This Post is the fifth installment of Part 2 entitled Cycle 2 Life - Stages C & D - Part 2- 5 Its materials are available to you in two ways. First, as three downloadable files - One for the edited Text material, one for the Visual material and one for Visual examples of persons, events and places that illustrate Stage C & D life. Second, in the Extended Post below you can read the Text of the Cycle 2 Life - Stages C & D -Part 2-5 section.
This Post continues to present Part 2 of the The New Pattern for Success seminar series. Part 2 is entitled Mega-Force 1 - World Human Transformation to Living System Life and Work.
You can download the Text of Cycle 2 Life - Stages C & D - Part 2-5 - Here Download NewPatSuc-Part2-5-Text-032607.pdf
You can download the Visuals of Cycle 2 Life - Stages C & D - Part 2-5 - Here Download NewPatSuc-Part2-5-Vis-032607.pdf
You can download the Visual examples of persons, events and places at Stages C & D -Here Download NewPatSuc-Part2-5-HPSStageExamp-032607.pdf
Click on the Continue reading link below to read the Text of Cycle 2 Life - Stages C & D - Part 2-5 .
I look forward to your Questions, Comments and Suggestions.
John Clayton Caris
For Previous Posts in this Series - Click the Links below
- Series Announcement for New Pattern For Success Seminar
- Introduction for New Pattern for Success Seminar
- Mega-Forces Overview - New Pattern for Success Seminar - Part 1-1
- The World Human Transformation - New Pattern for Success Seminar - Part 1-2
- Nature of Living Systems - New Pattern for Success Seminar - Part 1-3
- The Kondratieff Wave Cycle - New Pattern for Success Seminar - Part 1-4
- The Demographic Bomb - New Pattern for Success Seminar - Part 1-5
- The Cataclysmic Confluence - New Pattern for Success Seminar - Part 1-6
- Make World Human Transformation Visible and Believable - New Pattern for Success Seminar - Part 2-1
- How a Living System Transforms - New Pattern for Success Seminar - Part 2-2
- Introduction to Living System Psychology - Part 2-3
- Phase 1 Life Intro and Cycle 1 Life - Stages A & B - Part 2-4
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LIVING SYSTEM LIFE AND WORK -
THE NEW PATTERN FOR SUCCESS
A Series of Presentation/Discussions
To Explore Critical Issues
For Your Life and Your Business
by Dr. John Clayton Caris
Isis Institute
Part 2 - Mega-Force 1 –
World Human Transformation
to Living System Life and Work
Begin Part 2–5 – Cycle 2 Life – Stages C & D
Slide 2 – Cycle 2 Descriptors
Note: Slides of Examples of Persons, Places and Events during Cycle 2 Life – Stages C & D are available in the file – NewPatSuc-Part2-5-HPSStageExampl-022607.pdf
Now let’s look at the first human transcendence from Cycle-to-Cycle – This is the leap from Stage B, the last stage of Cycle 1, to Stage C, the first stage of Cycle 2. Recall – I said that psyche stage discontinuities during Phase I life are much greater for a stage-to-stage leap from one Cycle to the next Cycle than for a stage-to-stage leap within a Cycle. This is the first case of this Human Psyche System principle. We will see that the leap between Stage B and Stage C is much more drastic than the leap between Stage A and Stage B.
There is another Human Psyche System principle for Phase I life that I want to remind you of as we begin to discuss the stages of Cycle 2 human life. Recall – I said that what a given psyche stage is closed to and considers negative transforms at the next stage to become what the new psyche stage is open to and considers positive. We can now see the first example of this principle. At Stage B life was absolutely closed to Individuality – The Group dominated the individual. At Stage C we will see exactly the opposite – Life is absolutely open to the Personal power of an individual dominating the Group.
Cycle 2 is the story of Ancient and Medieval Man. Here the Creator’s Grand Plan for man takes its next leap forward out of Stage B stagnation. It is mankind’s greatest advance so far – But at great human cost. Its primary issues are uncontrolled personal power and its use at Stage C (the Flip) and how to collectively control it at Stage D (the Flop). The Stage C era of brutal conquest through personal power transforms into the Stage D era of collective conformity, brutally administered in the name of God. [Please refer again to slides 36 through 39 to maintain your orientation]
Man emerges as an independent Heroic self, free of the bonds of family and tribe and goes to excess at Stage C – Then stabilizes and protects his fragile “Ego-Self” by becoming an Absolutist at Stage D.
The second half of the psyche structure is formed – The Individual vs. Collective dimension. Therefore, man can now differentiate himself from the collective. The Ego of his Personal Conscious is born so man can also differentiate his psyche from his body.
During Cycle 2, worldly life is dominated by one issue – Personal Power – Its use at Stage C and then its control at Stage D. Cycle 2 sacred life is dominated by the issue of the direct intervention of Gods into life – Polytheistic Gods at Stage C and a Monotheistic God, the “One True God”, at Stage D.
Writing is invented at Stage C – Science and technology blossom in mathematics, astronomy, metallurgy, military equipment and agriculture.
The powerful drama of Cycle 2 played out in Western history between about 8000 BC – the beginning of Stage C Mid-East Empires – and 1400 AD – the ending of Stage D Medieval Church dominant power. It was the coming of the first high civilizations. I will focus in my discussions on Western history.
In advanced human life today Cycle 2 emerges in children about 2 to 2 ½ years and concludes at the end of adolescence. When adolescence ends for an individual can be any age from the middle teens until late adulthood, depending on the person and his environments.
Cycle 2 life is the driving force even today in the adult lives of the world’s most difficult people and groups – Terrorists and Fundamentalists of all types. Remnants of Cycle 2 human nature in more evolved persons and groups are also problems for leaders today in every type of organization everywhere.
Religious experience at Cycle 2 is a big deal. It also takes massive Flip-Flop leaps – From female monotheism of the Earth Mother Goddess at Stage B – To the complex polytheism of Gods and Goddesses with a male God in control at Stage C – To male dominated monotheism at Stage D. The location of God also drastically changes during Cycle 2. At Stage B God is centered in the Earth – At Stage C, God’s location is elevated to the mountain tops and further elevated to an abstract Heaven at Stage D.
Slide 3 – Cycle 2 Psyche Symbols
Cycle 2 psyche symbols show the Individual vs. Collective dimension being created at Stage C and stabilized at Stage D. Recall that humans can differentiate Conscious from Unconscious at Cycle 1. They emerge from the unconscious of pre-birth to begin learning how to live and work in a conscious world experience – That is the psychological story of Stages A and B. Now at Cycle 2 humans can differentiate themselves as being Individuals as separate from their Collectives. Individual identity becomes possible. They emerge from unthinking, unquestioning control by Collectives, like the tribe and the family, to begin learning how to live and work with personal power and its control – That is the psychological story of Stage C and D. As we will see, it is a bitter/sweet period of human life and history. The basic four-fold structure of the human psyche energy system is completed at Cycle 2.
Slide 4 – Paradigm – Stage C
Stage C Heroic, Early Imperial Man was a giant step forward in human affairs from Stage B. The emergence of Stage C in today’s children, at from 2 to 2 ½ years, descends on mothers and families like thunder and lightning – This is commonly called the “Terrible Two’s”, when a lovable, tribalistic, well behaved little soul becomes at times an independent, rebellious, stubborn, disagreeable, destructive brat.
As we discuss Stage C life, please make notes about where in your own life and work you have experienced examples of Stage C human nature – Family, friends, other persons, groups or organizations. Also note the effects of these experiences on you. Identifying your own personal examples of Stage C in parallel with my discussion will help the psyche stages to come alive for you.
Stage C leaders and the beginnings of their early city states and kingdoms emerged from about 8000 BC to 5000 BC in the Tigris and Euphrates river valleys in what is now Iran and Iraq. Later they emerged in Egypt along the Nile river and along the Indus river in what is now Pakistan. These kingdoms, driven by leaders discovering their Personal Power, began to expand by bloody conquest to form the first empires. Stage C psyche led the world from about 3000 BC until 500 AD when the last ancient empire collapsed – The Roman Empire.
Stage C behavior is all about personal power and worldly destiny by breaking away from group control to become the new group leader – It can be described as egocentric, selfish, rebellious, compulsive action, angry, ruthless, destructive and paranoid with no conscience. Stage C human relationships are conditional – Based upon the simple test of “Are you for me or against me?” If you are for me, you are a candidate for watchful regard – It you are against me, you are marked for elimination.
At Stage C, learning is called Operant – That is, giving immediate feedback of the consequences of actions. Heroic stage persons do not think out the results and consequences of actions before they act – They act compulsively – Often irrationally. Epic tales of heroic actions were the literature of the Stage C leadership era – The famous books The Tales of Gilgamesh, the Iliad and the Odyssey are examples.
The bases for actions are the authority of personal power, the prerogatives of power and the feudal duties of the weak.
Stage C life is insecurity – The newly formed Ego is weak and fearful – Really doubtful about the power it projects outward. It is the life of an arrogant, autocratic tyrant or even bully who is inwardly fearful that he is really weak, but dares not even allow that thought. A person who functions dominantly at Stage C requires continuous adoration, the belief that his Gods are supportive and his personal power is super-human.
Stage C psyche disease is consistent with this situation – It is delusional paranoia – The obsessive fear that everyone is against you and you cannot really trust anyone. It is the humiliation, rage, and shame of the rejected child. Part of Stage C psyche disease is hearing internal “voices”. All over the ancient world leaders went to oracles to receive “the Voices”. The oracle at Delphi in Greece is famous – My wife and I had amazing experiences while visiting there.
I imagine you know persons and organizations still functioning in the Stage C psyche pattern. Let’s understand them better. It is important to do so for a very few Stage C persons or groups can destroy an organization or society today – Often from the top. Some companies and political organizations are run by Stage C leaders, their families and their courtiers.
Slide 5 – Paradigm Summary – Stage C – Personal
The Stage C personal obsession is freedom from any type of control. Especially important is to experience Self as a separate being free of family and tribal domination. Life is defined as personal power, force, violence, godly sanction and the heroic pursuit of personal destiny. The drive is to achieve one's own destiny by impulsive action through unlimited personal power. This usually means brutally destroying all challengers for power – Real or imagined.
Religion is a powerful Polytheistic force at Stage C through a panoply of male and female Gods located on sacred heights, like mountains. The wide range of Gods is led by a male God. The Stage B pattern of the Earth Mother Goddess is broken.
As I said, relationships are conditional based on a simple test – Are you for me or against me? Salvation comes through ONE thing – Personal Power.
Slide 6 – Paradigm Summary – Stage C – Collective
With Stage C came the first time it was possible to create and expand an empire – To accumulate food supplies and material wealth, manufacture weapon systems and combine them to create a military establishment. The epoch of Barbarism began. The world embarked on bloody conquest on a massive scale led by leaders who used tyrannical personal power and perceived Godly support to exert their authority as God/King-Emperors. Examples are Darius of Persia, Alexander the Great of Macedonia, Julius Caesar of Rome, Genghis Khan of Mongolia, etc.
Stage C power is organized as a vertical hierarchy with single point power at the top and a limited number of status levels. A new leadership/management and organization system was created – The Feudal system. It was a system of the Haves, the Have-Nots and the Slaves. The haves had God sanctioned power, the have-nots had little but duties to work and die, and the slaves had less.
Stage C power is organized as a four level hierarchy – The God/King-Emperor as the single point top power, then the Nobles, followed by the Common Man and the Slaves. The King-Emperor decides everything – Power flows down – Subservience flows upward. Everything depends on the skill, cunning and power of the Emperor.
This Divine Right King/Noble/Common man/Slave system re-organized the world. Local kingdoms with gifted leaders grew into great empires by conquest of the less gifted and weaker. This process of local kingdoms becoming large empires covered much of the world at that time from the Mid-East to Egypt to Rome.
Despite Stage C’s vast advances, the whole world became a massive blood bath. Its destructive excesses provoked, in man's Grand Plan, the need to correct them. At each Cycle of Phase 1 life it becomes necessary to correct excesses. At Cycle 2 that we are now discussing, the Flip to excess personal power at Stage C needed to be corrected. Then the world's greatest collective driven Flop appeared as Stage D to correct Stage C excesses. But Stage D also went excesses of collective power that in turn needed to be corrected. Before we discuss that, let’s summarize Stage C so it is sharp in mind.
Slide 7 – Paradigm Summary – Stage C
Its dominant motivation is to become a separate “Me” against the world, to achieve God-like personal power sufficient to get MY destiny by MY action NOW, to figure out how to “Beat the System” and to be worshipped as a Hero. The greatest shame is to “Lose Face”.
The Stage C Mission is to get and keep unchallenged power, by any means, in a hostile world of those you cannot trust.
Stage C Ends Valued are what we have said – A Personal position as all powerful, brave and heroic. But there is something else – There is a deep desire for emotional security, but sadly this is can never be achieved. Stage C leaders can be extremely insecure and lonely as people.
The Means Valued are a brilliant combination of manipulation, coercion, force, violence, ambition and seeking godly support – All wrapped in a program to exploit supporters and eliminate opponents, real or imagined.
The theme of Stage C life can be summarized as living by personal action and God’s sanction to achieve personal destiny by heroic actions.
There you have Stage C – An important story for us to understand because it is central to one of the greatest issues in the world today – Corruption. The inherent way the Feudal System operates is called corruption by persons evolved to the latest stages. Stage C leaders cannot perceive they are doing anything wrong. Their psyche system is not capable beyond Stage C. What we call corruption, they see as right ways to do things in their own personal power interest. That is all they are able to see. For only one example, much of Africa is mired in Stage C administration today. Underlying Stage C remnants are the roots of Corruption everywhere. As we see later, Stage E raises corruption to a high “legalized” art form, even in Western so-called democracies.
Psyche evolution beyond Stage C is the issue for solving corruption, not laws and regulations. In fact, psyche evolution beyond the stages of Phase 1 life is needed for any significant solutions to corruption. We will come to learn that Phase 2 life and its Stage A’ Living System behavior involves removing the power of the corruptors – Not trying to police them in ways they cannot comprehend. Stage C persons will find a way to beat any system setup to try to control them. Today’s un-corrupted leaders need to understand the Stage C psyche and how to deal with it. Again Steiner was right – being practical depends on understanding human life.
Slide 8 – Paradigm – Stage D
Now we come to the Cycle 2 psychological “Flop” for the Stage C “Flip”.
Stage D arose to counter excesses of Stage C power during the period from about 1400 BC to the life of Christ. The earliest Stage D leader I have found is Akhenaten, the Egyptian Pharaoh about 1350 BC. He took the name of the Sun God, Aten, and tried to convert Egyptian society from Stage C Polytheism to Stage D Monotheism worshipping only the Sun God. He eventually failed and was toppled from power. Absolutistic, Medieval man emerged over the next 1500 years.
As we discuss Stage D life, please make notes about where in your own life and work you have experienced examples of Stage D human nature – Family, friends, other persons, groups or organizations. Also note the effects of these experiences on you. Identifying your own personal examples of Stage D in parallel with my discussion will help the psyche stages to come alive for you.
Stage D pattern led the Western world from about 500 AD until 1400 AD. A totally new culture arose in the West resulting in a new leadership system in the form of the Medieval Church dominated bureaucracies. Man's ruthless Stage C personal power world collapsed as the world leader as humans searched for how to repent for its sins using their newly found guilt. Guilt does not exist at Stage C but bursts forth at Stage D as one of the central issues for a new collective dominated society.
Three unique humans appeared on the Earth in rapid succession early in the Stage D period – The Buddha in the Orient (563-483 B.C.), then Jesus Christ, and about 600 years later Mohammed (570-632 A.D.) Their lives were catalysts for this tremendous world transition to Stage D monotheism and absolutism.
My research on the Buddha and the Christ indicates for me they were far more evolved than Stage D Medieval man – Possibly as far evolved as Stage A’ or farther – But Stage A’ is as far as we seem to be able to see today. But their followers were ready for the Stage C to Stage D transition – And that is what they led. They built Stage D church dominated societies in their own psyche image and likeness because that is all they could do. Again Steiner was right. I have not researched Mohammed in any detail so I will not feature him in my discussions.
Stage D behavior in most respects is the opposite of Stage C. The Stage C to Stage D psychological “Flip-Flop” is dramatic – From total personal worldly power to total collective religious subservience to the power of an abstract God. Absolute conformity to monotheistic religion became the path to salvation. The Church became both spiritual and government power – The Church and the State were one and the same – Society became a Theocracy.
This was strong human medicine to try to cure man’s Stage C problems. It was the next step in man’s evolution but it was only partly successful. Because the psyche’s Unconscious Shadow is not yet open at Stage D, its solution switched from brutal individual power to brutal collective repression based on projected Shadow energy. Church led actions such as The Inquisition and burning at the stake are examples – All done in the name of piety and glorifying the “One True God”. Please recall the Phase 1 life underlying pattern of “Generalized Separation” of the inherent bi-polar nature of the psyche. One pole of everything was chosen as Good and of God and the other pole was chosen as Evil and of the Devil and must be suppressed and eliminated.
Stage D behavior is the quest to achieve absolute “Right” and destroy absolute “Wrong”. It is intolerant of dissent from absolute truth as perceived. It prohibits any doubt about what is believed to be true – Shades of “Grey” are not allowed in its “Black and White” perceptions of reality. Its new found Conscience becomes a compulsive tool in the search for criticism and condemnation of self and others. Atonement for perceived sins and evil is a “Big Deal”. Submissive/aggressive actions – Which are consistent with martyr/ terrorist behavior – are used to enforce beliefs while being both self accusing and judgmental of others. Acting “Saintly” is often part of the pattern. Stage D is the profile for “The True Believer” – The fundamentalist zealot of any type.
Learning at Stage D is called Avoidant Learning with delayed gratification. It is learning prescribed by higher authority. A person accepts it to avoid punishment – Now and later. True believers are certain that knowledge, science and law are divinely revealed through the Church and must be controlled through the authority of the Church. They know that reward for absolute belief and submission in this life will come in the after life. It drives fundamentalists of all types even today.
Authority for action “as legalized” by the “One True God” through the official human representatives of authority is a big deal at Stage D. Then authorized actions are administered by absolute rules and standards, also from God through authorized representatives. Individual will and dissent must be eliminated. High value actions are taken through self-sacrifice – The highest through Martyrdom in the service of God.
Psyche disease at Stage D is Schizophrenia – an insanity of disintegrating personality often related to life stress and beginning in adolescence. Persons functioning at Stage D can set such rigid and unattainable standards for themselves they cannot deal with the reality of failing to meet them. To cope, they create a fantasy life in which they can appear successful. They often fail. The potential for hypocrisy is large at Stage D. Stories of powerful churchmen with secret lives of sin are not rare. The psyche is a balanced bi-polar system – the Conscious excesses we openly see are balanced by the opposite excesses we do not see hidden in the Unconscious.
Slide 9 – Paradigm Summary – Stage D – Personal
Let’s paint a word picture of the Stage D personal pattern. We all know people who are functioning at Stage D. They know there is absolute truth. They live in a world of black and white with few or no shades of grey. They have one Universal timeless answer for everything that comes from their one true God speaking through an authorized channel.
This same pattern applies to all life and work, not just religious matters. There is no difference between the letter and the spirit of the law. Absolute rules measure everyone's behavior. Uncertainty, ambiguity and relative values are abhorred. Scholarship is to prove what is already believed – Not to discover new knowledge – Innovation is heresy – New Creations are blasphemy. Relationships are closed, not open – Judgmental, not communicative and not accepting of anything or anyone outside the prescribed limits. This slide gives a crisp summary of the Personal Paradigm of Stage D. This pattern is still so prevalent today we need to recognize it and understand it. In short, the whole Stage D psychology is absolutistic – A life of rigidity.
Slide 10 – Paradigm Summary – Stage D – Collective
Stage D psyche invented many level, theocratic bureaucracy as the tool for implementing a church controlled Medieval society. Leadership power was determined by Position in the hierarchy. Position defines the degree of leadership power and God granted authority. Stage D bureaucracy is complex and administered by absolute rules and procedure through humans authorized as agents for the one true God or body of officially prescribed doctrine. The bureaucracy, as the agent for God, claims universal jurisdiction over all human affairs.
During Stage D world power, kings and emperors were really vassels, or authorized servants, in the service of the Church to expand its power. Stage D passive/aggressive rigidity and collective oppression consumed vast human and material resources, led the world into stagnation and the Church into bankruptcy – Moral and financial. This brought the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.
Slide 11 – Paradigm Summary – Stage D
Stage D dominant motivation is to believe that absolute truth exists, that it is universal and timeless and that it is the path to personal Salvation. The greatest human drive at Stage D is to behave so as to win Salvation.
Therefore the Stage D Mission is to be saved by absolute conformity to the “Truth” as prescribed by authorized leaders. This mission has dimensions of breaking the heroic will of anyone who disagrees with the “Truth”, to atone for sinfulness and to eliminate heresy by any means necessary.
Stage D Ends Valued are being a true believer and achieving personal salvation through absolute conformity to the “Truth”.
The Means Valued are unquestioned faith and loyal, submissive/aggressive expansion of the faith. Other valued means include guilt, punishment of self and others and even martyrdom. These are the tools of zealots such as today’s suicide bombers.
The theme of Stage D life can be summarized as living by the universal “Truth” of the “One True God” and by actions prescribed by authorized superiors.
There you have Stage D – Another important story for us to understand because it is central to another of the greatest issues in the world today – Fanaticism. The Crusades were a most important example of fanatics in action. They were the high water mark, the “Swan Song”, of Western Stage D Medieval society. It never recovered from the human and material costs of these vast adventures. The Crusades began in 1095 A.D. and continued until about 1300 AD – Nine Crusades in all. During this period Western Christianity and Near Eastern Islam, both functioning at Stage D, organized their leaders and less evolved masses under their respective controls. Their fanaticism drove the “True Believers” of two opposite “Truths” to kill each other to prove once and for all which brand of God's love was true, not to mention the commercial interests as well.
The psyche stage profile of today’s fundamentalist terrorists is a combination of Stage C and Stage D dominance.
As a leader you have a question to answer – Can you build and operate a leading-edge organization today that contains people whose behavior functions dominantly, or with significant remnants, at Stage C and Stage D? My judgment is you cannot.
Slide 12 – Cycle 2 Psyche Pole Structure
This slide is for your reading and reference. It defines the nature of the conscious and unconscious poles for Cycle 2 Stages – That is, what each stage is open to and accepts as positive and what each stage is closed to and accepts as negative.
Stage C is open to getting and keeping unlimited personal power and is closed to anything that would oppose or limit getting or using uncontrolled personal power. Stage D is open to the collective control of personal power and closed to any question or opposition in thought or action to the one absolute truth that drives its nature.
End of Part 2 – 5
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