Evolutionary Theory
An Esalen Invitational Conference
October 5 to 10, 2003

Conference Introduction and Overview
Frank Poletti

The Esalen Center for Theory and Research’s (CTR’s) annual Evolutionary Theory conference met for the fifth time during the first week of October 2003. The conference was co-facilitated by philosopher and corporate scenario futurist Jay Ogilvy and UC Santa Cruz research bio-chemist David Deamer.

The roster of participants they pulled together for the 2003 gathering included:

Journalist and author of Emergence Steven Johnson
Philosopher of consciousness Evan Thompson
Anthropologist and neuroscientist Terrence Deacon
Biologist and complexity theorist Stuart Kauffman
Italian philosopher of science Telmo Pievani
William James scholar and ethicist Ellen Suckiel
Theologian and philosopher Phil Clayton
Evolutionary epistemologist and author Jeremy Sherman
Author and corporate consultant Michael Lissack
Consciousness and parapsychology researcher Marilyn Schlitz
Zen Buddhist Abbot Richard Baker Roshi
Esalen co-founder and Chairman Michael Murphy
Gestalt psychologist and author Gordon Wheeler
Graduate student and CTR Coordinator Frank Poletti
Esalen staff member Jake Keenan
Philanthropists Al and Lydia Dugan

Full biographies for many of these participants can be found in the Leading Scholars section of the this website.

Conference Overview

This conference was originally conceived by Michael Murphy, Jay Ogilvy, and David Deamer more than five years ago to tackle the immense task of bringing together in the spirit of conciliance three broadly empirical groups:

1) the physical sciences;
2) the biological sciences;
3) the noetic sciences (the sciences of interior states of consciousness, particularly those reported by the world’s mystical and meditative traditions).

The goal was to see what light could be shed on the grand story of the evolution of the universe by looking at it from the vantage points of these three knowledge systems. At different times, participants in this series have called it an attempt to inquire into "evolution writ large" or "the evolution of everything." One short description of this conference series that has been used to describe it to the general public reads as follows:

A comprehensive narrative describing the origin, development, and fate of our cosmos and the role of human evolution within it is indispensable for any vision of higher human purpose. Mainstream academia tends to ignore the broad sweep of our evolutionary heritage and the human potential for further evolution. This conference aims at a broader conciliance between the physical, biological, and noetic sciences and seeks to articulate the common principles of our continuing evolutionary story.

With this broad vision in mind, the first full conference in this series (there was an initial planning weekend retreat before it started) convened in November 1999, and it has met every year since then. During that time there have been presentations from a vast array of fields and disciplines that span the academic map. Here is a list of the scholars that have given presentations between 1999 and 2003:

From physics and cosmology:George Sudarshan, Tony Rothman, Chris Adami, and Eric Chaisson;

From the biological, medical, or genetic sciences: David Deamer, Peter Gogarten, Elisabet Sahtouris, Zann Gill, Christopher Wills, Stuart Kauffman, George Solomon, and Peter Corning;

From psychology or sociology:Gordon Wheeler, Don Beck, Eiko Ikegami, Jenny Wade, and Robert Kegan;

From anthropology:William Calvin and Terrence Deacon;

From ethology:Lori Marino;

From the humanities and philosophy:Jay Ogilvy, Mark Taylor, Ellen Suckiel, Owen Flanagan, David Ray Griffin, and Telmo Pievani;

From the field of consciousness studies:Marilyn Schlitz, Evan Thompson, and Peter Russell;

From religious studies or practicing spiritual traditions: Anindita Balslev, Richard Baker Roshi, and Michael Murphy;

From journalism:George Leonard, Robert Wright, Steven Johnson, and John Horgan;

From corporate consulting and cultural applications:Michael Lissack and Jeremy Sherman.

As the fifth meeting opened on a bright Monday morning in early October 2003, Jay Ogilvy commented that this annual conference series was itself mirroring the way Darwinian evolution works: the series had undergone a four-year phase of profligate variation and now in this fifth meeting, it was time for some ruthless selection—and of two things in particular: 1) the best presenters who have attended these meetings over the years, and 2) the most recurrent themes that have been discussed during that time.

As he reflected on the journey of the past five years, Ogilvy said that a shift had become apparent to him in the way he holds this conference’s mission and guiding vision. At first, a more ambitious (and perhaps naïve) mandate guided these meetings, which was something akin to the following:

But Ogilvy pointed out that the original conception of this conference series may be guilty of adhering to the sort of out-dated paradigmatic thinking that it really should be challenging in the first place, namely linear or "monological" thinking (see below for a longer description of what is meant by "monological"). So, in its place Ogilvy suggested it was time to venture a new conceptual framework and guiding vision for this conference series. Something which would look more like this:

In this schematic description, there is much less pretension that evolution is necessarily headed (ala Teilhard de Chardin) toward a pre-determined Omega Point of universal Enlightenment. Instead, this diagram conveys the notion that there is an inter-dependent and co-defining quality to the terms emergence, evolution, and consciousness (which have been the core themes of this conference series). And as for Enlightenment? Well, if the conference participants were to arrive at a greater understanding of emergence, evolution, and consciousness, then some form of wisdom (Enlightenment more humbly considered) just might come forth.

The following summary of the October 2003 meeting has been broken into headings of the core themes or areas that were addressed during the week. At the end of each section, there are "further questions" that provide the reader with a feel for what was left open or unresolved for subsequent conferences to address. A participant’s full name is bolded when the description of his or her presentation is about to follow in subsequent paragraphs.

Because Ogilvy opened the conference on Monday morning with an overview presentation that synthesized many of the ideas from previous conferences and introduced some of his own ideas about "monological thinking" and "stereoscopic epistemology," this summary will begin with him.