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Copyright William C. Kiefert. All Rights Reserved.
The Practical Side of Heaven: Chapter Three, Part Four: Brief Overview of Characteristics of the Five Stages of Consciousness
Stage I is the instinctual, virtually pre-rational stage of human consciousness. It is desire for survival, for Life, not rationality, which pulses through our veins and provides the key for understanding this level of consciousness. Life itself marks our entry into Stage I.
We can equate Stage I in consciousness to our pre-rational consciousness in infancy.
Stage II is marked by the development of our ability to reason. At this stage our reasoning is largely confined to either/or and hierarchical judgments: distinctions are drawn between good and bad, self-interest and the desire of others; and the good of our own group is judged superior to the interests of others.
We can equate Stage II in reasoning to the black and white thinking of pre-schoolers. Reward and punishment, not conscience, determines how we act in this stage. Sadly, the dogmatic and conscienceless acts of judgmental adults suggests that age is not a major factor in the development of consciousness.
A new step in our rational development occurs at Stage III, with the realization that there are external constraints in terms of moral laws or sanctions, which we should heed. In Stage II, we would obey the social norms out of fear of punishment or fear of the loss of social status and its benefits. In Stage III, however, we would increasingly conform to law from a sense of conscience. Lawgivers like Moses, Solon, and Confucius were more than teachers of wisdom. Their formulation of a written code of ethics marked a turning point in the development of human consciousness; for these codes established objective ethical criteria (laws) for right and wrong and, in turn, our obligation to do the right and avoid the wrong. It was in the response to such laws that we see the origins of conscience.
We can equate Stage III to being a responsible adult. But as “responsible adults” we are often hard pressed to do what we know in our heart is right because we are limited to the same rules of logic that dominate Stage II reasoning. In Stage III our conscience leads us to do “right”, but our judgmental method of reasoning can lead us to rationalize “doing wrong.”
Stage IV: What the moral law and conscience require may not be judged rational or logical or practical. Conscience and reason can conflict. This is why spiritual values seem so impractical, and being practical, seems so far removed from being spiritual. But conflict provides the impetus to find a solution, the incentive to harmonize morality and rationality. This initiates the next stage of both moral and rational development.
When we reach Stage IV, we will put into practice the life-affirming values of compassion and love that are justified by our own rationally-developed consciousness. No longer will morality stand opposed to reason; but in these individuals, whom Abraham Maslow calls “self-actualizing persons,” the conflict between morality and reason, or heart and head, disappears. As truly mature persons we will do what is life-affirming because both our method of reasoning, and the moral feelings that reasoning engenders will dispose us to act in that way. We will act autonomously and spontaneously, rather than in accordance with accepted societal conventions, cultural norms, external moral laws, or ethical principles. Rather, with what we may call “renewed [or enlightened] minds,” we will be motivated by love. Our new consciousness provides the means of solving our moral dilemmas and of making heaven a practical possibility on earth.
We can equate reasoning in Stage IV to the enlightened thinking of the Buddha, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., (Postman) and many others who place the well being of others over their own.
Stage V: We can only imagine what utopian paradise might lie beyond the renewed consciousness of Stage IV. Perhaps Stage V will be a synergistic community, in which the collective consciousness of individuals of Stage IV, becomes more than the sum of its parts. If so, then Stage V would represent a community in which peace, love, harmony, and brotherhood would abound. The envisioned kingdom of heaven on earth, or in today’s terms, Eutopia, hint at what Stage V consciousness might be. I have no way to understand the reasoning process of Stage V. I can only draw on the metaphors, like Godlike, co-creator with God, and doing the “greater” things that Jesus’ said we could do.
Review
The rule of thumb for determining the stages of rational and moral development is, the more our care and commitment becomes inclusive, the higher stage we have reached. When we are at Stage I, or slip back into this level of thinking, we care little about others; our concern is primarily with ourselves. Kindness, compassion, and love are not yet qualities of our minds. On the contrary, as exemplars of the highest levels of Stage IV, the Buddha and Jesus are the very embodiment of compassion and love. Most of us fall somewhere in between. Our mission as human beings is to continue the development of our rational process and our comprehension of the laws of thought upon which our reasoning ultimately depends. My purpose is to demonstrate that with our rational development will come a corresponding advancement in our moral character. When all reach our maximum potentials for reasoning, we will reason morally and create a utopic world here on earth.