The Evolution of Consciousness E-Book

Wilfried Ehrmann

• Herausgeber: tredition
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Seitenzahl: 360

Beschreibung

The Evolution of Consciousness - The entire history of mankind affects our inner life, mostly without our knowledge. Often this influence on our soul is so subtly and finely ingrained in our patterns of behaviour that we view them as a matter of course, unaware that and how they separate us from what we really want and what is important to us. In a way, our personal life story represents a miniature repetition of human cultural development in general. The challenges we are confronted with our individual lives are similar to those that all man-kind has had to take up. Thus, we can learn from our precursors in history how we might succeed in life but also how we might fail.

Leseprobe

© tao.de in J. Kamphausen Mediengruppe GmbH, Bielefeld

First edition 2014

Author: Wilfried Ehrmann

Cover design, illustration: © Creativeapril – fotolia.com

Translation: Michael Ehrmann

Publisher: tao.de in J. Kamphausen Mediengruppe GmbH, Bielefeld,

www.tao.de, eMail: [email protected]

ISBN: 978-3-95802-174-7 (Paperback)

978-3-95802-175-4 (Hardcover)

978-3-95802-176-1 (e-Book)

First published in German 2011 by J. Kamphausen-Verlag, Bielefeld, titled: “Vom Mut zu wachsen. Sieben Stufen der integralen Heilung“

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Wilfried Ehrmann

Consciousness in Evolution

Seven Steps of Integral Healing

Translation: Michael Ehrmann

Table of Contents

Cover

Copyright

Title Page

Foreword by the Editor

Foreword by the Author

Culture, Consciousness, and Evolution – an Introduction

Cultural Evolution and Consciousness

The Stages of Evolution from a Cultural Viewpoint

The Stages of Individual Development

The Organic Foundations of Life and Evolution

The Biological Foundation of Religion

Growth State and Protective State

The Foundation of Human Emotions

Two Driving Forces of Evolution

The Seven Stages of Consciousness

Stage 1: Tribal Consciousness – Humanity as Belonging Together

Ritualized Communities

The Concept of the Social Contract

The Nature-Man Continuum

Tradition

Rituals

Excursus: The Further History of the Ritual

Shamanism

Superstition

Our Tribal Roots

The Ancestor’s Exercise

The Circle Practice

The Tree Exercise

Stage 2: Emancipatory Consciousness – the Human Quality of Individualisation

Abandoning the Traditions

Dissociation from the Body

The Emancipation of Sustenance

Social Differentiation and Linear History

The Genesis of the Hero

Patricide and the Origin of Patriarchy

The Invention of Polarity

The Power of the Intellect: Heroes of the Mind

Our Emancipatory Roots

The Energy of the Transition to Adulthood

The Departure

Challenges

Stage 3: Bureaucratic Consciousness – Human Life in Organisations

The Necessity of Order

The Bureaucratisation of Individuals

Norming by Shame

The Institutionalisation of Violence

World Religions

The Domination of Nature

Creativity at the Bureaucratic Stage

Our Hierarchical Roots

Reflections on Patterns of Authority

Familiarisation with and Dissolution of One‘s Shame

Finding Security Within

Stage 4: Materialistic Consciousness – Man and Achievement

A New Dynamic

The Power of Numbers and Figures

The Principle of Permanent Change

Capitalism

The Attitude towards Reproduction in Materialism

Socialism

Self-reproduction in Addiction

Our Attachment to the Stage of Materialism

Materialistic Fear

Patterns of Stress

Resolution of Stress

Stage 5: Personalistic Consciousness – Human Self-Realisation

From the Uniformity of the Manifold to Quality

The Difference Between Stage Two and Stage Five

Creativity

Inner Worlds

Turning Inside

Excursus: The Bourgeoisie

Ideology and Religion

The Power of Knowledge and the Endless Train of Questions

Nature

The Problem of Theodizee as Example

Social Structures in Personalistic Consciousness

The World Wars as Shock for Personalistic Consciousness

Problems for the Transition from Stage Five to Six

Our Inner Imprintings of the Personalistic Stage

Pride

Creativity

Qualities

Your Part in Life

Stage 6: Systemic Consciousness – Man in the World of Networks

Life in Larger, Flexible Contexts

Systemic Thinking and Constructivism

The Constructivist Approach

A Farewell to Habits of Thinking

A Farewell to Structures of Power and Violence

The End of Fixations and Alternative Thinking

The Attitude of Serving

Communities

Arts and Entertainment

Love and Relationships at the Systemic Stage

Religion and the Sacred

The Ambivalence of Systemic Consciousness

Our Inner Imprints of the Systemic Stage

Systemic Perception

Assumed Values and Attitudes

Conflict

Work and Servitude

Stage 7: Holistic Consciousness – on the Path to Perfection

Liberation from Fear

The Path to Inner Freedom

The Great Interwovenness

Purifying Spirituality

Holistic Activity in the Name of Unity

Overcoming Conflicts of Judgement

The Simplitude of Truth

The Experience of Time

Integrating Earlier Stages of Consciousness

Striving for Holistic Consciousness

Being in the Present Moment

Peak Experiences

The Compassion Exercise

The Vista of a Global Community

Conclusion One: A Global Government

Conclusion Two: Equal Opportunities

Conclusion Three: Nature and Creativity

Conclusion Four: Diversity

Appendix: Other Models of Evolution

On the Concept by Ken Wilber

Differences to the Model of Spiral Dynamics (Graves, Beck and Cowan)

About the Author

The Evolution of Consciousness

Cover

Copyright

Title Page

Culture, Consciousness, and Evolution – an Introduction

Appendix: Other Models of Evolution

The Evolution of Consciousness

Cover

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

39

40

41

42

43

44

45

46

47

48

49

50

51

52

53

54

55

56

57

58

59

60

61

62

63

64

65

66

67

68

69

70

71

72

73

74

75

76

77

78

79

80

81

82

83

84

85

86

87

88

89

90

91

92

93

94

95

96

97

98

99

100

101

102

103

104

105

106

107

108

109

110

111

112

113

114

115

116

117

118

119

120

121

122

123

124

125

126

127

128

129

130

131

132

133

134

135

136

137

138

139

140

141

142

143

144

145

146

147

148

149

150

151

152

153

154

155

156

157

158

159

160

161

162

163

164

165

166

167

168

169

170

171

172

173

174

175

176

177

178

179

180

181

182

183

184

185

186

187

188

189

190

191

192

193

194

195

196

197

198

199

200

201

202

203

204

205

206

207

208

209

210

211

212

213

214

215

216

217

218

219

220

221

222

223

224

225

226

227

228

229

230

231

232

Foreword by the Editor

Who am I? Who could I be? It is questions like these that remind us of the essential quality of personhood, of the fact that in life we are on an inner path of growth - whether as an individual growing from a baby into an adult, or as an entire species evolving from the ape into present-day homo sapiens – the sensible, wise man. Through a unique interplay between the inner drive and external demands we have become what we are today: being aware that we have not yet reached the end of our path.

With this book, Wilfried Ehrmann has drawn a detailed map of the connections between consciousness, culture and evolution, which shows where we come from and where to we can grow. Being a psychotherapist, he is well acquainted with the inner dynamics of the psyche and connects these internal worlds with external existence. He demonstrates how in the intertwined personal and cultural perspectives, through our own interaction with the systems we have established, the Here and Now may take shape, the legacy of the past may live on, and the potential of the future may appear as a beacon on the horizon.

In this multitude of perspectives, which in integral theory is represented by the four quadrants, the author focusses on the developments that happen at the interfaces between the respective spheres. How does the culture we live in affect the way in which we perceive the world? How do the institutions we have established influence our minds? What opportunities for development are there, and where do we come up against limiting factors?

These reflections show that a frequent motivation for further growth is fear. When at our present stage of development we fail to see a possibility of fulfilling our needs, we start to explore virgin territories, hoping to find safety and fulfilment in those new places.

To Wilfried Ehrmann, this upward movement involves seven stages in the development of consciousness, which apply both to the historical development of mankind and the essentials of individual development.

In coordinated practical exercises he shows how our environment may help us grow and how our inner transformation not only benefits us but moreover represents a helpful impetus for other people.

Just as our individual abilities grow more and more varied from day one to adulthood, so does the variety of values and systems increase on a cultural or social dimension.

While integral theory clearly distinguishes between different aspects of development, defining independent patterns of development for each of these elements, the author’s aim is to point out general dynamics of evolution and to show the interplay between the different areas.

This meta-perspective makes the discrimination of integral theory (whose aim it is to achieve greater discriminatory power between categories and to avoid reductionisms) fade into the background for the sake of an overall picture and a focus on interconnectedness.

The author takes us on an exciting journey, which leads us from the roots of human existence to the glowing vista of future unity. He points out a path of liberation and healing, which leads us to our true self and opens up new possibilities for the development of humanity as a species.

Dr. Nadja Rosmann

Editor of „Integrale Reihe“

Foreword by the Author

The entire history of mankind affects our inner life, mostly without our knowledge. Often this influence on our soul is so subtly and finely ingrained in our patterns of behaviour that we view them as a matter of course, unaware that and how they separate us from what we really want and what is important to us.

In a way, our personal life story represents a miniature repetition of human cultural development in general. The challenges we are confronted with our individual lives are similar to those that all mankind has had to take up. Thus, we can learn from our precursors in history how we might succeed in life but also how we might fail.

However, we “repeat” history in our own individual way. It is not a blind repetition of a process that has happened a million times before, but rather a rewriting of history in our own personal style. Yet, it also involves the continuation of historical developments in new areas made accessible by a new personal history. Being aware of this makes us feel unique as well as connected with a long and great history, both at the same time.

The model of the evolution of consciousness allows us to put into broader contexts unresolved issues from our past that burden us, allotting to them a point of reference from history. Then we will know where to begin with the confrontation, which could be accompanied with the specific exercises in this book.

Thus, our study of the evolution of consciousness need not be a mere acquisition of knowledge. We can use it to work towards personal transformation. We can apply it in the hope that it may enable us to see more clearly the roots of our reactions, problems and motives, and gain a deeper understanding of ourselves and the people around us.

If we want to make progress on our path to realisation and liberation, we first have to know what the major tasks of each stage of consciousness are. What we fail to achieve at one stage we will miss at the next. Once we understand the model we will know where to go back to if we have got stuck somewhere. Once we are there we will know what to make up for so we may acquire a new resource.

Finally, the model of the evolution of consciousness shows that while there is some point in achieving most of the things we want to achieve in life, we will not always be striving for the highest. The deepest inner quest is the quest for oneness. Its goal is something eternal, something leading not to short-term satisfaction but to genuine serenity: something that brings inner peace and exorcises fear.

The power that inspires in us the desire for progress and freedom from pressure and contraction knows what it is to be in harmony with the world and supported by love. We carry this knowledge deep within our hearts. It belongs to us as individuals, and it belongs to the legacy of mankind, being the essence of ancient texts, repeated and re-edited again and again through the ages, in all cultures.

If we resolve to move on towards this great goal, the model of the evolution of consciousness is to encourage us to stick to this path and keep on walking, like the entire human species. Each depiction of a stage of evolution is therefore followed with a small section devoted to reflection and exercises. This will give us the opportunity to gain a deeper awareness of our own personal evolutionary history.

This book will take you on a journey of discovery. On this trip, some things already familiar to you may appear in a new guise. You will explore virgin territory, reaching vantage points exposing to view vast, uncharted territories of your life.

Sometimes, your path may lead through dry and barren landscapes, whose beauty you will acknowledge only if you stay a while. You will come to exciting and unexpected places, especially if you do the exercises of introspection at the end of each chapter. This journey is meant to give you heart: heart to confront what so far you may have been trying to evade; heart to move on with a commitment to improve on your own life. Reading this book may lend you a deeper understanding of how invaluable the legacy of history within your soul is – it is a rich heritage that can be used for stimulation in everyday life, in relationships and for whatever you do. You will realise that this legacy provides you with the resources that are required in the future. Just as human cultural consciousness steadily grows and develops further, so does the evolution of your personal life follow an inner plan, whose stages this book may help you see more clearly. This book is meant to encourage you to put your trust in the power of the evolution of consciousness, so that with care and confidence you may master the varied tasks you are presented with in this world.

Culture, Consciousness, and Evolution – an Introduction

Models of the development of consciousness have something fascinating about themselves as they allow to combine a vision of history with our personal lives. In this task, two fields of tension have to be mastered: Models should be generalizing to a degree that facts and phenomena can find their place easily. They should reach as far into details as is needed to get a precise sense of the peculiarities of a certain level.

Furthermore, the steps from level to level should mark the progression of development in which the present circumstances are overcome by something completely new. At the same time, the continuous development of the whole should be conceivable at any point. So the model should contain steps which should follow one after the other in a plausible way while marking a difference among themselves and obey a general pattern of movement as well.

The model of spiral dynamics has enchanted me due to its inner logics and its combination of simplicity and complexity. It originates from the findings of the US psychologist Clare Graves (1914 – 1986). He writes: “The psychology of the mature human being is an unfolding, emergent, oscillating, spiraling process marked by progressive subordination of older, lower-order behaviour systems to newer, higher-order systems as man’s existential problems change.”

Grave’s model is an enhancement of the well-known motivation pyramid by Abraham Maslow and wants to serve as a summing-up of different models of evolution. It bears certain similarities to other step ladders like those from Jean Gebser and Ken Wilber. Going further back, we can probably find G.F.W. Hegel’s “Phenomenology of Spirit” as prototype.

After thorough study of the system, I have applied some changes which deemed important to me. They can add to a better comprehensibility and applicability of the model.

Cultural Evolution and Consciousness

The history of the evolution of nature does not end with its culmination in the appearance of the homo sapiens. Though admittedly for 40.000 years there have been no significant changes in its genetic substratum, the appearance of the homo sapiens is just the beginning of an equally exciting development, in whose course he will overthrow the Earth, create great art, come up with ever new technological refinements, kill millions of his own kind and try out myriads of ideas on how to lead a better life. The subject of this book is the homo sapiens on the path to himself. Just as in his preceding natural history man had to go through diverse stages in order to arrive at his present level of biological evolution, he must also pass through various stages in the course of his cultural development if he is to fulfil what in his heart he knows to be his destiny.

The definition of the term evolution, which Charles Darwin first introduced to natural science, is simplified here. In the context of this book, evolution is defined in the following way: it denotes that there are different cultural stages that build on one another (with later ones always requiring and necessitating earlier ones), and that these stages have to be passed through in succession.

Avoiding the notion of coincidence, which is central to Darwin’s concept of natural selection, we will instead be discussing evolution in terms of the opposite notion of necessity. However, it is not always possible or necessary to know beforehand what the steps of evolution are going to be. Cultural evolution does not follow along the lines of any kind of predictable logic. The necessity in question is not that of a law of classical natural science.

Therefore, tribal structures can continue to exist today in some regions of the world, while in other places they disintegrated 12.000 years ago. Yet, it is now almost beyond doubt that even the few remaining communities that still retain their Stone Age way of life sooner or later will have to develop on to the next stages of evolution, whether they or we like it or not.

It is, however, not a case of rigid necessity. In the course of cultural evolution there have been so many retrograde steps, sideward movements, and dead ends that the concept of systematic progress, following a pattern of thesis, antithesis and synthesis, seldom applies. The necessity we claim here is based on observations of human history and ourselves, of our deepest wishes and desires. It is revealed in our strife for what alleviates suffering in us as individuals or in larger or smaller groups.

Cultural development involves two dimensions: that of individual purpose (that which individuals aspire to or avoid) and that of the social structure (textures composed of what different individuals aspire to and avoid).

What a person wants or doesn’t want is influenced by what people around him want or don’t want. Also, his aspirations depend on what is called for by the natural environment. Finally, they should also be seen in connection with the requirements of the self-regulatory system of our inner world. All these mutual influences give rise to what has been termed “culture”. It is the basic models of these interactions that are discussed here.

What is meant by consciousness in the context of this book is one’s inner culture. We always experience culture directly, and consequently our consciousness – i.e. the form and content of our experience – is suffused with it. Most cultural stages discussed in this book are also highly influential elements of individual experience. Our experience of culture becomes imminent in the way in which we perceive ourselves. Thus, the views of an Inuit woman of herself and the world will be different from those of a woman from Afghanistan or one from India.

Every stage of consciousness encompasses all experienced reality. Therefore, it can be portrayed only in an exemplary manner, and aided by these examples the reader may associatively deepen her under standing of herself. There can be no complete reconstruction of any of the stages but there are basic ideas we may point to.

How people move, how they use language, what they do and what they don’t do, what they think and what they don’t think – all this is influenced by the respective stage of consciousness. Frequently, of course, all we can do is conjecture; the aim, however, is really to develop a consistent idea that may be elaborated, completed, or reinforced.

We shall also be reconstructing motives and driving forces behind actions: we shall be describing key emotions and important patterns of motivations. Every individual action reflects the consciousness that caused it, and every motive has the characteristics of the cultural structure it is embedded in.

The notion of stages of consciousness is meant metaphorically and refers to a sequence along the lines of a certain logic of development. What is not meant is that as soon as a new level has been reached everything changes and what went before is forgotten. Instead, old structures will continue to exist parallel to the achievements of the new stage, and their status will change in the face of the new organisation of human experience. Thus, in this model of history there do exist overlaps and concurrences. It is also a model of progress from a “lower” to a “higher” state, involving an increase in complexity where the “lower” is embedded in the “higher”. The premise is thus that complexity increases the further you go along the time line.

The notion of stages should be taken metaphorically also in the sense that man’s inner development is somewhat analogous to it. Frequently, we comprehend important stages in our personal development in terms of old patterns losing their power and a new stage being reached that is superior to the old one and that we therefore hold on to, until it is possible to move on to yet a higher stage. If a child is proficient at the essential aspects of his mother tongue, then the previous system of communication via pre-lingual means has lost its central status although it will never completely disappear; and, given a healthy development, there will be no backslide from the level of differentiated communication.

In groups and larger systems of community (including whole cultures), such major steps in the development happen much more slowly and cover longer periods of time. Thus, in a continual historical record they will scarcely be noticeable, as with parents, who will not notice bigger steps in the growth of their children as clearly as those who see them only every now and then will. Cultures, too, undergo such changes as they develop. In this book, their relevance and interaction with the developments on an individual level are discussed.

Our deepest feelings and strongest impulses stem from the eldest stratums of human experience. Therefore, an understanding of the dynamics of the stages of consciousness may help us explain our own attitudes, feelings, and actions. All the stages reverberate within every one of us as memories of the collective soul. If we learn how to differentiate between them – how to realise which of our inner voices is speaking to us from what level of consciousness - it will be easier for us to keep things in order within. We will discover that sometimes we attempt to solve a problem belonging to a more complex stage of consciousness with the tools of an earlier stage, and we will no longer have to wonder why we are not succeeding.

For instance, imagine a conflict in a relationship where the one person is called upon to understand the needs and wishes of the other, which are topics of stage five. If we use the energy of stage two, an aggressive escalation of the conflict is likely to ensue. If we use the power of stage three, the question of who is right and who is wrong will be in the foreground of the argument. If we, however, search for the resources of more complex stages, such as those of systemic consciousness, we will find it easier to acquire a deeper understanding of what the other person’s needs and wishes are.

The power at work behind the scenes of evolution can be explained with a water analogy. Imagine a new spring flowing out of a mountain. Although the water urges onward, its course is not linear: like a spiral, it moves backwards and forwards. The path of the water is unpredict able in its detail: there are bound to be many surprises. Therefore, we cannot know the exact course of the water beforehand and are equally ignorant of how long it will take: what we do know is that there is a goal which the water from the spring will eventually reach, becoming one with the ocean.

The Stages of Evolution from a Cultural Viewpoint

The biological prequel of the history of mankind, from the beginnings of life in single-celled organisms to the more complex life-forms offers certain basics that help explain the dynamic forces behind the cultural development of man. The self-organisation of life, with its polarity of growth and insurance of survival, is embedded in a web of cooperation and communication. Thus, the axes of human history are inherent already in the earliest forms of life. The years given below refer to the early beginnings of the respective stage. The process of the complete realisation of a stage takes very long, sometimes hundreds or thousands of years.

Stage 1 (tribal):

Man is a community-building creature (zoon politicon in the words of Aristotle). He could not survive without living with his fellow species. The closest cousins to the homo sapiens, the primates, too, are highly social. To retain a certain group structure, man introduces social rules and rituals. Tradition has a significant role, and information is transmitted primarily via narratives. The individual has to subordinate herself to group interests. The elders are given “higher” status than younger people. The group‘s habitat is limited to essentials, and it is very closely connected to nature.

Stage 2 (emancipatory/individualistic) – from ca. 10.000 BC:

The rise of agriculture causes a break with tribal lifestyle and tradition. Thus, some individuals, who in mythology are referred to as heroes, leave the closed system of the traditional tribe. Questioning the old traditions, they desire to introduce new values. They strive for independence and personal freedom. They build up strong emotions providing motivation for their actions. In the historical record, they appear as the first surviving names. In ancient Greece, this form of consciousness almost explosively gains widespread acceptance.

Stage 3 (bureaucratic/hierarchical) – from ca. 3.000 BC:

In his urge for expansion, the hero comes up against limiting factors and is forced to make way for a new system of organisation. States and empires are created, which rule over a great number of people with the help of their hierarchical structures. Free emotional expression is curtailed by new laws. Violence is monopolised. The state is invented and perfected. A handful of religions (including the world religions of today) spread far and wide. The beginnings of this stage can be found in the advanced cultures of antiquity.

Stage 4 (materialistic) – from ca. 1.500 AD

This stage involves the development of the principles of rationality and effectivity. Cost-benefit calculations are dominant in thinking. The strife for individual advantage and profit becomes a central maxim. Every man is the architect of his own fortune (in every possible sense of the word), and the state is disempowered to a great extent. The liberal game of power not only dominates the market but has a great influence on the organisation of community. Everything in view is thought of as potential object of exploitation. In Europe, the beginnings of this stage go back to the blossoming of urban culture in the late middle ages.

Stage 5 (personalistic) – from ca. 1750 AD:

Being a person involves much more than mere economic development. The dictate of profit maximisation is opposed by the creative development of the multidimensional person. Capitalism is criticised for being a system of alienation. Life is regarded as a once-only chance of personal fulfilment. Every person is regarded as unmistakable and unique – and, as such, invaluable. These ideas are formulated primarily by the early proponents of Enlightenment.

Stage 6 (systemic) – from ca. 1950 AD:

The systemic point of view transcends the individual person. The basic realisation is that the only way in which we may develop yet further and solve all our problems is if we gain insight into the complex web of interrelated motivations and interests. The insight into the interdependence of all actions gains a paradigmatic value. All stages previous are integrated with all their respective particularities and needs, and none of them will exert power over the others. Global conferences and world organisations indicate this stage.

Stage 7 (holistic):

The systemic viewpoint can be implemented in society only if it is represented and practised by people with personal integrity. Personal integrity is based on the insight that all other stages of consciousness are limited, and on the realisation that they can be transcended via personal transformation, inter alia by overcoming the fears and desires that perpetuate the other stages. Then, the focus of life changes, and actions are determined by what is called for at the present moment. All other stages of consciousness have their place, without any one of them putting itself in the foreground or wielding authority over the others. In our day, more and more spiritual teachers make their appearance, raising the spirit of a tolerant and profound humanity and motivating people to make peace with themselves and their environment.

The Stages of Individual Development

How do the stages of evolution manifest in our personal history?

Stage 1 (tribal) – first year of life

The infant is born into a community (family), where from the very beginning it develops feelings of belonging. Feelings of security and trust increase likewise.

Stage 2 (emancipatory/individualistic) – second year of life

From its first year of life, the self-awareness of the child evolves, and it starts to demand from the parents and contradict the family’s rules and expectations.

Stage 3 (bureaucratic/hierarchical) – fourth year of life

At the age of four to five years, the infant develops an understanding for rules and authorities. Role play serves to simulate dominance and submission. In modern society, these experiences help to prepare for schooling.

Stage 4 (materialistic) – early school age

At around the sixth year of life, the infant begins to develop a realistic world view that greatly differs from the magical world of the little child. Its contact with the material world comes to the fore. The child begins to learn and understand the workings of a world so demanding of the individual. Performance motivation originates, and so does the formula of competition. These values, too, are in part formed by school education.

Stage 5 (personalistic) – puberty

In puberty, the child becomes an adult and maturely self-aware. The individual person takes shape and reflects on her own growth, independently of the expectations and ideas of her parents, her peers, or the society and culture at large.

Stage 6 (systemic) – adulthood

With the coming of age, the awareness of global issues rises and the ability to think systemically increases. Issues are now viewed from various angles, and things are judged in an increasingly differentiated manner. Life is seen as part of a broader picture, and commitment to making the world a better place begins.

Stage 7 (holistic):

Interest in spirituality links back to the earlier magical thinking and to periods of doubt and search for meaning. Crises frequently help strengthen the faith in a higher power and wisdom. There may be single experiences of holistic consciousness already in early childhood. Later in life, what it usually requires is a devotedness to working on one‘s fears and opening up to a deeper level of human experience.

Stage seven does not belong to any one age in particular: there are those who begin their spiritual journey at a very young age, those who embark on it later in life, and those who never really set out for it. In traditional Hinduist culture, however, there is a time reserved for it: at the age of 65 or 70, the old family man, businessman or politician may give up his worldly life, take up a begging bowl and retire to a cave for meditation.

The Organic Foundations of Life and Evolution

Human life is based on biological processes resulting from billions of years of evolution. The genesis of human life represents a qualitative leap bringing the phenomenon of culture to this planet. Culture is here defined as a form of social interaction of self-aware living beings that results in an organisation of community and the exertion of influence on the natural environment. In prehuman forms of life we can make out the structures of consciousness (which is a crucial factor for man’s cultural achievements) in their simplest possible form. Therefore, it may be helpful at this point to briefly discuss the organic preconditions of cultural development.

Organic consciousness denotes the ruling principle of fundamental vital processes. The original form of life is represented by individual cells. Every cell is capable of learning. This quality is an important parameter for the success of the cell in widening its area of life. We may assume that the beginnings of communication occurred at the stage of individual cells. The cell’s organelles exchange information and organise their activities in reaction to the input they receive. Thus, there will be an exchange of data, questions and answers, orders and confirmations, maybe even encouragement, praise or criticism. Verbal communication as practised by man is thus a further development of these basic forms from the organic level. Here we have the basis for all the succeeding stages of evolution. What this suggests is that an inner logical consistency is inherent in evolution. It unfolds what is already built into the simplest forms of life into ever greater complexity.

The Biological Foundation of Religion

Here is an example: the foundation of religion is the self-regulation of the vital processes in every form of organic life. Every single part fulfils its obligations according to a master plan, which none of the individual parts can influence and which ensures the sustenance of the system. Each element plays its part with the “consciousness” that is granted it in the overall systematic context and that it can never fully understand – which is not necessary for the fulfilment of a subtask. However, what is necessary is a linkage (religio) with the whole, an awareness that every individual part must fulfil its obligation trusting that the system on the whole will know what it takes to ensure survival.

Each individual element knows that there is a master plan, lacking however the capability of comprehending this plan and knowing all its details. But it is also aware that it could not survive if there were no master plan. This, then, is how important it is to be linked to the whole.

We may conclude that the existence of what will later be referred to as the divine is structurally inherent in every living being. All religious creeds are derived from these basic structures. The religious expression of these fundamental structures depend on the demands of life and the historical context, according to what benefits the whole and enables the individual to contribute to it.

The basic idea, then, is that there is something higher that creates life (the divine Creator) and sustains it in spite of its complexity (God the Sustainer). Human being lacks the cognitive capacity and the intelligence necessary for decoding the master plan. Nevertheless, they have got what it takes to understand that there must be a plan and that a higher power, which is “beyond” the capacities of the human mind, is responsible for it.

Man’s insight, then, is that there are certain limits to human perception, and therefore all he can do is trust that the Divine Being beyond these limits acts in a “good”, responsible way. If man is to serve the whole (and consequently himself), his actions must depend on where his limits are. Human action is destructive or evil where there is the misconception that the purpose is common good while selfish interests are hidden under this guise of innocence – like cells that merely follow their own plan without corresponding to the whole, thus endangering the health of the system with their uncontrolled growth.

From this point of view, man is just as religious as any other living being is. This makes the explicit practice of religion plausible. However, one result of the evolution of the mind is the ability to doubt anything, even one’s vital basis, which may give rise to various kinds of atheistic or agnostic “belief systems”.

Growth State and Protective State

Life forms, from single-celled organisms to the most complex mammals, have a certain basic structure that adjusts their inner balance to the conditions of the environment. If a system is located in a conducive environment – if, say, a single-celled organism swims in a nutrient solution –, then all the processes of metabolism will take place in an ideal manner, and the living being can freely develop according to its own inner build.

This state may therefore be referred to as growth state. Transient and little challenges that cause stress belong to this category as well, because they have a conducive effect on one’s commitment and motivation.

If the environmental conditions change, the organism must protect itself in order to secure its survival. It will muster all its strength to confront the danger or escape it (fight or flight). Stress mechanisms will be activated. This is referred to as a protective state.

In the fortunate case, the organism manages to eliminate or escape the danger and may return to its normal level of energy and to a growth state. In the unfortunate case, the organism will be subject to grievous, persisting strain, use up important resources and may degenerate or even die. The third possibility is that the state of endangerment cannot be ended but is not strong enough to destroy the organism. In this case, the protective state will gain predominance and the possibilities of the growth state are restricted. Over time, the organism will be subject to insidious drain, as more resources are used up than are built up. The protective state must be abandoned sometime, or the organism will die of exhaustion.

The Foundation of Human Emotions

These are the two fundamental states of all living organisms at any stage of evolution. From a certain stage onwards they are felt as emotions. The growth state corresponds to all emotions we like refer to as “positive”. These are the emotions that inspire growth – love-related growth (when we are falling in love or taking care of children), worldly growth (when we are successful and projects have been completed), creative growth (when we are having ideas or have created something new), or growth of consciousness (when we experience peak states or religious revelations). The biological preconditions for this state and for the emotions corresponding to it are provided by a part of the nervous system that only mammals possess, which is responsible for the coordination of social activities (“smart vagus”).

The protective state corresponds to all emotions that we like to refer to as bad or negative. Chief amongst these emotions is fear, which causes feelings of limitation and tension. Fear is the opposite pole to the expansion and freedom we experience in a state of love and creativity. Derivatives from fear are feelings like anger (for defence in cases of emergency), sadness (for processing a loss or a danger overcome), or disgust (for protection against harmful influences). The occurrence of such feelings, which we may refer to as protective feelings, indicates that we are under threat and driven by fear. They are a root of dysfunctional perception (our perception is restricted in such a state) and action (our behavioural repertoire is significantly reduced, including in essence all possible variants of fight or flight). The sympathetic nervous system is responsible for this state, whose fight-flight pattern can already be found in simple living organisms.

Of course, emotions develop on from these roots. The human need to communicate requires a broad spectrum of emotions, which are used as signals for communication. In challenging situations, however, we tend to fall back on deeply ingrained, simple emotions.

Two Driving Forces of Evolution