Steering Toward the Omega Point: A Roundtable Discussion of Altruism, Evolution, and Spirituality

David Sloan Wilson is president of ProSocial World and SUNY Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Biology and Anthropology at Binghamton University. He applies evolutionary theory to all aspects of humanity in addition to the rest of life, through Prosocial World and in his own research and writing.  A complete archive of his work is available at www.David SloanWilson.world. His most recent books include his first novel, Atlas Hugged: The Autobiography of John Galt III, and a memoir, A Life Informed by Evolution.

Dr. Kurt Johnson brings an unusual pedigree to this discussion. With a PhD in evolution and ecology, hundreds of refereed scientific articles and two well known popular books in science (Nabokov’s Blues and Fine Lines) he is also a professor of comparative religion at New York’s Interfaith Seminary, a former monastic, and co-author of the influential book on world religions, The Coming Interspiritual Age. He is a prominent figure on international committees, particularly at the United Nations and, at Unity Earth, host of the VoiceAmerica series for thought leaders, The Convergence. His viewpoints are, consequently, varied and eclectic.

Barbara Marx Hubbard has been called “the voice for conscious evolution of our time” by Deepak Chopra and is the subject of Neale Donald Walsh’s book The Mother of Invention. A prolific author, visionary, social innovator and educator, she is founder of the Foundation for Conscious Evolution. Its purpose is to accelerate our conscious evolution.Currently she is developing on-line courses on conscious evolution and co-creation on the Shift Network reaching thousands of students worldwide. She is activating The Wheel of Co-creation as a model for social synergy and whole system shift, with examples developing in Cairo, Egypt, in Monterrey, Mexico, as well as in Chicago and Tampa, Florida. Her seminal book Conscious Evolution is available in an updated version. Other titles include The Hunger of Eve: One Woman’s Odyssey toward the Future and her most recent book is “Evolutionary Testament of Co-Creation: The Promise Will Be Kept, an evolutionary vision of the future inspired by the Gospels, Acts and Epistles. She is a Fellow of The Club of Budapest, and is a member of many progressive organizations, including the Evolutionary Leaders Group and the Transformational Leadership Council. She also co-founded the Association for Global New Thought (AGNT), and The World Future Society.

Zachary Stein's work (www.zakstein.org) focuses on social justice and education through the lenses of developmental psychology and integral metatheories. He studied philosophy and religion at Hampshire College, and educational neuroscience, human development, and the philosophy of education at Harvard University. While a student at Hampshire he co-founded what would become Lectica, Inc., a non-profit dedicated to the research-based, justice-oriented reform of large-scale standardized testing in K-12, higher-education, and business. Zak has published in a wide range of outlets including American Psychologist, New Ideas in Psychology, Mind, Brain, and Education, Integral Review, and the Journal of Philosophy of Education. He is the Academic Director of the activist think-tank at the Center for Integral Wisdom, and Core Faculty at Meridian University.

David Korten (www.livingeconomies.org, among others) is co-founder and board chair of YES! Magazine, co-chair of the New Economy Working Group, president of the Living Economies Forum, a member of the Club of Rome, and a former Harvard Business School professor. He is the author of numerous books, including Agenda for a New Economy: From Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth, the international best-seller, When Corporations Rule the World (updated, third edition July 2015), The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community; and, most recently, Change the Story, Change the Future: A Living Economy for a Living Earth.

Rev. Mac Legerton is Coordinator of the Eco-Ministry Initiative of the Interspiritual Network and Forum 21 Institute on the national level (www.selfcaretoearthcare.com). He is Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Center for Community Action in rural N.C., focusing on sustainability, poverty reduction, and social justice. Rev. Legerton is a Christian contemplative and leader in the Guild for Spiritual Guidance and Windcall Institute. He is the 2007 recipient of the Distinguished Service to Rural Life Award from the Rural Sociological Society. He is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ and a graduate of Union Theological Seminary in New York.

Kevin Brabazon is the main United Nations Representative for Generations United (www.gu.org) - which serves in an advisory capacity to the Economic and Social Council and an Associate Professor at New York University, teaching in statistics, information technology, and management science. He is a professor in intergenerational studies at Dowling College and an editor of Intergenerational Approaches in Aging: Implications for Education, Policy and Practice and author of other publications in the intergenerational and economics fields. He was involved in developing intergenerational services at NYC Department for the Aging for several years, and a USA network of services for grandparents raising grandchildren for the Brookdale Foundation.

Doug King is an author, speaker, and President of Presence International (www.presence.tv), an Integral Theology think tank revisioning the role of spirituality for the common good. Doug (originally a graduate of conventional theological and biblical schools, and graduate study in biblical languages) also serves on the Advisory Board for Forum 21, a forum of UN NGO's visioning Century 21.

Mike Morrell, an influential blogger in progressive religion, serves as Communications Director for Presence International (www.presence.tv). Through the internet platform "Speakeasy", Mike has cultivated a hive of over 1,000 avid spirituality and culture bloggers who cross-pollinate quality books and ideas on the work and future of religions. Mike, also an author coach and publishing consultant, is also a founding organizer of the justice-, arts-, and spirituality-oriented Wild Goose Festival.

With 22 books on spirituality and science, that have been translated in more than 25 countries, Ken Wilber (www.kenwilber.com, among others) is now the most translated writer on consciousness studies in the world. His debut The Spectrum of Consciousness (1977) established his reputation as an original thinker, who seeks to integrate Western and Eastern thought, and science and the world’s spiritual traditions. No Boundary (1979), which summarizes this work, is one of his most popular books. His core works The Atman Project (1980) and Up from Eden (1981) cover the territories of developmental psychology and cultural history respectively. In his recent work, especially the voluminous Sex, Ecology, Spirituality (1995), he has criticized not only Western culture, but also counter-cultural movements such as the New Age. In his opinion, none of these approach the depth and detailed nature of the "perennial philosophy", the conception of reality that lies at the heart of all major religions, and which forms the background of all his writings. This fundamental work has been summarized too, in A Brief History of Everything, one of his most widely read books.