The Accelerating Wisdom Series

Ten years in the making, the Accelerating Wisdom Series is a synthesis of transformational ideas and practices. It is not a paid course, but rather a free introduction to The Leading Edge’s mission to deliberately evolve our consciousness.

Why is this worth your attention?

We are being inundated by headlines about how Artificial Intelligence will amplify or eliminate our "left hemispheric" skills. Yet we seem to be paying almost no attention to the ways we can systematically evolve our uniquely human advantages. This series will directly address this problem.

The pursuit of wisdom can meaningfully improve your life, yet very few people undertake it in a deliberate way. The Leading Edge network is here to meet that need.

Thirty years of wisdom research has shown that it correlates with how good you feel and how much you’re growing. Wisdom means always knowing what’s most important, what to focus on in every different situation. This means the pursuit of wisdom both reduces your anxiety and increases your sense of purpose. In short; wisdom is the ability to pursue what you love and ignore what you don't.

Surprisingly, wisdom doesn’t correlate that strongly with either age or intelligence. While our intelligence tends to peak in our early 20s, the pursuit of wisdom has no upper limits. If we choose to focus on it, wisdom can even be accelerated.

This series will not be focused on abstract ideas or philosophy (that has been done excellently elsewhere). Instead we will aim to focus solely on ideas that have immediate practical applications.

What to expect:

The series comprises 8 episodes. Each will have a summary article with the key insights and an interview or lecture with the expert in each area. Additional private resources will be available to paid members (see below). Each episode will have an optional experiment and a commitment related to the content. This is to make sure we bring the benefits of these ideas and practices into our daily lives.

Episode 1: Accelerating Your Expertise

Expertise is domain-specific wisdom, wisdom is expertise applied to your entire life. Cedric Chin is one of the world's best writers on the topic of accelerating expertise. In a new lecture specifically for this project, he's going to teach us the foundations of Cognitive Flexibility Theory. This will show us how we can accelerate expert intuition, learn fast in the real world and stay mentally agile as we get older.

Episode 2: Revealing Attractors

While wisdom doesn’t necessarily correlate with age or intelligence, it does correlate with openness. But wise people aren’t open to everything; they are open to the right thing. This requires a deep understanding of arguably the most important and neglected accelerant of wisdom: “attractors.” I’ve spent a decade researching this subject, with a focus on curiosity. Neuroscientist and curiosity expert Anne-Laure Le Cunff will discuss the different types of curiosity, as well as the practicalities of running personal experiments to pursue our own attractors.

Episode 3: Wisdom Practices

John Vervaeke is one of the world’s foremost experts on wisdom. In our recent conversation he stressed the paramount importance of an ecology of wisdom practices within a supportive community. Expert intuition and sensitivity to attractors both require embodied intuition: a right-hemispheric trait. Led by River Kenna, episode 3 will briefly introduce a series of wisdom practices aimed at rebalancing the brain's hemispheres and improving our overall cognition. This is where The Leading Edge’s intimate wisdom network will really come into its own to share and discuss practices and results.

Episode 4: Managing Life Transitions

It is an unspoken truth that life transitions in pursuit of wisdom can be unusually difficult. Devin Martin is a world-class transformational coach who specializes in managing personal transitions. He will guide us through multiple frameworks and tools honed through more than 10,000 hours of work with high-performing individuals. His focus is around decision making, stages of life and living in integrity with yourself. We will compare and contrast different frameworks of consciousness evolution, as well as specific tools and practices.

Episode 5: The Power of Myth

Myth is wisdom hidden in plain sight. It reveals patterns extracted from millions of years of human evolution. This model will discuss what specifically the study of myth can do to accelerate the acquisition of wisdom. We will focus on the Hero’s Journey as a model for the evolution of consciousness. Psychotherapist, author, mythologist and close associate of the legendary Joseph Campbell, Dr. Stephen Larsen will join us to share his understanding of the secrets revealed by human myth.

Episode 6: Wise Parenting

Rather than mastery of abstract concepts, wisdom is ideally reflected in a deepening of our personal relationships. In this episode, neuroscientist and founder Allison Paradise will introduce her moving work on the neglected role of intuition in raising children and teens. She will specifically address the role of nurturing another human and what it means to help each of us come more fully alive together.

Episode 7: The Purpose of Wisdom

One of the most desirable outcomes from the pursuit of wisdom is that you find your place in the world. This episode will discuss how we use the ideas and practices taken from the rest of the series to help locate our own unique niches. Dan Lawrence is a Jungian psychotherapist and depth psychologist with an abundant wealth of experience in individuation, synchronicity and dreamwork. These are all critical steps to finding the place where what only you can do meets what the world needs.

Episode 8: New Frontiers

Wisdom requires openness to ideas beyond the existing paradigm. Led by pioneering author and neuroscientist Dr. Mona Sobhani, this final episode will discuss alternate theories of the evolution of consciousness. Rather than an abstract examination of fringe theories, we will only explore topics that have strong scientific grounding and practical applications.

Our role in this project is not as self-appointed wisdom experts, but as an open node in a network of rich resources. As such, this living syllabus is subject to change and enhancement throughout. 

How to participate:

• Free: The summaries, videos and audio of these episodes will be free for all on the site, Spotify, YouTube and the newsletter. Just make sure to hit subscribe on the center of the homepage.
• Content Only Members (hit the subscribe button top right): Will have access to any paywalled resources and the Circle Members' Forum.
• Network Members: People who apply and are accepted to the 150 person "wisdom network" will get access to all footnotes and relevant links and supporting material, plus the private WhatsApp and Circle learning network, private live Zooms with the episode's experts. They will also get invited to all in-person events.
• Patrons, donors and Executive Members: All network benefits including 1:1 access to Tom Morgan, as well as faculty guests where possible.