Leo's Blog: Infinite Insights — Page 74
This 97-page research paper by Susanne Cook-Greuter is one of the most important things you can read if you want to understand human development:
Nine Levels Of Increasing Embrace In Ego Development
I recommend you download it, print it out, and read it methodically with a highlighter. It's filled with insights and wisdom you won't find anywhere else.
Cook-Greuter is a Harvard educated yet independent developmental psychologist. So this research has some scientific weight behind it, based on empirical research.
This will take your understanding of developmental psychology & Spiral Dynamics to the next level.
It also dovetails with my discussion of Conscious Politics, since the quality of one's politics directly depends on the development of one's ego.
We will be talking a lot more about developmental psychology in the future. So this is required reading for that. Spiral Dynamics is only one part of the larger field of developmental psychology.
Here's a little taste of the brutality and sneakiness of government. This is the dirty business of creating a society:
Russia is a Spiral Dynamics Stage Red government. It's government by mafia rule. Be careful not to judge it too much because your government had to go through this stage of development before it evolved higher. You don't get a high functioning democracy without a lot of theft, beatings, torture, slit throats, bullets to the head, and rape.
Contemplate why this is happening. What is this about? Why expansion? Why branching? Why life? What is the universe up to?
I find microscope pictures more awe-inspiring than cosmic pictures. Remember, reality zooms to infinity in both directions. And actually there are more than two directions and more than 3 dimensions. But for now, study closely the intelligence behind the design of the microscopic world:
Consciousness is an infinite fractal of pure intelligence. This is what you're really waking up to. This is what you are.
The first extra-solar planet was discovered in 1992. Up to now 4000 have been discovered.
There are approximately 250 billion stars in 1 galaxy.
There are approximately 2 trillion galaxies in our universe.
If there are an average of 3 planets per star, that means there are 1,500,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 planets in our universe.
But all of that is just but an infinitesimally small speck of dust within Infinite Consciousness. All those planets are as far away from infinity as the number 3.
It takes Infinite Consciousness less than a nanosecond to dream all that up.
It has no beginning or end. It goes on forever. It is unlimited.
Imagine holding all of that form within your consciousness.
Try to comprehend that. That is the mind of God.
Vice has some excellent discussion panels featuring diverse political and cultural perspectives.
The panels struck me as highly valuable because they require you to open your mind to alternative POVs. As you watch, pay extra attention to how you get triggered and how you judge these people. This is not about determining who's right or wrong but about going meta to see the relativity of all perspectives. Relativity is what explains why these folks see the world so differently. It's not that ones are right and others are wrong, but that each ego-mind sees the world according to its survival needs and whatever ideologies it was programmed with during its development.
That's just a taste, there's much more and I recommend you watch them all:
- Black Conservatives Debate Black Liberals
- LGBTQ+ Conservatives Debate Liberals - Part 1
- LGBTQ+ Conservatives Debate Liberals - Part 2
- Latino Conservatives Debate Liberals - Part 1
- Latino Conservatives Debate Liberals - Part 2
Really, really, really pay attention to how you judge POVs which are not your own. Also notice how you judge people purely based on their race, gender, clothing, religion, and style of speaking. The point is to notice that you are extremely judgmental and dismissive of any worldview which is not aligned with your own. Notice that alternative POVs are a threat to you — notice how you fear them.
These panels make for a good consciousness litmus test. The more developed and conscious you are, the more you are able hear all these diverse perspectives without judging them, recognizing them to be aspects of yourself.
Note: non-judgment does not mean that you adopt their opinions, nor does it mean that you adopt the average of all their opinions. Both would be a mistake.
I wanted to share this video in the hopes that it will inoculate some of you against joining or starting enlightenment cults.
The key point: Just because the leader of a spiritual group has some degree of awakening does not mean it's not a cult! Many cults weave together legit spiritual teachings with devilry. Think twice before joining any spiritual community.
For more about cults, see my two part series: