WorldView
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Introduction to WorldView
WorldView is the perceptual or experiential framework by which individuals “construct,” interpret and make sense of the world. Central to a WorldView is a set of operating assumptions (or beliefs) about what is possible to experience, the nature of experience, the basis of value and what it all means. We call these “operating” assumptions because they are evidenced or indicated by actions and undirected responses. Over time, we become aware of the operating assumptions (of our life), which manifests the possibility they can be changed. The more internal discrimination we experience, the more conscious we become. This increasing sophistication, in response to our experience, generally increases the awareness of our creative nature. We learn what we best contribute, and it flows. In other words, greater consciousness provides greater awareness, more perceptual tools and expanded choices. And as a person’s consciousness grows, they have an ever-deepening connection to Life, Light and Love.
Our WorldView provides a set of beliefs that guide the interpretation of our experiences. It is how we interpret reality to form an accepted framework of inner relationships that simplifies the understanding of our situation. A belief is, essentially, an idea that reinforces our overall sense of safety and security, or makes it easier to deal with what we know. Usually a belief is based on a known experience that has crystallized into a predictable meaning and keeps us from questioning it on a larger level. Beliefs are thoughts we commonly use to reinforce our idea of what should happen in a situation. They prevent us from deepening our understanding beyond what we already know. Beliefs are actually crutches that keep us from examining our reality in each moment. It is useful to notice that many beliefs reflect our past, which we now try to project on the current circumstances (when in fact they may not relate). As we come to realize we can engage current circumstances in the moment, we become more effective at relating to the world.
WORLDVIEW DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
We can map the development of our WorldView on instinctive, emotional, intellectual and intuitive levels. The diagram WorldView Development Process, maps out how we grow on each level. The arrows indicate a named motivating force that takes three stages to complete. At the completion of this process, a circle indicates the primary acceptance of a lesson. For example, on the instinctive level, we are initially motivated by fear, which continues from the Survival to Outer Success stages. We complete this lesson in the Relationship stage, which shows that instinct and fear loses its power (over us). On the emotional level, survival is dependent upon our ability to know who we can trust (which is the primary lesson we learn in the Survival stage, indicated by a circle).
Our unconscious development process supports moving from instinctive to emotional to intellectual to intuitive levels. Each step in our growth requires the foundation of the previous steps, otherwise the lesson is not embodied. We become self-reflective and conscious of the process at the mid-relationship stage. This is signified by a light yellow background on the Inner Success, Personality Integration and World Service stages. Our development is actually based upon how well we develop the tools of our perception. The more we are able to consciously use these perceptual tools (sensations, feelings, emotions, thoughts) in a way that supports our learning process, the faster we evolve. For example, in the Safety and Security stage, we are unconscious of emotions, then become self aware of them when we move into the Relationship stage (where they become self reflective and available).
Each arrow manifests as an increasing faculty to see, experience and respond to changes in our lives. The key shift occurs when we become aware that we have thoughts, but that we are not our thoughts. This is diagrammed on the intellectual level at the Outer Success stage when we ‘are’ our thoughts, which then shifts to becoming self-conscious in the Relationship stage. Finally, in the Inner Success stage, we become self-reflective and understand that our thoughts are just expressions of who we are and not actually who we are. The WorldView Development Process diagram provides a framework for understanding the deeper shifts that occur as we become more conscious.
Our perceptual stage (given our WorldView) represents the context in which we relate to the world of people, ideas and things. It focuses attention on a group of lessons, leading us down a path of natural development that facilitates our growth and allows us to expand our viewpoint. Everyone moves through the stages more or less sequentially. If the lesson is learned, we move on to the next stage. If we do not learn the limits of the stage, and become attached to the lesson, we stop our overall development. Instead, we begin focusing piece by piece on smaller parts of the lesson in order to let go of the attachment. When we become conscious of this process, we can accelerate our growth enormously. It allows us to identify where we may not be accepting ourselves fully, or are operating from a less evolved perceptivity.
WorldView reflects the complexity of the lessons we engage in the universe. The more we see and accept the different WorldView levels of people around us, the more effective we will be in supporting them. Whenever we talk to someone who has a lower worldview than ours, we have to recalibrate what we are saying to the level they are able to engage, or they won’t understand us. It does not matter how many times we try to tell them what they are doing; they cannot hear what we are saying. Sometimes, individuals we love and who love us, can temporarily operate in alignment with us if they are in our presence for a considerable period of time. While they may be able to understand us for this period, when they leave our presence, they start to revert to their previous perceptions. This results in forgetting the details of what occurred (when in our presence).
World View compatibility factors allow us to understand and appreciate where we and others are in our development process. Each of the seven stages reflects a type of lesson or focus that commands our attention. When we can appreciate and accept our own World View, it enables us to see and be present with others in ways that are more comfortable. By identifying where others are, we can speak in a way that honors and meets them. Completion of each stage indicates the degree of self-mastery in a particular area.
WorldView is an experiential framework by which individuals construct, interpret, and make sense of the world. Central to WorldView is a set of operating principles and assumptions of what is possible to experience, the nature of that experience, and the framework through which we learn our lessons. There are seven different WorldView stages that represent 7 levels of lessons within each WorldView stage for a total of 49 WorldView options. Due to the inherent growth aspect of WorldView stages, it is the only hierarchical Compatibility Factor. However, it is critical that we do not use WorldView differences to judge or idealize others. Doing so will limit our growth and Wisdom. Instead we can use a WorldView assessment to guide our understanding of other’s life priorities and to have greater choice about how best to honor, engage and love them in a way in which they can accept our support and feel safe.
Until we understand our WorldView and the lessons we are engaging, we tend to be unconscious about why certain people are attracted to us. Simply stated, we attract others who share a common WorldView. It is with these individuals that we feel the most seen and understood. They are the people most likely to support us in understanding the lessons we are engaging because they are learning the same lessons.As we engage and learn from our life lessons in the various WorldView stages, we expand our scope and power to deal with complexity. This means at higher WorldViews we are able to deal with a wider range of issues because of our increased capacity to engage both similarities and differences. The more we can hold our own space and resolve the paradoxes in our life, the greater we can demonstrate a sense of congruence. Therefore, the greater the WorldView, the more we are integrated and naturally creative. Our ability to accept and love ourselves grows as we master each stage.
Everyone generally moves through the WorldView stages sequentially. However, we can sometimes straddle as many as three different WorldViews simultaneously. We complete a WorldView stage, when we have embodied the lessons in a way that makes us flexible and fluid in those areas. In order of development, the WorldViews are: Survival, Safety & Security, Outer Success, Relationship, Inner Success, Personality Integration, and World Service. It is important to remember that our parents imprinted us with the WorldView levels that they operated at as we were growing up. This often leads us to fall into, when under stress, a lower WorldView than our actual consciousness. This is particularly true when we are around lower WorldView individuals in authority roles on whom we desire to make a good impression.
We naturally begin our development at Survival and we evolve as quickly as we cangiven the circumstances of our environment. Occasionally, as teenagers we find it difficult to surpass our parents’ WorldView level, as it can often feel disrespectful, like a betrayal which can lead to a dramatic reduction of our authentic evolutionary growth. Any attachments we have to staying in stages we have completed, indicates imprinting from our parents. To the degree we release our imprinting, we experiencegreater clarity in our life. It is important to remember that until we have completed a stage we have not mastered that level. As long as we are in any stage, the issues of our lives, especially the most frustrating aspects, will keep focusing on our incomplete lessons.
There is no prescription for growing in WorldView. Some individuals may spend a life time in one or two WorldView stages, while others reach Relationship and beyond. It is common to get stuck in a WorldView stage along the way because: 1) our parents are stuck in one location and we are unconsciously imprinted not to go beyond them; 2) our friends are all operating at a particular level and peer pressure keeps us at that level; and 3) we become attached to the manifestations of a particular stage, reducing our willingness to keep growing. It is also true that sometimes individuals may skip a stage for a while (such as working on relationships before completing Outer Success) or may be operating from two stages at the same time.
Exploring The Value Of Worldview
WorldView is a set of distinctions that allows us to understand and appreciate where an individual is in their development process. Each of the seven stages reflects a type of lesson or focus that commands our attention. The only hierarchical Compatibility Factor is WorldView. The challenge of assimilating one’s WorldView is that we must be most careful not to judge others, but accept them where they are. When we can appreciate and accept our own WorldView it enables us to see and be present with others in ways that are more comfortable.
Since this factor reflects our consciousness we develop it by actively engaging our lessons. These lessons are based upon our perception of Intent, Content and Context. Of these Context is the more important because is supports appropriate responsiveness. Content provides a way of identifying options and possibilities fist by naming them and second by learning how best to respond. Intent is the grounding energy to we need to make things happen. Together we grow in our sophistication and awareness so that difficult problems become easy.
It is important to remember that until we have completed a stage we have not mastered that level. We will know individuals have a lower WorldView because they cannot match, understand or engage the lessons we are working on. We will know the opposite is true when we cannot engage the lessons of others. As long as we are in a stage, the issues of your life, especially the most frustrating aspects, will keep focusing on your incomplete lessons. Individuals who have not reached mid-level Relationship will not be able easily reflect and learn the solutions we highlight in this work. The benefit of becoming more conscious about WorldView is that individuals can accelerate their development by using these guidelines.
Having friends on both sides of the WorldView spectrum best supports growth and evolution. We must also be careful not to mislead ourselves in our assessment of where we are because due to our fears we may not be as conscious as we think we are. The higher WorldView we have, the more forgiving and flexible we are in meeting others where they are. We are also able to see differences in others without judgment and we are not attached to their challenges.
We also grow best by choosing partners, business associates and friends with the same WorldView. Completion of each stage indicates the degree of self-mastery in a particular area. The more stages we complete the greater flexibility we possess. Our ability to accept ourselves grows as we master each stage, increasing our capacity to deal with ambiguity, paradox and complexity. On the other hand, when you use these consciousness skills with individuals not in higher World View you confuse and make it difficult for them to respond.
There are seven WorldViews and seven levels within each. Each WorldView stage has a different focus and orientation to others and their lessons. These steps are successive and indicate an increasing ability to deal with challenges. As individuals master each of those lessons, they realize progressively their creative power and manifest increasing abilities to define their reality. We encourage you to deal with one issue at a time to focus your Lessons. You can be in two or more steps successively which indicates you are trying to deal with multiple issues. We have many individuals in this group who are fragmented between the fourth (Relationship) and fifth (Inner Success) levels. The following discussion guides or creates a framework to ground ourselves in understanding about the differences in WorldViews.
A PRELIMINARY OVERVIEW
In the Diagram, WorldView Development Process, illustrates the complexity of WorldView Development in terms of stages, as well as the influence of Instinctive, Intellectual and Intuitive perspectives. During the stages of Survival and Safety and Security, we are undeveloped and learn through friction. In our ignorance, we believe in the outer reality of things, and deny our inner knowing. Our creative self-denial generates fear, which directs us to identify with things around us. During this stage, we operate under the Law of Economy, which drives us to do things to produce the most effect for us. This whole process helps us develop a group outlook, and learn to unify in an outward way with others. Developing relationships with everything around us assists us in accomplishing this. Outer Success is the transitional level, where we start to realize that our outer reality does not reflect anything within us because we have yet to develop our inner perceptions.
Relationship and Inner Success help us develop better connections within ourselves. We learn, through deepening our understanding of motivation and connection to others, what works. We become interested in working with people who are creatively aligned with us. We are under the influence of the Law of Attraction. We need to learn to deal with the glamour of knowledge. By connecting to our own inner truth, we develop self-understanding and, eventually, Wisdom. We become magnetic as we learn to fully love ourselves for who we are as contributing creative beings. As we evolve, we come to understand our humanity and begin to embrace the similarities we all have.
In Personality Integration and World Service, we heal our internal being, so we can be more focused on our external creation. Balancing our inner and outer realities allows us to conquer the illusion and glamour around us. We prepare ourselves to operate from the power of Electric Fire by developing the tools of insulation. The more we are grounded in our way of being, the more we can use Electric Fire as our primary means of expressing ourselves without burning out, allowing us to be more directly powerful. We are operating here under the Law of Synthesis. As we complete our healing, we prepare ourselves to make a contribution that is not based on our past, but redefines our future. We call this stepping into World Service.
Finally, WorldViews also support the balancing of our inner masculine and feminine expression. Our masculine side pursues task and time management practices to produce order and tool-building mastery. Our feminine side invites new possibilities to show up, using relationship skills and chaos to enhance mystery. The more we embody the masculine and feminine simultaneously, the less Defensive we are. Survival, Outer Success and Inner Success are masculine embodiment frameworks that typically reflect our relationship to our fathers. Safety and Security, Relationship and Personality Integration are feminine embodiment frameworks that typically reflect our relationship to our mothers. World Service requires that we balance our masculine and feminine expression. Most individuals begin to integrate masculine and feminine expressions during Inner Success and Personality Integration levels by learning how to engage these modalities simultaneously.
Survival Stage
Survival lessons focus on food, clothing, shelter, a safe base of operations, and occasionally sex, if the situation permits. Most adults in Survival lessons are found in the tropics, where this process is greatly facilitated by the environment andrarely found in highly populated or technological areas. We can identify individuals in Survival by a lack of ability to connect with others in any meaningful, energetic way. In this stage, we are unconscious and unable to construct a framework that differentiates us from our environment. We primarily react in a primitive and fearful ways, learning through trial and error. Since we have very little flexibility in coping with the sophistication of higher WorldViews, we tend to be marginalized and look for simple ways to exist where other people have minimal impact. One of the main aspects of our Survival lessons is to ground ourselves in our physical body and to accept that we are, to a degree, dependent on others and the world around us.
Most of us operate in this stage for approximately the first 18 months of life. We are learning: Where am I? Who are you? Others do best if they engage us by reachingour intuitive, mystical connection to the earth. One of the best ways is by honoring that while we may know little of the details, we have an untapped, comprehensive wisdom. The most important thing is to not impose or ask us to change our point of focus. In short, others need to learn to recognize the integrity of our situation. We need to be seenas capable of finding our own solutions. As infants, it is important that we be allowed to see how far we can go in learning to establish our own energetic connectionswithout the expectations of a pre-defined response. In this way, we can give our parents positive feedback when they do things that work for us. When we are not seen and we perceive danger in exploring our own Truth, we can become fixated at this level, which means that we will not likely trust human interactions. We can be recognized at this level by how we automatically “tune out” other’s desire to connect.
When we are operating at the Survival level, we have an animal-focused consciousness, where we attempt to adapt to the environment. Our focus on what is needed to survive occupies our complete attention, making it very difficult to interact with other people. What an individual learns at this level is to be selfish and self-centered in order to guarantee personal survival. Unconscious imitation behavior often builds a sense of safety and “simple belonging.” Individuals at this level find it difficult to look into the eyes of others. Typically, we do not see Survival oriented people in industrial societies. Most Survival oriented people are in equatorial environments where they can fish and gather fruit. Survival level individuals do not necessarily have the mental capacity to deal with farming because of the time and the planning required. It is important not to confuse non-technological with unconscious. Many aborigine societies that are still living in traditional ways are actually manifesting Relationship Lessons and above.
CHECKLIST FOR SURVIVAL LEVEL
• Operational status: we are unconscious, helpless and clueless about how to take care of ourselves. We learn dependency here. Develop strong coping skills—primitive, fearful, and pragmatic. Survival at all costs. If traumatized and we remain at this stage, we will tend to avoid city life and live in the country.
• Learning method: through blind experimentation. Our strategy in terms of the sea is to be a minnow, so we will not be noticed.
• Dimensions of experience: One. Instinctive; me and not me. Do not respond effectively to emotions or thoughts.
• Focus: where am I, and who are you? (initial body awareness)
• Responsive characteristics: simple, earthy, naive, intuitive, unquestioning, mystical.
• Reactive characteristics: animalistic, frightened, ignorant, goes through personality extremes, aggressive.
Percent of adult population falling into Survival Level: 8%.
Examples: Not usually famous
Survival Lesson countries: usually found in tropical zones where food is plentiful.
Safety & Security
Safety & Security lessons focus on figuring out the principles and rules that seem to guarantee our physical well-being. At this stage, we focus on meeting the expectations of others by developing strong role-playing capabilities. We are primarily found in rural areas where we feel safe and live by “the rules”. In our attempts to become perfect, we may become judgmental and reactive when others do not follow what we perceive to be the rules. This is because we believe anyone breaking the rules directly threatens our safety and security. When others break a rule, we go to a place of seeing all rules being broken, which feels very threatening. Safety & Security WorldView individuals need a strong sense of authority and order to feel comfortable. We like being a member of a clearly defined group giving us sense belonging. While we are very selective with whom we associate, we tend to have long-term friendships that provide a sense of stability and familiarity helpingus feel comfortable.
We are usually in the Safety & Security WorldView stage between the age of eighteen months and 5 years old. What we want most from others is appreciation for our consistency and systematic progress toward a goal. While we tend to learn through confrontation, we mostly try to avoid both confrontation and the pain that tends to surround it. We can best be supported by first having agreement from others and after which we can be open to hearing suggestions for other ways of looking at a situation. We have the most difficulty dealing with individuals with unpredictable emotional states. What Safety & Security lessons teach us is how to conform to others and even take care of them. This does not mean we are comfortable with people. Rather it means that we are learning to be.
At this level our animalistic urges are married with some intellectual perceptivity allowing us to develop an “I” consciousness, which automatically creates fear of others. At this level, everything is framed in terms of black and white, truth and non-truth. It is assumed that there is one common reality in which everyone is defined. We learn to hide our selfishness to guarantee the survival of the family unit. Our new mental focus drives us to create safety in whatever way is possible. This particularly shows up in laws, which we completely support, making it possible for us to believe we are safe. Our sense of responsibility begins to develop as we define ourselves so we can fit in with others. As we become more settled, we adopt Distant defense patterns that provide structure for our reality. We are most sensitive to others who contradict our plans or way of doing things. Our irritation reflects the belief that our way is the best way. We become identified with our pride when others seem to disregard our perspective and typically withdraw and take things personally, leading to bouts of self-pity.
At this stage, we become conscious of our instinctive drives, but feelings are mysterious and unconscious motivators. We are able to discuss our superstitions and develop a desire to be affirmed in our belonging by becoming a part of a church. As there is safety in numbers, we seek the reassurance of fixed patterns of behavior in religious practice. One side effect of this is that we may be threatened by others who do not agree with our beliefs providing a basis for religious rivalry and wars.
Sex equals unconscious safety and we start to act out our attractions in ways that are expressed as roles. Whenever there are challenges, we automatically withdraw so things can be considered before responding to the situation. It is also likely that we are operating from a sense of stinginess, where we deny our abundance. Another way we create safety is to live in tract housing where everybody agrees about how things will be. We expect other people to do their duty and meet their responsibilities. Otherwise, we reject or judge them. Over time we build a sense of safety and security by living within a comfort zone that we expect others, especially our friends or family members, to support. We typically become over dramatic when others do not agree with us because our fears are triggered. Over time, we learn to hide our possessiveness behind a mask of intolerance.
CHECKLIST FOR SAFETY AND SECURITY LEVEL
• Operational status:Novice (please take care of me) desires structure, rules, law, civilization and needs a sense of order and authority to feel comfortable. Will challenge anything that seeks to destroy the status quo.
• Learning method: unconscious through avoidance and pain. The strategy in terms of the sea is to be a carp, protected in large schools, and able to exert some influence by sounding the alarm when danger lurks.
• Dimensions of experience: One. Instinctive connecting to emotions—me and other mes. Responds primarily to emotions, either to protect or attack.
• Focus: “This is the rule, and it must be followed.” Find comfort from knowing what to expect. Love organization, bureaucracy and stability because they fear change.
• Responsive characteristics: good citizens, conscientious, concerned, loyal, family-minded, will do the right thing, sees things simply, creates rules, security-minded.
• Reactive characteristics: dogmatic, unbending, petty, bureaucratic, rigid, unquestioning of authority, can operate more from emotions than reason (but denies it). Will fight for their beliefs, community-oriented, righteous. Sometimes lack original thought, strong belief in dichotomy, right/wrong etc., uneasiness around sexuality, obsessive about germs and cleanliness, sometimes brutal.
Percent of adult population falling into Safety and Security group: 20%
Examples: Steven King, Ann Landers, Mike Tyson, Oral Roberts, Yassar Arafat, Colonel Kaddafy, and Idi Amin.
Safety and Security areas / countries: Midwest United States, Ireland, Mexico, Argentina, most other South American countries.
Outer Success
The lessons of Outer Success focus on control, outer power, fame, and wealth. At this stage, we tend to individuate. This can be seen in how much we try to manifest our own vision and independence, regardless of the cost to others. We live mostly in metropolitan and technological centers. We can be attached to our toys, especially high tech toys that make us feel superior and on the cutting edge.We learn the lessons of Outer Success by identification with possessions and the subsequent loss of these possessions. We do not complete the lessons of Outer Success until we no longer define ourselves in terms of the things we own. It is also important to learn that outer power only has an impact on people who are operating from Defenses. Therefore, we learn to distinguish between power with and power over people. True power is always expressed in a Co-Creative way that does not diminish any of the participants. Another way of expressing the key issue of Outer Success is stepping beyond the competitive model of “me vs. you” into a cooperative model that builds alliances.
If we have conscious parents, operating at the Relationship level or above, then we usually go through the Outer Success stage between the years of 5 and 12. Unfortunately, since few of us have conscious parents, a large majority of the population is still operating in the realm of Outer Success. We are best honored when others preemptively acknowledging our goals and objectives and make a deal to support us in what we need, in exchange for our supporting the needs of the larger group. While this is a conditional framework which may not be comfortable for people operating at a higher WorldView, it is the approach that will most effectively engage us in the higher group possibilities. What others need to recognize is the appearances of aggressiveness, arrogance, and greed in Outer Success individuals is really a cover up for our insecurity and fears. What we want others to reflect back is that we are industrious leaders who will “go the extra mile” to make things work.
As we move into Outer Success, we seek a way to contribute where we can play a part and be rewarded for it. Greed and personal satisfaction become the driving forces of our life as we begin to build a sense of self-discipline in order to get what we want. We become aware of how we adapt to circumstances to maximize our personal gain, even at the cost of others because we are governed by a desire to increase our comfort on physical, emotional and mental levels. This is also the stage where sex equates to love, and how physically attractive or how successful in the world our partner is reflects on our image. Usually, we are highly identified with our job or career and what we possess. This further enhances a sense of competition, where we compare ourselves to others based on what we have. The more we are better than or different from others, the more we leverage our differences to prove ourselves superior. At this stage, we can be insensitive and indifferent to the emotions, reactions or pain of others.
It is easy to become preoccupied at this level with righting past perceived wrongs. The more we need to get even and prove ourselves better, the more we naturally distance ourselves from the pain of others. We end up substituting our attachments to things over our emotional well being, not realizing that selfishness opens us up to becoming evil. In this context, evil is merely the denial of others to enrich our own well-being. What is ironic is how much we come into this process being disgusted by the greediness of others, only to end up attempting to outdo them reducing our sensitivity on intuitive and emotional levels. As a result, we are able to act more boldly because we renounce our timidity and fear.
On the Outer Success level, we are unconsciously driven by the power of thoughts. At the same time, we start to become aware of our feelings, even though we are typically afraid to trust them. We feel empowered, because we can see the instinctive motives of others, and feel in control of where we are going in our lives. Our desires emerge, and we seek the easiest way to get where we want to go, not realizing that a lack of internal principle will attract others who want to exploit our greed. It seems like a dog-eat-dog world, which justifies our acting without conscience.
For some, material ambition is the yardstick for progress. In the United States, our belief systems support the notion that prosperity is a godly state. Actually, it is not the outer manifestation of prosperity that is godly, but the inner recognition of our creative abundance. Unfortunately, many of us have become fixated on having more than others to no constructive purpose. While the focus on outer form in the Western World has benefited us on many levels, it is currently stifling our development on many more. The more conscious we are, the more we seek moderate and economical ways to express ourselves. The more unconscious we are, the more attached we are to what we possess, eliminating our ability to see the larger picture. Over time, we learn to hide our intolerance about our differences with others behind a mask of separateness and exclusivity. This prevents ourevolving to the Relationship level.
CHECKLIST FOR OUTER SUCCESS LEVEL
• Operational status:Me First, control and power issues, fame, money. Need independence and success. Outward looking, measured by societal standards.
• Learning method: through identifying with things and then losing them. The strategy in terms of the sea is to be a shark, alone, powerful, doing whatever they want.
• Dimensions of experience: Two. Instinctive and intellectual— me vs. you. The game is to figure out what others need so a profit can be made by controlling them. It is not just about the money, but also a sense of power that covers up an inner sense of personal impotence. They try to avoid tenderness because they believe others will take advantage of their “weakness,” which directs their feelings toward taking action by focusing on material desires.
• Focus: “I can have it all.” Identified with their bodies, youth, appearance, etc. Through love they practice the motives of greed, arrogance and lust, day and night.
• Responsive characteristics: productivity, industriousness, leadership, authoritarian.
• Reactive characteristics: competitive, pushy, self-righteous, arrogant, excessively materialistic, lacking insight into personal motivations, “winner takes all,” “I’m right, you’re wrong” and cleanliness phobias carried over from security lessons.
Percent of adult population falling into Outer Success group: 25% (more in the United States).
Examples: Donald Trump, Saddam Hussein, Dick Clark, Charles Bronson, Casper Weinberger, Lauren Holly, Mae West, John Glenn, Hulk Hogan, Nancy Reagan, Robert Mitchum, Geraldine Ferraro, Greta Garbo, Bryant Gumbel, William Buckley, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Danny DeVito, Humphrey Bogart, Mick Jagger, J. Paul Getty, Alexander The Great, John F. Kennedy, Mao Tse Tung, Bob Hope, Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher, Malcolm X, Ferdinand Marcos, Imelda Marcos, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Aristotle Onassis, James Cagney, Billy Graham, Orson Wells, Jack Benny, Bing Crosby, Gov. Pete Wilson, David Bowie, Jim Carey, Gene Hackman, Elvis Presley (early life), Sharon Stone, Cindy Crawford, Anthony Hopkins, George Bush, Bob Dole, Newt Gingrich, Roseanne Barr, Rush Limbaugh, Woody Harrelson.
Outer Success countries: United States, Some parts of Brazil, Germany, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Israel.
Relationship
Relationship lessons focus on learning to engage others where they are, learning to grow with them. When we are in this stage, we tend to exaggerate our expressions in order to make sure we are being seen and understood by others. We are more interested in being with people who honor our interests and support our growth. We can be verified by our focus on improving our relationships. Initially, what we want is others to know how to meet us so we will have an easy time understanding and connecting with them. Over time, we come to realize that we need to prepare ourselves so we can understand the differences of others in a way that helps us meet them where they are. At this stage, we often learn through anguish. Our fears are more likely to surface at this stage of our development. In order to be intimate with others, we must be able to share and release our fears. Our challenge is to learn how to harmlessly communicate our truths while being present with our Self. Usually, it is in the Relationship stage that we begin to recognize who we are on a creative level.
At the Relationship stage, we complete the unconscious lessons to work in the external world and begin to work on our inner awareness. At this point we realize trying to evolve on our own will only take us so far. Mid-level relationship and above individuals are able to accept the differences in others and operate in more independent ways that respect and honor their autonomy. Recognition of the separateness of others allows us to get close to them and be with them without compromise. The paradox is, the more we are able to accept our own truth as different and unique, the more we are able to accept others as unique making them more interesting. In this situation, we are discovering how to be free to be ourselves, which up to now was limited by the roles we performed to take care of others.
This is the stage where WorldView starts to be obvious because our connections with people are different. Being at this Relationship level wakes us to the disconnect we feel with others. We become aware of lower level motivations that guide most people and realize that we have an option to choose how we wish to be. When we recognize what has been motivating us and how our survival and success patterns have kept us from fully loving who we are, we start telling our truth to others who are conscious of their process. This is both a blessing and a gift. It is their ability to return this gift that makes a conscious relationship possible. We are frustrated when others don’t seem to want to grow and get to the bottom of their relationship patterns.
At the core of relationship lessons is an ability to stand in a higher space within ourselves and recognize that we are not our defensive identity which enables us to see and own our projections on others. We begin to discover the real source of these projections, our denied fears. Instead of becoming entangled by our beliefs that they are doing something to us, we can see that they can’t affect us in anyway we do not choose. The relationship stage therefore, supports getting in touch with our desires to connect in ways that do not entangle others. We learn to tell our truth harmlessly under all circumstances. We also learn to be intimate when others are expressing their truth, which may not agree with our truth. This self discovery process allows us to heal past entanglements and not re-create them. It also opens us up to seeing how we attract those people who make our fears real.
Ultimately, we do not complete the Relationship stage until we recognize what our lessons are in relationships. Unfortunately, those who do not complete this, live the lessons of their parents. At a minimum, this requires that we recognize our imprinting and are able to not lose ourselves in unconscious patterns or pretenses. We know we are not complete when we feel more drive to control the relationship and become more agitated when we can’t eliminate its patterns. Since we can’t transcend what we refuse to own, learning to accept and embrace where we have denied our creativity and truth allows us to grow and respond naturally. Completing this stage empowers us to create trust and unity in every relationship to the ability of our partner to accept it.
If we had conscious parents who were operating in Outer Success level or above, we likely engaged the Relationship stage between the ages of 12 and 28. Our connection with others in the Relationship stage is maintained through calm, clear, energetic intention affirmingthat others will be there with us under all circumstances. This greatly diminishesour anxiety level, and allowsus to pick times and places where we can be heard when we introduce a higher possibility. This possibility can only be created by going deeper in ourselves, with the other person. In other words, we need to relax into a place of being present with our Self and invite the other person to do the same. Otherwise, the best way for others to meet us, is to mirror us as much as possible so we see that they are paying attention and caring about us.
We begin operating at the Relationship stage as we feel a sense of obligation to support the well being of others. A greater sense of responsibility develops as we maximize our integrity in ways that honor the integrity of others. We begin to tell the truth about our emotions, and become identified by our romantic framework, which sees sex as an expression of a higher connection. As we develop recognition of the rights of others, we start to curb our selfishness and discover the power of service. Initially, we may act out and dramatize the experiences we are having in relationships reflecting our frustrations. Eventually, we become aware of the patterns that seem to be recurring in relationships leading us to deeper self-examination, and we seek to have the kinds of relationships we want. When we reach the mid-level of relationships, we become self-conscious and can reflect on our inner and outer experiences separately. For many people, this breakthrough is experienced as being able to see ourselves engaging situations without being identified by them.
Sometimes in the early stages of Relationship, we are still overly attached to what others think about us because we have not yet established a good relationship with ourselves. When we cannot love and be present in our own being, or acknowledge our own choices, we are trapped in a world where our separateness creates distance. The more we do not trust ourselves, the more we are unable to trust others. Our focus then becomes how to be different, not on a material level, but on a spiritual one. This gives birth to Spiritual Materialism, where we compete to establish who is the most spiritual. In this situation, we want others to acknowledge how much spiritual work we have done so we can hide our separateness in new ways that seem acceptable. Unfortunately, this practice reduces our ability to love others as they are, and blocks our developing intimate connections. Overall, the more conscious we are, the more inclusive we are with others and the less conscious we are, the more exclusive we need to be around them.
As we begin to make conscious relationship choices, our instincts lose their power. Our ability to be present and creative supersedes our need for excitement and intensity. We start to see the compromises we made in an attempt to get someone to take care of us. We discover the power in sharing our emotional truth to find conscious partners, as it drives away the individuals who would become co-dependent with us. We are also able to separate our thoughts from the thoughts of others, allowing us to engage without becoming unconsciously merged. These tools awaken us to the patterns of our past, allowing us to choose a partner who can truly meet us. Having choice in relationships is a new concept to many.
Ultimately, we do not complete the Relationship stage until we recognize what our lessons have been and are, in relationships with others. Unfortunately, those who do not, live out the lessons of their parents with other people. At a minimum, this requires that we recognize our imprinting and do not get lost in unconscious patterns or pretenses. We know we are not yet complete when we feel driven to control our relationships, and become agitated when we can’t eliminate the patterns we are in. Since we can’t transcend what we refuse to own, learning to accept and embrace where we have denied our creativity and truth allows us to grow and respond naturally. Completing this stage empowers us to create trust and unity in every relationship, depending on the ability of our partner(s) to accept it.
CHECKLIST FOR RELATIONSHIP LESSONS
• Operational status:You‘n Me—Let’s Do It Together. This stage opens the world of emotional, dramatic relationships. It begins with the desire for the emotional truth, which eventually leads to spiritual openness. Relationship assumptions are examined, and artificial boundaries are broken down. The initial efforts are to make a relationship like we make a pie; eventually we learn that it takes the conscious co-creation of others to make relationships work. At this stage the meaning of relationship starts to fill the empty space in our lives, although at times we still operate from external success criteria in our work. What is important is that we start to measure ourselves by our own internal standards.
• Learning method: through anguish (maximum stress). The strategy in terms of the sea is to be a salmon forever throwing oneself upstream in the perceived only path.
• Dimensions of Experience: Two. Me and you, on an emotional level.
• Focus: “My life and relationships are intense, real and dramatic.”
• Responsive characteristics: Emotionally open, relationship-oriented, become more group-oriented, perceptive, open to spiritual growth, in touch with a wide range of perspectives, and therefore most balanced. (Note: Usually seeks a long-term mate.)
• Reactive characteristics: Identified with the other in relationship (sometimes to the point of loss of self), intense, emotionally explosive soap-opera dramatics; can become neurotic.
Percent of adult population falling into Relationship WorldView: 30%.
Examples: Richard Simmons, Eddie Murphy, Cher, Dan Akroyd, Roseanne Barr, Wil Wheaton, Warren Beatty, Gary Shandling, Boy George, John Belushi, John Cleese, Bill Cosby, Linda Evans, Ronald Reagan, Jane Fonda, William Hurt, Jack Nicholson, Molly Ringwald, Tom Selleck, Dudley Moore, Jay Leno, Arsenio Hall, Martin Luther King, Robin Williams, Lily Tomlin, Donald Sutherland, Gloria Steinem, Debra Winger, Vincent Van Gogh, Ernest Hemingway, Marilyn Monroe, Willie Brown, Shirley MacLaine, Jimi Hendrix, Richard Burton, Drew Barrymore, Walter Matthau, Madonna, River Phoenix, Elvis Presley (later life), Jerry Lewis, Eddie Murphy, Billy Crystal, Dustin Hoffman, Jeff Goldblum, Nick Nolte, Michael J. Fox, Spike Lee, Bill & Hillary Clinton, Sandra Bullock, Meryl Streep, Leonard Nimoy, Janine Turner, Joan Rivers, Burt Reynolds, Rosie O’Donnell, John Travolta, Don Johnson, Matthew Broderick, Tim Allen and Keanu Reeves.
Relationship oriented communities: Amsterdam, Holland; Berkeley, CA; Cambridge, MA.
Relationship lesson countries Egypt, Greece, Italy, Britain, Japan (major parts of), Russia and Poland
Inner Success
Inner Success is the fifth stage of WorldView. It focuses us more within ourselves, so we accept our masculine and feminine completely. At this stage we begin to question our image, recognizing that it is a trap that keeps us in old ways of seeing ourselves. In the first half of this stage, we are releasing ourselves from old images that keep us from accepting who we really are as creative beings. This stage is an interactive process that focuses us on defining ourselves in our own terms. The capstone is personality detachment, which means letting go and disregarding our self-judgment and the judgments of others. The more we can release our survival and success programming, the less attached we are about “how we contribute” so we can focus on our inner experience of being a contribution. The area we seek to clarify is finding our life work, a contribution based on presence and creative flow, not fear or personality desire.
Inner Success lessons focus us on defining ourselves on our own terms. We learn to recognize our constituents (those individuals who we are here to serve and who “get” us). We explore creative ways of being that bring us joy. There are three ways to verify this WorldView: 1) We are seeking congruence between inner and outer realities, 2) We are attempting to balance life work with our primary relationship and with our community of family and friends, and 3) The way we structure our life work is how it works for us, not how others want us to perform. At this stage, we keep exploring our Creative Expressions until we find a response in the world that recognizes and supports our service. Many times, this requires us to shift from a career that pays the bills into a new possibility where we are more clearly seen, but where we fear that we will not be monetarily compensated.
The challenge is to follow our heart’s passion while keeping a “taxi” job (a job that allows us time to develop ourselves while paying the bills), until our transition is complete. When we are doing Inner Success, we begin to pay attention to the energetic integrity of a situation and address our imbalances about how we engage life. Another signal is that we do not differentiate or segment our friends into subgroups. Instead, we engage everyone and allow our various friends to engage one another in a unified way. This reflects our lesson to be more authentic and connected in the many areas of our life.
If we have been able to grow effectively throughout our life, we typically enter the Inner Success stage at the age of 28 and are fully embodied in our expression by the age of 49. Individuals in Inner Success prefer to let things arise in the moment, dealing with each thing as it occurs. What tends to irritate us is not being able to deal with things in the moment because of circumstances or the expectations of others. The gift of interacting with individuals at the Inner Success stage is that we tend to not take things personally. Inner Success individuals can typically separate who we are from what others project on us. It is also likely that we have developed who we are through some spiritual practice, so we enjoy finding time to be more present with ourselves.
Engaging our life work becomes the primary way we expand our creative power. This requires that we understand our Authentic Life Expression (who we are, and exactly what our primary contribution and constituency/individuals we serve through our creative contribution are) by finding a way to serve others while being served in return. The more we discover who we are creatively, the more we seek to define our reality on our own terms. The keynote of this level is greater introspection. This permits us to see how our inner reality mirrors our outer reality. One of the first breakthroughs is recognizing that everyone’s reality is essentially their own. We also realize that we hold within us the power to interpret our reality as we wish. As we actualize our creative power by experimenting with different ways of defining ourselves, we are able to develop the deeper powers of our minds.
Creativity equals power equals love, which equals sex at this level. We begin to clarify the difference between our wants and our needs. We begin to know immediately if we are in alignment with others around us. The power of our speech becomes paramount as our thoughts take on a new power. The more we unify our inner selves with our personalities, the more our intelligence manifests. Usually, it is our creative imagination and visualization abilities that begin to stimulate our higher intuitive development. We start to separate ourselves from being identified with the culture or the civilization, so our own unique voice and power can be heard. As a result we become more vital and expressive. When we are denying ourselves, we experience inertia and boredom.
It is at this stage that we start to reframe and release our beliefs, realizing that they are just a crutch. This precipitates a crisis of meaning, and the power we ascribe to knowledge vs. knowing. Lower WorldView individuals need to feel a part of the common reality. The value of their beliefs is primarily in their agreement with others, and common beliefs are the way that they feel connected to others. We, as conscious beings, determine and validate meaning for ourselves in all circumstances. We seek to determine if the meanings or beliefs of others match our internal experience, thus being aware of the meaning, for us, in the moment.
When we recognize that we have been at the effect of our parental lessons and the mythology we created in reaction to it, we start to consciously create our own mythology. The more we own our own creative nature, the easier it is to build our inner frameworks to explain our creative differences with others. If you are reading this book you have taken a huge step in discovering how to accomplish this. Our creative nature guides us to self-understanding that can also provide insights into the behavior of others. We are now able to share our inner perspectives and influence others in a way that serves everyone due to our increasing identification with our intuition and ability to see and explain the bigger picture going on around us. What is most important is that we are no longer submerged in the feelings of our peer group. We define our own path.
The more we know ourselves as a creative beings, the more responsibility we have for expressing who we are. We need to simplify our lives to the basic creative elements, and work with a sense of economy about where we want to go. This is also the stage where we need to release our imprinting. Otherwise, we burn out from the friction and resistance of trying to do our life work. The more open and tolerant we are of others, the easier it will be for us to move forward into Personality Integration. Happiness is the indication we are growing and integrating our truth, so we can express it congruently with others.
The challenge we face is to do it on our own terms, and not terms others may choose. We need to take more risks in being ourselves, in ways others may reject. Owning the consequences of our choices is the first step to acknowledging our own creative path. Breaking free of our fears frees us to discover our creative flow. This inner development process, of seeking to contribute with presence and creative flow, opens us to assessing others in terms of their motives, so we can anticipate where conflict may arise. We also become better at attracting those who are creatively aligned with us. This reinforces our primary creative expression, and allows us to see that we are perfect the way we are. The more we experience the power of our creative energy, the more we love ourselves. This opens us to seeing where others are coming from. Attractions, therefore, become more conscious and we move into creative projects that previously may have seemed impossible.
We are supported in this stage by being around people who have our primary creative energy. It is important for us to recognize how amazing our energy is in being of service to others. When we see how it works to uplift people, we begin to accept our own natural abundance and let go of our fears that we won’t be seen. The more we are able to love ourselves by being a contribution that serves others, the less we “have to be” any particular thing. The more we begin to see and understand the differences of others, particularly pacing, process and approach, the more naturally fulfilling our life becomes.
Our introspection also begins the process of reorientation within ourselves. Our attachments to external goals loosen their grip on us. As a result, we begin to reevaluate the meaning of our lives, recognizing that our previous goals were based on meanings derived from others. This process usually results in our attracting new friends and associates more aligned to the new direction arising within us. We stop defining our objectives in terms of results, instead deriving our satisfaction from being present in the process. Usually, we begin to initiate various spiritual or physical processes that help ground us in this new awareness, so we can bring it into all aspects of our lives. If we have not already integrated our work and primary relationship into the whole, we do so now.
The keywords become “I Am That,” helping us let go of our past Defenses and Pretenses, and pointing the way to self-ownership of our creative being. The Law of Attraction helps us further develop our consciousness and awareness about differences and similarities, so we can be present in all circumstances allowing us to move into the world of the Law of Synthesis. Our inner knowing and psychic facilities expand as we purify our motivations and intent creating a foundation for the further expansion and expression that we do in World Service.
What becomes obvious to us is how fragmented and non-united we are within our own awareness. As we become aware of these discontinuities, we start realizing how much of ourselves has been defined by our past. We also wake up to ways our attachments and positions have consumed our lives by trying to guarantee survival and success. The more we question these old patterns, the more we see how we owned very little of our power to make choices independent of our past and to take greater risks than we previously imagined. We become aware that it was our own beliefs about the impracticality of our dreams that kept us from realizing them. As a result, we endeavor to follow our inner knowing despite any obstacles that may seem to be barriers to our full expression. Completing this stage empowers more conscious teammates who are able to implement big projects and bring them into existence easily.
CHECKLIST FOR INNER SUCCESS LEVEL
• Operational status:Partner Oriented. Learns personal detachment, expands spirituality, begins teaching—formally or informally—focuses on building a sense of connectedness to others and the planet, and developing self-esteem allowing unconditional love of others. Prefers self-employment to corporate life because the politics are seen as boring and energy-draining. Takes many different types of classes and courses where they are exposed to different beliefs, and uses these different experiences to generate and validate their own truth. Balance is the key word to describe their aspirations. Typically they want to spread time and energy evenly between work, personal relationships and community (either local or topical) based on interests. Becomes sensitive to natural energies (flowers, etc.).
• Learning method: Taking on issues by choosing enthusiastic, passionate opportunities of expression before serving un-chosen opportunities based on terror and excitement. The strategy in terms of the sea is to be a seal who becomes conscious of choices and takes care of his family.
• Dimensions of experience: Three. You and I are We (adding context). Emotions and intellect are brought together to reveal patterns that are not working. Intuition is activated, leading in new directions.
• Focus: You do your thing and I do mine.
• Responsive characteristics: Individualistic, easy-going, growth-oriented, personal style; most perceptive while seeking the truth; flexible, multi-skilled, mellow, kind, loving.
• Reactive characteristics: May appear eccentric, without self-esteem, not necessarily motivated, difficult personalities, impoverished, struggling, not clearly self-directed, floating.
Percent of adult population falling into Inner Success group: 12%.
Examples: Jerry Garcia, Stephen Hawking, Paul Hogan, Richard Dreyfus, Dustin Hoffman, Bobby McFerrin, Michael Douglas, Steven Spielberg, Bill Murray, Gary Larson, Robert Redford, Sting, James Taylor, Alice Walker, Christopher Reeves, John Lennon, Ken Keynes, Tom Hanks, James Baldwin, Arthur C. Clarke, Phil Donahue, George Burns, Albert Einstein, Eric Clapton, Judy Collins, Clint Eastwood, Dian Fosse, Elton John, Joan Baez, William Blake, James Joyce, Walt Whitman, Mark Twain, Carl Jung, John Muir, Kevin Costner, Steve Martin, Bill Cosby, Colin Powell, Richard Gere, Patrick Stewart, and Whoopi Goldberg.
Inner Success countries: Iceland, Holland, Sweden Norway and parts of Switzerland.
Personality Integration
The sixth stage, that of Personality Integration, begins as soon as we live from our own inner knowing, unimpeded by our survival and success programming. At this stage our acceptance of all our energies, and our natural way of expressing ourselves are integrated so our fears and desires do not have a hold on us. We no longer ask ourselves “what would be safe or secure?” and live in the moment to express our natural contribution without any distractions from our past. This requires that we expand our personal and relationship space so old issues cannot trigger us.
Personality Integration lessons revolve around realizing how we have developed as a personality that is not as real as we imagined. When we realize that we created that personality as a transition mechanism to facilitate our growth and development, we begin the process of completing those lessons. The focus is to become single pointed in our desire or aspiration to transcend our self-imposed limitations. We seek to eliminate self-sabotage and create a sense of being able to move into our processes with whole-heartedness. This stage can be verified by discovering our best and highest usefulness. Knowing the compatibility factors can facilitate this process.
Who we are as a creative being begins to take full control of our direction in life. Some people call this process the death of ego so we can be reborn in spirit. We prefer to see it as a transition where our focus shifts from an external one to an internal one, and finally to one that is unified with the Universe. In the Personality Integration process, we complete the lessons that were keeping us from being fully dedicated to our higher creative contribution. When we are in Personality Integration, we become fully detached from our personality issues and see how they are actually obstacles to our higher expression enabling us to make choices, particularly about how we can forgive and accept ourselves, allowing us to maximize our contribution.
Most individuals do not begin the Personality Integration process until they are 49; however, some people start as early as age 36. Individuals in this stage can be recognized by their need for body-mind integration techniques — meditation, Tai Chi, yoga, martial arts, retreats, and sabbaticals. Others use transpersonal development processes (such as relationships) to reveal and transform issues and disconnections. This process initially focuses on accepting every aspect of who we are, so we no longer need any external frame of reference about how we show up in the world. Instead, we use our energy in a free-flowing, spontaneous manner to create the connections we need, when we need them. We have a profound level of trust and self-unity. The paradox of being at this stage is that there are times when we are able to be completely available to others, meeting them wherever they are. There are other times where we are completely unavailable, because we are preoccupied with deepening our understanding of our Self. The gift is that the more fully we understand our Self, the more fully we are able to understand others.
Intuitive identification is the primary focus we have at the Personality Integration stage. While we expand our ability to use our mind, the real development process involves self-healing, in which beliefs that get in the way of integrating Mind, Body, and Spirit are eliminated, and all separating structures are releasedthrough self-acceptance, compassion and serenity, as we learn how to love ourselves on deeper levels. In this way, all glamour is swept away, and our magnetic energy comes into play. As we focus on our true heart’s desire, we begin to attract prosperity. Our love of self is reflected outward in the passion we express with others. Loving understanding of others leads to cooperation and group love as we begin to attract a community. This enrichment process of group living helps us understand how we are related to everyone else.
We take charge of expressing our reality in deeper ways by becoming familiar with how we can maintain a continuity of consciousness at all times. The more we develop inner tools of meditation, concentration and contemplation, the more we are able to mine the resources of our being to create more flexibility. Lucid dreaming becomes a natural way to explore and orchestrate the lessons we wish to engage. The more unified our consciousness is, the safer and more secure others feel around us, without our doing anything. We also become very detached from our outer image or form, as we become more connected to our inner consciousness. This sensitivity automatically translates to greater consciousness with others so we experience a greater sense of brotherhood, aspiration and courage with others.
This process requires that we deepen our knowing and live from our sense of being completely aware of the consequences of our past or present choices. This self-reexamination puts us in touch with the nature of the reality we have created, and we recognize that we are always the authors of our reality. The more we are in touch with the nature of our creative power, the more we are able to transcend our perspectives and beliefs about our impact and ability to manipulate time, space and energy. We lose our reliance on misguided notions, such as beliefs in “cause and effect,” because they do not reflect our ability to change our past or our future reality. We start seeing how we exist in many realities simultaneously and can shift our perception of reality by focusing on different actions and intent.
Personality Integration begins as soon as we live from our own inner knowing, unimpeded by our survival and success programming. We become conscious that our thoughts are a creative power we can use or misuse. We become more discriminating, and begin to see beyond the outer cause/effect framework. We discover we can energetically change our past as easily as we can change our future. In the process of “Pregnant Duration,” we learn to transcend time, within our experience, so the past can be made whole. At this stage our acceptance of all our energies, and our natural way of expressing ourselves, are integrated, so our fears and desires do not have a hold of us. We no longer ask ourselves “What would be safe or secure?” but live in the moment expressing our natural contribution without any distractions. This requires that we expand our personal and relationship space so old issues cannot trigger us.
We start seeing how our external reality is intimately interwoven with our dream world, both chemically and physically. We discover that our dream reality is the place to test our ideas about how we want to create our reality. This leads us to consciously guide our dreams and work with different people on that level of reality to initiate co-creative projects. We also realize that if we didn’t dream we would die, for our dream world creates certain chemicals that keep our brain in balance. If we consciously choose to use our brain chemicals to enhance our creativity, new doorways to viewing reality open. This begins our pursuit of conscious understanding of ourselves in many different creative frameworks. The more we play fluidly with those realms, the more we see how we can manipulate reality as a creative endeavor that transcends our previous conception about making a contribution. Operating from higher motives and being of service become our natural way of operating, because of our gratitude for living in a world where we can transcend our fears and desires.
At this point, most of our self-limiting beliefs have fallen away, and we have seen that we are both everything and nothing. The very nature of our self-identification peels away our misguided beliefs about separation and we can see ourselves in everyone around us. We become an island of peacefulness, and seek to engage those things that are not in alignment, to bring them into our creative sphere. Everything we touch brings with it new levels of awareness, as we begin integrating and putting together networks of people to enlighten the world.
The world becomes our environment to paint new possibilities on structures that are disjointed and incomplete. We recognize that the point of leverage is in changing people’s perceptions so they see their own greatness. Recognizing the power of free will, we establish frameworks for people to engage where they are, consciously choosing to be responsible for their own development. This being the Aquarian age, it is now very difficult for people to learn from a “guru”, for only by experiencing their own truth can they build a conscious understanding of why they want to come into alignment with others. This is the Aquarian ideal, where we learn together in groups that respect the autonomy of all participants. Conscious participation of the individual is required, as well as recognition of our unity as a species. It means learning to be responsible by continually offering our hand to others, even if they have rejected us many times requiring that we become more able to see how to serve others, so we operate with more unity and trust in all interactions.
Personality Integration is a state of being where we are completing and letting go of past motivations that are no longer of use. In this sense, it is a healing and clearing process, where we forgive ourselves for what we had to go through in order to discover our own magnificence. It brings out our Inner Light, and begins to affect those around us. People become attracted by our way of being present with them, which is a way of loving them, because we love ourselves. It is not a state of mind, but a state of embodiment. We are a living example of what we teach. This is how others learn to trust their experience for we do not require people to follow any pre-defined beliefs. In the Aquarian age, we make suggestions that allow people to discover their own truth, so the experience speaks for itself.
CHECKLIST FOR PERSONALITY INTEGRATION LEVEL
• Operational status:Group Oriented. Focuses on higher motives of universal dominion manifesting as trust; mutual accomplishment manifesting as unity; and conscious co-creation manifesting as participating without conditions. A time to focus on inner-growth, preferably without many distractions. We seek new types of self-expression usually in a group. As this occurs we become more grounded and sensitive to community energies, become more involved in nature, and focus more on the purpose, the higher good and expression.
• Learning method: Uses the lessons of others to recognize inner issues and resolve them and see every problem in a group as a reflection of our personal development, providing opportunities for communication and healing. The strategy in terms of the sea is to be the dolphin who re-discovers playfulness, innocence, and the paradox and mystery of life. The key identifying trait is the ability to empathize, understand and communicate deeply with others.
• Dimensions of experience: Four. You, Me, Us and our relationship to the Truth. This is the first stage where we know ourselves not only as a personality (combining sensations, feelings and thoughts), but as something more, as intuition, spiritual will and spiritual radiance.
• Focus: “Nothing we do is separate; we are all interconnected.”
• Responsive characteristics: Group orientation is fully actualized. Learning to create personal safety and security under all conditions, and demonstrating to others how to grow without control. Learning to master personality expression so it is in alignment with universal intent.
• Reactive characteristics: Diminish dramatically as healing occurs. Personality detachment, intuitive inclusive discrimination and seeing a higher possibility allowing operation without the need for defenses.
Percent of adult population falling into this group: 5%.
Examples: Deepak Chopra, Oprah Winfrey, Andrew Harvey, Jack Kornfield, Corrie Ten Boom, Carlos Casteneda, Dorothy Day, Che Guevara, Dag Hjalmar Hammarskjöld, Herman Hesse, Nikola Tesla, Bertrand Russell, AssenZlatarov, Daniel Berrigan, Starhawk, Desmond Tutu, Malcolm X, Abraham Maslow, Paul Tillich, Evelyn Underhill, Joseph Campbell, C. S. Lewis, Huston Smith, Robert Funk, Stevie Wonder, William Blake, James Joyce, Walt Whitman, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, Mother Cabrini, Pope John XXIII, Socrates, Plato and Ram Dass.
Personality Integration countries: There are no countries operating predominantly at this level of perceptivity.
World Service
The seventh stage of WorldView is World Service lessons. It is distinguished by the lack of personality focus, for everything that is done reflects the whole. People operating at this stage realize how survival and success programming has distracted them from higher concerns. This is a stage of full creative manifestation where we are no longer limited by any personal Creative Expression, instead tune in and use any of the energies based on current circumstance. One aspect revealing this stage is the unification of life, love and light energy within us so we become a focal point of distribution of energies to everyone in our lives. This can have profoundly upsetting or transformative effects depending on the consciousness of others around us. The problem is making sure the others are not “losing themselves” in the experience of being with a person with a higher WorldView.
World Service lessons focus on the direct alignment of our creative self with the contribution we were born to make. This requires concentrated “one-pointedness” and discipline to bring everything we are engaging in life into full alignment. World Service can be verified when we realize that our personal stuff is no longer as important as what the world needs. In effect, we receive a calling to serve in a way that allows us to express our highest possibility verified by our sense of flow, authentic and creative capabilities and our ability to work effortlessly with others. For some, like Mother Teresa, this driving intent can appear extremely impersonal and uncaring to others who are not aligned with that vision. She was completely connected to her soul, and did not want to compromise this higher connection for a “personal” vision. Her commitment to the vision was total and not intermediated with others on a personality level. She had released her attachment to personality. When in World Service, we are in bliss, serving our constituents, because in their reflection of this gift we see the greatness of our Self. This process of Communion with others becomes an ongoing, daily experience where we are fully committed to making our contribution. When we are in our highest contribution, others are awakened to their highest contribution. This transmission process is one of the greatest gifts of individuals in World Service.
We learn a tremendous amount about detachment, holding a connection to the Universe and seeing the perfection of what is as a way of moving forward towards what will be. Being in World Service accentuates and develops our virtues and abilities. We are connected to the Universeand are invulnerable to things that would derail others. When we are in World Service, we experience our Self, others, our personal relationship to the truth, and our group experience to the truth. This empowers us to be group leaders, motivators and spiritual catalysts. Finally, as a World Server weare so engrossed in our “mission” that we commonly have very little personal life. This only occurs if we have completed and healed personal issues.
The more we are of service to others, the more we become aligned with Universal Intent. We are automatically drawn to fulfill whatever group purpose is in front of us. Our ability to consciously sacrifice our attachments accelerates our growth process as we begin to radiate our Being in the world. By choosing to unify our personal will with Universal Will, we manifest the power to express ourselves outside of typical human expectations. The more we are able to actualize Universal Intent, the more bliss and beauty we experience as we manifest the power of creation and destruction which occurs only after we have unified our personality, so it can act as a servant to our Creative Expression. We become a world citizen and are automatically drawn to where we can contribute the most.
When we are operating at the stage of World Service we are naturally humble, compassionate, serene, and committed to waking up others around us. Our vision is about a world that works for everyone. Our focus is on the humanity in everyone, which unifies, inspires and brings out the best in others in its purity and simplicity. Our challenge is to demonstrate unity and trust in a way that supports people around us to find their own path to greater self-awareness. We are identified by our inexhaustible energy and our incredible ability to connect personally to people even when they are working on an impersonal level. Another ability we demonstrate is to connect spirit to matter so we can manifest things wherever we place our attention. As an agent of creation, not separate from universal energy or intent, our example can guide and illuminate the path. We demand that others own their own power. We represent the direction and growth of our own transformative processes, particularly revealing how we need to unify ourselves with others. Ultimately, it becomes an honor to become a World Server by dedicating ourselves to serve the highest in our Self and others.
CHECKLIST FOR WORLD SERVICE STAGE
• Operational status:World Orientation: detachment, spirituality, teaching. Connectedness, self-esteem. Prefers self-employment to corporate life. Inner-growth oriented. Becomes sensitive to natural energies.
• Learning method: Takes a high and noble stand that compels others to do what they can to assist and heal everyone around them. The strategy in terms of the sea is to be a whale who is invulnerable to the dangers of the sea while they sing a song about the process of increasing consciousness. It is about getting the tribe together to celebrate life. It is a demonstration of how to engage life, knowing clearly their true purpose and how to express it. Expression is no longer based on others’ being there or not being there.
• Dimensions of experience: Five. Me, You, Us, our personal relationship to the Truth, and our experience of Group Truth. Finally fully operational on all levels—able to see the sources of problems and provide insights that can support learning to resolve issues for themselves.
• Focus: Working together with Universal Intent.
• Responsive characteristics: Humble; demands the highest for others and personally supports everyone’s highest expression. Keeps everything simple and focused towards goals, are usually great examples of health and well-being for others to follow.
Percent of adult population falling into World Service group: 1%.
Examples:Mother Theresa, Mother Meera, Mahatma Gandhi, Shunryu Suzuki, LobsangGyatso, TarthangTulku, PaldenGyatso, Hazrat Khan, Yogananda, Sri Krishna, Saint Francis of Assisi, Albert Schweitzer, Meher Baba, Buddha, Jesus Christ, Lao Tsu, Confucius, Zarathustra,Rabindranath Tagore, Alice Bailey, Helena Roerich, Nicholas Roerich, JanuszKorczak, Viktor TihonovichChernovolenko, Rabbi Malka Drucker, Sogyal Rinpoche, Richard Wilhelm, Niels Bohr, Ivan Efremov, Galina Ulanova, Anna Pavlova, Maya Plisetskaya,ChögyamTrungpa, Mary Daly, Mary Baker Eddy, Aimee Semple McPherson, BhaktivedantaPrabuphada, ZalmanSchachter-Shalomi, Shirdi Sai Baba, Abdul Bahá, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Gustavo Gutiérrez, Martin Luther King Jr., Oscar Romero, Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso), Abraham Joshua Heschel, Vivekananda, Hans Küng, Reinhold Niebuhr, Alexander Schmemann, Joseph Soloveitchik, Thomas Berry, Martin Buber, MirceaEliade, Abraham Isaac Kook, D. T. Suzuki, Simone Weil, Dorothy Day, Catherine de Hueck Doherty, MahaGhosananda, Mawlana Muhammad Ilyas, Walter Rauschenbusch, Robert Holbrook Smith, ThichNhatHanh, BawaMuhaiyaddeen, Black Elk, Bede Griffiths, HazratInayat Khan, J. Krishnamurti, Meher Baba, SeyyedHossein Nasr, ParamahansaYogananda,AjahnChah, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Thomas Merton, PemaChödrön, RamanaMaharshi, SeungSahn, Shunryu Suzuki.
World Service countries: There are no countries operating predominantly at this level of perceptivity.
Recognizing Differences InContext and Perception
WorldView is the perceptual or experiential framework by which individuals “construct,” interpret and make sense of the world. Central to a WorldView is a set of operating assumptions (or beliefs) about what is possible to experience, the nature of experience, the basis of value and what it all means. We call these “operating” assumptions because they are evidenced or indicated by actions and undirected responses. Over time, we become aware of the operating assumptions (of our life), which manifests the possibility they can be changed. The more internal discrimination we experience, the more conscious we become. This increasing sophistication, in response to our experience, generally increases the awareness of our creative nature. We learn what we best contribute, and it flows. In other words, greater consciousness provides greater awareness, more perceptual tools and expanded choices. And as a person’s consciousness grows, they have an ever-deepening connection to Life, Light and Love.
Our WorldView provides a set of beliefs that guide the interpretation of our experiences. It is how we interpret reality to form an accepted framework of inner relationships that simplifies the understanding of our situation. A belief is, essentially, an idea that reinforces our overall sense of safety and security, or makes it easier to deal with what we know. Usually a belief is based on a known experience that has crystallized into a predictable meaning and keeps us from questioning it on a larger level. Beliefs are thoughts we commonly use to reinforce our idea of what should happen in a situation. They prevent us from deepening our understanding beyond what we already know. Beliefs are actually crutches that keep us from examining our reality in each moment. It is useful to notice that many beliefs reflect our past, which we now try to project on the current circumstances (when in fact they may not relate). As we come to realize we can engage current circumstances in the moment, we become more effective at relating to the world.
Our perceptual stage (given our WorldView) represents the context in which we relate to the world of people, ideas and things. It focuses attention on a group of lessons, leading us down a path of natural development that facilitates our growth and allows us to expand our viewpoint. Everyone moves through the stages more or less sequentially. If the lesson is learned, we move on to the next stage. If we do not learn the limits of the stage, and become attached to the lesson, we stop our overall development. Instead, we begin focusing piece by piece on smaller parts of the lesson in order to let go of the attachment. When we become conscious of this process, we can accelerate our growth enormously. It allows us to identify where we may not be accepting ourselves fully, or are operating from a less evolved perceptivity.
WorldView reflects the complexity of the lessons we engage in the universe. The more we see and accept the different WorldView levels of people around us, the more effective we will be in supporting them. Whenever we talk to someone who has a lower worldview than ours, we have to recalibrate what we are saying to the level they are able to engage, or they won’t understand us. It does not matter how many times we try to tell them what they are doing; they cannot hear what we are saying. Sometimes, individuals we love and who love us, can temporarily operate in alignment with us if they are in our presence for a considerable period of time. While they may be able to understand us for this period, when they leave our presence, they start to revert to their previous perceptions. This results in forgetting the details of what occurred (when in our presence).
Validating Worldview
Survival WorldView individuals can be identified by:
a) How they are indifferent about people. (They cannot easily see differences or distinctions in people.)
b) How they demonstrate an inability to connect, enjoy or really be with anyone.
c) They have a prevailing belief in superstition.
d) They lack color sensibility or coordination.
e) They over-identify with nature to the point where they get lost in it.
f) Primarily unconscious and non-responsive to all but survival issues.
Whimsically referred to as minnows.
Safety & Security WorldView individuals can be identified by:
a) An emphasis on following suggested guidelines, actions and directions in order to guarantee or generate predictable results.
b) An aversion to new, different or unproven ways of doing things.
c) Attempts to overprotect children and over-direct other peers for the purpose of creating a false sense of safety and security by following the rules.
d) Following predefined roles, while encouraging others to imitate them in order to create more stability within their community.
e) Everything is seen in terms of black or white, with no shades of gray.
f) Become self-conscious of instincts, operate primarily out of fear.
Whimsically referred to as carp.
Outer Success WorldView individuals can be identified by:
a) They encourage technological breakthroughs, and accept new ways of doing things that add value or save time.
b) They are ambitious, with a desire to maximize personal benefit in all situations.
c) Frequently seen as self-centered or egotistical due to their immediate concerns about how any change affects them.
d) Emphasis on what they know as a way of differentiating themselves from others.
e) They are not emotionally connected or overly committed to others except where it serves their long-term interests. They end up objectifying relationships, seeking ways to leverage them.
f) Their sense of aloneness, isolation, and independence.
g) Become self-conscious of emotions, and self reflective about instincts.
Whimsically referred to as sharks.
Relationship WorldView individuals can be identified by:
a) Their desire to be with others in an emotionally connected way to create a false sense of security.
b) Their overly dramatic flair, sense of intensity, and desire to find a way to step out of the relationship patterns that control their lives drives them to try anything.
c) Their commitment to attempt to resolve issues even if there seems to be no answer or way out highlights their hopefulness
d) When they are in advanced relationship levels, they not only see the patterns in their relationships, but can release themselves from repeating them.
e) Their desire for community, connection, exploration of mutual interests and desires are all expressions of their people focus.
f) Become self-conscious of thought processes and self reflective about emotions. Start to make conscious choices in relationships, understanding the long-term consequences.
Whimsically referred to as salmon.
Inner Success WorldView individuals can be identified by:
a) Their introspection and desire to understand what is going on around them.
b) Their abilitynot to take the comments or criticisms of others personally, reflecting that other people’s stuff may not relate to them.
c) A greater capacity for self-observation and the ability to view their lives from a distance that enables them to see re-occurring themes they are acting out.
d) Their ability to see the consequences of the choices they make and the nature of how what they put out in the world comes back multiplied.
e) Their interest in unifying their friends in all walks of life to see what happens.
f) Their desire to balance work, primary relationship, and community in their life.
g) Become self-reflective about thought processes, detach from mass consciousness, define work on their own terms.
Whimsically referred to as seals.
Personality Integration WorldView individuals can be identified by:
a) Their sense of detachment and the clarity they use to see others around them objectively.
b) Their ability to see a person’s greatest gifts as well as acknowledge their greatest weaknesses demonstrates their ability to embrace paradox.
c) They have compassion for people and the ability to empathize and communicate inclusively when tragedy strikes.
d) They speak playfully and paradoxically, typically forgiving and acknowledging the fears and judgments of society as a whole.
e) They are able to integrate and use their inner masculine and feminine simultaneously, enabling them to be powerful creators.
f) They learn to operate without compromise by taking principled stands despite the consequences, realizing that to pull back denies their divinity.
g) They learn to love themselves to the point where their inner life and light shines forth revealing a startling unity of purpose and ability to attract what’s needed to make their fullest contribution.
h) Become self-conscious about internal mythology and begin to use abstract thinking to generate new ways to create. No longer limited to pre-existing group thought patterns. Can manifest unique insights.
i) Sees all defensive structures as a balancing act where we use paradox to transcend the pairs of opposites that keep us identified and attached to our duality.
Whimsically referred to as dolphins.
World Service WorldView individuals can be identified by:
a) They illustrate their lack of interest in personality expressions by a lack of small talk or conformance to social expectations. Can end up seeming aloof or arrogant and unavailable to lower-level expressions. They focus on their contribution as they see it, and not as others would wish it to be.
b) They demonstrate an ability to differentiate the problems of others from their own, which can seem indifferent to the boundary issues and personality needs of others in lower WorldViews.
c) They honor the free will of others over their own personality interests and will not try to convince others to do something without their express invitation. They realize that inner unity is achieved only through free will.
d) Their focus is on bringing out people’s highest creativity, which initially may not have tangible form and structure, causing distress in some people by how they shift their reality so suddenly.
e) They become examples of how to be of the greatest service by the way they design their lives. Others are encouraged to find their own gifts and are inspired to do so.
f) Use pre-existing agreements to invert the way others perceive issues to teach a unified way out of the pain and self generated illusions.
Whimsically referred to as whales.
Compatibility Issues Around WorldView Differences
WorldView demonstrates the level of consciousness in an individual. Luckily, we are naturally attracted to friends and partners who have similar WorldViews so we can complete lessons with them. As Diagram 15, WorldView Compatibility illustrates, compatibility is best if we are operating within the same WorldView stage. This is particularly important when considering romantic partners. We often choose lower WorldView partners because we feel safe choosing partners like our parents. Over time, we realize that there is no real connection, if we are not on the same page with our life lessons. Compatibility difficulties are also seen in business relationships and long term relationships where one person has stopped growing.
Having friends on both sides of the WorldView spectrum best supports growth and evolution. We must be sensitive that we don’t know other people’s life plan and therefore we must accept when our friends reach growth walls that they cannot seem to climb over. We must also be careful not to mislead ourselves in our assessment of where we are. The higher our WorldView the more capable we are of meeting others where they are and the less attached we are to distinguishing people by differences. On the other hand, when we use these consciousness skills with individuals not in a higher World View, we can confuse them and make it difficult for them to respond.
WorldView level reflects the complexity of the lessons we are engaged in. The more we can see and accept the different WorldView levels of those around us, the more effective we will be in supporting them. Whenever we talk to someone who has a “lower WorldView” than ours, we have to recalibrate what we are saying to where they are, or they will not understand us. This is the top-down view. It will not matter how many times we try telling them what they are doing; they will not be able to hear what we are saying. Sometimes, individuals whom we love and who love us, can temporarily operate in alignment with us if they are in our presence for a considerable period. In this situation our WorldView uplifts them. While they may be able to understand us for this period, as soon as they leave our presence, they start to revert to their previous perceptionsresulting in their forgetting the details of what occurred in our presence. When we are sick, particularly with a life threatening illness, our WorldView is usually temporarily reduced.
The higher our WorldView, the more responsible we are for supporting and being with others around us. This is the actually a bottom-up view. Taking responsibility in a situation is an indication that we are coming into a place of acceptance of our full, creative being and honoring our place in the world. The completion of each WorldView stage supports us in an exponential expansion of our consciousness. While each stage has a particular set of lessons we are mastering, the process is greatly facilitated if we learn how to accept ourselves in a holistic way. This means building a loving connection with our Self, so we are increasingly able to respond to higher creative impulses. The more we are conscious of the integration process, the more we are able to take advantage of our exponential, evolutionary process.
Recognizing the difference in WorldViews between our “Self” and our parents allows us to forgive them, knowing they did the best they knew how. When choosing relationships within our WorldView perceptivity, we support and stimulate our growth. Beyond the Relationship Lesson level, growth in relationships must be mutual. Beyond the Inner Success stage, work expression has to be based on authentic creative expression. Beyond the Personality Integration stage, all work, relationship and Community Service is based on Mutual Accomplishment.
Typically, growing individuals follow this schedule of lessons:
1. Survival (Emphasizes Masculine)
Where we are unconscious, helpless and clueless about how to take care of ourselves. We learn dependency.
2. Safety and Security (Emphasizes Feminine)
Where we become a novice in the process of life, and learn the lay of the land. We begin to learn how to take care of ourselves.
3. Outer Success (Emphasizes Masculine)
Where we expand our personal dominion by learning how to make an impact on the world. People in this “me first” stage overlook the need for quality relationships, and believe they can “buy love.”
4. Relationship (Emphasizes Feminine)
Where we start to pay attention to the well-being of others. We find a partner with whom we feel safe and secure and learn how primitive relationship beliefs need fine tuning. During this stage we sometimes feel it is “you and me against the world.”
5. Inner Success (Emphasizes Masculine)
Where we begin to put relationships, work and community interests together and balance them. The re-evaluation at this stage leads us to realize we have to be connected and in alignment with our spiritual source. This begins the inner work process where motives become transparent, past mistakes obvious, and the need for personality integration clear.
6. Personality Integration (Emphasizes Feminine)
Where we become conscious of defensive patterns and where they lead, revealing the need to balance and heal our masculine and feminine sides. By healing our wounds, we free ourselves from the limitations of fears and desires. We find new ways to support, contribute to and heal others.
7. World Service (Emphasizes Both Masculine & Feminine)
Where we discover the joy and bliss of living an altruistic, soulful life of serving others. Since we have greatly expanded our personal space to include the world, serving others is serving ourselves.
Oftentimes individuals get stuck along the way. This occurs when:
1) our parents are stuck on one level and we are unconsciously imprinted not to go beyond them;
2) our friends are all operating at a particular level and peer pressure keeps us at that level with them; or
3) we become attached to the manifestations of a particular stage that reduces our willingness to keep growing.
It is also true that individuals may skip a stage for a while (such as working on relationships before completing Outer Success) or may operate from two stages at the same time. Recognizing differences in WorldView between us and our parents allows us to forgive them, knowing they did the best they knew how.
Introduction to WorldView
WorldView is the perceptual or experiential framework by which individuals “construct,” interpret and make sense of the world. Central to a WorldView is a set of operating assumptions (or beliefs) about what is possible to experience, the nature of experience, the basis of value and what it all means. We call these “operating” assumptions because they are evidenced or indicated by actions and undirected responses. Over time, we become aware of the operating assumptions (of our life), which manifests the possibility they can be changed. The more internal discrimination we experience, the more conscious we become. This increasing sophistication, in response to our experience, generally increases the awareness of our creative nature. We learn what we best contribute, and it flows. In other words, greater consciousness provides greater awareness, more perceptual tools and expanded choices. And as a person’s consciousness grows, they have an ever-deepening connection to Life, Light and Love.
Our WorldView provides a set of beliefs that guide the interpretation of our experiences. It is how we interpret reality to form an accepted framework of inner relationships that simplifies the understanding of our situation. A belief is, essentially, an idea that reinforces our overall sense of safety and security, or makes it easier to deal with what we know. Usually a belief is based on a known experience that has crystallized into a predictable meaning and keeps us from questioning it on a larger level. Beliefs are thoughts we commonly use to reinforce our idea of what should happen in a situation. They prevent us from deepening our understanding beyond what we already know. Beliefs are actually crutches that keep us from examining our reality in each moment. It is useful to notice that many beliefs reflect our past, which we now try to project on the current circumstances (when in fact they may not relate). As we come to realize we can engage current circumstances in the moment, we become more effective at relating to the world.
WORLDVIEW DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
We can map the development of our WorldView on instinctive, emotional, intellectual and intuitive levels. The diagram WorldView Development Process, maps out how we grow on each level. The arrows indicate a named motivating force that takes three stages to complete. At the completion of this process, a circle indicates the primary acceptance of a lesson. For example, on the instinctive level, we are initially motivated by fear, which continues from the Survival to Outer Success stages. We complete this lesson in the Relationship stage, which shows that instinct and fear loses its power (over us). On the emotional level, survival is dependent upon our ability to know who we can trust (which is the primary lesson we learn in the Survival stage, indicated by a circle).
Our unconscious development process supports moving from instinctive to emotional to intellectual to intuitive levels. Each step in our growth requires the foundation of the previous steps, otherwise the lesson is not embodied. We become self-reflective and conscious of the process at the mid-relationship stage. This is signified by a light yellow background on the Inner Success, Personality Integration and World Service stages. Our development is actually based upon how well we develop the tools of our perception. The more we are able to consciously use these perceptual tools (sensations, feelings, emotions, thoughts) in a way that supports our learning process, the faster we evolve. For example, in the Safety and Security stage, we are unconscious of emotions, then become self aware of them when we move into the Relationship stage (where they become self reflective and available).
Each arrow manifests as an increasing faculty to see, experience and respond to changes in our lives. The key shift occurs when we become aware that we have thoughts, but that we are not our thoughts. This is diagrammed on the intellectual level at the Outer Success stage when we ‘are’ our thoughts, which then shifts to becoming self-conscious in the Relationship stage. Finally, in the Inner Success stage, we become self-reflective and understand that our thoughts are just expressions of who we are and not actually who we are. The WorldView Development Process diagram provides a framework for understanding the deeper shifts that occur as we become more conscious.
Our perceptual stage (given our WorldView) represents the context in which we relate to the world of people, ideas and things. It focuses attention on a group of lessons, leading us down a path of natural development that facilitates our growth and allows us to expand our viewpoint. Everyone moves through the stages more or less sequentially. If the lesson is learned, we move on to the next stage. If we do not learn the limits of the stage, and become attached to the lesson, we stop our overall development. Instead, we begin focusing piece by piece on smaller parts of the lesson in order to let go of the attachment. When we become conscious of this process, we can accelerate our growth enormously. It allows us to identify where we may not be accepting ourselves fully, or are operating from a less evolved perceptivity.
WorldView reflects the complexity of the lessons we engage in the universe. The more we see and accept the different WorldView levels of people around us, the more effective we will be in supporting them. Whenever we talk to someone who has a lower worldview than ours, we have to recalibrate what we are saying to the level they are able to engage, or they won’t understand us. It does not matter how many times we try to tell them what they are doing; they cannot hear what we are saying. Sometimes, individuals we love and who love us, can temporarily operate in alignment with us if they are in our presence for a considerable period of time. While they may be able to understand us for this period, when they leave our presence, they start to revert to their previous perceptions. This results in forgetting the details of what occurred (when in our presence).
World View compatibility factors allow us to understand and appreciate where we and others are in our development process. Each of the seven stages reflects a type of lesson or focus that commands our attention. When we can appreciate and accept our own World View, it enables us to see and be present with others in ways that are more comfortable. By identifying where others are, we can speak in a way that honors and meets them. Completion of each stage indicates the degree of self-mastery in a particular area.
WorldView is an experiential framework by which individuals construct, interpret, and make sense of the world. Central to WorldView is a set of operating principles and assumptions of what is possible to experience, the nature of that experience, and the framework through which we learn our lessons. There are seven different WorldView stages that represent 7 levels of lessons within each WorldView stage for a total of 49 WorldView options. Due to the inherent growth aspect of WorldView stages, it is the only hierarchical Compatibility Factor. However, it is critical that we do not use WorldView differences to judge or idealize others. Doing so will limit our growth and Wisdom. Instead we can use a WorldView assessment to guide our understanding of other’s life priorities and to have greater choice about how best to honor, engage and love them in a way in which they can accept our support and feel safe.
Until we understand our WorldView and the lessons we are engaging, we tend to be unconscious about why certain people are attracted to us. Simply stated, we attract others who share a common WorldView. It is with these individuals that we feel the most seen and understood. They are the people most likely to support us in understanding the lessons we are engaging because they are learning the same lessons.As we engage and learn from our life lessons in the various WorldView stages, we expand our scope and power to deal with complexity. This means at higher WorldViews we are able to deal with a wider range of issues because of our increased capacity to engage both similarities and differences. The more we can hold our own space and resolve the paradoxes in our life, the greater we can demonstrate a sense of congruence. Therefore, the greater the WorldView, the more we are integrated and naturally creative. Our ability to accept and love ourselves grows as we master each stage.
Everyone generally moves through the WorldView stages sequentially. However, we can sometimes straddle as many as three different WorldViews simultaneously. We complete a WorldView stage, when we have embodied the lessons in a way that makes us flexible and fluid in those areas. In order of development, the WorldViews are: Survival, Safety & Security, Outer Success, Relationship, Inner Success, Personality Integration, and World Service. It is important to remember that our parents imprinted us with the WorldView levels that they operated at as we were growing up. This often leads us to fall into, when under stress, a lower WorldView than our actual consciousness. This is particularly true when we are around lower WorldView individuals in authority roles on whom we desire to make a good impression.
We naturally begin our development at Survival and we evolve as quickly as we cangiven the circumstances of our environment. Occasionally, as teenagers we find it difficult to surpass our parents’ WorldView level, as it can often feel disrespectful, like a betrayal which can lead to a dramatic reduction of our authentic evolutionary growth. Any attachments we have to staying in stages we have completed, indicates imprinting from our parents. To the degree we release our imprinting, we experiencegreater clarity in our life. It is important to remember that until we have completed a stage we have not mastered that level. As long as we are in any stage, the issues of our lives, especially the most frustrating aspects, will keep focusing on our incomplete lessons.
There is no prescription for growing in WorldView. Some individuals may spend a life time in one or two WorldView stages, while others reach Relationship and beyond. It is common to get stuck in a WorldView stage along the way because: 1) our parents are stuck in one location and we are unconsciously imprinted not to go beyond them; 2) our friends are all operating at a particular level and peer pressure keeps us at that level; and 3) we become attached to the manifestations of a particular stage, reducing our willingness to keep growing. It is also true that sometimes individuals may skip a stage for a while (such as working on relationships before completing Outer Success) or may be operating from two stages at the same time.
Exploring The Value Of Worldview
WorldView is a set of distinctions that allows us to understand and appreciate where an individual is in their development process. Each of the seven stages reflects a type of lesson or focus that commands our attention. The only hierarchical Compatibility Factor is WorldView. The challenge of assimilating one’s WorldView is that we must be most careful not to judge others, but accept them where they are. When we can appreciate and accept our own WorldView it enables us to see and be present with others in ways that are more comfortable.
Since this factor reflects our consciousness we develop it by actively engaging our lessons. These lessons are based upon our perception of Intent, Content and Context. Of these Context is the more important because is supports appropriate responsiveness. Content provides a way of identifying options and possibilities fist by naming them and second by learning how best to respond. Intent is the grounding energy to we need to make things happen. Together we grow in our sophistication and awareness so that difficult problems become easy.
It is important to remember that until we have completed a stage we have not mastered that level. We will know individuals have a lower WorldView because they cannot match, understand or engage the lessons we are working on. We will know the opposite is true when we cannot engage the lessons of others. As long as we are in a stage, the issues of your life, especially the most frustrating aspects, will keep focusing on your incomplete lessons. Individuals who have not reached mid-level Relationship will not be able easily reflect and learn the solutions we highlight in this work. The benefit of becoming more conscious about WorldView is that individuals can accelerate their development by using these guidelines.
Having friends on both sides of the WorldView spectrum best supports growth and evolution. We must also be careful not to mislead ourselves in our assessment of where we are because due to our fears we may not be as conscious as we think we are. The higher WorldView we have, the more forgiving and flexible we are in meeting others where they are. We are also able to see differences in others without judgment and we are not attached to their challenges.
We also grow best by choosing partners, business associates and friends with the same WorldView. Completion of each stage indicates the degree of self-mastery in a particular area. The more stages we complete the greater flexibility we possess. Our ability to accept ourselves grows as we master each stage, increasing our capacity to deal with ambiguity, paradox and complexity. On the other hand, when you use these consciousness skills with individuals not in higher World View you confuse and make it difficult for them to respond.
There are seven WorldViews and seven levels within each. Each WorldView stage has a different focus and orientation to others and their lessons. These steps are successive and indicate an increasing ability to deal with challenges. As individuals master each of those lessons, they realize progressively their creative power and manifest increasing abilities to define their reality. We encourage you to deal with one issue at a time to focus your Lessons. You can be in two or more steps successively which indicates you are trying to deal with multiple issues. We have many individuals in this group who are fragmented between the fourth (Relationship) and fifth (Inner Success) levels. The following discussion guides or creates a framework to ground ourselves in understanding about the differences in WorldViews.
A PRELIMINARY OVERVIEW
In the Diagram, WorldView Development Process, illustrates the complexity of WorldView Development in terms of stages, as well as the influence of Instinctive, Intellectual and Intuitive perspectives. During the stages of Survival and Safety and Security, we are undeveloped and learn through friction. In our ignorance, we believe in the outer reality of things, and deny our inner knowing. Our creative self-denial generates fear, which directs us to identify with things around us. During this stage, we operate under the Law of Economy, which drives us to do things to produce the most effect for us. This whole process helps us develop a group outlook, and learn to unify in an outward way with others. Developing relationships with everything around us assists us in accomplishing this. Outer Success is the transitional level, where we start to realize that our outer reality does not reflect anything within us because we have yet to develop our inner perceptions.
Relationship and Inner Success help us develop better connections within ourselves. We learn, through deepening our understanding of motivation and connection to others, what works. We become interested in working with people who are creatively aligned with us. We are under the influence of the Law of Attraction. We need to learn to deal with the glamour of knowledge. By connecting to our own inner truth, we develop self-understanding and, eventually, Wisdom. We become magnetic as we learn to fully love ourselves for who we are as contributing creative beings. As we evolve, we come to understand our humanity and begin to embrace the similarities we all have.
In Personality Integration and World Service, we heal our internal being, so we can be more focused on our external creation. Balancing our inner and outer realities allows us to conquer the illusion and glamour around us. We prepare ourselves to operate from the power of Electric Fire by developing the tools of insulation. The more we are grounded in our way of being, the more we can use Electric Fire as our primary means of expressing ourselves without burning out, allowing us to be more directly powerful. We are operating here under the Law of Synthesis. As we complete our healing, we prepare ourselves to make a contribution that is not based on our past, but redefines our future. We call this stepping into World Service.
Finally, WorldViews also support the balancing of our inner masculine and feminine expression. Our masculine side pursues task and time management practices to produce order and tool-building mastery. Our feminine side invites new possibilities to show up, using relationship skills and chaos to enhance mystery. The more we embody the masculine and feminine simultaneously, the less Defensive we are. Survival, Outer Success and Inner Success are masculine embodiment frameworks that typically reflect our relationship to our fathers. Safety and Security, Relationship and Personality Integration are feminine embodiment frameworks that typically reflect our relationship to our mothers. World Service requires that we balance our masculine and feminine expression. Most individuals begin to integrate masculine and feminine expressions during Inner Success and Personality Integration levels by learning how to engage these modalities simultaneously.
Survival Stage
Survival lessons focus on food, clothing, shelter, a safe base of operations, and occasionally sex, if the situation permits. Most adults in Survival lessons are found in the tropics, where this process is greatly facilitated by the environment andrarely found in highly populated or technological areas. We can identify individuals in Survival by a lack of ability to connect with others in any meaningful, energetic way. In this stage, we are unconscious and unable to construct a framework that differentiates us from our environment. We primarily react in a primitive and fearful ways, learning through trial and error. Since we have very little flexibility in coping with the sophistication of higher WorldViews, we tend to be marginalized and look for simple ways to exist where other people have minimal impact. One of the main aspects of our Survival lessons is to ground ourselves in our physical body and to accept that we are, to a degree, dependent on others and the world around us.
Most of us operate in this stage for approximately the first 18 months of life. We are learning: Where am I? Who are you? Others do best if they engage us by reachingour intuitive, mystical connection to the earth. One of the best ways is by honoring that while we may know little of the details, we have an untapped, comprehensive wisdom. The most important thing is to not impose or ask us to change our point of focus. In short, others need to learn to recognize the integrity of our situation. We need to be seenas capable of finding our own solutions. As infants, it is important that we be allowed to see how far we can go in learning to establish our own energetic connectionswithout the expectations of a pre-defined response. In this way, we can give our parents positive feedback when they do things that work for us. When we are not seen and we perceive danger in exploring our own Truth, we can become fixated at this level, which means that we will not likely trust human interactions. We can be recognized at this level by how we automatically “tune out” other’s desire to connect.
When we are operating at the Survival level, we have an animal-focused consciousness, where we attempt to adapt to the environment. Our focus on what is needed to survive occupies our complete attention, making it very difficult to interact with other people. What an individual learns at this level is to be selfish and self-centered in order to guarantee personal survival. Unconscious imitation behavior often builds a sense of safety and “simple belonging.” Individuals at this level find it difficult to look into the eyes of others. Typically, we do not see Survival oriented people in industrial societies. Most Survival oriented people are in equatorial environments where they can fish and gather fruit. Survival level individuals do not necessarily have the mental capacity to deal with farming because of the time and the planning required. It is important not to confuse non-technological with unconscious. Many aborigine societies that are still living in traditional ways are actually manifesting Relationship Lessons and above.
CHECKLIST FOR SURVIVAL LEVEL
• Operational status: we are unconscious, helpless and clueless about how to take care of ourselves. We learn dependency here. Develop strong coping skills—primitive, fearful, and pragmatic. Survival at all costs. If traumatized and we remain at this stage, we will tend to avoid city life and live in the country.
• Learning method: through blind experimentation. Our strategy in terms of the sea is to be a minnow, so we will not be noticed.
• Dimensions of experience: One. Instinctive; me and not me. Do not respond effectively to emotions or thoughts.
• Focus: where am I, and who are you? (initial body awareness)
• Responsive characteristics: simple, earthy, naive, intuitive, unquestioning, mystical.
• Reactive characteristics: animalistic, frightened, ignorant, goes through personality extremes, aggressive.
Percent of adult population falling into Survival Level: 8%.
Examples: Not usually famous
Survival Lesson countries: usually found in tropical zones where food is plentiful.
Safety & Security
Safety & Security lessons focus on figuring out the principles and rules that seem to guarantee our physical well-being. At this stage, we focus on meeting the expectations of others by developing strong role-playing capabilities. We are primarily found in rural areas where we feel safe and live by “the rules”. In our attempts to become perfect, we may become judgmental and reactive when others do not follow what we perceive to be the rules. This is because we believe anyone breaking the rules directly threatens our safety and security. When others break a rule, we go to a place of seeing all rules being broken, which feels very threatening. Safety & Security WorldView individuals need a strong sense of authority and order to feel comfortable. We like being a member of a clearly defined group giving us sense belonging. While we are very selective with whom we associate, we tend to have long-term friendships that provide a sense of stability and familiarity helpingus feel comfortable.
We are usually in the Safety & Security WorldView stage between the age of eighteen months and 5 years old. What we want most from others is appreciation for our consistency and systematic progress toward a goal. While we tend to learn through confrontation, we mostly try to avoid both confrontation and the pain that tends to surround it. We can best be supported by first having agreement from others and after which we can be open to hearing suggestions for other ways of looking at a situation. We have the most difficulty dealing with individuals with unpredictable emotional states. What Safety & Security lessons teach us is how to conform to others and even take care of them. This does not mean we are comfortable with people. Rather it means that we are learning to be.
At this level our animalistic urges are married with some intellectual perceptivity allowing us to develop an “I” consciousness, which automatically creates fear of others. At this level, everything is framed in terms of black and white, truth and non-truth. It is assumed that there is one common reality in which everyone is defined. We learn to hide our selfishness to guarantee the survival of the family unit. Our new mental focus drives us to create safety in whatever way is possible. This particularly shows up in laws, which we completely support, making it possible for us to believe we are safe. Our sense of responsibility begins to develop as we define ourselves so we can fit in with others. As we become more settled, we adopt Distant defense patterns that provide structure for our reality. We are most sensitive to others who contradict our plans or way of doing things. Our irritation reflects the belief that our way is the best way. We become identified with our pride when others seem to disregard our perspective and typically withdraw and take things personally, leading to bouts of self-pity.
At this stage, we become conscious of our instinctive drives, but feelings are mysterious and unconscious motivators. We are able to discuss our superstitions and develop a desire to be affirmed in our belonging by becoming a part of a church. As there is safety in numbers, we seek the reassurance of fixed patterns of behavior in religious practice. One side effect of this is that we may be threatened by others who do not agree with our beliefs providing a basis for religious rivalry and wars.
Sex equals unconscious safety and we start to act out our attractions in ways that are expressed as roles. Whenever there are challenges, we automatically withdraw so things can be considered before responding to the situation. It is also likely that we are operating from a sense of stinginess, where we deny our abundance. Another way we create safety is to live in tract housing where everybody agrees about how things will be. We expect other people to do their duty and meet their responsibilities. Otherwise, we reject or judge them. Over time we build a sense of safety and security by living within a comfort zone that we expect others, especially our friends or family members, to support. We typically become over dramatic when others do not agree with us because our fears are triggered. Over time, we learn to hide our possessiveness behind a mask of intolerance.
CHECKLIST FOR SAFETY AND SECURITY LEVEL
• Operational status:Novice (please take care of me) desires structure, rules, law, civilization and needs a sense of order and authority to feel comfortable. Will challenge anything that seeks to destroy the status quo.
• Learning method: unconscious through avoidance and pain. The strategy in terms of the sea is to be a carp, protected in large schools, and able to exert some influence by sounding the alarm when danger lurks.
• Dimensions of experience: One. Instinctive connecting to emotions—me and other mes. Responds primarily to emotions, either to protect or attack.
• Focus: “This is the rule, and it must be followed.” Find comfort from knowing what to expect. Love organization, bureaucracy and stability because they fear change.
• Responsive characteristics: good citizens, conscientious, concerned, loyal, family-minded, will do the right thing, sees things simply, creates rules, security-minded.
• Reactive characteristics: dogmatic, unbending, petty, bureaucratic, rigid, unquestioning of authority, can operate more from emotions than reason (but denies it). Will fight for their beliefs, community-oriented, righteous. Sometimes lack original thought, strong belief in dichotomy, right/wrong etc., uneasiness around sexuality, obsessive about germs and cleanliness, sometimes brutal.
Percent of adult population falling into Safety and Security group: 20%
Examples: Steven King, Ann Landers, Mike Tyson, Oral Roberts, Yassar Arafat, Colonel Kaddafy, and Idi Amin.
Safety and Security areas / countries: Midwest United States, Ireland, Mexico, Argentina, most other South American countries.
Outer Success
The lessons of Outer Success focus on control, outer power, fame, and wealth. At this stage, we tend to individuate. This can be seen in how much we try to manifest our own vision and independence, regardless of the cost to others. We live mostly in metropolitan and technological centers. We can be attached to our toys, especially high tech toys that make us feel superior and on the cutting edge.We learn the lessons of Outer Success by identification with possessions and the subsequent loss of these possessions. We do not complete the lessons of Outer Success until we no longer define ourselves in terms of the things we own. It is also important to learn that outer power only has an impact on people who are operating from Defenses. Therefore, we learn to distinguish between power with and power over people. True power is always expressed in a Co-Creative way that does not diminish any of the participants. Another way of expressing the key issue of Outer Success is stepping beyond the competitive model of “me vs. you” into a cooperative model that builds alliances.
If we have conscious parents, operating at the Relationship level or above, then we usually go through the Outer Success stage between the years of 5 and 12. Unfortunately, since few of us have conscious parents, a large majority of the population is still operating in the realm of Outer Success. We are best honored when others preemptively acknowledging our goals and objectives and make a deal to support us in what we need, in exchange for our supporting the needs of the larger group. While this is a conditional framework which may not be comfortable for people operating at a higher WorldView, it is the approach that will most effectively engage us in the higher group possibilities. What others need to recognize is the appearances of aggressiveness, arrogance, and greed in Outer Success individuals is really a cover up for our insecurity and fears. What we want others to reflect back is that we are industrious leaders who will “go the extra mile” to make things work.
As we move into Outer Success, we seek a way to contribute where we can play a part and be rewarded for it. Greed and personal satisfaction become the driving forces of our life as we begin to build a sense of self-discipline in order to get what we want. We become aware of how we adapt to circumstances to maximize our personal gain, even at the cost of others because we are governed by a desire to increase our comfort on physical, emotional and mental levels. This is also the stage where sex equates to love, and how physically attractive or how successful in the world our partner is reflects on our image. Usually, we are highly identified with our job or career and what we possess. This further enhances a sense of competition, where we compare ourselves to others based on what we have. The more we are better than or different from others, the more we leverage our differences to prove ourselves superior. At this stage, we can be insensitive and indifferent to the emotions, reactions or pain of others.
It is easy to become preoccupied at this level with righting past perceived wrongs. The more we need to get even and prove ourselves better, the more we naturally distance ourselves from the pain of others. We end up substituting our attachments to things over our emotional well being, not realizing that selfishness opens us up to becoming evil. In this context, evil is merely the denial of others to enrich our own well-being. What is ironic is how much we come into this process being disgusted by the greediness of others, only to end up attempting to outdo them reducing our sensitivity on intuitive and emotional levels. As a result, we are able to act more boldly because we renounce our timidity and fear.
On the Outer Success level, we are unconsciously driven by the power of thoughts. At the same time, we start to become aware of our feelings, even though we are typically afraid to trust them. We feel empowered, because we can see the instinctive motives of others, and feel in control of where we are going in our lives. Our desires emerge, and we seek the easiest way to get where we want to go, not realizing that a lack of internal principle will attract others who want to exploit our greed. It seems like a dog-eat-dog world, which justifies our acting without conscience.
For some, material ambition is the yardstick for progress. In the United States, our belief systems support the notion that prosperity is a godly state. Actually, it is not the outer manifestation of prosperity that is godly, but the inner recognition of our creative abundance. Unfortunately, many of us have become fixated on having more than others to no constructive purpose. While the focus on outer form in the Western World has benefited us on many levels, it is currently stifling our development on many more. The more conscious we are, the more we seek moderate and economical ways to express ourselves. The more unconscious we are, the more attached we are to what we possess, eliminating our ability to see the larger picture. Over time, we learn to hide our intolerance about our differences with others behind a mask of separateness and exclusivity. This prevents ourevolving to the Relationship level.
CHECKLIST FOR OUTER SUCCESS LEVEL
• Operational status:Me First, control and power issues, fame, money. Need independence and success. Outward looking, measured by societal standards.
• Learning method: through identifying with things and then losing them. The strategy in terms of the sea is to be a shark, alone, powerful, doing whatever they want.
• Dimensions of experience: Two. Instinctive and intellectual— me vs. you. The game is to figure out what others need so a profit can be made by controlling them. It is not just about the money, but also a sense of power that covers up an inner sense of personal impotence. They try to avoid tenderness because they believe others will take advantage of their “weakness,” which directs their feelings toward taking action by focusing on material desires.
• Focus: “I can have it all.” Identified with their bodies, youth, appearance, etc. Through love they practice the motives of greed, arrogance and lust, day and night.
• Responsive characteristics: productivity, industriousness, leadership, authoritarian.
• Reactive characteristics: competitive, pushy, self-righteous, arrogant, excessively materialistic, lacking insight into personal motivations, “winner takes all,” “I’m right, you’re wrong” and cleanliness phobias carried over from security lessons.
Percent of adult population falling into Outer Success group: 25% (more in the United States).
Examples: Donald Trump, Saddam Hussein, Dick Clark, Charles Bronson, Casper Weinberger, Lauren Holly, Mae West, John Glenn, Hulk Hogan, Nancy Reagan, Robert Mitchum, Geraldine Ferraro, Greta Garbo, Bryant Gumbel, William Buckley, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Danny DeVito, Humphrey Bogart, Mick Jagger, J. Paul Getty, Alexander The Great, John F. Kennedy, Mao Tse Tung, Bob Hope, Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher, Malcolm X, Ferdinand Marcos, Imelda Marcos, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Aristotle Onassis, James Cagney, Billy Graham, Orson Wells, Jack Benny, Bing Crosby, Gov. Pete Wilson, David Bowie, Jim Carey, Gene Hackman, Elvis Presley (early life), Sharon Stone, Cindy Crawford, Anthony Hopkins, George Bush, Bob Dole, Newt Gingrich, Roseanne Barr, Rush Limbaugh, Woody Harrelson.
Outer Success countries: United States, Some parts of Brazil, Germany, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Israel.
Relationship
Relationship lessons focus on learning to engage others where they are, learning to grow with them. When we are in this stage, we tend to exaggerate our expressions in order to make sure we are being seen and understood by others. We are more interested in being with people who honor our interests and support our growth. We can be verified by our focus on improving our relationships. Initially, what we want is others to know how to meet us so we will have an easy time understanding and connecting with them. Over time, we come to realize that we need to prepare ourselves so we can understand the differences of others in a way that helps us meet them where they are. At this stage, we often learn through anguish. Our fears are more likely to surface at this stage of our development. In order to be intimate with others, we must be able to share and release our fears. Our challenge is to learn how to harmlessly communicate our truths while being present with our Self. Usually, it is in the Relationship stage that we begin to recognize who we are on a creative level.
At the Relationship stage, we complete the unconscious lessons to work in the external world and begin to work on our inner awareness. At this point we realize trying to evolve on our own will only take us so far. Mid-level relationship and above individuals are able to accept the differences in others and operate in more independent ways that respect and honor their autonomy. Recognition of the separateness of others allows us to get close to them and be with them without compromise. The paradox is, the more we are able to accept our own truth as different and unique, the more we are able to accept others as unique making them more interesting. In this situation, we are discovering how to be free to be ourselves, which up to now was limited by the roles we performed to take care of others.
This is the stage where WorldView starts to be obvious because our connections with people are different. Being at this Relationship level wakes us to the disconnect we feel with others. We become aware of lower level motivations that guide most people and realize that we have an option to choose how we wish to be. When we recognize what has been motivating us and how our survival and success patterns have kept us from fully loving who we are, we start telling our truth to others who are conscious of their process. This is both a blessing and a gift. It is their ability to return this gift that makes a conscious relationship possible. We are frustrated when others don’t seem to want to grow and get to the bottom of their relationship patterns.
At the core of relationship lessons is an ability to stand in a higher space within ourselves and recognize that we are not our defensive identity which enables us to see and own our projections on others. We begin to discover the real source of these projections, our denied fears. Instead of becoming entangled by our beliefs that they are doing something to us, we can see that they can’t affect us in anyway we do not choose. The relationship stage therefore, supports getting in touch with our desires to connect in ways that do not entangle others. We learn to tell our truth harmlessly under all circumstances. We also learn to be intimate when others are expressing their truth, which may not agree with our truth. This self discovery process allows us to heal past entanglements and not re-create them. It also opens us up to seeing how we attract those people who make our fears real.
Ultimately, we do not complete the Relationship stage until we recognize what our lessons are in relationships. Unfortunately, those who do not complete this, live the lessons of their parents. At a minimum, this requires that we recognize our imprinting and are able to not lose ourselves in unconscious patterns or pretenses. We know we are not complete when we feel more drive to control the relationship and become more agitated when we can’t eliminate its patterns. Since we can’t transcend what we refuse to own, learning to accept and embrace where we have denied our creativity and truth allows us to grow and respond naturally. Completing this stage empowers us to create trust and unity in every relationship to the ability of our partner to accept it.
If we had conscious parents who were operating in Outer Success level or above, we likely engaged the Relationship stage between the ages of 12 and 28. Our connection with others in the Relationship stage is maintained through calm, clear, energetic intention affirmingthat others will be there with us under all circumstances. This greatly diminishesour anxiety level, and allowsus to pick times and places where we can be heard when we introduce a higher possibility. This possibility can only be created by going deeper in ourselves, with the other person. In other words, we need to relax into a place of being present with our Self and invite the other person to do the same. Otherwise, the best way for others to meet us, is to mirror us as much as possible so we see that they are paying attention and caring about us.
We begin operating at the Relationship stage as we feel a sense of obligation to support the well being of others. A greater sense of responsibility develops as we maximize our integrity in ways that honor the integrity of others. We begin to tell the truth about our emotions, and become identified by our romantic framework, which sees sex as an expression of a higher connection. As we develop recognition of the rights of others, we start to curb our selfishness and discover the power of service. Initially, we may act out and dramatize the experiences we are having in relationships reflecting our frustrations. Eventually, we become aware of the patterns that seem to be recurring in relationships leading us to deeper self-examination, and we seek to have the kinds of relationships we want. When we reach the mid-level of relationships, we become self-conscious and can reflect on our inner and outer experiences separately. For many people, this breakthrough is experienced as being able to see ourselves engaging situations without being identified by them.
Sometimes in the early stages of Relationship, we are still overly attached to what others think about us because we have not yet established a good relationship with ourselves. When we cannot love and be present in our own being, or acknowledge our own choices, we are trapped in a world where our separateness creates distance. The more we do not trust ourselves, the more we are unable to trust others. Our focus then becomes how to be different, not on a material level, but on a spiritual one. This gives birth to Spiritual Materialism, where we compete to establish who is the most spiritual. In this situation, we want others to acknowledge how much spiritual work we have done so we can hide our separateness in new ways that seem acceptable. Unfortunately, this practice reduces our ability to love others as they are, and blocks our developing intimate connections. Overall, the more conscious we are, the more inclusive we are with others and the less conscious we are, the more exclusive we need to be around them.
As we begin to make conscious relationship choices, our instincts lose their power. Our ability to be present and creative supersedes our need for excitement and intensity. We start to see the compromises we made in an attempt to get someone to take care of us. We discover the power in sharing our emotional truth to find conscious partners, as it drives away the individuals who would become co-dependent with us. We are also able to separate our thoughts from the thoughts of others, allowing us to engage without becoming unconsciously merged. These tools awaken us to the patterns of our past, allowing us to choose a partner who can truly meet us. Having choice in relationships is a new concept to many.
Ultimately, we do not complete the Relationship stage until we recognize what our lessons have been and are, in relationships with others. Unfortunately, those who do not, live out the lessons of their parents with other people. At a minimum, this requires that we recognize our imprinting and do not get lost in unconscious patterns or pretenses. We know we are not yet complete when we feel driven to control our relationships, and become agitated when we can’t eliminate the patterns we are in. Since we can’t transcend what we refuse to own, learning to accept and embrace where we have denied our creativity and truth allows us to grow and respond naturally. Completing this stage empowers us to create trust and unity in every relationship, depending on the ability of our partner(s) to accept it.
CHECKLIST FOR RELATIONSHIP LESSONS
• Operational status:You‘n Me—Let’s Do It Together. This stage opens the world of emotional, dramatic relationships. It begins with the desire for the emotional truth, which eventually leads to spiritual openness. Relationship assumptions are examined, and artificial boundaries are broken down. The initial efforts are to make a relationship like we make a pie; eventually we learn that it takes the conscious co-creation of others to make relationships work. At this stage the meaning of relationship starts to fill the empty space in our lives, although at times we still operate from external success criteria in our work. What is important is that we start to measure ourselves by our own internal standards.
• Learning method: through anguish (maximum stress). The strategy in terms of the sea is to be a salmon forever throwing oneself upstream in the perceived only path.
• Dimensions of Experience: Two. Me and you, on an emotional level.
• Focus: “My life and relationships are intense, real and dramatic.”
• Responsive characteristics: Emotionally open, relationship-oriented, become more group-oriented, perceptive, open to spiritual growth, in touch with a wide range of perspectives, and therefore most balanced. (Note: Usually seeks a long-term mate.)
• Reactive characteristics: Identified with the other in relationship (sometimes to the point of loss of self), intense, emotionally explosive soap-opera dramatics; can become neurotic.
Percent of adult population falling into Relationship WorldView: 30%.
Examples: Richard Simmons, Eddie Murphy, Cher, Dan Akroyd, Roseanne Barr, Wil Wheaton, Warren Beatty, Gary Shandling, Boy George, John Belushi, John Cleese, Bill Cosby, Linda Evans, Ronald Reagan, Jane Fonda, William Hurt, Jack Nicholson, Molly Ringwald, Tom Selleck, Dudley Moore, Jay Leno, Arsenio Hall, Martin Luther King, Robin Williams, Lily Tomlin, Donald Sutherland, Gloria Steinem, Debra Winger, Vincent Van Gogh, Ernest Hemingway, Marilyn Monroe, Willie Brown, Shirley MacLaine, Jimi Hendrix, Richard Burton, Drew Barrymore, Walter Matthau, Madonna, River Phoenix, Elvis Presley (later life), Jerry Lewis, Eddie Murphy, Billy Crystal, Dustin Hoffman, Jeff Goldblum, Nick Nolte, Michael J. Fox, Spike Lee, Bill & Hillary Clinton, Sandra Bullock, Meryl Streep, Leonard Nimoy, Janine Turner, Joan Rivers, Burt Reynolds, Rosie O’Donnell, John Travolta, Don Johnson, Matthew Broderick, Tim Allen and Keanu Reeves.
Relationship oriented communities: Amsterdam, Holland; Berkeley, CA; Cambridge, MA.
Relationship lesson countries Egypt, Greece, Italy, Britain, Japan (major parts of), Russia and Poland
Inner Success
Inner Success is the fifth stage of WorldView. It focuses us more within ourselves, so we accept our masculine and feminine completely. At this stage we begin to question our image, recognizing that it is a trap that keeps us in old ways of seeing ourselves. In the first half of this stage, we are releasing ourselves from old images that keep us from accepting who we really are as creative beings. This stage is an interactive process that focuses us on defining ourselves in our own terms. The capstone is personality detachment, which means letting go and disregarding our self-judgment and the judgments of others. The more we can release our survival and success programming, the less attached we are about “how we contribute” so we can focus on our inner experience of being a contribution. The area we seek to clarify is finding our life work, a contribution based on presence and creative flow, not fear or personality desire.
Inner Success lessons focus us on defining ourselves on our own terms. We learn to recognize our constituents (those individuals who we are here to serve and who “get” us). We explore creative ways of being that bring us joy. There are three ways to verify this WorldView: 1) We are seeking congruence between inner and outer realities, 2) We are attempting to balance life work with our primary relationship and with our community of family and friends, and 3) The way we structure our life work is how it works for us, not how others want us to perform. At this stage, we keep exploring our Creative Expressions until we find a response in the world that recognizes and supports our service. Many times, this requires us to shift from a career that pays the bills into a new possibility where we are more clearly seen, but where we fear that we will not be monetarily compensated.
The challenge is to follow our heart’s passion while keeping a “taxi” job (a job that allows us time to develop ourselves while paying the bills), until our transition is complete. When we are doing Inner Success, we begin to pay attention to the energetic integrity of a situation and address our imbalances about how we engage life. Another signal is that we do not differentiate or segment our friends into subgroups. Instead, we engage everyone and allow our various friends to engage one another in a unified way. This reflects our lesson to be more authentic and connected in the many areas of our life.
If we have been able to grow effectively throughout our life, we typically enter the Inner Success stage at the age of 28 and are fully embodied in our expression by the age of 49. Individuals in Inner Success prefer to let things arise in the moment, dealing with each thing as it occurs. What tends to irritate us is not being able to deal with things in the moment because of circumstances or the expectations of others. The gift of interacting with individuals at the Inner Success stage is that we tend to not take things personally. Inner Success individuals can typically separate who we are from what others project on us. It is also likely that we have developed who we are through some spiritual practice, so we enjoy finding time to be more present with ourselves.
Engaging our life work becomes the primary way we expand our creative power. This requires that we understand our Authentic Life Expression (who we are, and exactly what our primary contribution and constituency/individuals we serve through our creative contribution are) by finding a way to serve others while being served in return. The more we discover who we are creatively, the more we seek to define our reality on our own terms. The keynote of this level is greater introspection. This permits us to see how our inner reality mirrors our outer reality. One of the first breakthroughs is recognizing that everyone’s reality is essentially their own. We also realize that we hold within us the power to interpret our reality as we wish. As we actualize our creative power by experimenting with different ways of defining ourselves, we are able to develop the deeper powers of our minds.
Creativity equals power equals love, which equals sex at this level. We begin to clarify the difference between our wants and our needs. We begin to know immediately if we are in alignment with others around us. The power of our speech becomes paramount as our thoughts take on a new power. The more we unify our inner selves with our personalities, the more our intelligence manifests. Usually, it is our creative imagination and visualization abilities that begin to stimulate our higher intuitive development. We start to separate ourselves from being identified with the culture or the civilization, so our own unique voice and power can be heard. As a result we become more vital and expressive. When we are denying ourselves, we experience inertia and boredom.
It is at this stage that we start to reframe and release our beliefs, realizing that they are just a crutch. This precipitates a crisis of meaning, and the power we ascribe to knowledge vs. knowing. Lower WorldView individuals need to feel a part of the common reality. The value of their beliefs is primarily in their agreement with others, and common beliefs are the way that they feel connected to others. We, as conscious beings, determine and validate meaning for ourselves in all circumstances. We seek to determine if the meanings or beliefs of others match our internal experience, thus being aware of the meaning, for us, in the moment.
When we recognize that we have been at the effect of our parental lessons and the mythology we created in reaction to it, we start to consciously create our own mythology. The more we own our own creative nature, the easier it is to build our inner frameworks to explain our creative differences with others. If you are reading this book you have taken a huge step in discovering how to accomplish this. Our creative nature guides us to self-understanding that can also provide insights into the behavior of others. We are now able to share our inner perspectives and influence others in a way that serves everyone due to our increasing identification with our intuition and ability to see and explain the bigger picture going on around us. What is most important is that we are no longer submerged in the feelings of our peer group. We define our own path.
The more we know ourselves as a creative beings, the more responsibility we have for expressing who we are. We need to simplify our lives to the basic creative elements, and work with a sense of economy about where we want to go. This is also the stage where we need to release our imprinting. Otherwise, we burn out from the friction and resistance of trying to do our life work. The more open and tolerant we are of others, the easier it will be for us to move forward into Personality Integration. Happiness is the indication we are growing and integrating our truth, so we can express it congruently with others.
The challenge we face is to do it on our own terms, and not terms others may choose. We need to take more risks in being ourselves, in ways others may reject. Owning the consequences of our choices is the first step to acknowledging our own creative path. Breaking free of our fears frees us to discover our creative flow. This inner development process, of seeking to contribute with presence and creative flow, opens us to assessing others in terms of their motives, so we can anticipate where conflict may arise. We also become better at attracting those who are creatively aligned with us. This reinforces our primary creative expression, and allows us to see that we are perfect the way we are. The more we experience the power of our creative energy, the more we love ourselves. This opens us to seeing where others are coming from. Attractions, therefore, become more conscious and we move into creative projects that previously may have seemed impossible.
We are supported in this stage by being around people who have our primary creative energy. It is important for us to recognize how amazing our energy is in being of service to others. When we see how it works to uplift people, we begin to accept our own natural abundance and let go of our fears that we won’t be seen. The more we are able to love ourselves by being a contribution that serves others, the less we “have to be” any particular thing. The more we begin to see and understand the differences of others, particularly pacing, process and approach, the more naturally fulfilling our life becomes.
Our introspection also begins the process of reorientation within ourselves. Our attachments to external goals loosen their grip on us. As a result, we begin to reevaluate the meaning of our lives, recognizing that our previous goals were based on meanings derived from others. This process usually results in our attracting new friends and associates more aligned to the new direction arising within us. We stop defining our objectives in terms of results, instead deriving our satisfaction from being present in the process. Usually, we begin to initiate various spiritual or physical processes that help ground us in this new awareness, so we can bring it into all aspects of our lives. If we have not already integrated our work and primary relationship into the whole, we do so now.
The keywords become “I Am That,” helping us let go of our past Defenses and Pretenses, and pointing the way to self-ownership of our creative being. The Law of Attraction helps us further develop our consciousness and awareness about differences and similarities, so we can be present in all circumstances allowing us to move into the world of the Law of Synthesis. Our inner knowing and psychic facilities expand as we purify our motivations and intent creating a foundation for the further expansion and expression that we do in World Service.
What becomes obvious to us is how fragmented and non-united we are within our own awareness. As we become aware of these discontinuities, we start realizing how much of ourselves has been defined by our past. We also wake up to ways our attachments and positions have consumed our lives by trying to guarantee survival and success. The more we question these old patterns, the more we see how we owned very little of our power to make choices independent of our past and to take greater risks than we previously imagined. We become aware that it was our own beliefs about the impracticality of our dreams that kept us from realizing them. As a result, we endeavor to follow our inner knowing despite any obstacles that may seem to be barriers to our full expression. Completing this stage empowers more conscious teammates who are able to implement big projects and bring them into existence easily.
CHECKLIST FOR INNER SUCCESS LEVEL
• Operational status:Partner Oriented. Learns personal detachment, expands spirituality, begins teaching—formally or informally—focuses on building a sense of connectedness to others and the planet, and developing self-esteem allowing unconditional love of others. Prefers self-employment to corporate life because the politics are seen as boring and energy-draining. Takes many different types of classes and courses where they are exposed to different beliefs, and uses these different experiences to generate and validate their own truth. Balance is the key word to describe their aspirations. Typically they want to spread time and energy evenly between work, personal relationships and community (either local or topical) based on interests. Becomes sensitive to natural energies (flowers, etc.).
• Learning method: Taking on issues by choosing enthusiastic, passionate opportunities of expression before serving un-chosen opportunities based on terror and excitement. The strategy in terms of the sea is to be a seal who becomes conscious of choices and takes care of his family.
• Dimensions of experience: Three. You and I are We (adding context). Emotions and intellect are brought together to reveal patterns that are not working. Intuition is activated, leading in new directions.
• Focus: You do your thing and I do mine.
• Responsive characteristics: Individualistic, easy-going, growth-oriented, personal style; most perceptive while seeking the truth; flexible, multi-skilled, mellow, kind, loving.
• Reactive characteristics: May appear eccentric, without self-esteem, not necessarily motivated, difficult personalities, impoverished, struggling, not clearly self-directed, floating.
Percent of adult population falling into Inner Success group: 12%.
Examples: Jerry Garcia, Stephen Hawking, Paul Hogan, Richard Dreyfus, Dustin Hoffman, Bobby McFerrin, Michael Douglas, Steven Spielberg, Bill Murray, Gary Larson, Robert Redford, Sting, James Taylor, Alice Walker, Christopher Reeves, John Lennon, Ken Keynes, Tom Hanks, James Baldwin, Arthur C. Clarke, Phil Donahue, George Burns, Albert Einstein, Eric Clapton, Judy Collins, Clint Eastwood, Dian Fosse, Elton John, Joan Baez, William Blake, James Joyce, Walt Whitman, Mark Twain, Carl Jung, John Muir, Kevin Costner, Steve Martin, Bill Cosby, Colin Powell, Richard Gere, Patrick Stewart, and Whoopi Goldberg.
Inner Success countries: Iceland, Holland, Sweden Norway and parts of Switzerland.
Personality Integration
The sixth stage, that of Personality Integration, begins as soon as we live from our own inner knowing, unimpeded by our survival and success programming. At this stage our acceptance of all our energies, and our natural way of expressing ourselves are integrated so our fears and desires do not have a hold on us. We no longer ask ourselves “what would be safe or secure?” and live in the moment to express our natural contribution without any distractions from our past. This requires that we expand our personal and relationship space so old issues cannot trigger us.
Personality Integration lessons revolve around realizing how we have developed as a personality that is not as real as we imagined. When we realize that we created that personality as a transition mechanism to facilitate our growth and development, we begin the process of completing those lessons. The focus is to become single pointed in our desire or aspiration to transcend our self-imposed limitations. We seek to eliminate self-sabotage and create a sense of being able to move into our processes with whole-heartedness. This stage can be verified by discovering our best and highest usefulness. Knowing the compatibility factors can facilitate this process.
Who we are as a creative being begins to take full control of our direction in life. Some people call this process the death of ego so we can be reborn in spirit. We prefer to see it as a transition where our focus shifts from an external one to an internal one, and finally to one that is unified with the Universe. In the Personality Integration process, we complete the lessons that were keeping us from being fully dedicated to our higher creative contribution. When we are in Personality Integration, we become fully detached from our personality issues and see how they are actually obstacles to our higher expression enabling us to make choices, particularly about how we can forgive and accept ourselves, allowing us to maximize our contribution.
Most individuals do not begin the Personality Integration process until they are 49; however, some people start as early as age 36. Individuals in this stage can be recognized by their need for body-mind integration techniques — meditation, Tai Chi, yoga, martial arts, retreats, and sabbaticals. Others use transpersonal development processes (such as relationships) to reveal and transform issues and disconnections. This process initially focuses on accepting every aspect of who we are, so we no longer need any external frame of reference about how we show up in the world. Instead, we use our energy in a free-flowing, spontaneous manner to create the connections we need, when we need them. We have a profound level of trust and self-unity. The paradox of being at this stage is that there are times when we are able to be completely available to others, meeting them wherever they are. There are other times where we are completely unavailable, because we are preoccupied with deepening our understanding of our Self. The gift is that the more fully we understand our Self, the more fully we are able to understand others.
Intuitive identification is the primary focus we have at the Personality Integration stage. While we expand our ability to use our mind, the real development process involves self-healing, in which beliefs that get in the way of integrating Mind, Body, and Spirit are eliminated, and all separating structures are releasedthrough self-acceptance, compassion and serenity, as we learn how to love ourselves on deeper levels. In this way, all glamour is swept away, and our magnetic energy comes into play. As we focus on our true heart’s desire, we begin to attract prosperity. Our love of self is reflected outward in the passion we express with others. Loving understanding of others leads to cooperation and group love as we begin to attract a community. This enrichment process of group living helps us understand how we are related to everyone else.
We take charge of expressing our reality in deeper ways by becoming familiar with how we can maintain a continuity of consciousness at all times. The more we develop inner tools of meditation, concentration and contemplation, the more we are able to mine the resources of our being to create more flexibility. Lucid dreaming becomes a natural way to explore and orchestrate the lessons we wish to engage. The more unified our consciousness is, the safer and more secure others feel around us, without our doing anything. We also become very detached from our outer image or form, as we become more connected to our inner consciousness. This sensitivity automatically translates to greater consciousness with others so we experience a greater sense of brotherhood, aspiration and courage with others.
This process requires that we deepen our knowing and live from our sense of being completely aware of the consequences of our past or present choices. This self-reexamination puts us in touch with the nature of the reality we have created, and we recognize that we are always the authors of our reality. The more we are in touch with the nature of our creative power, the more we are able to transcend our perspectives and beliefs about our impact and ability to manipulate time, space and energy. We lose our reliance on misguided notions, such as beliefs in “cause and effect,” because they do not reflect our ability to change our past or our future reality. We start seeing how we exist in many realities simultaneously and can shift our perception of reality by focusing on different actions and intent.
Personality Integration begins as soon as we live from our own inner knowing, unimpeded by our survival and success programming. We become conscious that our thoughts are a creative power we can use or misuse. We become more discriminating, and begin to see beyond the outer cause/effect framework. We discover we can energetically change our past as easily as we can change our future. In the process of “Pregnant Duration,” we learn to transcend time, within our experience, so the past can be made whole. At this stage our acceptance of all our energies, and our natural way of expressing ourselves, are integrated, so our fears and desires do not have a hold of us. We no longer ask ourselves “What would be safe or secure?” but live in the moment expressing our natural contribution without any distractions. This requires that we expand our personal and relationship space so old issues cannot trigger us.
We start seeing how our external reality is intimately interwoven with our dream world, both chemically and physically. We discover that our dream reality is the place to test our ideas about how we want to create our reality. This leads us to consciously guide our dreams and work with different people on that level of reality to initiate co-creative projects. We also realize that if we didn’t dream we would die, for our dream world creates certain chemicals that keep our brain in balance. If we consciously choose to use our brain chemicals to enhance our creativity, new doorways to viewing reality open. This begins our pursuit of conscious understanding of ourselves in many different creative frameworks. The more we play fluidly with those realms, the more we see how we can manipulate reality as a creative endeavor that transcends our previous conception about making a contribution. Operating from higher motives and being of service become our natural way of operating, because of our gratitude for living in a world where we can transcend our fears and desires.
At this point, most of our self-limiting beliefs have fallen away, and we have seen that we are both everything and nothing. The very nature of our self-identification peels away our misguided beliefs about separation and we can see ourselves in everyone around us. We become an island of peacefulness, and seek to engage those things that are not in alignment, to bring them into our creative sphere. Everything we touch brings with it new levels of awareness, as we begin integrating and putting together networks of people to enlighten the world.
The world becomes our environment to paint new possibilities on structures that are disjointed and incomplete. We recognize that the point of leverage is in changing people’s perceptions so they see their own greatness. Recognizing the power of free will, we establish frameworks for people to engage where they are, consciously choosing to be responsible for their own development. This being the Aquarian age, it is now very difficult for people to learn from a “guru”, for only by experiencing their own truth can they build a conscious understanding of why they want to come into alignment with others. This is the Aquarian ideal, where we learn together in groups that respect the autonomy of all participants. Conscious participation of the individual is required, as well as recognition of our unity as a species. It means learning to be responsible by continually offering our hand to others, even if they have rejected us many times requiring that we become more able to see how to serve others, so we operate with more unity and trust in all interactions.
Personality Integration is a state of being where we are completing and letting go of past motivations that are no longer of use. In this sense, it is a healing and clearing process, where we forgive ourselves for what we had to go through in order to discover our own magnificence. It brings out our Inner Light, and begins to affect those around us. People become attracted by our way of being present with them, which is a way of loving them, because we love ourselves. It is not a state of mind, but a state of embodiment. We are a living example of what we teach. This is how others learn to trust their experience for we do not require people to follow any pre-defined beliefs. In the Aquarian age, we make suggestions that allow people to discover their own truth, so the experience speaks for itself.
CHECKLIST FOR PERSONALITY INTEGRATION LEVEL
• Operational status:Group Oriented. Focuses on higher motives of universal dominion manifesting as trust; mutual accomplishment manifesting as unity; and conscious co-creation manifesting as participating without conditions. A time to focus on inner-growth, preferably without many distractions. We seek new types of self-expression usually in a group. As this occurs we become more grounded and sensitive to community energies, become more involved in nature, and focus more on the purpose, the higher good and expression.
• Learning method: Uses the lessons of others to recognize inner issues and resolve them and see every problem in a group as a reflection of our personal development, providing opportunities for communication and healing. The strategy in terms of the sea is to be the dolphin who re-discovers playfulness, innocence, and the paradox and mystery of life. The key identifying trait is the ability to empathize, understand and communicate deeply with others.
• Dimensions of experience: Four. You, Me, Us and our relationship to the Truth. This is the first stage where we know ourselves not only as a personality (combining sensations, feelings and thoughts), but as something more, as intuition, spiritual will and spiritual radiance.
• Focus: “Nothing we do is separate; we are all interconnected.”
• Responsive characteristics: Group orientation is fully actualized. Learning to create personal safety and security under all conditions, and demonstrating to others how to grow without control. Learning to master personality expression so it is in alignment with universal intent.
• Reactive characteristics: Diminish dramatically as healing occurs. Personality detachment, intuitive inclusive discrimination and seeing a higher possibility allowing operation without the need for defenses.
Percent of adult population falling into this group: 5%.
Examples: Deepak Chopra, Oprah Winfrey, Andrew Harvey, Jack Kornfield, Corrie Ten Boom, Carlos Casteneda, Dorothy Day, Che Guevara, Dag Hjalmar Hammarskjöld, Herman Hesse, Nikola Tesla, Bertrand Russell, AssenZlatarov, Daniel Berrigan, Starhawk, Desmond Tutu, Malcolm X, Abraham Maslow, Paul Tillich, Evelyn Underhill, Joseph Campbell, C. S. Lewis, Huston Smith, Robert Funk, Stevie Wonder, William Blake, James Joyce, Walt Whitman, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, Mother Cabrini, Pope John XXIII, Socrates, Plato and Ram Dass.
Personality Integration countries: There are no countries operating predominantly at this level of perceptivity.
World Service
The seventh stage of WorldView is World Service lessons. It is distinguished by the lack of personality focus, for everything that is done reflects the whole. People operating at this stage realize how survival and success programming has distracted them from higher concerns. This is a stage of full creative manifestation where we are no longer limited by any personal Creative Expression, instead tune in and use any of the energies based on current circumstance. One aspect revealing this stage is the unification of life, love and light energy within us so we become a focal point of distribution of energies to everyone in our lives. This can have profoundly upsetting or transformative effects depending on the consciousness of others around us. The problem is making sure the others are not “losing themselves” in the experience of being with a person with a higher WorldView.
World Service lessons focus on the direct alignment of our creative self with the contribution we were born to make. This requires concentrated “one-pointedness” and discipline to bring everything we are engaging in life into full alignment. World Service can be verified when we realize that our personal stuff is no longer as important as what the world needs. In effect, we receive a calling to serve in a way that allows us to express our highest possibility verified by our sense of flow, authentic and creative capabilities and our ability to work effortlessly with others. For some, like Mother Teresa, this driving intent can appear extremely impersonal and uncaring to others who are not aligned with that vision. She was completely connected to her soul, and did not want to compromise this higher connection for a “personal” vision. Her commitment to the vision was total and not intermediated with others on a personality level. She had released her attachment to personality. When in World Service, we are in bliss, serving our constituents, because in their reflection of this gift we see the greatness of our Self. This process of Communion with others becomes an ongoing, daily experience where we are fully committed to making our contribution. When we are in our highest contribution, others are awakened to their highest contribution. This transmission process is one of the greatest gifts of individuals in World Service.
We learn a tremendous amount about detachment, holding a connection to the Universe and seeing the perfection of what is as a way of moving forward towards what will be. Being in World Service accentuates and develops our virtues and abilities. We are connected to the Universeand are invulnerable to things that would derail others. When we are in World Service, we experience our Self, others, our personal relationship to the truth, and our group experience to the truth. This empowers us to be group leaders, motivators and spiritual catalysts. Finally, as a World Server weare so engrossed in our “mission” that we commonly have very little personal life. This only occurs if we have completed and healed personal issues.
The more we are of service to others, the more we become aligned with Universal Intent. We are automatically drawn to fulfill whatever group purpose is in front of us. Our ability to consciously sacrifice our attachments accelerates our growth process as we begin to radiate our Being in the world. By choosing to unify our personal will with Universal Will, we manifest the power to express ourselves outside of typical human expectations. The more we are able to actualize Universal Intent, the more bliss and beauty we experience as we manifest the power of creation and destruction which occurs only after we have unified our personality, so it can act as a servant to our Creative Expression. We become a world citizen and are automatically drawn to where we can contribute the most.
When we are operating at the stage of World Service we are naturally humble, compassionate, serene, and committed to waking up others around us. Our vision is about a world that works for everyone. Our focus is on the humanity in everyone, which unifies, inspires and brings out the best in others in its purity and simplicity. Our challenge is to demonstrate unity and trust in a way that supports people around us to find their own path to greater self-awareness. We are identified by our inexhaustible energy and our incredible ability to connect personally to people even when they are working on an impersonal level. Another ability we demonstrate is to connect spirit to matter so we can manifest things wherever we place our attention. As an agent of creation, not separate from universal energy or intent, our example can guide and illuminate the path. We demand that others own their own power. We represent the direction and growth of our own transformative processes, particularly revealing how we need to unify ourselves with others. Ultimately, it becomes an honor to become a World Server by dedicating ourselves to serve the highest in our Self and others.
CHECKLIST FOR WORLD SERVICE STAGE
• Operational status:World Orientation: detachment, spirituality, teaching. Connectedness, self-esteem. Prefers self-employment to corporate life. Inner-growth oriented. Becomes sensitive to natural energies.
• Learning method: Takes a high and noble stand that compels others to do what they can to assist and heal everyone around them. The strategy in terms of the sea is to be a whale who is invulnerable to the dangers of the sea while they sing a song about the process of increasing consciousness. It is about getting the tribe together to celebrate life. It is a demonstration of how to engage life, knowing clearly their true purpose and how to express it. Expression is no longer based on others’ being there or not being there.
• Dimensions of experience: Five. Me, You, Us, our personal relationship to the Truth, and our experience of Group Truth. Finally fully operational on all levels—able to see the sources of problems and provide insights that can support learning to resolve issues for themselves.
• Focus: Working together with Universal Intent.
• Responsive characteristics: Humble; demands the highest for others and personally supports everyone’s highest expression. Keeps everything simple and focused towards goals, are usually great examples of health and well-being for others to follow.
Percent of adult population falling into World Service group: 1%.
Examples:Mother Theresa, Mother Meera, Mahatma Gandhi, Shunryu Suzuki, LobsangGyatso, TarthangTulku, PaldenGyatso, Hazrat Khan, Yogananda, Sri Krishna, Saint Francis of Assisi, Albert Schweitzer, Meher Baba, Buddha, Jesus Christ, Lao Tsu, Confucius, Zarathustra,Rabindranath Tagore, Alice Bailey, Helena Roerich, Nicholas Roerich, JanuszKorczak, Viktor TihonovichChernovolenko, Rabbi Malka Drucker, Sogyal Rinpoche, Richard Wilhelm, Niels Bohr, Ivan Efremov, Galina Ulanova, Anna Pavlova, Maya Plisetskaya,ChögyamTrungpa, Mary Daly, Mary Baker Eddy, Aimee Semple McPherson, BhaktivedantaPrabuphada, ZalmanSchachter-Shalomi, Shirdi Sai Baba, Abdul Bahá, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Gustavo Gutiérrez, Martin Luther King Jr., Oscar Romero, Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso), Abraham Joshua Heschel, Vivekananda, Hans Küng, Reinhold Niebuhr, Alexander Schmemann, Joseph Soloveitchik, Thomas Berry, Martin Buber, MirceaEliade, Abraham Isaac Kook, D. T. Suzuki, Simone Weil, Dorothy Day, Catherine de Hueck Doherty, MahaGhosananda, Mawlana Muhammad Ilyas, Walter Rauschenbusch, Robert Holbrook Smith, ThichNhatHanh, BawaMuhaiyaddeen, Black Elk, Bede Griffiths, HazratInayat Khan, J. Krishnamurti, Meher Baba, SeyyedHossein Nasr, ParamahansaYogananda,AjahnChah, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Thomas Merton, PemaChödrön, RamanaMaharshi, SeungSahn, Shunryu Suzuki.
World Service countries: There are no countries operating predominantly at this level of perceptivity.
Recognizing Differences InContext and Perception
WorldView is the perceptual or experiential framework by which individuals “construct,” interpret and make sense of the world. Central to a WorldView is a set of operating assumptions (or beliefs) about what is possible to experience, the nature of experience, the basis of value and what it all means. We call these “operating” assumptions because they are evidenced or indicated by actions and undirected responses. Over time, we become aware of the operating assumptions (of our life), which manifests the possibility they can be changed. The more internal discrimination we experience, the more conscious we become. This increasing sophistication, in response to our experience, generally increases the awareness of our creative nature. We learn what we best contribute, and it flows. In other words, greater consciousness provides greater awareness, more perceptual tools and expanded choices. And as a person’s consciousness grows, they have an ever-deepening connection to Life, Light and Love.
Our WorldView provides a set of beliefs that guide the interpretation of our experiences. It is how we interpret reality to form an accepted framework of inner relationships that simplifies the understanding of our situation. A belief is, essentially, an idea that reinforces our overall sense of safety and security, or makes it easier to deal with what we know. Usually a belief is based on a known experience that has crystallized into a predictable meaning and keeps us from questioning it on a larger level. Beliefs are thoughts we commonly use to reinforce our idea of what should happen in a situation. They prevent us from deepening our understanding beyond what we already know. Beliefs are actually crutches that keep us from examining our reality in each moment. It is useful to notice that many beliefs reflect our past, which we now try to project on the current circumstances (when in fact they may not relate). As we come to realize we can engage current circumstances in the moment, we become more effective at relating to the world.
Our perceptual stage (given our WorldView) represents the context in which we relate to the world of people, ideas and things. It focuses attention on a group of lessons, leading us down a path of natural development that facilitates our growth and allows us to expand our viewpoint. Everyone moves through the stages more or less sequentially. If the lesson is learned, we move on to the next stage. If we do not learn the limits of the stage, and become attached to the lesson, we stop our overall development. Instead, we begin focusing piece by piece on smaller parts of the lesson in order to let go of the attachment. When we become conscious of this process, we can accelerate our growth enormously. It allows us to identify where we may not be accepting ourselves fully, or are operating from a less evolved perceptivity.
WorldView reflects the complexity of the lessons we engage in the universe. The more we see and accept the different WorldView levels of people around us, the more effective we will be in supporting them. Whenever we talk to someone who has a lower worldview than ours, we have to recalibrate what we are saying to the level they are able to engage, or they won’t understand us. It does not matter how many times we try to tell them what they are doing; they cannot hear what we are saying. Sometimes, individuals we love and who love us, can temporarily operate in alignment with us if they are in our presence for a considerable period of time. While they may be able to understand us for this period, when they leave our presence, they start to revert to their previous perceptions. This results in forgetting the details of what occurred (when in our presence).
Validating Worldview
Survival WorldView individuals can be identified by:
a) How they are indifferent about people. (They cannot easily see differences or distinctions in people.)
b) How they demonstrate an inability to connect, enjoy or really be with anyone.
c) They have a prevailing belief in superstition.
d) They lack color sensibility or coordination.
e) They over-identify with nature to the point where they get lost in it.
f) Primarily unconscious and non-responsive to all but survival issues.
Whimsically referred to as minnows.
Safety & Security WorldView individuals can be identified by:
a) An emphasis on following suggested guidelines, actions and directions in order to guarantee or generate predictable results.
b) An aversion to new, different or unproven ways of doing things.
c) Attempts to overprotect children and over-direct other peers for the purpose of creating a false sense of safety and security by following the rules.
d) Following predefined roles, while encouraging others to imitate them in order to create more stability within their community.
e) Everything is seen in terms of black or white, with no shades of gray.
f) Become self-conscious of instincts, operate primarily out of fear.
Whimsically referred to as carp.
Outer Success WorldView individuals can be identified by:
a) They encourage technological breakthroughs, and accept new ways of doing things that add value or save time.
b) They are ambitious, with a desire to maximize personal benefit in all situations.
c) Frequently seen as self-centered or egotistical due to their immediate concerns about how any change affects them.
d) Emphasis on what they know as a way of differentiating themselves from others.
e) They are not emotionally connected or overly committed to others except where it serves their long-term interests. They end up objectifying relationships, seeking ways to leverage them.
f) Their sense of aloneness, isolation, and independence.
g) Become self-conscious of emotions, and self reflective about instincts.
Whimsically referred to as sharks.
Relationship WorldView individuals can be identified by:
a) Their desire to be with others in an emotionally connected way to create a false sense of security.
b) Their overly dramatic flair, sense of intensity, and desire to find a way to step out of the relationship patterns that control their lives drives them to try anything.
c) Their commitment to attempt to resolve issues even if there seems to be no answer or way out highlights their hopefulness
d) When they are in advanced relationship levels, they not only see the patterns in their relationships, but can release themselves from repeating them.
e) Their desire for community, connection, exploration of mutual interests and desires are all expressions of their people focus.
f) Become self-conscious of thought processes and self reflective about emotions. Start to make conscious choices in relationships, understanding the long-term consequences.
Whimsically referred to as salmon.
Inner Success WorldView individuals can be identified by:
a) Their introspection and desire to understand what is going on around them.
b) Their abilitynot to take the comments or criticisms of others personally, reflecting that other people’s stuff may not relate to them.
c) A greater capacity for self-observation and the ability to view their lives from a distance that enables them to see re-occurring themes they are acting out.
d) Their ability to see the consequences of the choices they make and the nature of how what they put out in the world comes back multiplied.
e) Their interest in unifying their friends in all walks of life to see what happens.
f) Their desire to balance work, primary relationship, and community in their life.
g) Become self-reflective about thought processes, detach from mass consciousness, define work on their own terms.
Whimsically referred to as seals.
Personality Integration WorldView individuals can be identified by:
a) Their sense of detachment and the clarity they use to see others around them objectively.
b) Their ability to see a person’s greatest gifts as well as acknowledge their greatest weaknesses demonstrates their ability to embrace paradox.
c) They have compassion for people and the ability to empathize and communicate inclusively when tragedy strikes.
d) They speak playfully and paradoxically, typically forgiving and acknowledging the fears and judgments of society as a whole.
e) They are able to integrate and use their inner masculine and feminine simultaneously, enabling them to be powerful creators.
f) They learn to operate without compromise by taking principled stands despite the consequences, realizing that to pull back denies their divinity.
g) They learn to love themselves to the point where their inner life and light shines forth revealing a startling unity of purpose and ability to attract what’s needed to make their fullest contribution.
h) Become self-conscious about internal mythology and begin to use abstract thinking to generate new ways to create. No longer limited to pre-existing group thought patterns. Can manifest unique insights.
i) Sees all defensive structures as a balancing act where we use paradox to transcend the pairs of opposites that keep us identified and attached to our duality.
Whimsically referred to as dolphins.
World Service WorldView individuals can be identified by:
a) They illustrate their lack of interest in personality expressions by a lack of small talk or conformance to social expectations. Can end up seeming aloof or arrogant and unavailable to lower-level expressions. They focus on their contribution as they see it, and not as others would wish it to be.
b) They demonstrate an ability to differentiate the problems of others from their own, which can seem indifferent to the boundary issues and personality needs of others in lower WorldViews.
c) They honor the free will of others over their own personality interests and will not try to convince others to do something without their express invitation. They realize that inner unity is achieved only through free will.
d) Their focus is on bringing out people’s highest creativity, which initially may not have tangible form and structure, causing distress in some people by how they shift their reality so suddenly.
e) They become examples of how to be of the greatest service by the way they design their lives. Others are encouraged to find their own gifts and are inspired to do so.
f) Use pre-existing agreements to invert the way others perceive issues to teach a unified way out of the pain and self generated illusions.
Whimsically referred to as whales.
Compatibility Issues Around WorldView Differences
WorldView demonstrates the level of consciousness in an individual. Luckily, we are naturally attracted to friends and partners who have similar WorldViews so we can complete lessons with them. As Diagram 15, WorldView Compatibility illustrates, compatibility is best if we are operating within the same WorldView stage. This is particularly important when considering romantic partners. We often choose lower WorldView partners because we feel safe choosing partners like our parents. Over time, we realize that there is no real connection, if we are not on the same page with our life lessons. Compatibility difficulties are also seen in business relationships and long term relationships where one person has stopped growing.
Having friends on both sides of the WorldView spectrum best supports growth and evolution. We must be sensitive that we don’t know other people’s life plan and therefore we must accept when our friends reach growth walls that they cannot seem to climb over. We must also be careful not to mislead ourselves in our assessment of where we are. The higher our WorldView the more capable we are of meeting others where they are and the less attached we are to distinguishing people by differences. On the other hand, when we use these consciousness skills with individuals not in a higher World View, we can confuse them and make it difficult for them to respond.
WorldView level reflects the complexity of the lessons we are engaged in. The more we can see and accept the different WorldView levels of those around us, the more effective we will be in supporting them. Whenever we talk to someone who has a “lower WorldView” than ours, we have to recalibrate what we are saying to where they are, or they will not understand us. This is the top-down view. It will not matter how many times we try telling them what they are doing; they will not be able to hear what we are saying. Sometimes, individuals whom we love and who love us, can temporarily operate in alignment with us if they are in our presence for a considerable period. In this situation our WorldView uplifts them. While they may be able to understand us for this period, as soon as they leave our presence, they start to revert to their previous perceptionsresulting in their forgetting the details of what occurred in our presence. When we are sick, particularly with a life threatening illness, our WorldView is usually temporarily reduced.
The higher our WorldView, the more responsible we are for supporting and being with others around us. This is the actually a bottom-up view. Taking responsibility in a situation is an indication that we are coming into a place of acceptance of our full, creative being and honoring our place in the world. The completion of each WorldView stage supports us in an exponential expansion of our consciousness. While each stage has a particular set of lessons we are mastering, the process is greatly facilitated if we learn how to accept ourselves in a holistic way. This means building a loving connection with our Self, so we are increasingly able to respond to higher creative impulses. The more we are conscious of the integration process, the more we are able to take advantage of our exponential, evolutionary process.
Recognizing the difference in WorldViews between our “Self” and our parents allows us to forgive them, knowing they did the best they knew how. When choosing relationships within our WorldView perceptivity, we support and stimulate our growth. Beyond the Relationship Lesson level, growth in relationships must be mutual. Beyond the Inner Success stage, work expression has to be based on authentic creative expression. Beyond the Personality Integration stage, all work, relationship and Community Service is based on Mutual Accomplishment.
Typically, growing individuals follow this schedule of lessons:
1. Survival (Emphasizes Masculine)
Where we are unconscious, helpless and clueless about how to take care of ourselves. We learn dependency.
2. Safety and Security (Emphasizes Feminine)
Where we become a novice in the process of life, and learn the lay of the land. We begin to learn how to take care of ourselves.
3. Outer Success (Emphasizes Masculine)
Where we expand our personal dominion by learning how to make an impact on the world. People in this “me first” stage overlook the need for quality relationships, and believe they can “buy love.”
4. Relationship (Emphasizes Feminine)
Where we start to pay attention to the well-being of others. We find a partner with whom we feel safe and secure and learn how primitive relationship beliefs need fine tuning. During this stage we sometimes feel it is “you and me against the world.”
5. Inner Success (Emphasizes Masculine)
Where we begin to put relationships, work and community interests together and balance them. The re-evaluation at this stage leads us to realize we have to be connected and in alignment with our spiritual source. This begins the inner work process where motives become transparent, past mistakes obvious, and the need for personality integration clear.
6. Personality Integration (Emphasizes Feminine)
Where we become conscious of defensive patterns and where they lead, revealing the need to balance and heal our masculine and feminine sides. By healing our wounds, we free ourselves from the limitations of fears and desires. We find new ways to support, contribute to and heal others.
7. World Service (Emphasizes Both Masculine & Feminine)
Where we discover the joy and bliss of living an altruistic, soulful life of serving others. Since we have greatly expanded our personal space to include the world, serving others is serving ourselves.
Oftentimes individuals get stuck along the way. This occurs when:
1) our parents are stuck on one level and we are unconsciously imprinted not to go beyond them;
2) our friends are all operating at a particular level and peer pressure keeps us at that level with them; or
3) we become attached to the manifestations of a particular stage that reduces our willingness to keep growing.
It is also true that individuals may skip a stage for a while (such as working on relationships before completing Outer Success) or may operate from two stages at the same time. Recognizing differences in WorldView between us and our parents allows us to forgive them, knowing they did the best they knew how.
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