The New
Story of
Wholeness
Dear friends,
Some visitors will want to understand who and what is behind this project, and so here’s just a brief note of background.
The New Story of Wholeness is brought to you by the Institute of Applied Metatheory, where we work on the deep ideas, values, and technologies that can help people to see some of the profound patterns and forces that we believe are shaping the twenty-first century.
We want to equip you with the optimism and agency that comes from seeing the generative power that is building in the deep structures of the world right now.
Because for too many, it doesn’t feel that way. The unprecedented complexity of the moment has created a “metacrisis”—the co-arising, interpenetrating phenomena of ecological degradation, technological disruption, existential despair, geopolitical anarchy, and social fragmentation—which has totally and universally overwhelmed the sensemaking of our current leaders and institutions.
Our older stories—on their own—will be unable to guide us through it. People are confused and nervous, losing hope that we can make sense of the profound changes that we’re seeing.
We’re here to try to help with that. The new story you will read has emerged just as we said, with decades’ long work of thousands of extraordinary people from different walks of life. Hundreds of these experts and scholars are our friends and colleagues, and we’ve profiled some of them throughout this experience.
Their work increasingly has pointed to a new “integrative” worldview being born, which has come alive within and through millions of people who are conscious, complex, curious, and compassionate. CEOs and householders, young adults and wise elders, political leaders and artists, scientists and teachers, the New Story of Wholeness has been coming alive as a set of connected and integrated ideas about the cosmos and our place in it.
I would say it’s actually the biggest story in the world, and yet totally untold because it sits in the blindspot of our conventional social systems, including most of our institutional leaders. By definition, emerging worldviews tend to stay largely invisible right until the moment they don’t.
So we decided to try to tell that story, and do so in a way that is both accessible but also rigorous. It’s a tough balance, but hopefully it lands for you.
We’re making a big claim, so you deserve to see the full scope of why we believe it. Take your time with it. Come back as many times as you want. Grab some of the books we reference. Let the ideas and values work on the questions that are alive in your life right now, and be open to the transformation of consciousness they can produce.
We think the world has a very bright future, and every day we see that emerging consciousness is simply irrepressible. We have the power to be in the world in a way that generates thriving. The New Story of Wholeness makes the metacrisis understandable, visible, and tractable. It starts with seeing more broadly, with more depth, with greater sensitivity to what reality is trying to integrate through us—and taking that invitation seriously.
On behalf of the Institute of Applied Metatheory, Revelium Studios, IAM Foundation’s Legacy Circle, and all the incredible people who made this experience possible, thank you for being here.
Warm loving regards,
Robb Smith
Creator & Executive Producer, New Story of Wholeness
Founder & CEO, Institute of Applied Metatheory