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For all who want to dig deeper into this rabbit hole in integral terms:
From AQAL Journal Fall 2007, Vol 2, No 7:
Integral Play
AN EXPLORATION OF THE PLAYGROUND AND THE EVOLUTION OF
THE PLAYER
Gwen Gordon and Sean Esbjörn-Hargens
In an effort to understand the transformative potential of adult play, this article defines and maps the
widely varied adult play forms onto the Integral model, thus providing a coherent sense of the
domains and levels of experience they occupy. In part 1, we explore the challenge of defining play so
that our understanding is robust and precise enough to lend itself to an Integral analysis. In part 2,
we organize play's myriad modes within an Integral framework, revealing the dimensions of the
playground. Part 3 offers a developmental model for adult play that provides an understanding of the
unfolding complexity of play in light of he evolution of consciousness. And part 4 shows how play
is not only an epiphenomenon but also an instigator of transformation, offering examples of
transformative adult play and outlining how characteristics intrinsic to play support the evolution of
consciousness.
The universe created our sense of adventurous play as the latest extravagance in a
long history of advancing play. By enhancing it we work with the grain of cosmic
dynamics.
-Brian Swimme, mathematical cosmologist1
Introduction
Let us play a little mind game. Imagine a world without play. All boundaries are rigid, and all
activity is purposeful, lawful, and prescribed. There are no games, no fantasies, no jokes, and
certainly no thought experiments. Can you see the landscape? What else disappears with the
absence of play? Would there even be a world?
Thinking lucidly about the ludic (from the Latin ludens, meaning “play”) promises to open our
imaginations and broaden our understanding of the world. But before we even get started, we trip
on a small problem: what exactly do we mean by play? We all think we know what play is. We
certainly know it when we are doing it. But when we try to pin down a definition, things start to
get slippery. After all, we play defined rule-bound games that we plan in advance, but play also
erupts spontaneously and breaks the rules. Play can be lighthearted and exuberant, but also
serious and intense. It is real but not real, safe but risky. It involves strategy, will, and skill, but
can also hedge its bets on fate. Whole civilizations form out of play. Then play rips off the
civilized facades, topples structures, and levels the playing field. Play invents a teacup then turns
it into a hat. It organizes then randomizes, sets the rhythm then skips a beat. Play is irreducible,
infinitely variable, and utterly essential to life. But what is it?
Despite many attempts to explain its nature and function, and the hundreds of definitions
available (there are no fewer than 34 definitions for play listed in the Oxford English
Dictionary), the play concept remains as elusive today as it was 2,500 years ago, when
prerational Dionysian play began to give way to rational Apollonian play.2 Still, much of the
Integral Play Fall 2007, Vol. 2, No. 3 63
confusion and ambiguity around play is less a function of its inherent nature than it is a failure to
map its forms in a way that provides a coherent sense of the domains and levels of experience
they occupy. With an Integral map we have an opportunity to gain an understanding of the depth
and complexity of play that has eluded previous attempts.
We do not claim that the Integral perspective has ultimate legitimacy. Every approach is
inherently limited in light of the infinite complexity and variability-dare we say-the play of
reality itself. We do think, however, that the Integral model currently provides the most
comprehensive and nuanced framework available with which to understand play and its
transformative potential. Our hope is that instead of pressing play into the service of our Integral
worldview we might use this perspective in the service of play, enhancing our appreciation of its
variable, elusive, and paradoxical nature.
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