Ken Wilber

1. Beige: Arhcaic-Instinctual.  The level of basic survival; food, water, warmth, sex, and safety have priority. Uses habits and instincts just to survive. Distinct self is barely awakened or sustained. Forms into survival bands to perpetuate life.

"Where seen: First human societies, newborn infants, senile elderly, late-stage Alzheimer's patients, mentally ill street people, starving masses, the shell-shocked. Approximately 0% of the adult population, 0% power."

"That's you, twit."
"Thanks, Kim."

"2. Purple: Magical-Animistic.  Thinking is animistic; magical spirits, good and bad, swarm the earth, leaving blessings, curses, and spells that determine events. Forms into ethnic tribes. The spirits exist in ancestors and bond the tribe. Kinship and lineage establish political links. Sounds `holistic' but is actually atomistic: as Graves pointed out, `There is a name for each bend in the river but no name for the river.'

"Where seen: Belief in voodoo-like curses, blood oaths, ancient grudges, good-luck charms, family rituals, magical beliefs and superstitions; strong in Third World settings, gangs, athletic teams, and corporate `tribes'; also magical New Age beliefs, crystals, tarot, astrology. 10% of the population, 1%of  the power."

"Hey, Kim, my mom has some of that in her."
"She's New Age, right?"

"Well, sort of."

"There are higher memes in some New Age stuff, but most of it is purple to the core."

"But that's not bad or anything."

"None of this is good or bad," Kim said. "It's just a map of the mental landscape."

"3. Red: Power Gods. Also known as Egocentric. First emergence of a self distinct from the tribe; powerful, impulsive, egocentric, heroic. Mythic spirits, archetypes, dragons, and beasts. Archetypal gods and goddesses, powerful beings, forces to be reckoned with, both good and bad. Feudal lords protect underlings in exchange for obedience and labor. The basis of feudal empires - power and glory. The world is a jungle full of threats and predators. Conquers, outfoxes, and dominates; enjoys self to the fullest without regret or remorse; be here now.

"Where seen: The 'terrible twos,' rebellious youth, frontier mentalities, feudal kingdoms, epic heroes, James Bond villains, soldiers of fortune, wild rock stars, Attila the Hun, Lord of the Flies, mythic involvcment. 20% of the population, 5% of the power."

"Everybody knows somebody who's red-meme," Kim said. "They can be like so fucking obvious. Sometimes they're really heroic, like a test pilot or a fire fighter, but sometimes big, obnoxious, foul, loudmouthed, pushy assholes. This is my dad, sad to say, the total fucking prick bastard." My eyes shot wide open and I gaped at her, startled by the truck-driver language.

"Oh, your dad, too?"

"My dad? Um, no, no, I don't think so. But I don't know what the
other memes look like."

"4. Blue: Mythic Order. Life has meaning, direction, and purpose, with outcomes determined by an all-powerful Other or Order. This rightheous Order enforces a code of conduct based on absolutist and unvarying principles of `right' and `wrong.' Violating the code or rules has severe, perhaps everlasting repercussions. Following the code yields rewards for the faithful. Basis of ancient nations. Rigid social hierarchies; paternalistic; one right way and only one right way to think about everything. Law and order; impulsivity controlled through guilt; concrete-literal and fundamentalist belief; obedience to the rule of Order; strongly conventional and conformist. Often 'religious' in the mythic-fundamentalist sense; Graves and Beck refer to it as the 'saintly/absolutistic' level, which can also be secular or atheistic Order or Mission.

"Where seen: Puritan America, Confucian China, Dickensian England, Singapore discipline, totalitarianism, codes of chivalry and honor, charitable good deeds, religious fundamentalism (e.g., Christian and Islamic), Boy and Girl Scouts, 'moral majority,' patriotism. 40% of the population, 30% of the power."

"Damn Republicans," Kim said.
"What's that?"

"Oh, so many Republicans come from the blue wave. Mark says -
you haven't seen Mark yet - anyway, he says we are supposed to embrace all eight of the waves, and I understand that theoretically, but I gotta tell ya, some of them I just hate. And I hate Republicans. Bluenosed goody-two-shoes who will string you up if you disagree with them."

"Um, right, okay. I'm sure I hate them, too, Kim." Well, my dad hated them, anyway. "But, you know, should we be hating people so early in the seminar? You could use just a little more tolerance, maybe?"

Kim turned and leveled a ferociously cold gaze at me; then smiled.
"Actually, I went to the Los Angeles Museum of Tolerance, but I got in a fight."

She reached out, touched my arm, and gave it a soft, lingering squeeze. Is this a great seminar, or what?

"5. Orange: Scientific Achievement. At this wave, the self escapes from the 'herd mentality' of blue and seeks truth and meaning in individualistic and scientific terms. The world is a rational and well-oiled machine with natural laws that can be learned, mastered, and manipulated for one's own purposes. Highly achievement-oriented, especially (in America) toward materialistic gains. The laws of science rule politics, the economy, and human events. The world is a chessboard on which games are played as winners gain preeminence and perks over losers. Marketplace alliances; manipulate earth's resources for one's strategic gains. Basis of corporate states.

"Where seen: The Enlightenment, Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, Wall Street, emerging middle classes around the world, cosmetics industry, trophy hunting, colonialism, the Cold War, fashion industry, materialism, market capitalism, liberal self-interest. 30% of the population, 50% of the power."

"Nothing wrong with that meme, right, Kim?" This was starting to get a little close to home, because I think I was born with a strong, orange streak in me....

"Nothing wrong with it, Ken, nothing wrong with it. Honestly I
know better - all of the memcs are important, even if some of us have a hard time remembering it." She shrugged and grinned sheepishly. I leaned over to say something to her, but Hazelton had started reading the description of the next wave, and the audience began audibly groaning. As she read, some of the crowd burst into alternating cheers and boos, signaling that Hazelton had apparently hit a very raw nerve.

"Kim, I've never been to a lecture where white people made so much noise."

"Well, the whole point of this serninar is, of course, boomeritis - what it is and what it means. So natch, some of the Boomers get pretty worked up, and eventually some of them started getting really vocal about it. Over the three or four years this seminar has been in existence, it's become a kind of tradition to, well, get fairly noisy about several of the controversial topics. So even some of the Xers and Ys join in, it's pretty funny. And way loud."

"But what's so controversial about the next topic? People are already yelling. The green meme, so what?"

"Oh, Jesus, just vou wait."

"6. Green: The Sensitive Self. Communitarian, human bonding, ecological sensitivity, networking. The human spirit must be freed from greed, dogma, and divisiveness; feelings and caring supersede cold rationality; cherishing of the earth, Gaia, life. Against hierarchy; establishes lateral bonding and linking. Permeable self, relational self, group intermeshing. Emphasis on dialogue, relationships. Basis of  value communities (i.e., freely chosen affiliations based on shared sentiments). Reaches decisions through reconciliation and consensus (downside: interminable 'processing' and incapacity to reach decisions). Refresh spirituality, bring harmony, enrich human potential. Strongly egalitarian, anti-hierarchy, pluralistic values, social construction of society, diversity, multiculturalism, relativistic value systems; this worldview is often called pluralistic relativism. Subjective, nonlinear thinking; shows a greater degree of affective warmth, sensitivity, and caring for earth and all its inhabitants.

"Where seen: Deep ecology, postmodernism, Netherlands idealism,  Rogerian counseling Canadian health care, humanistic psychology, liberation theology, cooperative inquiry, World Council of Churches, Greenpeace, ecopsychology, animal rights, ecofeminism, post-colonialism, Foucault/Derrida, politically correct, diversity movements, human rights issues, multiculturalism. 10% of the population, 15 % of the power."

This was definitely the home of Mom and Dad. Mom had a little purple, too, and Dad a good dose of red, I retroactively decided. But their "center of gravity," as the IC; folks called it, was definitely green.  I started running through all the ways that this explained so much of their behavior, but then Hazelton quickly moved to the topic that had first caught my attention. Her next words were galvanizing.

"With the completion of the green meme, human consciousness is poised for a quantum leap into 'second-tier thinking.' Clare Graves referred to this as a 'momentous leap,' where 'a chasm of unbelievable depth of meaning is crossed.' And people, I cannot tell you how much this changes everything."

Hazelton paused, waiting for each of her words to sink in. She smiled and continued slowly, solemnly, a bit ominously. "The full impact of this will become more obvious as we proceed. But let me start by giving you a few brief details. In essence, with second-tier consciousness, you can, for the first time, vividly grasp the entire spiral of development. You can therefore understand that each level, each meme, each wave, is crucially important for the health of the overall spiral, and thus each is to be cherished and embraced. Very simply, with second-tier awareness, you can see the big picture-and the entire world suddenly appears in a new, vivid, startling light."

Hazelton gazed out at the audience. "It's important to realize that each and every individual has all o f these memes potentially available to them. As Beck puts it, 'The focus is not on types o f people, but types in people.' Thus, each wave can itself be activated as life conditions warrant. In emergency situations, we can activate red power drives; in response to chaos, we might need to activate blue order; in looking for a new job, we might need orange achievement drives; in marriage and with friends, close green bonding.

"But what none of the first-tier memes can do is fully appreciate tbc existence of the other memes. Each of the first-tier memes thinks that its worldview is the only true perspective. It reacts negatively if challenged;  it lashes out, using its own tools, whenever it is threatened. Blue order is very uncomfortable with both red impulsiveness and orange individualism. Orange individualism thinks blue order is for suckers and green egalitarianism is weak and woo-woo. Green egalitarianism cannot easily abide excellence and value rankings, big pictures, hierarchies, or anything that appears authoritarian, and thus green tends to lash out at blue, orange, and anything post-green. Folks, let me put it
bluntly: any first-tier meme will prevent world peace."

It was a jolting thought; I stiffened in my seat. Kim looked at me.

Hazelton's voice began to rise, becoming clear, insistent, the space around her imperceptibly warping. "All of that begins to change with second-tier thinking. Because second-tier consciousness is fully aware of the interior stages of development, it steps back and grasps the big picture, and thus second-tier thinking appreciates the necessary role that all of the various memes play. Second-tier awareness thinks in terms of the overall spiral of existence, and not merely in terms of any one meme. And thus, with second-tier consciousness, the world begins to make sense, to come together as a whole, to hang together for the first time. Operating from second-tier consciousness, the possibility of genuine peace opens invitingly on the horizon."

....

Hazeltone looked around. "Where the green meme - the highest of the first-tier memes - begins to grasp the rich diversity and wonderful pluralism of  different cultures, second-tier thinking goes one step further. It looks for the unions that link and join these different cultures, and thus it takes these separate systems and begins to embrace, include, and integrate them into holistic spirals and integral meshworks.

Second-tier thinking, in other words, is instrumental in moving from pluralism to integralism. Those are big words, yes? pluralism and integralism? Don't worry, you'll get them." She paused and again smiled.

"The extensive research of Graves, Beck, and Cowan indicates that there are at least two major waves to this second-tier consciousness."

"This is the famous leap into hyperspace," Kim said, punching her words. "You know about that?"

"The leap into hyperspace. That's sort of what I'm here for, or kind of, I think I heard that earlier, that is, earlier than now, which is what earlier usually means, unless it's later than that, which of course it isn't, unless it is, but you probably already knew that, so let me sum up . . ."

Kim stared at me, barely concealing a grin. "Who's the airhead, Ken um Wilber?"

"7. Yellow: Integrative. Life is a kaleidoscope of interrelated, flowing systems. Flexibility, spontaneity, and functionality have the highest priority. Differences and pluralities can be integrated into interdependent, natural flows. Egalitarianism is comple- mented with natural degrees of excellence, qualitative distinctions and judgments. Knowledge and competency should supersede power, status, or group. The prevailing world order is the result of the existence of different levels o f reality (or memes) and the inevitable patterns of movement up and down the dynamic Spiral. Good governance facilitates the emergence of entities through the levels of increasing complexity (nested hierarchy). 1% of the population, 5 % of the power.

"8. Turquoise: Holistic. Universal holistic system, waves of integrative energies; unites feeling with knowledge; multiple levels interwoven into one conscious system; the basis of extensive wholeness. Universal order, but in a living, conscious fashion, not based on external rules (blue) or group bonds (green). A 'grand unification' or big picture is possible, in theory and in actuality. Sometimes involves the emergence of a new spirituality as a meshwork of all existence.

Turquoise thinking is fully integral and uses the entire Spiral; sees multiple levels of interaction; detects harmonics, the mystical forces, and the pervasive flow-states that permeate any organizaticm. 0.1 % of the population, 1 %, of the power."

"Jesus, Kim, only 2 percent of the population is at second-tier? Are we fucked or are we fucked?"

"We're fucked."