Catching Up With Ken Wilber: Part Four

Proof of purchase.

“...the evolution of consciousness...[is a tale of] the growth and development of the mind as a series of unfolding stages or waves.  Few of these developmental schemes are rigid, linear, clunk-and-grind models portrayed by their critics.  Development is not a linear ladder but a fluid and flowing affair, with spirals, swirls, streams, and waves...” (page 5)

So it is that Wilber integrates Spiral Dynamics into the four quadrant system in A Theory of Everything.  Before explaining the stages of consciousness, in a slightly different manner than in Sex, Ecology, Spirituality, Wilber makes a subtle but important point.  Stages of consciousness mean that there are higher and lower stages or memes.  It is inherently a hierarchy (has depth).  But Wilber does not want the reader to think of “lower” stages/memes as “dumber” or “lesser” compared with “higher” stages/memes.  Every stage/meme is/was important to human development in its own way.

But...and this is a big but...“every individual has all of these memes potentially available to them.”  (page 7, Wilber's emphasis)  So, when Wilber talks about deeper stages of consciousness he is not being critical of stages without as much depth.  It isn't a judgment of superiority or inferiority.  You cannot really say adolescent consciousness is "better" or "worse" than elderly consciousness.  It is a simple question of where people are in their individual expression and experience of consciousness.  And we are all over the place.  

Spiral Dynamics assigns a color code to each stage or level of consciousness.  Wilber tinkered with the colors a little bit after A Theory of Everything but, for now, he follows the traditional spiral colors, augmented by the work of Clare Graves and Robert Kegan.  Wilber offers these stage/memes as where the world stood in the year 2000, the end of the 20th century.

• Beige: Archaic-Instinctual.  Basic survival. 0.01% of the world population.  0% of the power.
• Purple: Magical-Animistic.  Ethnic tribes and spirits.  10% population and 1% power.
• Red: Power Gods.  Feudal empires.  20% and 5%.
• Blue: Mythic Order. Life has all-powerful meaning and purpose.  40% and 30%.
• Orange: Scientific Achievement.  The power of Reason.  30% and 50%.
• Green: The Sensitive Self. Egalitarian pluralism.  10% and 15%.

(Never mind that Wilber's population percentages add up to 110.01%, I guess there's some room for waffle there, keeping moving.) These make up what Wiber terms “first-tier” consciousness, representing human development up to the present day.  But Wilber sees something wondrous ahead.  

“With the completion of the green meme, human consciousness is poised for a quantum jump into 'second-tier thinking.'  Clare Graves referred to this as a 'momentous leap,' where 'a chasm of unbelievable depth of meaning is crossed.'  In essence, with second-tier consciousness, one can think both vertically and horizontally, using hierarchies and heterarchies. (both ranking and linking).  One can therefore, for the first time, vividly grasp the entire spectrum of interior development, and thus see that each level, each meme, each wave is crucially important for the health of the overall Spiral.” (page 11)

This sounds glorious, of course.  Not just a new era of consciousness but a novel way of consciousness.  But, we are still here, short of the “momentous leap” though our present moment certainly appears to be ominous.  We are all still first-tier passengers, as it were.  And that presents a problem.  Wilber flat-out says none of the first-tier memes can “fully appreciate the existence of the other memes.  Each of our first-tier memes thinks that its worldview is the correct or best perspective.  It reacts negatively if challenged, it lashes out, using its own tools, whenever it is threatened.” (page 12)  This is at odds with Wilber's accentuation of "transcend but include" in Sex, Ecology, Spirituality, reflecting a slight shift in his thinking.

Wilber optimistically writes that two second-tier memes (Yellow: Integrative and Turquoise: Holistic) are “definitely on the way.”  He claims that “less than 2 percent of the population” are at second-tier thinking and that this is now the “leading-edge” of consciousness development.  But, once again, humanity as a whole is scattered over a wide range of memes.  Each of which apparently feels superior to the others, or at least threatened by the others.  This creates all sorts of problems with groups getting along in the modern world but the fact remains...

“No amount of orange scientific evidence will convince blue mythic believers; no amount of green bonding will impress orange aggressiveness; no amount of turquoise holism will dislodge green pluralism – unless the individual is ready to develop forward through the dynamic spiral of consciousness unfolding.” (page 14)  It is critical to understand that people we disagree with at different memes simply cannot comprehend our level, just as we fail to fully understand theirs.  There is a hierarchy of consciousness. Again, Wilber does not intend this as a judgment on any meme.  Rather, it is important to recall that all people theoretically have these memes available to them. This is Wiber's statement of realistic hope.
 

A Theory of Everything is a shorter book (182 pages) than the length of the endnotes (!) in Sex, Ecology, Spirituality.  Yet, it is a densely packed read.  Wilber's writing is not difficult, quite the contrary.  But there are a lot of novel concepts coming at the reader.  After Spiral Dynamics we are introduced to the concept of “boomeritis.”  Boomeritis is the title of a novel Wilber wrote featuring a narrative that depicts what Wilber means by the term, which is essentially a dissatisfaction with how the green “leading edge” stage of consciousness failed to lead.

According to Wilber, as one develops higher through stages of consciousness one become less egocentric and more able “to take other people, places, and things into account” evolving from a “me” perspective into an “all of us” perspective.  Failure to grow in this manner is a major source of narcissism today.  This failure comes from “dominator” hierarchies rather than “actualization” hierarchies, as discussed in Sex, Ecology, Spirituality.  

Boomeritis is a pathology that occurs within the green meme – the pluralistic, worldcentric perspective infused with “low emotional narcissism.”  This “strange mixture” wherein the pluralistic meme “becomes a shelter and a haven for the reactivation of some of the lower and intensely egocentric memes.” (page 27)  This is “one of the primary roadblocks to an integral embrace.”

Five years after writing somewhat hopefully about postmodernism's opportunity to address some of the problems with “flatland” rationality, Wilber now believes postmodernism is infected with boomeritis (among other things) and, thus, cannot lead consciousness forward.  No sooner does he point out this problem with postmodernity, however, than he offers a ray of hope.  Boomeritis has infected the “Boomer generation” (hence the name).  But, that generation (mine, actually) is now aging and with age comes the possibility of addressing this problematic narcissism.  

Referring to the work of sociologist Paul Ray, Wilber indicates that 24 percent of America's population are “cultural creatives.”  These creative people, many of whom were narcissistic in their youth, are now presented with an opportunity.  “As the cultural creatives move into the second half of life, this is exactly the time that a further transformation of consciousness, from green into mature second-tier awareness, can most easily occur.” (page 31)  The “cure” for boomeritis is also the “catalyst” for conscious transformation.  If enough boomers accentuate their pluralism while addressing their narcissism, then the worldcentric driver of consciousness can steer forward without hindrance from “reactivated” egocentric memes.

One reason to be hopeful, according to Wilber, is because boomeritis is inherently frustrating and such anguish is essential in motivating an individual to change.  “...there has to be some sort of profound dissatisfaction with the present level; one has to be agitated, annoyed, frustrated with it, so that a deep and conflicted dissonance insistently arises.” (page 35)  There is certainly no shortage of existential angst in my generation and it seems to be even worse in younger ones.

This is precisely what is being experienced within the radicalized green meme, especially as it pervaded and overwhelmed academia, the arts, and the media too.  Postmodernism took over with “authoritarian thunder,”  with identity politics and political correctness running amuck.  “It claimed that all truth was culturally situated (except its own truth, which is true for all cultures); it claimed there were no transcendental truths (except its own pronouncements, which transcend specific contexts);  it claimed that all hierarchies or value rankings are oppressive and marginalizing (except its own value ranking, which is superior to alternatives); it claimed there were no universal truths (except it own pluralism, which is universally true for all peoples).” (page 37)

Therefore, the integral vision of consciousness was (and, in hindsight, remains today, 20 years later) threatened (as always with new stages of consciousness) by an odd new world of narcissism and nihilism (there are no truths outside of culture).  For all the preaching of the importance of “transcending but including” in Sex, Ecology, Spirituality, nothing of the kind has happened (yet).  

Wilber doesn't rely upon the phrase “transcend but include” in A Theory of Everything.  Instead, he barrows from Star Trek and writes about “the prime directive.”  Which advocates an “all-quadrant, all level” (AQAL)  approach to life.  This is simply reasserting the fact that ALL memes of consciousness are important and that green pluralism in its boomeritis expression is flawed.  The prime directive asserts that “...each meme...is, in its healthy form, an absolutely necessary and desirable element of the overall spiral, of the overall spectrum of consciousness...The health of the entire spiral is the prime directive, not preferential treatment for any one level.” (page 56, again, all quoted emphasis is Wilber's)

While the green meme is infested with boomeritis and proclaims “there is no truth,” an integral vision of individual and collective consciousness realizes that “higher” levels of consciousness are not privileged over foundation levels.  Growth hierarchies need all levels.  Take the Eiffel Tower, for example.  If you remove or damage any of the tower's supporting structure then the whole thing comes crashing down.  It is no different with the integral vision of consciousness.  All prior stages (red, blue, orange) are necessary prerequisites in order to get to worldcentric green.  Dismissing this essential order of growth, green's narcissism and nihilism (a dominator hierarchy) is clearly pathological.

Let's review our present mess, which is in some ways worse now than it was in 2000.  For example, the extent of narcissism among people who were born around the time A Theory of Everything was published is far worse today than it was 20 years ago.  For all Wilber's hope in addressing our pathologies, things seem to be developing in a non-integral fashion.  Mythic blue takes the teachings of sacred texts (Moses parted the Red Sea) as empirical fact.  Rational orange reduces all interiors of reality into “flatland” exteriors, objects without any real subjects at all.  Pluralistic green, as mentioned above, says everything is culturally relative and there are no universal truths.  Period.  Is it any wonder that our present-day world seems highly dysfunctional?

Wilber advocates AQAL as the only way for an integrated conscious to deal with all of these issues while, importantly even critically, respecting the value and contribution of each of these memes.  Mythic brings (or should) meaning, reason brings (or should) knowledge, pluralism brings (or should) inclusive diversity.  “My thesis is simply this: deep spirituality involves the direct investigation of the experiential evidence disclosed in the higher stages of consciousness development.” (page 77)  AQAL merits contemplative investment in human interiors to the same degree that objective exteriors are studied and understood.  

This is a balanced, integrated approach to science and religion, to reality and life.  “To this day, religion tends to be identified with blue mythic-membership beliefs and science tends to be identified with an intensely antireligious stance.  My point is that both of them need to relax their narrow, shallow zealotry and open themselves to the good science and deep spirituality of higher waves of existence, where they both can find a deepening accord.  This would be a postconservative, postliberal spirituality.” (page 82)

Wilber then proceeds to write about what AQAL might look like in the realms of politics, medicine, business, and education.  Inclusiveness and mutual respect are essential in all areas.  Unfortunately, what we have seen in the unfolding of consciousness so far is a reduction at every level.  Politically, liberalism reduced interiors to exteriors by proclaiming that you can have “equality or freedom” but not both.  Likewise, medicine largely views human beings as mechanisms for treatment, basically turning physicians into glorified automobile mechanics.

The four quadrants as exhibited in humans.  Note the Upper-Left has changed since Sex, Ecology, Spirituality to incorporate Spiral Dynamics.

We are back to the Left-Hand quadrants being dominated by the Right-Hand side of the quadrants.  “And although all of these interior waves have exterior correlates in the world of nature, they cannot be reduced to those exteriors; they cannot be reduced to nature.  To do so is simply to embrace yet another flatland: the monochrome world of Right-Hand reality, the empirical-sensory Web of Life.  That is ecological reductionism at its worst – reducing the entire Kosmos to the Lower-Right quadrant...” (page 98)

With the functional nature of modern technology, these human pathological traits become even more pronounced.  “...one of humanity's constant nightmares has been that technological growth in the Right-Hand quadrants has always run ahead of the Left-Hand growth in wisdom, care, and compassionate use of that technology.  In other words, exterior development has run ahead of interior development.” (page 103)

The stakes could not be higher.  “Today, with the rise of powerful second-tier technologies – from quantum-level energy production to artificial intelligence (robotics) to a systematic genetic engineering to nanotechnology unleashed on a global scale – humanity is once again faced with its most primordial nightmare: an explosive growth in Right-Hand technologies has not been met with an equivalent growth in interior consciousness and wisdom.  But this time, the lack of integral growth might signal the end of humanity itself.” (page 104)

Indeed, writing two decades later, Yuval Noah Harari has proclaimed such a possibility in Homo Deus, a book I reviewed awhile back.

But that does not have to be the story of humanity or, at least, the technology revolution can be accompanied by sufficient wisdom (Harari admits this possiblity).  “An integral synthesis, to be truly integral, must find a way that all major worldviews are basically true (even though partial).  It is not that the higher levels are giving more accurate views, and the lower levels are giving falsity, superstition, or primitive nonsense.  There must be a sense in which even 'childish' magic and Santa Claus myths are true.  For those worldviews as simply the way the world looks at that level, or from that wave, and all of the waves are crucial ingredients of the Kosmos.” (page 111)

Wilber stresses that green's recognition of human diversity, while (partially) true, has led us “...merely at the stage of celebrating diversity, we ultimately are promoting fragmentation, alienation, separation and despair.  You go your way, I'll go mine, we both fly apart...It is not enough to recognize the many ways in which we are all different; we need to go further and start recognizing the many ways that we are also similar.  Otherwise, we simply contribute to heapism, not wholism.” (page 112)

Once again, he discusses the work of Francis Fukuyama, who infamously proclaimed the “end of history.”  He simply points out that, for all Fukuyama's insight, 70 percent of the world's population cannot relate to “the end of history” because they are at stages of consciousness that “prefers variations on archaic, magic, and mythic” understanding of the world.  Similarly, Samuel P. Huntington's “clash of civilizations” only takes into account the “horizontal playing field” without regard to “the vertical levels of development (e.g. purple, red, blue, orange, green, yellow)...He is giving us a surface reading of the very real territories that are today present, but he is not giving us a deep developmental analysis of the infrastructures of those blocks.” (page 119)

The bottom line here is what we already covered in Sex, Ecology, Spirituality, a person or culture can only manifest wisdom at whatever stage of consciousness they find themselves.  “Even if a blue nation wanted to move to green pluralism, it structurally cannot do so...only with correlative interior developments can exterior developments be implemented and sustained.” (page 122)  We need more than advanced knowledge and technology.  We need wisdom to accompany it.  That only comes from a respect for and inquiry of the interior quadrant, exactly what everyone tends to ignore.

Using Huntington as a springboard, Wilber now develops the concept of “the mean green meme.”  Wilber agrees with much that Huntington says with regard to human development.  “...the bulk of the world's population is ethnocentric, and will likely so remain for the indefinite future (as it has been for millennia)....the center of gravity in various civilization blocks is heavily ethnocentric, and, due to the pyramid of development, these ethnocentric clusters will always be powerful (and often dominant) factors in individual and cultural consciousness.” (page 123) [As an aside, and as noted previously, this explains the intensely reactionary rise of Donald Trump in America, the basis of Wilber's 2017 book on the subject.]

Wilber informs the reader that a common saying within Spiral Dynamics is “green dissolves blue.” Further, since 1970, green has done more harm to human development than any other meme.  This is a major departure from the hope that Wilber seemed to hold for “leading-edge green postmodern thought” in Sex, Ecology, Spirituality.  Wilber has given up on green being able to help solve the problems of the flatland objectified world filled with nihilism and narcissism.  As with everything, however, Wilber thinks green is partially correct.

“It is not that what green is saying is wrong; it is simply a case of bad timing.  The world at large – and much of America – is simply not ready for green pluralism.  More than that, as Huntington quite correctly points out, no civilization in history has survived with a pluralistic agenda...until more than 10 percent of the population is actually at the green wave, then the cultural center of gravity will be heavily pre-green....green dissolves blue, it cripples the spiral of development.  It makes it absolutely impossible for purple and red to develop further, because there is no blue to accept the development.  Green is thus horribly damaging the overall spiral of human unfolding, here and abroad, and thus erasing much of the undeniable good that green can, and has, done on its own.” (pp. 123 – 124)

Here I have a problem with Wilber.  Certainly, “green dissolves blue” from the perspective of green.  And certainly this is harmful, generating all sorts of impediments to human development.  But, I'm not sure that green dissolves blue for blue or purple or red.  They haven't arrived at that stage of consciousness yet.  So I don't readily see how a stage can be obliterated from the perspective of another stage's future.  If green could really “dissolve” blue for lower memes then the whole of human development would be lost and that seems just flat-out misguided. 

Where do all the "blue" people - 40% of the population apparently - go if their stage is "dissolved"???  This is actually an intriguing question.  I'm thinking if green dissolves blue for blue then blue reverts and reintegrates to red.  Perhaps that is what we are seeing now in America.  A dissolution of mythic ethnocentric regressing into prerational feudalism and the belief in power gods.  Hmmm.

Besides, in Sex, Ecology, Spirituality Tenet 9 states very clearly that “Destroy any type of holon, and you will destroy all of the holons above it and none of the holons below it.”  (page 61) If green really does “dissolve” blue it will destroy itself (and orange and second-tier too).  So, I don't agree with Wilber at all here and his concern about green making it impossible for the red meme to develop because there is no longer any blue is, frankly, silly.  At any rate, the adversarial nature of green toward blue (and vice versa) should be the main point for now.

The mean green meme (and blue animosity toward green) was all-pervasive in 2000 and it remains so today, resulting in the horrific culture wars now playing out in America and the world.  “The green meme has been in charge of academia, the cultural elite, and much of liberal politics for the past three decades [note: now five], but it is being challenged on all sides (its internal self-contradictions, its failed political agenda, the harsh intolerance of the politically correct thought police, its claim to be superior in a world where nothing is supposed to be superior, the nihilism and narcissism of extreme postmodernism, an aggressive marginalization of holarchies and thus its lack of an integral vision).” (page 125)

Wilber's answer to all this is not to halt anything that is happening in the world.  Technology can still advance.  Diversity can still be celebrated.  Reason can continue to thrive.  Mythic meaning can proceed with establishing purpose for most of humanity.  It cannot be otherwise from a genuine AQAL perspective. The only thing that needs to truly change is that more individuals need to explore the otherwise ignored interior depth of their humanity, the seat of wisdom.

“Unless there is Left-Hand development alongside Right-Hand development - unless we put as much attention on our development of consciousness as on the development of material technology – we will simply extend the reach of our collective insanity.” (page 130)

And “insanity” is precisely the word for the world today, even more so than in 2000, making A Theory of Everything more relevant today than when it was published.  

Only by evermore people contemplating and cultivating their interior experience can we get past the mean green meme, avoid the flatland of orange rationality and the prerational problems of purple, red, and blue.  Wilber classifies this as deep religion.  “...the frequency of those experiences will become more and more common as the center of gravity of humanity slowly drifts higher and higher.  The prerational religions were dominant in the past, in premodern times, but the transrational religions are on their way, destined to descend on a collective humanity with a global consciousness at their core.” (page 134)

(A brief mention should be made as to Wilber's constant reference to "the center of gravity" in consciousness.  Every person/culture is, in fact, at multiple levels of consciousness and, of course, has all levels "available" to them.  A person/culture usually has aspects of red, blue, orange and green within their consciousness.  But each person/culture tends to gravitate toward one specific meme.  That is what Wilber means by "center of gravity."  It is the lens through which you comprehend life.)

Wilber's hope for “transrational religions” makes sense within the context of Integral Theory but, obviously today, twenty years after he first wrote these words, we still don't seem to have anything other than a possible glimmer.  These religions remain out of our reach and the green-blue culture war relentlessly rages on.

Be that as it may, I will once again advocate that the benefit of reading Wilber is not whether or not he has latched on to “the truth.”  Rather, it resides in how useful what he is pointing out might be in your life.  He ends A Theory of Everything with a suggestion for life practice which, to me, is immensely useful.  He calls it “Integral Transformative Practice” (ITP) and nothing could be more relevant to the intimate and ultimate challenges facing us today.  Transformation is exactly what is needed because the mythic/postmodern world has clearly become insane.  The practice is based on a simple premise.

“...the more aspects of our being that we simultaneously exercise, the more likely that transformation will occur.  In other words, ITP attempts to be as 'all-level, all-quadrant' as possible.  The more you do so, the more likely you are to transform to the next higher wave.  If you are at blue, this will help you transform to orange.  If you are at green, this will help you move to second tier...

“Start with self: the waves of existence (from physical to emotional to mental to spiritual) as they appear in oneself can be exercised by a spectrum of practices: physical exercise (weightlifting, diet, jogging, yoga), emotional exercises (qi gong, counseling, psychotherapy), mental exercises (affirmation, visualization), and spiritual exercises (meditation, contemplative prayer).

“But these waves of existence need to be exercised – not just in self (boomeritis!) – but in culture and nature as well.  Exercising the waves in culture might mean getting more involved in community service, working with the hospice movement, participating in local government, working with inner-city rehabilitation, providing services for homeless people.  It can also mean using relationships in general (marriage, friendship, parenting) to further your own growth and the growth of others...Getting actively involved in respect for nature, in any number of ways (recycling, environmental preservation, nature celebration) not only honors nature, it promotes our own capacity to care.” (page 138)

Wilber closes A Theory of Everything by recommending other books by a variety of authors.  To learn more about ITP, he recommends his own works, One Taste (2000) and The Life We Are Given (1995), neither of which I have read.  That may change in the near future.  As for this book, while I don't “buy” it all without question I do believe that “exercising” all aspects of your life has tremendous merit.  As a life-long contemplative person, I have learned that more than likely no one has it all correct and, equally, no one has everything wrong.  By concentrating on our similarities, while acknowledging our differences, we can see the world in a different fashion.  By approaching life from a four-quadrant perspective, we discover and grow every aspect of ourselves and our world.  The benefits of that seems to me to be self-evident, beyond dispute, whether or not you ascribe to the color-coding of spiral dynamics or anything else.

Note: As I mentioned at the beginning, Wilber has tinkered with some of the colors in spiral dynamics since he integrated them in 2000.  One change is that “blue” is now “amber” which seems appropriate given the color transition from red (ego power) to now-amber (mythic) to orange (rational).  Today he continues to fine-tune Integral Theory by including the ideas of others.  The more (inclusive) the merrier.