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Obama: Left, Right, or Teal? And the Consolidation of Green Into Mental-Rational Consciousness

Posted December 2nd, 2008 by barbi hammond in politics

In Reference to:

This is slightly off-topic but was inspired by the video above.

Obama's victory has an important historical significance and sets a precedent: the election of the first African American for a president which not only breaks the racial barriers for African Americans but has global significance.

Matt Rentschler describes President-elect Obama's approach as "Third Way Politics" (from "Holons" website, Jan. 2008, "Reasons Why I'm Voting For Obama") and goes on to list several reasons for thinking so; among them being the following:

"Obama offers a way to transcend several dualisms and dichotomies: liberal v. conservative; atheist v. fundamentalist; black v. white; Christian v. Muslim. Whether or not he can make good on this potential remains to be seen, but presidential elections are always a gamble, no matter who you vote for. So, as it stands now, Obama has my vote if he gets the nomination, because he holds the most promise of being an "integral leader." "

Whether Obama is "left," "right," or "Teal," my thinking is that even if Obama should turn out to be a postmodern "Green," the fact that a biracial with African descent was elected could have profound implications for Teal.

A Teal revolution cannot emerge until Green has consolidated into consciousness globally. Meaning the Green revolution that began approximately 150-50 years ago is perhaps still awaiting some completion or fulfillment of some task. An important historical event such as this could potentially consolidate, fulfill, and complete this task of Green. At which point, consciousness is then free to evolve to higher stages into Integral collectively through a Teal revolution. Had Obama not been elected, we may have been "stuck" indefinitely in "Culture Wars" and trying to make amends for the "wrongs" committed from our racist past yet never doing so satisfactorily until actually electing an African American as figure head and world leader.

Gebser:

From mutation to mutation man has accrued new dimensions of consciousness in addition to those already present in a given instant. The space-timelessness, somnolent, magic consciousness was overlaid by the spaceless, temporic, dreamlike mythical consciousness, and this in turn was overlaid by the diurnal, spatial mental consciousness structure. The respective mutations came about whenever the previous awakening of consciousness was completed, and the conscious attitude was satisfied with what it had achieved. For example, at the moment when mythical consciousness realized the equivalence of soul with life in the form of temporicity, this consciousness was consolidated; the work of consciousness that the mutation had made possible was accomplished, and man had to turn to new tasks. He had to do this since mere persistence or inertia leads to decline and deterioration.

Some terms: irruption, revolution, consolidation

Irruption, revolution, consolidation, deficient, and exhaustion could refer to five distinct phases of a structure or a stage of consciousness.

Whereas "structure" refers to Gebser's "four structures of consciousness" in The Ever-Present Origin, "stage" refers to Ken Wilber's "Altitudes" (i.e., Red, Amber, Orange, and so on):

1. One-dimensional magic structure (magenta-red stage)

2. Two-dimensional mythic strucutre (amber stage)

3. Three-dimensional mental-rational structure (orange, green stage)

4. Four-dimensional integral structure (teal stage and beyond).

I will use Gebser's term, "irruption," to refer to an inception or emergence of a new stage or a new structure of consciousness when it first "irrupts." Sometimes an "irruption" doesn't initially take hold; in which case, another "irruption" must occur at a later time to repeat the lessons learned from the previous irruption.

Examples:

Gebser speaks of an "irruption" of the mental-rational structure of consciousness which brought about perspectival thinking, logical thinking, and spatiality (awareness of three-dimensional space) during the classical period in ancient Greece approximately 500 B.C.E. After the rise of Christianity, the decline of the Roman Empire, and the onset of the Dark Ages, this "irruption" would have to be repeated once again to be complete its task to before it could be free to move on to the next task.

This second "irruption" of the mental-rational structure occurred in 1250 CE with Petrarch's discovery of three-dimensional "space" or "perspectivity."

Upon fully "irrupting" and taking hold, an "irruption" can go on to become a "revolution" (so to speak) if it is spread to 10% of a population, according to KW, which is the "tipping point" required for a revolution to take hold to bring about enormous novel changes to a civilization.

The "revolution" following Petrarch's discovery of space: The Rennaissance, which began approximately 1400.

Upon fully establishing itself, a "revolution" can then become "consolidated" once all of the lessons of the structure or stage of consciousness have been learned and all accomplishments from this structure or stage have been made to the satisfaction of those on the "leading edge."

The "consolidation" of the mental-rational structure of consciousness with its three-dimensional spatial awareness and perspectival thinking occurred with Leonardo da Vinci's perfection of perspectival drawing around 1500. At which point, Gebser argues, the mental-rational structure of consciousness was free to mutate into higher consciousness. Prior to 1500, however, it wasn't possible.

The "deficient" phase of a structure refers to a point in time when no further lessons can be gained from the current structure of consciousness but no new mutation has occurred. Thus, the "deficient" stage of the mental-rational structure begins around 1600-1700, the age of modernity.

Orange irrupted from Amber around 500 years ago after the consolidation of the mental-rational structure of consciousness.

300 years ago, Orange reached a 10% "tipping point" which produced the American and French Revolutions.

Sometime between 300-50 years ago, the Industrial Revolution began and Orange was then consolidated.

150 years ago, Green irrupted into consciousness with the abolition of slavery, industrialization, urbanization, and further modernization.

Around the 1920s, postmodernity enters intellectual and cultural thought.

50 years ago, Green reaches a 10% "tipping point" which then resulted in the Civil Rights Movements, rock music, feminism, environmentalism, postmodernity, and multiculturalism.

Whereas I find the Green stage "deficient," I wouldn't call it "fully exhausted" as a stage. Nor would I call any other stage "fully exhausted." So with respect to "exhausted," I only mean it in the sense that a stage has fully consolidated such that no further insights or achievements can be be gained from the current structure or stage. In that sense, Orange and Amber have pretty much been "consolidated" into consciousness so are in a sense, "exhausted" in that there are no further lessons to be learned or tasks to be acheived from these stages. At least, within the "leading edge" of consciousness. Green, too, has become somewhat exhausted and deficient but is in need of some historical event to complete this consolidation of Green into the collective consciousness for validation. Just as the consolidation of spatial awareness occurred with Leonardo by 1480-1500 CE, I would see the election of Obama as a consolidation of the Green stage (of the mental-rational structure) and therefore as a consolidation of the final stages of the mental-rational structure of consciousness: thereby freeing us to move on to newer tasks: Third Way Politics and the Integral structure.

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Very good Wilber-esque insights

Posted December 17th, 2008 by Mike Breland

Dear Barbi:

I agree with your analysis about Obama and Integral Politics and think your comments are very germane to Wilber's video. You've obviously done your home work, keep up the good work!

In his "Third Way Politics" video, Wilber mentioned about how during Clinton's presidency, he was working with the English Prime Minister and other groups to try and make politics more integral, but that the Lewinski affair ending up stopping that movement. Thus, I'm thinking or perhaps more hoping, that you're correct about how some movements (in this case, teal) start, but get interrupted, only to restart again and then come to completion. So, I'm hopeful that the Obama presidency will be the completion of the "teal age".

As objective support for this hope, Robb Smith, our Integral Life CEO, pointed out that late next year the "State of the World" Conference will be on Climate Change and they will be using Integral Theory and Methods as the basis for their analyses and presentations. Thus, a lot of good publicity and fleshing out of Integral Theory in a real life, incredibly complicated, situation. It will be in Washington, DC, and I'm thinking about possibly going if it pans out to be as good as it appears. I suspect, and hope, we will be hearing more about this on Integral Life as time goes on, so stay tuned.

Yours,

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Climate Change as Fever, Gestational Period of Green

Posted December 21st, 2008 by barbi hammond in response to Very good Wilber-esque insights

Hello Dr. MB, M.D. (catchy name!),

Please forgive me doc for writing a "tomb": '

cut out the majority of irrelevent stuff,,,

Fossil fuel is like a genie in a bottle: remove it from its tomb and release it into the air, the carbons will immediately accumilate, temperatures will rise, and oceans will begin to stagnate under the weight of carbons via acidificataion and putrefication. Thus, releasing the genie from the bottle returns the earth to the atmospheric conditions of the carboniferous period when these fossil fuels were once tiny organisms that were thriving and abundant in the green acidic oceans, prior dying, then sinking, then stacking, to eventually becoming fossilized into crude oil, coal, or natural gas, depending on the depth of its packing or burial. If closer to the earth's core, the fossil is vaporized and turns into natural gas. The higher the elevation, the more solidified the fossil. Thus, creating perhaps, a natural symbiosis or cycle between fossil-burning humans and tiny precambrian organisms in the ocean.

A rise in body temperature by just one degree and you are officially sick. A mere rise in body temperature by two or three degrees and you are dead meat (should the elevated body temperature become a permanent condition). When seen in this context, the "fleshing out" of Integral Theory is most appropriate here.

I am fairly convinced that an Obama victory signals an important shift in consciousness via the consolidation of Green within the average mode of consciousness of nations throughout the developed world. From a medical standpoint, I couldn't help but to draw comparisons between the consolidation of various stages or structures of consciousness to human gestational periods.

The achievement of Green, the sublime recognition of human dignity, equal opportunity, and libertarian values extended to all humans regardless of race, sex, religion, nationality, and so on, could be seen from a biological standpoint as having a 150-year gestational period to consolidate fully from conception to birth. And like the human embryo, it undergoes three major stages or trimesters of human development.

All things conceived are first imagined before they actually crystallize and take form within the consciousness. This conception in biological terms is called [?]. In terms of consciousness-development, this conception is called "imagination," such as "I have a dream," which occurs via imagination or conception (the initial seed) and then gradually crystallizes and solidifies over three stages of fetal development until its birth at the third and final trimester of prenatal development. For example:

In the first trimester of pregnancy, Petrarch discovered an imaginary landscape in 1336 after climbing upon a mountain and peering down to his village below. Certainly Petrarch was not the "first" to "discover" landscape nor, was he, for that matter, the first person to find the view of the earth spectacular and breathtaking from a higher elevation on a mountain. Yet he, along with three other individuals who were contemporary to him, made the simultaneous discovery of an imaginary landscape. All four of whom record their discoveries or experiences, made independently of each other, via writing, art, or other means of outward expression within a 10-year interval. It is a classic example of a parallel-quadruplicity of four different people making similar discoveries simultaneously (within a 10-year period) and recording it, in spite of never meeting each other or ever coming in contact with each other throughout life, or knowing about each others' discoveries.

The key to imagination and that of mythical two-dimensional consciousness is that it must not only be inwardly-beheld via contemplation or experience and kept hidden or secret. Because for dreams of the imagination to crystallize into manifest reality collectively, the undergone experience, the imagination, or the dream, must also be communicated via outward utterance or spoken myth to other humans. Gebser refers to Petrarch's discovery as "imaginary landscape" because Petrarch did not actually discover the mechanics behind three-dimensional space or perspectival vision but merely beheld it mythically or two-dimensionally as if in a dream, which is the realm of the imaginatory. He communicated his experience in mythical terms, as a kind of vision that was not intended for the eyes of humans to behold but was reserved God and the angels in Heaven above alone. He kept his experience secret throughout most of his life, relating it only once in a letter to one person. Which was sufficient to plant the seeds for crystallization for Bruneschelli to continue this gestation to carry the fetus into the second trimester of pregnancy.

In second trimester, Bruneschelli discovered the three-dimensional mechanics behind perspective in 1403 by correctly depicting an octagonal structure three-dimensionally. In the third and final trimester, Leonardi da Vinci perfected this art of perspective to finally consolidate perspective and three-dimensionality into the mental-rational consciousness. Once this perfection was achieved by Da Vinci in 1500, consciousness was then free to move on to attend to other important tasks and discoveries.

Which is precisely what occurred. Scientific objectivity, rational thinking, Newtonian physics, industrialization, and modernist worldcentric and libertarian values of Orange appears roughly around the time of 1500-1600 upon the final consolidation of three-dimensional perspectival thinking by da Vinci. If we place the beginning of the Modernist movement at 1600 (which is when many historians believe this movement began), it had a gestational period of approximately of about 150-200 years. During which time nearly all of the New World was discovered and colonized which led to the invention of the steam engine in the early 1800s and the start of the Industrial Revolution upon the final consolidation of Orange.

By 1865, slavery as an institution was abolished worldwide in the European and colonized world. This marks the first trimester of Green. Along with the prior age of Romanticism, the abolition of slavery marks the initial conception or irruption of Green as in "I have a dream." This conception or dream of liberation for all humans irrespective of race, religion, nationality, gender, and so on could not be realized until the final task of Orange was complete. This task and final consolidation of Orange was expressed in the invention of the steam engine around 1820, the first machine (so to speak) to take the place of human work and slavery. The invention of the machine led to locomotion and to the rise of the Industrial Revolution to further free up consciousness to newer tasks.

A century later, Green entered the second trimester of gestation through Martin Luther King's outward utterance of "I have a dream." Once a dream is expressed outwardly, it can then go on to crystallize to form a reality within the collective consciousness. And I believe that the completion of the third trimester of Green gestation occurred with the election of the first biracial American of African descent as a figure head and world leader in 2008. This to me represents the final consolidation and crystallization of Green into collective reality. Green, like previous stages or movements, had an incubation or a gestational period of approximately 150-200 years from conception to consolidation or birth before it finally became a reality. Consciousness is now free to attend to newer task, e.g., global sustainability, a global community, a new energy system, Third Way politics, the eradication of poverty and disease, and the Integral consciousness.

It is clear to me that the election of Obama represents the consolidation of Green. However, like you, I am still in a "wait and see" attitude of suspension to see if Obama can escape the scandals that had plagued Clinton so as to provide the legitimacy that is needed for a Third-Way Integral politics to emerge. Possibly, it may require a mature Integral consciousness leadership of Turquoise or higher for a Third Way politics to emerge. In that sense, considering the Lewinsky scandal of Clinton and his many infidelities, I would say that Clinton was possibly "Integral," but an "immature" integrated politician on the level of Teal.

After corresponding with a few members of the Integral Life community who are still skeptical about the issue of Global Warming (aparently, as a result of confusion surrounding the notion of the "MGM" (mean Green meme) as it relates to eco-radicalism and possibly, out of political correctness or fear of being labeled and ridiculed as a "mean green meme,"), I suspect that an immature integrated consciousness such as Teal may not be sufficient to address the complex issue of Global Warming and Global Climate Change. This issue may ultimately require the integrated maturity of a Turquoise consciousness or higher to provide "prescriptives" or solutions: not merely evaluations or mappings of the environmental movement into an integrated whole, although that is where we must begin initially to get our "bearings" straight as it were. But ultimately, there must be, in addition to an evaluative mapping, a practial solution to the Climate Change issue via prescriptive and am glad to see a fellow member (and a physician and a man of science, at that!) who appears to be concerned. There is so much that screams out for analysis in the way of an Integral environmental movement which I haven't seen yet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBTeHfLC6zY

I apologize for the longwindedness. Feel free to ignore it if you like; I am quite used to that by now.

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My own tomb

Posted December 22nd, 2008 by Mike Breland in response to Climate Change as Fever, Gestational Period of Green

Dear Barbi:

How could I possibly ignore such a well written "tomb"? It was actually quite interesting and thought provoking; obviously you have put a lot of work and thought into the subject. However, I understand the sentiment, having had most of my ideas ignored by most people most of my life. But from reading Wilber, I now see that my problem was that I was in the green meme and my family and colleagues in amber or rarely orange. So in spite of my idea that if I could just say things the right way, that people would finally see my perspective and understand, I still "didn't get no respect." That was because they were incapable of actually understanding what I was saying and I was too dumb (green?) to see it. But, since my meme resonates with your meme, Voila! I can actually understand what you are saying.

Besides, I was quite complimented that a Gen-X'er would actually respond to some of my rantings, I mean comments. See below for my own tomb.

Starting at the end, I watched the video of Frank Visser about Wilber. Any comments you'd like to make about that, I'd be interested in hearing. Unfortunately I'll go ahead and make a few of my own. When I listened to his comments, several things came to mind. First, was that I agreed with Visser on a number of things, such as that I don't think Wilber is perfect and I think some of his theories aren't quite right. That said, when I look at the big picture and what he has created, I think that all this means is that it is such a huge project that there are bound to be rough spots that need to be worked out. It's a theory in evolution, and the way it is set up, it will probably always be in evolution, but I also think that's its strength. Wilber himself also says the AQAL way is not the only way to look at things. However, it appeals to the level of abstraction I think at, so I'll keep it for now.

That also said, my mind shifts once again to another perspective (the curse of the green meme?) as Visser talks about how Wilber puts down his critics and says they are "stupid" (Visser's words). While I think it's good to have critics, since there needs to be some sort of balance, I also wonder if his critics for the most part don't really understand (read that as "aren't developed enough") Wilber's perspective. From spending decades around university professors (my father was one and I spent eons in college), I am currently underwhelmed with their way of thinking, since most of them I knew/know are/were pretty developed cognitively, but generally underdeveloped emotionally. They talk(ed) rational talk, but act(ed) very emotionally. However, perhaps the main point to understand regarding professors or other people in a similar situation is that their life and reputations are built upon their own particular theory being "the best" and so they will defend it to the death (literally; this is why paradigm shifts progress through funerals, not logic). While this competitive situation has its benefits, often the person that wins is just the one with the most power at the time.

Also, trying to look from Wilber's perspective as best as I'm able, to develop this huge organization (and paradigm shift) and following takes huge amounts of time and energy and it will be faced with a lot of criticism since so many specialties are affected. Some of it is deserved, but the way our present culture is set up, if a person were to sit down and be reasonable with every critic, they would end up being crushed, since this is not how the game is played. Visser even talks about this "game", but I don't think he is outside it enough to see that he too is (probably) caught up in the game and so can't really see from all the levels involved. On the other hand, he could actually be aware and so sees himself as being a hidden admirer, while acting as a critic. I believe there was a woman in "Atlas Shrugged" who played a similar role to the "rogue" architect...

Thus, while Wilber may be wrong in applying some of his theories from the view of the professors(Visser says he takes the minority view as the majority view in some of his theories), from the AQAL perspective, he may be correct. This may be a subtle point or perhaps just dumb, but I think it more likely a conundrum in that they may both be right, but in a different sense, since correctness depends upon the perspective.

Last, perhaps I'm just idolizing Wilber, in which case just please slap me, but when he argues, I think that he is using tools to argue with that are similar to that used in the perspective of the person he is arguing with. In other words, he argues with orange level tools with orange people etc. There are different rules for arguing at each level of perspective and to ignore those rules is to be crushed when dealing with that perspective. I speak from long experience of being a green meme and having much shoe leather applied to my face and posterior. Most of my life I've tried to live from a particular "ethical" (probably naive green) level, but it has mostly just brought me grief, since it just tended to piss off most people I dealt with. They just could not see my point, since it was not visible from their perspective. Since they had the power, and I was too green/naive, guess what happened? So, I rather respect Wilber for being as argumentative or whatever he's being accused of. Arguments are the present coin of the realm and to not know that is to be broke...and broken.

What I'm also saying is that a turquoise level person can use orange tools and yet not get "infected" by them. In other words, if their shadow did not bite them on their butt, they would be able to stay in the turquiose perspective and yet use lower level tools with impunity. I'm thinking, hoping, praying that Wilber is doing that. But I'l also watching him closely, as no one is right 100% of the time (a Wilber quote, btw).

That reminds me of your comment of Clinton as an "immature" teal person. I would agree with that assessment and also suggest that yet another way of looking at Clinton is with the "Psychograph". That would show that he is probably teal/turquoise in his cognitive development, but red in his morals, etc for the other lines of development. I assume you are looking at this in a similar way when you talk about the immature vs.mature "integrated" personality, with the mature "integrated" referring to the integration of multiple mature lines of development.

That also reminds me of your comment: "This conception in biological terms is called [?]." Since you were referring to the imagination stage, I thought that Wilber might call it "Eros" or perhaps a more material word such as desire or other lusty level words.

To add to my own tomb (All my patients cancelled this morning due to 2 feet of snow, so I have some free time today. However, it is feast or famine at my job, so if I don't reply for days or a week or so, I'm probably in a feast phase), I wanted to talk a little about the cause of fevers in the human body. Generally it is not the bacteria or its toxins (but occasionally it can be) that directly cause the fever, but the fever is usually part of the immune cascade, from bradykinens, etc. The bacteria invade, that sets off the immune cascade which creates the fever. Plus, in medicine, a patient is not considered to have a "fever" until their temperature reaches about 102. Below that we sometimes refer to a low-grade fever (100.5 is very common after surgery, stress, etc), but we're usually not concerned unless the patient also looks sick. It is the temperatures of 104-105 that can be fatal if not reduced. However, you have the gist correct: Gaia is one sick puppy!

Last, really! I wanted to say that one of the reasons I support Wilber and AQAL, in spite of probable flaws, is that I agree strongly with his idea that terrorism is caused by amber religion being suppressed by the orange pressure cooker. I have found that the solution to a problem is usually found based upon how the question is stated. If stated poorly, the answer cannot be found. His ideas on the "Body-Mind" question dove tail exactly with mine: it is all Ati, so what is the problem..or perhaps, what is the question? Anyway, I diverge once again... It is his conveyor belt idea, described in "Integral Spirituality" that tells us what needs to be done about reducing terrorism. In another video (That reminds me, you would probably enjoy the video with Wilber and Rupert Sheldrake and his ideas on morphogenic fields.) I watched recently, he describes his idea and points out that there will be resistance to it, since it has to do with developing a turquoise elite to help the world solve its problems. I can hear the howls of the green memes already.

So, warts and all, his AQAL theory at least lets us put things into a better perspective than anything I've read before and by that I mean thousands of books. I also wish I would have had his ideas on developmental lines when I started my spiritual career. I've had more damage done to me by "spiritual teachers" with stunted development than all of the nasty people I've met in my life. Probably because nasty people are so obvious and with "spiritual teachers" I was told they were only doing things for my own good and that it was me that was really screwed up. Well, I already knew the latter, what I needed was someone to give me a perspective that would make sense, not tap dance on my head. Whew, shadow, get thee behind me! Anyway, the truly valuable thing Wilber has given to me is a perspective to view all these different grandiose theories of everything (and spiritual groups who always have the "highest" practice) and not get caught up in yet another dead end. I wasted most of my life doing that; I'm pleased you're meeting Wilber earlier and hope it will bring you good tiddings!

Yours,

PS: I actually have an MD and a PhD, so I call myself a pair-a-docs. So, it's: MB, MD, PHD. Tee hee!

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Bunch of bunk

Posted October 11th, 2011 by Nils Montan in response to Very good Wilber-esque insights

--Here it is almost 3 years later. Obama won, but we have seen the greatest rise of the political right in modern times. I really doubt that "integral theory" and practice has much hope of informing this. I would rather fight these people than try and reason with them. Obama abandoned Climate Change and has done virtually nothing for the poor or the middle class. It's the same old story in America, the rich get rich and the poor get poorer. In the meantime, in between time, the clueless meditate.

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Obama: Left, Right, or Teal? And the Consolidation of Green Into Mental-Rational Consciousness

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Very good Wilber-esque insights

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Climate Change as Fever, Gestational Period of Green

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My own tomb

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Bunch of bunk