Boulder Vs. Colorado Spring, CO: microcosm of mankind

Human consciousness is changing.  It is expanding.  Humanity is on the brink of several scientific breakthroughs that seem to be merging with esoteric, mystical and spiritual teachings that have existed for thousands of years.

Quantum Physics & Hinduism

Neurology and Spirituality

Physics and Metaphysics

Psychology and Spirituality (Integral Psychology)

I live in Colorado and it seems that this state is like a microcosm for what could be happening the humanity as a whole.  Boulder, Colorado is bastion of American leftist views fully comparable to to a San Francisco or a Boston, MA (green to turquois on the the spiral dynamic scale).  There is a freedom of thought, a freedom of expression that seems almost dangerous to rigid thoughts and values.  97.1 Miles away is a city called Colorado Springs.  With a large percentage of military, government contractors and U.S. defense organization, Colorado Springs is the polar opposite of Boulder.  Colorado Springs is full of right-wing conformists, so called “compassionate conservatives” and not so compassionate conservatives (blue to orange on the spiral dynamic scale).

All politics aside, these two extremes represent two streams of thought: world centric and ethnocentric.  Ken Wilber (who actually lives in Boulder, CO) explains the differences between the two beautifully.  His explaination of Integral Politics is worth looking into.

Boulder, Colorado has become a hub of powerful world centric views.  Corporations such as Sounds True have successfully tap into the strong current of spiritual interest erupting in pockets all around the world.  They put out audio books from people like Eckhart Tolle (power of now), works of Ken Wilber, HH Dali Lama, Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Thich Nhat Hanh, Huston Smith, Julia Cameron, Jack Kornfield, Alice Walker, Ram Dass, Marion Woodman, Jean Shinoda Bolen, and Caroline Myss just to name a few.  Sounds True is actually in Lousville, CO which is 9 miles away from Boulder, CO. 

Ken Wilber, as stated above, is also in Boulder.  Ken Wilber has pushed forward Integral theories of consciousness.  He is pushing beyond the edge of studies of the study of human consciousness.

Colorado Springs is very different than Boulder.  It houses five military installations and is the fastest growing and ambitions city in Colorado.  From 2000 to 2006 it has been one of the fastest growing city in the U.S.  On any given day you will see people driving around with American flags and “support the troops” stickers on their cars.  These are many times friends and family of the troops that are actually in Iraq.  Of course not all of us living in the Springs are ethnocentric (nationalistic) or even agree with the war in Iraq, but I would say more of us are ethnocentric than in Boulder. 

The views of the residents of these two cities is very pronounced even though they are only 90 miles apart.  These differences are feuled by the lifestyles of the people which is molded by the commerical, federal and state commerce flowing in and out of the cities.