Who are we?

We are an international group of individuals touched at a core level by a call to come together in service to the work of consciousness evolution — in ourselves, amongst each other, and in nature and culture. We are excited to be alive at this time in history, poised and called to take next steps in our human evolution. We seek to contribute whole-heartedly to a fully awake and sustainable human existence. As we deepen our understanding of the next stage in consciousness evolution, we place a primary focus on actually applying our discoveries to our lives. We are awed, fascinated and humbled by the potential breadth and depth of human life. We are aware of a real need for integral examples of life to find expression here and now on earth. In order to walk the talk, to live the vision a step at a time we commit to look into the core issues, both internal and external, that need to be addressed for personal and global transformation to come about.

Our vision for our team is that we be, above all, a living body that will grow and mature, expand and diversify, continuously re-examining, staying on the edge of the unknown, not settling, but being shaped by the ‘call of the future’ and by the many parts that form the whole. We seek to respond wholeheartedly, seriously and joyously to the predicament of our times. To listen to the whisperings of Spirit that invite us to full Union , to communion, where the One and the Many are present and alive.

Our basic tenets as an organization.

• First and foremost we engage in what we are passionate about, both as an organization and as individuals within the organization.
• We seek constant improvement and growth at the personal level as well as at the organizational level.
• We foster an environment in which each individual in the organization is encouraged to discover the unique gifts they have and to offer them to the Whole.
• In accurately and humbly recognizing that none of us yet understands enough to hold all the answers, we are willing to commit to a life of inquiry that can lead us to the best possible insights.
• It is expected that each part within the system (i.e. each individual and each component of the framework) will reinforce the other parts in order to form an integrated Whole that is more powerful than the sum total of the various parts.
• Each person within the organization has a high degree of freedom within a given framework. We need and welcome self-disciplined and self-motivated people who do not need to be managed. We will then manage the system, not the people.
• Interested in finding out more or becoming part of the team? Let us know, we welcome hearing from you.

Our directors:

Stephan Martineau is the founder and President of Next Step Integral. Stephan’s lifelong passion and pursuit is to bring integral visions into action, to move beyond ideas and discussions and theorizing to actually doing and being this emerging consciousness.
Stephan spent five years visiting intentional communities, spiritual communities, ashrams, and monasteries and studying the dynamics between individual and collective flourishing and evolution present in them. Following this, he founded an intentional, integrally informed community in 1992, and lived and taught there for a decade. This community was founded with the specific intent and vision of exploring and discovering what becomes possible when participants share an evolutionary contract together and are committed to coming together in service to the greater Whole. Since then he has continued to create transformative community and educational events internationally, as well as teach courses on integral community and integral parenting.
Stephan also works as an integral consultant for not-for-profit organizations, and has worked in watershed management, ecosystem-based planning and community development since 1993. He is the president and business manager of the Slocan Integral Forestry Cooperative (SIFCo), that manages a 35,000-acre community forest in the Slocan Valley, BC, where he successfully spearheaded an integral approach to a multi-stakeholder situation in one of BC’s most contentious areas in regards to forestry practices in Canada.

John Gruber, M.S. holds an undergraduate degree in Environmental Studies and a graduate degree in Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy. As an undergraduate faculty scholar at Brown University he worked to integrate studies in biology, geology and environmental science, and received the C.F. Ma Research Fellowship for Natural Products research as a graduate student. In 2001, he was a Teacher Recognition Awardee in the United States Presidential Scholars Program. As a science teacher and long-time student of evolutionary biology and natural history he is particularly interested in ways to apply integral thinking to the secondary school classroom. Having taught a botany seminar for twelve years, John uses that particular class as a kind of experimental ground, a place to explore the application of integral approaches to teaching with a group of willing and interested students. He emphasizes field-work, experimental observation, and direct perception alongside conceptualization in his science courses, and continues to develop ways to build interior and exterior experiences into curriculum in his science teaching.
In addition to his work and research as an educator and administrator, he is involved in an active research program in insect ecology and systematic biology of moth species.
John currently serves as Chairman of the Upper School Science Department and the Director of the Summer Science Institute at Friends’ Central School, an independent Quaker day school where he has taught for sixteen years.

Miriam Mason Martineau, M.A. Miriam Mason Martineau’s formal training lies in the areas of psychology, dance, choreography, and voice. She has a Masters Degree in Psychology from the University of Zurich, with a specialization in Youth and Child Psychology, and is also a certified teacher of Laban Modern Dance, as well as a singer and vocal instructor. She is vice-president of Next Step Integral. For the past 15 years Miriam has studied and researched how parenting can be pursued as a spiritual practice. She sees parenting as one of our greatest opportunities for personal growth and evolutionary activism. This has led her to offering courses on the topic, working as a coach for parents, and writing a book (forthcoming) titled Raising the Future — an Integral Evolutionary Approach to Parenting.
Miriam is also a private practice integral psychotherapist, and her interest in peak performance, vitality and integral leadership building have led her to her work with Univera, a cutting-edge international nutraceutical company. She also leads workshops on authentic voice and movement, and has performed both as a soloist and in a variety of choirs such as the Swiss National Television Choir. From 1992-2002 Miriam lived in an integrally-informed intentional community and there honed the skills of group facilitation, conflict resolution and generative dialogue.

Abigail Lynam, M.S. is faculty for Lesley University’s Audubon Expedition Institute and the Living Routes’ Sustainability in Auroville, India semester through the University of Massachusetts. Both programs follow an educational model that blends experiential, holistic, and student-centered learning through a transformative framework of intensive learning community work. In these programs sustainability is examined and lived, (to the extent possible), through the three lenses of culture, ecology and the inner self. Self-inquiry, new cosmology and awareness practices are recognized as complimentary to cultural and deep ecological studies and practices. The India program draws on an integral model, and the Audubon Expedition Institute is exploring Integral Ecology as a framework for its graduate and undergraduate programs. Abigail is presently researching the best ways to support the development, the application, and the practice of an integral framework in both programs. Abigail is trained as a facilitator of Joanna Macy’s “The Work that Reconnects” and “Dynamic Facilitation”. She previously taught leadership development at Portland State University and facilitated dialogues for democracy in Portland. As a director of Next Step Integral she is developing a semester-long curriculum on Integral Leadership for adult learners. She is currently enrolled in Pacific Integral’s 18-month Generating Transformative Change Leadership program.

Some of the gang crossing from Whidbey Island to the mainland after a successful seminar on Integral Education! (Aug. 2009)