Ken Wilber – Integral Theory (Waking up versus Growing up)

Ken Wilber – Integral Theory (a few thoughts)

Ken studied a dozen world tradition of thoughts (read this as religion), in his youth and wrote a book on the soul and consciousness. He wrote the spectrum of consciousness when he was 23 years. He worked as a dishwasher for next ten years and wrote ten books during that period. 

Two Spiritual dimensions
Human beings have two spiritual dimensions (relative and absolute) apart from cognitive, emotional, moral, aesthetic, spatial, musical, interpersonal, interpersonal, kinesthetic intelligence. We have both spiritual intelligence(psychological maturity)and spiritual experience (spiritual awakening). It's not awareness of content in the former (spiritual talk), but its an actual experience in the latter (spiritual walk). In the former, they may still think subject and object are one, but for themselves they experience their bodies and minds distinct with the 'other'. SI belongs to the path of 'growing up', whereas, SE is the path of 'waking up'. Here an experience of self and Universe is experienced. Most masters like Jesus, Buddha had SE. 

Satori (in the context of religion) allows for ‘cleaning up’, help uncover and integrate their shadow elements. Take an example of fear of one’s own anger. Pushing it to repression created psychotic manifestations. These show up in dreams or symbols around me. Meditation allows for de-identification with whatever comes up.  Defiled emotion is understood in meditation and it helps transcend it to something higher in wisdom. However, Freud or Fritz Pearl would have you work with your ghosts, alternating between being the one who is scared and the ghost itself, till the final step is to ‘own’ the monster. Not to stay with the false wisdom but to own that which was disowned: the disassociated emotion. This is the process of 'cleaning up' and we tend to often resort to projective identification: project our 'badness' onto others. A lot of shadow material comes up during this process. Often, there can be a splitting off, with consciousness being lost along the way, which stunts growth to higher levels. This reduces self authenticity in self.  'Showing up' is another process, wherein there are many dimensions to a human: the true, beautiful and good. (I, We, It). In essence we want to show up in all our dimensions - as 'man is this and that, and much more' - Pulin Garg.

The process of ‘cleaning up’ is the owning of the psychotic emotion, which is an essential therapeutic requirement. Unless one is in touch with the emotion itself, true transcendence would not occur.

Traditional religion embeds some belief systems, often magical mythical realism. Religiosity as a concept, is on a decline almost to single digits in the pre-modern world. Human beings have multiple intelligence (read Gardner). Spiritual intelligence is now a way, in which human beings think about ultimate reality.Transpersonal Psychology founded by Abraham Maslow posited the five levels of motivation needs and is relatively new as a thought. James Baldwin further worked  on 'growing up' while William James worked on 'waking up'. Unfortunately, these two processes have not been understood fully and together. 

As we move across spiritual intelligence one goes through several layers. Nazi doctors had a high level of cognitive intelligence, but arguably low in moral intelligence. There are three major groups and the lines in each groups:

1. cognitive development, 

2. self-sense – moral, levels of consciousness 

3. gifts and talents, competencies) develop together. 

Growing up is the capacity to growing up along all the three lines together. There are now a dozen models around such development theory. He writes about integral development model explaining his model with those of the popular models of that time. Like grammar rules, one follows them unconsciously, but one is not able to recognize it. Each level sees the world differently, yet introspection (like the rules of grammar) may not be possible. They use the grammar, the language but have no idea of what they are doing. These stages are explained by Clare Graves, Beck, Spiral Dynamics, etc. They follow the rules unconsciously and without awareness. It cannot be understood by reflecting within. More often than not one is aware of a world view quite in opposition held by another. Unless there is transmutation one would not progress to the next level. Often there is overplaying at one level, or a denial of that level, where it is not owned. Remember Jung sharing, "the brighter the light, the darker the shadow."

Awareness to these stages take time. As people become aware of this it helps changing their 'world view' and results in changing how people interact with issues around them. Since all of these have arrived only recently ‘growing up’ as a process is not available in any of the traditional religions. Religion more often, allows for a world view with a narrow lens. In the absence of 'waking up' in religion, the consequences are disastrous. Those at the lower stages interpret most things in an adversarial level, while those at higher level are more inclusive and loving. We all have a spiritual identity as a consequence of our level of development in spiritual intelligence. 
Unless religion incorporates both 'growing up' and 'waking up' the integration will not be complete. 

These stages can be simple: some four, some between 6-8 – all around development. However there exists four lenses: one from an interior perspective of the individual. Then the second lens looked at objectively from an exterior perspective offers another lens allow for a look at their exterior behaviours.

On the third quadrant, groups can be looked at from within: shared values and beliefs. From the outside, one can see objectively, legal, political and structures. The interior view is cultural, and the exterior view social. All four quadrants evolve and are interwoven together. Transmutation is within all four quadrants. Evolution is self-organization through self-transcendence. 

Most developmental theorists use colour or numbers. Humans move from an archaic, to a magic stage and to a mythical state, rational, pluralistic, integral stages, and depending on which stage we are, is the level of our spiritual intelligence, and how we interpret things, our frameworks and how we see mental and other things. We cannot skip a level: it is evolutionary. 

Lets see stages from a feminine perspective:

1. selfish (egocentric/narcissistic stage)
2. care (extends care from self to others) - ethnocentric
    Other groups are excluded - we are afraid of them.

3. Universal Care ( from Us to all of Us regardless of race)
4. Integral stage - combines male and female perspective.

Ken posits his version of consciousness - tetra apprehension. The previous moment is made an object for the subject in this moment and adds a ‘newness’ of creativity. As a new subject reviews a previous subject as an object, it includes and enfolds the past, and creates a causality to the present, not a strict determinism, but the newness transcends the causality, and creates new possibilities. As is known our human brain has within it the limbic, reptilian, mammalian, etc even while the Neo-cortex is a more recent phenomenon. 

The universe has three ultimates:  the one, the many and ‘the creative advance into novelty’. The newness is not random chance, instead the universe is winding up, and the creative advancing novelty, adds more to any subject.

All phenomenon must include and transcend and with newness create a new subject. In this way, more and more order is built from more and more chaos. 






This drives more inclusive realities, both in the ‘I’ dimension and with the ‘We’ dimension to ‘Us' dimension in newer social levels of society. 

From Quarks to atoms to molecules to cells, these are the stages of evolution. Only considerably down the road, Darwinism beginning to operate. Sexual reproduction is not a necessary condition for this transmutation and evolution to occur.  Ahead a more caring, inclusive, and loving phenomenon is arriving, and in the stages of consciousness.

The One, the Many, and the Creative is what has brought us to the integral age. Love will expand to be more inclusive, more expansive in its definition – a spirit in action! Love and moral sensitivity is the basis for our survival. This is where evolution is taking us – the Eros ever awakening. Looking around why would you doubt it.

Waking up, growing up, cleaning up and showing up are some of the ways we need to move through as we evolve through our spiritual consciousness. We are all going through the process in default, in organic movement, but what is required is conscious awareness. 

From a lens of executive coaching exploration can be done around the following areas"

"I have one major rule: Everybody is right. More specifically, everybody - including me - has some important pieces of truth, and all of these pieces need to be honoured, cherished, and included in a more gracious, spacious, and compassionate embrace." - Ken Wilber

Let me end with Max Planck: " If you change the way you look at things, the things that you look at change."

integral theory reviews both stages of consciousness (awakening, dreaming, sleeping, the now) with structure of consciousness (the elements described in the stages of cognitive development), as also the shadows that come up and distract one from the 'now'.