Visions are Dynamic and Change in Predictable Ways (part A)
The Basics of Visions: Part 5 of 6 (or 7)
Prologue: This turned into a long one and I had to divide it into two parts. I hope it takes you on a journey and its valuable to you and your growth.
It was about a 5 years ago, after close to two decades of being immersed in learning and teaching Integral Theory, that I had an insight.
It struck me suddenly that the different visions I was (directly and indirectly) talking about in my Bio-Emotive Framework were related to the stages of development outlined in Spiral Dynamics (and many other similar frameworks).
This was startling to me!
Part of our Western culture and identity is to see individuals as unique and diverse and embrace that each person sees the world in their own unique way. It was hard for me to accept that if we step back and look at our personal visions they are one of a handful of archetypal visions that humans have been using since the beginning of time.
Even more interesting (or disturbing, depending on how you look at it) is that according to Spiral Dynamics, these archetypal stages for visions unfold in a predictable sequence.
Sometimes the shift from one vision to another is small and almost imperceptible, lost in the general cacophony of life and growing up. The adolescent reigning in his or her aggressive impulses because they don’t want to be disappoint their parents or teacher, or someone getting angry and finally saying what they mean instead of being “a good boy or girl” and doing what their family expects of them. (Perhaps come back to this section after reading the rest of this blog and see if you can figure out which two stage transitions these examples are pointing to).
Sometimes the change in vision happens through personal a upheaval, a dark night of the soul, or a mid-life crisis. Whatever process we go through when shifting our vision and values and how we make sense of the world, the place we land afterwards is actually a predictable place. The personal details of our voyage may differ but the new underlying structures and principles we find were already there. They are waiting for us to wake up to them, to embrace them, and to re-order the chaos we were in. They are congratulating us for making the journey to the new land.
These are the main Spiral Dynamic stages as researched and originally mapped by Dr. Clare Graves. Most theorists refer to these stages in colors, I tend to refer to them by their main characteristics:
Survival Focus (Beige)
Magical Clans (Purple)
Power Dominance Hierarchies (Red)
Traditional Rules and Roles (Blue)
Modern Individual Achievement (Orange)
Post-Modern Relational (Green)
Note: These stages, the ones I am discussing in this blog, are all a part of what's considered "1st tier consciousness". Since most people are new to the concepts of Spiral Dynamics, and most people live in one of the 1st tier stages, we are going to focus this blog on understanding the 1st tier stages. I’ll write about 2nd and 3rd tier stages, at least how I have come to see them (and it does differ from other theorists), in a future blog.
Personal Anecdotes and Summaries
To make the stages easier to understand and relate to, I will share what I remember of moving through the various developmental milestones, through anecdotes, and then put a short “General Principles” summary of that stage and how it shows up in our culture afterwards. You can reflect on how much each stage had parallels in your own life, which ones you can remember moving through, and which aspects you relate or don’t relate to.
Survival Focus (Beige)
Well, Ok, technically I don’t remember the earliest years of this period of my life though there are a few vague memories from prior to 3 years old. As babies, and infants and even children to some extent, we are completely dependent on family for meeting all our basic physical needs - food, shelter, protection - and social needs - a sense of caring, acceptance, social bonding and connection. I remember being confused and upset that my mother was not spending as much time with me after my little brother was born. The yearning was real but apparently short lived as I got more and more siblings to play with over the coming decade. The eight of us kids ate meals 3x a day, sitting around a table (made from a door) that my uncle “the carpenter” had fashioned for our growing family, one side lined with a pew taken from a renovated church. There was always one round food and “2nds” went to who ever ate the quickest and grabbed it from the serving plate before it was gone, sometimes resulting in clanging forks and heated battles across the table. We were told and often yelled at to “turn off the G** D*** lights” and “shut the fridge door” quickly; being reminded of the costs of electricity and the burden of having to pay for these things it was too easy to take for granted by us kids.
General Principles:
The Survival Stage of development can actually happen at any age and simply means that the majority of a individual’s attention and resources are needed for satisfying their basic survival needs of food, shelter from the extremes of environment, and safety from predators.
Here in Canada and in many developed nations, most people have their basic survival needs met if they are unable to work and provide for themselves. Government programs provide the backbone of support through programs such as social assistance, disability services, employment insurance, senior’s allowances. Religious and charitable organizations attempt to fill in the cracks and holes in those programs, providing shelter and food services for the homeless and the despondent. Luckily most of us will never face true life and death survival needs but can come close to experiencing their realities under unusual circumstances. These include wilderness or survival camping, or if we get trapped in a snow storm or perhaps during prolonged power outages.
Magical Clans (Purple)
I was raised in a very religious Roman Catholic family. We went to church every Sunday, dressed in our Sunday best, and I became an alter-boy, and “served mass” from age 6 to 18, having learned the Latin responses and ceremonial rituals well enough to have my own serving day (Wednesday mornings), by the time I was 10.
For those not familiar with this notion of "serving mass", it refers to an alter boy (or girl) assisting the priest in the many details of the the church service. This includes assisting them with their long robes when they walked, retrieving the communion from the holy chamber in which it is kept, leading in the recitation of prayers and responses to the priest prayers, lighting and spreading incense, etc.
Steeped in the religion - serving 2 days a week, Catechism on Saturdays, and prayers and rosary before bed - I found that whenever I became distressed or scared, right up until my late teens, I would immediately begin reciting the "Hail Mary" or the "Our Father" prayer. And it worked; my Magical (Purple) stage mind was put deeply at ease as I imagined these divine entities caring for me and saving me from my (often imaginary) fears.
Please understand I am not saying that Christianity is a Magically based religion. All religions can be interpreted from any stage of development and the tensions and in-fighting within groups or factions of an organization (such as Christianity) can often be traced to developmental differences in the various factions.
General Principles:
This Magical stage of development has a Vision of reality that relies on ritual, superstition, deference to the elders and shamans, and what seems like fantasy-type stories and actions to make sense of and try and control a world that is large and overwhelming. It is pre-scientific and pre-rational, and not always, but often wrong. It does, however, show the resilience and audacity of the human spirit to become masters of its environment and not stay helplessly subject to the powerful forces of nature.
Our cultures still carries remnants of this magical world with it: Seven years of bad luck for breaking a mirror; throwing salt over your shoulder to ward old evil; “Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue” is a Wedding tradition passed on for centuries (or longer) which many people still follow. While these superstitions are relatively trivial, in my clinical practice I see the not so innocuous side of such feelings and magical beliefs. For example, many people suffering from anxiety disorders have a portion of their consciousness well embedded in the Magical world. I was initially quite surprised to find clients saying that they did not want to stop worrying about something, say the safety of their kids or husband, because they believed it was actually effective at stopping something bad from happening to their loved ones. Or believing that saying a fear out loud would make it more likely to actually happen. One last frivolous but very real world example of superstitious thinking: When I first started playing golf I learned that mentioning that someone in the group was having an awesome game was considered “a jinx” and such anomalies of luck was not to be talked about until after the round was over.
Power Dominance Hierarchy (Red)
Growing up as one of 7 boys (and girl), one of our favorite pastimes was wrestling and there was a definite hierarchy and pecking order amongst us all. We wrestled for hours a day until us oldest ones were into our mid teens. Sometimes we formally chose teams and did “tag-team wrestling” but more often than not we divided by total mass of bodies. It kept us tough and resilient and able to stand up to bullies and intimidation. Within the family my rather loud and large and intimidating father was at the top of the dominance hierarchy, and the rest of us boys ranked, essentially by age and weight, and ruled accordingly.
The ones "lower" on the pecking order got snacks for us, did the worst chores, didn't get seconds when food was short, and took some random abuse depending on the moods and temperament of those higher up the ladder. The Power Dominance Hierarchy was clear and mediated by brotherhood, loyalty, fear, intimidation, and an occasional good beating to keep the statuses defined and clear. I remember being 16 years old, traveling in my dad’s 1970s station wagon with the wood veneer siding, with my brother, to drink and party with his friends at the lake. He was upset about something and as was his disposition, was being verbally and emotionally abusive. I took a lesson from the recent social interactions I had seen played out at the lake, mustered up some courage, and did my best to swear and push back against his onslaught, hoping he would stop and leave me alone. He stopped the car, got out, and gave me a beating and I learned quite viscerally, not to ever challenge him again (which I didn’t, that is until he took some shots at my girlfriend and now wife, in my early 20’s, but that’s another story).
I have mixed feelings about this era of my life. It was wonderful to be and feel part of a pack, a move as a collective, and know that each of us (and our cousins), had each other’s back if we were ever threatened or in trouble in some way. On the other hand I can also see that each of us siblings acquired deep trauma experiences that deeply affected each of us into our adulthood. It took me years to be able to relax passing through a doorway (and not expect to be punched in the shoulder). It was deep in meditation, exploring somatic body pains and tensions, that I flashed back to many trauma-type experiences of my youth: Being held down and having my sternum or forehead tapped over and over and over or having my limbs pinned while someone else tickled me into a crying rage. The feelings of helplessness and vulnerability (and pent up rage) affected me for decades before I found and released them. It also took me years to shift my sense of humor to not include a cutting semi-true, semi-hurtful comment. It was a very useful skill for the covert male-dominance dances that often accompanied social conversations back in that era…. Not so useful now-a-days where even apparently neutral utterances can hurt and offend people and end relationships.
General Principles:
The Vision of the Power Dominance stage of development is to organize a group of mammals into a cohesive collective that can work together to achieve goals without any real morality for beings outside the “pack”, “gang”, or “family”. Internally members are kept in line by principles of brotherhood and loyalty, but also force and intimidation by the dominant “alpha” when necessary.
We see this power-dominance impulse oriented consciousness still operating in the urban gangs and various Mafias woven into the fabric of our present civilization. Its also present in the behaviour and psychology of people on certain drugs or with drug addictions. We also see it in the fierce support, loyalty, and antics of loyal fans of sports teams facing off against their rivals. Sometimes its all for show and fun, but in come countries and situations wins and losses can lead to violence and destruction in the aftergame activities as members of the “warring tribes” “express themselves”.
Butt slaps in sports is a fascinating and confusing phenomena for the youth of today raised in the highly sexualized and individuated culture of today. Back in my day it was common, even outside sports, and served very much like the fist-bump or high-five of today; the temporary dissolving of a personal space boundary to affirm connection, support, and motivation from one member of an in-group to the other. You had to be a member of the group to do it and if not it was taken as an affront and could lead to confrontation and fights.
The power-Dominance mentality is unfortunately also built into our model for capitalism, in which the psychopathic definition of a corporation (legally mandated to put profit before all other values) has created a ruthless “survival of the fittest” mentality in the market place. Dominant corporations continue consuming less agile and able ones and move towards single monolithic entities that emerge and dominate each area of commerce including media, medicine, agriculture, banking, etc.
Traditional Rules and Roles (Blue)
As I indicated in the Magical section of this blog, the Christian tradition and values were a major part of my early up-bringing. My family was the perfect example of the 1950’s and 60’s Traditional Western family. On the outside we looked like the perfect family: working father, loving mother, lots of kids, living close to extended family, parents had lots of friends and also involved in community clubs and organizations. Dad was on the board of the Knights of Columbus, A Christian Charity which among other community services, built and managed a 3 story seniors apartment in the area (Two of my brothers still help manage it). My mom was the organist at our church for over 50 years before retiring. On the Inside of the family persona however there was considerable fighting, yelling, anger, tension, frustration, tears, and crying. “The gap” between the social persona and internal reality was true for every family for which I had inside knowledge (i.e., friends with the kids). When I was young I experienced The Gap as hypocrisy and was one of the reasons why I started looking outside of the Christian community for spiritual guidance.
As we grew older, the teachings of the Church, the guidance and feedback of our parents, the conditioning of school and friendships, slowly shifted us kids out of relating to life through a purely dominance mentality. We basically matured into “upstanding citizens contributing to society”. We had always shoveled snow off the steps and sidewalks of our neighbors, helped in their gardens, cleaned our rooms, took turns doing dishes after meals, delivered papers down the street, etc. Over time as that way of being became more and more foreground we stopped using power, intimidation, and threats as a primary mode of organization and decision making. More importantly we stopped reverting to fighting to settle disputes when we were upset, and learned to talk and compromise on activities and decisions. We all fell in line with the patriarchal structure of our family and in spite of the sheer mass of 8 children pushing boundaries, there were a few lines we learned we could not cross (if we wanted to live at home). A major one was that no matter how late we were up partying or snowmobiling or drinking around a campfire, everyone got up to attend for Sunday mass. Oddly enough we mostly chose the 9:00 a.m. mass, because getting up and going early for 50 minutes was much easier than sitting through the 1.5 hour long (because of the music and singing) “High mass” at 11:00 a.m., with a hang-over or no sleep.
General Principles:
The Vision of Traditional Stage Consciousnesses is to reign in the impulsive, immediate-gratification nature of the Power Dominance mentality and provide a structure and template for people to become (or at least act like) good citizens and members of society. The gap between a family’s social image and what goes on behind closed doors is a defining characteristic of the Traditional stage. A primary characteristic of this stage is of constantly “seeing yourself and you imagine others are seeing you”. Hence there is a often a lot of judgement and self (and other) criticism in this stage.
As I have matured in my understanding I have come to be less reactive to “the Gap” and now see it as an indicator of health. Its not so much a hypocritical “false self” but an idealized self that everyone is aspiring to grow into. All the “lower urges” such as expressing anger, hitting, fighting, excess alcohol consumption, potential sexual impropriety, etc., which were part of the Power Dominance Hierarchy level of development, are now marked as shameful and inappropriate. The first level of containment is in public spaces, and the next is in personal spaces. So first “The Gap” is hidden and then it is reduced. Eventually, the being(s) mature and the lower impulses are all “under control”. The person actually develops into a healthy, functional member of society, both in public and private spaces. There is no longer a gap.
This stage still embraces the black and white type thinking of the previous Power Dominance stage and that thinking is still very emotionally based. You either belong to my tribe or you don’t. You are with us or against us. The Christian church came into being as this stage of development was emerging in the civilization and is responsible for many of the atrocities of the Church - the murderous Crusades, the hanging and burning of enemies, executing Joan off Arc for wearing men’s clothing, etc. All signs of this stage of development rather than Christianity per se.
Traditional conscious emigrated from Europe and was the backbone of the USA and Canadian cultures. Its took families functioning as a well-oiled machine to survive the hard work needed to survive the new lands and often harsh climates. It took that “nobler than thou" and “objectification of other” consciousness to take the land from the natives, break promises and treaties, and still feel like they had the moral high ground. In the bigger picture Traditional consciousness is the “ordering” component of the dynamic dance between order and chaos that ebbing and pulsing evolution of life.
Note: At this stage, all emotions, not just the anger and lower impulses, are repressed. Embracing and expressing the social emotions of happiness and sadness does not begin until the Post-Modern Relational Stage.
(To be continued: See Part B for Modern and Post-Modern Stages of development and how Happiness is the Great Equalizer of development)