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States of consciousness and their
correlations
Wilber V is definitely an improvement on earlier stages.
In Wilber III-IV there always lurked in the background of his theory
some slight uneasiness. For it remained somehow a puzzle how
psychological development stages (structures) are to be matched with
(higher) states of consciousness. The relative simple answer to this
question at the time was: higher states of consciousness, like the ones
exhibited by the mystics of world culture, are merely higher
stages/structures of psychological development. You first have to go
through all of the lower stages of development before the ripeness
settles in to realize some of the higher spiritual states. Second tier
development can only begin after consolidation of first tier growth.
And so it is with third tier development: it can only come after first and second tier development and not
before or in between.
This solution to the problem of how states and structures
were to be related (‘stack the first on top of the latter’ as Wilber
himself now describes this earlier theory rather derogatively, making
higher states of consciousness somehow equivalent to higher stages) was
in itself the outcome of a deep crisis in Wilber’s philosophy. For
Wilber I-II still adhered to Jungian and neo-Romantic notions of
spirituality being a return to the glory and innocence of childhood.
Enlightenment in this phase was seen as a kind of home coming to ‘the
trailing clouds of glory’ (Wordsworth) of our golden childhood.
Children were seen as still possessing spiritual treasures we adults
somehow seem to have lost. In this earlier view spirituality is to be
defined as the art of finding those lost treasures again. This was
Wilber at the beginning of his career.
But this made Wilber himself (and others) rather
uncomfortable at the time. For the data of zone #2 research about
psychological development did not match this theory. Researchers like
Piaget, Baldwin, Loevinger and others had busted the myth of childhood
spirituality being a higher kind of realization. The ‘trailing clouds
of glory’ were proven to be rather chaotic meteorological phenomena,
with archaic dark thunderstorms and sudden magical lightings, instead
of enlightened celestial glory all of the time. Childhood was proven to
be more of a tentative beginning within a gradual spiritual process
than the acme of it.
So Wilber dismissed Jung on this point, called him an
elevationist and began to see the extolling of childhood spirituality
as the a pre/trans fallacy par excellence.
This has brought us to Wilber III and IV where we saw the higher states
‘stacked on top of’ the lower structures of the psyche, which means
that to become enlightened we somehow have to outgrow and transcend the
childhood and adolescent stages of development. But Wilber V was not
all too happy with this solution either:
It was a start –at least some people were taking both Western an Eastern approaches seriously- but problems immediately arose. Do you really have to go through all of Loevinger’s stages to have a spiritual experience? If you have an illumination experience as described by St. John of the Cross, does that mean you have passed through all 8 Graves value levels? Doesn’t sound quite right. 1
Other questions arose: what about earlier cultures that
had not of yet developed higher first and second tier structures? How
was it ever possible for these cultures to produce enlightened human
beings? Are we to question the enlightenment of the Shankara’s, the
Buddha’s, the Rumi’s and the Eckhart’s of world history and deem them
less enlightened than the sages and mystics of today? Just because they
were not connected to the Internet and did not participate in the World
Parliament of Religions? Doesn’t sound right either.
And what about childhood spirituality? For this issue
also presents us with some problems. Children do indeed seem to have
some gift of having higher state experiences. At times their whole
world can be filled with the star dust of their magic dream wands.
Wordsworth was certainly right on this point: childhood (when under the
right circumstances) may abound in subtle state experiences of
luminosity, perhaps not of a sophisticated nature as the illuminations
of Teresa of Avila, but certainly forming a spirituality of its own. It
even fooled Karl-Gustav Jung into thinking that children were little
mystics of some sort.
So Wilber gave in to his own doubts and the doubts of
others and recently presented the Wilber-Combs Lattice, which is here
re-presented:
Variables
In this diagram the states of consciousness (gross,
subtle, causal and non-dual) are no longer placed on the vertical line
of psychological development but on the horizontal, making the
psychological stages of consciousness into
variables that somehow define the experience
of the (higher) states. In this way you can have a state experience of
the gross, subtle, causal or beyond at virtually any stage you happen
to be, simply because everyone has access to these states, since
everyone has a waking mode of consciousness, a dreaming mode, a deep
sleep mode and possibly various subtle modes in between these states.
These states may not be realized as permanent (wakeful, aware) traits
of consciousness, but still they can be peaked at by every individual
alike. This explains the fact that children do have subtle state
experiences (in peaks), although they are as of yet at the beginning of
their psychological development. The same holds for so called
‘primitive’ cultures that have not developed up to higher
post-conventional, world (or cosmos) centric levels. You may be at
infrared or magenta level, but that does not preclude you from having
mystical experiences (of whatever kind).
This diagram is, as Wilber himself admits, still very
hypothetical and speculative, though it is definitely an improvement on
former models. So the purpose of this paper is to make a contribution
to this important subject, by showing that more variables are to be
included somehow, if we want to present an adequate picture of the
correspondence between states and stages. So what we’ll do is this:
we’re going to discuss these variables one by one, showing how the
different state experiences are deeply influenced by the variables and
AQAL model they are imbedded in.
Variable I : the psychological levels/stages
Wilber himself presents this variable as the general
outcome of the lattice. For the diagram intends to show how state
experiences are experienced differently, following
the level/stage of development you’re at. Since mystical experiences
are open and empty as their referents and signifieds are concerned (and
also to a certain degree as signifiers), they depend for their general
meaning on the way they are interpreted by
the knowing subject. So suppose you are at an early egocentric, red,
power driven level of development. You will then interpret your subtle
or causal state experience differently from the way someone at, say, a
green level does interpret the experience. This has been discussed by
Wilber at length in IS and elsewhere. It is one of the great
contributions the lattice has to offer. It e.g. shows how spiritual
teachers in history and all over the world may have had authentic, deep
mystical experiences and even realizations, but nevertheless translate
and explain these experiences in ethnocentric or even fundamentalist or
narcissist terms (which very often is a cause for frustration and
misery in the spiritual group they belong to).
But the influence of this variable is much wider. For the
development stages seem not only to influence the way spiritual
experiences are interpreted, they also are
greatly responsible for the ability to consciously
have state experiences. It is true that our consciousness at
all stages, from infrared all the way up to the third tier levels, may
function in gross, subtle, causal and non-dual mode, simply because we
all wake, dream and sleep. So everyone may have a peak experience of
higher states of consciousness. These states are more or less
categorically given in consciousness itself. But the way the subject
reacts to an experience of higher states of consciousness depends
largely on the level of psychological development s/he has attained. If
we have not come to a certain level of psychological ripeness, if we
have not become familiar with higher state experiences and their
meaning in our lives, it will not cross the threshold of our awareness
that we are having any. It will remain to a greater or lesser degree
sub- or unconscious, because we have no way of mentally grasping the
experience and explaining it to our selves. We then do not know what to
do with the experience, which in the inward life amounts to virtually not having the experience.
For let’s take a person at a rather low level of
psychological development, say, a young child. This young person may
indeed have the ability to peak into formless causality, like everyone
does in deep sleep, but, because of its consciousness still being
totally absorbed and identified with the concrete world, it has not the
ability to mentally grasp emptiness and nothingness. This inability
will in fact annul the experience. It would be like it never happened
to the child. The experience did not even enter its consciousness, or
when it did for a moment, it was immediately swept under the carpet of
the subliminal. For it takes some level of
psychological development to be aware of higher state experiences. The
only thing a child may be capable of doing is making a higher state
experience concrete, which is what magic in fact does. It turns a
subtle state experience into a fairy tale. But this is how far as it
gets at the lower rungs of the ladder. And the peaking probably does
not go all the way up into the non-dual. At least not consciously.
This is so crucial a variable that at first we were
inclined to believe that states of consciousness were really nothing
but higher stages/levels of development (Wilber III-IV), since the
higher we climb the ladder, the more conscious we become of all of our
inward experiences, including the higher spiritual ones. And the
consolidation of higher states into higher realizations can still be
seen as higher stages of development, since they have the capacity to
grow out into traits of character. In
that case a state becomes a stage, a level on our life’s curriculum.
This happens when we begin to identify with a higher spiritual state of
consciousness. As is now rightly diagnosed by the W-C lattice,
spiritual experiences are both states and
stages.
Variable II : age
States of consciousness are also to a large degree
dependent on age. Because of reasons already
discussed persons of a younger age may experience states of
consciousness differently from older people. This is not to say that
older persons have them more frequently or that age is a variable
determining the intensity
of the experience. The child or the young adolescent may have spiritual
experiences that far outweigh the experiences of a riper age as their
emotional impact is concerned. The spiritual experience of falling in
love for the first time in young adolescence (which very often is a
subtle state affair at that age) or the nature mysticism of young
children may be just as intense and emotionally moving as higher
spiritual experiences later in life. But because of the cognitive and
other lines of development being not yet fully implemented, the young
child has far less the ability to integrate such experiences into the
total make up of his psychology. When we are older we know more about
their meaning and are more able to relate them to other life aspects.
Later in life subtle, causal or non-dual experiences make
more sense and are therefore more integrative, healing and
transformative.
The factor age is a rather neglected value in the
Wilber-Combs lattice. The lattice as it stands might give the
impression that all persons at a certain level of development show the
same psychological characteristics, even if we take their different
psychographs into account. The lattice seems to suggest that all
persons at, say, magenta or red level show the same psychological
characteristics, irrespective of variable factors as culture or age.
For though it is true that ontogeny (the inner levels of an individual)
follows the same evolutionary blueprint as phylogeny (the development
of consciousness in the human race), and that a child therefore
develops psychologically along fulcra that have already been laid down
by human evolution (from infrared to magenta to red to amber to orange
to green and perhaps higher, in the future), it is also true that a
magenta child is something completely different from a magenta older
person, who has ripened with age.
The Integral community must be aware of -to phrase
a term- ‘color absolutism’, the fallacy of heaping all persons of the
same psychological color on one stock pile. A magenta child in our
Western culture may show characteristics that are comparable to the
psychological structure of someone living in a tribal community
(especially in its tendency to interpret life in a magical and
animistic way), but that is not to say that a child is identical
to such a person or that a tribalist or a pastoralist thinks and
behaves as a child. This is not only because all colors are AQAL
embedded. It is also because there are huge differences between persons
of a different age, irrespective of their
cultural background. Psychological development is very much dependent
on age, the world over, of whatever color. The way levels and states
interrelate will perhaps become more clear when we discuss the way
different age groups respond to state experiences.
a childhood
Although childhood may abound in subtle state
experiences, mostly of an early or middle psychic type, this is not say
that children are already spiritually enlightened at this early stage
in their life (though they may show some profound wisdom now and then
because of these inner experiences). The most important reason for this
is the fact that they do not master their state experiences. They have
no control over them. They cannot bring understanding and wakefulness
into their experiences. They are more like ‘victims’ to their own inner
experiences, passively subject to the enchantment they now and then
receive. Because of this, their spirituality is momentary, fleeting,
unsubstantial, without profound meaning and philosophy.
But suppose we would offer
state training to these
children (like e.g. schools of the TM movement give courses in
meditation to their young pupils), would that not make them (more)
enlightened? Do they not have, like everyone else, the capacity for
enlightenment? Is this not what the Wilber-Combs lattice suggests?
Well, state training and meditation will certainly prove to be
beneficial to young children, but it will not turn
them into enlightened human beings. The reasons for this are
manifold and are to be found in all four Quads: in the UR they have the
problem that their neurological system is not yet fully developed, that
they may receive the high energy of enlightenment. Their biology is not
yet capable of producing it. All energy is still focused on biological
and psychological growth. In the UL their self is still in the process
of building and consolidating ego structures. In the LL they are still
too much embedded in hierarchical structures, making them unfree,
accommodated and too much dependent on others. These conditions are
detrimental for enlightenment to occur. In the LR they are too much
part of a social school system shaping them in all kinds of forms
except the form of an enlightened human being.
b adolescence
At this age the conditions become far more conducive to
the stabilization of state experiences and their enlightenment. The
adolescent’s cognitive skills have now (generally) developed up to a
formal-operational level, making integration of state experiences
possible. They now can actively be put into service of the self. Other
lines of development have also taken on a more definite shape, making
the way for spirituality to become something of a factor in one’s life.
Adolescence is also blessed with a natural sensitivity for state
experiences, mostly of the subtle type. Now and then even higher state
experiences become conscious. The world of the adolescent is thrilling,
exciting, elated by an experience of the new and full of ‘boundary
lapses’, often frightening and disturbing, but also now and then awe
inspiring, even in a mystical way. There is at this stage in life more
freedom, more independence, more authenticity and individuality than in
early childhood.
Nevertheless, adolescence is full of insecurities,
tentative beginnings, failures and frustrated hopes. An adolescent is
extremely fearful at heart about the future. His whole culture is
knocking at his head to prepare him for his future role in society.
There is already a heavy load on his shoulder, though he does not of
yet have a clear picture of its actual content. In the UR his body and
nervous system are ravaged and tormented by the wants and needs of
incipient sexuality, a further cause for insecurity and
destabilization. In short: an adolescent is not mature enough to turn
peak experiences into plateau experiences and plateau experiences into
permanent realizations. An enlightened adolescent is a very rare
phenomenon indeed. Adolescents seldom succeed in successfully
completing a state training program, though they are often very curious
about higher states of consciousness.
c adulthood
Here we find the most favorable conditions for
enlightenment to occur. The self is full grown, individual, authentic
and self supporting. All the vertical lines are developed to their max,
through the whole rainbow spectrum of consciousness (as far as it goes
for most people). The body is in full strength, with a nervous system
capable of supporting higher realizations, if the adult should want to
opt for consolidating his/her state experiences. With the acquirement
of a stable social position the basic life needs are met. The work
conditions are supportive by now. Especially when private circumstances
are favorable too –with a stable home and a caring network of friend
and relatives-, there is no impediment for life to reach its spiritual
fulfillment. Enlightenment now becomes a real possibility.
But the dangers coming from the Lower Quadrants are still
considerable. There is an enormous pressure on the adult to fit in to
an already established pattern of cultural and social behavior. It is
often very difficult for an adult –especially when s/he has the role of
care giver in a family or elsewhere- to make time for spiritual
training and devote one’s life to state building. Work in society
forces the adult to accept and identify with a definite 9-5 role,
something not easily put aside when off-work. The adult is often,
because of his social obligations, compelled to be a ‘someone’ and
cannot be the ‘nobody’ mysticism wants her to be. Enlightenment
presupposes a kind of life style that is hard to realize for most
adults.
But things may not be as gloomy as here presented. Life
is all about making choices. The adult may also opt for a different
life style, more in accord with the demands of spirituality. Working
hours may be reduced. More time may be devoted to meditation and other
spiritual practices. An adult is wise enough not to become the victim
of his own society. When reaching the post-conventional levels of
morality he will learn more to go his own way. Then maturity has
settled in.
d maturity
At this stage in life, provided the right conditions of
good health and general well being are met, nothing stands in the way
for enlightenment to be realized. There is now plenty of time to devote
one’s self to spiritual study and training. The demands of society and
the others are reduced to a more manageable degree. A post-conventional
attitude is set up as a healthy safety valve against the world driving
us nuts. The mature person has learned to go his own way. And this way
may also be a mystical way.
When we talk about the higher vertical levels we must
realize that they are often maturity levels,
in most cases coming with age. This was one of the great contributions
of Wilber III-IV and there is no reason to discard these findings. So,
whatever the outcome of the average color of a psychograph may be, the
highest stages of psychological development are reached at an older,
more mature age. But this is also a variable making the Wilber-Combs
lattice more complicated. For an older person born and living in a
magenta culture, with a general psychograph in accordance with his
surroundings, may still be psychologically more advanced than a child,
an adolescent or even an adult born and living in a green culture or
higher. This problem is partly covered by Wilber’s theory about lines
of development differing from stages/structures, but the contention of
this paper is that the level and general wisdom of older persons is to a large degree irrespective
of the color of their culture and general
psychograph.
And this conclusion has also, in my view, bearings upon states of consciousness. We must somehow
differentiate in the lattice between the state experiences of different
age groups. The state experience of a child is different from the state
experience of a mature person, even apart from formal training, when
merely peaked at.
Variable III : personal excellence
In every culture -of whatever
color level- there
are outstanding individuals who somehow manage to outgrow the average
level of their surrounding culture: the (spiritual) geniuses of history
(but also the more humble ones who have escaped notice, but were also
truly exceptional in their own right). These exceptionally gifted
individuals were always one, two or even more color levels ahead of
their times. As state experiences concerns, we’re talking here about
the famous mystics and religious founding fathers of world history,
who, probably because of their advanced state training, were high on
the vertical line. The average of their culture may have been magenta,
red or amber, but I honestly think that these individuals were well
advanced into green, turquoise and indigo levels, though these levels
were still not laid out phylogentically, but were only in the making,
so to speak. These excellent individuals served as attractors making
evolution possible.
Behind the obvious realization and mystical genius of a
Christ, a Buddha or a Shankara we will not
find, on closer inspection, red or amber personalities hidden, though
they were completely imbedded in red and amber cultures and must have
been influenced by red and amber thoughts. Somehow they managed to
outgrow their contemporaries by an astonishing quantum leap in
consciousness. Just one look at their social criticisms and their
pluralistic notions of all men united under one God or exhibiting one
Buddha nature the world over, irrespective of race, gender or caste
system, will make this clear. It is not just a trendy hyperbole when we
describe these men as green peace fighters, environmentalists or
turquoise integralists. For they already showed some of these later
features of consciousness.
Spirituality is in a way comparable to the art forms:
some people have a gift for it, but others are born callous for
spiritual experiences and stare blankly out into the blue on hearing
the first spiritual cuckoo in spring. Like with music, there is
probably some natural talent involved. There have been child prodigies
in spirituality also (though they seem to be more rare than in music).
There is talk about Shankara having already at a very young age
outstripped the elderly of his religion with his debating skills. The
well known story of the boy Jesus in the temple, discussing the Torah
with the older people and receiving admiration for his young wisdom,
may also point in this direction. The young boy Krishnamurti was at the
time elected by the Theosophists for his extraordinary spiritual
quality, to be their future leader. In Tibet the clergy is on the
look-out for children with exceptional eyes to be the next lama.
The Wilber-Combs lattice was initially set up to cover
phenomena of personal excellence and childhood spirituality: state
experiences may occur at all levels, stages and ages. This is what
child prodigy also shows. State experiences are not dependent on higher
vertical structures of consciousness (because we all wake, dream and
sleep and have access to spiritual states of consciousness). This may
be so. But a defender of Wilber III-IV might object that personal
excellence and childhood prodigy affirm the
rule (rather than refuting it) that higher levels of consciousness are
a conditio sine qua non for experiencing
states of consciousness, since this is what excellence and prodigy is
all about: the gift for skipping levels. Some persons are so
exceptional –even in childhood- that they are in no time at a fully
integrated level, which may account for their deep spiritual experience
and wisdom. Granted, this does not explain the occurrence of childhood
spirituality generally –for even
non-exceptional children have sometimes profound state experiences- but
this objection may well justly show that personal excellence is not an
exception to, but an affirmation of the rule.
Types of states of consciousness
So far we have been expanding the Wilber-Combs lattice by
putting states of consciousness on the horizontal line and correlating
them to a number of variables on the vertical line. We did so because
putting only levels/stages of consciousness on
the vertical line is not enough when we are to define states of
consciousness. States of consciousness are also to a great extent
influenced by training, age and personal excellence. And
this is the case throughout the whole spectrum of consciousness. So
at every stage level we do not only have to define what the color of
the person having a state experience is. We also have to define other
variables, like the ones discussed. As we have seen, this complicates
the overall picture considerably (which is of course to be expected
when we bring more variables to bear on the outcome of a study; but we
have to do so when we want to give an adequate representation of the
(psychological and other) dynamics involved).
But the next thing is: variables are not only to be found
on the vertical line, but on the horizontal line also. For states of
consciousness do not only have definite stages/levels
(gross, subtle, causal and non-dual), they also have various types. Here the question is: what kind of a state
experience are we talking about? So let’s take a look at three of these
types and see how different types of states can be.
Type I: sympathetic and parasympathetic states of consciousness
In a pivotal article in Science2 the psychologist Roland Fisher has
done research into states of consciousness and their correlation with
the nervous system. His research suggests that we have to differentiate
between two types of states of consciousness, depending on the way our
nervous system is activated. For both the sympathetic branch of the
nervous system as well as its opposite, the parasympathetic branch, are
able to generate higher states of consciousness. This means that we
find states of consciousness activated as a result of
ergotropic/sympathetic hyper-arousal, like in
manic states (e.g. in the case of people with a bipolar disorder), when
we fall in love, in adventures and dangers, or in the great excitement
of ecstatic dancing and music making -to name a few causes-, but also
as a result of trophotropic/parasympathetic hypo-arousal,
like in different states of deep relaxation and meditation. Both
excitement and deep tranquility/relaxation, at both ends of our
neurological pole, can generate higher states of consciousness. This is
because of the fundamental bipolarity of our nervous system and the way
both branches mutually respond to and interrelate with each other (also
in the process of generating higher states of consciousness).
So, strange as it might seem, both meditation and going
to a rave party or attending a football match may bring about higher
states of consciousness (of whatever level). They both may generate
mystical feelings of oneness, completeness, sheer bliss and ecstasy.
They both are able to suspend the existing level of self and bring us
to higher levels of transpersonal Self. This is what the word ecstasy
in Greek means (‘stepping out of our self’) and it works both ways,
both parasympathetically and sympathetically, both in hypo-arousal and
in hyper-arousal.
Now, apart from the difference in the way these states of
consciousness are generated (hyper-excitement or hypo-relaxation),
there is a further difference in experience type
and also, I believe, to some extent in content.
For though they may show the same features and resemble each other in
their mysticism and ecstasy, they also show some differences: first,
the state experience in the excitement of sports, dancing, music,
festivities etc. is always a peak experience, while state experiences generated by the
parasympathetic nervous system, e.g. in meditation, are more stable,
more plateau like (or, when peaks, generating
structures of a plateau type); second, parasympathetically induced
states of consciousness seem to be more like the ‘flow’ experiences
described by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, which show a
high amount of so called ‘action awareness merging’: the person having
a state experience of the parasympathetic type, enters into a flow-like
state, merging with her actions and her surroundings. Though peak
experiences of the ergotropic type are sometimes also accompanied by
‘flow’, the latter type is felt as less ‘smooth’, ‘mellow’, balanced
and merging than experiences of the first,
trophotropic type (possibly because of the high amount of excitement
involved, which may lead to loss of concentration, self awareness and
being en rapport with the situation); third, as to their content, state experiences of the
trophotropic type tend to be more translated into spiritual and
religious imagery, which is only rarely –or indirectly- the case with
state experiences generated by sympathetic excitement.
To differentiate between these two types
of states is essential to the transpersonal study of enlightenment and
mysticism, because research has shown that stable realization of
enlightenment is all about parasympathetic activation of the
nervous system and not about sympathetic activation, though the latter may
certainly have played a role in the process (like e.g. in so called
yogic ‘flying’). Plateau experiences and further stabilization of the
enlightenment process is to a very large degree dependent on
hypo-arousal and not on hyper-arousal.
Type II: gender related states of consciousness
All experiences are closely related to the body, not only the physical experiences of our gross body, but also the higher, more subtle experiences of the dream state and deep sleep. In these states of consciousness the vehicle for the experience is the so called subtle or causal body Vedanta informs us about. Though these bodies are more subtle than our gross, physical body and cannot be detected with the eye, they nevertheless share a number of characteristics with the physical body they are related to. One of these characteristics is gender. So when you inhabit a female physical body, your subtle -and also to some degree your causal- body will also show female characteristics. These gender characteristics gradually dim and lessen as we approach the realm of formless emptiness, but high into the subtle and lower causal realms the experiences you’ll have will be gender related.
Though Teresa and John of the Cross share many essential characteristics in their mysticism, a sensitive reader will notice that Teresa’s Interior Castle is more feminine in its feelings of love and eroticism than the rather dry and distant enumerations of John. Her books are certainly also a hallmark in philosophical speculation. His books are also full of poetical feelings and driven by eroticism. But still there is a difference. And the simple difference is that the one is written by a woman and the other by a man. The subtle illuminations of Teresa are definitely a woman’s and they are different from the illuminations of John. Things should not be otherwise. For there is tremendous beauty in the way a woman translates the inner experiences of the subtle realm. They are full of intimate love and are strongly body related.
Here is an example of a subtle state experience related by a female mystic3. Notice the strong eroticism and the bodily feelings associated with the experience:
‘The inner-conjunction [Sex with Eros] is the most intense kundalini experience, when it feels like thousands of volts are tearing through one's system. There are many ecstatic experiences during a kundalini awakening, but the shooting up the spine and its associated ‘Silver Cord’ or ‘Sex with Eros’ is the most extreme experience one can endure energetically. (….) I liken it to 10,000 orgasms pouring through every cell of one's body and gushing out the top of the crown, threatening to explode one's head. I say that it is 10,000 orgs up the spine to convey its huge quantum jump from the normal experience of our body. Thus in this book [BoK] you will see me refer to the charge of the inner-conjunction as 10,000 orgs. But if someone did actually have the equivalent of 10,000 orgasms all at once it would kill them instantly. The degree of ecstasy is inexpressible, other than to say that every cell in the body is lit up with God...with bliss in the extreme.’
Though there are also a few cases of
males having experienced such deep, body related, spiritual orgasms, I
do think that the close relation between subtle state experience and
sexuality is more female than male. The ‘Sex with Eros’ experience may
help us in understanding the eroticism and erotic symbolism in the
works of other female mystics, like Teresa or Hildegard of Bingen.
Notice that the ‘Sex with Eros’ experience is not
only an experience of the gross body:
‘The Sex with Eros event is an inner-conjunction that includes genital contractions. Since inner-conjunctions are the most intense energetic kundalini experience, having this energy activate the sex organs also makes for the most intense sexual experience possible. But you must understand that because it is a spontaneous event and is part of the entire body lighting up, such an event is not sexual in the normal sense. Thus the most extreme sexual experience possible to humans is not even sexual and it is this realization that helps one to intuit the larger purpose, meaning and direction of life beyond all our conditioned assumptions, concepts and self-centric myopia.’4
The advantage of putting gender
types of states of consciousness on the horizontal line and matching
them out against variables on the vertical line is that it enables us
to see when gender plays a role in experiencing states of consciousness
and when it doesn’t. Intriguing questions in this respect might be: do
gender characteristics play a role in the experience of states across the whole spectrum of consciousness or only
at the lower levels? Are gender characteristics transcended when we
develop higher up the scale, to second and third tier colors? The
research of Jane Loevinger and Susann Cook-Greuter suggests that generally gender differences weaken as we develop to
transpersonal, post-conventional levels. But how about states of
consciousness? Are they also neutralized in their gender oppositions,
when we climb up the colored ladder? How about age? Do older women
experience their states of consciousness differently from younger
women? And is the factor personal excellence capable of transcending
gender differences? These are all interesting questions presenting
themselves from within an expanded Wilber-Combs cartography.
Type III: altered states of consciousness
States of consciousness can be, both from the inside as
well as from the outside, artificially altered or provoked. When they
are changed or generated from the inside we call them endogenous
states of consciousness. When from the outside, they are called exogenous states of consciousness. The most
important form of endogenous states are the trained
states of consciousness, the ones generated by meditation
and other similar techniques.
a endogenous (trained) states
What will be the correlation between this type of state
and the variables on the vertical line, like psychological level, age,
excellence etc.? When the state of consciousness is actively provoked
and sought for, like in meditation, it is reasonable to conclude that
there will be more awareness and understanding about the state
experience. In that case we must know to some
degree that state experiences are good,
beneficial, healthy, to be desired for etc. So this presupposes a
higher level of cognitive and emotional development, than with someone
who merely receives state experiences involuntarily (as peaks). From
this we may infer that state training is something taken up when we are
higher on the vertical line of development. This is I think proven by
the facts: spiritual techniques, aimed at realizing state experiences
as permanent traits, are more employed by people who are to some degree
advanced in their psychological growth. Meditation is not something
children or, say, people at low magenta level do willfully and out of
their own accord. Only people with serious spiritual and mystical
aspirations (mostly second tier) do purposely train themselves in
having higher state experiences.
The Wilber-Combs lattice, as it is now presented, with
the same bold dots at all levels, may suggest that everyone, at any
given level, may experience higher states of consciousness with the same intensity. But, as we already saw,
these experiences are highly dependent on the amount of awareness
(wakefulness) one has accumulated (in other words: do we consciously
(wakefully) know that we are experiencing
them?). This knowledge, this wakefulness is greatly enhanced by
training generating altered states of consciousness.
The way training, levels and states mutually interact and
correlate comes perspicuously to the fore when we see that intense
state training speeds up psychological development considerably.
Research has shown that meditation (or comparable successful
techniques) works as a kind of catalyst in bringing us from a lower to
a higher level in a more rapid pace than mere aging would do. A person
at, say, amber level, taking up meditation, will arrive more quickly at
a green level than an amber person not engaged in spiritual training.
The same holds for a green person who is heading towards teal or
turquoise, etc. The causes for this phenomenon are mainly to be found
in the Upper Quadrants, such as the gaining of broader perspectives and
the accumulation of general wisdom, because of a widening of
consciousness in the Upper Left, but also through biochemical and
neurological changes in the Upper Right Quadrant effected by
meditation. Here we see meditation and training effecting the vertical
levels, but notice also that this raising of the levels
has rebound effects of itself on the states
of consciousness: the higher leveled we train ourselves to be, the
deeper and more intense our state experiences become.
This points to the paramount importance of endogenously
altered states of consciousness in the Wilber-Combs cartography. The
greatest discovery in consciousness was already made in Vedic times,
when the shamanistic rishi sages of ancient India found ways to
endogenously and naturally generate state experiences –by way of yoga,
meditation and other techniques-, that were formerly only accessible to
drugs like soma and amrita. This may well prove to be the greatest
scientific discovery ever made. The future of mankind owes a great deal
to this discovery.
b exogenous states of consciousness
To this category belong the various hypnagogic states
brought about by external hypnagogic agents, like a hypnotherapist or
an alpha brain wave machine. But the most familiar exogenous states are
the drug induced states of consciousness. The so called entheogenic
drugs, whether in pure form or as plant-derived
substances, include cannabis, mescaline, DMT, LSD, psilocin,
psilocybin, ibogaine, and salvinorin A. They are capable of inducing
various subtle state experiences of a spiritual kind, even producing
plateau like effects on the person taking the drug. For that reason
they are often used in religious ritual contexts. But though the
content, the effect and possibly the general experience of entheogenic
drugs may show similarities with parasympathetically induced trained
states of consciousness, this equation is in most texts about
entheogenic drugs simply taken for granted, but never scientifically proven. In fact a drug experience may be something completely
different from parasympathetically generated forms of enlightenment,
but since so few people have experienced real spiritual enlightenment,
nobody really knows what it is and one is tempted on forehand to assume
that enlightenment is the same as the effect of a drug experience
(which may not be the case). This may well be the major fallacy in the
work of writers like Walter Pahnke, Timothy Leary, Aldous Huxley or
Huston Smith (to name only a few of a plethora of writers who have
written about the connection between spirituality and drug induced
states of consciousness).
This being said, it cannot be denied that drug induced states of consciousness are subtle state experiences of a kind and are therefore to be accounted for from within a Wilber-Combs cartography. Matching this type of state against variables on the vertical line, may tell us something about the way states of consciousness are influenced by variables like psychological color or age. Here drugs have a further advantage that they can be more easily employed in controlled settings like a laboratory. So administering entheogenic drugs to different level groups or ages, may give us information how different levels or ages experience states differently. But there is one important caveat in research of this kind: the results may only tell us something about drug induced states of consciousness and not about states of consciousness an sich.
An expanded Wilber-Combs cartography
So far we have discussed a number of variables –on the vertical axis- that influence the occurrence of states of consciousness and the way they are rationally translated and interpreted. We also differentiated between various types of states -on the horizontal axis-, to make sure what kind of higher state we are dealing with in our research. All these variables and types taken together amount to something of an expanded Wilber-Combs lattice, which we shall now present as a cartography, since it is composed of more than one table. Putting these tables all together on one chart, will eventually look like a Periodical System of a kind, not of the elements of chemistry, but of states of consciousness. Such a cartography may be used in psychological and spiritual research (whether cross-culturally, culturally or with individuals) and may be helpful in visualizing the way cultures or individuals generate and respond to (different levels of) states of consciousness. Experiential findings may be set out across the tables of the cartography and thus present us an overview of the spirituality of a given culture or individual. Such a cartography may be scientifically viable.
Like the Wilber-Combs lattice itself, this cartography, as it is presented in this paper, does not claim immortality. It is only one way of looking at the correlation between states and stages. There are probably more ways to study states of consciousness. Refinements will surely be made in the future. But his cartography is something of an elaboration of the original Wilber-Combs model.
Table I
On the horizontal line: natural, non-trained (peaks and plateaus) states of consciousness (gross, subtle, causal, non-dual),
On the vertical line: (variable I) levels of consciousness (infrared, magenta, red, amber, orange, green, teal, turquoise, indigo, violet, ultraviolet etc., with all of their line characteristics)
This table visualizes the way
levels of consciousness
determine states of consciousness. It may give us answers to questions
like: does the ability to experience states of consciousness increase
as we go higher up the ladder? Or are all levels equally capable of
generating state experiences? Are the states the same at all levels of
consciousness? Do all levels of consciousness have access to all levels
of states of consciousness or do some stop at subtle and others go
further? And in what way is the interpretation
of a state of consciousness influenced by the level of consciousness a
culture of an individual has acquired?
Table II
On the horizontal line: natural, non-trained states of consciousness (gross, subtle, causal, non-dual)
On the vertical line: (variable II) different age groups (e.g. 1-7, 7-14, 14-21, 21-28 etc.)
This table informs us about the relation between age and
states of consciousness. The intuition is that with age we become more
capable of entering higher states of consciousness (esp. causal and
non-dual states) with awareness. But intensity is also a factor to be accounted for.
Younger age may well have more intense subtle state experiences. This
is open to research.
Table III
On the horizontal line: natural, non-trained states of consciousness (gross, subtle, causal, non-dual)
On the vertical line: (variable III) personal excellence
Questionnaires can be set up
testing the spiritual
excellence of a given culture or individual. This can be done rather
easily and objectively by testing the heuristic skills in explaining
moderately difficult to extremely difficult spiritual texts (all the
way up to the ability to make some sense out of Nagarjuna or Bataille).
The findings of such questionnaires can be set out on scales ranging
from 0 to 10. This is one way of testing personal excellence. It has
the caveat of not testing spiritual,
but intellectual excellence, so
questionnaires of this kind may be flawed to some degree and other
methods will have to be set up. Notice also that in the questionnaire
we do not test the ability to enter into
higher states of consciousness with awareness, since this is the demonstrandum and not the demonstrans.
Table
IV
On the horizontal line: (type I states) sympathetically or parasympathetically induced states of consciousness (gross, subtle, causal, non-dual)
On the vertical line: (variable I) levels of consciousness (infrared, magenta, red, amber, orange, green, teal, turquoise, indigo, violet, ultraviolet etc., with all of their line characteristics)
Is there a difference in the way states of consciousness are neurophysiologically generated throughout the spectrum of consciousness (in the UR Quadrant)? Do the lower levels have more sympathetic activation of states and the higher levels more parasympathetic activation? This is an interesting question to which this table perhaps might give us some answers.
Table V
On the horizontal line: (type I states) sympathetically or parasympathetically induced states of consciousness (gross, subtle, causal, non-dual)
On the vertical line: (variable II) different age groups (e.g. 1-7, 7-14, 14-21, 21-28 etc.)
Here the intuition is that the state experiences of
children are more parasympathetically induced than the experiences of
adults. This is deduced from the naturalness of the child’s nervous
system and its ability to switch more easily to parasympathetic mode
than the neurophysiology of an older person (the ability for rapid
switching is often lost over the years). So this table may well give us
clues in understanding the underlying physiology of childhood
spirituality.
Table VI
On the horizontal line: (type I states) sympathetically or parasympathetically induced states of consciousness (gross, subtle, causal, non-dual)
On the vertical line: (variable III) personal excellence
Has personal excellence in spirituality bearings upon the physiology of higher state experience? Do the more spiritually competent individuals have a more active parasympathetic nervous system? Is this the reason that they are competent or is their competence the reason that they are more parasympathetically activated? This table may well be of paramount importance in our study of spirituality and higher states of consciousness. The intuition is here: spiritually gifted persons have a more strongly developed (or a more natural) parasympathetic nervous system. This is in need of testing.
Table VII
On the horizontal line: (type II states) gender related states of consciousness (gross, subtle, causal, non-dual)
On the vertical line: (variable I) levels of consciousness (infrared, magenta, red, amber, orange, green, teal, turquoise, indigo, violet, ultraviolet etc., with all of their line characteristics)
This table shows how levels of consciousness determine the higher states of consciousness in their gender oppositions. As a person climbs higher on the psychological ladder the gender typology of state experiences diminish. Male and female merge more and more into one. This is reflected in one’s spiritual experience of a God transcending all gender differences: the union of Shiva and Shakti, the highest wisdom of Tantra, or the union of Christ with Sophia in Gnostic Christianity.
Increase in synergy between the two brain hemispheres, together with altered biochemistry and neurophysiology in the UR Quadrant, may account for this coinciding of gender oppositions. But also more wisdom and awareness in the UL and even changes in the lower Quadrants of cultural and social life may account for a person transcending gender oppositions as s/he spirals higher. This is all reflected in the way a person experiences states of consciousness.
Table VIII
On the horizontal line: (type II states) gender related states of consciousness (gross, subtle, causal, non-dual)
On the vertical line: (variable II) different age groups (e.g. 1-7, 7-14, 14-21, 21-28 etc.)
Interesting findings about the way boys and girls interpret their state experiences differently may be set out in this table against data of adolescent, adult or mature males and females. This may give us insight in gender differences of various age groups. Perhaps a trend may be discernible that will tell us something about the way higher spiritual consciousness evolves in males and females differently (or indifferently). Since level and age are in most cases correlated variables, this table may well overlap with the findings of table VII.
Table IX
On the horizontal line: (type II states) gender related states of consciousness (gross, subtle, causal, non-dual)
On the vertical line: (variable III) personal excellence
What does it mean to be a spiritually gifted female? Is it different from being a male genius? And where does male and female genius overlap? This is perhaps a difficult table to make operational in test settings, but since so many excellent female mystics have made contributions to mysticism and the psychology of higher states, we do indeed have a plenum of written data telling us something about the way gender differences influence excellence and vice versa, how gender differences are influenced (e.g. annulled) by personal excellence.
Table X
On the horizontal line: (type III a states) endogenously altered (= trained) states of consciousness
On the vertical line: (variable I) levels of consciousness (infrared, magenta, red, amber, orange, green, teal, turquoise, indigo, violet, ultraviolet etc., with all of their line characteristics)
This table will show how psychological levels are influenced by spiritually training. The results and repercussions of findings presented in this table cannot be easily exaggerated. It may have a lasting effect on the field of developmental psychology, once research will be able to show how spiritual training greatly enhances psychological growth and maturity. What does it mean to become a fuller, a more deeper person? Tables X-XII give us some important clues.
Table XI
On the horizontal line: (type III a states) endogenously altered (= trained) states of consciousness
On the vertical line: (variable II) different age groups (e.g. 1-7, 7-14, 14-21, 21-28 etc.)
What are the effects of spiritual training on the different age groups? Do children respond positively to meditation techniques, or does their lack of awareness and wakefulness prevent them from making any progress in spirituality? Suppose children do benefit from spiritual techniques: in what way does this influence their experience and interpretation of higher states? Table XI may also answer questions like: at what age does spiritual training have the greatest effect and why?
Table XII
On the horizontal line: (type III a states) endogenously altered (= trained) states of consciousness
On the vertical line: (variable III) personal excellence
States of consciousness can become levels (permanent traits) of consciousness. But in the present state of affairs there is no guarantee in our evolutionary blueprint making this happen. We are not born with third tier levels of consciousness in the bud, in the same way as we all e.g. have an inborn capacity for language. Formal operational structures and language develop naturally. A child only has to wait a while and there they are. But not so with enlightenment. It takes painstaking effort to reach that level of development. Maybe one day in the future, when enough people have evolved to third tier structures, will there be enough morphic resonance to make higher states of consciousness something natural and spontaneous for everyone. Till that day it takes personal excellence to become enlightened.
This table makes visible that
personal excellence in spirituality is closely linked to state
training. We will see the influence working in both ways: it takes
personal excellence to successfully complete state training; but state
training also enhances personal excellence. So where there is
successful state training, there is also personal excellence and vice versa. The famous mystics from the past
and
present owe their genius and excellence to training.
Table XIII
On the horizontal line: (type III b states) exogenously altered (= drug induced) states of consciousness
On the vertical line: (variable I) levels of consciousness (infrared, magenta, red, amber, orange, green, teal, turquoise, indigo, violet, ultraviolet etc., with all of their line characteristics)
Do exogenously altered -drug induced- states of consciousness have the same effect on our stages/levels of consciousness as endogenously altered –trained- states of consciousness? Do they also make ‘level skipping’ possible? The intuition is: not as effectively as state training. But there are examples from literature where the taking of entheogenic drugs had a lasting effect on the spirituality of the person having the drug experience. So further research is needed.
We may also investigate the way the different levels experience and interpret a drug experience. This may show some divergence, both with the levels themselves as well as with the way natural or trained states of consciousness are interpreted. This table may well show that drug experiences are something completely different from ordinary (natural) state experiences. But again: it may not.
Table XIV
On the horizontal line: (type III b states) exogenously altered (= drug induced) states of consciousness
On the vertical line: (variable II) different age groups (e.g. 1-7, 7-14, 14-21, 21-28 etc.)
This table shows the correlation between age and
spiritual drug experiences. There may be an overlap with table II and
table XI, but there are great differences also between these three
tables of the Wilber-Combs cartography.
Summary
This paper presents an expanded version of the original Wilber-Combs lattice. On the vertical axis two more variables have been added. On the horizontal line six different types of states of consciousness have been distinguished. The possible correlations betweens these three variables and the six different types can be graphically represented in about fourteen tables, each dealing with one special type of consciousness as it correlates with one of the three variables on the vertical axis. This gives us more than 800 (856 to be precise) ways of correlation between states of consciousness and variables like psychological development, age and personal excellence.
This cartography may serve as a
theoretical model for scientists in studying states of consciousness.
Such a ‘Periodical System
of Spiritual Consciousness’
can be fully integrated in Wilber’s suggestion of an Integral Operating
System, working fully AQAL embedded. Every individual scientist may
contribute to the cartography by focusing in on one table at a time. In
due course their research will enrich the PSSC with definite knowledge
of the way (spiritual) consciousness works. The most interesting tables
are perhaps nr. X-XII in telling us how spiritual
training effects psychological
development, age
characteristics and personal excellence (and also vice
versa). Spiritual
training is closely linked to the building of
so called third tier structures. These third tier structures will play
a decisive role in the future of mankind. This will prove to be no
science fiction. For somehow they have already been promised to us.
June 2009
1 Ken Wilber: Integral Spirituality (Boston & London 2007) p. 88
2 Science Vol. 174 1971 pp. 897-904
3 Jana Dixon: the Biology of Kundalini (Lulu publishing 2008) p. 69 ff.
4 Jana Dixon in a letter to the writer explaining the experience
