If we now integrate the five levels of awareness and with the six dimensions of thinking we have an integral model of kosmic education, where each level includes the six dimensions already described, generating a holarchic map with thirty educational regions that go from the individual-physical to the kosmic-spiritual. 

The model serves a practical purpose providing a global understanding of different pedagogies which are harmoniously related in a coherent image that allows us to observe the education territory and to act intelligently on it.  This model is important in showing holistic education as an integral concept but it should not be seen as a definitive model of holistic education - just a point to begin.  The model honours diversity within the unity across the plurality of levels and dimensions and gives a more integral image of holistic education. 

Any education that does not contemplate all five levels of awareness and experience is necessarily reductionistic and cannot be seen as integral. This happens generally when spirituality is rejected - usually with the argument that it is not scientific. Holistic education opens up crucial dimensions in learning. When learning is seen in a new extended epistemological framework where science and spirituality are compatible, no longer contradictory, science acquires human sensitivity and consciousness becomes fundamental in the integration of the kosmos.  

In each one of the thirty regions in the map there is an educator or thinker to give an example of that region. This does not mean that they are limited to that region but only that this is their main area of work. It was basically the point from which they saw education. All these educators or thinkers generally explored two or three regions and some others more, but in most cases moved horizontally and downwards - the majority were not aware of levels above them and their greater complexity and integrity. 

It is impossible in a single map to include all relevant educators and thinkers. Each region has a single educator or thinker selected to represent this point on the map. Some of these representatives are not considered to be educators in the conventional sense but they have been included if enough of their work is related to education. 

In this map of the integral model we can see the contribution and the limitation of each thinker, which gives us the possibility of integrating them, using the principles of the holistic education and the eye of the spirit, to see the depth or superficiality of each educator.

At the first level of individual awareness and experience we have examples of the physical dimension of thinking and expression with the North American psychologist Skinner, who limits himself to an objective and materialistic view of the human being. This basic view creates a superficial understanding of learning, but even this is considered in holistic education as long as it is seen in an holistic context.  Considered at its appropriate level and dimension the work of Skinner has its place. 

Emotional, aesthetic, social, cognitive and spiritual dimensions of this individual or personal level can be illustrated with the work of Erik Erikson, Jean Piaget, Carl Rogers, Herbert Read and Maria Montessori. These thinkers complement each other when we locate them in this extended model of holistic education. 

Level 2, corresponding to communal learning and community education, can be exemplified in its six dimensions with Jacobo Russeau for the corporal or natural dimension, John Dewey for the social dimension, Celestin Freinet for the cognitive, Abraham Maslow for the emotional, Howard Gardner for the aesthetic and Sam Keen for the spiritual dimension.  It is necessary to clarify at this point that we are not evaluating their depth or superficiality, their errors or successes, but only their place in the Kosmic holistic education map.

The next level of awareness and experience, level 3, is social awareness that has been described by social educators and the sociology of the education or critical pedagogy.  In this third level we can illustrate the six corresponding dimensions with the work of David Orr for the physical or ecological dimension, Paulo Freire for the social dimension, Vygotsky for the cognitive dimension, Daniel Goleman for the emotional dimension, Rudolf Steiner for the aesthetic dimension and Fritjof Capra for the spiritual dimension.  With exception of Freire and Vygotsky the other four had a clear vision of the importance of all six dimensions. For this reason their locations are partly interchangeable - Orr, Kaufman, Steiner and Capra are in fact pre-empting holistic education.

Level 4, corresponding to the planetary level of awareness and experience, is the area of environmental education - whose basic premise is to educate to a think globally and act locally.  Learning at this level has generally been absent in education systems because in the past environmental and global problems did not hit societies has hard as they do today. 

Although environmental education began in the 70s at this early stage it wasn't very successful because it was dominated by a political-popularist vision which was based on the principles of mechanist science of the 17th century.  As we enter the 21st century a new vision is arising in environmental education that is more holistic. The authors of this second phase are used to illustrate the six dimensions of this level. We will continue to use the concept of environmental education in spite of its failures but also use the concept of planetary education which is similar. The central point at this level is the understanding that the global processes of the planet are understood as a Holon. 

In order to illustrate the dimensions at this level we refer to the work of James Lovelock for the physical dimension, Peter Russell for the social dimension, Edward T. Clark for the cognitive dimension, Joana Macy for the emotional dimension, Buckminster Fuller for the aesthetic dimension and Juan Amos Comenio for the spiritual dimension.

Finally the 5th level of kosmic awareness and experience is taken care of by spiritual education  - the heart of holistic education. This level has been excluded from education as much by scientific dogmatism as by religion. That is to say scientism and fundamentalism - both poisons that kill all genuine education.

With the emergence of holistic education this spiritual level acquires a crucial centrality for education of the 21st century.  This is the level where holistic educators stop to contemplate and investigate kosmic education because it is the only level that allows one to have a wide vision of an integral education. From this level the holistic educator can think about and explore the 30 regions without risking reductionism or category errors. 

From the spiritual we can educate with clarity, order and intelligence because it is the area of love and wisdom, where we recognize the essence of who we are:  spiritual beings. 

The six dimensions of this last level are represented by David Bohm for the physical dimension, David Purpel for the social dimension, Ken Wilber for the cognitive dimension, the Dalai Lama for the emotional dimension, Jeffrey Kane for the aesthetic dimension and Ron and Jack Miller for the spiritual dimension.  In reality the position of these seven thinkers is to a large extent interchangeable since all have a vision that includes all the dimensions and levels. However I have allowed for very subtle differences among them to locate them in the different dimensions as a illustration that serves this model. 

Of the the thirty educative regions formed by this holistic education map, conventional education in the last century only has considered the individual, community and social levels of awareness and experience and the physical, social and cognitive dimensions of thinking and expression -  reducing all education to just 9 regions and ignoring the remaining 21. Thus conventional education is reductionistic and incomplete only taking into account the superficial aspects of what it means to be fully human. 

A genuine integral education will take into account all 30 educative regions from individual awareness to spiritual awareness, from the physical to the spiritual, including the social, emotional, cognitive and aesthetic.

When in the Mexican constitution it says ‘integral education’ it is in fact a call to develop and implement holistic education with an integral vision for our children and youth of love and wisdom, of peace and fraternity.  

Sources:  Ramon Gallegos Nava  (2000) PowerPoint Presentation at the 8th International Conference on Holistic Education. Guadalajara, Mexico - used with permission.

Ramon Gallegos Nava (2000) The Spirit of Education. International Foundation for Holistic Education: Guadalajara, Mexico (in Spanish).

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