Spiral Dynamics Integral
Integral Philosophy
AQAL

A-Q-A-L
(pronounced
ahqwul) means “all
quadrants, all levels,
all lines, all states,
all types.”
Integral Philosophy

Integral Philosophy
tries to include the
insights of ancient
and modern, east
and west, masculine
and feminine,
rational and
empirical, scientific
and spiritual.
Ken Wilber (1949-)
An Integral Approach

Wilber tried to
combine the
experiential and the
intellectual in a way
that I find inspiring
and illuminating.
Spiral Dynamics Integral

Spiral Dynamics Integral is simply one
specific “map” of a developmental
approach to problems and concerns like
the issue of the health of our society
that allows us to take a vertical look and
not limit ourselves to the horizontal
view.
Don Beck
Values

What is a good life? What makes you
happy? Goodness and happiness
represent values that we all appreciate
and desire. When we understand them
as values, then we can ask ourselves
why people have such different
understandings of what is good and
what is happiness?
Development

Spiral Dynamics Integral suggests that
different values come from different
levels of development. This is based on
the insights found in the field of
developmental psychology.
Development

For example, colored box experiment
with young children. At one time they
think you are seeing the same color as
they are, but eventually they realize that
you are seeing one color while they see
another. This ability is a developmental
leap.
Spiral Dynamics

Beck and Cowan decided to take this
idea of individual development and look
at cultures in this light. They found that
cultures also develop over time in a
fairly consistent manner.
Memes

Stages are called “memes.” Just as our
physical development is guided by
genes, our psychological development
is guided by memes. The “memes” are
the mental systems we construct to
make sense of our world-the maps we
use to navigate through life.
Nine Stages

Spiral dynamics uses nine stages and
matches these stages with nine colors
for ease of reference. The lower stages
are commonly recognized by most of
us. The higher stages are more
controversial.
Transcend and Include

As a person moves from one stage to
another he or she transcends the
previous stage. But in healthy
development you don’t repress the
previous stage, but incorporate it into
your repertoire of possible perspectives.
You have access to the basic insights of
that stage.
Developmental Difficulties

Development is not easy or guaranteed
and no one is simply at one stage.
Usually we have a number of stages we
are most associated with. Perhaps
three, with the middle stage being
dominant, might represent most people.
Developmental Difficulties

Development is not automatic past the
average level. This means that society
promotes the development of
individuals through things like education
and culture, but it does not support
development beyond the average level.
Ethics and Moral
Development

Another way of understanding Spiral
Dynamics is looking at moral
development. People move from an
egocentric to an ethnocentric to a
worldcentric understanding and
perspective. One current problem is that
we have global problems without nearly
enough worldcentric development.
Colors
Infrared: Archaic-Instinctual

1. The level of basic survival; food, water,
warmth, sex, and safety have priority. Uses
habits and instincts just to survive. Distinct
self is barely awakened or sustained. Forms
into survival bands to perpetuate life.
Infrared: Archaic-Instinctual

Where seen: First human societies, new
born infants, mentally ill street people,
starving masses, shell shock.
Approximately 0.1 percent of the
population, 0 percent of the power.
Magenta: Magical-Animistic

Thinking is animistic; magical spirits, good
and bad, swarm the earth leaving blessings,
curses, and spells that determine events.
Forms into ethnic tribes. The spirits exist in
ancestors and bond the tribe. Kinship and
lineage establish political links.
Magenta: Magical-Animistic

Where seen: Belief in voodoo-like curses,
blood oaths, ancient grudges, good-luck
charms, family rituals, magical ethnic
beliefs and superstitions; strong in thirdworld settings, gangs, athletic teams, and
corporate “tribes.” 10 percent of the
population, 1 percent of the power.
Red: Power Gods

First emergence of a self distinct from the
tribe; powerful, impulsive, egocentric,
heroic. Archetypal gods and goddesses,
powerful beings, forces to be reckoned
with, both good and bad. Feudal lords
protect underlings in exchange for
obedience and labor. The basis of feudal
empires-power and glory.
Red: Power Gods

Where seen: The “terrible twos,” rebellious
youth, frontier mentalities, feudal
kingdoms, epic heroes, James Bond villains,
gang leaders, soldiers of fortune, wild rock
stars, Attila the Hun. 20 percent of the
population, 5 percent of the power.
Amber: Mythic Order

Life has meaning, direction, and purpose,
with outcomes determined by an allpowerful Other or Order. This righteous
Order enforces a code of conduct based on
absolutist and unvarying principles of
“right” and “wrong.”
Amber: Mythic Order

Violating the code or rules has severe,
perhaps everlasting repercussions.
Following the code yields rewards for the
faithful. Basis of ancient nations. Rigid
social hierarchies; paternalistic; one right
way and only one right way to think about
everything. Law and order; impulsivity
controlled through guilt; concrete-literal and
fundamentalist belief.
Amber: Mythic Order

Where seen: Puritan America, Confucian
China, Singapore discipline, totalitarianism,
codes of chivalry, religious fundamentalism
(e.g., Christian and Islamic), Boy and Girl
Scouts, “moral majority.” 40 percent of the
population, 30 percent of the power.
Orange: Scientific Achievement

At this stage, the self “escapes” from the
“herd mentality” of Amber, and seeks truth
and meaning in individualistic termsexperimental, objective-“scientific” in the
typical sense.
Orange: Scientific Achievement

5. The world is a rational and well-oiled
machine with natural laws that can be
learned, mastered and manipulated for one’s
own purposes. The laws of science rule
politics, the economy, and human events.
The world is a chessboard on which games
are played as winners gain preeminence and
perks over losers. Basis of corporate states.
Orange: Scientific Achievement

Where seen: The Enlightenment, Wall
Street, emerging middle classes around the
world, colonialism, materialism, secular
humanism. 30 percent of the population, 50
percent of the power.
Green: The Sensitive Self

The human spirit must be freed from greed,
dogma, and divisiveness; feeling and caring
supersede cold rationality; cherishing of the
earth, life. Against hierarchy; establishes
lateral bonding and linking.
Green: The Sensitive Self

Emphasis on dialogue, relationships.
Reaches decisions through reconciliation
and consensus. Strongly egalitarian,
pluralistic values, diversity,
multiculturalism, relativistic value systems;
this worldview is often called pluralistic
relativism.
Green: The Sensitive Self

Where seen: Postmodernism, Netherlands
idealism, Canadian health care, humanistic
psychology, liberation theology, World
Council of Churches, animal rights,
ecofeminism, politically correct diversity
movements, human rights issues. 10 percent
of the population, 15 percent of the power.
Second-Tier Thinking

But what none of the first-tier memes
can do, on their own, is fully appreciate
the existence of the other memes. Each
of the first-tier memes thinks that its
worldview is the correct or best or only
true perspective.
Teal: Integrative

Life is a kaleidoscope of natural hierarchies,
systems, and forms. Flexibility, spontaneity,
and functionality have the highest priority.
Differences and pluralities can be integrated
into interdependent, natural flows.
Egalitarianism is complemented with
natural degrees of ranking and excellence.
Teal: Integrative

Knowledge and competency should
supersede power, status, or group
sensitivity. The prevailing world order is the
result of the existence of different levels of
reality (memes) and the inevitable patterns
of movement up and down the dynamic
spiral.
Teal: Integrative

Good governance facilitates the emergence
of entities through the levels of increasing
complexity. 1 percent of the population, 5
percent of the power.
2nd Tier Consciousness
“With the transition to second tier, there
occurs what Graves called “a
momentous leap of meaning.” In
essence, the entire Spiral comes into
view. And this changes everything.”
2nd Tier Consciousness
“Graves found that fear tends to drop
away dramatically. It is as if the deeper
and wider perspective of second-tier
awareness meets the world with a calm
wisdom that is not easily ruffled. Around
second-tier people, things happen, often
miraculously, simply because they see
big pictures and move fluidly through
them.”
2nd Tier Consciousness
“Second-tier thinkers intuitively
understand the entire Spiral in other
people, and thus they meet people
where they find them. There is a
genuine compassion, not as an ideal,
but as a lived reality.” These people
have access and can activate any of the
first-tier resources within themselves
that they might need.
2nd Tier Consciousness
“Second-tier individuals often baffle
others, precisely because they range
across the entire Spiral as needed.
Spanning the Spiral, they are
impossible to pigeonhole.” The need to
pigeonhole someone is a first-tier need
because each first-tier meme thinks it is
the best and only way. There are those
who are “in” and those who are “out.”
Developmental Hierarchies
Each level of development “enfolds or
envelopes its predecessors-ecosystems
contain organisms, which contain cells,
which contain molecules-a development
that is envelopment. And thus each
higher level becomes more inclusive,
more embracing, more integral-and less
marginalizing, less exclusionary, less
oppressive.”
Two Distinctive Hierarchies
“Riane Eisler calls attention to the
important distinction between
‘dominator hierarchies’ and
‘actualization hierarchies.’ The former
are the rigid social hierarchies that are
instruments of oppression, and the latter
are the growth hierarchies that are
actually necessary for the selfactualization of individuals and cultures.
Two Distinctive Hierarchies
“Whereas dominator hierarchies are the
means of oppression, actualization
hierarchies are the means of growth. It
is the growth hierarchies that gently
bring together previously isolated and
fragmented elements.”
Two Distinctive Hierarchies
“Isolated atoms are brought together into
molecules; isolated molecules are
brought together into cells; isolated cells
into organisms; organisms into
ecosystems. In short, growth
hierarchies covert heaps into wholes,
fragments into integration, alienation
into cooperation.”
Spiral Dynamics Integral

“And, Spiral Dynamics adds, all of this
starts to become obvious at second tier.
Thus, if we react negatively to all
hierarchies, not only will we honorably
fight the injustices of dominator
hierarchies, we will prevent ourselves
from developing to second tier.”
The Prime Directive

“The aim of second-tier ethics is the
health of the whole Spiral, and not any
privileged treatment for any one level,
amber or orange or green or even
second tier. This aim is called the Spiral
Imperative or the Prime Directive.”
Second Tier Spirituality

“A new type of spirituality can emerge at
second tier. It is deeply universal and
stands in awe of the cosmic order, the
creative forces that exist from the Big
Bang to the smallest molecule. This
cosmic unity often includes a renewed
appreciation of Gaia, but only as a part
of a larger consciousness.”
Second Tier Spirituality

“It is a big picture spirituality, a
spirituality of cosmic wholeness. And it
is very important to distinguish this
postconventional cosmic spirituality
from conventional, mythic, Amber
religion.”
Second Tier Spirituality

“They are as different as day and night,
the latter based on myths and dogmas,
the former on integral awareness.”
Turquoise

“If Teal is integral awareness, Turquoise
is unity and wholeness. First-tier
focuses on differences, Teal focuses on
unity, and then Turquoise is able to see
true unity-in-diversity.”
2nd Tier Shadow

“Downsides at second tier can be
considerable, since every level has it
pathologies. The brighter the light, the
darker the shadow. Megatribes and
superclans can form around panoramic
visions.”
2nd Tier Shadow

“The Darth Vader move is always
possible: no matter how high the
developmental unfolding, the new
potentials can be misused, with tragic
consequences.” An example of this is
the globalization problems we see today
with international corporations.
An Extraordinary Journey

“What an extraordinary journey, this
unfolding of consciousness! From
isolated bands of no more than 30
people, incapable of communicating
with other bands and tribes, to a global
village with at least the possibility of a
truly integral embrace.”
An Extraordinary Journey

This integral embrace envisions “a
global unity-in-diversity that allows each
and every culture its own specialness,
while setting them all in the context of a
universal care and fairness that honors
the uniqueness of each.”
The Need for Balance

We see our problem is not simply with
any specific color (meme), but when
any color tries to take over all of the
other colors.
The Need for Checks and
Balances

A red meme with a club is not so
frightening. A red meme with nuclear
weapons or biological weapons is very
scary.
Perspectives

So after this journey through the memes
it is important to return to the beginning
and ask ourselves what do they have to
do with our map of reality? They show
us that how we see the world and other
people looks very different from each
color.
Definitions


What is “God” to the infrared meme?
Magenta? Red? Amber? Orange?
Green? Teal?
And what is spirituality therefore?
Pragmatism


How can we use these colors
practically?
One conclusion seems to point to the
idea that more than any specific plan to
fix things, what we really need to do is
encourage the development of
consciousness.
Lessons

Another conclusion is that we can see
the need for helping any specific meme
develop along the spiral and not
encourage it to skip levels. For example
Green often wants Amber to skip
Orange. And Orange wants Red to skip
Amber.
Lessons


The lesson seems to be that we can’t
skip over levels, but we can grow
through them.
And we can have both healthy and
unhealthy versions of each color.
Defining Health

Vertically, we want people to grow.
Horizontally, we want people to be
healthy versions of whatever meme
they are at.
Wisdom

Wisdom, if anything, is the ability to see
a fuller and wider picture of reality and
be able to understand reality from an
increasing number of perspectives.
Spiral Dynamics Integral is one way of
doing this.
Conclusion

What we wish to promote in order to
facilitate a healthy society is second-tier
thinkers and thinking because they are
the ones who won’t try to suppress any
one group, but who will see the health
of the whole spiral as being vital and
necessary.
Conclusion

Hope is possible because we have seen
the whole world grow from Infrared to
Magenta to Red. Some cultures have
moved to Amber and Orange and a few
small groups have moved to Green.
Conclusion

Finally, the task is to pursue our own
growth in consciousness, promote the
growth in consciousness of others, and
preserve the health of the whole spiral
while at the same time doing what is
necessary and in our power to do to
facilitate balance at each level of
society.