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Copyright William C. Kiefert. All Rights Reserved.
The Practical Side of Heaven: Chapter Three, Part Three: Contemporary Models of Five Stages of Human Development
Analyses of human development in stages of consciousness can be found in the writings of prominent contemporary thinkers. Let us first review some of these contemporary models, which we can then relate to Paul’s model.
It is appropriate to point out that at each stage of humanity’s development, a new and different “nature” emerges. This will be obvious even to the casual observer. A human being whose basic focus is meeting physiological needs will seem quite different from a human being concerned with gaining love or self-esteem. Certainly, the human being obsessed with security will express human nature in a fundamentally different way from one seeking self-realization. Human nature is not static. It reflects the level of consciousness we attain. Nature intends that we all reach our full potential of consciousness. The wide range of human thinking, however, demonstrates that some of us have evolved more than others.
Note: Experience teaches that Nature intends us to grow through each of the five stages. Therefore no one stage is superior to the other, any more than college graduates are superior to third graders because they know more. Life experiences and choices are the major determinants in expanding our consciousness, not natural abilities, privilege, or education. This is extremely important. If we believe human nature cannot be trusted, our social institutions will reflect this belief. If we believe that human nature is good, we will build social institutions that see good as a meaningful goal.
The growth of consciousness can be seen as a form of intellectual metamorphosis. Just as a caterpillar is transformed through metamorphoses into a butterfly, so is our consciousness transformed, from one stage to the next, by the right experiences at the right time. And just as a caterpillar cannot be considered less noble than a butterfly, lower stages of consciousness cannot be considered inferior to higher ones. Actually the higher one would be less likely to judge in terms of superior/inferior.
In Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, he recognizes that an individual stage cannot be used to judge a person’s worth. “The peak of the earlier stage must be passed before the next and ‘higher’ need emerges to dominate the organism [individual]. This [five step] sequence characterizes not only growth from childhood to maturity, but the growth of cultures from subsistence to free expression. For this reason an individual stage cannot be used as an automatic value judgment on personal worth, but is rather indicative of a benign social environment…[note] Sudden emotional or physical deprivation will cause ‘lower’ needs to reawaken.”
This is an important point to keep in mind as we briefly review some analyses of human development. My argument is that civilized man is locked into Stages II and III because we have not yet learned how to reason nonjudgmentally. Nonjudgmental logic is the key that frees us to reason nonjudgmentally / lovingly.
Abraham Maslow characterizes the stages of human development in terms of the progressive satisfaction of a “hierarchy of needs”: first, physiological “survival” needs such as food, drink, and exercise; second, “safety” needs such as security, order, and protection; third, the social need of “belonging,” such as acceptance and love; fourth, personal enhancement or “esteem needs” such as self-respect, status, and prestige; and finally, the pinnacle of needs relating to “self-actualization”, self-realization, higher personal growth, and holistic fulfillment.
In his Hero With a Thousand Faces, the distinguished mythologist Joseph Campbell traces humankind’s developmental journey. We might summarize this journey in terms of five historical stages of progressive civilization: first, primitive hunting people; second, tribes sharing together in the wilderness; third, the emergence of conscience and the idea of moral law; fourth, the awareness of social interdependence; and finally, the realization that there is a divine existence which indwells all of humanity.
Jesuit priest, and accomplished paleontologist, Teilhard de Chardin, in his The Phenomena of Man, similarly suggests five historical stages of development. First is the pre-human hominid, which he terms “mentoid.” This is followed, by a second self-conscious and reflective homo sapiens, whose emergence marked the beginning of civilization. The third stage is characterized by the development of highly individualized persons, whose development in large numbers may be linked with the period of the Renaissance. According to de Chardin, we are currently in the fourth stage, the age of transformation, characterized not only by our awareness of our evolutionary development, but also a desire to integrate self with others and nature. Beyond us lies a fifth stage, the “convergence” or “mega-synthesis” of hyper-personal consciousness, oriented toward God, the Omega Point. Teilhard uses the term “hominisation” to designate the process by which the proto-human evolves into the more human, toward what may be called “ultra-hominisation,” the future stage in which humanity transcends its current state.
Still another model is offered by Lawrence Kohlberg in his analysis of moral development. The first, or “preconventional” stage, exists before social awareness; obedience to morality is instilled by punishment, and “good” is whatever brings about the desired result. The morality of the second stage is determined by the “conventions” of a society; the individual’s interpersonal relations are guided by the rules or conventions of the particular society. The morality of the third stage has its legalistic basis in a social contract. The morality of the fourth stage transcends both particular societal conventions, and even the theory of a social contract, and instead, is grounded in “universal ethical principles.” A fifth and spiritual stage of moral development is only hinted at in Kohlberg’s early writing.
Ken Wilber adopts a similar pattern of spiritual development in his book, A Sociable God. In order to maintain the parallel with the writers mentioned above, we will condense his eight categories into five stages. Wilber calls the first stage the “archaic,” by which he means that consciousness is concerned with survival and self-preservation. There is a certain “magical” or superstitious aspect to consciousness at this level, suggesting a lack of shared reality. The second stage is that of “mythic/membership” where the individual’s identity is defined by, and thus is not separate from, the group. It is only in the third stage that rational, self-reflective, and individualistic consciousness truly develops. In Wilber’s fourth stage, a new “inter-individualistic” consciousness emerges, with a capacity for intimacy as well as personal autonomy, and an awareness of a universal community. The final stages are characterized by the development of (a) psychic capacity for cosmic consciousness, (b) intuitive capacity for illumination, and (c) ultimately transcendence of the subject-object duality.
The Hindu saint, Sri Aurobindo, also offers a similar pattern for spiritual development. One of his analyses is couched in terms of the origin of standards of conduct. The first and lowest moral standards arise from personal needs and desires associated with physical and vital necessities. Secondly, emotional and mental cravings and imaginations provide the source of morality. Only in the third stage does moral consciousness develop to respond to law and the good of the collective consciousness of the group, which at this stage takes precedence over individual needs and desires. The fourth origin of morality is an ideal ethic: here thought overcomes instinct, and one is called upon to recognize that the needs of the individual are invalid if they conflict with the moral law. There is still a fifth source of morality, when finally the Divine Law becomes the standard and supreme law, and moves the human spirit toward its own concealed perfection.
What is remarkable about these various analyses is their similarity. We human beings begin almost as a “seed” of what we shall later become, and we shall develop beyond where we currently find ourselves. Along the way, we increase our awareness of both our individuality and our interrelatedness, as we are called toward a higher goal. Accordingly, we are not yet what we are! We have yet to evolve or develop into the full potential the human spirit is capable of becoming.
Similar models are outlined below.
In Hinduism
Stage I; Stage II; Stage III; Stage IV; Stage V
Student; House-holder; Forest Dweller; Renunciant; Moksha
Student; House-holder; Hermit; Sannyas; Moksha
Shanta; Dasya; Sakhya; Vatsalya; Madhura
In Buddhism’s Five Noble Truths
Stage I; Stage II; Stage III; Stage IV; Stage V
Recognize All Life as Suffering; Recognize the Cause of Suffering is Desire/Judgment; Recognize Narvana Can Be Achieved; Recognize the Eight-Fold Path Leads to Narvana; Narvana
Unmanifest; Manifest; Unenlightened; Enlightened; Immortal
The Five Nafs of Sufism – Islam’s “Mystical Core”
Stage I; Stage II; Stage III; Stage IV; Stage V
The Commanding Nafs; The Accusatory Nafs; The Inspired Nafs; The Tranquil Nafs; The Perfected Nafs
Abraham Maslow’s Psychological Model
Stage I; Stage II; Stage III; Stage IV; Stage V
Physiological Needs; Safety Needs; Belonging Needs; Esteem Needs; Self-Actualization
Freud’s Psychological Model
Stage I; Stage II; Stage III; Stage IV; Stage V
Oral Stage; Anal Stage; Phallic Stage; Latency Period; Genital Stage
Conditioned Reflexes; Habits; Personal Traits; Selves; Total Personality
See Appendix for additional models.
We can imagine from the functional equivalency of the above models that we keep rediscovering the concept of stages in the development of consciousness, but fail to benefit from these models. If we did, we would understand that our present perception of our political, religious, social, and economic reality is more the product of lower stages of consciousness—than higher.
Psychologist Erich Fromm suggests we may not have yet reached our highest potentials of consciousness. “It is naively assumed that the fact that the majority of people share certain ideas or feelings proves the validity of those ideas and feelings. Nothing is further from the truth. Consensual validation as such, has no bearing whatsoever on reason or mental health. Just as there is a ‘folie a’ deux’, there is a ‘folie a’ millions’! The fact that millions of people share the same vices, do not make those vices virtues, the fact that they share so many errors, do not make the errors truths, the fact that millions share the same forms of mental pathologic [consciousness], does not make these people sane.”
Let me now “briefly” characterize each of the five stages in the development of rational consciousness. After which, I will give detailed examples of each stage.