Originally posted July 25, 2007.

The Christian spiritual journey unfolds along paths of development (and overall consciousness) that we variously call levels, stages, altitude, or stations of life. Levels and stages are markers of development along a mode of individual development studied by psychologists or cultural/social development studied by anthropologists, philosophers, and other social scientists. An example of one such developmental theory is Spiral Dynamics Integral, a useful model for students of the culture and worldviews mode of collective development.

Ken Wilber’s use of the spectrum of light to characterize the levels of altitude in consciousness is another important contribution to our understanding of the ways that human nature evolves. Wilber speaks of stations of life (which sounds less hierarchical than a stage). Speaking about stations emphasizes that we all develop along our own distinctive journeys and many people spend much of their adult life at a particular station. And they have every right to do so as full participants in the Reign of Heaven.

In a very tangible sense, one level of development is not “better” or “worse” than any other; they are all authentic expressions of the Holy Spirit in our midst. However, generally the higher levels exhibit greater and wider levels of concern. Early levels are more personal (egocentric); later waves are concerned about values in an entire community (ethnocentric) to all the contents of space, time, and thought (Kosmocentric). As we progress in our spiritual journeys, we are able to take an increasingly wide number of perspectives on reality (i.e., Spirit raises us higher from very egocentric concerns to a sense of identity with the entire Body of Christ).

I do not endorse any one model of spiritual development exclusively. However, it is safe to say that generally the best guide to the spiritual journey is one that is most comprehensive, complete, and contains rich portraits of the widest number of perspectives. Integral Institute’s model is such an approach, and there are other integral maps with qualities to recommend. Whenever necessary, the contributors to this Weblog will try to make clear which model they are using so that interested readers can learn more about the underlying theoretical perspective.

Stations or stages of life

Here are some representative ways of talking about different waves of development. It uses the spectrum of light to identify the various altitudes of consciousness or their corresponding stages on the faith line of development…

Infrared (preconventional): archaic, symbiotic, survival-oriented. E.g., Archaic Consciousness. Primordial, prehistory, stone age. Christ, the Light of the World. Fowler’s Undifferentiated stage of faith.

Magenta (preconventional): magical orientation; clan or tribe-oriented. E.g., Magical Consciousness. Natural religion. Christ, the magician. Fowler’s magical stage of faith.

Red (conventional): power, self-expression, pleasure-seeking, authoritarian. E.g., Mythic Consciousness. Holy wars, the Crusades. Christ, the King. Fowler’s mythic-literal stage of faith.

Amber (conventional): Mythic-membership, conformist, moralistic. E.g., Mythic Consciousness. Traditional (Augustine, Luther, Calvin) to mythic-rational (Aquinas). Contemporary traditionalists. Christ, the Judge. Fowler’s conventional stage of faith.

Orange (conventional): Individualistic, rational, achievement-oriented. E.g., Rational Consciousness. Deism, natural law theology. The rational mind of Christ. Fowler’s individual-reflexive stage of faith.

Green (post-conventional): Pluralism, diversity, relativistic, inclusion-oriented. E.g., E.g., Fowler’s conjunctive stage of faith. E.g., Early Vision-Logic Consciousness. Liberation theology. Progressive churches. Postmodern. Relativistic. Christ, the liberator.

Teal (post-post conventional): Existential, beginning integral, systematic thinking, healthy hierarchy. E.g., E.g., Fowler’s Universalizing-Commonwealth stage of faith. E.g., Middle Vision-Logic Consciousness. Christ, the integrated bodymind. Fowler’s universal/commonwealth stage of faith.

Turquoise (post-post conventional): Mature integral, concerned not only with healthy hierarchy but with spiritual growth across all four quadrants of human nature. E.g., Later Vision-Logic Consciousness. Christ, the higher mind.

Indigo (post-post conventional): Communal expressions of integral, synergistic, health selves in community. E.g., Psychic Consciousness (Psychic). Christ, the psyche.

Violet (post-post conventional): Visionary, prophetic, inspired, subtle consciousness. E.g., Dark Night of the Soul (Subtle). Christ, the transpersonal soul.

Ultraviolet (post-post conventional): The presence of Christ, Kingdom of God in process. E.g., Christ Consciousness (Causal). Christ, the transpersonal Self or spirit.

Clear Light (nondual): “I and the Father are One”, presence of God unfolding in the world. E.g., Kingdom of Heaven (Nondual). Unity with Christ, Creator, and all Creation.

For more information, see “What is Altitude?”

Technorati Tags: Christianity, evolution, integral, spirituality, stages, stations

Originally posted May 3, 2007.

I’ve been attempting to discern in very concrete terms how shadow retrieval functions at post-conventional levels of consciousness. A common impression of some folks is that the green altitude, aperspectival awareness, is where shadow work is focused. However, I have seen people at all levels of consciousness benefit from shadow work. Rather than associating shadow work with any particular level, I see it as a function of self-immanence operating in each of the levels of consciousness. Let me unpack that a bit. Jesus’ teaching to love your enemy is, in essence, prescribing a radical form of shadow work: embrace the “enemy within” with Love and thereby heal your relationships with the “enemy without.” Nietzsche never understood shadow, and didn’t understand Jesus on the value of loving your enemy. Yes, it’s an impossible commandment. And yet it is, paradoxically, the heart of Christian spirituality.

As we embrace our shadow within, our growth through the stages is accelerated (at least this is true in my own experience). As we ascend through the stages of development, our shadow gets progressively lighter. Robert Bly speaks of “eating” the shadow. The shadow lightens, but remains ever present. A person at a red altitude of emotional development may repress anger, forcing it into shadow. Once that shadow work is healed, at that level, the load is lightened. However, if that same person is now at turquoise in emotional development, then that which is repressed is now transpersonal shadow. (The person still gets angry, jealous, or passes through states of fear. Those are emotions, not shadows. The integrally developed person gets angry at every level of awareness. Only if anger is disassociated does the shadow come into play).

The nature of shadow is quite different at transpersonal levels. The person at, say, indigo, may be unconscious of suffering (or Bliss) on the level of the World Soul/Kosmic Soul. The Universe bleeds, but the person happily bobbing along at indigo is in denial of the pain or joy in her or his own soul, which in truth is not separate from all beings.

Therefore, shadow work at transpersonal levels means you’re not so much reliving family traumas (that’s only necessary if your shadow is split off at lower levels within your psyche) but living (or reliving) transpersonal wounds and delights–the Christ crucifixion and the resurrection, karmic law, the Buddha returning to the realm of samsara in a quest to help all beings realize their own already awakened state.

I think there is still a 3-2-1 process of shadow work accessible at transpersonal levels of development. There is still an “I” (World Soul), a “We” (the World Soul and the self), and an “It/Its” (the World Soul’s shadow reincorporated into the self). Now that I put that in writing, I’m still not sure that I’ve got it down correctly. I need to keep working to wrap my mind around this issue.

If something like the 3-2-1 shadow work process can be done from the voice of the World Soul (and I believe it can), then that’s the path of moving from self to Self, moving from a narrow identification with the ego towards worldcentric and kosmocentric perspectives. However, I don’t have much practice in using 3-2-1 in this way. My own preference being for more psychodramatic performance as a way of walking through the transpersonal shadow, and opportunities for doing that sort of work are few. I’ll need to do more practice work before coming to more solid ground.

Technorati Tags: consciousness, integral, shadow, stages