Matter, Body, Mind, Soul and Spirit
If we try to simplify the developmental and evolutional perspective of ourselves and our society, it seems that we encounter the so-called three or four levels of categorization. I am not sure if such categorization is derived from the limitation of our perception or else might be related to some kind of archetypical commonalities. In my understanding so far, it may be more related to the biological limitation of our perception.
One of the similar cases is that maximum sequence of number we can memorize at glance is at most 7 or 8 digits. As well-known, this is because of the biological capacity of short term memory of our brain. Although it may be possible to expand the number of digits by our intentional training, it seems that 7 or 8 digits are a default set up of our short term memory and its variance to be expanded can not be beyond additional 20% of such default setting. We can never memorize 20 digits of number unless we use a memory technique such as visual association or until a certain significant evolutional change happens in our brain.
In the macro level such as community, it is said that the maximum number of the members in a small scale (as far as the member's immediate interaction is concerned) community is approximately 150. It is also said that this is the maximum number of tribal membership throughout the world regardless of race, ethnicity, and environments, etc. If the number of the members exceeds around 150, then such a tribal community has to be divided into two tribal communities. It is because we humans do not have such kind of biological capability or system that can maintain and manage the small scale community of which members are more than 150. Thus, when and if we humans need a larger scale of community to bundle several tribal communities, then a sort of external system (aside from our default set up) should be invented, which is called institutionalization.
If I use the terms of Spiral Dynamics, then it is a leap from the Purple Meme community to the Red or Blue Meme community. In the Purple Meme a tribal community was just an extension of kinship and/or family oriented gathering. In the level of Red or Blue Meme, however, to make the large scale community or society, a certain qualitative change was necessary. In other words, a certain external system was required to maintain such large scale community. In the Red Meme, such external system was the existence of a charismatic leader and in the Blue Meme; it was the so-called transcendental idea or ideology that can control the value of all members and that is regarded as the beginning of the world religions (please see the section of Life Condition for Spiral Dynamics).
Going back to the three or four categorization, what I would like to discuss here is that such categories are represented as pre-modern / modern / post-modern; pre-personal / personal / transpersonal; pre-rational / rational / trans-rational; and lastly, matter / body / mind / soul / spirit. Although there are much more similar kinds of categories that can explain the same developmental, evolutional aspect of human consciousness (micro) and society (macro), to make the discussion simpler I just limit the examples to the abovementioned.
Incidentally, in my understanding Spiral Dynamics is one of the attempts to embrace those categorizes in a specific spiral color-coded lines (Again please see the section of Life Condition for the further details). Here what is interesting is such three or four categories can show a brief basic line of our micro / macro developmental and evolutional lines (though there are the differences among lines, stages, states, levels, etc. we do not discuss such details here).
For example, pre-modern is the paradigm when our collective consciousness was so-called magico-mythical membership. That is to say, we understand the world based on the magical, superstitious and mythical interpretations. In this pre-modern paradigm our worldview consists of such interpretations. This is why, so-called pre-modern people are superstitious, and the magic sorcerers and shamans have a certain authority to understand the worldly phenomena.
But first of all, why do we need to understand the world? It is because we have our consciousness in which we know we stand and face the world. Unlike animals and babies, the clear self-consciousness is the very trigger to let us interpret what is called "things around us" as if we have been separated from the world (despite the fact that we are part of the world). The "things around us" of course include such question as "where or who is God?" Then in such primary stage of pre-modern paradigm, our understanding and interpretation inevitably have to be magico-mythical.
Thus, as you notice, the individual version of such pre-modern paradigm or the micro level of pre-modern paradigm is what is called pre-personal. More correctly speaking, the level of pre-personal is a bit lower than the pre-modern paradigm. For, the people of the pre-modern paradigm have at least their clear self-consciousness by which they tried to understand and interpret the world and "things around them" including God magico-mythically. On the other hand, the pre-personal level is more similar to the unconscious level of animals and babies. In short, pre-personal means unconsciousness. Since the pre-personal people do not have their clear self-consciousness and actually they are "unconsciously" part of the world just like animals, they do not see they are facing the world, and they do not ask such a question as "where or who is God?" for, God is still part of them unconsciously just like animals.
Only in the personal level, people begin to have their self-consciousness in which they see they are separated from the world in such way that they see themselves in their consciousness, which is the beginning of ego -- the double edged swords of our existence. Why? Because of ego, we could wake up and leave the animal-like unconscious state; because of ego, we have started searching for God "outside of us"; because of ego (or self-consciousness) we have the concept of time that gives us a number of sufferings such as regrets, traumas, self-pity, prides, shames, worries, fears, and the fear of death. And because of ego, we have had our civilizations and cultures in which "everything around us" including ourselves has been articulated in one way or another.
In the pre-modern paradigm the typical articulation is magico-mythical. And in the modern paradigm because of ego we could achieve the unprecedented material prosperity and individual worldly freedom. The typical articulation of the modern paradigm is science and technology -- rational, logical, objective way of understanding and interpreting the world, things around us, and ourselves.
Thus, we can see a certain parallelism among pre-personal/personal, pre-rational/rational, and pre-modern/modern. But again, as we have seen, there are also some subtle differences among such parallelisms. Using "self-consciousness" as a key term, the differences can be explained as follows:
The pre-personal level is the stage that people are still unconscious as being part of the world just like animals and babies -- they know God unconsciously and instinctively. The personal level is the stage that people can have their clear self-consciousness and in so doing they can have ego; moreover, they can use the sophisticated symbolic systems such as language. In the pre-rational level they already have their self-consciousness but what they have not had yet is the rational-logic way of thinking by which they can overcome the magico-mythical world views, a number of cruel superstitious, religious practices. And the pre-modern paradigm is also similar to this stage. People in the pre-modern paradigm have the very intention to understand and interpret the world and the desire to hold the worldview. But their way of thinking is still pre-rational (just after emerged from the level of pre-personal unconsciousness).
Thus, we can say that a pre-modern society is the community in which people who have just overcome their pre-personal unconscious level are tying to figure out the meaning of the world and/or God in their pre-rational (primitive) way of thinking. And a modern society is the community in which people who have overcome their magico-mythical superstitious practices are trying to figure out the rational-logic, objective-scientific mechanism of the world in disregarding God and anything transcendental.
And in the same manner we can say that a post-modern society is the community in which people have found the limitation of the rational-logic, objective-scientific way of thinking are trying to figure out or rather having been overwhelmed or disillusioned by what is called Truth (modern) and/or God (pre-modern). In the level of post-modern, trans-rational, and transpersonal, people are aware of the limitation of modernity, rationality, and personality (ego-oriented life). Thus, some are trying to go back to the magico-mythical worldview to indulge themselves with their individual truthfulness (beauty) and even pre-personal primitiveness (narcissism) or putting themselves in the radical relativism that leads them to nihilism.
Actually this is called the sickness of post-modernity or using the Spiral Dynamics term it is called Mean Green Meme. The challenge or Life Condition of this post-modern, trans-rational, and transpersonal level is whether or not people in this level could really overcome or find out the true "post" modernity, true "trans" rationality, and true "trans" personality. It seems that they have not found these true levels and paradigms yet. Rather, it seems that they (or we) have been struggling with such pseudo-trans/post stages. This is why; in the beginning I did not say just "three" categories but the three or "four" categories.
In my opinion, what we need is to find out such "fourth" level, which is indicated as the Second Tier in the Spiral Dynamics term. I think another remaining category such as matter / body / mind / soul / spirit might be an important clue in considering such fourth level or Second Tier. Using the same parallelism, "Matter" is the world of minerals, "Body" is the world of animals and unconscious, instinctive, primitive, superstitious humans, that is the level of pre-rational / pre-personal / pre-modern, "Mind" is the world of rational-logic, ego-oriented consciousness, that is the level of rational / personal / modern, and "Soul" is the world of ecological romanticism, that is the level of trans-rational / transpersonal / postmodern. Thus, the level of "Spirit," in the sense that this can integrate the whole lower levels, may imply the true approach to the Second Tier -- the implication of the fourth category, or the fifth category if we include the level of "Matter."
One of the similar cases is that maximum sequence of number we can memorize at glance is at most 7 or 8 digits. As well-known, this is because of the biological capacity of short term memory of our brain. Although it may be possible to expand the number of digits by our intentional training, it seems that 7 or 8 digits are a default set up of our short term memory and its variance to be expanded can not be beyond additional 20% of such default setting. We can never memorize 20 digits of number unless we use a memory technique such as visual association or until a certain significant evolutional change happens in our brain.
In the macro level such as community, it is said that the maximum number of the members in a small scale (as far as the member's immediate interaction is concerned) community is approximately 150. It is also said that this is the maximum number of tribal membership throughout the world regardless of race, ethnicity, and environments, etc. If the number of the members exceeds around 150, then such a tribal community has to be divided into two tribal communities. It is because we humans do not have such kind of biological capability or system that can maintain and manage the small scale community of which members are more than 150. Thus, when and if we humans need a larger scale of community to bundle several tribal communities, then a sort of external system (aside from our default set up) should be invented, which is called institutionalization.
If I use the terms of Spiral Dynamics, then it is a leap from the Purple Meme community to the Red or Blue Meme community. In the Purple Meme a tribal community was just an extension of kinship and/or family oriented gathering. In the level of Red or Blue Meme, however, to make the large scale community or society, a certain qualitative change was necessary. In other words, a certain external system was required to maintain such large scale community. In the Red Meme, such external system was the existence of a charismatic leader and in the Blue Meme; it was the so-called transcendental idea or ideology that can control the value of all members and that is regarded as the beginning of the world religions (please see the section of Life Condition for Spiral Dynamics).
Going back to the three or four categorization, what I would like to discuss here is that such categories are represented as pre-modern / modern / post-modern; pre-personal / personal / transpersonal; pre-rational / rational / trans-rational; and lastly, matter / body / mind / soul / spirit. Although there are much more similar kinds of categories that can explain the same developmental, evolutional aspect of human consciousness (micro) and society (macro), to make the discussion simpler I just limit the examples to the abovementioned.
Incidentally, in my understanding Spiral Dynamics is one of the attempts to embrace those categorizes in a specific spiral color-coded lines (Again please see the section of Life Condition for the further details). Here what is interesting is such three or four categories can show a brief basic line of our micro / macro developmental and evolutional lines (though there are the differences among lines, stages, states, levels, etc. we do not discuss such details here).
For example, pre-modern is the paradigm when our collective consciousness was so-called magico-mythical membership. That is to say, we understand the world based on the magical, superstitious and mythical interpretations. In this pre-modern paradigm our worldview consists of such interpretations. This is why, so-called pre-modern people are superstitious, and the magic sorcerers and shamans have a certain authority to understand the worldly phenomena.
But first of all, why do we need to understand the world? It is because we have our consciousness in which we know we stand and face the world. Unlike animals and babies, the clear self-consciousness is the very trigger to let us interpret what is called "things around us" as if we have been separated from the world (despite the fact that we are part of the world). The "things around us" of course include such question as "where or who is God?" Then in such primary stage of pre-modern paradigm, our understanding and interpretation inevitably have to be magico-mythical.
Thus, as you notice, the individual version of such pre-modern paradigm or the micro level of pre-modern paradigm is what is called pre-personal. More correctly speaking, the level of pre-personal is a bit lower than the pre-modern paradigm. For, the people of the pre-modern paradigm have at least their clear self-consciousness by which they tried to understand and interpret the world and "things around them" including God magico-mythically. On the other hand, the pre-personal level is more similar to the unconscious level of animals and babies. In short, pre-personal means unconsciousness. Since the pre-personal people do not have their clear self-consciousness and actually they are "unconsciously" part of the world just like animals, they do not see they are facing the world, and they do not ask such a question as "where or who is God?" for, God is still part of them unconsciously just like animals.
Only in the personal level, people begin to have their self-consciousness in which they see they are separated from the world in such way that they see themselves in their consciousness, which is the beginning of ego -- the double edged swords of our existence. Why? Because of ego, we could wake up and leave the animal-like unconscious state; because of ego, we have started searching for God "outside of us"; because of ego (or self-consciousness) we have the concept of time that gives us a number of sufferings such as regrets, traumas, self-pity, prides, shames, worries, fears, and the fear of death. And because of ego, we have had our civilizations and cultures in which "everything around us" including ourselves has been articulated in one way or another.
In the pre-modern paradigm the typical articulation is magico-mythical. And in the modern paradigm because of ego we could achieve the unprecedented material prosperity and individual worldly freedom. The typical articulation of the modern paradigm is science and technology -- rational, logical, objective way of understanding and interpreting the world, things around us, and ourselves.
Thus, we can see a certain parallelism among pre-personal/personal, pre-rational/rational, and pre-modern/modern. But again, as we have seen, there are also some subtle differences among such parallelisms. Using "self-consciousness" as a key term, the differences can be explained as follows:
The pre-personal level is the stage that people are still unconscious as being part of the world just like animals and babies -- they know God unconsciously and instinctively. The personal level is the stage that people can have their clear self-consciousness and in so doing they can have ego; moreover, they can use the sophisticated symbolic systems such as language. In the pre-rational level they already have their self-consciousness but what they have not had yet is the rational-logic way of thinking by which they can overcome the magico-mythical world views, a number of cruel superstitious, religious practices. And the pre-modern paradigm is also similar to this stage. People in the pre-modern paradigm have the very intention to understand and interpret the world and the desire to hold the worldview. But their way of thinking is still pre-rational (just after emerged from the level of pre-personal unconsciousness).
Thus, we can say that a pre-modern society is the community in which people who have just overcome their pre-personal unconscious level are tying to figure out the meaning of the world and/or God in their pre-rational (primitive) way of thinking. And a modern society is the community in which people who have overcome their magico-mythical superstitious practices are trying to figure out the rational-logic, objective-scientific mechanism of the world in disregarding God and anything transcendental.
And in the same manner we can say that a post-modern society is the community in which people have found the limitation of the rational-logic, objective-scientific way of thinking are trying to figure out or rather having been overwhelmed or disillusioned by what is called Truth (modern) and/or God (pre-modern). In the level of post-modern, trans-rational, and transpersonal, people are aware of the limitation of modernity, rationality, and personality (ego-oriented life). Thus, some are trying to go back to the magico-mythical worldview to indulge themselves with their individual truthfulness (beauty) and even pre-personal primitiveness (narcissism) or putting themselves in the radical relativism that leads them to nihilism.
Actually this is called the sickness of post-modernity or using the Spiral Dynamics term it is called Mean Green Meme. The challenge or Life Condition of this post-modern, trans-rational, and transpersonal level is whether or not people in this level could really overcome or find out the true "post" modernity, true "trans" rationality, and true "trans" personality. It seems that they have not found these true levels and paradigms yet. Rather, it seems that they (or we) have been struggling with such pseudo-trans/post stages. This is why; in the beginning I did not say just "three" categories but the three or "four" categories.
In my opinion, what we need is to find out such "fourth" level, which is indicated as the Second Tier in the Spiral Dynamics term. I think another remaining category such as matter / body / mind / soul / spirit might be an important clue in considering such fourth level or Second Tier. Using the same parallelism, "Matter" is the world of minerals, "Body" is the world of animals and unconscious, instinctive, primitive, superstitious humans, that is the level of pre-rational / pre-personal / pre-modern, "Mind" is the world of rational-logic, ego-oriented consciousness, that is the level of rational / personal / modern, and "Soul" is the world of ecological romanticism, that is the level of trans-rational / transpersonal / postmodern. Thus, the level of "Spirit," in the sense that this can integrate the whole lower levels, may imply the true approach to the Second Tier -- the implication of the fourth category, or the fifth category if we include the level of "Matter."
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