Robert Kegan's 5 Orders of Consciousness | A Animated Guide

Robert Kegan's book In Over Our Heads describes five orders of consciousness. This animation tries to visualize them. View the interactive Prezi at prezi.com/yave1...
Read my review of In Over Our Heads at www.stevethoma...
Kegan's theory is often compared with spiral dynamics and ken wilber.

[@OliverStaude-Mueller]

Awesome Video ❤ thank you so much! Great work! And maybe I am bit late to the party - but maybe I can help you with the geometrie in the end. I think the analogy is perfect. And getting this last step to the tessaract is probably exactly the inner transformation ones will go through. Most people are still trapped in third dimension thinking. They realize themselves as the boxes and realize other as well as boxes. 4th stage is then that all boxes are somehow interrelated - but the 5th stage is than what is for the mind incomprehendable - that ALL boxes are ONE box (that is what the tessaract is a infinite boxes in one box - all different but all only one and the same box) If you understand yourself still as a separated identity - your consciousness is stuck in your box. Once you realize that „you“ only exist by and through the intercorrelation of everything else around you. That you are both - the perceiver and the perceived - you evolved into the 5th stage. Like fully unterstanding the tessaract which is both - a 3 dimensional box BUT infinite 3D boxes in one - which is a forth dimensional object. Only Movement makes it visible to your „eyes“ - which is what you perceive as time and space! This 5 stage or dimesnion is realizing the all and one - in One!

[@SteveThomason]

This is really helpful commentary. Thank you so much for taking the time to watch and reply.

[@MistedForest]

My professor talked for an hour and a half and you explained this better and clearer in 13 minutes. THANK YOU!

[@edgepath]

I really enjoyed your visual representation of Kegan's Orders of Consciousness!!!!! it simplifies a very complex construct!

[@matiapolano1552]

Nice. Love the visuals and also the simplicity and condensation of the info.

[@thematsonia]

Wow! This is a brilliant way to teach Kegan's 5 Orders of Consciousness. And the drawings at speed with the audio is amazing. Thank you! You are a uniquely talented teacher.

[@SteveThomason]

Thank you. I'm glad you found it helpful.

[@drmillerlane]

Given the format and the time frame you did a wonderful and creative representation of Kegan's 5 orders. Thank you, immensely enjoyable.

[@longlegs511]

That was awesome! I'm taking Prof. Kegan's class now. Thank you for helping me understand his theory. U Rock!!!

[@WhenAphroditeSpeaks]

Awesome! Thank you for your upload!

[@SteveThomason]

You're welcome. Hope it was helpful.

[@CheriSteinkellner]

Dear Steve, thanks so much for this - a wonderful tool, generously shared and much appreciated!

[@higherrealityvision6302]

Amazing work! Both Kegan and you! Thanks for that and greatings to your bright son 😉

[@bettinahartmann3673]

What a gift and thanks for sharing it with us!

[@andrewperron5503]

Wow, absolutely awesome and informative video, thank you

[@SteveThomason]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@kathleenkilgore9431]

Wow! Wonderful explanation. Thanks so much!

[@SteveThomason]

You're welcome. Glad it was helpful.

[@RodrigoLobosChile]

Excellent summary, thanks

[@hugobarauna]

Amazing, thank you for this! I'm reading the 3rd book from Kegan, and having extra explanations like yours is really helpful to understand those complex concepts.

[@segasys1339]

Here from David Chapman's Meaningness blog. Chapman identifies a mid-point between 4th and 5th orders that can progress to constructive postmodernism or regress into deconstructive postmodernism which returns society back to 3rd order conciousness. It would seem to be very a propos in 2020.

[@jeff-onedayatatime.2870]

So I'm beginning to understand Kegan's Stage 5. At 66 I've noticed that I operate in a number of different modes. Getting back in the world after being shut down before and during the pandemic, I can see myself changing shapes rather fluently, and I'm getting better at it. I'm working crowd control at sporting events, and it's hours of concentrated interaction with other humans. There's nothing like it. My late father, Dr. Smith, would call me, in a degrading way, an usher. But fuck him. :)

[@larryhulbert6723]

Delightfully presented! Thank you for your representation of this important work. Larry Hulbert

[@artistdude2]

Clark, thanks for the feedback. I totally agree with you. There is only so much you can say in a quick surgery. I've really enjoyed Immunity to Change. This addresses the fact that 4th and 5th order don't just happen automatically. Most adults stay at 3rd order unless they are nudged through trauma or coaching.

[@anim247]

Completely awesome, Steve. Thank you so much! The visuals along with the explanations was really helpful.

[@DeShawnWert]

Thanks for the great illustration! Loved it and can't wait to read the book myself!

[@Laughinsun]

WOW! As an artist & educator I really loved the way you explained this concept. Now I think I can wrap this old brain around Kegan's ideas! Thanks!

[@SteveThomason]

Thanks, Lois. I'm glad you found it helpful.

[@antoinettecoetzee5181]

This is really a beautiful and clear visualisation, thank you so much! The idea that immediately came to mind about the 5th order is that it nothing, and everything at the same time. The whole space, the space between everything. Your son introduced me to a completely different concept though, thank you!

[@waynehylarides9566]

Rather than a tesseract, 5th order is probably time and seeing how the dots, lines, planes, and volume interacts with each other. Their dependencies with one another. Great visualization thanks!

[@SteveThomason]

I like that. Thanks for watching

[@kalyanikrishnan7524]

This was beautiful! Thank you so much!

[@PierreDussaultcoach]

great work Steve! Your tesseract theory makes as it includes and transcends every previous geometric forms!

[@SteveThomason]

thanks, Pierre!

[@PierreDussaultcoach]

Is it possible Steve to get those five drawings? I find them very useful!

[@SteveThomason]

Yes, Pierre. You can find them at www.stevethomason.net/2012/11/06/in-over-our-heads-by-robert-kegan/

[@PierreDussaultcoach]

thanks Steve! Your contribution in unbelievable!

[@JosiahWarren]

Well done sir

[@SylviaJohnson1980]

Amazing! Thank you for helping me FINALLY understand Kegan's Orders!

[@SteveThomason]

+Sylvia Johnson I'm glad you found it helpful!

[@marcok2051]

Great work! Thank you!

[@akronym5613]

Sense I have read about Kegans order before this gave some extra insight into the matter. But I have to say that if this was the first time I came in contract with Kegan I would not have been able to understand what the higher orders was about. Maybe that says more about me than your presentation tho. Any way, thanks and thumbs up

[@billschuilenberg4816]

Thank you Steve. That was very well done. God bless. Bill

[@SteveThomason]

William Schuilenberg glad you liked it.

[@ftlbaby]

Thank you so much for this succinct and artful encapsulation! 🏆

[@SteveThomason]

You are welcome.

[@tajjohns3701]

thanks so much--this helps make the concept very clear. hope you do more

[@simka321]

Excellent work! I'd love to see you do one on James Fowler's Stages of Faith.

[@SteveThomason]

Thanks for watching! Yes, one of Fowler would be fun, since his theory is built on the same scaffolding as Kegan. Maybe someday.

[@brssnj54]

Really interesting idea at the end. Would be curious if you’ve revisited this thought over the years

[@SteveThomason]

Honestly, I have not spent much more time thinking about that. This was a project I did during my PhD work. It was one of many books I was trying to wrap my brain around. What are your thoughts of how to imagine 5th order?

[@tykogranberger4529]

Great presentation!!! Thank you for sharing

[@marklesueur1288]

Excellent job, well done. This is a great intro to the subject. There is a concept aligned with this which i thought of when watching the Tesseract rotate in this video, and it's use as a Model for Thinking about 5th Order Consciousness; 4-Space. In a book titled; "Computers, Art & The 4th Dimension: Non-Euclidean 4 Space", author Tony Robbins includes a pull-out of a sheet of card printed with a Tesselated Hypercube, & a pair of 3-D Glasses. Viewing the sheet through the glasses resolves a 4-D Hologram that comes off the page into thin air. Your finger can interact with it. Your 'Brain' projects it from cohering the interference patterns of light wavelengths. An emergent property of Perception, from Information, a "PsychoHoloGram" if you will. These "Orders" of Consciousness are also "Perceptual Dimensions". Dimension here could also refer to the concept of "Context" as Dr. Gregory BATESON describes it in his Theory of Logical Types & Logical Levels of Learning. If there is anyone watching this from the international NLP Community, they should recognise the Develpment of these Orders or Contexts of Development, as those of "Perceptual Positions". 1st, 2nd, 3rd, the oft miscomprehended 4th, & apparently a 5th. This is also a good resource for anyone landing here from Ken WILBER's iN.tegral Universe, and who's interest is in Personal Evolution. It maps across well and fills in things in Ken's AQAL Model. Again, good Production. MJLS Director iN.tegral CLEAN (Language & NLP} Australia

[@SteveThomason]

Mark, thanks for watching. Glad you found it helpful. Thanks for those great ideas. I’ll have to look into them.

[@marklesueur1288]

Credit given where credit is due Steve, the way you build understanding enables proper comprehension of the basics of this topic. The 3-D glasses are a bit of fun, and it's one of those can't describe it until you've experienced it things. Seeing the Hologram pop up off the page is truly amazing. I work with people's "Conceptual Spaces" and ability to perceive solutions to whatever their problem is. It really helps to have an understanding of how we make meaning by "Folding" information and knowledge into something like the Tesseract folds visual planes into one another. At Stage 5 Consciousness i would assume there would be the ability to do this intentionally, thus creating those deep connections between Subjects that you mention in this video.

[@AnthonySulmonte]

Interesting and important to understanding the 5 orders of adult development.

[@anthonyclark4732]

This is a very good attempt but you leave out a lot of important stuff, especially multiple identitities at the 5th order and the fact that 3rd 4th and 5th orders do not simply pop up as we get older, but that many people do not move beyond a relatively low order. You could also add a few sentences about the applications of this theory, which RK's book spends a lot of time on.

[@fabok4]

Brilliant!

[@crepexuk]

So glad I bumped into your channel :thumbs-up:

[@davyau1110]

Steve, great stuff! May I know what software you used in producing the sketch? It seems that you sketched on a computer.

[@VirginiaCanada]

great video!

[@simonpollo]

Hats off to your son!

[@Caring.for.Couples]

Loved this short description/illustration thanks! Does Robert say anything about the stages of consciousness in relationship to age? In my own life I've observed myself and others I've stage 5 in our 30s rather than as you illustrated here in old age.

[@SteveThomason]

I think this, like all conceptual models, has limitations. His concepts are derived from a 30+ year longitudinal study of a large number of individuals who were emerging in the 80s and 90s. At the rate culture is changing in the 21st century, I wouldn't be surprised if people are adapting more quickly. Also, it is very difficult to ascertain if one has "reached" the 5th order of consciousness. My experience is that it is only the people who think they have not yet reached it that are actually flowing from a truly unitive consciousness. Maturity and interdependence brings with it an inherent humility that nullifies the need to achieve it. This is one of the great paradoxes of maturity, especially in an achievement/success oriented culture. Just some thoughts, for what its worth. thanks for reaching out.

[@Caring.for.Couples]

@@SteveThomason Indeed I agree all conceptual models have their limitations. I agree it's best not to think of models in terms of "reached" or something to "achieve.". For me, I enjoy playing with stages not in terms of sequential attainment, but rather more of a circumambulation, not just transcending and including the last stage, but in a way infinitely deepening in realizing by moving through/integrating/relating with all "stages" almost simultaneously. Or something like that.... ;p

[@agnesagnetaneta]

Thank you! I wonder if Robert Kegan has seen this one and what he thinks about it.

[@SteveThomason]

+Agneta Lundgren He has seen it, actually. He sent me a nice email. That was pretty cool.

[@jeff-onedayatatime.2870]

Well done and informative...but I don't think Kegan's 5th Order equates w Postmoden, it equates w Metamodern.

[@elizabethkennedyscicolone4053]

Super helpful. Thank you! :-)

[@SteveThomason]

I'm glad you found it helpful.

[@BhikshuniLozangTrinlae]

Beautiful sketches and summary of Kegan, Steve! You would enjoy Rudy Rucker's book "The Fourth Dimension," where on p 32. he has a drawing of a hypercube (which you can no doubt find through an image search, which is a form of tessalation) Are you using Kegan's work in your theology/ministry work?

[@SteveThomason]

Thanks for the feedback. Yes, Kegan's work informs my understanding of spiritual formation. I'm finishing my dissertation on it right now. www.deepintheburbs.com

[@lennon_richardson]

I love the visual aids

[@artistdude2]

Thank you, drmillerlane

[@lennon_richardson]

Was anyone else led here by Ken Wilbur's work?

[@florianeder2440]

Something you might be interested in is Susanne Cook Greuter Paper on Ego Development. Google: Cook-Greuter 9 levels paper new

[@ronnyron007]

Post Modernism is great for the subjectivity of Art.... but it is not good for understanding the Objective Material Reality. Example of post modernism (i.e Idealism) entering into science... the idea that the thing being observed only comes into existence once it is being observed. That would be Post Modern Idealism at it's height. Dialectical thinking has nothing to do with Post Modernism. Dialectical thinking leads to Materialism.

[@LightProgramming]

6th order Meta-Modernism?

[@SteveThomason]

perhaps? I wonder what Kegan thinks now.

[@wardygrub]

I was thinking the same, although I call it “re-structuralism”. Like an integrated plane which encompasses order and chaos. Tbh it’s hard to put into words. Anyway- hello!

[@SteveThomason1968]

David, I drew it in Corel Painter X. I recorded the drawing process using iShowUHD. I took the footage into iMovie and sped it up to 800x. The voice over and music was added in iMovie. Hope that helps. Thanks for watching.

[@KevinOutland]

I would have never made it through his book (my brain would have exploded) but I made it through your video. Nice job!

[@SteveThomason1968]

Thanks, Kevin!