So, a while back I did a Twitter rant. Well, perhaps it was a bit more than a rant, it was an attempt to try and distill the incredibly dense and intricate insights of Spiral Dynamics… or, as I playfully rename it, Dynamics of Spirit.
Here is the original link, with the link below. However, below even that, I have copied and pasted the thread of tweets.
A Primer on #SpiralDynamics …
— John Chaffee (@ThatJohnChaffee) February 1, 2021
People tend to grow in their worldview as their environment, social spheres, neurology and biology change. As these things mature in complexity, it is necessary that humans grow to adapt to the new situations they find themselves in.
A Primer on #SpiralDynamics … People tend to grow in their worldview as their environment, social spheres, neurology and biology change. As these things mature in complexity, it is necessary that humans grow to adapt to the new situations they find themselves in.
Within each of us are “codes” or “programs” that come online as things change around us. All previous stages or world views stay in us but help to form the foundation for later world views. In some sense, world views are repeated at “higher octaves.”
The different “codes” are organized in a color scheme rather than numerically, just in case any of us are tempted to fall into judgmentalism and rigid hierarchy. It’s better to think that each stage is “adequate” but that each next stage is “more adequate.”
- Beige – This worldview is selfish survival, antagonistic and all about flight/fight/freeze/fawn. A person isn’t even hunter gatherer at this point, they are archaic and primal. We all start here, and hopefully move out of it quickly depending on our environment.
- Purple – This one is tribal and magical. Shamanistic and ritualistic. Priests, gurus, spiritual mentor ship. Life is in community and the world is enchanted with good and evil spirits. Often this is gatherer culture. Hints of this can happen in later stages.
- Red – This is one power fixated. Strength and might are valued, and the strongest becomes the leader, not the shaman of Purple. These Red leaders are Genghis Khan at their worst and perhaps Moses at their best. Hunter culture. Beige at a higher octave.
- Blue – This one values order, tradition and hierarchy. The might makes right is now seen as a bully and not the best way to organize a society or group. Stories ground people in this code. Commerce is more commonplace and in some ways is Purple at a higher octave.
- Orange – This one is rational and materialistic. Sometimes can be cold hearted and scientific, rigid but also mathematical and precise. The enlightenment, industrial revolution and technological revolution are all products of Orange becoming more dominant in the world.
- Green – This one is pluralistic, sometimes to a fault. Everyone and every story matters. Similar to Blue understanding that story matters but taken unilaterally across the spectrum. Ecological. A return to nature after rationalisms limitations are discovered. Social Justice.
- Yellow – A shift happens here. One becomes personally integrated. All codes are acknowledged as having something good when done in healthy ways. Before now, each code thinks they are the best and only code. Unifying. Saints, Mystics, Holy Fools, etc.
- Turquoise – Globally integrative. Science matters, as does healthy materialism and ecology. Seeks to see the whole world as one, sees things as in interconnected webs. Very few are here, and if they are they are misunderstood. Kind of a higher octave of Green.
- Coral? – We don’t know what comes next. The thought, though, is that as we reach beyond a global environment into a more cosmic one, a new code will emerge.
- “Light” – This is my own theoretical code for the mind of God. ALL codes exist and are valued for what they bring. Cosmically integrative, from the personal to the universal. Christ is “all in all,” “all things have been reconciled,” “all things will be gathered up in Christ.”
These codes explain why some Bible verses literally fly over the head of some people. This also explains the insistence to “put on the mind of Christ.” Many time in the Bible Jesus is actually inviting people to grow into the next “code.”
One of the reasons the Christ was crucified was because He was speaking on a completely other level of consciousness than the people around him. The Jews, the Gentiles, the Pharisees, Apostles, Romans, all of them. Christ was speaking and living from a “code off the charts.”
This is why I playfully rename #SpiralDynamics and it’s integration with Christianity as #SpiritDynamics or #TheDynamicsOfSpirit
The idea that has been gripping me is that we are prone to see our Christianity THROUGH the color worldview that we are personally at, but that does not mean that Christ is looking at the world through that color worldview himself. So, the perpetual question is, “Am I looking at this issue from the worldview of Christ or am I making Christ look at the world through my worldview?” Most often the latter is what happens.
The good news is this… The Holy Spirit invites us all to put on the Mind of Christ, and in order to do that it will be vitally important to integrate and reconcile as much as possible, with grace and wisdom and love.
