Carl-Richard

You have to find the right balance. There is always some discipline or structure involved, or else it's not a "practice". You're taking time out of your day to focus on something for some time. How structured or how disciplined you want to get is something you have to try out for yourself. I just think setting a timer for your meditations is very helpful as it frees up unnecessary potential fears and thoughts, it allows for consistency and a structured way to up your progress, and it just simplifies everything. When you decide "I'm going to sit here for 15 minutes no matter what happens, and I'm fine with that", then there is no "have I meditated long enough?", "how long have I actually meditated for?", "when will I enter the zone?", "ah, I have to become just a little more conscious before I end the meditation", etc. Structure focuses you and reduces uncertainty. But yes, meditation is very intuitive, and you have to find a lot of it out on your own. Choose some structure to follow, but let your intuition work within that. And if you feel some intuitive push to go outside the structure, test it out and see if it works. You can always return to the structure if it doesn't work. The way I discovered all of those things I listed was mostly through intuition, and because I'm a semi-ADHD kind of guy, I ended up practicing all of them at once. (Sometimes I prefer just zeroing in on one method, e.g. focusing on the breath, but doing many methods in parallel can be beneficial as it fills up your mind with a lot of things it has to keep track of and it makes your mind less likely to wander off somewhere else).

It's said that 1-2% of the population is Tier 2. Let's say you stumbled across this forum 6 months ago and you started learning about Spiral Dynamics, and now the concept of Tier 2 seems to make a lot of sense to you. It seems very wise and noble and all that. That said, you only started learning about the model 6 months ago. Advancing through a stage takes decades. Let's say you have spent 5 years on this forum and Tier 2 seems to make more and more sense to you and you notice that your understanding of it has deepened over time. Still, advancing through a stage takes decades. And maybe you realize that there is more to come and that you maybe didn't understand it all that well before when you had just learned about it. People on this forum come from all over the world. Let's assume you're at the stage where 40% of the world population is at, the most populous stage: Blue. That's still an optimistic estimate; "being average". You can be either above or below that. But let's assume you are above that: Orange is 30% of the world population. If you are not below that, it seems increasingly likely that you are within Orange. Put in another way: 90% of the world population are in or below Orange. Now, if you are above that (if you are Green), you are in the top 10% of the world. Let's assume that you, an average guy, is in the top 10% of development in the world; a true Greenie. Phew! Now... are you a part of those who just recently stumbled onto Green, or are a truly mature, deeply steeped, aged and refined Green? Did Green even seem familiar to you when you first learned about SD, or was it something "those other people" did — those "hippies and New Agers" — and that you had to "go back and integrate it" in order to "transcend it"? Maybe Green is something you have to grow into for the next decade? "Who knows?" Anyways, there are probably fewer numbers on that, but let's assume that out of the top 10%, the first 6% are new Greens while the top 4% are mature Greens. So, let's assume you are at the top 4% of development in the world. Now, and really only now, do you have a realistic chance of "stumbling onto" Yellow and truly resonating with it in such a way that you will develop towards it in actuality, and not just adopt a low-resolution, stereotyped, Temu.com version that everybody can parrot off after reading the first Google Images result they see of those graphs made by Wilber and maybe some knock-offs neatly explaining the model. And that's you developing towards Yellow, which yes, takes decades. Maybe in a decade, you are truly in the top 1-2%, in Tier 2. Unless of course, you were always in the top 1-2% and Yellow made perfect sense to you, Green seemed almost boring because of how familiar it is and the decades you spent there, Orange is of course perfectly integrated into your bones, having had a long career within that world, and of course Blue lies at your very foundation. If this does not sound familiar, if you have the even slightest doubt that you are a "Tier 2 thinker", most likely, you are not. "But how can that be possible? Tier 2 seems so cool, I can speak the language, I can list off the qualities, I can parrot the talking points, I know the authors, I even do psychedelics". Well, while that might be true, and while that might even help you develop, anybody else who has known about these things for 6 months, or well, read that fancy Google Image graph, can do the same things. The starting assumption that anybody should have; despite how many Actualized.org videos you have watched, despite how many hours you have spent on self-development, despite how intellectually curious and open and intuitively and holistically-minded you think you are as a person; is that you are not special. And to say that is not pessimism, because you can give whatever complicated sounding argument for how you truly understand Yellow, and it will change nothing, because I am willing to bet you have virtually nothing to show for it. Virtually nothing in the real world reflects it. It's only on paper, only in ideas, not integrated, not a part of your environment, not a part of your daily work. And if it is, good for you, but even then, you can have the 6-month Temu version. Even if you disagree with the specifics or indeed think that I'm too pessimistic, this has become more clear to me as I've met more people and spent more time in different places: that these ways of thinking that many call "Tier 2" are firstly nearly everywhere if you just know where to look (e.g. in many places in academia), that people are able to take on these ideas and present them clearly when you would otherwise want to say "oh but you're just a normie", that when people come across these ideas and start to wield them, they do not change much, it's mainly the words that change and maybe some learned behaviors that ChatGPT could teach you in a 5-bullet point list. True development is not about words, not about regurgitating talking points you have memorized, not about how many videos you have watched or even books you have read (although they can help), but how much you have lived. Life is where development happens; the theater of your mind and anything else is secondary.

I just thought about staring yourself in the mirror, like really close up into one of your eyes, could be interesting, because you get a super detailed feedback of how still you are and what microcorrections you need to make, you amplify the state you are trying to create by presenting it directly in front of you, and by making your own eye an object, you deconstruct the sense of being centered in that very thing you are looking at. 👍

First set the intention that you will be completely ok with just sitting meditating for the next whatever minutes. Try setting an alarm clock for e.g. 15 minutes so you don't have to keep track of time or become insecure about not sitting for long enough. Increase the alarm clock by 5 minutes every session. Sit with your legs crossed in an upright but relaxed position. Take three deep breaths. Start scanning the sensations in your body and try to relax and release any tension you may find, starting from your feet, moving up your legs, to your stomach, chest, back, shoulders, arms, neck, head. Then do it one more time. When you reach the head again, move your attention to the sensations of the rising and falling of your breath (pick an area e.g. around your chest or nostrils). Keep your awareness of the breath. Then become aware of sounds in the room or the silence. "Hear" the silence. Then become aware of tensions in the body, relax them or let them dissolve. Feel the small movements of your body as you sit there, let the movements run their course. Feel the fluctuations of small tensions in your body, encourage the unwinding of tensions. Keep your awareness of all these things. Then become aware of your thoughts. Try to see when the next thought pops up. See what it's about. Try to become aware of the silence between thoughts. If you notice you lose yourself in thoughts without knowing that you are thinking, return to the breath, re-establish awareness of sounds in the room, awareness of the movements and tensions in the body, and repeat. If some thoughts seem to bother you more than others, e.g. if it's something you need to do today, write it down so you can stop thinking about it and address it later that day. If the thoughts are simply general concerns or anxieties about your life or things that may or may not happen, simply let them go. Simply tell yourself "whatever happens to me, I will be fine". And as you sit there, simply re-assert that you will be fine with just sitting there for the rest of the meditation until the alarm clock rings. Other things you can do is become aware of the visual fluctuations behind your closed eyelids. Become really curious about what they are made of, why they happen, why they move the way they do. Try to really become intensely aware of them. Observe them with all your attention. Another thing can be to try to actually enter a state of samadhi (no thoughts) and pure void devoid of forms. Try to release yourself from the tensions of the body so much that you become weightless, try to literally leave your body behind, pretend like you're dead, like a corpse just sitting there. You want to feel like you are sitting so still, so relaxed and are so present with the sensations in your body that your sensations equalize and you enter a state of anesthesia, feeling like your body slowly becomes numb. And the more numb it becomes, the more you distance yourself from your body and the further into pure awareness you go. Here, your concentration should be intense. Also, your breathing should be intense, but not in an excessively labored "breathing method" kind of way, but rather your breathing must be filled with sensuality and love. Another general tip is to try to feel the natural euphoric sensations of the breath (and the body in general) and immerse yourself in that, try to almost make it orgasmic.

Probably not very accurate, but I'm always trying my best to talk about the model on its own terms (or its creators terms). If you bring too much of your own interpretation into it, you are not talking about the model anymore but yourself. People are attracted to interesting-sounding and wise-sounding ideas, but that does not mean they are able to grasp them to the full extent. I'm willing to bet that if you interviewed random people on the street giving them a short briefing on SD and ask about their thoughts about it, the vast majority would say "wow, that's so cool, that makes so much sense!". Then of course, based on that surface level understanding, you would have many who would tweak the theory based on their own biases (like you are doing right now) by for example "why is Green over Orange?" or "I think conservatism is Yellow" or "I think I'm a bit of everything". The bottom line is, it's always possible to pull the model down to your level, and people who come across this forum which has no entry requirements but a few clicks on a screen are not exempt from that. I already mentioned what I think are the two best ways to identify whether you are at a certain stage, but another one would be to notice how you deal with everyday problems or problems in your life. For example, do you use the same solution for most problems (e.g. "I simply write down everything I find valuable"), or do you intentionally tailor the solutions to the particular problem (e.g. "I only write down what I need to do for today")? Do you hold two things as mutually exclusive (e.g. "I want to persevere on pursuing my goals but be kind with myself") when they could actually be compatible? The way your mind deals with concrete issues is a much stronger test of your actual capacities than regurgitating a set of talking points purely in the abstract. It shows what your mind opts for when it's connected to your inner drives and impulses and when it's presented with something you don't have a pre-set answer for.

You have to look at the ratio of power to population. Your system can be rather closed and private. It doesn't have to be global (or even local). Your private friends aren't global. I think the best way to "identify" whether somebody is in Tier 2 is by how much time they have spent in Green. Then how Yellow they appear on the outside comes second.

The inside and outside are two sides of the same coin

Yep. Reducing difference to mere difference. Which is true.

That's Beck's assumption (I presume, referencing an article that excerpted a keynote speech by Whole Foods Market CEO John Mackey who gave an overview of SD while applying it the food industry and global agricultural system). But it makes sense that it would increase your power on average, as with IQ or anything else powerful. But maybe it's a more complicated picture. Well, we're really just talking about getting friends and getting your ideas rolled out in some tangible format. It doesn't necessarily require to become a billionaire or anything. You can be heavily "strategic" about it, as the Yellow stage suggests.

All models reduce differences, even your man Delulu's.

Yes. That is the distinction I'm talking about. On the one hand, you have those who learn about Spiral Dynamics, start talking the language, start thinking about the concepts that they may or may not have a firm grasp on, and then they become sort of an authority on Tier 2 and by sort of a mental osmosis seemingly turn Tier 2 essentially over night in developmental terms. Then you have those that do things in the world, encounter challenges, try to align their actions with their values, build things, create things, solve problems, and through that process, they find themselves drawing upon these principles, find themselves attracting these kinds of people, creating these types of environments and places that seem Tier 2. It comes from within, and it's expressed on the outside, in their actions, in their being.

Tier 2 could expressed purely mentally, could be more flexible with what environment they live in, etc. That's one side of the equation. The other side is that as humans and as organisms, we like to do things that are in accordance with our capabilities and values, we like to be with people who are like us, we like to create environments that support us and where we feel like we belong. And as development increases, power and general capability increases. And as development takes decades, you have a lot of time to make a change. If you truly understand "systems", you will put it into practice somehow, and at some point, it becomes hard to not cause a change. The inside will bleed to the outside somehow.

Tier 2 friends, community, network, business, career, creative work. It's not a prerequisite, just like you can live on a farm with a bunch of Blue-ies, not own a car, not own your own place, not produce any products, services, art, literature or anything tangible that have to do with Orange; essentially be an Amish; and be Orange, but that's sure as hell not even in the single digit percentages of what you would expect.

"Tier 2"-oriented life purpose with real tangible results, not just plans, ideas, dreams. Friends, community, network. Business, career, creative work. Do you at least look even slightly like those "Tier 2 talking heads" people always piss their pants about in intellectual arousal? Developing a stage takes decades — your life should track that development. Not living your potential is a sin and spiritual and moral self-harm.

We have more traps in storage, they come in a revolving circuit based on the season 🤠🫡 Arguably one of the biggest traps is thinking you are a king when you are a loser (I'm not calling anybody a loser, ok?). Look at what the lunatic is doing in the oval office playing basketball with the international economy. "I have the biggest trap, you would not believe it. Nobody has a bigger trap than me". Then second to that is thinking you are a loser, will always be a loser, will never be a king. Then third is getting trapped by the word "trap". The fourth is trap music of course.

Which is why we gotta be frank about where they're at 😝

What are you doing with your time on a day to day basis may I ask?

Most people don't integrate it and instead parrot some words. They say things like "I went from Orange to Yellow, skipping Green", they approach different problems with the same one-size-fits-all solution, they distill a problem down to one or a few key factors and that's it, they have a cartoon-like grasp of concepts. It doesn't track on real ground, only on word salad grounds: "relativity", "perspective", "meta".

At some point, you have to accept what you do not know and move within the known. Or else you're just moving in circles.

Creating scripts in R and MATLAB 🫠

No. I have watched a lot of his videos and gotten many benefits from that.

Trying to get the snake to rise 😈😏

You can get an arousal of kundalini, which can pull you in the right direction and can for example help your meditation and make you experience some bliss, but it's not the same as a kundalini awakening. A kundalini awakening is an intensely physical experience; you're quite literally being penetrated by an object.

I thought you were talking about something that happened at work 😂

No, what is "power"?