Part I Part II Part III Part IV Part V

     "Okay, this part will be easy," Hazelton announced.

     "You said that last time!" a student yelled out, and everybody laughed.

     "Oh dear," Hazelton smiled. "Well, this time I hope it's true. I just want to repeat the simple notion: although a person can have an altered state or peak experience of gross/psychic, subtle, and causal states at virtually any stage of development, how they interpret that peak experience will depend in large measure on their actual stage of development. That is why we say: states are always interpreted by stages (in their AQAL, cultural setting)--a truly crucial component in a more integral view.

     "Thus, somebody whose center of gravity is red will tend to interpret various peak experiences in red terms; somebody at blue will interpret them largely in blue terms; somebody at green, in pluralistic and participatory terms, and so on. Much of the peak experience itself might be, and often is, nonverbal. But when the person comes out of that state and starts to wonder what it all meant, they interpret it using whatever tools they have. And obviously, they can only use the tools that they have already developed. Of course, some theorists, myself included, maintain that there are no pure experiences, only mixtures of experience and interpretations (i.e., with the exception of purely formless states, all experiences have a LL component). But in either case, the point is the same: every altered state will be interpreted through the lens that the person has available.

     "If for arguments sake, we say that there are 10 waves/stages/chakras/structures/memes/sheaths/levels of consciousness, and 3 great states of consciousness (gross/psychic, subtle, causal), then we would have a grid or lattice of 30 different types of altered states or peak experiences. You could have a purple experience of psychic-nature mysticism, a green experience of nature mysticism, a turquoise experience of nature mysticism, and so on. You could also have a red experience of subtle-deity mysticism, a blue experience of deity mysticism, a yellow experience of deity mysticism, and so forth. All in all, some 30 very different, but very real, types of altered states and spiritual experiences.

     "Of course, you can also add the various types of non-natural or induced states, and this would fill out the lattice even more. Fleshing out that lattice is a very important part of the ongoing development of a truly integral psychology. But, as I suggested, the main themes are already present using natural states and stages, so if you generally understand why there are, say, at least 30 major types of altered states, then you have the central points.

     "Of course, there is nothing fixed and final about that lattice. Not only can you use different models for the number of stages, but--no matter what model you use--the leading edge of evolution itself is frothy, chaotic, creative, with new emergents coming into being all the time, which are not captured by any model. Nonetheless, much of the lattice is composed of stable Kosmic habits (red, blue, green, etc., along with the great natural states), and those can be phenomenologically investigated, along with the creative emergents at the frothy edge. All of that is meant to be included when we speak of the lattice of altered states.

     (Technical aside: When we say that states are interpreted by stages, there are two different types of interpretation involved, which we might call intra-level and para-level. As for intra-level: A central claim of the AQAL matrix is that every holon has a LL dimension--e.g., even electrons interpret the stimuli in their environment in ways that are partially nondeterministic--and these interpretations arise within a worldspace tetra-created by other electrons, such that even the electron has an intersubjective and interobjective background, or a culture and a society. Thus, individual and cultural Kosmic habits are inherently part of the electron's behavior at any given moment, which is why there are no pure experiences, only AQAL moments. Also, every holon's moment of creativity--the moment where it inherits its past and then injects its own creative novelty, which is the "transcend" part of the "transcend and include"--every holon's moment of creativity includes the capacity to interpret its givens in novel ways. All of those types of interpretation are "intra-level"; they are interpretive moments that are inherent aspects of any holon at any level. "Para-level" interpretation simply means that a holon at a given level has an experience of a set of realities not of its level. Generally, this is possible only for holons that have both states and stages, which means holons starting around the level of evolutionary complexity of reptiles, not to put too fine a point on it. In humans, this means that a person at a general level or wave of development has an altered state or peak experience of realities that cannot in any way fit into that level. That level's cognitive apparatus is therefore temporarily overwhelmed, the person is ushered into states far beyond his or her normal capacity, and the mind is flooded by phenomena quite beyond anything it can easily recognize. Nonetheless, the person still has this extraordinary experience, which clearly shows that some part of the person can indeed prehend this experience--and that part is simply the person's higher Self. But unless the mind, or consciousness itself, has developed to a level comparable to that higher experience, then that experience will indeed fade--it will be temporary, not permanent. And as it fades, the person's conventional mind comes back onto the scene and begins to interpret that experience in the only way that it can: namely, by using the tools that it has already developed. That is "para-level" interpretation--a higher reality interpreted by a given level. The lattice of altered states that we are discussing is a lattice of para-level interpretations, yes?)

     "Okay, I won't dwell on this topic much more than that, since various IC members have dealt with it elsewhere [see 'A Summary of My Psychological Model,' posted on this site; and Allan Combs, The Radiance of Being, second revised edition, forthcoming]. We call this lattice of the varieties of altered states, or the varieties of spiritual experience, or the varieties of states-interpreted-by-stages, the "Wilber-Combs Lattice," after two of the researchers who pioneered it. Just let me say that this lattice offers us, I believe, a useful way to integrate an enormous amount of theoretical work and practical research; it allows us to include massive evidence on both states and stages; and it honors more data from more different sources than any alternative conception. The applications of this lattice have just begun, and hopefully some of you students out there will take the idea and run with it."

Part I Part II Part III Part IV Part V