This Post is the fourth installment of Part 2 entitled Phase 1 Life Intro and Cycle 1 Life - Stages A & B - Part 2- 4 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 A & B life. Second, in the Extended Post below you can read the Text of the Phase 1 Life Intro and Stages A & B - Part 2-4 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 Phase 1 Life Intro and Cycle 1 Life - Stages A & B - Part 2-4 - Here Download NewPatSuc-Part2-4-Text-032607.pdf
You can download the Visuals of Phase 1 Life Intro and Cycle 1 Life - Stages A & B - Part 2-4 - Here Download NewPatSuc-Part2-4-Vis-032607.pdf
You can download the Visual examples of persons, events and places at Stages A & B -Here Download NewPatSuc-Part2-4-HPSStageExamp-032607.pdf
Click on the Continue reading link below to read the Text of Phase 1 Life Intro and Cycle 1 Life - Stages A & B - Part 2-4 .
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
********************************
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 2–4 – Phase 1 Life Intro and Cycle 1 Life – Stages A & B
As we experience together our stage-by-stage psyche evolution, you will begin to see and understand yourself and those around you as never before – Why we do what we do – Why we agree, disagree and fight – And what this means for leader decisions and actions in these turbulent times. There is also a fascinating story of each stage’s unique pattern of human motivation. But the stage-by-stage story of motivation is beyond the scope of what we can accomplish in this discussion series. It must wait for another time.
Slide 2 – Phase I Human Life Descriptors #1
Let’s begin the story that leads up to Mega-Force 1 by grasping the underlying pattern of Phase I Life – That is the first six stages, Stage A through Stage F – The Phase 1 life pattern begins to break down at Stage F and the dramatically different underlying pattern of Phase II life, that is now the driving force for leading edge persons and organizations, begins to emerge at Stage A’.
From my introduction in Part 1 you know that life is about pairs of bi-polar opposites – We call them Dualisms. Examples are:
Right vs. Wrong
Good vs. Evil
Individual vs. Collective
Conscious vs. Unconscious
Male vs. Female
Life vs. Death
Leader vs. Those Led
Etc.
The pattern of Phase I life, except for the last part of Stage F, is the separation of each dualism into two opposite, mutually exclusive, conflicting poles. During the stages of Phase 1 life the psyche’s fixation is on separate, independent poles in disagreement or conflict with each other rather than complementary bi-polar pairs. People and collectives functioning at each Phase I stage choose one separate pole as Good – of their concept of God – and choose the other separate pole as Bad or Evil – of their concept of the Devil. This is what I call "Generalized Separation" of everything during Phase I life.
The resulting underlying pattern of human behavior is fixation on separating poles of their own human nature and using a single pole focus to live and work. The practical consequences for personal and world events throughout Phase I are profound – They are the base for disagreement, anger, hatred and conflict through history. What humans cannot comprehend during all of Phase 1 life is that their disagreements, angers and conflicts are not caused by what is external to themselves, but is caused by profound forces originating within their own psyche’s polar separations. They are in disagreement, anger and conflict among parts of themselves that they project outward on to other persons, groups and situations.
Our life at each Phase I stage experiences the following drama. We consciously accept the Good pole as a desirable part of ourselves. We make its achievement and protection an end-point goal of our life – This happens at each stage in a different way. We do not recognize or accept the Bad/Evil pole as part of our self – Even though it is. We cannot even begin to see this until late in Stage F. We deny, we disown and banish the pole we perceive to be Bad/Evil to our unconscious, where we mistakenly assume it is gone – It isn’t. Its energy grows. We make its detection and elimination in others an important end-point goal of our life. We easily see this in the behavior as the driving dynamic for all types of “fundamentalist” zealots.
Each Phase I stage makes its own types of judgments about others – Both positive and negative – based upon how it separates the dualisms it considers most important into independent opposite conflicting poles. In this way a new type of compulsive “End-Point Seeking” to achieve the Good pole becomes a life purpose at each stage. We will experience this as we discuss each Phase I stage.
In the unconscious, banished Bad/Evil pole psychic energy does not disappear. It grows in direct proportion to the intensity it is denied and hated by the conscious Good pole. As Carl Jung so rightly pointed out, the human psyche always remains a balanced bi-polar energy system. Each separate conscious excess is balanced by its opposite separate unconscious excess. This unconscious energy can be unconsciously projected onto other people and groups. If the projection is positive, it appears as irrational adoration or infatuation, often mistaken for unquestioning loyalty or love – Recall that infatuation means an obsessed attraction. If the projection is negative it appears as disagreements, anger and conflicts of even the most murderous types, all justified in terms of the conscious Good pole acting to try to control or eliminate the Bad pole in others. Daily our news reports are filled with such stories. This process is a convenient tool that manipulators, zealots and tyrants of all types have used to provoke fear, hatred, conflict and increase their power in the name of the what they call the Good to eliminate or punish what they call the Bad in others.
I am making such an emphasis of the Phase 1 separation of poles in our psyche now to enable you to become very conscious of it. We will learn later that it vanishes at the onset of Phase 2 life. This is one of the Keys to understanding the great world human transformation of Mega-Force 1 and its new pattern of leadership and organization.
There is a fascinating thing we will discover as we proceed through our Phase I story – The unconscious pole that is considered Bad/Evil at a given stage transforms into a new type of conscious Good pole at the next stage. For example, we will learn that the negative pole at Stage B is to separate yourself from the power and control of the tribe or family – Personal freedom from the collective cannot even be perceived at Stage B. But, we will learn that the positive pole of stage C is to separate yourself from the power and control of the collective to an extreme degree. What was the negative pole at Stage B transforms into a new powerful positive pole at Stage C. The psychological result throughout Phase I is a life of flip-flops in purpose and action as the basic dynamic from stage to stage.
Each Phase I Cycle of two stages has a flip-flop between its stages – A flip-flop from one excess of individualism/independence at the first stage of the cycle to an excess of collectivism/dependence at the second stage of the cycle. Then as each new cycle begins, there is a larger flip to a more evolved type of individualism at the first stage of the new cycle. So the psychological flip-flop from the last stage of one cycle to the first stage of the next cycle is greater than the flip-flops from the first stage to the second stage next within a given cycle.
I want to emphasize that the human psyche compensates for its banished “bad” poles in the unconscious by projecting their unconscious energy outward on to other persons, groups and situations. Recall that this is the cause of both infatuations and hatreds, disagreements and conflicts.
Slide 3 – Phase I Human Life Descriptors #2
A new type of motivation appears at each stage. The drive throughout Phase I is to find purpose in achieving and defending some fixed end-point goal. This goal is to achieve a strong equilibrium position at the positive pole. For example, the goal for Stage C is to get and maintain an invincible position of personal power.
Achieving the goal is a powerful “End” in itself that is the base for one’s perception of their human worth. For example, for a person functioning at Stage C the end of unchallenged personal power justifies any means to get it and life without it has no worth. I think that most of us know some people who behave this way.
Psychological flip-flop is the basic dynamic for Phase I as psyche evolution cycles from one human excess to another. At Stages C and E, the excess is a type of independence and individualism – At Stages B, D and F, the excess is a type of dependence and collectivism. But each Cycle and Stage is a great human advance over the previous ones.
There is continuous Individual/Collective antagonism throughout Phase I. It changes its nature at each stage, but the pattern remains. This is a major leadership problem.
There we have the underlying picture of human psyche evolution up to the emergence of Phase II life when this whole Phase I pattern of “generalized separation” breaks down – Its separation of dualisms into independent conflicting poles, its single pole fixations and its flip-flopping pattern end at Stage A’ – The newly emerging Human Psyche System stage that is driving Mega-Force 1. Hopefully you are beginning to see that what is now beginning to happen in the world by leading-edge persons is very special.
In summary, the psychological result of Phase I’s single pole fixation is life purpose defined as compulsive single pole end-point seeking at every stage. Persons and groups strive to achieve their Good-positive pole and hold on to it permanently while eliminating or hiding their Bad-negative pole. There are different Good and Evil poles for each Phase I stage, but the pattern remains the same.
Slide 4 – Cycle 1 Descriptors
Note: Slides of Examples of Persons, Places and Events during Cycle 1 Life – Stages A & B are available in the file – NewPatSuc-Part2-4-HPSStageExampl-022607.pdf
Now let’s see how this underlying pattern of Phase I life materializes Cycle-by-Cycle and Stage-by-Stage.
Human life and history begins with Primitive man at Cycle 1. Its primary issues are personal survival and group safety from the mysterious frightful forces of nature. Man emerges as human at Stage A – Primitive, Hunter Gatherer Man and then stabilizes and protects his fragile existence at Stage B – Mystical, Tribal Man.
More than 99% of mankind’s history is Cycle 1 life. But don’t think this is just about the distant past – It is very much about living system leadership today. Why? Deep emotional remnants of Stages A and B live within all of us – Even though we are evolved far beyond Cycle 1 stages. They are both important opportunities and problems in organizations today. Leaders need to understand the patterns.
Cycle 1 forms the first half of the psyche’s structure – The Conscious vs. Unconscious dimension. Here, man can differentiate himself from other objects and has a cyclical time sense of now vs. not now – But, cannot differentiate his psyche from his body. He feels he is his body. Also, he cannot conceive of being separate from the group – It is unsafe. The Individual vs. Collective dimension of the psyche does not yet exist.
Man’s life is dominated by a mysterious cyclical awareness of nature. Rational intellectual understanding as we know it is not yet present. Primitive religious experience is in terms of the Earth Mother Goddess. Until about 10,000 years ago God was female.
Cycle 1 life has spoken traditions – Writing is not yet invented.
Slide 5 – Cycle 1 Psyche Symbols
Cycle 1 psyche symbols show the Conscious vs. Unconscious dimension created at Stage A and stabilized at Stage B.
To present the story of each psyche stage I use a standard set of slides for each slide as follows, where X = A, B, C, D, E and F:
- Paradigm – Stage X
- Paradigm Summary – Stage X – Personal Paradigm
- Paradigm Summary – Stage X – Collective Paradigm
- Paradigm Summary – Stage X
Slide 6 – Paradigm – Stage A
Now we begin understanding life at specific stages. In parallel with my narrative, I give visual examples of people, groups and events at each stage. You can find these examples in the package of slides named Part 2 – Human Psyche System Stage Examples.
As we discuss Stage A life, please make notes about where in your own life and work you have experienced examples of Stage A 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 A in parallel with my discussion will help the psyche stages to come alive for you.
Stage A humans emerged from 1 to 4 million years ago depending on which scholars you believe – For humans today the first year of life recapitulates Stage A.
The Stage A Paradigm, or pattern is:
- World leader period extended to at least 30,000 BC
- Behavior by instinct, primitive associations and repetition
- Learning by primitive memory of what works
- Actions based upon instincts and primitive memory
- Psyche dysfunction is loss of consciousness.
Slide 7 – Paradigm Summary – Stage A – Personal
Keep in mind a young baby as I outline the personal paradigm. At Stage A the focus is on physical needs – Thirst, hunger, shelter, sleep, etc. Instincts and primitive habits are tools to satisfy survival needs. Communication is by primitive sounds and signs. Survival is the only salvation.
Slide 8 – Paradigm Summary – Stage A – Collective
Stage A Collectives organize in hunter, gatherer bands of primitive families in the form of small, loosely structured groups of nomads. Over hundreds of thousands of years, survival depended on small work team organization and leadership by those who best coped with danger and survival needs. Unsuccessful teams, leaders and their families died.
Instincts for small work teams survive to this day, especially under stress – Teams of 12 persons or less is optimum. It is interesting that US Army Special Forces A-Teams contain 12 men who can operate by themselves without continuous management from outside the group.
Networks of such teams are a most effective means to deal with terrorist cell networks and other non-conventional warfare needs. Networks of such teams are at the heart of powerful emerging Nodal Network Business applications beyond conventional linear thinking – Their deepest psyche base is the small team heritage of Stage A instincts.
Here again we see Steiner was right – The way to become a practical person is to understand the patterns of human life. Let’s go on. The coming stages are more interesting.
There is no known Stage A society remaining today on earth – Only infants in their first year.
Slide 9 – Paradigm Summary – Stage A
The basic motivation is to satisfy stress and survival needs. The mission is to survive. The ends valued are immediate physical needs satisfied. The only means available are instincts, proto-habits and primitive tools.
Slide 10 – Paradigm – Stage B
Although still primitive, Stage B life is far richer. As early as 30,000 BC, leading-edge people began to transform from automatic, instinctual responses of Stage A to the
stereotyped conditioned responses of Stage B – Mystical, Tribal Man. Transformation at this point in man’s psyche evolution was a very slow process relative to later stages. Today we see Stage B pattern in our young children from 1 year to 2-2 ½ years.
As we discuss Stage B life, please make notes about where in your own life and work you have experienced examples of Stage B 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 B in parallel with my discussion will help the psyche stages to come alive for you.
Stage B societies were world leaders from about 20,000 BC to about 8,000 to 5000 BC. The Stage B pattern still lingers in the deep emotional lives of people, especially in more traditional cultures. Pure Stage B society exists today in only the most remote areas of the world.
Group centered, submissive, passive, rigid thinking created the base for a stable, quite peaceful tribal society motivated by the quest for group safety from the mystical forces of nature. For instance in the most remote jungles of Indonesia, most remote areas of Asia, South America, Africa and central Australia.
Stage B behavior is group dominated, submissive, passive and superstitious to the point it appears hypnotic to more evolved stages. It has a rich imaginary experience and a reverent closeness to nature. The imaginary playmates young children have are very real to them. There are group habits, rules, taboos, totems, superstitions, hypnotic dancing and participation in tribal rituals.
The beautiful word “Gynolatrous” applies the Stage B culture. It means the love and reverence for all things female. Stage B religious experience focuses on one God in female form – the Earth Mother Goddess.
Learning is by conditioned response through verbal instruction and repeated demonstration.
The only legitimate basis for action is the way the group does it. There is profound fear of doing, or even thinking, anything new that is not already sanctioned by tribe and family leaders – Such action is believed to endanger the whole group – It is forbidden and punished.
The inherent fear of change we see everywhere is a deep emotional remnant of Stage B life in all people throughout Phase I life – It breaks down at Stage A’ of Phase II life . It is a serious problem in all organizations today. Leaders need to understand where it comes from. How to deal with it at each stage depends on details that are beyond the scope of our introduction to the Human Psyche System and human evolution.
Stage B psyche dysfunction involves withdrawing and not participating in the group. The deepest fear and worst punishment at Stage B is to be banished from the tribe or family. Excommunication and dis-inheritance are still used as punishments for not obeying collective rules and prohibitions.
Slide 11 – Paradigm Summary – Stage B – Personal
Personal life is believed inseparable from the group and controlled by mysterious forces of nature. Personal behavior is unassertive and participating without question. At times Stage B actions appear trance-like. Communication is spoken and highly symbolic.
Religion is centered upon nature, the earth and the female.
Salvation is equivalent to safety through the group. Group membership rights are the most valuable possession one can have at Stage B.
Slide 12 – Paradigm Summary – Stage B – Collective
Stage B psyche created leadership by Council. Councils were structured with three types of individuals – Tribal Elders for wisdom and experience, Chieftains responsible for operating leadership and management and Shamans responsible for vision and guidance for spiritual matters and dealing with the awesome forces of nature. The council’s purpose was to manage tribal affairs and to assure group safety through correct behavior and being in the good graces of spirits that were believed to control the forces of nature.
A Stage B collective is organized by rigid family and tribal relationships with structured roles and is administered by the tribal council. The power of tradition is so strong that tribal actions are like obsessions without innovation.
Women played powerful and respected roles in ancient Stage B families and tribes – Often as Shamans.
Stage B leaders invented a stable Tribal/Village society of families. These tribal organizations could be either or both nomadic or village based. Today, remnants of Stage B Council organization are at the underlying core of public and business organizations. Examples are the Council/Mayor organization of many municipal governments in the US and the Boards of Directors for business corporations.
Slide 13 – Paradigm Summary – Stage B
To belong, to remain aligned with and participate in the tribal society group is the dominant motivation pattern at Stage B. By such actions the individual receives support and strength from the family and tribal rules and instruction. A result is that tribal society becomes so closed and rigid that it cannot change.
The mission of Stage B life is to act only as the group prescribes. It is deeply believed that absolute adherence to the ways of the group is the only way to assure safety and survival of both the group and the individual. To disagree is to endanger both yourself and the group. The pattern of group participation is so strong that anthropologists have named it “Participation Mystique”.
The ends and means valued and the theme of Stage B life follow from what I have just described. Ends valued are to have rights of membership in, acceptance by and participation in the group – Being a group member is a Big Deal. Means valued are to act only in strict agreement with the beliefs and rules of the family and the tribe. The life theme at Stage B is to be and do only what is prescribed and allowed. Therefore, a stagnant atmosphere pervaded late Stage B collectives. Individual freedom of thought and action do not exist because the human psyche structure is only partly formed – The Individual vs. Collective dimension is not yet formed. This was man’s first collective controlled society – It is the Stage B “Flop” to the Stage A “Flip”.
Emotional remnants of Stage B are still powerful in many countries with traditional cultures. Even though more evolved consciously, their societies still have significant underlying Stage B nature. We now see Western public leaders, whose psyche stages are dominant at Stage E, aggressively trying to force direct transition of more traditional cultures to their versions of “Democracy”. They obviously do not understand human life. You cannot skip stages or try to force others to do so. The mess they have created is now obvious. What a tragedy.
Slide 14 – Cycle 1 Psyche Pole Structure
This slide is for your reading and reference. It defines the nature of the conscious and unconscious poles for Cycle 1 Stages – That is, what each stage is open to, and considers positive and Good, and closed to, and considers negative and Bad. Stage A is open to a primitive conscious awareness and is closed to anything that limits satisfying physical needs. Stage B is open, as I have described, to a personal identity totally aligned with the group and totally closed to an identity separate from the group or questioning or opposing its control.
End of Part 2 – 4
Comments