To See With
Fresh Eyes:
Integral
Futures and
the Global
Emergency
Brisbane, Foresight International, 2012
Looking back to look forward
To See with Fresh Eyes (TSWFE) was and remains
the record of a journey. A journey in space from a
working-class home in Portsmouth, UK, to Bermuda,
back to the UK and then finally to Australia. It’s also
been a life journey of experience and developing
insight. I’ve never traveled alone. I’ve always
been clear that this journey could not have taken
place without the inspiration and support of many
other people. I pay tribute to some of them in the
introduction to this book.
Looking back what stands out to me is the compressed power of the
three main subjects of the title: fresh eyes, Integral futures, and global
emergency. Taking them in reverse, humanity has certainly fallen deeper
than ever into what I’ve often referred to as a ‘trap of its own making.’ This
is not a popular view, so it is almost universally denied or avoided. But the
evidence keeps getting clearer, stronger, all the time. Back in 2010, I’d
initially presented the evidence as I saw it in The Biggest Wake-Up Call
in History. 1 I returned to the subject later in a 2015 article for Futures that
drew on a wide range of reliable sources. 2 So the generic ‘failed future’
remains a dark backdrop to my work. But the effect that it has is not
to make me feel depressed but, rather, to provide enduring motivation
and purpose. Similarly, with Integral futures, the early days of exploration
and excitement steadily gave way to the sober application and wiser,
more informed use. The rise of Integral thinking and methods is by no
means universal, but over the last decade, it has been widely validated
and applied. 3 Thanks to those who understand it and apply it with due
care, it now appears in the mental maps and work of many futurists and
others around the world. Finally, the notion of seeing with ‘fresh eyes’ is a
notion that’s not particularly easy to pin down or define but neither does
it become dated or less valuable. It sometimes emerges when you least
expect it. The key thing, perhaps, is to be ever on the lookout for new
sources of inspiration and insight. They are indeed plentiful once you know
where, and how to look. 4
RICHARD A. SLAUGHTER
28
M AY 2 0 1 8
Several years ago I was invited to speak at Womad - a popular bi-annual
music festival held in the Adelaide parklands. I was on a small panel with
two others and Robyn Williams as chair. The topic of our session was
‘reinventing society.’ It was during this session that Williams asked me
if there’d been any new developments in futures methods over the last
20 years. Which was an ideal opportunity to say that, yes, while good
foundational work had been carried out 20 or more years ago much of it
had been concerned with tracking and understanding external change.
Now, with the help of Integral and related perspectives, we were at least
as interested in the pervasive influence of the human and cultural interiors.
HUMAN FUTURES
29