Ken Wilber & Spiral Dynamics

In this article, we look at Ken Wilber and his views on Spiral Dynamics, which are complex and have evolved over the years. If you’re a Spiral Dynamics junkie, you’ll love diving in to the minutiae and nuances of this topic.

In summary, Ken Wilber has respect for Spiral Dynamics as a system of stages that covers a limited area of human development, but considered it to be highly incomplete and partial as a psychological model.

Let’s dig in to the nuances of his views on Spiral Dynamics.

Ken Wilber Uses It As An Intro

In his early work, Ken Wilber consistently used the Spiral Dynamics model as a way to introduce developmental psychology, and he still mentions it repeatedly in his recent books. This is because the basic levels match those of other major developmental models, which together form a core part of his framework.

Beige Survival, Purple Magic, Red Power, Blue Absolutistic, Orange StriveDrive, Green Pluralistic, Yellow Integral and Turquoise Holistic are levels that you can find in different forms in many models, from Fowler’s Stages of Faith to Cook Greuter’s Stages of Ego Development, to Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, to Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Intelligence, Jean Gebser’s Structures of Consciousness, and many more.

That Wilber consistently used the Spiral Dynamics theory as an introduction to developmental psychology shows us that he respected many of its conclusions, particularly the order and content of the stages it proposes.

Ken Wilber, Clare Graves & Don Beck

Wilber holds conflicting opinions of Clare Graves, the researcher whose model eventually lead to Spiral Dynamics as we know it today. In some ways, he seems to revere for him. He has called his work “pioneering” on several occasions, and continually refers to it in his own.

Just one example of this is this description in his interview with Jason Todd: “Clare Graves was so astonished by 2nd-tier structures… he maintained that [2nd tier] was the actual essence of being human.” He clearly respects Graves’ opinion.

Yet he has also called his work “unremarkable” (see p277 of Integral Spirituality), and that it fell into a “reductionism that is rather astonishing.”

Clare Graves assumed that his “value systems” were actually “levels of existence” into which everything could be plopped (despite the fact that his initial research was conducted on American, white, middle-class college students and consisted in their responses to only one simple question… an overall reductionism that is rather astonishing).”

Ken Wilber, integral spirituality p58

I actually agree with Wilber on both these points. When I first read Graves’ work, I was surprised at how simplistic his research was, and found it strange that he built an entire psychological model from it.

As for Don Beck, Wilber collaborated with him many times and repeatedly mentions him in his work. Beck was a founding member of the Integral Institute, and Wilber continually praised him for taking Spiral Dynamics into the world:

“Far from being mere armchair analysts, Beck and Cowan were participants in the discussions that led to the end of apartheid in South Africa. The principles of Spiral Dynamics have been fruitfully used to reorganize businesses, revitalize townships, overhaul education systems, and defuse inner-city tensions.”

On the other hand, after attempting to work with leading Spiral Dynamics figures to expand the Spiral Dynamics model, he lamented “it is not possible to have an academic discussion with individuals whose economic livelihood depends upon one model being the only correct model.” Integral Spirituality, p86.

I’m not sure whether he was referring to Beck in that dig, but Wilber seemed to eventually get his point across. In A Theory of Everything, Wilber acknowledged that Beck had integrated the four quadrants and multiple intelligences into a new version of Spiral Dynamics.

A complex relationship indeed!

The Limitations of Spiral Dynamics

Wilber is a highly quotable author, and this one on Spiral Dynamics is among his best and bluntest:

As a simple introductory tool, it’s wonderful; as an actual psychological model, it’s a disaster.

Ken wilber, integral spirituality p86

Wilber has also criticised Spiral Dynamics at length for a whole series of limitations, including its:

• lack of coverage of the states of consciousness and of state-stages (Wilber blends stages of consciousness with states in the Wilber-Combs Lattice),
• omission of higher stages of consciousness beyond Turquoise,
• lack of appreciation of relationship between stages and states,
• lack of coverage of the unconscious and repression,
• reliance on the discredited theory of memes,
• lack of inclusion of other developmental theories,
• lack of appreciation of lines of development.

Wilber hilariously captures the disconnect between spirituality and Spiral Dynamics in this quote, which must rank among his best ever:

You can sit on your meditation mat for decades, and you will NEVER see anything resembling the stages of Spiral Dynamics. And you can study Spiral Dynamics till the cows come home, and you will NEVER have a satori.

ken wilber, Integral Spirituality p86

Ken Wilber: Spiral Dynamics Only Covers Values

One of Wilber’s prime criticisms of Spiral Dynamics is that it claims to cover all areas of human development in one stroke, yet only covers one: the development of our values, of how we answer the question “what is significant to me?”.

The original Spiral Dynamics theory validates his opinion to some extent. After all, the stages themselves are called “values memes”. Yet the theory also treats all other aspects of human development as branches of our values growth, which Wilber disagrees with.

My own opinion is that Spiral Dynamics actually covers several developmental lines, not only the values line. I have narrowed these down to worldview, values and psychology. Though I do agree with Wilber that Spiral Dynamics does try to cannabalise other developmental lines while lacking the breadth required to do so.

Spiral Dynamics Colours

Finally, Wilber disagrees with the choice and order of colours in the Spiral Dynamics scheme. In short, the Spiral Dynamics colours do not match the colours of the rainbow, which are used widely in tantric traditions and appear in the chakra colours, for example.

Why is this important? Because each of the developmental levels is associated with a particular chakra. The earlier levels are more visceral, gutty, biological, while the higher levels are more heart-based and spiritual.

Look at my chart of the Spiral Dynamics levels and compare it to the chakra diagram:

If the Spiral Dynamics colours matched the chakra colours, we would have Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, and Pink, which is a completely different order.

To overcome this problem in creating his altitudes system, Wilber adopted a colour set that resembles a rainbow: Infrared, Red, Amber, Orange, Green, Teal, Turquoise, and so on.

You might like my video on an Introduction to Integral Theory.