Integral Perception — Changing Worldview Through Mutual Integration

Zsolt Hermann
5 min readNov 2, 2024

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In our natural state, we perceive reality through a lens that is entirely self-serving, egocentric, and subjective. This perception is built around 100% egocentric and subjective “pleasure/pain” calculations, where we only sense what we deem important for our own needs. This perspective is inherently closed, filtering the world solely through what is relevant to us personally, making us prisoners of a limited, self-justifying viewpoint.

However, when we begin to integrate with others and move beyond our inherently self-centered perspective — sensing the world through the desires, thoughts, and viewpoints of others — we unlock an entirely different way of seeing the world.

We shift from a narrow, self-enclosed experience to one that operates on a higher, more refined level. Instead of perceiving life solely on a single-cellular, individual level — restricted to our own subjective, sweet, or bitter experiences — we start to experience the world as a single, dynamic, interconnected system. This broader perspective — which we gradually acquire while expanding the circle of integration into and understanding of the system — allows us to understand the purposeful cause-and-effect processes that shape and nurture life itself.

This transformation isn’t instantaneous.

It’s a dynamic and continuous development where we gain the ability to establish a completely selfless, altruistic, and objective observer viewpoint.

Through this viewpoint, we constantly position ourselves between our inherent, self-centered perception — that we establish on any given level as we progress — and an ever-higher, desired, attainable, altruistic, and objective viewpoint.

We achieve this by practicing “love for others as ourselves,” which becomes the guiding principle for shifting our perception. We try to attach to ourselves and incorporate into ever-larger circles of people and their surrounding environment and life experience.

In truth, nothing changes in reality itself; rather, it’s the quality of the level of our perception — that we attain by expanding our circle of interest and inclusion — and the attitude through which we observe reality that transforms.

The higher I can rise above my initially introverted, “single-cell” reality towards integrating into and serving the complete integral system, the greater circle I incorporate into myself, accepting it as “my own being,” the greater the attainment and understanding of the system I reach.

It is the strong aspiration and deficiency we mutually develop towards selflessly and unconditionally loving and serving others that can keep pulling us out of the original selfish and subjective viewpoint, sustaining us in that selfless and objective position.

In this journey, I must continuously position myself between my original subjective viewpoint and the next attainable level of objective perception and incorporation.

I choose, again and again, to adopt a selfless and altruistic viewpoint, even as my original self-centered perspective pulls at me. This process of choice and reorientation is essential for deeper understanding.

Above and against my inherent nature, which I also open up and sense in ever-growing depth, I need a positive example and goal I can constantly aim for, which I can receive from the right, purposeful environment.

Only if this environment generates an overwhelming positive aspiration and importance for loving and bestowing mutual integration can this unique atmosphere offer the magnetic force that can keep us “hovering” above our original nature and act independently of the instinctively selfish and egoistic calculations and intentions.

In each and every state and at any moment, I have to feel my absolute and sharp responsibility, as with my next thoughts or actions, I can decide my fate and everybody else’s state for better or worse. I make such fateful decisions every second between the pull of my original egoistic nature and the higher, even more selfless and altruistic state and development. I have to feel that the whole world and everything depends on my choice!

Paradoxically, the deeper layers of the ego I reveal “underneath me,” the higher and more refined our resolution through which we can attain reality’s single and fully integrated system becomes — as long as, with the help of the environment, we also constantly increase the positive pulling and elevating force against the growing egoistic pull.

With each layer of ego, we reveal, we gain a greater capacity for integration, understanding, and connection as long as we use the purposeful collective method properly.

To fully appreciate the state of wholeness and integration, we need to sense the fractures and limitations of our ego to its greatest depth.

Only by acknowledging the brokenness within ourselves can we appreciate the contrast that an integrated, harmonious state offers. It is specifically this contrast and comparative research that allows us to become fully conscious and, at the same time, independent observers and guardians of the mutual integration and homeostasis of the whole system.

Through this awareness, we become ready to perceive the perfectly balanced life-creating and life-nurturing reality that surrounds us.

In this dynamic and incessantly developing journey toward unity, we strive to resemble the single life-creating and governing force of reality at the core of the integral living system.

This force embodies complete selflessness and integration.

Yet, it’s only this single creating and governing force that can ultimately make us similar to itself, installing its totally selfless and unconditionally loving and bestowing qualities in us.

Our role is to develop an overwhelming, singular, and insatiable desire for this resemblance through a purposeful and mutually supportive environment.

This yearning isn’t for personal gain; rather, it’s a desire to reveal the presence and operation of this single enlivening force through a unique state called “faith above reason” — through others and for the sake of others. This desire keeps us humble as we hold ourselves a step behind others, remaining empty of ego but open to an integrated, godly system.

All my aspirations and intentions are only to facilitate how others can integrate and connect to the source of the system. Whatever I reveal and receive, I pass on to others without grabbing or holding anything for myself.

In this state, I become an independent observer, present and connected, yet free from self-interest. I take nothing for myself, content to witness the beauty of an interconnected, harmonious reality — a reality that can only be perceived through selfless love and mutual integration.

Through this journey, we reveal a profound truth: in aligning our perception with the Creator’s selfless nature, we elevate our understanding and connection with reality itself.

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Zsolt Hermann
Zsolt Hermann

Written by Zsolt Hermann

I am a Hungarian-born Orthopedic surgeon presently living in New Zealand, with a profound interest in how mutually integrated living systems work.

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