[Dialogue] Secret

[Darrell Walker]

  In 1986 while in Chicago for the summer event I picked up a little book by Ken Wilber entitled A Sociable God.  You and others may well have picked it up as well.  It was only on reading it for the third time that what Wilber was saying about spiritual evolvement soaked into my thick skull and it took several more years of brooding for a new paradigm to become my reality.  In essence, Wilber proposes that as humans, both individually and culturally, we evolve spiritually through naturally occurring steps that are similar to the psychological evolution described by Kohlberg and others.  He defines a sequence of levels through which we pass beginning with infancy and proceeding through childhood fantasy, adolescent peer group, a transition state between adolescent and adult, adult rational, a psychic level (poor terminology) that is the onset of mystical experience where deficiencies are seen in rational materialism, subtle where one begins to have experiences of nature mysticism, causal level where the mystical is experienced on an everyday basis, and the ego is surmounted.  The ego is at the max in the adult rational level and the steps that follow consist of ego being displaced by mystical experience.  There is no moral judgment placed on any of the steps since they all are on the path of spiritual evolvement.  Each person begins at the infant level and usually progresses through the levels fairly quickly until arriving at a level where one spends most of a lifetime working through the issues of that level.  However, for some people evolvement may stop at the childhood mythic level (think fundamentalist Christians who demand literal interpretation), some at the adolescent level (think George W. Bush us vs. them, you are with us or against us), others at the adult secular materialistic/scientific level, and so on.  A major point is that people cannot help being where they are on the journey and hence, should not receive moral blame for their attitudes at that level.  A second point is that one cannot perceive and accept the characteristics of levels beyond where one is.  Thus, one at the adolescent level has difficulty accepting rational level beliefs in evolutionary theory or stem cell research.  

  In the evolution of the church through the early centuries the Orthodox were operating at the mythic/adolescent level of bodily resurrection, Trinitarian, authoritarian mode while the Gnostics were at the mythic level that had no need for all that claptrap.  But since the Orthodox were in the numeric/political majority, the Gnostics lost out.  Gnosticism came back in the 1200s ce in the form of the Cathers in southern France and 
  the Orthodox church had 40,000 thousand of them killed because they would not bow in subservience to the pope and clergy.  For that historical reason, Gnosticism has always carried the stigma of heresy, not because it is not an observable reality for some people but because the majority had no clue what they were talking about.

  In EI history, Joe Matthews had few kind words for mysticism, stemming probably from his Orthodox Methodist teachings, but you can't read his lecture on Transparent Being without believing that he understood mysticism to the depths.  I didn't experience Matthews enough on a personal level to know where he would be on Wilber's spiritual hierarchy (and it is dangerous to try to make such an assessment), but in spite of his protestations to the contrary, I believe Matthews was very much a mystic.  That does not mean that you are always operating at the mystical level in every day life.  Once one has achieved a level, one operates at that level and at all prior levels, whichever the existential situation demands.  

  In answer to your question about Wilber, the spiritual level one has attained determines the paradigm (the way life is) out of which one views life.  I hope this gives a bit of grounding for the comments that I made.
      Darrell

  Darrell, help me to understand better what you and Wilber are saying. Ground it a little, please. You wrote:

  "The way life is very much depends on where one is relative to Ken Wilber's levels of spiritual evolvement. When one evolves beyond the secular rational, the Gnostic perspective of 'inner knowing' becomes a living experience."

  Marshall, I think I understand you (what you're saying).

  John



------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  From: dialogue-bounces at wedgeblade.net [mailto:dialogue-bounces at wedgeblade.net] On Behalf Of Darrell Walker
  Sent: Friday, April 13, 2007 11:23 AM
  To: Colleague Dialogue
  Subject: Re: [Dialogue] Secret



    It would be interesting to see this and take it apart. To me it sounds like the latest version of the Gnostic heresy, which would be very attractive if you're looking for a secret escape hatch from the way life is.
    Marshall


    It is interesting to see the old Orthodox phrasiology of "Gnostic" followed by "heresy" used.  Shades of Arianism, Docitism and the filioque clause!  The way life is very much depends on where one is relative to Ken Wilber's levels of spiritual evolement.  When one evolves beyond the secular rational, the Gnostic perspective of "inner knowing" becomes a living experience.
        Darrell Walker near Sacramento, California 


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