Integration is a condition which exists only in terms of energy potentials distributed within a unitary whole in accordance with laws of energy behaviour. Action follows in the integrated energy field of the whole when, and only when, conditions ultimately traceable to environment place the field in a state of imbalance. The whole conditions or regulates the expenditure of energy, or the work done, by the parts.
Wholes evolve as wholes.
Integration is therefore as complete at the beginning of the life of an organism as it is at any other time during its history. Development is a process of preserving integration while it becomes structurally more complicated, and is not a process of building up integration. Any whole is constantly renewing itself through a transposition process. The identity and integration of the whole is preserved while the parts change. The evolution of the whole can be described as an exchange process going on between the properties of homogeneity and heterogeneity.