Is the new or emerging 8th paradigm-worldview (PW) a superior, more inclusive PW? In other words, is it one that includes and transcends - but simultaneously connects - the fundamental truths and contributions associated with the other seven PWs? Then, it would have to be trans paradigmatic, trans worldview, trans PW, in the sense given in Ken Wilber's Integral Theory.
However, if it were too mystical and complex (even if based on truth principles subjacent to beliefs associated with the other seven worldviews), in order to be socially effective it would have to be naturally understandable, vital, and likable. It would have to reflect reality very obviously.
Just like in today's materialism (and varieties of idealism in previous cultural-social stages), it would also have to FEEL vitally very real, and personally necessary to adopt so as to thrive and live. It cannot simply be too abstract or conceptual, even if true. It must FEEL that it naturally "makes sense", and that it is capable of personally helping us satisfy personal needs. But who could it make sense to?
According to several developmental psychologists, to naturally embrace or incorporate a worldview, the worldview would have to match the level of psychological development in which that worldview is real and possible. In other words, that feeling of natural acceptance of the worldviews would depend on the "level of psychological development," or the overall personal capacity to embrace reality, conventional or not.
This would probably mean that we are not simply talking about paradigms and worldviews that can be changed by accepting a better explanation. For guiding ideas and values to be genuinely guiding, true, and personal a personal capacity to deeply experience and embrace it from a First-Person meaningful perspective would be required. Wilber, Maslow, Gebser, Piaget, Commons, Richards, Graves, Kegan, Loevinger, Cook-Greuter seem to coincide on this more academic way of speaking about "levels of consciousness" which is so popular in the New Age and alternative spiritual, and UFO contact communities.
PWs (whether they are global and universal or mostly applicable to the developed West) may be like general meaning-making umbrellas under which more specific worldviews are sheltered. But PWs themselves would be under conceptual and value-identity spaces of consciousness that may be vaster or narrower in different individuals.
While the spectrum of PWs is represented horizontally. The PWs closer to the left would be more 'advanced' in the sense of being more egalitarian and willing to embrace more of "others" and, therefore, closer to the emergent 8th PW needed to psychologically and culturally integrate the reality of physical & multidimensional ETs on Earth.
The horizontal layout can also be felt as symbolizing equal validity among all the PWs. But should the horizontal range of PWs become a cross by incorporating a vertical developmental dimension of "levels of development?"
Generally speaking (in terms of Wilberian and associated developmental Integral thinking), the extreme right PW would coincide with pre-integral, more selfish level(s) of psychological embrace of reality. But the specifics of the Authoritarian PW point towards a variety of elitist people that could be called "Modern Rational Individualist Authoritarians" rather than historical pre-modern authoritarians.
According to the system of Spiral Dynamics (associated with the work of Clare Graves), the levels of increasing development are also vertically depicted with the colors beige, purple, red, blue, orange, green, yellow, and turquoise. On the other hand, Ken Wilber depicts them quite similarly and replaces "blue" with "amber" and "yellow" with "teal."
Multiple developmental psychologists (also often associated with Harvard University, for instance in relation to the world of Dr. Robert Kegan) coincide in that there are rather stable psychological structures and/or stages of development pertaining to how we can or cannot interpret reality. According to them (in association with different intelligences or "lines of development") we accept or reject certain more specific worldviews. In this developmental, psychological sense, "Authoritarians" would tend to be "pre-modern" or "mythical," believing in absolute revelations held as truth by a particular culture or ethnocentric community. However, if (in relation to the 8 PW spectrum) they are modern individualist elites rather than (for example classical ethnocentric authoritarians) we could be speaking about cognitively modern individuals with pre-modern sentiments and deeply held personal beliefs.
The point is that according to the work of these developmental psychologists (each focused on different types of intelligence or "developmental lines" that, nonetheless, coincide in developmental "altitude"), there are certain stable reality-interpreting structures in the human psyche and (to deeply and naturally accept and value specific worldviews associated with these levels, rather than paying lip service to them), individuals would have to be primarily situated at specific levels of personal development. Only this would allow them to deeply experience and accept how reality can be interpreted from that level as if their subjective consciousness was a room whose space can include more or less inclusive reality interpretations without being completely absorbed by what appears to their subjective awareness in the space of that room.
Some individuals would be able to embrace more and some less. The less they can embrace the more they will become fixated by a particular worldview or reality interpretation and the more intolerant they will be against changes to their worldviews or accepting the truths of other interpretations.
This issue cannot be ignored, even if it sounds elitist and the need for personal transformation (subjective capacity to embrace more of reality without becoming fixated upon a limited interpretation) becomes relevant. Educational systems (including ways to promote the value of empathy and compassion) would have to promote vertical developmental development and not just understanding of particular worldviews. The economic system would have to support the goal of having a majority of the adult population in the upper levels of development for the more inclusive worldviews to be truly accepted.
However, as suggested in multiple transformative spiritual teachings, humbleness must remain a must (and increase!), especially in those of us who think that we understand more inclusively because (to understand and live integrally) the fundamental truths or fundamental contributions of all previous levels of development (and associated PWs) must remain. Otherwise, a false integralism would be the new spiritual hubris and elitism.
For example, the sense of the sacred towards a Transcendent Other that is present in the "blue-amber" stage (often lost in the "Orange"-modern-rational stage) would still be crucial for the 8th PW. Also, the sense of equality present in the "Green" - ecological, ultra-egalitarian stage would be as relevant as the sense of difference, individuality, distinction, and fighting effort present in the Red stage.
While not all PWs in the spectrum coincide one-to-one with developmental levels or stages depicted in the Integral Wilberian and developmental psychology model they approximate a one-on-one correspondence.
The 8th PW would be compatible with what is called a "second tier," Integral Stage in which a community's culture & individuals recognize the main realizations made by the human family in all previous stages of development.
Ideally speaking, both in this stage and PW people would also re-embrace in a personal embodied sense the sensibilities of pre-modern cultures in which the existence of the otherworldly, magic, and subtle-psychic phenomena are felt as obvious and natural.
A segment inside the Integral Community derived from Ken Wilber's work is also moving towards greater acceptance of the subtle-psychic and otherworldly; not only willing to understand things conceptually and call themselves "integral" but also explore the reality of the Subtle Realm, a multidimensional physical-non-physical, imaginal but with physical effects level of reality that can be experienced while also remaining coherent with rational thinking. The science coming out of this recognition may be a fundamental key to the more advanced multidimensional ET science.
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