A Dynamic Spiral

Briefly, what I am proposing is that the psychology of the mature human being is an unfolding, emergent, oscillating spiraling process marked by progressive subordination of older, lower order behavior systems to newer, higher order systems as an individual's existential problems change. Each successive stage, wave, or level of existence is a stage through which people pass on their way to other states of being.

 When the human is centralized in one state of existence, he or she has a psychology which is particular to that state. His or her feelings, motivations, ethics, and values, biochemistry, degree of neurological activation, learning system, belief system, conception of mental health, ideas as to what mental illness is and how it should be treated, conceptions of and preferences for management, education, economics and political theory and practice are all appropriate to that state.

Clare Graves was born in 1914. He was a professor of psychology and originator of a Level Theory of Human Development. His work was the foundation for Spiral Dynamics, which has got a lot of attention recently. It seems that my nature as a human is an emerging open ended system of awareness. Graves saw this process of stable plateaus interspersed with change intervals as never ending; I progress through this spiral with my consciousness which has no limits.

Graves's ideas about this way of knowing are being studied and used throughout the field of psychology. His work has opened the door for Ken Wilbur and others to establish a Theory of Everything, which is an integral vision for Business, Science, Politics and Spirituality.

What Graves is saying is that there are different levels of consciousness that are interacting in human form at the same time. I have a tendency to use race and religion and politics to judge the thoughts of individuals, but it is actually the level of awareness of self that distinguishes me from those around me. Each level of awareness has been or will be experienced by me, so I am really experiencing different aspects of my self and using them as tools for expansion. It's not my physical birth place or time or the color of my skin that creates diversity, it is my consciousness evolving in a never ending stage of growth.

When I apply Graves's theory to the present conditions that exist around the world, I clearly understand why peace is such an elusive state of being. There are so many levels of consciousness interacting with each other; the first stages or levels are interacting with higher stages and they are unaware of why, so the body consciousness fears the unknown and I resist instead of accepting. Change although it is a constant in human development is a threat to the body consciousness and the illusions created by it. Thoughts of separation guide my actions, and I do what I have always done, destroy instead of understand in order to become aware. The face of the world is filled with the blemishes of an ignorant and self-defeating separated body consciousness, but it is the method I choose to expand, it is not a death sentence it's consciousness creating awareness.

Consciousness continues to expand and my body consciousness does blend with my inner self at some linear point. My awareness of other levels of consciousness become apparent and I begin to experience them. When one self moves through time and accepts rather than rejects other levels of awareness I integrate with my entity. I am a dynamic spiral as Graves explains and I never out of sync regardless of my position within the spiral. There is no beginning or end, there is only the awareness that I exist in every aspect of it.

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