Spiral Terrain Development

Life Theme: To secure the survival of the family.

Life Philosophy: Seek harmony and safety in a mysterious world within the family clan and/or tribe.

Values: belonging, camaraderie, closeness, dependability, dreaming, family, imagination, intimacy, intuitiveness, love, mysteriousness, playfulness, sacredness, sensuality, sympathy, thankfulness, trust, warmth, watchfulness, willingness, folk wisdom, wonder

Blue Square

The Journey of Selfless Duty

Core Elements: Authoritarianism, Holy, meaningful

Paradigm: Order: “We are saved.”

World View: The world is well organized, purposeful and subjected to holy (Devine) laws, which will punish evil and will reward the “correct” way of living.

Life Motto: “I sacrifice myself to the Way for a deferred reward.”

Life Theme: To discover meaning and purpose in life and searching for order, security and stability.

Life Philosophy: Live according to the Way and the Truth and serving the doctrine and doing duty with an eye on future rewards.

Values: Accuracy, anticipation, benevolence, carefulness, certainty, charity, chastity, conformity, conscientiousness, consistency, control, conviction, devotion, dignity, diligence, duty, discipline, faith, fidelity, holiness, loyalty, modesty, order, piety, prudence, purity, restraint, saintliness, solidarity, stability, structure, thrift, virtue, dualistic God/spirituality (Abrahamic religions).

Orange Diamond

The Journey of Unique Expression

• Core Elements: Rationality and science ○ Success and autonomy ○ Individualism and democracy ○ Capitalism, entrepreneurialism, and materialism ○ Risk taking and self-reliance ○ Acts from self-interest by playing the game to win

• Description: In an Orange Diamond worldview, what’s important is progress, prosperity, optimism, and self-reliance. They use the mental constructs of strategy, competitiveness, goals, leverage, professional development, and mastery and can be risk averse. The way they come to knowing the world is through rationality, objectivism, demonstrated results, technology, and the power of science. They often see the earth’s resources as a means to spread the abundant “good life.” They make advances by learning the system’s secrets and seeking the best solutions.

  Culturally, the Orange worldview realizes that “truth is not delivered; it is discovered,” spurring the great advances of science and formal rationality. Orange ethics begin to embrace all people as potential, productive members of society; “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…” In it’s unhealthy manifestations, Orange can be calculating, opportunistic, exploitative of the living environment, manipulative and abusive, not taking proper responsibility (disconnected from their heart), too functional, too busy and losing sight of the human aspect.

  We can see Orange influence in: Ayn Rand’s Objectivism, the US Bill of Rights, Wall Street; emerging middle classes around the world; colonialism, political gamesmanship; sales and marketing field; fashion and cosmetics industries; Chambers of Commerce; the Cold War; materialism; Libertarianism; allopathic (western) medicine; Silicon Valley; The Riviera, Rodeo Drive; and many of the laws written to protect individual freedom.

• Values: Affluence, ambition, boldness, capability, celebrity, challenge, confidence, creativity, curiosity, decisiveness, competence, direction, drive, efficiency, excellence, exploration, fame, significance, freedom, growth, independence, investing, liberty, logic, money, wealth, motivation, optimism, prosperity, professionalism, proactive, persistence, speed, success, recognition, resourcefulness, recreation, status, uniqueness, autonomy, originality.

• Methods: science ○ learning to excel ○ setting goals ○ being ‘extraordinary’ ○ achieving ○ measuring success ○ finding one’s unique ‘point of view’ ○ rational self-interest ○ standing out from the crowd ○ success within the system ○ entrepreneurship ○ competition ○ influencing the world with the thinking mind: reason, ingenuity, creativity, argument, persuasion, & intellect ○ Meyers Briggs ○ societal progress and personal development ○ being an “innovator” or “adopter”○ social proof - confirmation by external reflection ○ ideology ○ NLP ○ Landmark other self-empowerment method groups ○ Getting society/peers/significant others to confirm ‘yes’ to the question: do others see me as I believe I am? ○ Desire for more, bigger, better ○ Comparison ○ Questioning religion and dogma ○ Skepticism

• Gifts: individual rights ○ democracy ○ modern medicine ○ industrialization ○ innovation ○ industriousness ○ inspiration ○ scientific method and rationale ○ mind-drive ○ critical thinking ○ early global perspective ○ delivery of results ○ effectiveness ○ improvement

• How Influences Others: Provides logical argument, data, experience ○ makes task/goal-oriented contractual agreements

Green Circle

The Journey of Heart Connection

• Core Elements: Social democracies ○ Informational ○ Pluralism, equality, and relativism ○ Civil rights and environmentalism ○ Worldcentric ○ Seek peace within the inner-self and explore with others, the caring dimensions of community ○ Power-with, solidarity, human rights activism ○ Sensitivity to others and the environment ○ Feelings and caring (in response to the cold rationality of Orange) ○ Harmony and equality ○ Reconciliation, consensus, dialogue, participation, relationships, and networking ○ Human development, bonding and spirituality ○ Diversity and multiculturalism ○ Distributing the earth’s resources and opportunities equally among all

• Description: Green Circle worldviews are marked by pluralism, or the ability to see that there are multiple ways of seeing reality. If Orange Diamond sees universal truths (“All men are created equal”), Green Circle sees multiple universal truths—different universals for different cultures (cultural relativism). Green ethics continue, and radically broaden, the movement to embrace all people. A Green statement might read, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people are created equal, regardless of race, gender, class…” Green ethics have given birth to the civil rights, feminist, and LGBTQ+ rights movements, as well as environmentalism. Culturally, think: John Lennon’s Imagine ○ Netherlands’ idealism ○ sensitivity training; cooperative inquiry ○ postmodernism ○ politically correct ○ hippie communes ○ pagan culture ○ human rights and diversity issues. 

  The Green Circle worldview’s multiple perspectives give it room for greater compassion, idealism, and involvement, in its healthy form. Such qualities are seen by organizations such as the Sierra Club, Amnesty International, Union of Concerned Scientists, Planned Parenthood, and Doctors Without Borders. People in the Green Circle terrain are frequently visible in the helping professions (e.g., health care, education, and feelings-oriented business activities). In its unhealthy form, Green Circle worldviews can lead to extreme relativism—where all beliefs are seen as relative and equally true—which can in turn lead to the nihilism, narcissism, irony, and meaninglessness exhibited by many of today’s intellectuals, academics, and trend-setters… not to mention another “lost” generation of students.

• Values: appreciation, awareness, balance, compassion, contribution, cooperation, consensus, diversity, empathy, encouragement, fairness, generosity, happiness, harmony, mindfulness, openness, respect, selflessness, sharing, spirituality, support, vulnerability, conceptual oneness, sustainability, community, welfare of life, stewardship.

• Methods: appreciating diverse views, listening well, consensus, emphasizing group needs, marginalizing no one, cooperation, tuning into one's ‘heart’ for navigation, emotional awareness and processing, activism, creating safe and accepting environments, lateral organizations (rather than hierarchy), collaborative learning, nature-based spirituality, agape love. Creating community. Feelings. Listening openly in non-judgmental way. Nonviolent communication. Defending the voiceless. Finding and operating from shared values. Divesting in personal success over success of the interconnected nature of all beings. Women’s and men’s circles (tribal sharing of feelings and perspectives rituals). Responding rather than reacting.

• Gifts: empathy and social skills, heart, concern for ecosystems, social justice, tolerance, pluralism, openness and transparency, stewardship of the earth, being vulnerable with others, defending the voiceless, being spiritually ‘open’. Feeling a visceral connection to the web of life. Positive, holistic forms of collectivism.

• How Influences Others: Adapts (ignores) rules when needed, or invents new ones; discusses

  issues and airs differences.

Yellow Spiral

The Journey of Individual Truth

• Core Elements: Sees natural hierarchy and systems of systems ○ Holds multiple perspectives ○ Flexible, creative, and effective ○ Leading edge of consciousness and culture ○ Interconnectivity, Flex-and-Flow ○ Interlocking Dynamic Systems ○ Head and heart integration ○ Survival of human species ○ Qualities and responsibilities of being ○ Live fully and responsibly as what you are and learn to become ○ Aware of their unique place in the interconnected ‘Cosmic Tapestry’ ○ Identifies as part of an unseen multidimensional intelligence greater than the 3D world ○ Mission of self-actualization.

• Description: To speak archetypically, Yellow Spiral folks include some of our philosophers, metaphysicians, thought and organizational leaders, cutting-edge designers & creatives, personal development theorists, psychonauts, novelists, theoretical physicists and other sorts that deal with meta-realities. They can comprehend multiple interconnected systems of relationships and processes and are able to deal with conflicting needs and duties in constantly shifting contexts. They recognize the need for autonomy while parts of a system are interdependent. They recognize higher principles, social construction of reality, complexity and interrelationships. Typically problem finding not just creative problem solving. Because they are often aware of paradox and contradiction in systems and in self, they are sensitive to unique market niches, historical moments, and larger social movements. They are often aware of their own power (and perhaps tempted by it), but seek feedback from others and the environment as vital for growth and making sense of the world.

  Perhaps most important, a Yellow worldview begins to see the process of development itself, acknowledging that each one of the previous stages has an important role to play in the human experience. Yellow consciousness sees that each of the previous stages reveals an important truth, and pulls them all together and integrates them without trying to change them to “be more like me,” and without resorting to extreme cultural relativism. Yellow worldviews do more than just see all points of view (that’s a green circle worldview)—it can see and honor them, but also critically evaluate them.

  In its unhealthy forms, Yellow can get bogged down in complex analysis, builds castles in the air; invents beautiful futuristic solutions which are not pragmatic. Can neglect finishing something because there’s always something new that requires attention. Criticism and analysis made more complex instead of execution of what actually needs to be done. At times, Yellow may seem cold and distant as it sometimes forgets to connect to people (because of its enthusiasm for ideas).

  Yellow influence can be seen in: Peter Senge’s “organizations” ○ W. Edward Deming’s “objectives” ○ Stephen Hawking’s “Brief History of Time” ○ Michael Pollan’s “How to Change Your Mind” ○ Wachowski Sisters creations: The Matrix Trilogy, Cloud Atlas ○ Oliver Sacks “Awakenings” ○ Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory ○ Chaos and complexity theories ○ Eco-industrial parks and design (using each other’s outflows as raw materials)

• Values: adaptability, agility, approachability, assertiveness, candor, congruence, directness, functionality, flexibility, guidance, humility, insightfulness, inspiration, integrity, mastery, systems thinking, nimbleness, perceptiveness, reflection, persistence, simplicity, sincerity, spontaneity, synergy, self-awareness, self-actualization, epistemology, philosophy, knowledge

• Methods: Leading self first through interior clarity, then acting with elegance ○ Awaken maximum number of streams of evolution ○ Integrate diversity with discernment ○ Coherence ○ Authenticity, self-love, true life purpose ○ Integrity, understanding, integrated decision making ○ Internally referenced holistic decision making ○ Gathering input rather than being influenced ○ Presence ○ Finding neutrality ○ Inner growth and development ○ Epistemological deconstructionism ○ Healthy hierarchies ○ Kensho awakenings ○ Conceptual dualistic spirituality (belief-bound signs and symbology) ○ Channeling, shamanism, and other energetic arts ○ Holistic self-inquiry

• Gifts: Decrease in fear ○ Flexible perspective taking ○ Increase in cognitive complexity (eg. polarity management) ○ Increased emotional and spiritual intelligence ○ Creative solutions that address multiple levels of the spiral ○ Form fits purpose ○ Authentic Power ○ Accepting of change ○ Synchronicity aware ○ Frequency and resonance aware intuition develops ○ Self-responsibility for creation of their reality ○ Inner change agents ○ Leading by example ○ Service to self as service to others ○ Multiple perspective empathy ○ Interpersonal harmonizing ○ Better boundary maintenance ○ Energetic discernment ○ Higher principles operation ○ Magical mystical powers of discernment ○ Meeting people where they’re at in development

• How Influences Others: Leads in reframing, reinterpreting situations so that decisions support overall principle, strategy, integrity, and foresight.

Ken Wilber: 

“Here the soul or self begins to transcend the verbal ego-mind and integrate all aspects of previous stages including not only verbal, cognitive, and emotional ego states, but also the Jungian-derived ”shadow” (or the complementary aspects of unconscious processes). This stage is characterized by autonomy, integration, authenticity, and/or self-actualization.  Now begins the Transpersonal realms.”

“Here the individual begins to transcend the egoic states of the previous levels. This stage brings with it the possibility of psychic experiences such as clairvoyance, precognition, and other parapsychological phenomena, and also transcendent states of being related to gender identity (e.g. androgyny), ecological understanding (e.g. shamanism), identification with a World Soul (e.g. Gaia), and other holistic ways of thinking, seeing, and being.”

Turquoise Toroid

The Journey of Universal Truth

• Core Elements: Collective individualism ○ Sees the world as alive and evolving ○ Holistic and cosmos-centric ○ Lives from both individual and trans-personal self ○ Head, heart, body (gut) intelligence integration ○ Authentic irony ○ An ecology of perspectives ○ Deep experience of non-dual states (oneness) ○ Experience the wholeness of existence through mind and spirit ○ Direct relationship with the infinite dimensionality of ‘the Field” ○ Awakening and extraordinary states of consciousness become more regular ○ Self-actualizing, Self-realizing

• Description: Turquoise Toroid is a mature integral view, one that sees not only healthy hierarchy but also the various quadrants of human knowledge, expression, and inquiry. While Yellow worldviews tend to be secular, Turquoise is the first to begin to integrate Spirit as a living force in the world (manifested through any or all of the 3 Faces of God: “I”—the “No self” or “witness” of Buddhism; “we/thou”—the “great other” of Christianity, Judaism, Hindusm, Islam, etc.; or “it”—the “Web of Life” seen in Taoism, Pantheism, etc.).

  They represent holistic, intuitive thinking and cooperative actions, and experience waves of integrative energies. They work at uniting feeling with knowledge, and seeing the self as both distinct and a blended part of a larger, compassionate whole. They recognize that everything connects to everything else in ecological alignments in universal order, but in a living, conscious fashion not based on external rules (blue) or group bonds (green). This terrain offers the possibility and actuality of a “grand unification” experience that reconciles the detection of harmonics, mystical forces, and the pervasive flow-states that permeate any organization.

  The person at Turquoise innately knows that the entirety of Creation is alive (life itself), intelligent, and co-creative as one unified whole Field that operates as a closed-loop toroidal fractal of infinite dimensionality. They may not be scientifically minded or understand words like ‘fractal’ or ‘Field’, yet they can realize that this entire reality is an illusion, or a collective hologram created moment to moment by each person to serve the evolution of consciousness.

  In its unhealthy forms, people at Turquoise can stay in a spiritual and/or cosmic consciousness too long without taking earthly action. They can still be corrupted through spiritual ego into exploiting their power as spiritual leaders and healers to take advantage of others. 

  We can see Turquoise influences in: David Bohm’s theories ○ Rupert Sheldrake’s work on morphic fields ○ Gandhi’s ideas of pluralistic harmony ○ Mandela’s pluralistic integration ○ Integral-holistic systems thinking ○ Deepak Chopra’s metaphysics ○ Tara Brach ○ Matt Kahn ○ Some Gaia, Shift, & Mindvalley network content ○ I Ching ○ Gnostic Teachings ○ Mystical Kabbalah ○ “The Force” in Star Wars ○ NDE accounts

• Values: Bliss, calmness, contentment, continuity, flow, peace, serenity, stillness, tranquility, letting go, transcendence, unity, agape (universal) love, contemplation, metaphysics, integration, living the questions, humility, trust, love of truth, willingness, patience, grace, embodiment

• Methods: Deep interior work. Working with intuitive knowing, paradox and multarities. Power through presence and radiance. Dancing with what arises, with the direction of the present moment. Deeper receptivity of multidimensional trans-personal perceptions. Trust in the living intelligence of the Universe. Working together with life through conscious co-creation. Not attempting to control life force through will. Wu Wei - doing by not doing. Realizing fractal and holonic nature of phenomenon. Satori (continual awakenings). Solving problems in the “Field” of consciousness. Asking the right questions (getting to Truth). Soul-based metaphysics. All-inclusive worldview (full embrace). Dispelling ego delusion. Relinquishing all fear and falsehood. Yielding to infinite wisdom and receptivity to all of life (Divine Will). Interplay of awareness, thought, action, and effects. Transforming self and others. Mindfulness & meditation. Psychedelics. Dualistic spirituality (subject-object direct realizations). Chakra system balance. Heart awakenings.

• Gifts: Experience intuitive and collective intelligence, integration of previous stages through ritual, joy, awe, and profound stable connection to all that is ○ Divination - channeling, psychic reading, energy healing, etc ○ Quantum self-responsibility and decision making based on collective good ○ Service oriented ○ Genius creative capacity and leadership ○ Unconditional love ○ Liberal forgiveness ○ High degree of ego awareness and mastery 

• How influences others: Reframes, turns inside-out, upside-down, clowning, holding up mirror to society ○ Often works behind the scenes

Ken Wilber:

“You are seeing something beyond nature, beyond the existential, beyond the psychic, beyond even cosmic identity. You are starting to see the hidden or esoteric dimension, the dimension outside the ordinary cosmos, the dimension that transcends nature. You see the Light, and sometimes this Light literally shines like the light of a thou­sand suns.” (from an interview published in Quest Magazine, 1994 Spring , pp. 43-46).

Coral Infinity

The Journey of Realizing Oneness

• Core Elements: Exhibits wisdom, joy, and love ○ Seen in Saints and Sages throughout history ○ Truly living inside of Love ○ Self-realization ○ Full enlightenment

• Description: The Coral Infinity stage is the first that is truly non-dualistic. As a person crosses the event horizon of perception into the Coral stage, the big shift that happens is that they no longer experience separation at any level of their Being. They now know—from direct experience—that Consciousness is indivisible. Far beyond simply feeling themselves to be connected to the “Field” or Web Of Life; they experience themselves as the Web Of Life. They are not merely perceiving Infinite Consciousness; they are Infinite Consciousness. They are living Oneness, in a fully embodied way. Has access to Absolute Truth (non-dual reality).

  All samskaras and wounds are undergoing complete resolution and Total Embrace is being realized through every moment. A person at this stage knows they ARE every ‘thing’, and nothingness simultaneously—every person, every animal, every plant, every object and every single molecule in the multiverse—and that everything is them. The story at Coral is “I AM Infinite Consciousness Experiencing Itself. I am God and God is imagining itself as the human I am, as well as everything else.”  

  Has awakened to direct knowing of most/all of the facets of awakening - Facets of Unity. Walking the path of integrating it all. Because they feel complete in themselves and are totally internally referenced for their happiness, love, and satisfaction, they no longer rely on others and ego accomplishments for their wellbeing. In their unhealthy forms, individuals at Turquoise can seem dumb or crazy or out of touch. They can withdrawal from valuing human connection and traditional social roles as an effect from realizing they are God and God is everything and everyone already (all other selves are illusory), thus becoming energy stagnant. 

  We can see Coral influence in: Eckhart Tolle’s complete works ○ Miranda Macpherson ○ Tim Freke ○ Richard Sylvester ○ Thich Nhat Hanh ○ Buddha ○ Christ ○ Pema Chodron ○ Amma ○ Maulana Rumi’s poetry ○ The Tao Te Ching ○ Kriya Yoga ○ Tantra ○ “Wisdom is knowing I am nothing, Love is knowing I am everything, and between the two my life moves.” ―Nisargadatta Maharaj

• Values: enlightenment, unconditional love, selflessness, infinitude, understanding, wisdom, universal acceptance, total embrace (acceptance and love of all that is), beingness, silence, solitude, stillness, experiential oneness, non-duality, self-realization, energy dynamics, witnessing, surrender, kundalini ○ Being nothing, doing nothing, getting nothing, becoming nothing, seeking nothing, relinquishing nothing, being as you are, resting in God ○ Direct teachings from within

• Methods: Beingness ○ Selflessness ○ God realization—non-dual states of consciousness ○ Living Tao Te Ching ○ Meditation in every moment ○ Being common—no special elevation or deification ○ No more automatic identification with ego roles ○ Non-judgment ○ Seeing everything as equal and worthy of love and acceptance ○ No preferences ○ No dogma, ideology, prescribed meaning-making ○ No scripted purpose, decisions, or planned life trajectory - just improvisations in beingness, in the Now ○ Surrendering selfishness ○ Surrender to the Plan ○ Ego mastery ○ Infinite direct knowing as they are now identified as consciousness itself, which has no discrimination other than what is imagined into being ○ Cleaning the temple of any possible remaining shadow, pain-body, or samskaras ○ Tantra ○ Relinquishing all fear, including fear of death ○ Satori ○ Kundalini awakening ○ Kriya Yoga ○ 5-MeO-DMT ○ Non-dual spirituality (subject-object unity) 

• Gifts: Last stage of “10 Ox Herding Pictures” - Hotei Osho awakening everyone in sight ○ Living presence in motion ○ Unconditional love and acceptance (total embrace) ○ Compassionate kindness for all beings in all circumstances ○ Inner sovereignty ○ Creator being Self-responsibility ○ Imaging and re-imaging the hologram of reality through imagination and energy processing ○ Seeing the illusion and leading others to see through it ○ Honoring the mind/body vehicle

• How influences others: The ocean, waving ○ Non-attached, non-drama, stillness ○ Presence in non-dual oneness ○ Liberation ○ Universal love energy

Ken Wilber:

“This is total and utter transcendence and release into Formless Consciousness, Boundless Radiance. There is here no self, no God, no final-God, no subjects, and no thingness, apart from or other than consciousness as Such” (from his book The Atman Project, p. 84).

“The entire World process then arises, moment to moment as one’s own Being, outside of which, and prior to which, nothing exists. That Being is totally beyond and prior to anything that arises, and yet no part of that Being is other than what arises.”