What is Spiral Dynamics? When to apply your own knowledge to everyday life

BY MICK QUINN AND DEBORA PRIETO (Read the first part of this two-part series) — The easiest way to understand the essential nature of Spiral Dynamics (SD) is to picture a ladder that twists into a never-ending spiral, the top end of which is constantly evolving.

The first six levels of consciousness comprise the “First Tier,” the top from which a revolutionary shift in consciousness occurs that allows for the emergence of the Second Tier. The vMemes (v – for values) that comprise these first two tiers are given a color, making the discussion of SD much easier.

See your true colors

First Tier:

Beige: Starting about 100,000 years ago.
Survival – Sensation: Sharpening the innate instincts and senses just to stay alive. Hunter/gatherer ways of living.

Purple: Started about 50,000 years ago.
Spirits – Kinship: Searches for harmony and security in a mysterious world. Shows obedience to chiefs and elders.

Red: Starting about 10,000 years ago.
Self – Force: Aggressively and impulsively expresses itself regardless of the cost. Enjoy pleasures to the fullest with no guilt or remorse. No respect for authority.

Blue: Started about 5,000 years ago.
Order – Truth: Enforces codes of conduct through domination and threat of predetermined outcomes. Laws and regulations used to build moral standards.

Orange: Starting about 300 years ago.
Achievement – Strategy: Self-interested individuals play to win. Use earth’s resources to create the abundant life. Risk-takers, optimists and successful.

Green: Started about 150 years ago.
Human Relationships – Community: Explores the inner I and places everybody at the same level. Freeing humanity from greed. Egalitarian and caring.

Second Tier:

Yellow: Starting about 50 years ago.
Fluid – Flexible: Integrates prior systems as natural hierarchies. Existence is valued over materialistic pursuits. Sees chaos as the genius of serenity.

Turquoise: Started about 30 years ago
Holistic – Collective Individualism: Self is seen as distinct individuality yet part of greater, ever-evolving whole. AQAL aware. Completely responsible action.

Practical Applications of Spiral Dynamics

Each of the eight worldviews (memes) communicates differently, hears things differently, and learns differently. Spiral Dynamics enables people to understand these differences — including core motivators, information-processing styles, learning approaches, and preferred management styles. This knowledge enables communication where both parties truly understand each other’s messages — spoken and unspoken.

By furthering your understanding of how people, organizations, and cultures function from the inside out, SD can empower you to work, learn, and live more successfully. SD allows for better understanding of the complexities of human existence and gives us a way to understand the order and chaos in human affairs. It explains the deep forces embedded in us which ultimately shape our values, and lays out a pattern and a path for transformation.

SD resolving today’s world conflicts

SD reveals the hidden codes that shape human nature, create global diversities, and drive evolutionary change. These dynamic spirals attract and repel individuals from the webs and meshes that connect people within groups, communities, and organizations — they  forge the rise and fall of nations and cultures.

Today, Spiral Dynamics is one of the methods experts apply in South Africa in order to abolish apartheid, achieve consensus, and generate the process of social integration. It is even being used as a negotiation tool in such geopolitical contexts as the Palestine/Israeli conflict.

Spiral Dynamics and you

SD combines the new science of memetics with Gravesian value systems to form vMemes to craft a model of transformational change. By exploring and describing the core intelligences and deep values that flow beneath what we believe and do, this model offers a profoundly incisive, dynamic answers to complex questions:

• HOW do people think about things (as opposed to “what” they think)?
• WHY do people make decisions in different ways?
• WHY do people respond to different motivators?
• WHY and HOW are values created and spread?
• WHAT is the nature of CHANGE?

Now that you have a basic understanding of SD you can think about these questions and whether or not this concept can be applied to you and to people you know.

Sources: Spiral Dynamics – Beck/Cowan: Blackwell Publishing 1996/2006.  The collected works of American Philosopher, Ken Wilber.  EnlightenNext Magazine – Fall/Winter 2002. For more information on Spiral Dynamics, please visit EnlightenNext Magazine and Spiral Dynamics Integral.

Mick Quinn is the Irish-born author of the recently released book, The Uncommon Path (O-Books UK/USA) and the founder of several multi-million dollar companies. Mick lives in Utah and teaches with his wife Debora Prieto who uses Genpo Roshi’s Big Mind Process.  For Integral Coaching and upcoming events please visit his site.

BY DAVID RICKEY and RICK LEED — As we evolve, both scientific researchers and esoteric healers have advanced new therapies to treat our bodies and our minds but when we first hear of some of them we make a snap judgement that this sounds too wacky to be legit. We use words like voodoo medicine or magical thinking.

Think back to examples like quinine and willow bark — the former a tribal medicine used by Peruvian Indians, the latter an ‘old wives’ remedy. In the modern age, the first was prescribed by doctors as a treatment for malaria and the second in derivative form as aspirin.

Hundreds of health technologies — from acupuncture to hypnosis and artificial heart transplants to the freezing of cord-blood — were once thought to be voodoo and later proven to possess medical value. In that last example, we first read sketchy sounding reports a decade ago that people were having blood extracted from umbilical cords of their newborns cyrogenically frozen so that, in the event of illnesses like diabetes, doctors could later harvest miracle cells in the amniotic fluid for gene therapy.

It was a new science that few could wrap their heads around.

Saving your cells

Many laughed, and called it voodoo or exploitation of anxious, vulnerable new parents. But those who laughed and passed on that opportunity, lost out — or at least their kids did. Now radical new research is giving those parents a second chance. Will they laugh again when they read about a company called StemSave? It says that the promise of medical miracles from stem cells is locked within your family teeth: StemSave is generating a lot of chatter by harvesting the wisdom of DNA from wisdom teeth.

According to research published in peer-reviewed journals, the stem cells in our teeth are among the most powerful in the human body.  Stem cells from teeth replicate at a faster rate, and for a longer period of time, than do stem cells harvested from other tissues.

Wisdom teeth have smart cells

The irony is that living stem cells found within extracted teeth are routinely discarded by dentists every day as medical waste; In the next decade, perhaps any dentist who does that will be seen as out-dated as GP’s who once-upon-a-time suggested cigarettes as a sedative. StemSave enables you to save these cells for future use in developing medical treatments for your family.

Other expressions of the same ethos abound. RegeneRx, with the support of the National Institutes of Health, is making huge strides in applications that can turn cells on — and change the course of certain diseases.

Healing “technowledgies”

In the “soft” healing sciences, conventional institutions on the cutting-edge like Kaiser Permanente and Dr. Michael Benson’s Mind/Body Medical Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston are breaking new ground in incorporating the last technowledgies (our word) in Bio- and Psycho-Spiritual medicine.

Closer to home, check out our own teachers, like Vaishali or many of the articles in the Soul’s Code Science and The Brain category.

What do Spirituality and Science have to do with the Big Bang?

St. Paul, throughout his letters, disparaged the “flesh.” A much more enlightened writer, Teilhard de Chardin, said that we are Spiritual beings on a Human journey. One way or another, we are “stuck” in this fleshly body as long as we inhabit this planet. The “Good News” is that we now know a whole lot more about our “flesh,” and how it works then either of these two teachers. As our knowledge of being human evolves so do our treatments for these human bodies.

Being human is an amazing position to be in. We have evolved the ability to look at ourselves, our souls and bodies, and make ever more wise decisions. No other animal has come this far. In the last century we have discovered the interplay between our thoughts and our bodies, and we have uncovered some of the deepest secrets of our very flesh, even these genes which direct our growth and govern natural selection.

But at the same time, traditional medicine has reached a kind of limit as to what it can do to enhance or correct human existence. Our western hospital-health insurance model has become a bureaucratized medical industrial complex.

And it becomes more dysfunctional as it seeks to wrestle with rising costs, demands and diminishing resources, both in terms of care and the ability to embrace new therapies. Added to that is the “unevolved” mentality of some practitioners and funders, complicated by the spiritually unenlightened resistence to advanced study of the human being. There is the perceived notion that humans are somehow sacred and separate rather than just the latest stage of an evolutionary process going back to the big-bang.

There is no separation

Instead, we believe that the whole process is sacred. Divine Wisdom is inexorably unfolding in the physical reality of our universe. That deep wisdom needs to be applied to the advancements in genetic research and psycho-spiritual awareness.

The capability of tuning into that wisdom is part of the very process evolutionary progress in which we partake.

The final question: Will we evolve fast enough to heal ourselves and the Planet? Time will tell, but will we be here for the telling?

David Rickey is a psychotherapist, Episcopal priest and Soul’s Code co-founder; Rick Leed is a media mogul, investor in health sciences and chairman of Soul’s Code.

We’ve joked about it at dinner parties. We’ve read all the same articles, talked to our doctors, and reached the same realization: You can’t eat anything anymore. Soul’s Code canvassed its community of experts about the latest research into conscious dining:

1. Soy, it sucks

The world’s most famous cosmetic surgeon, Dr. Robert Rey, is ultra body-conscious both inside and out. And Rey, a.k.a. Dr. 90210, is highly conscious about what he puts into his own body. Dr. Rey is the author of a 2.0 version of the Paleo diet. And he walks the talk —  doesn’t smoke, do drugs or drink (like, even coffee). He also absolutely avoids a staple of the health-food industry: soy.

Yet Americans love soy: sales in the U.S. have grown more than ten-fold in the past two decades. The soy lobby now represents a $4-billion industry.

So why does soy suck? Among Rey’s beefs is that it has estrogen-like substances. He cites rat studies showing depressed sexual appetite, and an increase in mortality rates after soy was introduced into the Chinese diet in 580 A.D. More specifically, soy contributes to anemia and Alzheimers. “If you eat soy,” Rey told Soul’s Code, “you will start forgetting things.”

2. Shrimp

Americans now eat more shrimp than tuna because it is succulent and low-cal. But the big question is what do the shrimp themselves eat? Answer: farmed shrimp are raised on feed that includes animal parts and antibiotics like oxytetracycline and ciprofloxacin.

The majority of all imported shrimp today is industrially-produced in man-made ponds that are often abandoned after about seven years because they become cess pools. So unless you want to eat recycled worms, pass on the shrimp curry the next time you’re at your favorite Indian restaurant. Or check out this list of approved labels from SeafoodWatch.org.

3. Tomatoes

In the winter, as much as 90 percent of the tomatoes in American supermarkets are grown in Florida. But from a horticultural perspective, Florida’s sandy soil has about as many nutrients as the Sahara desert. “To get a successful crop, they pump the soil full of chemical fertilizers and can blast the plants with more than 100 different herbicides and pesticides, including some of the most toxic in agribusiness’s arsenal,” writes Barry Estabrook in his new book, Tomatoland. So skip Safeway’s produce aisle, and pay-up for locally-grown tomatoes — in season! If you absolutely need post-harvest tomatoes for, say, a Caprese salad on your Thanksgiving table, hydroponic ones from Canada would actually be a better option.

4. Nuts

These hard-shelled fruits are a staple of the Jesus-edition of the Paleo diet, and almost a perfect source of non-animal protein that can lower the LDL “bad” cholesterol in your blood. Nuts are also a favorite of Atkins-diet addicts because they are low in carbs. The problem is that nuts are super-high in fat calories. Eighty percent of a nut is fat.

To put it in perspective, one cup of almonds has almost 300 more calories than a Big Mac (540). Or would you believe 310 more than a Dairy Queen Banana Split (510)? How about more than twice as much as a Taco Bell Bean Burrito (370)?

“Nuts should be used as a garnish, or a side on a cheese plate,” says Catherine Fallis, a San Francisco, CA Master Sommelier and restaurant industry consultant. “Carbs or no carbs, you’ll never lose weight if you are using nuts as a meal-replacement.”

5. Starches

Speaking of carbs . . . bread, potatoes, rice and pasta were condemned by both the South Beach and Atkins Diets simply because of the high conversion rate of their starch component to sugar.  It puts starches in a league of their own when it comes to calorie-intake, and advocates of The Longevity Diet argue that they will take years off your life. According to several scientific studies, mammals who consume foods low on the Glycemic Index live longer and relatively disease-free. They suggest that you decline your daily bread because most types of baked goods are  high up on the Glycemic Index.

Bonus tip, Coffee

No, it’s not on this list because caffeine is a diuretic that keeps you up at night, stains your teeth and makes PMS worse. It is one of the most wasteful food products on Earth. Few Starbucks addicts realize that in the harvesting, processing, roasting and brewing of coffee about 98 percent of the biomass is discarded. “An estimated 12 million tons of agricultural waste is left to rot each year, generating millions of tons of methane gas and contributing to climate change,” says Gunter Pauli, author of The Blue Economy.

MARGARET  COCHRAN — The Enneagram grew out of the teachings of the great Sufi mystic, G. I. Gurdjieff, whose memoir of early 20th-Century pilgrimages, Meetings with Remarkable Men, became a landmark movie in spiritual cinema. But today we care more about the Enneagram than the movie because it is an amazing tool for developing self-awareness.

The Enneagram helps us to realize what motivates us, and how to better understand the sometimes confusing behavior of our friends, family and co-workers — and possibly the most confusing person of all, yourself!

Have you ever looked at the people you know and work with, and wondered why they behave the way they do? Why one person would give you the shirt off their back if you needed it, and another would argue about the importance of needing to wear a shirt? Why would yet another type of person be chronically over-committed and habitually complaining about it, and yet persist in cramming still more things into their already overflowing calendar? What do these very different kinds of people want, and how can they be reached?

The answer to these questions can be found in the nine points, or personality types, in the Enneagram.

The 9 basic types

1. The Perfectionist
2. The Giver
3. The Achiever
4. The Romantic
5. The Observer
6. The Doubter
7. The Dreamer
8. The Leader
9. The Diplomat

To determine your Enneagram type you simply need to read the descriptions of each one, and select the number that best describes you and your behavioral style. For a quick and easy reference guide to help you get started I refer you to my website.

As you explore this system, know that we each possess all nine types of Enneagram energy within us. However, there is one ‘home’ point in which we spend the majority of our ‘psychological time’.

The Enneagram is traditionally displayed as a diagram that takes the form of a clock face with the number ‘nine’ in the customary twelve o’clock position, the number ‘one’ in the customary one o’clock position and with the numbers two through eight spread out evenly in clockwise order around the circle. There are intersecting lines inside the circle that actually form a nine pointed geometric figure, or an enneagram, hence the name.

Which ‘wing’ are you in the Enneagram?

These lines direct the Enneagram user to the interconnectedness of the various points such as the ‘wings’, which are the numbers on either side of your ‘home’ point. They also indicate the ‘heart point’ and the ‘stress point’, which are the places where people’s energies go when they are cathected in something, or someone, for better or worse.

Let’s profile point ‘One’, The Perfectionist, as an example of the Enneagram matrix at work.

‘Ones’ have extremely high expectations and very specific ideas and ideals about what’s right and what’s not. With such exacting standards they are not at all shy about telling those around them how they are ‘doing it wrong’. ‘Ones’ have a powerful internal critic — and as hard as they can be on ‘us,’ it’s nothing compared to the demands that they make of themselves.

‘Ones’ have ‘wings’ of Nine, The Mediator, and Two, The Giver.

As a result, ‘Ones’ want to help others ‘do it right’ — and at the same time they may find that they have difficulty letting go of unused objects, prioritizing tasks and knowing exactly who ‘they’ are. The ‘heart’ point of ‘One’ is Seven, The Dreamer, so when they interact with someone or something that is important to them they want to have fun!

The ‘stress’ point of a ‘One’ is Four, The Romantic. So when a ‘One’ is unhappy, they are intensely, dramatically and over-the-top unhappy!

Do you know a “One’ in your life?

Why the UN should post posters of the Enneagram

Understanding why people behave as they do goes a long way to averting misunderstandings and promoting compassion. If you can laugh about your disparate ‘habits of attention’ and find ways to productively interact with any psychologically-healthy individual, no matter how different your ‘styles’ of reaction and expression may be, this kind of empathy can seal a business deal, cement a friendship, sensitively shape your parenting style and foment your most intimate relationships.

Margaret Cochran is a transpersonal psychologist and licensed social worker with more than 30 years of clinical experience. She has a joint-practice with her partner, medical doctor David J. Waggoner, MD, at the Saratoga Family Health Center, where she takes a whole-person approach to mental health and wellness.

She is also the host of two radio shows: Wisdom, Love and Magic and A Mental Health Moment. This is her second column for Soul’s Code.

BY DAVID RICKEY —Einstein said that the level of consciousness that created a particular problem cannot solve the said problem.

A hot new book by sociobiologist Rebecca Costa, The Watchman’s Rattle: Thinking our way out of extinction, illustrates Einstein’s point by documenting how our rate of social and technical change is out-stripping evolution.

Look at the economy: we have developed complex computer programs that can trade stocks in milliseconds. We have developed virtual ways of making money, and created a subculture of the super-rich. At the same time, we have  had a largely negative impact on the planet.

When we human beings come now to confront these problems, we resort to ideologies rather than reach into the most evolved recesses of our brains to solve them. Without working on our thought patterns, we will continue to fail at finding solutions.

Man versus the machine

Costa gives us insight into why this is the case. Our brains have not evolved enough to deal with the complex world in which we now live. How many of us can wrap our minds around even one of the major issues facing the world today? Instead we feel a mixture of bewilderment, frustration and anger.

When this frustration rises, our brains automatically revert to prior belief systems that seemed to work before, but then block us from having insight into more creative solutions.

In North Africa, we see the “Arab Spring”: people beginning to rise up against the governments that oppress them. But many are asking why that isn’t happening in the more developed countries.

The Tea Party, for example, is merely an attempt to push an old ideology as a reflex to a time of fear and loathing.

Civilization’s most vital organ

Canadian psychiatrist Norman Doidge, who wrote The Brain That Changes Itself, has proven that we are capable of rewiring our own minds. Through concentrated effort — meditation, for example — we can change the pathways and the way we think.

Costa suggests that we can work to develop a higher capacity of insight and ability, and discover new solutions. This takes effort and courage. It requires the ability to risk letting go of the familiar.

This is not the ego’s strong suit. Indeed we can trace much of the problems of this complex world to the ego being unwilling to consider solutions that are not observably self-serving.

A universe coded with intentention

But here’s another area of hope. As Robert Wright points out in The Evolution Of God, there seems to be much evidence of an intentionality in the universe toward insight that is directed by human “self-interest.” By looking at the larger picture, we discover that it is in our best interest to care about others’ well-being, and the well-being of our planet. Even the pain of our present predicaments may be (and I believe are) the way the Universe is pushing us toward more egalitarian solutions.

Evolution is painfully slow. But we can speed up the pace by working on our brains, literally doing brain exercises and consciously choosing to step back and observe the larger picture. Indeed, if the Wisdom of the Universe is behind all this, then we have an amazing ally for this process.

So instead of feeling overwhelmed by present events, it may be much more beneficial to see them as encouraging signs of support for the work we are here to do.

David Rickey is an Episcopal priest, Soul’s Code co-founder and counselor in San Francisco who does a weekly ministry at a residence for the elderly in northern California. Follow David on Twitter.