Introduction to Spiral Dynamics "Yellow" Stage ("Teal" in Integral Theory)

[@JonathanLoganPDX]

Wonderful! Thank you both for all the time and effort you put in and for making these free to those of us who are not in the financial position to pay for courses at this time. I try and pay back into the circle by spreading these videos with friends and colleagues who show an interest and a desire to learn more. I hope also one day to contribute more. Thanks again! PS... I'm listening to these several times so that I can bring New Perspectives to what you're sharing and hopefully learn more each time.

[@practicalintegral4601]

Thanks so much for your kind feedback, @JonathanLoganPDX! 🙏 We're very pleased that our videos are of value to you and we deeply appreciate you spreading us around! Many thanks! 🙏

[@infinityexplored]

This is a fantastic dialogue, thank you both keep up the great work 🙏

[@practicalintegral4601]

Thank you kindly, @infinityexplored! 🙏 Be well! 🍀

[@sust8n]

Thank you both for your discussion and insights. I'm keen to see the next stage of turquoise.

[@practicalintegral4601]

Thanks, Steve l! 🙏 We look forward to reading any reflections you might have on our upcoming Turquoise video! 📽

[@sust8n]

@@practicalintegral4601 Little did I know I'd be treated to such a video so soon. Much appreciated!

[@practicalintegral4601]

Good to hear, Steve l! Thanks for watching! 🙏

[@Pr13ya]

Thank you so much for this discussion both. So many great insights. It’s given me a lot to think about!

[@practicalintegral4601]

You're welcome, @Pri5321! 🙏 Feel free to share any additional reflections you might have!

[@taylor-kenny]

I recently discovered spiral dynamics. As I started to gather information about it, I felt that it clearly defined many abstract thoughts that I had been pondering the past few years. Really great discussion. Thank you.

[@practicalintegral4601]

Thanks for watching, @taylor-kenny! 🙏 Agreed that Spiral Dynamics is a great framework to organize our thinking around individual and collective growth and development! Be well! 🍀

[@O.G.Rose.Michelle.and.Daniel]

Just discovered your channel and found this fascinating: looking forward to watching and learning more!

[@practicalintegral4601]

Thanks for watching, @O.G. Rose! 🙏

[@marksweet6298]

How does spiral dynamics account for genius? If I understand the concept correctly, Genius can leap well ahead of the first tier stages but usually along a single or narrow line of intelligence. If all stages must be transcended and included, I’m curious how genius leaps ahead so fast. Is it just a very fast spiral along a particular intelligence line?

[@practicalintegral4601]

Hi @marksweet6298, thanks for sharing your reflections on the phenomenon of genius!🙏 From an Integral perspective, we could perhaps say that moments of genius occur when we experience states of awareness beyond the confines of our self. During such moments, we become a vessel for potentials which normally lie beyond the scope of ordinary human functioning. Within this framework, sustained genius-level performance implies repeated access to non-ordinary states (such as 'flow'-states) within a particular line of intelligence. The implication of this perspective is that genius can be facilitated through the cultivation of non-ordinary states (through practice and training), in combination with the cultivation of environments which facilitate the achievement of genius-level performance. Interestingly, within the Integral framework, (1) developmental lines encompass multiple intelligences and (2) we regularly cycle through all 5 major states of consciousness (including 'flow'-states, which are a type of non-dual state), so, theoretically, each of us has access to at least some moments of genius throughout our life. Therefore, it can be very interesting to explore the ways in which we ourselves, as well as the people around us possess some level of genius within a particular area of life. Let us know your thoughts. Be well! 🍀

[@unthinkme_Adam]

Really good introduction to SD.

[@practicalintegral4601]

Thank you kindly, @unthinkme1313! 🙏 Wishing you a lovely day! 🍀

[@rextopher]

Hey guys! You ever think that the study of integral theory is indicative of a particular integral level?

[@practicalintegral4601]

Hi @Rex Bonney, within the context of levels of developmental, we might say that we can be interested in Integral theory from any level of development, but that our motivation to study the Integral Model and the value that we derive from our efforts may differ. So, for instance: At a beige/infrared level of development, we might learn some basic Integral terminology to improve our survival chances. At a purple/magenta level of development, we might study Integral Theory to be able to honor our ancestors better. At a red level of development, we might study Integral Theory to increase our influence within a particular group. At a blue/amber level of development, we might study Integral Theory to fit into a certain community. At an orange level of development, we might study Integral Theory to increase our productivity. At a green level of development, we might study Integral Theory so we can connect as sensitively as possible with others. At a teal/yellow level of development, we might study Integral Theory to understand how all of the holistic systems of reality relate to each other. At a turquoise level of development, we might study Integral Theory in search of a community of holistic practitioners. At a coral/indigo level of development (and beyond), we might study Integral Theory to learn how to embody non-duality as fully as possible in our daily life. Would you agree? Be well! 🍀

[@rextopher]

@@practicalintegral4601 super appreciate your thoughtful reply. I will meditate on this. V helpful……as far as, would I agree…..this is all brand new to me. Now, as someone concerned with aesthetics, I have an opinion on K Wilbur in a wig….but as far as spiral/integral…..I’m content to learn from your content for now. ❤️🙏👻

[@practicalintegral4601]

Great to hear, @@rextopher! Please feel free to share your observations, agreements and disagreements as you engage with our content! Be well! 🍀

[@lywuan]

A little off topic, but how much resemblance do all the colors in Jimi Hendrix' "Bold As Love" have with integral theory colors?

[@practicalintegral4601]

Thanks for the great question, lywuan! 🙏 Hendrix sings about the rainbow and mentions seven colors, namely Purple, Red, Blue, Orange, Green, Yellow & Turquoise (in the order of Spiral Dynamics/Integral Theory). In Hendrix's time, the seven rainbow colors were commonly referred to as Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo & Violet (in the order of the spectrum of light). Turquoise most resembles Indigo and Purple most resembles Violet, so Hendrix possibly used synonyms to better fit the melody. It's very intriguing, indeed, that he ended up using the exact terminology that Spiral Dynamics uses! After all, Hendrix died in 1970 and the Spiral Dynamics colors were introduced to Clare Graves's original model by Don Beck & Christopher Cowan in the 1990s, so either Hendrix's choice of colors was coincidental, or else, his unworldly guitar playing allowed him to extract information about the Spiral Dynamics model from the future... 🎸

[@Jazzgriot]

@@practicalintegral4601 Pharoah Sanders, "Wisdom in Music", comes to mind 🙂

[@practicalintegral4601]

Agreed,@@Jazzgriot, that musicians like Jimi Hendrix, Pharaoh Sanders, John Coltrane and others transcended their individual selves by channelling otherworldly music! 🎶

[@Conner_Koskela]

Firstly, I want to thank Nomali, Lee, and anyone else involved in the making of these videos! They are extremely informative and full of care and effort while all being provided for free!!! 😁😁. I am new to Integral and still in the beginning stages of learning the theory. I was wondering how the transition from tier 1 to tier 2 is related to “becoming aware of awareness”. Put in other words at what stage would you expect someone to move from strict identification with the mind/ego and become conscious of awareness? sort of the idea of “waking up” talked about during the 60s-70s new age movement by people like Ram Dass. If you find the time to answer this question it will be much appreciated but regardless thanks again for these awesome videos!

[@practicalintegral4601]

Thanks so much for your kind compliments, @Conner_Koskela! 🙏 From an Integral perspective, we could say that evolution is the gradual process of reality becoming aware of its true nature as awareness. Some philosophers, such as Sri Aurobindo, suggest that ultimate reality (Satchidananda) manifests part of its infinite potential as a temporary, finite reality, which then evolves to become ever more aware of its timeless, formless essence. So, at the largest scale, awareness becoming fully aware of awareness occurs when temporary, finite reality returns from actuality to potentiality. For Sri Aurobindo, this occurs when the highest level of Supermind (as well as all of the levels below, namely Overmind, Mind, Life and Matter), are "dissolved" back into Satchidananda. Within the Hindu philosophy (of which Sri Aurobindo was a proponent), the whole cycle eventually starts again, like a cosmic breath. As to your question, when it comes to human beings and the Levels of Development as described by Spiral Dynamics, we might say that every higher level is accompanied by a greater capacity to be aware of awareness. Based on the available data (for instance gathered by Clare Graves and Susann Cook-Greuter), the hypothesis is that, at Second Tier, the capacity to be aware of awareness becomes significantly more developed than at First Tier. More speculatively, at Third Tier, the capacity to be aware of awareness is expected to become more embodied and stable. The reason for describing these levels with such reluctance is that there are very few people who have demonstrated Second and Third Tier levels of consciousness in a way that has been objectively measured. Nonetheless, based on anecdotal evidence concerning the experiences of people engaged in spiritual practices for decades, the capacity to be aware of awareness does seem to characterize what we can think of as Second and Third Tier levels of consciousness. And, within the framework of philosophers like Sri Aurobindo, this makes sense. After all, if all of reality is an expression of an underlying awareness (Satchidananda), then becoming aware of awareness would be the expected result of any process of self-knowledge. Does this make sense? Be well! 🍀

[@Conner_Koskela]

@@practicalintegral4601 Yes it does make sense:) Thank you for the very clear and detailed response, much appreciated!

[@practicalintegral4601]

Great to hear, @@Conner_Koskela! Wishing you a lovely day! 🍀

[@_VISION.]

46:13 this hit me hard

[@practicalintegral4601]

Thanks for watching and commenting, @vision7770! 🙏 Feel free to share what struck you most about the subtle detachment of Yellow! Be well! 🍀

[@_VISION.]

@@practicalintegral4601 well as far as subtle detachment, I can relate to that because I think the detachment comes from wanting an authentic community but realizing that everyone isn't ready for that yet. Being that green only gets people to open up to them to demonize them if their worldview is different, which creates distrust among people. More specifically, what hit me hard is when Nomali said that yellow or teal is actually angry trying to figure out the systems of many areas of life. I can sense that anger in myself, especially when there isn't many people to talk about them with. Especially when you see the map is clear as day acting out in reality, but people dismiss or belittle the maps, even though they subconsciously keep proving the maps are accurate. When people with first tier development comes across information or worldviews that is "higher" than their development, they immediately dismiss it because they don't think things could be more complex than what they can comprehend. All these things add to the anger. Further, as a black person, a lot of the black community is at red, blue, and green. Black people never felt like they could participate in orange, even though we are opening up to the worldview of orange, simple for survival reasons and to close the racial wealth gap. Either way, when you are yellow/teal or higher you can feel alienated by people. I can tolerate them, but they can't tolerate me, which makes me not want to tolerate them, even though I long for a community, but not with people who demonize worldviews that are not their own. This can fuel the anger too, and the curiosity to make sense of all these things, provides a certain comfort. Coming back to the subtle detachment, learning all these things and maturing into yellow, seems to inevitably distance myself from others in a way because I see them from a birds eye view, with all these systems I'm learning about. How I spend my time isn't how other developmental stages spend their time, which leads to a widening gap, and it becomes difficult to collaborate with them. I understand them and where they are coming from, but it doesn't change how venomous they can be when I open myself up to them. That's why it feels like I know more about people than they know about me, because they aren't even curious about other people it seems, because if they actually learned more about people they would just end up demonizing them anyway after a certain point. Also when it comes to self improvement and development, I can be very focused on that and forget or not even become interested in chilling with family or friends for a long period of time, because I'm focused on becoming my best self or learning something new.

[@practicalintegral4601]

Thanks for sharing your experiences and reflections, @vision7770! 🙏 The dilemmas you describe are likely familiar to many people engaged in personal development and self-transcendence. After all, when exploring the nature of reality, self and consciousness from a highly inclusive Second Tier perspective, more exclusive First Tier perspectives can feel somewhat constricting. Perhaps a fitting analogy is that of music, where some musicians with very highly developed musical abilities can feel constrained when they have to downgrade their playing to accommodate musicians with less developed musical abilities. Would it maybe alleviate some of the interpersonal tension you experience if you were to regard the people in your network who are unable to meet you at your level of development (in terms of self-intelligence), as individuals whose passion for consciousness development is less fiery than yours? If so, then you could subsequently search for ways in which those people are skilled in life areas where you might not feel a lot of passion, which could open up new avenues of connection. Generally speaking, making room in our awareness to allow everyone to exist as they are, can provide a useful antidote to anger and frustration. As for venomous responses, many people typically respond with considerable defensiveness when their worldview feels threatened. One effective solution to this problem seems to be to connect beyond worldviews, for instance by appealing to shared values (as highlighted in the work of Jonathan Haidt). In any case, wishing you all the best on your path! Be well! 🍀

[@_VISION.]

I value your analogy, and that's what it feels like. As for your first suggestion, perhaps I could engage with people for what they have to offer, and acknowledge that there isnt much I can do to see all the levels the way I can. I could see them for what they are and not I want them to be. As for the second suggestion, easier said than done, but I can try that too. I find that I have easier time dealing with the concepts and values that emerge from the 1st tier memes, rather than the actual people.

[@Magik1369]

The so called pre/trans fallacy is itself a fallacy. During authentic spiritual awakening or kundalini awakening, a person is regressed to the bottom of the unconscious. This is called "Dark Night of the Soul" or Purgation or Regression in Service of Transcendence. During this process, unfinished business, blocks, karma, repressed instincts, emotions, feelings, and complexes are purged and integrated. At the bottom of the unconscious is the Dynamic Ground of Being. The Spiritual Source of your own Being. Some call this the Self. The ego must be re-united with the Dynamic Ground or else you are fooling yourself and only transcend using your head. It's easy to formulate and Integral Vision mentally...it's another thing altogether to Integrate your Being. Jung was right, Wilber is wrong. Washburn was right. There is no linear upward transcendence process without integrating the lower levels. All the religions and myths of the world acknowledge the need to journey to the bottom of the unconscious psyche to reconnect with one's own Soul Core or Dynamic Ground.

[@practicalintegral4601]

Thanks for commenting, @Magik1369! 🙏 Integral Theory agrees with you, that the lower needs to be included in order to healthily develop. This is summarized in the phrase "transcend and include", which refers to embracing the entirety of the lower levels while rising through the higher levels. The pre/trans fallacy in relation to Carl Jung refers to the fact that, as a pioneer of the conscious, subconscious and unconscious, Jung sometimes equated pre-personal awareness with transpersonal awareness, suggesting that the awareness of an infant who has not yet developed a stable self is identical to the awareness of an adult who has cultivated the ability to transcend their stable self. As philosopher and cognitive scientist John Vervaeke states in his "After Socrates" series, this appears to be a misconception on Jung's part. That being said, this conclusion is generally not meant to be a devaluation of the importance of Jung's work, nor a devaluation of the value of pre-personal awareness and lower levels of development. In short, very much agreed that union with the ground of being is necessary for authentic and sustainable self-transcendence! Be well! 🍀

[@navadtz3800]

Don’t wanna be yellow, just instrumentalize it for my greeny / orangy fun mwahahahahahaha

[@practicalintegral4601]

Thanks for watching, @navadtz3800! 🙏 How exactly are you instrumentalizing the yellow level of development in your life? If you feel comfortable doing so, provide us with some concrete examples. Thanks! 🙏 Be well! 🍀

[@misso2589]

Why do you ever need religion if you're free mind? I think it's a ridiculous statement. Religions are created from spirituality by people with limited mental capacity who could not embrace it ti the full. I think Nomali is triggered by the green stage like most essentially non-green people are. I am actually astounded by how green seems to be one of the toughest stages for many people to fully embrace because of its altruistic nature. Green may sacrifice itself and most 'instinct' driven people just hate that. want to disagree with and judge that. It feels counterintuitive to survival and therefore, they can't be at ease with it.

[@practicalintegral4601]

Hi @Miss O, thanks for watching! 🙏 From an Integral perspective, religion (as a traditional expression of spiritual awareness) can indeed be something that we transcend as we develop through higher stages of consciousness. However, the blue/amber stage of consciousness with which (traditional) religiosity is typically associated, continues to exist, regardless of our individual level of development. This means that, for instance, an Integrally-informed society would purposely provide access to healthy traditionally religious activities and institutions, so individuals who have developed to an egocentric (red) level of development can take the next step on their developmental path. Also, from higher levels of development, it becomes possible to experience religion from multiple perspectives. James Fowler (in his 1981 book "Stages of Faith") provides a detailed overview of how we might relate to religiosity, from lower levels of development, all the way through to higher levels of development. What are your thoughts? Let us know!