Ken Wilber

(PAGE 3 OF 10)

Phenomenal States
Finally, and following this simple heuristic, within the major structures of consciousness there appear to be various phenomenal states (joy, happiness, sadness, desire, etc.). In short, one way of conceptualizing these events is to say that within broad states of consciousness there are structures of consciousness, within which there are phenomenal states.^[9]

Notice that neither states of consciousness nor structures of consciousness are directly experienced by individuals.^[10] Rather, individuals directly experience specific phenomenal states. Structures of consciousness, on the other hand, are deduced from watching the behavior of numerous subjects. The rules and patterns that are followed by various types of cognitive, linguistic, moral (etc.) behaviors are then abstracted. These rules, patterns, or structures appear to be very real, but they are not directly perceived by the subject (just as the rules of grammar are rarely perceived in an explicit form by native language speakers, even though they are following them).

This is why structures of consciousness are almost never spotted by phenomenology, which inspects the present ongoing stream of consciousness and thus only finds phenomenal states. This appears to be a significant limitation of virtually all forms of phenomenology. That is, phenomenology usually focuses on phenomenal states and thus fails to spot the existence structures of consciousness. Thus, if you introspect the phenomenal states of body and mind, you will never see something that announces itself as a "stage-4 moral thought" (Kohlberg); nor will you find something called "the conformist stage" (Loevinger); nor will you spot "the relativistic stage" (Graves). The only way you spot those intersubjective structures is to watch populations of subjects interact, and then look for regularities in behavior that suggest they are following intersubjective patterns, rules, or structures. This suggests that phenomenology is a useful, if limited, aspect of a more integral methodology.^[11]

Developmental Aspects of Spirituality
It appears that all structures of consciousness generally unfold in a developmental or stage-like sequence, and, as virtually all developmentalists agree, true stages cannot be skipped (Combs, 1995; Cook-Greuter, 1990; Gilligan, 1990; Kegan, 1983; Loevinger, 1976; Wade, 1996). For example, in the cognitive line, there is sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational, vision-logic, and so on. Researchers are unanimous that none of those stages can be skipped, because each incorporates its predecessor in its own makeup (in the same way that cells contain molecules which contain atoms, and you cannot go from atoms to cells and skip molecules).

No true stages in any developmental line can be skipped, nor can higher stages in that line be "peak experienced." A person at preoperational cannot have a peak experience of formal operational. A person at Kohlberg's moral-stage 1 cannot have a peak experience of moral-stage 5. A person at Graves's animistic stage cannot have a peak experience of the integrated stage, and so on. Not only are those stages in some ways learned behaviors, they are incorporative, cumulative, and enveloping, all of which preclude skipping.

But the three great states (of waking, dreaming, sleeping) represent general realms of being and knowing that can be accessed at virtually any stage in virtually any line--for the simple reason that individuals wake, dream, and sleep, even in the prenatal period (Wilber, 1997a, 2000b). Thus, gross, subtle, and causal states of consciousness are available at virtually any structure/stage of development.

However, the ways in which these altered states will (and can) be experienced depends predominantly on the structures (stages) of consciousness that have developed in the individual (Wilber, 1983, 2000b). As we will see, individuals at, for example, the magic, mythic, and rational stages can all have a peak experience of a subtle realm, but how that subtle realm is experienced and interpreted depends in large measure on the structures of consciousness that are available to unpack the experience.

(Technical point: the lower reaches of the subtle I call the "psychic"; and the union of causal emptiness with all form I call "nondual." This gives us the four major transpersonal states that I mentioned [psychic, subtle, causal, and nondual]; but they are all variations on the normal states available to virtually all individuals, which is why they are generally available at almost any stage of development. See Integral Psychology [Wilber, 2000b] for a full discussion of this theme.)

Evidence suggests that, under conditions generally of prolonged contemplative practice, a person can convert these temporary states into permanent traits or structures, which means that they have access to these great realms on a more-or-less continuous and conscious basis (Shankara, 1970; Aurobindo, 1990; Walsh, 1999). In the case of the subtle realm, for example, this means that a person will generally begin to lucid dream (which is analogous to savikalpa samadhi--or stable meditation on subtle forms) (LaBerge, 1985); and with reference to the causal, when a person stably reaches that wave, he or she will remain tacitly conscious even during deep dreamless sleep (a condition known as permanent turiya, constant consciousness, subject permanence, or unbroken witnessing, which is analogous to nirvikalpa samadhi, or stable meditation as the formless) (Alexander and Langer, 1990). Pushing through even that level, the causal formless finds union with the entire world of form, a realization known as nondual (sahaja, turiyatita, bhava) (Alexander and Langer, 1990; Wilber, 1999a).

In each of those cases, those great realms (psychic, subtle, causal, nondual) are no longer experienced merely as states, but have instead become permanently available patterns or structures of consciousness--which is why, when they become a permanent competence, I then call them the psychic level (or structure or wave), the subtle level, the causal level, and the nondual. The use of those four terms (psychic, subtle, causal, and nondual) to cover both structures and states has led some critics to assume that I was confusing structures and states, but this is not the case.^[12]

The important question then becomes: do those four states, as they become permanent structures, show stage-like unfolding? Are they then actually levels of consciousness? In many ways, the answer appears to be "yes" (again, not as rigid rungs but as fluid and flowing waves). For example, a person who reaches stable (permanent) causal witnessing will automatically experience lucid dreaming (because stable causal witnessing means that one witnesses everything that arises, which includes the subtle and dream states), but not vice versa (i.e., somebody who reaches stable subtle awareness does not necessarily reach pure causal witnessing)--in other words, this is a stage sequence (i.e., the causal is a higher level than the subtle--e.g., the anandamayakosha is a higher level than the vijnanamayakosha, or the overmind is a higher level than the intuitive mind, and so on--exactly as maintained by the great wisdom traditions [Smith, 1976; Walsh 1999]).

This is why Aurobindo says, of these higher, transpersonal levels/structures: "The spiritual evolution obeys the logic of a successive unfolding; it can take a new decisive main step only when the previous main step has been sufficiently conquered: even if certain minor stages can be swallowed up or leaped over by a rapid and brusque ascension, the consciousness has to turn back to assure itself that the ground passed over is securely annexed to the new condition; a greater or concentrated speed [which is indeed possible] does not eliminate the steps themselves or the necessity of their successive surmounting" (Aurobindo, The Life Divine, II, 26). His overall writing makes it clear that he does not mean that in a rigid ladder fashion, but more as was suggested: a series of subtler and subtler waves of consciousness unfolding, with much fluid and flowing overlap, and the possibility of nonlinear altered states always available. But for those states to become structures, "they obey the logic of a successive unfolding," as all true stages do. The world's contemplative literature, taken as a whole, is quite clear on these points, and in this regard we justifiably speak of these transpersonal structures as showing some stage-like and level-like characteristics.^[13]

Again, that is not the entire story of spirituality. In a moment I will suggest that spirituality is commonly given at least four different definitions (the highest levels of any of the lines, a separate line, an altered state, a particular attitude), and a comprehensive or integral theory of spirituality ought charitably to include all four of them. Thus, the developmental aspects we just discussed do not cover the entire story of spirituality, although they appear to be an important part of it.

To give a specific example: If we focus on the cognitive line of development, we would have these general levels or waves in the overall spectrum of cognition: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational, vision-logic, psychic, subtle, causal, and nondual. Those nine general levels or structures Aurobindo respectively calls: sensory/vital, lower mind, concrete mind, logical mind, higher mind, illumined mind, intuitive mind, overmind, and supermind, stretching along a single rainbow from the densest to the finest to the ground of them all.

The respective worldviews of those nine general structures of consciousness can be described as: archaic, magic, mythic, rational, aperspectival, psychic (yogic), subtle (saintly), causal (sagely), and nondual (siddha) (Adi Da, 1977; Gebser, 1985; Wilber 1996a, 1996b, 1997a, 2000b).

Those are levels of consciousness or structures (stages), during whose permanent unfolding, no stages can be readily skipped; but at virtually any of those stages, a person can have a peak experience of psychic, subtle, casual, or nondual states. Overall or integral development is thus a continuous process of converting temporary states into permanent traits or structures, and in that integral development, no structures or levels can be bypassed, or the development is not, by definition, integral.

Uneven Development
This does not prevent all sorts of spirals, regressions, temporary leaps forward via peak experiences, and so on. Notice, for example, that somebody at the psychic level can peak experience the causal state, but cannot stably access that realm because their permanent development has not yet reached the causal as a stage (or a permanent acquisition or structure). In order for that to happen, they must traverse the subtle realm (converting it into an objective stage) before they can stably maintain the witnessing position of the causal (turiya), because the permanent witness is, by definition, continuously aware of all that arises, and that means that if the subtle arises, it is witnessed--which means the subtle has become a permanently available pattern or structure in consciousness. Thus, stages in integral development, as elsewhere, cannot be skipped (they do not have to be perfected or mastered to the nth degree, but they do have to be established as a general competence. Somebody who cannot witness the subtle state cannot, by definition, be the causal witness--hence, the stage-like nature of these higher structures as they become permanent acquisitions.) See Appendix A.

Still, what usually happens is that because these three great realms and states (waking/gross, dream/subtle, and formless/causal) are constantly available to human beings, and because as states they can be practiced to some degree independently of each other (and might even develop independently to some degree [Wilber, 2000b]), many individuals can and do evidence a great deal of competence in some of these states/realms (such as meditative formlessness in the causal realm), yet are poorly or even pathologically developed in others (such as the frontal or gross personality, interpersonal development, psychosexual development, moral development, and so on). The "stone Buddha" phenomenon--where a person can stay in extraordinary states of formless absorption for extended periods--and yet be poorly developed, or even pathologically developed, in other lines and realms, is an extremely common phenomenon, and it happens largely because integral development has not been engaged, let alone completed. Likewise, many spiritual teachers show a good deal of proficiency in subtle states, but little in causal or gross, with quite unbalanced results--for them and their followers.

In short, what usually happens is that development is partial or fractured, and this fractured development is taken as the paradigm of natural and normal spiritual development, and then students and teachers alike are asked to repeat the fracture as evidence of their spiritual progress.

The fact that these three great realms/states can be engaged separately; the fact that many contemporary writers equate spirituality predominantly with altered and nonordinary states (which is often called without irony the fourth wave of transpersonal theory); the fact that lines in general can develop unevenly (so that a person can be at a high level of development in some lines and low or pathological in others)--and that this happens more often than not--have all conspired to obscure those important aspects of spiritual development that do indeed show some stage-like phenomena. My point is that all of these aspects of spirituality (four of which I mentioned and will elucidate below) need to be acknowledged and included in any comprehensive theory of spirituality--and in any genuinely integral spiritual practice.^[14]