An Introduction to Spiral Dynamics
What is Spiral Dynamics?
Spiral dynamics models society's values and world views based on the original work of psychologist Clare W. Graves. Each stage on the spiral alternates between society evolving collectively and individually as it orders itself at higher levels of organization and complexity.
Spiral Dynamics describes how value systems and worldviews emerge from the interaction of "life conditions" and the mind's capacities. The emphasis on life conditions as essential to the progression through value systems is unusual among similar theories, and leads to the view that no level is inherently positive or negative, but rather is a response to the local environment.
Through these value systems, groups and cultures structure their societies and individuals integrate within them. Each distinct set of values is developed as a response to solving the problems of the previous system. Changes between states may occur incrementally (first-order change) or in a sudden breakthrough (second-order change). The value systems develop in a specific order, and the most important question when considering the value system being expressed in a particular behavior is why the behavior occurs
Spiral Dynamics is a roadmap of how human beings and human cultures evolve through different stages of consciousness. Self-reflection and/or consciousness work leads to higher and higher levels on the spiral.
The first six levels are “subsistence levels” marked by “first-tier thinking.” Then there occurs a revolutionary shift in consciousness: the emergence of “being levels” and “second-tier thinking,” of which there are two major waves. -Ken Wilber
Why is spiral dynamics important?
It’s important to know because you live your entire life based on your worldview and values.
The higher you go on the spiral your circle of concern for others expands and ego becomes less. Lower stages have lower levels of consciousness and are more animalistic. Higher levels on the spiral have higher cognitive, moral, and spiritual development.
Each stage allows you to take on more perspectives.
Spiral Dynamics is good for self-reflection and helps you understand yourself and others.
It’s good for business as you can see how society is evolving and know how people think and what they value.
You’ll know the reasons why societies fight and go to war.
Note/Disclaimer
By no means will this be a full analysis as Spiral Dynamics is too complex. I will be generalizing. E.g. Different stages can be logical or spiritual in their own way.
Pictures give a general impression of each stage.
People are a mix of different stages but have a center of gravity.
No stage is bad as they are all necessary but there are unhealthy excesses of each stage.
This is a model. No one model is perfect to explain reality.
Some people are born into some stages of the spiral and need to integrate other colors. Lower stages are not necessarily bad. Also “higher” stages can’t exist without the lower ones.
As you and society evolve it’s important to not dismiss low stages but integrate the healthy aspects and move up.
To be practical I’ll be leaving the stage Beige out as it’s too basic.
Purple
Values:
The tribe or clan. Family
Group activities over material things
The spirits
Respects elders and their wisdom
Scared places and things such as relics and heirlooms
Magical powers
Warding off evil spirits and cursing enemies
Mother nature
Maintaining ancestral and tribal memory
Myths and sharing stories.
Collective
Examples: Native Americans, African tribes, Japanese Shinto, The Ainu, Hawaiian culture, Indian culture, Arab culture Shaman, Herbal medicine, Ayahuasca, Witchcraft, Vision quests, Knocking on wood, Superstitions, black cats, Secret handshakes, Halloween, Paganism, Face paint, Dowries, Small company work environment, The 4 Agreements, The Alchemist
I won’t go into a lot of detail with this one but it’s important to see where we came from to understand the big picture.
Ancient civilizations were seen as less developed but had a lot of wisdom.
In purple, your survival was dependent on the tribe. There was no sense of being your own person or individual. You were the tribe.
At this stage, people made sense of the world through stories, magical thinking, spirits, and observing rituals.
There was no concept of culture because tribal rituals and knowledge was life or reality itself.
No “scientific logic” existed yet. If a rain dance brought rain it was thought it was because of the ritual.
Once survival became easier and as tribes would force traditions onto the people to maintain order and prevent change, the individual broke free transcending to stage red.
Red
Values:
Power. Domination. Winning at all costs.
Thrill of conquest
Showing toughness
Intimidation and manipulation
Respect ( Receiving)
Pride and bragging
Warrior mentality
Breaking society's rules and finding loopholes
Decisiveness
Solving issues with brute force
Individual
Examples: Alexander the Great, The Mafia, The Japanese Yakuza, The Sith from Star Wars, Saddam Hussein, Rome, Iraq, The Middle East, North Korea, Stalin, Hitler, Donald Trump, Criminals, Spartans, Genghis Khan, Prison culture, Drug addicts, Wild rock stars, Psychopaths, Terrorists, Toxic masculinity, Monarchs, Joffery from Game of Thrones, Cruel punishment, Aztec human sacrifice, Bullies, The Wild West, Crucifixion, Rambo, Terminator, Dan Pena, The Black Panthers, KKK, MMA, Mike Tyson in his prime, Connor McGregor, The hood, Dog fighting, Slap contests, Grand Theft Auto game, Old Testament, Machiavelli, Patrick Bateman in American Psycho, Lord of the flies, Rebellious youth, Terrible twos, Fight Club, The Salamanca’s, Saul Goodman and Heisenberg from Breaking Bad.
The world was still chaotic at this stage. It was survival of the fittest as resources were still scarce and there was a lot of warfare. People at stage red seek to dominate and conquer others. The masses were led by strong leadership.
Red can be seen as power-hungry, criminal, or even animalistic to higher levels on the spiral but it's just what survival was like given certain life conditions and places of the world given certain environments.
Society was undeveloped without effective court systems and human rights. Police were even corrupt.
Because of that, red doesn't have the luxury of compassion and caring for others so it will do whatever it needs to survive whether that’s being exploitative, blaming others, using force, fear, or intimation to rule.
Red justifies its exploitative behavior because it thinks others will do as they do, so it gets to them first become they get them.
Red cares about the immediate gratification of its desires and doesn't think deeply about the consequences of its actions due to its impulsive behavior.
It likes to live for tomorrow and deals with problems as they come.
Red transcends to blue when life becomes too chaotic. Suffering leads to seeking a higher power (religion). It realizes it can't just use force and violence to create higher levels of order.
Blue
Values:
Truth cannot be questioned
Family
Hard work and discipline
Morals. Good and evil exist.
Conformity
Belief and certainty
Values own culture and tradition.
National identity. Patriotism, Nationalism, and superiority
Justice, loyalty, and honor. Manners and etiquette
Law and Order
Serving God.
Hierarchy
Living with meaning and great purpose
Collective
Examples: Crusades, Firemen, Religion, The Jedi from Star Wars, Blue Collar Workers, Japanese Samurai, Medieval Europe, American South, Indian Caste System, Islamic Fundamentalism, Religious conservatives, The US 2nd Amendment, Mormonism, Banning Abortion, Building the Wall, Anti-Immigration, Witch Trials, White Supremacy, The Ten Commandments, Amish, Samurai Code, Kamikaze pilots, Fox News, Mandatory Military Service, Military Families, Nationalism, Standing for the National Anthem, Communist China, Imperial Japan, Nazi Germany, Maoist China, Wars on Drugs, Ben Shapiro, Bill O`Reilly, Hitler, John McCain, The Confederate Flag, Segregation, Homosexual and pedophile mistreatment, Prayer in School
At this stage religion to the masses kept many people from killing each other restoring order. Blue isn’t selfish like red. People now have a sense of purpose and meaning in life. With religion, people were given certainty about life and direction on how to live.
Blue values being a good citizen, following the rules, and serving God. It values family tradition and being a patriot.
Big civilizations form at this stage and law and order is needed to manage such large groups of people. The rules and laws of society at this stage are absolute. Morality is black and white.
This black and white thinking was important for this time in history because the same ideology and religion were needed to unify the masses through conformity.
Blue thinks with tradition, hierarchy, social order, and the status quo there is no need to innovate or be progressive. Traditions must be preserved. Values, patriarchy, and gender roles are defined. Blue believes that if these things are taken away civilization will collapse. The existing order is seen as good and must be enforced to prevent chaos. In its excess blue can deny science and reason.
Although people were united regionally, outsiders were seen as enemies. Blue sees itself as civilized and others as barbaric and pagans that are below them.
This created nationalism with people thinking their culture and society are the best.
Many world horrors were committed with stage blue thinking. Such as the Spanish inquisition, the Holocaust, and witch trials. Heretics who questioned religion were punished or killed because it disrupted society or the status quo.
Other civilizations are demonized and certain people are depicted as demons or devils through propaganda. Nazis are evil and during WW2 propaganda posters drew other country people as demons.
When it comes to spirituality, blue believes that Truth is written in a book and conforms to it. It believes there is only one interpretation of its teachings and thinks its religion is the best. Blue acts morally to get the benefits of the afterlife.
Blue idol worships the map over the territory. Idols and prophets such as Jesus or the Buddha are praised rather than the abstract things they taught. Heaven and Hell are real physical places to blue.
Blue justifies evil with scripture. Blue can even use scriptures unconsciously to justify its egoic fears. Blue has a low tolerance for xenophobia and sinners. It can dehumanize people such as pedophiles.
Blue believes God is on its side blessing its “holy war.” Justice will come to the wicked.
Questioning the authority of religion and seeking independence from groupthink and oppression leads to orange.
Orange
Values:
Materialism and Money. Living the “Good Life”
Goals and achievement. Self improvement. Entrepreneurship
Action taking and results
Science- Logic, Rationality, IQ. Hard sciences. Scientific studies backed by authorities
Knowledge and facts
Atheism/Agnosticism
Capitalism. Consumerism. Mass market
Physical appearance
Competition
Marketing and Sales. Branding
Technology
Personal Independence and freedom
Productivity and progress
Individual
Examples: Gordon Gekko, Elon Musk, Tai Lopez, Modern Science, Arnold Schwarzenegger, America, Capitalism, Big Pharma, Wall Street, Warren Buffet, Steven Hawking, Western Medicine and Science, Monopolies, Republicans, Brian Tracy, Tony Robbins, Richard Dawkins, Day trading, MLM (Multi level marketing), Forex, Dot.com bubble, 2008 Financial collapse, Japanese Karoshi (Death from overworking) Micro transaction in video games, Crunch time in the video game making industry, Alpha male/ Bro culture, Red PillEnvironmental destruction for profits, Fast Fashion, Milking a brand name dry for profits ( Disney on Star Wars) Sigmund Freud, Simulation Theory, Howard Stern ( Radio Profanity), Success coaches, The US founding fathers, Private jets, Fast food. Modern marketing, Ivy league universities, Meditation( for non-spiritual reasons), South Park, Family Guy, Rick and Morty
Thinking of the United States can give you a good impression of what this stage is about.
Whereas blue focused on living life to have a good afterlife orange focuses on individual success. People are motivated by material rewards and competition improves productivity and individual growth. Orange believes that if it has enough money, material things, or accomplished goals it can be happy. It’s more mellow compared to red. Red had a win by any means thinking, orange is more reasonable.
Thinking logically and rationally becomes the new way to make sense of the world. Feelings don’t matter as much as facts and modern science. Anything that can be quantified or formulated has value.
As religion is dropped atheism and agnosticism take hold. Magic, intuition, God, and life itself can be explained with cold hard facts.
Orange wants to live the good life creating the rise of the entrepreneur and big company monopolies like Amazon through capitalism. It sees capitalism as the best way rejecting communism and gives off an alpha male/ macho demeanor.
Orange isn’t absolute in the sense of blue as it considers multiple perspectives but settles on one perspective as the best in the end.
People and society move out of orange when they realize material things don't bring happiness leading to stress from competition and rat race burnout. Life becomes mechanical.
Excessive orange leads to products that lack soul when they are pumped out for profit or money grabs, hurting the environment, animal abuse, factory farming, and monopolies.
After orange there is a shift back to the community creating a new connection to spirituality at stage green.
Green
Values:
Love. Peace. Compassion
Equality. Diversity
Environment
Activism and protesting
Anti-materialism and anti-greed
Health food
Spirituality
Psychedelics
Femininity
Socialism
Intuition and feeling over logical thinking
Collective
Examples: Bob Marley, Jane Goodall, Occupy Wall Street Protests, Hippies, Vegans, Liberals, Russel Brand, Bernie Sanders, Socialism, CNN News, Spiritual meetups, Burning Man, LGBT Rights, Political Correctness, Abortion Right, The Me Too Movement, Gender Pronouns, Feminism, Organic Food, Recycling, Global Warming, 1960`s culture (Counter to stage Blue), psychedelics, Trader Joes, Western Yoga, Green Smoothies, Healing Crystals, Scandinavia, San Francisco, Seattle, Canada, Northern Europe, Google and Apple work culture, The Bill Gates Foundation, Astrology, Numerology, Life Coaching, Minimalism, Natural clothing materials, Human Rights, Assault Weapon Ban, Renewable Energy, Cultural Appropriation, Anti Vaxers (because of metals in Vaccines)
At green people want to get along and feel accepted. Life is not about things but people. Green sees the value of other cultures and people.
Green thinks world peace, sharing, and participating are better than competing. It values responsiveness to feelings and a caring socially responsible community. Green shifts back to spirituality which orange rejected. It reacts to the injustice of blue and orange.
Green cares about the environment. It sees the horrors of orange on the environment and its shallow materialism.
However, Green doesn’t come without its own problems such as…
Being too relative
It thinks love and peace can solve all problems.
It’s not action-originated enough if blue and orange are not fully integrated.
It can create a mob mentality.
Its compassion can be too feminine and not enough masculine compassion.
Green guilt. Failure to live up to ideals.
It doesn't fully understand mystical experiences.
Not hard-core mediation.
People born into Green can feel entitled and not relate to orange or blue.
Too trusting of red and naïve.
It sees purple as ideal and romanticizes it but doesn't realize it doesn’t work on a large-scale.
Green can be a doormat.
It eliminates boundaries too much. E.g. It allows too many Immigrants to be allowed to enter their country.
Too idealistic
Green moves to yellow when it realizes compassion, empathy, and free handouts are not enough and seeks to create systemic solutions.
It realizes it attacked orange and blue too much and that it was too involved in political aspects and didn’t work on itself to have more mystical insights to be truly spiritual. In Yellow, there is a shift back to the individual.
Yellow
Values:
Big picture thinking. Connecting the dots
Pursuit of learning for its own sake.
Nuances
Open-mindedness
Mixing hard and soft sciences. Finding a natural mix of conflicting truths and uncertainties
Grey thinking over black and white thinking
Paradox
Education- Diverse research
Combines models, theories, and ideas
Uncertainty
System thinking. Solutions for the entire spiral. Identifying and Solving the root problems
Taking responsibility- Individually and Collectively
Individual
Examples: Albert Einstein, Abraham Maslow, Eben Pagan, Richard Feynman, Spiral Dynamics, Chaos Theory, Quantum Mechanics, Clare Graves, Ecology, Wikipedia, Ecology, NLP
Yellow is the first stage to become aware that there are other stages below and even above it. The stages below it thought of themselves as the best stage. Yellow realizes viability must be restored to a disordered world endangered by the cumulative effects of the first six systems on the earth’s environment and populations. It’s important to be independent within reason whereas orange didn’t care about its selfish interest causing damage.
There is less dogma at this stage as few ideas are sacred and all are subject to review for more functionality because yellow realizes societal priorities and modes of decision-making will be needed to solve problems that are unique and are arising for the first time in history.
In yellow, there is a flexible adaptation to change through big-picture thinking and holding multiple perspectives even if there are paradoxical whereas orange settles on one perspective being the best applying it across the board. Yellow is more holistic. Yellow has an ethical core not from religion but from life wisdom and big-picture thinking. It cannot be bribed or intimated since it has no compulsion to control. It is less prone to conspiracy theories. It’s difficult to brainwash yellow due to its complex thinking. This can be seen as wishy-washy to orange because of its grey thinking.
Yellow is responsible for how its life affects others. Red and orange would manipulate systems out of selfishness. In orange where logic and reason ruled, yellow sees the limits of things such as rationality, reductionism, pragmatism, materialism, libertarianism, behaviorism, and logical positivism.
Yellow can use rationality and logic but uses them as one of many tools in the toolbox. Yellow doesn’t depend solely on raw IQ, formal education, or logic and reasoning.
Yellow can express anger or hostility but the emotions are intellectually used rather than emotionally driven or manipulatively applied. Status is also not valued but used if demanded by life conditions. It will be gentle or ruthless, a conformist or nonconformist based on factors and overall interests of life itself. Yellow is an adaptable chameleon.
It seeks a variety of interests and will do what it wants regardless of whether it is trendy, popular, or valued by others.
Yellow believes in win-win situations that include the whole spiral for all 3d vs 2d thinking, unlike Orange that believes in a more narrow scope of win-win situations.
It has a soften masculinity that it integrates from green creating a more holistic balance of the masculine and feminine.
Yellow will be open-minded to hear the opinions of all people but not accept theirs as truth.
Since society's problems come from people being at different levels of the spiral yellow can see the other stages where they are and deal with them using complex intelligence and resources by speaking their language and helping them heal to healthy levels.
At the end of yellow, spirituality comes back in among advanced philosopher thinkers and high-order mathematicians. Models of knowledge have run their course. Yellow can forget to connect with people and community. Happiness is not in the mind and through models.
What and How shifts to Why and Who
Turquoise
Values:
Truth
Wisdom
Consciousness
Spirituality and non-duality. Awakening.
Raising the consciousness of humankind
Being over knowing. I Am
Unconditional love. Unity
Healing at all levels: physical, emotional, spiritual
Holism and integration
Big picture thinking beyond models
Global over local perspective
Infinite intelligence
Meditation, yoga, contemplation, self-inquiry
Collective
Examples: Sadhguru, Deepak Chopra, Eckhart Tolle, Ken Wilber, Alan Watts, Dalai Lama, Carl Jung, Akashic Records, Transpersonal Psychology, Astral Projection, Opening the Third Eye, Maya, Pineal Gland, Gaia, Opening Chakras, Mystics, Prophets.
Turquoise gets into the heart of spirituality transcending the logical mind. It brings attention to whole Earth dynamics and macro-level actions
Turquoise values Truth. It doesn’t turn it into an ideology as the other stages do.
Truth is not an ideology or about so-called facts. The ego doesn’t care about facts; it does whatever serves itself for survival. Turquoise understands that truth is traded for what is practical and logic and reason were always cooped by the ego.
Turquoise knows that ego corrupts goodness. The ego’s perception of reality is distorted causing it to suffer and misinterpret worldly problems.
The problems are caused by the level of consciousness that creates them that must include and ascend them.