Neorez

Spiral dynamics: How it should be used

2 posts in this topic

I've noticed that most people here seem to pinpoint themselves and others in one value system. Saying things like I moved out of blue,orange,green,... This is simply not the way Spiral dynamics is intended to be used. Stage theory is a holarchy, not a hierarchy. This means the each stage INCLUDES and Transcends the previous. Just like your hand includes and transcends your fingers. This doesn't mean your fingers disappear when you think on the level of your hand. The same goes with the value systems. Each stage has to be present in a healthy way or the stage above will crumble and stage development will be arrested. Spiral dynamics as developed by Graves and Don Beck points out the stages develop due to changing life conditions, not personal development. So ask yourself how healthy is your Spiral for each stage?

-Beige: food, safety,sex,...

-Purple: family situation, friends, belonging,...

-Red: Drive, will power, sense of self

- Blue: structure, morals , rules, security

- Orange: personal goals and development, knowledge based

- Green: equality, shared decisions, emotion focust

-Yellow: comfortable with paradox, complexity and systems

Note: you also can't base peoples value system on the actions they take. 

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2 hours ago, Neorez said:

I've noticed that most people here seem to pinpoint themselves and others in one value system. Saying things like I moved out of blue,orange,green,...

I think this is just a convenient way of speaking, implying that the centre or general state of one’s consciousness has shifted to a new level. It doesn’t necessary imply that you have totally jettisoned the previous stages. That being said, the “next” stage does tend to demonise the one before it, tendentiously highlighting its worst aspects: for example, Orange and Green like to paint all traditional religiosity (Blue) with the colours of modern evangelicals and religious fundamentalists; Green likes to portray all state-craft as Machiavellian despotism and colonial racism; and even Yellow views Green as dangerous, naive and misguided.

At least as I understanding it, according to Spiral Progress it is only once you reach “Tier 2” than you can truly start to “transcend and include” the lower stages.

2 hours ago, Neorez said:

Note: you also can't base peoples value system on the actions they take. 

Why not? I can see that this alone isn’t enough but the actions people take tell you a lot about them.


He who bathes in the light of Oeaohoo will never be deceived by the veil of Mâyâ. 

Helena Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine

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