The Spiral of Human Development: Stage One
Order of the Naked: Survival, Sensation, and Self-Concept (BEIGE)
Visible in unmistakable clarity and devastating detail is man’s failure to be what he might be and his misuse of his world. This revelation causes him to leap out in search of a way of life and system of values which will enable him to be more than he has been.
—Clare Graves, from The Never Ending Quest
(BEIGE) Order of the Naked: Survival, Sensation, and Self-Concept <
(GREEN) Order of the Leaf: Environment, Consensus, and Equality
(YELLOW) Order of the Nautilus: Integration, Emergence, and Complexity
(TURQUOISE) Order of the Lotus: Holism, Paradox, and Ineffability
In looking at our developmental journeys, we discover patterns. Maybe we impose these patterns on societies, or perhaps they reflect the rhythms of homo sapiens unfolding in complexity. Whatever means determine them, we can understand various stages as part of our social reality. First, we see the Eight Stages of life. Then we accept them. Then we sacralize them.
Each Stage comes with a bundle of values and insights that can help us thrive in various life contexts. As the Eight Stages are vital to understanding humanity’s journey to Decentralism, we honor them as distinct means of adapting to life’s vicissitudes.
Thus, from each distinct cluster of values and insights we form an Order.
Each Order is a sacred subset of the whole. While we must face the fact that there is a stepwise aspect to development, which corresponds roughly to degrees of cognitive and social complexity, the totality of the orders does not amount to a formal hierarchy. No one order is superior to another. As we suggest above, each order should be thought of as sovereign because it is in particular life conditions that each Stage arises. Such makes the whole set of Stages non-linear and non-hierarchical, a living system with indistinct contours and porous borders. Some have described the Stages as a spiral, others simply as stages, but we appeal to the work of giants on whose shoulders we stand.
Beige
You are helpless. Your circumstances present you with brutal binaries. Eat or starve. Drink or wither. Live or die. At this stage, you are more or less a tropistic being, an advanced cluster of cells changing with the surrounding stimuli. You are human, but only barely. You are becoming. In times of severe privation, you will return to the values of this stage, which are bare and basic, just like you. For now, you are a mewling blob of reflexes and possibility.
Crying or cooing are instincts, just like mama’s there-theres. She overcomes the gravity of sleep to feed you and burp you. Founts of fermented spit-up tell her you’re full for now. Were it not for her or some parental figure to nurture you, there would be no higher-stage entity to appreciate this Stage. In other words, you don’t care. You are wholly unable to reflect on such insights, much less show gratitude for them. Maybe you reward your caregivers with cuteness or some other joy of parenting, which nature has programmed in them to enjoy to compensate for the burdens you represent.
Your values, such as they are, are simple: Do what is in your limited means to survive. Most of those means are programmed into you by an ancient code that exists in every cell. Experience does not write itself onto your brain in the manner of etching a blank slate. Instead, sensory data impinge upon a complex array of molecules. Those molecules will execute as your genes instruct, but the genes will express themselves according to some of those worldly stimuli. You are thus the product of nature and nurture tangled in a miraculous dance.
As you continue to be shaped by forces largely out of your control, something mysterious arises between the forces of nature and nurture to assert itself. You become aware. Then you start to form memories. Then you become aware of yourself. Along the way to self-awareness, you become more acutely aware of those around you, too. Where before your experience had all been an inchoate blur, your sentience is crisp. Now in high resolution, you experience the world -- whether in the pain of want, the pleasure of satiety, or the bliss of mother’s love. Dynamic interchanges between you and those around you shape you, and you shape them, but you are not infinitely malleable. Your genes demand limits and form contours that make up your unique attributes. By the by, the process of interpersonal shaping shuttles you into the next stage.
Dr. Don Beck, with co-author Christopher Cowan, expanded Clare Graves's original vision and applied the insights around the world. Dr. Beck passed away on April 17, 2023. May he rest in peace. This series is meant to honor his efforts.
Next: (PURPLE) Order of the Moon: Clan, Ancestors, and Nature
I'm interested in hearing your perspective on the ever-changing nature of the spiral. It seems that challenges or significant life events can sometimes cause us to regress in our personal growth, perhaps indicating that there are additional lessons to be learned. However, akin to the symbolism of the unalome, once we reach the stage that Ken Wilber referred to as turquoise or the transpersonal stage, the evolution of consciousness begins, and external factors that traditionally influence our development become less relevant. I'd love to hear more about your thoughts on this topic.