There are three primary ways of looking at the world -- the dualistic way represented by religion, the materialistic way represented by science, the idealistic way represented by Eastern religions and the New Age. For the longest while I believed it was all a matter of choice -- that we could pick whatever we liked -- and all points of view were equally valid.
Of course, one reason I believed that to be true is because idealism told me it’s true. The intolerant dualist or the arrogant materialist might try to reserve “the truth” all to themselves, but we idealists are adamantly pluralistic, and willing to let everyone have their own slice.
Today, I better understand that how we see the world is not exactly a matter of choice. I understand that each person’s worldview is inevitably shaped by where that person is in the process of his or her spiritual development, which in turn is inevitably shaped by the genetic chemistry and the cultural wiring of that person’s brain. This understanding was a huge revelation to me—a much-needed revelation that cleared up my confusion over how people can believe so differently, and how we get stuck in place.
It is the prolific Ken Wilber who is most responsible for introducing me—and a readership that stretches beyond the New Age—to the concept of spiritual stages through his many books on integral psychology and integral spirituality. Of course, if I had taken a philosophy class in college I might have run into discourses on the stages of knowledge which have been put forth since the time of Plato. Philosophers have long known that levels of knowing, or levels of spiritual wisdom, correspond to stages of being. From sensation, to knowledge, to understanding, to wisdom -- philosophy teaches us we can only access higher modes of knowing by moving through the foundational modes.
This philosophical insight has lately been put to the scientific test through decades of rigorous research, and today, virtually all developmental psychologists agree that human beings advance from birth to death through various stages of spiritual and moral development. These stages are not merely a matter of theory, but based on hard data collected from hundreds of thousands of people who have described their inner processes to researchers. This data tells us that all of us move through these stages in a predictable order, although the rate at which we grow through them is not predictable, dependent as it is on environment and genetic influences, as well as one’s own desire to grow.
Different researchers -- including Abraham Maslow, Clare Graves, Jane Loevinger, Lawrence Kohlberg, William Torbert, Robert Kegan, Susan Cook-Greuter and Carol Gilligan among many others-- delineate a different number of stages, and give them different names. But however many stages they identify, most agree they can be organized into at least three general categories -- pre-conventional (egocentric), conventional (ethnocentric), post-conventional (world centric).
Now, if you haven’t run across the concept of stages before, my introduction here may seem a little too academic, but really, the stages themselves are easy as pie to grasp. And if you are like me, discovering them will pretty much blow your mind as well as completely transform your way of understanding people and events. Of course, if you are already familiar with concept, then you know how quickly it illuminates human history and the challenges we face.
For our purposes, we will focus on six stages of spiritual evolution, grouped in the three general categories of growth, based on the criteria of “care.” Spiritual maturity requires that one becomes less concerned with oneself and more concerned with others. The more we grow, the wider our circle of care and concern and the higher the spiritual stage from which we operate.
Back in the cosmic 1980s, many New Age writers vaguely described growth from one stage to the next in abstract terms of “ascension” to “higher awareness“ or “higher consciousness.” Today, thanks to the developmental psychologists mentioned above, we have a much greater understanding of how we grow into new stages. These researchers recommend we visualize the stages not as an ascending staircase, but rather as a spiral that widens and encompasses all the previous stages within it. This model of human development is called Spiral Dynamics, and was first introduced by psychologists Chris Cowan and Don Beck in their 1996 book.
As we are all born at Stage One, and we all have the potential for higher growth, describing these stages is not a way of ranking people, Wilber notes, but merely a way of describing a person’s current capacity to include others in his or her circle of concern. We remain in each stage for however long it works for us—whether a few years, a few decades, or an entire lifetime. We usually work very hard to defend and justify where we are as the “right” place and will criticize others who are at different stages.
But once in a great while, if we’re lucky, we run across new information or find ourselves in a new situation or experience something that our normal way of seeing the world cannot accommodate, and we grow, often in spite of ourselves.
The Pre-conventional
Stage One -- The chaotic/egocentric
This is the true egocentric stage of young children and all those whose development was slowed by growing up in chaotic or abusive situations. A person in this stage is motivated by the needs of the self and only the self. Care for others is generally lacking.
In Stage One, we find little sense of morality, and any difficulty the person faces is blamed on others. Aggressive showing off and violent lashing out is common here. A tendency toward superstition, “magical thinking,“ or preoccupations with ghosts and aliens or any threatening “other” also shows up here. Rarely is any thought given to developing a rational point of view about life; meaning is all about what satisfies the self right now.
Those who habitually break the law are usually stuck here. Those who run giant corporations and embezzle money from shareholders and run off to a Caribbean island with the loot are also stuck here. Drug and alcohol addictions meant to numb the pain and isolation of this stage are also common.
In order to develop past this stage, the adult individual must receive some of the care, compassion and structure they were denied as children, such as in a church setting, or a therapy or rehabilitation situation, or even a military or sports setting. Or, they may “hit bottom,” get sick and tired of chaos, and look for a way out on their own.
Some, however, because of their brain chemistry, or because they live in chaotic social situations, will never move beyond this stage. Giant chunks of the population of violence-ravaged and starving nations, as well as poverty-stricken and crime-ridden inner-cities, stay trapped here unless offered help and an organized pathway to growth.
(For those who want to go a little deeper, this stage is also called the purple and red memes by Wilber, the Impulsive and Opportunistic stages by Torbert and Cook-Greuter, and Magical-Animistic and Egocentric levels by Beck and Cowan in Spiral Dynamics.)
The Conventional
Stage Two -- Faith and order/conformist stage
At some point, usually in childhood or adolescence, most of us will move past egocentric concerns to become aware of the needs of others. We begin to look for structure and meaning and a way to understand life. What we usually find is a religious system already in the home, or at least the neighborhood.
After the chaos of Stage One, we have a high need for structure and certainty in Stage Two, and so our faith in the founding myths of our religious system is of the blind and unquestioning sort. The world is unambiguously divided into good and evil, and our philosophy is often unabashedly dualistic: God above, the earth below. Our priorities are also unabashedly ethnocentric. It is us versus them, and all those who believe like us are “good” or saved, and all those who do not believe like us are “evil” or damned.
This stage is the natural home of fundamentalism -- whether of the Christian, Jewish, Muslim or even Buddhist variety -- and each path declares itself to be the only “true” path. All of us move through this stage, although without exposure to a religion to hold us to tight to faith, our fundamentalism may be attached to science or a political group or to the military or AA or any other source of structure. According to Wilber, about 25 percent of Americans -- and a much larger percentage of the Third world -- feel chaos continually nipping at their heels, and so will hunker down in this stage for life, their spiritual needs for order completely met here.
For the rest of us, often in adolescence or young adulthood, we will meet enough different kinds of people, or see enough of life, to realize that blind faith really is blind, and too often contrary to reason. We are likely to find ourselves filled with questions that faith cannot satisfactorily answer. And so, ready or not, we grow out of Stage Two. For some, it is a painful process to let go of the structure of faith that once protected and sustained us. For others, it can be a welcome liberation.
(Stage Two is called the blue meme by Wilber, The Diplomat and Expert stage by Torbert and Cook-Greuter, and the Purposeful Absolutist by Beck and Cowan)
Stage Three -- The skeptical “Show Me Proof” stage
As we begin to ask more questions about life, we turn away from faith and spirit in general, believing only those ideas that can be proven or that make sense to our logic. For some, this stage is explicitly atheistic, but many retain a “who knows?” attitude that allows them to continue identifying with a religion, and perhaps show up in church once in awhile, while generally operating from a more modern, materialistic mindset.
This stage gave birth to the 18th-century Age of Enlightenment in which human reason finally wrested free from its religious shackles and found sustenance in science and the philosophy of materialism. This stage gives us a worldview which George Lakoff calls “Old Enlightenment,” -- logical, literal, universal and unemotional.
According to Wilber, from this stage the world is perceived as a “well-oiled machine with rules that can be learned, manipulated for one’s own purposes.” Widespread growth into this stage allowed Western civilization to make stunning leaps in industry and technology and created the elements of the good life we all enjoy today.
In this skeptical stage, our emotional need for structure and order remain high, which means it attracts a great deal of “my way is the only right way” fundamentalism as well. However, ethnocentrism has softened up a bit and we see the growth of ideas like fairness and justice and universal rights for all. Unless, that is, we are coming from the economic side of the materialistic equation, in which case, rights are trumped by the need for profit.
Although this stage efficiently banishes superstitions and myths that oppress, because it refuses to allow the presence of any balancing spiritual ideals at all, it ends up tilting toward economic doctrines that are just as oppressive in their own way. I’ve run across a range of estimates on this stage in twenty-first-century America, but the consensus seems to be that somewhere between 30 and 40 percent of us live from this skeptical, moderate perspective.
(Stage Three is Wilber’s orange Meme, Torbert and Cook-Greuter’s Achiever stage, and Beck and Cowan’s Multiplistic/Individualistic level.)
The two conventional stages are, on the surface at least, wildly divergent in matters of belief. Yet, here in the West, they are surprisingly compatible. Many Americans are able to master a daily shift between following the dictates of materialism at work and the demands of dualism at home and in church. Lakoff calls this talent “biconceptualism,” and as we have seen over the past thirty years, both have joined forces to great effect in the political arena, with the alliance of social conservatives (Stage Two dualists) and corporate conservatives (Stage Three materialists) in the Republican Party.
These conventional stages thus make up the current ruling “paradigm,” a blend of social and economic rules that provide much needed order and structure that allows for spiritual growth. However, left unchecked, this paradigm also relentlessly oppresses and exploits, leading to pain and poverty and war and massive environmental damage.
Often, it is recognizing the damage that is being done by the destructive aspects of dualism and materialism that spurs one’s growth toward the next stage. However, most who move on do so because this stage offers so little in the way of meaning fulfillment. Materialism does not recognize spirit, and eventually, one‘s own spirit may rise up in protest and urge us to the next stage.
Post-conventional stages
Stage Four -- The sensitive self
As we grow into Stage Four, we expand our circle of care and finally abandon ethnocentric concerns for worldcentric hopes. Some will continue holding to a materialistic philosophy, and enrich it with the higher callings of secular humanism. Most, however, will turn away from the dry mechanisms of materialism and toward the stirrings of soul.
Stage Four is the natural home of idealism -- spirit as the essence of reality. (See Idealism). The universe is no longer perceived as a machine, but comes alive with an animating spirit that encompasses all of us. We now feel upset by exploitation of natural resources and begin to put the health of environment above profit. We now feel connected to others in a way we never did before, and begin to put people above profit. We begin to long for a “new paradigm” that values the whole and nurtures all its interrelated parts.
Although most in this stage set off on their own solitary spiritual seeking, many return to the religion of their youth, yet without the blind faith and literalism of Stage Two. Sacred texts are now understood as symbolic pointers to greater truths, and all religions are seen as equally legitimate paths toward a greater understanding of spirit.
Indeed, the insistence on the equal legitimacy of all views, no matter how far out or illogical, is a hallmark of this stage, and what opens the door to its dark side: narcissism and regression to egocentrism and the magical thinking of the pre-conventional, chaotic stage.
Like the other “first-tier” stages, Stage Four is also prey to some degree of fundamentalism, and adamantly insists that it is the only “right” way of looking at the world. This either/or type of insistence can prevent one from embracing deeper spiritual paradoxes.
About 25 percent of the American population sees the world from this “spiritual but not religious” stage, overall a group of truly good people with holistic ideals and a sincere desire to create a better society from a “new paradigm.” Unfortunately this desire too often gets shoved aside by the demands of our own personal, ego-driven “quests.“
Stage Four is where we idealists get intractably stuck, for reasons we will soon examine. And this is where most of us are likely to remain stuck until we figure out that there are higher stages of development waiting for us.
(Stage Four is Wilber’s Mean Green Meme, Torbert and Cook-Greuter’s Individualist stage, and Beck and Cowan’s Personalistic/Relativistic level)
Stage Five - The integral stage
Although the philosophy here is a more profound form of the same idealism that we see in the previous stage, it is such a radical leap from everything that comes before that Wilber calls the integral stage an entirely new “tier” of awareness. From this higher vantage point, one can see the “big picture” and the importance of all the stages of growth.
In this stage, we are able to “integrate” within ourselves all the other stages that came before. We no longer try to stamp out or marginalize the others, but neither do we protect points of view that are in error. We become interested in the health of the entire spiral, and try to help others feel less defensive and entrenched in their positions so that they are more likely to grow to the next stage.
Most important, we are better able to detach from ego-driven concerns and no longer insist on the sanctity of our individuality. This freedom from egocentrism unlocks the needle of our moral compass and allows compassion for others to bloom wildly. Our priorities reorganize themselves toward the whole, and suddenly it is no longer difficult to talk ourselves into stepping out into the world to work for change. On the contrary, it actually becomes painful to sit still when we can see so much that needs doing, and we fly out the door to engage in this work with a sense of joy and purpose.
In this stage, spirituality is no longer just one part of our lives, something separate from every day concerns; spirituality now inhabits and informs every part of our lives.
There are certainly higher stages in the widening spiral of evolving consciousness toward enlightenment, but the jump to the new tier of Stage Five awareness is probably the most important in the planet-rescuing sense. If a new paradigm becomes possible in Stage Four, it becomes real in Stage Five.
(Stage Five is Wilber’s Yellow meme, Tobert and Cook-Greuter’s Strategist stage, and Beck and Cowan’s Integrative level)
Stage Six – The unitive Stage
This is the rare stage usually described by longtime meditators – Zen monks and Hindu yogis, in which the freedom from ego is complete, and one no longer identifies with an individual self, but identifies instead with the universe as one entire whole Self. The border between self and world dissolves, and so does much of the struggle of the human condition. Radical acceptance of what is follows, but also radical action in service to others. Life flows – or so I hear.
(Stage Six is Wilber’s Turquoise meme, Torbert and Cook-Greuter’s Magician stage, and Beck and Cowan’s Harmonizing Contemplative level.)
Seeing the Light
To understand this spiral map of development is to understand so much more about the world and the people in it. We can see how any group of people who operate from Stage One egocentrism—whether in a struggling Third World nation or in a poverty-stricken inner city in the U.S.—gets stuck in a world of chaos and war and crime and violence. We can see how any group that operates from Stage Two fundamentalism is able to achieve more order, but will also quickly sacrifice the individual in fierce ethnocentric battles for dominance. We can see how any group that operates from Stage Three rationality has more concern for the individual, but is also destructive to the environment and often willing to sacrifice the individual to materialistic profit motives.
To understand the spiral also helps us see how one set of ideas can take on different shapes and tones. A religion experienced from Stage Two is more likely to present us with an unchanging and intolerant dictator-god, while the very same religion experienced through Stage Four allows us a more free-flowing, symbolic relationship with the divine. Or as Wilber puts it, there’s a Stage Two version of Christ, a Stage Three version of Christ (the historical Jesus), a Stage Four version of Christ, and so on.
Likewise, New Age ideas interpreted from ego-based Stage One magical thinking allows Tarot card readers to make a good living catering to the self-absorbed, while the same ideas interpreted from Stage Five leads to an integral worldview that frees one from self-centered concerns and orients us toward the whole.
When we understand the spiral, we understand that our societal problems are not merely a battle between old paradigm and new paradigm, but a lack of knowledge of how each paradigm represents a different stage of growth. We understand why Marianne Williamson says, “Our biggest problems cannot be solved; our biggest problems must be outgrown.” We understand why Barack Obama, in his 2009 inauguration speech, warned that if we want to create a government that works, and a country that fulfills its promise, we are going to have to “set aside childish things.”
Bogged Down on the Spiral
With a basic grasp of spiritual development, it’s easy to see that what many consider a spiritual crisis in the United States is actually a widespread lack of growth from one stage to the next. That includes not just those in the pre-conventional or conventional stages, but those of us lingering in post-conventional Stage Four as well. Too many of us have become entrenched where we are, unable to grow to the next stage and thereby lift the center of spiritual gravity for the whole.
That is why an understanding of the spiral is absolutely key to any real transformation of society. It must become common knowledge in the way it is common knowledge to know that once you are finished with grammar school, you will move on to high school, and then on to college if you so choose.
The only cure for the culture wars, and the paralyzing polarization of American society, is to make sure that more of us understand that all stages are valid and important stages in life, and that we are designed to evolve from one to the next. Stage Two religiosity is naturally supposed to give way to Stage Three skepticism, which is naturally supposed to develop into Stage Four idealism, which is naturally supposed to evolve into Stage Five integralism, and so forth. We need make sure more of us understand that earlier stages are necessary preparation for later stages, and that being in one particular stage doesn’t somehow make one better or smarter than someone in another stage. (Is a tenth-grader somehow better than a second-grader? No, they’re simply at different stages in their learning.)
Furthermore, we have to make sure that the structures of each stage on the spiral remain sound, and that pathways to each stage remain open. If a Stage One young adult from the inner city being pressured to join a violent gang has no viable Stage Two alternative to help him make a different choice—a structured religion or school or sport or an institution like the military—then he’s going to join the gang and stay stuck in Stage One.
In the same vein, if a Stage Three skeptic is ready to start exploring his spiritual side but finds no reasonable and clearcut pathway to Stage Four, he is likely to just hunker down where he is and not understand why he feels so dissatisfied. This plight is actually so common that Wilber likens Stage Three (what he calls the orange meme) to the lid of a pressure cooker that keeps people trapped in lower stages.
Growing into Stage Four does seem to be a particular challenge of late. After all, the first widespread growth into Stage Four only recently started with the baby boomers in 1960s and 1970s, so we haven’t had time to establish a lot of solid pathways to help us get there. The most popular and frequently used bridge from Stage Three to Four was once the New Age movement in all its “do-it-yourself spirituality” permutations. But as we’ve seen, over the last few decades the structures of the New Age as a collective movement have crumbled from neglect.
True, the number of people languishing in Stage Three is, as Wilber says, due in large part to the pressure cooker lid of materialism that remains hostile to any hint of spirituality. But I am convinced that the disappearance of the New Age greatly exacerbates the problem. First, rather than being able to mount a coherent challenge to the assertions of materialism, the voices representing a new paradigm are so scattered that they can only take a few ineffectual potshots here and there. Second, without that wide and welcoming New Age bridge between stages—easy to find and access—people simply have a harder time figuring out how to get to Stage Four. Meanwhile, those who were left there after the bridge’s collapse have no way to grow out of it, and into Stage Five.
For those of us who understand that we are running out of time to turn society around and give our children a viable future, this being stuck on the spiral is a monumental problem. For those of us who want to get ourselves unstuck, it’s long past time to ask, “What happened to the New Age?”
Go to "Stuck on the Spiral"
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