Enantiodromia and Integrality: The Rhythm of the Cultural Continuum

We have arrived at a critical point in the cultural continuum and in the evolution of consciousness. This fact invites a re-visioning of the K-12 education curriculum to emphasize the continuum of culture and incorporate the concept of the evolution of consciousness via the processes of enantiodromia and integrality. Enantiodromia depicts a wave-like pattern that challenges the description of the cultural continuum as linear, historical and progressive, describing instead a dynamic, rhythmic process where things transform into their opposites. Integrality depicts a structure of consciousness defined by the cultural historian Jean Gebser as representing the next step in the evolution of consciousness. Each of Gebser’s unfolding structures of consciousness is significant in terms of ontological development. Integrality, the next phase in this development, describes an evolution in consciousness as well as a transformation in the cultural continuum. It can be equated to what Carl Jung described psychologically as the process of individuation. Together, individuation and integrality give form to the next phase in the evolution of consciousness