Humanity, where to? Where are you going?
“The ants, they have it easy, they are just ants and always will be. We humans are a whole different story altogether!”
If we look at humanity, the ways of us humans all over the world throughout history and especially in our own day and age, it is quite easy to become puzzled, perplexed and even confused.
What is going on here, what are we doing actually and why, where are we going with all this complexity of colors and nations and cultures and believes and ambitions and ways to see the world and each other.
Where are we heading?
In our modern age it has been the job of specialized historians, cultural anthropologists, sociologists and developmental psychologists to figure out some patterns in this mass and mess of human endeavors throughout the ages.
But such deep questions have already been asked all along by certain philosophers and wisdom teachers and even by the young people of each generation to a certain extent:
Can we make sense of our state and our predicament as humans?
Does it make sense at all, all this going here and there, to and fro?
I guess it has only been fairly recent that some frameworks have been formulated that show certain overall patterns of human ways that make sense and can help me and you to make sense of it all.
I am referring mainly to the work done by Clare Graves, Don Beck and later Ken Wilber who, from the 1960s onward, looked at all aspects of human evolution and development and discovered distinct stages and fractal markers (called memes or value systems) that indicate a developmental movement of humanity as a whole, as well as the individual development of every person – they called this developmental movement a dynamic spiral.
This system of seeing the human world – and humans as such – is now known as Spiral Dynamics.
I am not a specialist in this field of studies or a student of those researchers, but this framework of Spiral Dynamics helped me a lot to make sense of myself and of my fellow human beings.
Both in my work with people as a counselor and teacher as well as in everyday dealing with friends and strangers alike.
Most of all it has really helped me to be more understanding, tolerant and empathic towards all kind of folks and cultures and collective attitudes who are totally and utterly different from me, who are alien to my ways and thinking.
So i guess that is a good enough reason to take a close look at this Spiral Dynamics concept.
The Stages of Human Evolution can be seen shaping the history of humanity from the beginning, from the dawn of humankind, as well as they can be observed shaping the development of a child from baby to adulthood. They can as well be observed in cultural epochs, in cultures, in nations and organizations as well.
In the Spiral Dynamics view of things, those stages are not like boxes, neatly stacked on top of each others or mere markers on a linear timeline.
They are more like multidimensional waves washing thru humanity when the time is right and the Life Conditions are ready for a next step in the evolution from a less complex to a more complexly organized system.
And at each stage, those waves evoke as a response the awakening of certain characteristics, qualities and sets of values in the human being, mindsets and values systems that then shape this stage of humanity’s development.
As the development progresses in the ever expanding and including upward spiral of stages, each new stage transcends and includes the stage that came before it. This means that the qualities of the stage that was before, are also inherent or encapsulated in the more advanced stage.
The Spiral Dynamics System lays out those characteristics and values pretty clearly in a somewhat systematic order.
As a warning (to myself ; ) i must say that it is important to see this clarity and order simply as a hypothesis and framework for observation rather than a rigid simplification of very complex processes.
The folks who developed the Spiral Dynamics framework identified 9 distinct stages of development (also called “memes“) and they assigned – more or less randomly – colors to identify and distinguish those stages. Those colors have nothing to do with the colors that clairvoyants may see as chakra colors, they are really just random identifiers of a developmental stage.
Spiral Dynamics postulates Levels of Consciousness, Stages of Human Development and the Value Systems and Behaviors that “people of a certain level” show and how society organizes itself.
A progression of levels is shown from the beginning, the appearance of Homo Erectus all the way up to now and on to new appearing value systems that point into the future.
I will just shortly lay them out here to the best of my ability and understanding:
BEIGE – Survival Level / Archaic-Instincual Stage
Appeared 250000 years ago
The only concern is instinctive survival.
The human world is determined by nature and instinct.
Humans are still close to their animal nature but can dominate some animals.
Satisfying body needs and impulses, food, drink, warmth, sex, shelter is the only concern.
Living from one moment to the next, hand to mouth.
Learning happens randomly, by accident.
Qualities: Able to behave instinctively based on highly developed physical senses and strong reflexes.
Shadows: Little mental capacity and cognitive ability. Verbal abilities are rudimentary.
No organizational abilities besides automatically clustering in survival bands to perpetuate life.
Life depends on being in such bands.
Where this is seen: First human societies, newborn infants, mentally sick street people, starving masses, panicked and shellshocked people in extreme situations.
PURPLE – Kinship Level / Magical-animistic Stage
Appeared an estimated 50000 years ago when roaming bands formed clans and tribes to compete for food.
Values: Tribal, kinship, sense of belonging, magical thinking
Worldview: The world is mysterious and frightening. People must join together in order to survive. Nature spirits must be placated and pleased.
Slogan: Home is the hearth. Craftsmanship counts. Blood relations are everything.
Coping mechanism: Family and clan must be safe and protected from harm. Spells and curses give sense of control.
Learning style: Intuitive and sensory-driven, according to tradition and ritual of the tribe. Learning crafts from parents, ancestors and community.
Qualities: Safety, warmth, caring, associative abilities, imagination, intuitive thinking, social-emotional bonding.
Shadows: Highly traditional, conservative, closed, us-versus-them thinking, clinging to the past, oppressive, superstitious and unreflective.
Organization: Family, tribal and clan bounds, informal groups that are craft- and guild-based.
Leadership style: The oldest living male is the head of the clan. Maternal instinct brings warmth to the hearth, historical values are taught to the offspring. Magical rituals bound the clan.
Where seen: Voodoo cults, blood oaths, good-luck charms, family rituals, magical ethic believes and superstitions, is strong in Third-world settings, gangs, athletic teams, corporate “tribes”
Estimated 10% of present world population, according to the research of SD founders (! I would take these estimations with a grain of salt !!! ; )
RED: – Power Stage
Appeared an estimated 10000 years ago.
Values: Having power and dominance, ego-centric, impulsive, exploitative, heroic, archetypal gods & goddesses
Worldview: The world is a jungle, only the strongest and mightiest make it to the top. The weak serve.
Slogan: Seize the pleasures of the moment without concern for the futureFortune favors the bold. Where there is a will there is a way. No guts, no glory!
Coping mechanism: Asserting yourself for dominance, conquest and power. I only trust myself. I know what i want and i want it now.
Learning style: Find what gives immediate sensory satisfaction. Trials and competitions of strength. Showdowns with competitors for power. Powerful examples.
Qualities: Willpower, passion, standing one’s ground, setting boundaries and protecting them.
Shadows: Exploitation, impatience, rudeness, aggressive, only having an eye for one’s own interest.
Organizational structures: Top-down, the strongest on top, power-driven, action teams, political arena
Leadership style: Feudal lords, commander, warlords, autocratic, decisive, direct, acts autonomous
Team-building: Confronting, showing loyalty and respect, expressing unconditional support for each other, appeal on heroism, focus on “Power & Glory”
Where seen: Rebellious youth, frontier mentality, feudal kingdoms, epic heroes, gang leaders, soldiers of fortune, wild Rock stars, New-age narcissism
Estimated 20% of present world population
BLUE – Order / Absolute Truth Stage
Began a estimated 5000 years ago
Values: absolutistic righteous order, purpose, moral often religiously given by “divine” authorities
Worldview: The world is divinely ordered and controlled, ‘the wrong way’ of living is punished and ‘the right way’ is rewarded.
Slogan: Our way or the highway. Law and Order at all costs. Practice what you preach. Do not do to others what you would not have them do to you.
Coping mechanism: Act obediently as higher authority and the rules direct you. Absolute conformity.
Learning style: Gathering rational fact-based knowledge. Using acknowledged institutions as source.
Qualities: Concrete, meticulous, sense of justice and responsibility, transparency, discipline.
Shadows: Harshness, Strict, rigid, cold, polarizing, inflexible, fundamentalistic
Organizational structures: Hierarchical, based on seniority and experience, formal, clear, well-defined structures and hierarchies
Leadership style: Manager, no-nonsense, professional, dedicated, leading by example, persistent, thorough, stable
Team-building: Ensuring proper arrangements, allocation of duties and clear work processes, honor commitments, ensure reliability, promise future rewards, manage with morality, work with a sense of honor and for a good cause
Where seen: Puritan America, Confucian China, Singapore order state, totalitarian regimes, religious fundamentalism, Military, Patriotism, “Moral majority”
Estimated 40% of present world population
ORANGE – Scientific Achievement Stage
Began only a estimated 500 years ago
Values: Autonomy, self-developed, result-driven, materialistic
Worldview: The world is full of opportunities and possibilities to make things better and bring prosperity.
Slogan: The sky is the limit. Rational thinking brings success.
Coping mechanism: Pragmatically achieving results to move ahead, developing one’s talents, use all available opportunities and resources
Learning style: Experimental, analytical and scientific thinking finding most effective result by systematic trials and errors
Qualities: Entrepreneurial, innovative, enjoying success, result-driven, quick, inquisitive, fun, pragmatic
Shadows: Opportunistic, calculating, prioritizing personal gain, restless, manipulative, emotionless, abusing others and environment
Organizational structures: Strategic and profit-driven enterprise, self-managing competitive teams
Leadership style: Entrepreneur, stimulating individual initiatives, result-focussed, flexible and adaptive to reality, flair, catchy enthusiasm, plays The Game, is successful
Team-building: Keep things flexible and fun, ensure challenges, set targets, colorful and varied stimuli, reward achievements, winners and individual success, stimulate personal development
Where seen: Age of Enlightenment, Wall Street, Emerging Middle Classes, China’s ascension, colonialism, IT startup Industry, materialism, liberal self-interest
Estimated 30% of the present world population
GREEN: Human-bounding Stage
Appeared nearly 150 years ago
Values: Equality, harmony, socio-centric, ecologically sensitive, networking. The human spirit must be freed from greed, dogma and divisiveness, cherishing of the Earth, Gaia, Life, dialogue, relationships, communities with people of shared values, consensus, multiculturalism
Worldview: The world is a benevolent habitat where humanity can find love and purpose through sharing and affiliation, pluralistic, multicultural society
Slogan: Love conquers all. Time heals all wounds. Happiness is only true when it is shared. Let things run their natural order.
Coping mechanism: Addressing human needs by including emotions and affiliations in order to become fully human
Learning style: Observing, introspection, feeling, relating to others in a sensitive way, the way is the goal
Qualities: Tolerant to differences, loving, caring for others, life and planet, compassion, openness, emphatic, affectionate, warm, egalitarian, ideological
Shadow: Soothing, avoids conflict, compromising, relativistic, blind to differences
Organizational structures: Bottom-up, grassroots, equals-minded circles, teams of independent professionals, everyone is invited to contribute and is dedicated to the group’s interests
Leadership style: People person, connector, sensitive, good listener, establishes consensus, shows vulnerability, process-oriented
Team-building: Create time and space for reflection, put things into perspective, have people share their feelings, make sure everyone has their say, work is people-driven, let people connect with each other, focus on equality, accept differences in opinions
Where seen: Postmodernism, Deep Ecology, Netherlands, Humanistic Psychology, World Council of Churches, UN, Greenpeace, Animal Rights, Ecofeminism, Human Rights Movement
Estimated 10% of present human population
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First Tear and Second Tier of the Spiral Dynamics
Subsistence Levels vs. Being Levels
Based on their research results and hypotheses, the founders of Spiral Dynamics called the first six value systems, the first six stages of consciousness development of individuals as well as human society: “First Tier Stages” or “Subsistence Levels”.
First Tier, because all those six stages describe value systems were we humans are in essence concerned with maintaining and supporting ourselves, concerned about having, wanting, getting and acting in such a way to end feelings of scarcity.
None of the First Tier systems can fully appreciate the value of the other Stages. Each believes that its worldview is the only true perspective.
But Consciousness continues its evolutionary flow and journey upwards towards greater complexity and inclusivity/unity.
Spiritual Dynamics found that a quantum leap is observable in certain individuals, that hints to completely new and unprcidentd value systems.
They termed those “the Second Tier” or “Being Levels”.
A qualitative leap in consciousness occurs when a person or society moves past the Green into Second Tier, which is also termed “Integral.”
“Being Level”, because in essence it is concerned with Being: to be with reality as it is and act from the now.
“Integral”, because Individuals who operate from the Second Tier can fully appreciate the value and necessity of all the other Levels.
They comprehend that the health of the entire spiral, of all the Stages of Humanity in society, is essential.
At the Being/Integral level, fear and anxiety largely disappear from consciousness.
At this Second Tier, systems thinking becomes the norm, and mental activity consists of joining, linking, and synthesizing in pluralistic systems.
Individuals who have achieved the Second Tier find a greatly increased capacity for love and compassion.
This is the “Self-Actualizing and Transpersonal” level in Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
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The Second Tier, a promise of the things to come : )
YELLOW – Integrative Flow Stage
Appeared about 70 years ago
Values: Systemic, integral, emerging, transcendent, flexibility, spontaneity, functionality, interdependence
Worldview: The world is a complex self-organizing natural system requiring integral solutions
Slogan: Live fully and responsibly with authenticity. Think global, act local. Wisdom is knowing that you don’t know. We can not solve problems on the same level of consciousness where we used to create them.
Coping mechanism: Search for independence, embracing integral space, build systemic functioning niche to do what one chooses in line with one’s purpose
Learning style: Eclectic, designing now models and building on existent ones, continuously seeking what is most aligned with and fitting in a given situation
Qualities: Creatively innovative, visionary, ego-transcending, able to think in complex ways, able to distinguish between primary (meta) issues and side issues, temporary access to universal consciousness
Shadows: Over-complexifying things, daydreaming, elusive, too headstrong, perceived as “un-feeling”
Organizational structures: Sector-overarching networks of professionals led by a visionary leader
Leadership style: Evolutionary and visionary, inspiring “beacon of light”, open-minded, clear, critical yet constructive, has transcendent vision and purpose-driven objectives, makes choices based on larger context
Team-Building: Give people space to contribute in their own unique ways, approach issues in integral ways, focus attention on over-arching meta-objectives and transcendent goals
Estimated 1% of world population : (
TURQUOISE – Holistic Stage
Values: Universal, cosmic, holistic, synergetic, non-dualistic
Worldview: Universal order but in a naturally living, conscious fashion, not based on external rules. The world is a network of delicately balanced interweaving forces and energies. It is one holistic organism in jeopardy at humanity’s hands
Slogan: I see the world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wildflower. Hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour.
Coping mechanism: Aligning body, emotions, thinking to channel soul/spirit, experimentally and playfully join with other thinkers from the holistic and transpersonal level by realizing that energetic connections are necessary to experience and embody unity and wholeness
Learning style: Integration of cognitive, emotional, instinctive, energetic and spiritual learning
Qualities: Seeing words and cosmos as One, jointly searching, sensing and solving planetary issues that serve humanity and Earth, effortlessness, absolute compassion
Shadows: Being “stuck” in spiritual consciousness and not able to ground
Organizational structure and design: Holistic, dynamically balancing flexible ways of organizing, doing exactly what is needed to be done in a given situation, aligned with the greater context
Leadership style: Serves the greater cause, energetically connected and attuned to all life, translates complex meta-issues to personal, team and organizational levels in a pragmatic way, integrates earthly, cosmic and spiritual issues, intervene in a way of “face everything and avoid nothing”, ground matters in reality
Where seen: Noosphere thinking (Teilhard de Chardin), Integral Yoga (Aurobindo) Chaos Theory (David Bohm), Spectrum of Consciousness (Ken Wilber)
Estimated 0.1% of human population
CORAL – ? Stage
That will be – very, very, very – interesting (but i guess i will not be around anymore to see that Level appearing and flowering in humanity ; )
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Well, what does it all mean for me?
Obviously the hypothesis of this Spirial Dynamics system confrms very much with my own thinking and observation of the world, the human history and present society.
This research also indicates that in the history of the human race the appearance of a new “higher” level or stage of consciousness in a significant number of folks co-incided with great change in the human world, with crisis and upheaval.
The confusion and incredible multitude of serious problems, differences, divisions and frictions that are present now in humanity are a result of the mixing of all those levels and stages in a more and more interconnected and multi-cultural world – the great stew ; )
External forces in society and internal processes in the individual produce a crisis that is almost too complex to solve on the level of the problems.
The main crisises that humanity is facing now are global in nature – global warming, species extinction, overpopulation – indicate the necessity for a shift in thinking, in our value systems and actions away from the focus on the individual, the national, the group-think and towards the care for the global, the world, the all-inclusive.
For me this is a hopeful sign of a “cosmic push” towards the necessary Quantum leap, the Second Tier that is on the menu, so to say.
How it will play out and how much destuction of the old systems, how much chaos it will need as compost for a new dawn … we will see.
For me personally it is clear what i can do to further this transition into a integral and transpersonal level of myself and what i can do to support my human sisters and brothers on their journey.
More and more it is important – in my view – to have a clear and consitent spiritual practice, to meditate, to have clarity about my values and qualities and to be a light in the world.
Be open to Spirit and Soul by my channels of intuition.
Clearly think what i receive, intuit and feel.
Skillfully say what i think.
Consistently do what i say.
Walk my talk.
Thats what i call HAPPINESS in a New Age.
ps: any comment, questions or contributions are welcomed in the comments section below.