This annual Lenten series of blog posts allows me to catch up with the big thoughts that have shaped my spiritual thinking over the past year. One of the biggest that have influenced me since last Easter is the notion of of the seven stages of human life, as discussed by German AI researcher and cognitive scientist Joscha Bach, in the third and latest of his series of conversations on Lex Fridman's excellent podcasts.
Dr Bach derives this from a concept by the psychologist Robert Kegan: “Our self-reflexive mind is not just gradually accumulating ideas about itself; it progresses in distinct stages, of which there are seven. Stage one, reactive survival (infant). Stage two, personal self (young child). Stage three, social self (adolescence, domesticated adult). Stage four is rational agency (self-direction). Stage five is self-authoring, that’s full adult. You’ve achieved wisdom, but there are two more stages. Stage six is enlightenment, stage seven is transcendence."
[The transcript of the full Stages of Life chapter of the conversation is linked here; if you want to watch it on YouTube, the link is here.]
What resonated with me is Dr Bach's assertion that for most people (he quotes Robert Kegan as saying it's 85% of the population), development stops at the third stage. The ego won't let go; rather than moving on into full adulthood and developing in wisdom, social pressure to assert one's position within the status hierarchy proves to be too strong. And materialism – both the notion that everything is matter, and as the ideology of consumerism – stifles growth. Wanting a bigger house or newer car or promotion to a C-suite job – that's what's driving too many people today, and not a personal quest for truth, meaning or realising one's potential as a human.
Looking at the seven, I puzzle over the difference between self-direction and self-authoring; I also ponder (as well may you, dear reader!) over where I currently find myself. This would place me at between the fourth and fifth stage, with enlightenment and transcendence still to come!
This is a rough but useful map, and it also helps explain why so many people are just not interested in existential or metaphysical questions – they are too busy working on ensuring their egos are clad in all the material trappings that social success calls for these days.
I am a slow learner, hampered by attention deficit and a wandering mind, I am very much the generalist rather than the specialist, although there's a range of subjects into which I am into moderately. In the few I was into since childhood, the facts memorised are vast in number (cars, aircraft etc), but the understanding their context (historic, social, scientific/engineering) came relatively recently.
Watching brilliant scientific minds on YouTube explaining difficult concepts makes me aware of how much time I wasted as a student, goofing off to indulge in instant gratification rather than apply myself to knowledge and understanding. But slowly, I feel I am making progress; this blog bears witness to that progress over the past 16 years.
The road ahead is still long; true enlightenment and transcendence lie beyond my current understanding. That alone is reason to want to go on.
Lent 2023, Day nine
Physical reality and the metaphysical
Lent 2022: Day nine
Precognition and willing the future
Lent 2021: Day nine
Original Sin - yes, it exists
Lent 2020: Day nine
Can praying bring luck?
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