Thursday 22 March 2007

Pic of the day: Usually those peaks are pretty far away, though. (Screenshot: Oblivion.)

Turquoise peaks?

I am not really talking about the beauty of nature this time, sorry. Rather I am talking about human nature, or nurture, or some combination of the two.

There are several competing ways to describe the evolution of human culture, both through history and in the individual life. Regular readers will know that I like SPIRAL DYNAMICS for its simplicity and flexibility, as it can be used to describe an individual, a corporation, a nation or the world, only with gradually less precision the wider it spans.

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While Spiral Dynamics only seeks to portray stages, genius philosopher Ken Wilber also takes a hard look at states of mind. In addition to the normal waking mind, there are such states as dreaming, drunk, stoned and several meditative states. In principle these are to the side of normal consciousness rather than above or below (although I personally think the drunken state is fairly low). But even Wilber seems to admit that sometimes people can have "peak experiences" of higher stages of mind, which they experience as a temporary altered state instead. These peak experiences are interpreted when people return to their normal level, and integrated according to that level. Moving up to a higher level takes more than just tasting it. You need a broad base of connected understanding on that level, which you normally learn from others who are already there. For this reason, it is very hard for a culture (not to say a planet) to move on to the next level.

It is no big surprise that Wilber counts a couple of higher levels beyond those known by Spiral Dynamics. As far as anyone knows, only Wilber and a few others have experienced these levels firsthand, and I think it should continue that way for now. So back to Spiral Dynamics. The most common levels or stages in America are Blue and Orange, where the Blue (lawful) is mostly associated with Judaism and Christianity, while Orange is mostly associated with capitalism. In reality both business and religion can function on any level, but this is how people see it there. Here in Scandinavia Blue is fading quickly, and most people are privately Orange (opportunistic and rational) and officially Green (idealistic and cooperative). Only a few people anywhere are the next stage, Yellow (systemic, integral). These people tend to be dynamic leaders, philosophers and intellectuals. And evidently me, since I feel right at home with this kind of thinking.

Actually I am not entirely Yellow, but then again almost no one is entirely one color. Like in so many humans, my sexuality is less developed. But that is hardly a concern for you, my readers, nor indeed for anyone else. At least my relationship with food is fairly well integrated, unlike many other Westerners. And to be honest, I like it here. I am comfortable with my Yellow life, even though I know in theory that there is at least one higher level that is available for humans without any genetic modification. This is half randomly called Turquoise, and only observed in a few people, and then under doubt. (The doubt is partly because Turquoise in Spiral Dynamics theory is a society-based vMeme rather than individual-based. As such it is hard to express on your own.)

Mystics, which are generally more likely to experience altered states of consciousness without the use of dangerous drugs, may have touched the Turquoise stage in peak experiences for thousands of years, and some may have stayed there eventually. But again this is uncertain, since their experiences were interpreted according to the levels that were normal at their time.

I am starting to suspect that this is what happened to me too, with the random flashes of seeing people as equally real as myself. I mean, we all KNOW that other people are real, but it is a theoretical knowledge. We don't feel that this is true at all. We have to suffer the indignity that random people don't see how important we are, but we and our loved ones act according to our belief. We don't go out and club strangers to death to feed them to the dog, true. But neither do we give them our money, except as part of an agreement. (Tax is supposedly such an agreement, although it is by the majority rather than by the individual, and unsurprisingly most people do whatever is in their power, including outright lies, to keep it as low as possible, without a hint of remorse.) In general, our luxury has higher priority than the necessity of strangers. This is because our knowledge is purely theoretical, our experience is different.

Some Hindu book I read years ago (from the Bhaktivedanta book trust, I believe it was called, or perhaps it was from the International Society for Krishna Consciousness) said that the yogi sees the Oversoul in all living things. It was even nicely illustrated by a cute painting in which people, cows etc all had a brightly shining star or some such inside them. Again, I think this understanding is widespread, but the experience is not. Neither is it for me. But then a few times in my life it just happens. Perhaps I look at a cute woman and instead I see a human soul with so much potential and so many challenges, a life every bit as rich and varied as my own - in fact, it could have been me, if I had been born in a different body at a different time and place. We come from the same wellspring, only we got into different bottles. And then the second sight disappears and I am left vaguely disturbed.

I wonder if this may not be Turquoise moments. Judging from people who have met the Dalai Lama, for instance, this seems to be how he sees people. They have the unexpected experience of being important in his presence, while the opposite should have been true. He is after all a world famous man with little time to spare, and one would reasonably expect him to barely pay attention to anything less than a secretary of state or a cardinal. And yet the opposite is true: He pays more attention than your own mom. Rumor has it that the same holds true for Nelson Mandela, unlikely as this may seem. (Doesn't he come from a culture that said goodbye to spears and shields around 100 years ago at the most? And hasn't he spent many years of his life in prison?)

I don't have that effect on people, I am fairly sure. I don't even plan to. I like being Yellow, a moderate egotist taking care to practice my egotism in ways that do as little harm and as much good as I can without giving it up. But there is a whole dimension of understanding I can never get at this level, I think. If I had been a Turquoise, I would probably have been horrified at the thought of falling down to Yellow. It would be kind of like suddenly becoming a nationalist, or socialist or some such blindfolded and misguided person… ^_^