Fractal Dynamics An Overview. by Brent Simpson by Brent Simpson Medium

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Sep 17, 2018 · 29 min read · Listen
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Fractal Dynamics an Overview

By: Brent Simpson
For those who haven’t heard of Ken Wilber, it may be worth your time to look into his
work, particularly if you are philosophically-minded or, looking for a gateway to a
possible theory of everything (a TOE), or simply wanting to better understand the
model that I will be laying out here.
This article is going to give a little bit of a backstory, on why I think his work is so
important for our time. As well as, dive into some of the particulars of his model. This
process will then be followed by another potentially very potent model for our age,
called Spiral Dynamics. At which point, we are going to geek out on a model that builds
on those two… Integrating some of their data in ways I believe has not really been done
elsewhere, into a model I have been working on for 10 years, called fractal dynamics. I
hope that you enjoy the process, particularly if you are totally new to all-inclusive
integrative theories (I know that may seem like an overly-bold statement, but you
might be surprised at the ground we cover here).
• As a note of convenience, I do encourage those that know both the integral model
and spiral dynamics, to skip my overviews and jump right to the Fractal
Dynamics map.
Ken Wilber’s Integral Model & Why It’s Important In Our Age
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What if you had a map that covered the ground of most human experience? A map that
instead of dividing and conquering other models… Finds a way to include the best
parts of them. A rather comprehensive map, in other words, a sort of theory of
everything (a TOE). That’s what the integral model sets out to do.
Although this integral model is still only true but partial. Some serious thinkers believe
it might be one of the least partial maps humanity has at this time. It seems reasonable,
to suggest that the map is not the territory, which means, having a map is different
from actually walking (or flying over) the landscape of that map. In other words, just
having some abstract cognitive understanding of some terrain, is different from your
feet actually hitting the pavement or flying an airplane over hazardous mountains. In
that sense, having some sort of map or operating system, helping to guide you, is rather
wise, and that’s what integral theory sets out to do.
Here is Ken outlining his model if you’d prefer not to read my presentation of it, and
just have a listen.
https://youtu.be/i2dU06hVOsk
AQAL
The model that Ken uses is built from a system called AQAL which stands for All-
Quadrants All-Levels, All-Lines, All States and All-Types. As you’ll hopefully see with my
later overview on Fractal Dynamics, I believe I have found a way to synthesize all of the
different modes into a singular, hopefully more elagent model. Where although these
distinctions can be made, they functionally-fit together and beautifully synthisize. I
won’t be getting rid of any of them, but rather, making it into a simpler and smoother
transition for understanding all of them. Unfortunately, I can’t go into great depth, but I
will provide a brief summation of each.
All-Quadrants
As you will see in my Fractal Dynamics overview I have added two further dimension-
perspectives to Ken’s model thus suggesting there are in fact, six primary dimension-
perspectives and not simply four.
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That said, Ken’s model looks at the dimension-perspectives of the inside and outside of
individuals and collectives. Ken noted, that many academics where trying to push the
cosmos into one or two, dimension-perspectives while reducing away what seems like
other equally valid dimension-perspectives. Thus, making a fragmented cosmos, a
cosmos of échos of what could be a far more enchanted universe, if only more
dimension-perspectives were allowed in. He boiled it down to what he believed where
four fundamental dimension- perspectives. Anything less to him was a reductionalist
approach. (As noted, I will contend that Ken may well be doing a very subtle
reductionalism himself here… But I do deeply applaud him for opening this door to
greater thought by myself and many others).
That said, he wasn’t really the first to open this door, three out of four of these
dimension-perspectives map onto Plato’s big three, or The Good (LL), The True (UR)
and The Beautiful (UL). As some philosophers suggest, essentially anyone doing any
sort of rigorous musings are all footnotes to Plato and this may well be the case. It is
true however, that Ken does seem to have deeply fleshed out some
of these ideas in a way that Plato was never able to.
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The UL quadrant — is seen as the inside of the individual or the I-space. In his model,

this accounts for ones phenomenology or, ones thoughts, feelings and emotions.
The LL — is seen as the inside of the collective or, the WE-space. In his model this
accounts for hurmenutics. Or something like the shared space of common meaning and
understanding.
The UR — is seen as the outside of the individual or, the IT-space. In his model this
accounts for empericism and béhaviorism.
The LR— is seen as the outside of the collective or, the ITs-space. In his model this
accounts for systems theory (This one is not noted in Plato’s thinking).
• It is important to say that, he has further broken down each quadrant to an inside
and an outside, that is a very advanced conversation that can be found in his works
on Integral Methodological Pluralism, for the sake of clarity we are going to largely
omit that from this discussion…but if you are doing advanced research into his
thinking this is an important caveat.
Instead of going into too much depth on each of these quadrants I will rather use a real-
life example that highlights them and shows how reductionalism often plays out in the
world.
Imagine a physicist who believes they are working on a theory of everything. They
think that by integrating The Special Theory of Relativity and String Theory they will
have, in essence à totalizing map of how all things in the universe work… A Sort of
simple equation that accounts for it all.
On one level this to be applauded, it would be nice to see it work. But sadly, even if it
did, I shall contend it would probably just account for the most basic stuff in the
cosmos, namely matter. How does that matter, that frisky dirt, get up and become
walking giraffes and bumblebees? When you really start to think about, it probably
won’t given just that simple formula.
Rather as time marches on, novelty emerges in existence and the reduction of the
bumblebees activities to just that equation becomes an act of oversimplification and
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reductionalism. It could account for a lot. The foundations of things… But because that
foundation is incredibly broad don’t quote me on this but probably something like
99.999999% of matter that we know of in this universe it’s easy to forget that this is not
everything that exists. It fits fairly well into this most basic substrate of dead, lifeless,
physical matter. But the more intéresting matter, the matter that is animated such as
giraffes and bumblebees is perhaps a far, far more interesting novelty. And a thing that
cannot be easy reduced to simply this UR reductionalist contrstruct outlined by the
physicist. It’s far easier to predict where Jupiter will be next month. But much less so,
your dog Rover in 15 seconds.
This notion that, the universe is simply a giant machine and if you understand the gears
sufficiently, you yourself, will be able to tune this massive machine. Again, this can be a
somewhat noble pursuit, but my contention is that this purely deterministic approach
(right hand quadrants only) leaves at least half the world out of the picture (namely the
insides [UL & UR]). The insides are where novelty seems to emerge.
A potentially more appropriate way to start seeing the cosmos in a more comprehensive
fashion, is through a lens like panpsychism. Panpsychism, generally sees consciousness
going all the way down in matter. What I mean by that is that, instead of the Descartian
view that only humans have minds (or worse, as some of these reductionalist scientists
may hold, the mind is simply a theatre of the brain… In that sense, the mind is just the
brain). Rather, dogs have internal phenomenology (internal experience), so too do
reptiles, plants have à sort of basic internal landscape of some sort of felt-sense
présence, and maybe just maybe, à very, very basic interior landscape codes the
inherent activities of matter itself). A map such as this, sees consciousness and matter
together emerge and not simply one or the other. They are partners in the dance of
existence, and each partner cannot be reduced to the other. Matter is transcended and
included by vital life (molecules and cells). Which is transcended and included by
organs (such as the R-complex), which is transcended and included by the organism
itself. In this way matter and mind complexify together.
Using Whiteheads notions that from the interior: the subject of one stage becomes the
object of the subject of the next stage of development. The subject sort of feels the
previous moment and by feeling it, kind of makes, that which was a subject to the
individual an object, thus disidentifying with it… and allowing the individual à
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somewhat novel new identity on the other end of this process. This is constantly

emerging in the nature of things, and one way of looking at it…or framing it, is that
this is freedom itself (UL). But ones freedom is still bound to tangible deterministic
happenings (UR). So for example, I have the creative idea of flying myself to Pluto. But
there are determinative factors that make that a very unlikely happening for me.
Therefore, a balanced and appropriate way forward is to intégrate the insides (where
freedom resides) and the outsides (the determinative
constraints) and balance and blend them into a more comprehensive whole.
All-Levels
When we addressed pansychism we touched on the notion of stages of development.

But here we are going to start to flesh this idea out in a lot more detail. I will show you a
few major maps and then dig into the map I will be using primarily to flesh out Fractal
Dynamics itself namely, Spiral Dynamics.
You may have heard at some point in your life someone talk about Maslow’s Hierarchy
of needs, or Lawrence Kohlburgs Theory of Moral Development. Why these may be
important for our future, is they can probably help us get out of the post-modern
swamp. What I mean by that is, postmodernism doesnt seem to have a way forward. By
saying everyone’s view is equally right (so long as you believe everyone is equally right.
For if not you are wrong or in other words falling into the performative contradiction
[don’t worry we will cover this more later]). Then, you deaden the path to the idea that
there may be greater and lesser partial views on existence. In other words, you have
fallen into a swamp where everyone is equally drowning in a goo which allows for
nothing better or worse and you slowly sink… A sort of death into nihilism as it were.
The alternative is to reintegrate a softer hierarchy, instead of previous hierarchies of

exclusion. These hierarchies are ones in which a far more embracing stance is taken.
One in which, everyone is seen as right or partially right, and you can be less
partial too. That notion of being less partial, is where the stages come in. The less
partial you are, the more of the cosmos you have embraced (or using the Greek word
‘Kosmos’ which includes both the insides and outsides of the universe).
So, you can be really developed in one area and not so developed in others. In Wilbers
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model this is called — Lines of Development — I noted for example earlier, Maslow’s

hierarchy of needs. Which goes from, survival needs to safety needs, to belongingness
needs, to self-esteem needs and finally (in his model) to self-actualization needs. Each
need, in many respects is necessary, but not sufficient for the next need. So, to be
operating at self-actualization you need to have all the previous needs met. If not you
will probably regress to those previous needs until they are met in some way.
Another line of development is Kohlburgs Theory of Moral Development. With it,

individuals move from egocentric modes, to ethnocentric modes to worldcentric modes
to planetarycentric modes. Each mode takes more sentient beings into account when it
makes a decision. In other words, it’s decision-making processes become ever more
moral in their nature.
Let me give you an example for this from his research. He inquired into how people
would act under the following circumstance. You live in a small town with one
pharmacy. In that pharmacy is a medicine that cure your mom who is at present dying
and will surely die by tomorrow if you do not get the medicine for her. The owner and
operator of the pharmacy is gone for the weekend. And you have assessed all
possibilités and have come to the conclusion that there is no other method to get the
medicine to save your mother than break into the pharmacy. You are therefore asked,
what ought you do.
The respondents generally gave three responses that were later mapped to
egocentric (yes reponse), ethnocentric (no reponse) and worldcentric (yes response)
morality.
The first response was, yes and when asked why they simply said something along the
lines of becuase I want to. In other words it’s about them or égocentrism. They may
want there mother to live… but they may not really care about the damages it causes to
others.
The next response is no and when asked why, they usually said something like, it’s
because rules and laws matter. If citizens didn’t follow rules and laws the world would
be a mess and do we want a mess for a world, no we don’t! So therefore, I would follow
the rules.
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In other words, following the ethos of the crowd — or ethnocentrism.

The last answer is again yes. And when asked why, the réponse given is that, some
things matter more than the rules in place in our society, I will break the law in this
case, and gladly so. Perhaps even serving a year or two in prison for doing this act, if it
in fact saved my mother’s life.
Awnsers such as this may well be seen as worldcentric.
Those are two rather important lines of development that show growth over time. But
there are at least a dozen others (perhaps more). Such as aesthetic, cognitive (which
seems to be necessary but not sufficient for growth in other areas), kienisthetic,
musical, mathematical and so on. You can highly developed in one line have low
development in another. The example often used is the case of the Nazi
Doctor (high cognition, low morals).
Before we leap to Spiral Dynamics there are two other important parts to Ken’s Map,
that my Fractal map also tries to include: namely — States and lines — . I will touch on
them both briefly.
In respect to States, most religious traditions maintain that there are wider or broader,
or more open states of consciousness that can be arrived at. These are sometimes
considered mystical states. From a union with nature (nature, or shamanic mysticism)
to diety mysticism (a unity with an entity, god or, goddess vastly greater than oneself)
to a witnessing state of sort seeing through godhead à place of radical peace and calm.
To potentially a nondual suchness where the subject and object duality falls apart
entirely.
You can approach these agnostically as merely phenomenological states arising from
within one’s own mind, or be more open to the potential that there may be
transrational explanations. Explanations that defy our present models. An example
many youngsters may know today is something like Doctor Strange.
One of the big differences, is that states are open to anyone at anytime. Your 5 year old
may have access to a diety mystical experience but, not integrative consciousness which
requires a plowing through of many stages to eventually arrive at that place.
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In fact, we may well traverse all of these states everyday, but for most of us, just not
with much awareness. Some mystics contend that when we go to sleep and if we
maintain awareness into those states, we are accessing these different states
consciously. In the REM (rapid eye movement dreaming state) if awareness is
maintained we have a lucid dream. Where the potentials of ones freedom seem nearly
limtless and bounded almost exclusively by one’s imagination. Some long term
meditators and contemplative prayer practicioners suggest they can regularly maintain
awareness into the deep dreamless sleep state. A state when witnessed from the inside
is likened to vast emptiness in which nothing arises.
Lastly — Types —
To me this is a bit of a catch all place to include certain data that this map may not fully
include. Such as polarities, masculine and féminine modes,the enneagram and so
forth.
Spiral Dynamics
Now, we will focus this map somewhat awkwardly in on Values, via a system of
developmental called Spiral Dynamics to use in the future as a sort of backbone idea
for the Fractal Dynamics theory. See my overview video below on this Spiral
Dynamics (and continue to each levels video below) or continue reading.
https://youtu.be/jQ7uKeYInXY
I am going to break the theory down into somewhat simpler language than expressed
in the video. The process of emergence outlined in SD (Spiral Dynamics) moves back
and forth between more embracing modes (Purple, Blue, Green and Turquoise) and
agentic modes (Beige, Red, Orange, Yellow and Coral). In the SD model this movement
remains somewhat mysterious, but I will contend that there are reasons for this, as will
be outlined in the Fractal Dynamics Model. Again like other stage models, there
doesn’t appear to be any skipping of stages here. One must first assimilate the fullness
of one stage to move onto the next. And will not go anywhere unless and until that is
complete. In fact, if things get rough, regression to previous values is possible. There is
a lot that can be said about the particulars, but if you find this all very interesting I can
recommend Don Beck and Chris Cowans book on Spiral Dynamics. I am going to
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rather approach this by fleshing out each system in more detail as it will come in handy
when we look more deeply into Fractal Dynamics. I will include in this outline Jon
Dohs artistic overviews of SD which he calls Totem Dynamics after each
level is explained.
Beige — oh gracious, sometimes I am beigey and it ain’t pleasent. This was the first
system in the human domain that was activated. It was activated perhaps 100,000
years ago when humans recognized they could more easily manipulate the natural
surroundings for their survival. Here we may place things such as the quest for fire. The
abilities to manipulate tools in novel ways to enhance basic survival. We still see it
potentially in ultra remote locations around the world, extremely poor health people,
including some dementia patients and street folks. Life is very hard and not pleasent
often, in this value structure.
https://youtu.be/Wu3lWmfHs2o
There are a lot of reasons why people drive up to the next level of complexity… Usually
to solve some problem that couldnt be solved at the previous system in this case —
Purple emerges. Perhaps emerging approx. 40,000 years ago. This system focuses itself
on appeasing their ancestors and animistic spirits. It’s a little softer in nature compared
to Beige. It’s starting to build very primitive cognitive causality maps
Such as, if I have mate with a girl she sometimes has a baby. So maybe, the two are
connected. Although, they wouldn’t have that kind of linguistic sophistication.
Many Purple folk have a name for every bend in the river, but no name for the river
itself. Life is short, brutish and nasty on the whole. Historically Purple lived in nature
almost exclusively with very little buffer from it. Although the world was seen as
magical, sacred and in-dwelling with goodly and evil spirits. Spirits which you might be
able to win their favor of (or lose them) from certain actions done. This can still be seen
in many modern children around age the of 1 and a half to 2 and a half year olds.
https://youtu.be/Iq2JL5Y_C3E
The next swing is again more agentic and swings oneself somewhat away from the
whims of nature into — Red… Building a buffer from it, through civilization building
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techniques. Here we see the Power God’s emerge. Those sometimes willing to sacrifice
animals and even children to appease the God’s and gain more power over nature.
Slave-master dynamics start to happen here. Wherein a master-slave dynamic seemed
somewhat common around 10,000 years ago but not so much prior to then. We also
start to see a lot more masculine dieties perhaps owing to its more agentic nature,
compared to the female dieties of the previous system, which was more of a feminine
embracing approach to existence. My Fractal Dynamics model actually has more to say
on this particular topic also. Think of the Mayan culture, or perhaps Egyptian
culture here. The amazing side of it was building more sophisticated languages, math,
astrological and building systems. The down side was. It’s sheer brutality.
• New data is starting to emerge to question some of these more traditional accounts
of early civilization [see Graham Hancock for example] but given that this is
something of the more mainstream theory, I will leave it somewhat unsaid. As even
with that caveat I think this emergence process still generally follows this pattern].
https://youtu.be/N97mJKEFOvk
The next system although highly ideological can be seen as somewhat calmer, or at
least vastly less impulsive and chaotic than the previous Red system and that’s — Blue.
Perhaps emerging approx 5,000 years ago. Through law, religion, morality and
integrity. The belief is, we can build a society more the way we’d like it to be, with less
of the deep impulsive brutality of RED (Although they would never frame it that way).
It looks deeply into our shared meaning constructs, and tries to build a common and
uniting map. However, it can be incredibly strict, anyone that doesn’t follow this rule
book may face, harsh and very public consequences. This system emerged in a response
to the Red systems oft brutal nature. Here we see the rise of the great worlds religious
traditions. Where one is willing to sacrifice now, for a future reward (often seen as a
coming heaven after one dies or if lucky while they are living). Where the previous
system might have been striving for something primarily beautiful in nature, this
system seems to primarily be striving for something goodly in nature.
https://youtu.be/iADIFkiQyNwa
Next we find ourselves in a sort of modernity enlightenment mindset or — Orange. The
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previous system often feels to smothering for the enlightenment mind who gets the sense
instead of waiting for heaven in some afterlife that may never come. Why don’t we try
to make heaven here on earth. Through logical-type deductions slowly, and then more
quickly, the gears of change turned in society as the whirl of the Enlightenment period
swept the planet in the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th century. We saw machine marvels
emerge on the scene with steam engines, cars and eventually airplanes. This is where a
lot of the worlds modern marvels emerged, but also as noted earlier, often came with a
reductionalist taint that modern thinkers now may well put more serious
consideration into. It’s easy for Orange to fall into the pattern of thinking that the
universe itself is but one giant machine (including oneself paradoxically). Thus,
stripping the enchantment out of the Kosmos, and framing existence as often rather
bleak, and simply frisky dirt, that has got up and started to walk around . Both, the
amazing marvels of Orange, and the death of the interior landscape, all too often seem
to coarise when when transitions from the Blue mythological même into the
Orange reasoning meme take place.
https://youtu.be/hXHL-P2KwS4
Once again a softer tone emerges with the next system in — Green. Seeing through the
fact that reason is just a perspective, one among many. In its healthy forms, it seems
Green is rather embracing of all the different ways of looking at the world. At least now,
in a fairly real way, having at least the capacity to hold hands with everyone, no matter
where they are at. This system emerged en mass in the 1960s. It has a very creative core
sometimes people refer to Green as the Cultural Creatives (you may have come across
this term before and generally it discribes this landscape fairly well).
This is the great cultural shift from modernités reason orientation to postmodernism
and relativism. Perhaps captured fairly well with people like Martin Luther King’s
“I have a dream” speech. There is again, often an ideological tone here, but not one
founded in simple myth, rather in notions (again in its healthy form) of peace and
compassion for everyone in the world, and sometimes the plants and animals too.
Where it sometimes catches itself up is something I noted early, called the performative
contradiction. The notion that sure everybodies right. But they have to believe
everybodies right, otherwise your wrong. But the thing is, it takes a lot of
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understanding to be at a place where you are able to see that everybody can be right.
Purple simply doesn’t have the cognitive capacity to see that. In fact, no other meme
can see it, except Green and above. So it often catches itself up here, and can easily fall
into certain kinds of traps that do a lot of damage to oneself and others (Ken calls this
the Mean Green Même).
https://youtu.be/eM_cDehzDcQ
At this point we reach a place of a couple of unknowns and still quite a few knowns.
Although our cultural institutions, think government, academic institutions, and even
much of the tech culture are rather locked into the Green modes of thinking, being and
doing. There have been for sometime indicators that there is what Clare W. Graves
called a Monumental Leap in Meaning on the horizon, for many individuals very soon.
This monumental leap might been seen as getting out of the SWAMP of nihilism and
meaninglessness, when the whole world seems caught in a relativistic SWAMP with
nothing more meaningful than anything else. If this is so… Then what is the point?
This monumental leap seems to offer something of a way out of this mess. A clarion call
to flow and flex like a chemeleon through all these different worldviews. To hold them
as true but partial, but importantly some more comprehensive than others.
The Yellow integrative system is born. Although, maybe only 7% of the population in
the North American culture has adopted this view. The suggestion is that when 10%
has taken it on, there may be a quick and radical shift in our culture, social structures,
industry and behaviours. Potentially making obsolete many of the quagmires that the
Green system was simply unable to overcome. If you don’t really know what I mean by
Yellow, most of the data outlined here up to this point can be seen to have a rather
Yellow favor to it. So, if you have been reading this you have been swimming in
integrative waters for the last while.
https://youtu.be/aUIk7UQUvZQ
Something I never noted but this will be hugely important as we start to dance into the
Fractal Dynamics Theory is the idea that there is a 6-on-6 pattern for some reason
imbedded in the nature of this emergent process. Fractal Dynamics gives us some
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serious clues as to why that might be (so stay tuned). But what I mean by that, in
respect to Spiral Dynamics is the first six systems from Beige to Green seem to reprise
themselves àn octave higher. Wherein, Beige has a likeness to Yellow. In that, they
both have survival orientations. The latter being far more planetary focused. Or
survivial of the planet itself through humanities present actions. Whereas Beige was a
lot more locally oriented in respect to survival.
Likewise with the next system Turquoise there seems to an àkinship to Purple in that
they both have sort magical orientations. With Turquoise the magic is not on a local
level but rather the feeling into the planetary subtle energies that those that have
emerged to this level seem to suggest exist. Energies long forgotten by the head only
atmosphere of Oranges reason. Turquoise, sets back out of the limelight and starts to
fill out the canvas with a new kind of art a spiritual art that truly and fully embraces
reason. I think as this system further fleshes itself out there will à great deal of new
healing modalities and opportunités open up. Where the best of the ancient practices
are reintegrated into modern medicine to open doors to vastly longer and better health.
https://youtu.be/ivaK2okYnwc
The last mêmetic system we will cover here is Coral. There is far less data to run off
here, being mere speculative in the SD community. In fact, with not enough data to say
anything with any assurance. But I feel comfortable to make some speculations,
although keep in mind they are merely that.
The Coral system if the pattern holds will have some similarities to Red. Including
certain kinds of power drives. And I believe, a certain kind of spiritual impulsiveness,
bymeans of a great degree of mastering these subtle energies. I foresee, the emergence
of reverse engineering the human brain. Insodoing, we can produce upgrades
(software and hardware) for oneself and others. This would be very chaotic. Imagine,
ones brain powered 1000 fold what it use to be, with new senses and so forth. A new
kind of power drive, of nearly godly proportions, could occur with such changes and
they may not be that far off. Look to someone lime Elon Musk as a potential candidate
for having at least a few Coral-like values.
Fractal Dynamics
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This finally leads me into the primary focus of this article. I hope for those unaquanited
with the theory, I have given you just enough to sink your teeth into, so that you will be
able to follow me into this stream of ideas.
As noted in the early goings of this article, I suggested that Ken’s quadrant model is
perhaps a case of Very Subtle Reductionalism. What I mean by that has been recently
noted by Fredrico Nicola where he came to a similar but slightly constured conclusion.
That instead of a four-quadrant model we are better suited to have six

components in the model. I’ll first reframe Nicolas presentation of the idea and then go
into a deep élaboration thereafter.
Wilber suggests the quadrants are the “four basic ways of looking at anything” so if we
are looking at a sentient being this makes some sense, Nicola gave the example of his
girlfriend.
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Wherein,
From the I perspective: I look at how I think she feels.
From the IT perspective: I look at how she seems to behave.
From the WE perspective: I look at her cultural values.
From the IT’s perspective: I look at her social behaviour.
Alright, so far, all is well and good. But how about if instead of looking at another
sentient being, I am rather looking an atom. Nicola uses an à dime, but Wilber clearly
notes there is a difference between what he calls an artifact and a being. Although it
may seem a stretch to put atoms into that category, they are the foundations of our
bodies that are taken in and integrated into greater wholes. An artifact like a dime is
different in that that’s not the case. For a little more detail you can go back to my spiel
on panpsychism.
This is were I kind of agree with Nicola, it’s clearer to see that Wilber is making what I
call a Very Subtle Reductionalism here.
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From the I Perspective- I can’t really look at how the atom feels or thinks. Ken calls
this protohension. And I see why he does this. But in this way, it is a pre-I or a pre-
subject (where later I will make the contention that although protohension is useful, it
isn’t until around a reptile complex [or R-complex] that subjectivity comes online…so
this categorization although decent, in a certain sense isn’t that great either. Don’t
worry if this didn’t make a whole lot of sense now… We will cover it from a few
different angles and hopefully that will bring clarity.
From the It-perspective- in a certain sense, it’s clearer but again, we are sort of
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assuming a subject (or to be generous a proto-subject… and in a way I will give it to

him). But again the classification is messy at best, as it doesn’t have a real subject, at
best its a proto subject thus not really fitting into his four quadrants. In other words, its
doing the behaviours or the typical activity of what say a gold atom does. But that
assumption of a subject and thereby having behaviours stemming from a subject isn’t in
my opinion exactly right, as noted above which thereby, construes the way we might
classify the atoms movement.
The WE and the ITS suffer this same fate in that sense.
So although this seems overly detailed and knit-picky at best. I promise the results of
unthreading this yarn are profound. It gives a radical overhaul and I believe deep
upgrade to Ken’s model as a whole.
The way I am going to suggest going forward is to rather add two dimension-
perspectives that are prior to pronoun linguistics. Unlike the previous four that map
onto subjectivity, intersubjectivety, objectivity and interobjectivety, these two don’t.
They connect with the material realm, thus shifting the IT to rather a 3rd-person gaze
exclusively.
This 3rd person gaze CAN ONLY be attained by a being with a complex neo-cortex or
greater. That is, only complex neocortexes or greater can make claims to the truth.
And secondarily, replacing the notion that it maps to objects, and rather to a pre-
subjective realm, that I call the foundations. And also adding a vital dimension-
perspective that is in-dwelled in things like plant life that also is proto-subjective, but
yet has very primitive feeling states. But no subjective complexity to yet make sense of
them. In that sense the notion of the subject is emergent & only truly arriving in this
neck-of-the-woods (our planet) with something like the R-complex of a reptile. This
augment therefore lays out the dimension perspective in the following way.
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You can imagine the foundations as a point in the center without much complexity, but
it is the primary groundwork from which the dimension perspectives rest. And the vital
core extends out of it with two dimensions instead of just one. And then, so on up the
dimension-perspective from subjective to intersubjective ect.
Let me now make a suggestion, and I will unravel the reasons why I made it as I go. The
suggestion is we start to look at the dimension-perspectives as six-fold instead of as
four-fold and that along with that, there is a fractaling (or self-similar pattern from
near as from far) that emerges in greater and greater wholes when one starts to look at
the Kosmos in this way. Therefore, we start to deeply merge the quadrants with
developmental theory itself. Giving greater credence to both I believe.
Incorporating Stages With the Quadrant Model (Or Now, The Six-Dimension Perspectives)
As noted early, Fractal Dynamics was in part realized, through extending this
mysterious 6-on-6 pattern expressed in Spiral Dynamics. What I came to conclude is
that the 6-on-6 pattern extended beyond just values into the deepest ressesses of
evolution itself. But the pattern builds on itself, it builds itself up. This starts to clarify
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why Clare Graves saw it and it looked so mysterious but yet seemed very important to

mention. So let’s dig into this angle.
I noted our bodily system transcends and includes other systems. Such as atoms, Cells,
R-complexs, Limbic Systems and Complex Neo-cortexes. Although there are many,
many, many other subsystems in play. These five even by many scientific accounts all
have Monumental Leap written all over them.
They demarcate the leaps from matter into something living and alive. Cellular life.
The basic building blocks of all living things. And next we don’t really get subjectivity
until the R-complex emerges. These beings might be seen as radically focused on
themselves alone. In many respect all about their own I. But still this is a profound leap
forward from simple plant life. Think about how much more dynamic a reptile is
compared to a plant.
Next, we get the limbic system built out by mammals. Note, that that distinction again
is made very clear in scientific literature. The mammals are rather monumentally
different in both subjective awareness and behaviours compared to reptiles. They seem
to have emotions. Reptiles do not. This emotive world allows mammals to bond with
each other. To form kinships with their immediate family and pack. And may well have
memories of how they have connected in the past. Whereas reptiles, are seemingly only
now and immediately focused. With memories extending perhaps minutes.
With humans and our complex neocortexs we are able to map the world and by doing
so, we get ever more momentum in our ability to build constructs and manipulate our
surroundings, including the use of language and the skillfullness of our hands at
preforming a myriad number of tasks. This is where the whole of the SD map fits with
the exception of the top three stages. Which I am now going to make the contention is
the beginning of a different kind of human. That is the monumental leap. With those
hardware and software upgrades that Coral will bring, a new superhuman subjectivity
will emerge a subjectivity that is radically at home with dealing with vast systems. Vast
interobjective landscape that even to our present mind will be nearly inconceivable. But
like Red and the Reptiles before it, probably very chaotic.
What we get therefore is a sort of àkinship to the pattern outlined in SD and the
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broader pattern outlined here. And it can further be coupled with this new take on the
dimension-perspectives (instead four-quadrants, six-dimension perspectives).
What I mean by that is that, matter is linked to Beige which is likened to the
foundational dimension perspective. Where Beige is many octaves above matter and
was touched in fractal fashion everytime a new monumental leap occurred.
Likewise, Purple has an àkinship to vital life and the vital component in the dimension
perspectives. Purple like vital life is sort of not subjectively fully aware of the new world
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it has entered into that doesn’t really emerge until Red.

Where Red has an àkinship to the impulsive/subjective atmosphere of the reptiles. A

raw new awareness has emerged. So watch out. In Red it is of a landscape where truths
can for the very first time be uncovered. But it’s coming at them from a chaotic and
impulsive and generally I-oriented direction. Usually in discovering truths to get
something beautiful, shiny or sexual. This maps onto the dimension-perspectives again
as the 1-person perspective, at its fractal correlate seen in reptiles and the R-complex.
This is subdued in Blue. Blue has an àkinship to mammals. A softer feeling and
bonding atmosphere occurs with these beings. In Blue it’s seen as sociocentric, or a
2nd-person perspective and the goodly domain when looked at through the dimension-
perspectives.
Orange is properly in its own landscape. It is the fifth system in the fifth system. So, it’s
finally able to actually achieve the goal in this whole larger complex Neo-cortex
fractal . This whole emergent pattern seemed to set out to DISCOVER TRUTHS, and so
it did, through the scientific paradigm. It achieved great marvels. But Green came
along and seen holes in Oranges monological perspective. Or the whole pursuits of the
Neo-cortex landscape.
Still embedded in Oranges world it can’t quite escape its reach. But it does see that
Orange has fallen short. So,the contention is, is that Green is the first shoot into a new
system but it still isn’t in it yet. That doesn’t happen until Yellow… This time this Sixth
fractal which is yet unnamed will emerge with a level of subjectivity with Coral. But
things like your smartphone are potentially Yellow correlates to this new
Interobjective primary focus. Whereas the Neo-cortexes primary focus was simply
objectivity.
For this particular article this get us into the final section
Integrating States into this model

This admittedly is harder to do in some ways. So treat it more speculatively than what I
had said previously. As we now enter into the landscape of theology proper. What this
model might suggest is that this isn’t the foundational universe that instead there are
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two universes that underlay this one. Why would I say such a bizzare thing, it comes
from beings primary focuses. We are subjective and in the broadest sense I-oriented.
This to me places this universe in a subjective tone. If the pattern holds (and it may not)
then there are two universes that underlay this one and these two universe below us
wouldn’t allow for subjectivity. This universe would and somehow would transcend
and include those previous two universes. They would be proto- subjective. Therefore
this universe would have an àkinship with reptiles, Red and soon Coral.
The universe above us, if there is such a thing, may be related to Mammals, Blue and
what I will loosely call Indigo (the system that would sit above Coral). It would be a
realm of inter_being. Where you can be embedded in self-aware landscapes of
subjectivités. Or something like this. This20
would map onto notions of the lucid dream
state and deity mysticism.
Next up, would be a fractal correlate to Orange and the system after Indigo. Here we
may see the causal ground of being or witness.
Lastly, there would be the fractal correlate to Green and the whole emergent fractal we
see coming online now (what SD calls the 2nd tier and I in this model have related it to
the 6th system). Here the fractal correlate relates to suchness or nonduality itself.
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And that’s about as far as I have extended this model. There are a bunch of small things
not noted here that I may address at a later date. I hope this was MIND EXPANDING.
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