovering personal value in the deeper meaning of the word "sacred", this perspective is one that resonates with me. I've been aware of Hawkens' book "Blessed Unrest" for a couple of years, and I think it points to a growing global response to the converging crisis of industrial civilization -- a response that is non-theistic but contains an appreciation of the universal interconnectedness that some perceive as spiritual.

I don't like this name for the phenomenon, "Big Integrity" seems clumsy, superficial and marketing-oriented. I prefer David Korten's term "The Great Turning". or something even simpler like "The Awakening".