Holons - (Quareness Series 52nd "Lecture").
In our modern "developed" world it can sometimes seem that the more information and access to information we have, the less learning we acquire. What might really be going on here?
I think it may have been Arthur C Clarke the science / science fiction writer who once floated the idea that a "common universe of discourse" would become impossible when everyone will have an enormously wide but shallow background of experience that overlaps only to a very limited extent, suggesting that knowledge without depth in sharing would destroy our ability to recognise quality or even to effectively communicate. And when we see the sheer volume of dross today masquerading as "informed" comment and "reality" entertainment, it's sorely tempting to agree.
Another - Ken Wilber an American philosopher - has addressed the implications for humanity of a lack of understanding of the depths of reality. He started with the notion that truth has interior, exterior, subjective, objective, individual and collective aspects, and he thought it likely the case that the greater the degree of development in a society, the greater the depth and the greater the burden of inclusion. Accordingly, societies with greater depth probably faced increasingly greater problems e.g. the gap between rich and poor, an exterior aspect quantifiable in money terms, is indeed a problem but a much more serious problem may be the interior gap in culture, consciousness and values – a gap between the depth offered as a potential by the culture and those who can actually unfold that depth in their own case.
As society develops and evolves (in its potential for members) more and more individuals may be left behind, marginalised, excluded from their own intrinsic unfolding and truly disadvantaged in their interior consciousness, value and worth. He concluded that unless we recognise degrees of consciousness and depth and value and worth and get away from the notion that everybody and everything has the same lack of depth, the whole shebang may unravel with some sort of massive and unpleasant adjustment. We could witness societal collapse if this cultural gap is not addressed and reduced. (This is one reason why that "one size fits all" approach of the authoritarian mindset, displayed in recent times in our own fair land with e.g. the so-called blanket anti binge drinking campaign, no drink driving and smoking ban moves, needs to be countered).
At each fulcrum point it seems that Evolution has always historically offered a choice between self transcendence (rising to a higher form of consciousness / existence, but one inclusive also of the earlier stages of evolvement) and self dissolution.
To assess the credibility or otherwise of the lesser known Wilber's view it might be useful to look at where / how it arises. He has chronicled the emergence of "integral" human consciousness and culture in recent times, describing such as the latest in a historic series of transformation stretching all the way back to the birth of humanity and bringing us through several distinct stages of consciousness - archaic, magical, mythic, rational, pluralistic and integral phases. And for him these major transformations have successively redefined our understanding of the human condition each and every step of the way, bringing more consciousness, more complexity and more compassion to just about every dimension of human knowledge and activity.
As he has put it - "The earlier stages are driven by what Maslow called 'deficiency needs': I am hungry, I lack food - I get food and hunger deficiency temporarily ends; I lack safety - I search for it; I lack belongingness - I seek it out; I have low self-esteem - I look for it. These are all needs and motivations driven by lack, by deficiency. But then there is that transformation to integral stages -- what Clare Graves called 'a monumental leap in meaning'. And suddenly one becomes so full and overflowing, that one's motivation switches from deficiency to abundance, or what Maslow called 'being drives'. Here one is motivated not out of lack, or scarcity, or poverty, but out of superabundance, fullness, overflowing as if someone put a million dollars in your bank account and your deficiencies evaporate. At these integral stages everything overflows and is deeply connected to everything else. The world becomes a single interwoven reality - One Gaia, One Spirit, One True Self, One Great Web of Being - and you are all of that. A wholeness, fullness, richness fills your being and overflows into the entire Kosmos, and you are driven by that profound connectivity to everything in the Universe. You love more, care more, have more compassion at wilder wider consciousness. And you are driven by a profound drive -- a being drive -- to help all people. Indeed all sentient beings find this Peace and Liberation and Love and Enlightenment and Awakening. Awakening to their truest and deepest and most profound Self and Reality. A Reality where all things are woven together into a fundamental unity and Divine Wholeness. And you will never be the same again".
He sees reality as composed of what he calls holons (i.e. wholes that are part of other wholes for example atoms..molecules..cells..organisms..and so on) and that each emergent holon transcends but includes its predecessors. The number of levels involved in any "stacked holons whole" (what he calls a "holarchy") determines whether it is shallow or deep, and the number of "horizontal" holons on any given level determines its "span". For him each successive level of evolution produces greater depth and less span, and greater depth gives a greater degree of
consciousness. He says that destroying any holon will destroy all of the holons above it and none below, but holarchies co-evolve and the micro is in relational exchange with the macro at all levels of its depth. And he sets all this in the notion that Evolution has directionality with increasing
complexity, differentiation / integration, organisation / structure and relative autonomy.
The implication is that we are now evolving towards an eventual single "humanity holarchy" which contains / enfolds all the levels or dimensions of our reality internal to it as part of its very being / make up...its compound individuality...and as part of this evolving process more and more of the Kosmos becomes internal to "our holarchy". And here we can begin to "logically" recognise the spirtual dimension to reality - whereas each level transcends and includes its predecessor, Spirit transcends and includes all...it permeates all of manifestation but is not just manifestation...it is ever-present at every level but is not merely a particular level or dimension...it transcends and includes all as the Ground or Emptiness of all manifestation...we could picture it as the highest rung of the ladder but also the wood out of which the entire ladder is made...it's the Goal and Ground of the entire sequence.
If all this is true, it means that the efficiency of our inevitable evolutionary progress depends largely on our own stewardship of all the lower level holons (being components of our very own make up) and harming such is not just some sort of external problem. Of course how we can avoid such harm in so many areas of our existence is still a matter of much controversy with the jury "still out" in many cases.
The American professor of psychology Dr Clare W Graves (again) wrote an article during 1974 for The Futurist magazine entitled "Human Nature Prepares for a Momentous Leap" in which he described an impending change in human consciousness that would be "…the most difficult, but at the same time the most exciting transition the human race has faced to date. It is not merely a transition to a new level of existence but the start of a new 'movement' in the symphony of human history". He had 7 years of field research plus almost 20 years of data analysis under his belt at that stage and his claim was not mere speculation. His theory was later used as the basis for the book Spiral Dynamics (Beck & Cowan, 1996) and most of his original research papers were eventually published as The Never Ending Quest (Cowan & Todorovic, 2005). Indeed his findings would go on to provide a "credible map" for the so-called "Archaic Revival" (courtesy of Terence McKenna, well-known philosopher and psychedelic pioneer).
According to Graves, humanity is indeed now in the process of a momentous leap in consciousness characterised in part by the re-emergence of archaic themes, and one of these themes is tribalism...not a regression to ancient tribalism but rather the emergence of one global tribe. He described human development as "an unfolding, emergent, oscillating, spiralling process" marked by progressive movement upwards through increasingly complex stages, this upward movement being an adaptive response to our changing life conditions. For him as our lives become more complex / more connected, we are prompted to develop higher, more complex thinking and behaviours in order to cope. With his special ability for pattern recognition, he discovered that the same change process and the same stages of development can be seen in the evolution of our species e.g....from hunter-gatherer to the present day...in the development of an individual from infant to adult...in the development of social groups. And the same pattern shows up at all scales...like a fractal.
Stages of development.
Initially Graves' data pointed to the existence of no more than seven stages of human development / psychological maturity (in line with all the theories back during the 1950s). However, he then began to notice that some people who displayed the "pinnacle" Stage 7 behaviour began to change to a more complex way of being, a further stage (8) which was entirely unexpected. He eventually concluded that human development is an open-ended process of adaptation, with more stages likely to emerge in the future.
For the present his 8 stages rising from Simplicity to Complexity are "mapped" as follows - Stage 1 Survival, Stage 2 Tribal, Stage 3 Egocentric, Stage 4 Authoritarian, Stage 5 Enterprising, Stage 6 Humanisitc, Stage 7 Integrative, Stage 8 Neo-Tribal. Stages 1, 3, 5 and 7 are seen as individual themes and 2, 4, 6 and 8 as community themes. And the current momentuous leap he talked about is that from 5 and 6 to 7 and 8.
From an individual’s perspective, we begin life at the Survival stage (1) where all our baby energy and attention is consumed simply doing what’s needed to survive. As we grow, we move into the Tribal stage (2) exploring family and extended family relationships and the associated customs and authority figures. And in the third Egocentric stage (3) we are taken up with exploring our personal power and identity, during which we naturally attempt (through teenage rebellion) to break away from the Tribal dynamics. Each new stage is nested over the top of the previous stages and each stage adds a new coping capacity for us. However, as life conditions demand, we can (and do) move down to operate from previous stages when appropriate.
With each new stage also a new worldview emerges with its associated interests, motivations and preferences, and transition from one stage to the next represents a major or transformational change.
Progression up through the stages is not "set in stone" but rather it's dependent upon our life conditions, including our personal history (conditioning) and the current challenges we face in life. The possibility of progress through our internal adaptation process can only arise if / where we’re challenged by new and more complex problems, and the capacities of our current stage don’t measure up to the task. For example moving from a quiet rural existence to a busy corporate job in the city can bring an increase in complexity and this kind of change can activate our adaptation process, which takes place at a deep internal level beyond the conscious mind. Yet still some people may not adapt, despite the different life conditions, and Graves concluded that we can become temporarily stuck, or even permanently closed off to the change process as a result of certain conditioning.
Many studies have shown that it’s not possible to skip over a stage of development i.e. they must be navigated in sequence. Each new stage builds upon the previous one and as we move from one stage to the next there’s a somewhat natural tendency to reject the values of the previous stage in favour of our new values. Another noticeable element from the "mapping" is that within the sequence of stages there is an alternating focus between themes of individuality (self-expression) and community (self-sacrifice). The odd and even numbered stages have a dynamic of swinging back and forth like a pendulum as we move upwards...reflecting the dynamic balancing of opposites (e.g. Yin and Yang) which we find in all natural systems.
The change process.
The experience of growing from one stage to the next takes us from stability at the older stage, through a stressful and chaotic journey where the old stage structure falls apart, and then on to reorganisation at a new and more complex stage. And there are two possible pathways of change - revolutionary which involves a breakthrough and a quantum leap and evolutionary involving a much earlier response and consequently a smaller correction. Change between stages typically follows the revolutionary path.
When we reach a point of stability and remain there, we eventually fall out of synch with our life conditions by default due to their constant changing. The resulting stress and chaos arise from the gap between what our life conditions are demanding of us and our actual capacity to cope...and the larger the gap, the greater is the impetus for change. During the chaos phase our old structures fall apart in preparation for reassembly into something new.
Like the pattern of stage progression this change pattern too is evident at all scales, from individual to group to our evolution as a species. In a way it resembles the rising and setting Sun and it's quite likely that many ancient cultures, realising this analogy, used the Sun as a spiritual icon to represent our human journey as well as the cycle of death and reincarnation / resurrection.
This change pattern is also the archetypal human experience...hero leaves home (stability) as the result of some call that disrupts a comfortable lifestyle...commits to the journey and faces tests and trials (stress)...at some point there's a major ordeal (chaos) and the hero undergoes a symbolic death and rebirth (crossing the barrier)...later emerging from the ordeal with a gift of some sort (renewal) and begins the journey home, where s/he is raised up on high (new stability) in recognition of their achievement.
Altered states and change.
"As a historical cultural phenomenon…anytime a transition in man has taken place there has always been a big upsurge in the use of drugs" - Dr. Clare W Graves, 1971.
The deliberate seeking of altered states of consciousness goes back to our earliest recorded history. Most cultures have some record of using sacred plants, meditation, sound or physical stress as a means to this end (e.g. for initiation, healing, divination, expansion of consciousness) and often this practice was part of a spiritual tradition potentially open to all. In his Integral Psychology (2000) Ken Wilber has explained that everyone, regardless of which stage of development they’re operating from, has daily access to the normal states of consciousness - the gross (waking), subtle (dreaming) and causal (deep sleep). But in an altered state a person may briefly access the subtle and causal states while still awake.
Altered states are often described as psychic or mystical and they can bring feelings or insights that are typical of these higher stages of development. And per Wilber personal growth to these higher stages involves, in part, the conversion of temporary altered state experiences into permanent realisations. With regular mindful practice in an appropriate setting, the insights gained through altered states can accelerate our personal development. It’s hardly surprising then that we’re naturally drawn to altered states, particularly during times of change.
According to the ancient Mayan Calendar 2012 heralds the end of a Long Count of 5,126 years and also the end of the Nine Underworlds cycle, which began with the creation of our universe. In his 1975 Timewave Zero theory Terence McKenna saw 2012 as a time of "maximized novelty" ("new or unfamiliar thing or experience’).
And according to Dr. Graves (who was simply observing human nature rather than trying to predict the future), the most significant change ever seen in human consciousness occurs during the transition from Stage 6 to Stage 7, and by extension when a critical mass of people reach this transition our world will experience extraordinary change. There is nevertheless some correlation between the themes of Graves’ human stages and the themes of some of the Mayan underworlds. There is also a similar pattern of time cycles in both the historical appearance of the underworlds and in the appearance of Graves’ stages, with each new underworld and stage being shorter in duration than the previous one.
While none of this provides conclusive evidence of "impending" significant change in relation to 2012, it is rather striking that Graves found a few people who’d already transitioned to Stages 7 and 8 (i.e. made a momentous leap in consciousness) way back in the 1950s...and that he understood the reasons why.
Stage 6 – preparing for the leap.
Graves noted that Stages 1 to 6 were all focused on us supporting ourselves in the world and that they all inevitably caused excessive behaviours. The challenges that trigger the emergence of Stage 6 come from the excesses of Stage 5 i.e. materialism and overconsumption, burnout from too much time and effort spent pursuing individual performance goals, a growing social gap between the haves and have-nots, domination of the powerless, short sightedness and too much individualism resulting in a sense of loneliness and a lack of community. And out of these perceived problems emerges Stage 6 behaviour, which attempts to bring things back into balance. Now this Stage 6 behaviour is community focused and values personal feelings and social connections. It believes everything is relative and that there are many truths, not just one. Decision making is by consensus, resources are shared and / or recycled and peace and harmony are highly valued.
During the Humanistic Stage 6, as well as focusing on the environment, community and social justice, there is also a strong desire to explore the inner workings of the human being. This leads to much introspection and we are drawn to revisit all of our previous stages on an internal level and to heal past traumas that are stored within our body and psyche...although one of the unfortunate side effects of this process is a greater tendency towards depression and self-harm. Nevertheless over the past few years we seem to have experienced an upsurge in Stage 6 behaviours around the world e.g. the popularity of social media, growing community concern for the Earth’s biosphere and resources, growing rejection of our Stage 5 (Enterprising) dominated economic systems, and the rise of social movements actively protesting against authority operating from earlier stage thinking. This evidence suggests we may be moving rapidly towards a critical mass of people being at Stage 6. Perhaps it's difficult to say how many will constitute such a critical mass, but with the aid of social media technology it’s probably less than it used to be.
Stage 7 – the leap.
Dr. Graves maintained that the coping capacity or "psychological space" of Stage 7 (Integrative) is greater than the sum of all the previous stages added together - a profound change in perception opening up a multidimensional awareness unlike anything that’s come before. Stage 7 is the first of what he called the "Being" levels, where our focus moves from a survival mindset to pondering who am I being in the world?
The challenges that trigger the emergence of Stage 7 come from the excesses of Stage 6 plus the compounding excesses of Stages 3, 4 and 5. Many social problems begin to overlap on each other, multiplying the degree of challenge e.g. depletion of natural resources, overpopulation, climate change and conflict. At the same time our understanding grows that while Stage 6 has good intentions, most of its attempted solutions are naïve and display an inability to comprehend complex adaptive systems. Indeed in some cases they may actually make things worse.
Stage 7 behaviour, characterised by an absence of fear as a motivating factor, and an absence of compulsiveness, in turn emerges out of these perceived problems. Faced with problems that would overwhelm others, Stage 7 moves beyond an objective, rational approach to a detached cognitive knowing...a kind of trans-rational intuition. And with detachment comes the capacity to deal with problems without being swamped by them.
In an echo of the Stage 1 survival themes but at a global level, Stage 7 sees an urgent need for the restoration of our world so that life in all its forms can ensure long-term survival. The Stage 7 approach is to consider the systemic whole, working simultaneously across multiple dimensions. It is highly adaptable and for the first time in known human history has the conscious ability to swap and change between different behaviour sets e.g. if a problem emerges that requires a typical earlier Stage solution, then Stage 7 can readily adapt to operate like say Stage 5. There's now some early evidence of growth in Stage 7 behaviours by humanity, even if it can be difficult to spot because of its chameleon-like adaptability. Nevertheless the signs are discernible in people who take a fearless approach, who are very accepting of others yet clear in their own mind as to what must be done, and who avoid battling against archaic systems and governments preferring instead to use minimal effort for maximum effect. These are the people who’ll build the new systems that'll make the old systems obsolete (to echo Buckminster Fuller) and when Stage 7 reaches critical mass our world will change radically and quickly.
Stage 8 – the neo-tribal revival.
The primary challenge that triggers the emergence of Stage 8 is how to establish a new way of living that’s in harmony with all human beings, other life forms and our planet’s natural systems. While Stage 7 sought to resolve the various crises that had arisen from the excesses of Stages 1-6, our thinking now turns to long-term stability. We begin to see the Earth as one complex living system with its own intelligence, and ourselves as an integral part of it all.
Stage 8 behaviour is characterised by "an almost mystical" nature which relies upon feelings and intuition much more than any previous stage. It embraces the mystery of existence and accepts that there are things we can never know...all we can really do is to simply be. Just as Stage 7 has similarities with Stage 1 survivalism, Graves saw that Stage 8 is a much more sophisticated version of Stage 2 tribalism. Now the tribe is humanity itself and our sacred land is planet Earth. There’s a trend towards a non-interfering minimalistic lifestyle that’s in harmony with nature, while maintaining all the advantages of our high technology. There’s also an acceptance that the human tribe includes a wide variety of people spread across the many stages of development. So sustainable living means acknowledging, nurturing and guiding all these different peoples, their cultures, worldviews and their interaction with the planet and its resources.
Like its "trigger" (7), Stage 8 can be difficult to see in the world due to its minimalistic approach and its chameleon-like adaptability. There is some evidence though of a neo-tribal revival across the planet, including a growing interest in neo-shamanism and the use of entheogenic plants as allies in our own evolutionary process. Those in the vanguard are people who exhibit the capacities and characteristics of Stage 7 but who are focused on intuitive feeling rather than knowing, who insist on cooperation and trust and who are mindful of long-term sustainability at a planetary level.
Our multi-layered unfolding.
“Today a great and unique opportunity faces every nation. Hitherto the problem of psychological integration, of intelligent living, of spiritual growth and of divine revelation has been approached solely from the angle of man, the unit. Owing to the scientific achievements of mankind (as a result of the unfolding human intellect), it is now possible to think in far wider terms and to see humanity in a truer perspective. Our horizon is extending into infinity; our eyes are no longer focussed upon our immediate foreground. The family unit is now recognized in relation to the community, and the community is seen as an integral and effective part of the city, state or nation. Dimly, and as yet ineffectually, we are projecting this same concept into the field of international relations. Thinkers throughout the world are functioning internationally; this is the guarantee of the future because only when men can think in these wider terms will the fusion of all men everywhere become possible, will brotherhood come into being and humanity be a fact in our consciousness.”
- Alice A. Bailey (English / American writer on Theosophy and Occult matters 1880 - 1949).
Based on Dr Graves’ research, the evidence suggests that we may indeed now be in a time of significant and rapid global change. However, history shows human evolution to be an emergent, oscillating, spiralling, unfolding process that ebbs and flows over time, so we're unlikely to see any sudden leap in consciousness that affects everyone at the same time. Stage 6 behaviour for example (currently flaring up around the world?) can be seen to have been first noticed in the mid 1800s with the rise of civil rights movements in the USA...it may well have inspired Einstein’s theory of relativity and played a prominent role in the counter-culture movement of the 1960s...and it could even have powered the more recent thinking behind the World Wide Web and the rise of environmental movements.
Stage 7 too has also been around for a while, possibly (probably?) inspiring the birth of quantum science in the early 1900s. However, when a critical mass of people reach Stage 7 its global impact is set to be greater than any other change in human history. We can expect to see significant changes to our ways of governing, our social systems and our technologies. Again this seems to be a gradual unfolding that’s already underway, although current evidence seems more strongly indicative of an early upcoming "momentuous leap" i.e. we might see the cultural equivalent of a relatively rapid record-breaking quantum leap in the not-too-distant future, with altered-state practices (rekindled by the neo-tribal pathfinders of Stage 8) playing a significant role in accelerating this process...science and religion sorta coalescing in transcendence?
Back in September 2012 ("Why Forgive" - 22nd Quareness "Lecture"), I wondered "aloud" if the real message of the Mayan calendar was not that our world would end (Hollywood style) on 21/12/2012 but that we might be at the beginning of the end the world as we know it i.e. we were now being readied for a new dawn in our consciousness. I think there's something astirring / awakening alright over this past couple of years and maybe we're now rapidly approaching being "ready to learn". Some have speculated that once we reach 10% of a vanguard, critical mass will occur and the remaining majority of our species will then rapidly take on the new paradigm - we'll see.
Nevertheless with the readily apparent rapid pace of "development / progress" in so many fields, it's an exciting time to be alive folks...and if we are indeed on the cusp of a newly emerging understanding of our existential condition (with evolving circumstances converging to open us to such learning), so much the better.
Sean.
Dean of Quareness.
March, 2015.