Cooke-greuter: The Unitive stage 6

From the ancient wisdom literature to recent research in higher stages of consciousness there is evidence of many more stages beyond the rational, personal realm or postconventional tier of.….

The Unitive stage 6 or The Ironist10 Stage:

From the ancient wisdom literature to recent research in higher stages of consciousness there is evidence of many more stages beyond the rational, personal realm or postconventional tier of meaning making (see table 1 for Wilber’s full-spectrum model of consciousness). How many such stages exists depends on the literature consulted and the criteria by which stages are defined. The data from using a Sentence Completion Test as a gathering tool did not allow me to make any finer distinctions in the ego-transcendent realm. My description of the Unitive stage thus confounds several distinct higher levels of consciousness into one catch-all level. Still, the characteristics were carefully taken from actual utterances from individuals who did score at this highest stage of the SCTi measure.

The Unitive stage presents an entirely new way of perceiving human existence and consciousness. The previous way of viewing reality solely from the self’s perspective and through the medium of language is transformed. The new paradigm has a universal or cosmic perspective. Unitive individuals experience themselves and others as part of ongoing humanity, embedded in the creative ground, fulfilling the destiny of evolution. The two sides of the Pascalian paradox are integrated: feelings of belongingness and feelings of one’s separateness and uniqueness are experienced without undue tension as changing perceptions of many possibilities of being. At this level of integration, adults can look at themselves and at other beings in terms of the passing of ages, of near and far in geographical, social, cultural, historical, intellectual and developmental dimensions. They can take multiple points of view and shift focus effortlessly among many states of awareness. They feel embedded in nature - birth, growth and death, joy and pain - are seen as natural occurrences, - patterns of change in the flux of time.

Consciousness or rational awareness is no longer perceived as a shackle, but as just another phenomenon that assumes foreground or background status depending on one’s momentary attention. Persons at the Unitive stage can see a world in a grain of sand, that is, they can perceive the concrete, limited, and temporal aspects of an entity simultaneously with its eternal and symbolic meaning. Because of this unitive ability (Maslow, 1971, p. 111) they can cherish the humanness in the seemingly most undifferentiated beings and feel at one with them. They respect the essence in others and therefore do not need them to be different than they are. It is important to realize that from a unitive point of view higher stages are not better than lower ones because all are necessary parts of interconnected reality and an overall evolutionary process. Unitive thinkers also accept themselves “as is” in a non-controlling way. No matter how great their achievements may be, they are aware that these are only a drop in the pool of ongoing human endeavors. Sensitive others are often struck by the humility and grace that they experience in the presence of Unitive individuals. Being down-to-earth (simplicity on the other side of complexity) can be one of the most salient differences between personal and transpersonal ways of meaning making.

The Unitive Stage 6

Realm:

universe Ætime/space continuum

Time frame: eternity

Cognition: Unitive concepts embraced  

Preoccupation: Being, noncontrolling consciousness; witnessing of flux of experience and states of mind

Positive equilibration: Accepting, unassuming presence; fully empathetic, non-interfering ability to be with whatever is.

Truth: immanent; experiential truth of interconnectedness and nonseparateness, existence as changing states of awareness

Multiperspectival; within timeless spirit. center

On the other hand, Individuals at this latest ego stage may be perceived as “aloof,” as not enough engaged in the goals, pursuits, concerns of common humanity especially from the perspective of Self-conscious individuals and Conscientious persons, even Autonomous individuals may feel that way. What is not evident to these critics is that Unitive adults often act as catalysts in shaping others’ lives. In being what they are without excuses, they challenge others’ perspectives, and demonstrate a way of being human that is different from the evaluative, conventional ideas about what it means to be an adult. They manifest a deeper security about being, than is possible with a rationally generated self-identity. In contrast to all other stages, Unitive individuals seem to have intense, non-demanding relationships with people regardless of their development, age, gender, or any other identifications. Because they see the dignity in all manifestations of life, they can make others feel worthy and whole.

Unitive persons have a completely internalized transpersonal or interindividual morality. Inner conflicts and conflicting external demands simply are part of being and need not be resolved or denied, only witnessed. They are no longer driven by desires to be one way or another, to achieve one state or another. Instead they can let go of the unattainable. Concerned with global justice, spontaneity, existence & creativity. Rather than passivity, the non-attached, impersonal stance allows for greater and more direct and powerful action where action is needed.

Reality is now deeply experienced at times as the undifferentiated phenomenological continuum or the creative ground of unified consciousness. Every object, word, thought, feeling and sensation, every theory is understood as a human construct: separating out, creating boundaries where there are none. The quest for meaning and connection is an essential aspect of the human condition. Stage 6 individuals feel interconnected with others as all sentient beings struggle to survive and make sense of their existence. Persons at the Unitive stage feel tolerance, compassion and an affiliation with all manifestations of life. The simplest flatworm is in some way as close to the truth as the most sophisticated thinker. Peak experiences no longer have an out-of-this-world quality, they have become a familiar way of being and experiencing. The present is where the past and the future interpenetrate. Total openness releases individuals to be in tune with truth and beauty, to have visionary experiences, that is, to comprehend things in a holistic, analog way in addition to apprehending them through the filter of the rational mind.

Unitive perceivers can shift focus without effort and behold the whole simultaneously with its constituting variables. They operate within an expanded time frame which includes all of earth’s history and its future. Life is seen as a form of temporary and sometimes voluntary separation (Bodhisattva vow) from the creative ground to which it will eventually return. Though adults at the Unitive stage are aware of themselves as separate and unique embodiments, they also identify with all other living beings. The separation of self from others is experienced as an illusion, an invention to safeguard the ego’s need for permanence and self- importance and to defend against the fear of its death.

Unitive individuals therefore seem to transcend narrow ego-boundaries. They have open boundaries and are attuned to rather than preoccupied with whatever enters awareness. The term witnessing (rather than observing) can be used here to describe the capacity of people at this stage to metabolize experience without the conscious, willed focus and preoccupations of other adult stages. The Truth is imminent in the universe and can be apprehended in this ready, openprocess stance, but it cannot be grasped by purely rational means.

Unitive adults have an integrated sense of unique identity as participants in the evolution of the cosmos. They are in tune with their precious “life’s work” as a simultaneous expression of their unique selves and as part of one’s shared humanity. They also care about the fundamental dilemma of the human condition. They work for justice, fairness, and benevolence towards all. Though taking responsibility for meaning making, they don’t perceive themselves to be the sole and lone masters of their souls as envisioned by Autonomous individuals and to some degree Construct-aware people. Ways of being are infinite. Clues for the variety of possibilities of being are offered by the study of human history, by our current experience of human diversity and likely with new forms of being human evolving in the future, in nature, and in alternative, nonwaking states of consciousness. Life can appear as fulfilling a cosmic purpose and therefore it is essentially simple. Doing or thinking are just modes of existing, but not intrinsically more valuable than feeling, being or non-being. The last is probably the most difficult idea to grasp by most people who have not developed beyond the personal realm. As a Buddhist percept says: Understanding is the ultimate illusion.

To summarize, Unitive adults are more likely to have a balanced, integrated sense of both their belongingness and separateness as individuals because they feel part of the ongoing evolution of the universe in all its aspects and cycles of creation, destruction, and recreation.

Language clues: Unitive individuals use a global array of topics and concerns which are sometimes expressed within one response. They have a vast mental space to roam in because of the unitive ability. Kaleidoscopic responses bridge different levels and types of contrasts: concrete--practical; theoretical--philosophical; personal--global; serious--humorous; physical-psychological– metaphysical , mundane and sublime. Unitive responses to the SCTi may have unique and vivid expressions, or creative metaphors to express the ordinary and non-ordinary experiences. Occasionally one finds very simple responses in an Unitive SCT protocol. Although rated at face-value, this is not counter-indicative as spontaneity and straightforward simplicity is an essential element of wisdom and ego-transcendence. While Construct-aware meaning makers have the most complex and richly differentiated view of reality in the personal realm, Unitive adults stand outside the “desperate” need for meaning making common to all earlier stages seeing as they do the non-necessity to shield and bolster the ego.

Summary: Above I have outlined one possible path from the unconscious, undifferentiated symbiosis of the newborn to the conscious experience of embeddedness in the universe of mature adults, that is from prerational to metarational and from preverbal ignorance (= not knowing) to beginning postsymbolic wisdom. Much freedom is gained when people realize the essential inter-connectedness of all phenomena and the constructed aspects of boundaries, objects, our self-identities and our stories about life and nature. Much suffering is alleviated when the automatic habits of mind and heart are unlearned and uncoupled from memory (what was) and desires (what ought to be) and replaced by mindful, non-evaluative attention to what is - now.

Torbert in Fisher D. & Torbert, W. R. (1995). Personal and organizational transformation: The true challenge of continual quality improvement. London, UK: McGraw-Hill. Torbert in Fisher, D., Rooke, D. & Torbert, W. (2002). Personal and organizational transformations: through action inquiry. Edge\Work Press

2 Angyal, A. (1965). Neurosis and Treatment: A Holistic Theory. New York; The Viking Press. Bakan, D. (1966). The duality of human experience. Chicago: Rand McNally.

3 According to Koplowitz (1984, page 289)

4 The higher number of post-autonomous clients in the UK sample is likely due to a self-selection bias. People who are committed to transformation and growth seek to be tested on their own. Most of the participants in the USA general population sample come from a variety of research projects.

5 Commons, M. L., Richards, F. A., & Armon, C. (Eds.). (1984). Beyond formal operations: late adolescent and adult cognitive development. New York: Praeger..

6 Loevinger and Wessler, Measuring ego development, vol. 1, Jossey-Bass, p.4 or in Hy and Loevinger, Erlbaum, Measuring ego development, 1996

7 I have made the decision of changing the numeric label for the Self-protective ego stage Delta to better communicate with a non-academic audience and to make the numeric labels “look” consistent. Selfprotective person is now referred to as stage 2/3 since it comes out of the Impulsive stage two and evolves into the Conformist stage 3. This move, ignores earlier subtle distinctions in ego they are theoretically of importance. Given that the preconventional stages are rare in the professional environments we work with, this move can be justified. For research in the preconventional arena, the earlier distinctions remain important.

8 The terms General systems and Unitive stages are explained in Cook-Greuter, S. (1999). Postautonomous ego development: its nature and measurement. Doctoral dissertation. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Graduate School of Education. Available from author for $45.00.

9 The higher the stage, the less my characterizations coincide with Torbert’s. Torbert’s insights are based on interviews with some dozen leaders and high-ranking company officers as well as on historical exemplars, while mine are based on hundreds of records from individuals of all walks of life. Thus, my data access a wider range of occupations. It is very possible that leaders in organizational settings do display the specific traits that Torbert observed. In this text, I am describing the characteristics of Construct-aware and Unitive persons. Few of them, in my experience, choose to be company men and women.

10 The choice of labels for the various stages or stages has long been one of the hardest tasks for all who work in the field of constructive developmental psychology. I do not find the term Ironist especially fruitful in characterizing individuals who have the frame of mind that is developed after the Magician. Faute-de-mieux and to avoid confusion, I will be using Torbert’s term in this context