Principles of the Evolutionary Process

• earlier vs. later

  Note: We use "earlier and later" vs. "lower and higher" to avoid the bias found in the latter.

  • rather than higher vs. lower

    • implicit assumptions

• no one is entirely at one stage or another

  • it's more like a probability

  • all stages are idealizations

  • every human being is a unique idiosyncratic representation of these mental models and never fits the model perfectly

  • if you're stressed then you'll be at the lower stage and if your life is going well then you'll probably peak experience one of the higher levels

• this is a scientific model

  • so it has it's limits

  • it can't handle every instance of life and the world

  • not every situation in the world can fit into this model

• all growth happens in separate lines of development

  • different lines of development can be at different stages of growth

  • There's no "stage development" without a particular line.

    • the levels of development never occur on their own, they are always levels of some line

• later stages aren't necessarily happier

• shadows develop at every stage

• later stages can understand earlier — but earlier can't understand later

  • it's pointless to try to get someone at an earlier stage to understand a later stage concept or way of viewing the world

• growth can't be forced

• these stages are the map NOT the territory

• the later the stage, the lesser the need for defending our perspective

• none of these stages are good are bad

  • they're all a necessary part of human development

• the hard part of this work is:

  • being humble enough to admit that there are stages that are higher and more developed as you

  • to a 1st grader who sees calculus on a chalkboard will seem like new-age woo woo that means nothing.

    • so not judging the higher stages is crucial

• each stage has the capabilities of the stages beneath it

  • transcend and include

  • key word INCLUDE

  • each stage builds on top of the previous stages

  • even advanced stages can still conform, to use the rational mind, they don't lose these abilities

  • the higher stages can understand the lower stages, but the lower can't understand the higher

• when you're stressed and in survival-mode you will regress stages

• mystical experiences can happen at any stages but the mind will interpret the experience in terms of whatever stage you're at

• Greuters model consists of mostly the cognitive line

  • what's being measured is your capacity to take perspectives

  • it's how you mind make sense of reality

  • this model relates to meaning making

• And Spiral Dynamics relates to what we value

  • what we deem as important and what we're driven by

• These aren't the only psychological models of development

• horizontal vs. vertical

  • horizontal could mean

    • getter better and better at business and expert skills

    • self-help is most often done on the horizontal level

  • vertical movement

    • much more difficult

    • requires more depth, effort and a longer vision

• The levels alternate between differentiation and integration

  • from impulsive differentiation of self - separate from everything else

  • to integration into a conformist mindset

  • to differentiation into a individualistic (expert/achiever)

• Note that each stage is it's own reality

  • why conservatives and liberals can't understand each other

  • every structural stage of belief systems are their own realities