Yellow-Turquoise level of consciousness
Introduction
What do we need to evolve in order to integrate the complexity of our world, to be able to overpass our challenges? What a Yellow-Turquoise consciousness might entail?
Reflexive Consciousness
Duane Elgin (The Awakening Earth) opened my eyes to reflexiveness: you need to take a distance in order to see and to reflect. In his frame of understanding human consciousness evolution, from a 2 dimension consciousness (Beige-Magenta) (see Appendix 2: Spiral Dynamics) to 3 dimension (Red-Blue) to 4 dimension (Orange-Green) to 5 dimension (Yellow-Turquoise), each step forward is brought forth by some kind of “distance” which gives the seer the possibility to see from “above” a more dimensional reality. (Its multi-dimension frame matches perfectly “Spiral Dynamics” and “the 4 Frontier” frames, where each developmental cycle was brought forth by a specific level of consciousness, based on a specific metaphysics.) We started to evolve toward a planet-centered consciousness when we saw for the first time from above our Planet. The distance gave us the chance to see literally “the big picture” and the space to reflect. (see “One Strange Rock” documentary: it promotes the scientific perception of the Universe as alive)
I don’t know what gave me “the space to reflect”, but from my time of wandering throughout Europe with bicycle, living in Nature I started to have a double perspective: I am in the same time an actor, passionately immersed in what I am doing “now and here”, and a spectator, almost magically detached, seeing in the same time the big picture in space and time (for the “big picture in time and space of the Living Universe” I am indebted to Brian Swimme, Elisabet Sahtouris, Duane Elgin, James Lovelock etc.)
Once, in one of my kayak adventures along the Sardinian coast, I was in the middle of a storm, with huge winds and waves, cold waters, at the brink of hypothermia, almost exhausted, with no chances to get ashore. I was near unapproachable cliffs and – for who knows – in the neighborhood of the cliffs the waves becomes chaotic. The wind was trying to push me into the cliffs: I was in a real life-danger. And there I was: totally immersed in what I was doing: trying to save my life. But somehow, magically detached, I was contemplating the amazing Cosmic Dynamics which brought forth such an amazing Planet and such an amazing creature, who passionately enjoy kayaking and now is fighting for its life while he is contemplating and amazed by the amazing Cosmic Dynamic which brought forth the sea and the amazing creature! Almost all the time is happening to me so, even when I speak with somebody or I am just cycling through a forest. I cycle and I see the trees, but at the same time, I am really contemplating the marvel of Nature. Somehow all the time I have, beyond the contextual events, conversations and images, the big picture, in time and space, of our amazing Universe. Everywhere I see connections, intentions, invitations, meanings, processes. If I touch a rock, I touch all the history of the Universe. It is true: it takes a 14 billion year Universe that rock to be and an amazing creature to notice it and through touching it to feel gratitude. When I dance, I am amazed: trillions of cells managed somehow to unite themselves in such amazing architecture – me – and now are dancing! And even more: are enjoying the dance and somehow are aware they are dancing and enjoying the dance! And what were these cells before? Just swirling star-dust! Which magically started to join together, becoming a molten-rock planet, becoming autocatalytic sets of molecules, becoming cells, becoming flowers and birds and trees and humans, and then just start dancing!
When you manage somehow to reflect, to embrace the big picture in space and time, when you start to feel that you are one with all the Universe and not separated from others, your “life surviving strategies” will change dramatically. You can’t continue to live taking more than your share. You can’t continue to make business “as usual”, ignoring what you understand and feel.
How to evolve a reflexive consciousness?
There is a new concept called “mutual consistency”, “which tells us that the Universe is a dynamic web of events in which no part or event is fundamental to the others since each follows from all the others, the relations among them determining the entire cosmic pattern of events. In this conception: all possible patterns of matter-energy could form, but only those working out their consistency in mutual relation with surrounding patterns will last.” (Elisabet Sahtouris)
We live in mutual consistency: you can’t evolve a reflective consciousness while you are choosing a selfish perspective and refuse to take time to reflect. You can’t evolve a reflective consciousness as long as you remain clogged in an reductionist worldview. If you want to evolve a reflective consciousness you have to orient yourself toward all the values that are in a mutual consistency with reflective consciousness. Allow yourself more time for reflection, build with your friends a brotherhood and engage the human society in collaborative and generative ways, try to have a more consistent dialogue with the inescapable Reality and, step by step, it will be granted to you by the Great Goddess of Life as your true gift.
Integrative Consciousness
The Universe is ever-evolving to higher degrees of diversity. A point of bifurcation is reached when the divergent forces of diversity overcome the ability of the system to integrate them. In that “point” a system needs to evolve toward higher levels of its integrative abilities. But what brings forth this integrative ability to a living system?
The level of its consciousness gives the system its ability to integrate a certain level of complexity. Starting with Biosphere and even more with Noosphere (the human civilization), living beings are driven out to increase their level of consciousness in order to better cope with the complexities of their dynamic, ever-evolving environments.
Integrative Consciousness is a step forward for human consciousness. It could integrate what it seems impossible for a self-centered consciousness: collaboration and competition; heterarchy and hierarchy; community and individuality. Until now they seemed to be in mutual exclusion. Integrative consciousness could integrate them and bring forth a new human civilization.
How to evolve an integrative consciousness?
Integrative consciousness is much more than a cognitive concept. It is not enough only to comprehend it analytically. The same for all the living values. It is not enough to read about friendship or love or adventure: you need to live it. But reading about, becoming aware of different concepts is a huge step forward in your evolution. Opening yourself to these new realities, it is another step forward. Being aware of the cosmic dynamics that drives you from inside and figuring out how to co-create your world with other is another step forward.
You can read about Holacracy or Sociocracy to understand how could heterarchy and hierarchy, collaboration and competition, community and individual could work together synergistically. But if you want to evolve an integrative consciousness, the best way is to be part of a community which, as a living laboratory, tries to organize and govern itself as a holarchy. This could be for you another step forward. You and your group of friends could organize yourselves as a holarchy, building the best environment to evolve toward more collaborative abilities. Try to cross the invisible threshold that departs self-centered consciousness from planet-centered consciousness. This is the FirstThreshold you have to cross in your heroic journey.
Reading books which reveal the new scientific perspective upon the living Universe and human society, we could find a lot of amazing information. But we have to integrate them in our ways of living, in our life strategies, in the story we choose to tell about ourselves and the Universe and, finally, in our institutions. It is not sufficient to know scientifically that the Planet is your body: you have to feel so, to act accordingly. It’s not enough to know about Cosmic Dynamics, but consciously to become Cosmic Dynamic, co-creating the next step of human evolution.
How we will evolve toward an integrative consciousness? The Cosmic Dynamic inside us will teach us. Just trust the process and follow your allurements.
Holistic Consciousness
We aren’t speaking about different types of consciousness but different aspects of the same planet-centered consciousness. Reading, experiencing, reflecting, integrating, loving, you become more and more aware that everything is inter-connected.
Holistic Consciousness is about perceiving the Whole we are part of.
How to evolve toward a holistic consciousness? Let Life flows through you! Let Life self-expresses through you! Life is an amazing alchemy laboratory.
Once I was in a forest (very harmed by what I heard about ecological and social disasters from everywhere) and I asked Mother Nature to eliminate the people who are aggressing all others and the whole Planet, which can not be stopped otherwise. (There was a theory, related with 21 December 2012 as a new starting point of humanity, from when – through some kind of differences between Life vibrations and the vibrations which are against Life – the people who are against life will get ill and disappear in time.) Mother Nature answered me instantly, kindly and (not) surprisingly: “I can not do such a thing! It is their right to choose whatever they want.” “If you want to have such an amazing and transcendent, unpredictable and so divers Universe; if you want to have a living, self-creative Universe, you need to allow the liberty!” “If you want to have some kind of mechanical, tyrannical Universe – yes – we can introduce some certain rules of behavior. But if you want a Universe like ours, if you want Life and wonder and evolution, you need to allow the liberty – whatever liberty will choose to do.”
“Everything which looks like a false road, mistake, destruction or anomaly is just another step on the evolutionary spiral. It is the challenge which brings forth the condition for a new evolutionary cycle. The creation is always the fruit of the challenge and goes hand in hand with the destruction. The Universe is not a “perfect” mechanism-like place: it is alive! It is full of death and renewal, full of pain and evolution, full of challenges and unexpected. Look from above! What you will see is just the mystic road of Life which is creating itself step by step.”
Since then, there is for me only solidarity in my eyes and my heart for human species! There is no separation between “good” and “evil” humans: just solidarity. There is no separation between humans and Planet Earth, with all Her mountains, oceans, animals and forests. There is just solidarity. We are together as One, with no philosophical or religious exaggeration. One Great Circle of Life, with its challenges, pains and wonders. Perceiving through these kind of lens, for me it is easy to reject “the conquering” and fighting evil” mythologies and to choose the ones that are speaking about Universe as an integrated whole.
Since then, what I used to call “evil”, “madness”, “stupidity” became just steps on the mystic road of life evolution. Life has its unpredictable ways to go forward. Somewhere, way over my understanding, is another level of order, coherence and meaning!
In an instant, I was overwhelmed by a unusual joy and hope!
It is about a fundamental hope, a fundamental trust in the power of Life, a fundamental joy!
Life is a free, improvised, unpredictable dance, not a march with predetermined moves. It is beyond us to control it. It has its own order, brought forth not through an ideological control, but through free participation of each of us. It is beyond us to judge others movements. What we can do is to fundamentally trust the power of Life and learn to dance with others in an improvised way. What we know for sure is that Life has always found a way to go forward. She always finds even more beautiful and harmonious forms to unveil Herself. I understood this not only cognitively: I felt this! That is why I feel so unusual joy and hope since then.
Living in Nature, feeling the connection with The Great Circle of Life, I started to be hopeful and serene amid our ecological and social disasters. I started to feel solidary with all the humans, with all the living beings, with all the Planet. I started to look to the Planet as the womb which nourishes me. I started to see the Universe Story as my story. I started to see the human history as my history. The Polynesian crossing the seas and discovering new islands are my ancestors. Then I started to feel and trust the power of Life. I understood that from my connection with the Whole comes my joy. From my connection with the Whole comes my hope. From the connection with the Whole comes the biophilia and solidarity. From my connection with the Whole comes my life and my meaning of life.
Evolutionary Consciousness
“If I don’t know life’s larger purpose, how could I know my own purpose?” (Barbara Marx Hubbard)
The evolutionary consciousness gives us the awareness that we are living in an ever-evolving Universe. It makes us aware that our understanding is partial, because we live in a dynamic Universe, that is never the same. We have to evolve continuously to keep with our environment, to manage an adequate insertion into Reality.
The evolutionary consciousness gives us new senses to perceive that our world is dynamic. It gives us a new way to understand ourselves and insert ourselves in our dynamic environments. It is much more than simple cognitive understanding that “the Universe is a dance”: we start to feel the dance! We start to learn how to dance in an improvised way! Actually, this is Life about.
We understand that we can change ourselves and we should do. With the evolutionary consciousness we start to live in a dynamic world. Evolutionary consciousness gives us the understanding that we can consciously evolve; that it is a real possibility to choose the direction of our evolution. We can imagine and choose who to become and how our societies could be, just as we already have imagined better tools. We can consciously change our metaphysics / informational layers. We can change the rules of the game. We can switch form competition and exploitation to cooperation and regeneration. We can change our purposes in life as we continue to evolve or as our environments continue to change.
How to evolve an evolutionary consciousness?
We have to become a kind of spiritual nomads to engage life as a journey. We have to cross as many times as possible “our thresholds” that always try to close us in a static world. It is not about traveling around the world: it is about reinventing yourself and being co-creator of a more harmonious society. Most of all, we have to learn how to listen to our hearts, to listen to the Song of the Universe. Be honest with you and follow your innermost allurements. As always, this consciousness is a gift you will be granted by our Great Goddess of Life. But you need first to meet the Goddess.
Holarchic Consciousness
“We are being integrated into one interactive and inter-feeling body by the same forces of evolution that drew atom to atom and cell to cell. Every tendency in us toward greater wholeness, unity and connectedness is reinforced by nature’s tendency toward holism. Integration is inherent to the process of evolution. Unity does not mean homogenity. Unity increased diversity: we are becoming ever more connected as a planet while we are seeking further individuality for our cultures, for our groups, for ourselves” (Barbara Marx Hubbard)
Holarchic consciousness comes from this double perspective: toward yourself and your environment. A holarchic consciousness can integrate individual and community, personal wellbeing and community wellbeing. It is truly a “more dimensional” perspective than the self-centered one. Holarchic consciousness could bring forth unity through diversity, being able to integrate synergistically what, at lower level of consciousness, seems mutual exclusive realities. It can build cohesion not through conformity, but in an organic way through synergy and cooperation. It brings forth to humanity a new level of organization: neither a hierarchy or a heterarchy, but a holarchy. Holarchic architecture resembles an organism.
How to evolve a holarchic consciousness?
Try to live like a holon, in a community, aware that you are part of a bigger holon and aware that your well-being is dependent on your community well-being. Try to increase the levels of inter-dependency and symbiosis with other humans. Try to build and live in a holarchic human organization. This is the only way. The Butterfly Communities Open-Project is about to imagine and co-create a holarchic social architecture.
Participative Consciousness
“A holon tries to maintain its integrity. Doing so, it fulfills its function in the bigger holon it belongs”. This is a contingent scientific realization, but in the social field this is a game-changer idea: If you want to have a functional society you have to enhance the integrity of its participants. If you want to have a resilient society in the face of challenges, you have to enhance the integrity of its participants. In a mutual consistency with the new holarchic perspective and its social architecture, we have to enhance the social, political, economical, religious and even artistic participation of each member of our societies, if we want to have a more coherent and more resilient society.
“An ideal culture is one that makes a place for every human gift. If we are to achieve a richer culture, we need to recognize the whole gamut of human potentialities and so to weave a less arbitrary social-fabric, one in which each diverse gift will find a fitting place” (Margaret Mead)
How to evolve a participative consciousness?
We all have our talents and gifts to bring forth. The spiritual journey is mainly about to discover our gifts and to develop them. Read more about “multiple intelligence”: you will understand that you have your unique set of abilities and it is your responsibility to develop them and offer them to the world. As we become more authentic, we become more and more participative in our communities. It is not only that we become more aware of our gifts and responsibilities, but we become more able to weave ourselves in the great tapestry of the society.
If you want to evolve a participative consciousness there is a simple spiritual principle: Be honest with yourself. Do not betray yourself; listen to your inner-calling. Follow your allurements. Find your “why” and courageously engage the world you are part of.
“You don’t know what you can do, or who you are in your fullest significance, or what powers are hiding within you. All exists in the emptiness of your potentiality, a realm that cannot be seen or tasted or touched. How you will bring this powers forth? How you will awaken your creativity? By responding to the allurements that beckon you, by following your passions and interests. Alluring activity draws you into being. Our life and powers come forth through our response to allurement.” (Brian Swimme)
As our worldview turns from a mechanical to an organic, inter-connected Universe, we start to discover the power of “co-”: cooperation, collaboration, co-living, co-working, co-learning etc. All this “co-” modalities of living into the society are participative, helping humanity to evolve toward a more humane world.
There is another concept that I like: “emergent design”. In a mutual consistency with all the others concepts and values presented in this book, emergent design resembles the way the Planet self-creates itself. A society is a new level of integration, a holon brought forth by the inter-relation, by the unique and unpredictable participation of its constituents: the humans. The way the society self-creates itself is through emergent-design. A conscious emergent-design could bring forth a more organic human world. For this we need, as individuals, to evolve higher levels of participative consciousness and, as communities, better ways of communication and inter-relation between us, better holarchic social architectures. Being aware of this new amazing concepts, imagining better social architectures and better ways to communicate and inter-relate, trying to prototype them amid our societies, we will learn step by step to improve our social lives.
The word emergent enhances something important: to have a synergy it is not enough to put different things together. You need a mutual consistency between them and a specific relational architecture. The art of emergent design is about how to bring forth this relational architecture. Wikipedia is brought forth through emergent design. But for it to appears, it needs a relational structure which enhances a synergistic participation.
Emergent design is related with stigmergic design. “Stigmergy is a mechanism of indirect coordination, through the environment, between agents of actions. The principle is that the trace left in the environment by an action stimulates the performance of the next action. In that way, subsequent actions tend to reinforce and build on each other, leading to the spontaneous emergence of coherent, systematic activity. Stigmergy is a form of self-organization. It produces complex, intelligent structures without need for to much planning, control or even direct communication between agents.” (from Wikipedia)
The stigmergic correlation is about sensing the others and being willing and able to cooperate with them. We can do a lot of things in a stigmergic way, using no words, just paying attention to the others and trying to sense what are their intentions: we can make together a fruit salad, we can bring forth a beautiful permaculture garden, we can dance. If we use words, we can make everything in a stigmergic way.
Stigmergism is about participation. An improvised dance is the perfect expression of what stigmergism is. First of all: everybody participates. You can not say: I am dancing when you are just looking. You have to dance if you intend to be a part of the dance. Being part of the dance you start to have an important role in the creation of the dance itself. Because your moves will influence others moves. And their moves will influence yours. And so, in a stigmergic design, the dance self-creates itself through the unique and unpredictable participation of every body. What the “stigmergic” word enhances is that, when you make your creative move, you leave a “trace”. This “trace” influences, in a way or another, the others decision how to continue to dance. Your “trace” inspires them. Everybody is free to choose its move, but for sure they will want to continue what you already started. They will sense somehow your intention and will want to continue it, expressing themselves too in this continuation, using their liberty and creativity how to do their move. Stigmergic design enhances participation: liberty, authenticity, spontaneity and creativity of self-expression, but used in a way which enhances not only individuality, but community too. Is a truly holarhic design. It is a truly co-creative process.
Connective Consciousness
Connective consciousness connects us with our planet in a special way. Danah Zohar calls it Spiritual Intelligence. SQ is our most fundamental intelligence. It is what we use to develop our capacity for meaning, vision and value. It allows us to have dreams and to strive to accomplish them. It underlies the things we believe in and the role our beliefs and values play in the actions that we take. SQ helps us to make sense of our world. SQ is crafting our metaphysics. We can sense the “Song of the Universe” and communicate with it through our SQ. It gives us the ability to understand the deeper purposes and values of life and live in ways that align us with these deeper meanings.
IQ helps us to make analytical connections and build bridges, computers and houses. EQ helps us to make emotional connections, to feel the situation and respond appropriately. SQ helps us to make meaningful connections and make sense of the world. Having only IQ and EQ living beings would play only “finite” games, never being able to evolve, to question the rules, to change the rules or even to be aware about the rules and principles which are organizing their world. SQ helps living beings to evolve, to go beyond, to create, to connect the dots in different ways, to change the dots, to change the stories – to play “infinite” games.
Each living being has a certain degree of connective (spiritual) intelligence. This intelligence is a mark of our spiritual/living Universe. It is always evolving and it took a leap forward through the appearance of human self-centered consciousness. Now it is taking another leap forward through the appearance of human planet-centered consciousness.
Humans are essentially spiritual beings, always asking fundamental questions: “Who I am?”, “From where we came?”, “Where are we going?”, “Why I am here?”, “What is my purpose?” “What is the meaning of Life?” We already answered to this questions long time ago. But they continue to pop out again and again, asking for new and better answers. Simply because the answers to the questions like “Why we are here?” or “From where we came”? are always changing with the evolution of our world. They cannot be given once for ever and for all.
Connective consciousness makes us deeply aware we have a inner-calling which gave us our purpose in life; that we have a role, a function to fulfill – through which we are connecting ourselves with others, with our environment and with the whole Planet.
The word connective is well chosen because this is what we feel when we are fulfilling our part in the functioning of the Universe. And, conversely, that is why we are feeling alone, disconnected, empty or even lost. If we are fulfilling our role in the world, we feel this as being connected with the Whole and as doing something meaningful for us. Feeling connected, we can feel empathy for others. The empathy and morality are a direct function of our level of connectedness with the Whole.
We are part of a living Planet. We have no life, no meaning outside of the Great Circle of Life. We communicate with the Spirit of the Universe (Cosmic Dynamic) through our spirit. To find and fulfill our purpose is our main raison d’être. The simple fact that realities like spiritual-intelligence or inner-calling exist it means that beyond me is another level of being which evokes me. It is evoking me from non-being through calling me. This gives me my inner-calling, my allurements, my psychological abilities, my range of purpose in life, my meaning to live. From all these is emerging for me a space of potentiality from where I choose who to become, what to do, how to respond to my environment. It is similar with a space of meaning from where I take what makes meaning for me in my unique environmental conditions and challenges.
How to evolve a connective consciousness?
“I choose to experience the Universe as a living being. If I am looking at a tree whose roots are searching for water, or to a flower which sends its sweet smell to a bee or to ourselves and the inner forces that drive us to act, I can feel that we all are dancing to a mysterious tune.” (after Margaret Wheatley).
“A panpsychic view starts from the understanding that all things, including the Earth itself are integral to the fabric of the living cosmos, all of the same sentient cloth. Mind is a fundamental aspect of matter just as matter is a fundamental aspect of mind: we are part of a world that has depth as well as structure, meaning as well as form. In Thomas Berry words, the world is a community of subjects, not a collection of objects. How do we humans learn again to be participants in this community, not just know it intellectually, but feel it on our pulses? If we call to the living presence of the world, will we receive a response?” (Freya Mathews)
If we choose to see the Planet as a living being, soon we will start to communicate with Her and will receive a response. Our communication will be not only through analytical modalities, but through all others: intuition, feelings, emotions and so on.
„I feel the movement of forces that exist beyond me, but which willingly carry me with them. I don’t experience nature’s elemental energies of wind, movement, or mountains cast high into the sky as hostile. When I lift my head into the wind, or commune with a mountain, I do so as a participant. I feel this planet as an expression of the life that moves in me and everyone.”
„Often, Nature is my most comforting companion. She invites me to remember that I am necessary to creation. But only if I remember that the communion I seek is everywhere around me, waiting for me to notice its presence. It is another intensity and it cries out for us.”
„Here is Life’s great gift-unending surprise. And it’s other gift-Life’s inherent orderliness. We are not adrift in a purposeless Universe. We are not the byproduct of a Darwinian accident that felt lucky because we were the ones to survive. I feel that Viktor Frankl was right when he said that “meaning precedes being.” I know we each have a unique contribution that is necessary for the whole of us to thrive. I know our gifts are required. I don’t know where these gifts originate, but I know what they feel like. I feel joyful when I yield to their expression.” ( Margaret Wheatley)
A new set of emotions
Each level of consciousness, related with its contextual social world, brings forth a specific set of emotions. What could be the emotions of Beige-Magenta? It was a society based mainly on clan/tribe survival. The basic level of human emotions and morality was inextricable linked with cooperation. Inside your tribe, besides cooperation, you can not afford to lose your reputation. Enhancing or losing your reputation is one of your main social priority. If you will lose your reputation, you could be mistreated, discredited, disrespected, excluded from sharing etc. If somebody does or says something to low down your reputation, you can not afford to remain passive and not to respond, even aggressively. Our basic emotion, forged in Beige-Magenta times, are related with being moral and responsible in our tribes and taking care of our reputation.
In Red ranked, war-like societies we have had to increase our aggressiveness to be able to conquer others and, inside our tribes, to defend our reputation or to lower others’ reputation, because now reputation was even stronger linked with our ranks. Collaboration inside our clans gets stronger, driving us even to be immoral with the outsiders in order to enhance the power of our clan. We have had to survive in war-like times and this was the best strategy: exploit and weaken the others to enrich and empower ourselves. These were unconscious epochs, based on fear and fight. We will continue somehow similar with Blue and Orange’s specific emotions, observing that we became more and more individualistic. In competing times the best strategy still remains: exploit and weaken the others to enrich and empower yourself.
The Beige-Magenta set of emotions kept us alive during our tribe times; the Red, Blue and Orange set of emotions kept us competing in competitive quasi-unconscious war-like societies. Nowadays, in our social environment, pressed by the ecological challenges, the old sets of emotions are not useful anymore. When we are forced by evolutionary priorities to evolve toward a conscious and cooperative society, we can not achieve this remaining rooted in our old set of emotions that are more adequate for competition and predict-and-control of life strategies. We have to evolve not only better tools and technologies, better worldviews or better social architectures, but a new set of emotions able to bring to life our new social architectures, able to use intelligently our powerful technologies, able to foster a higher level of cooperation.
A Yellow-Turquoise person is able to welcome the Unknown and the Unexpected in its life, to integrate them in an ever-emergent life design. It becomes an artist in managing the ambiguity of life, in stigmergic correlation with others. It easily could model its attitude and perception to see the Unexpected as an opportunity to go further, the Uncertainty as a dialogue, the world as a playground, the Life as a wonder, as a rite of passage.
The new set of emotions perceives the reality from a synergistic perspective. Seen from this collaborative perspective, the others superior qualities/skills/resources are perceived as a blessing, as complementary with its own toward a common project and not as a threat. Because we are not anymore in competition with others, but in collaboration.
For a Yellow-Turquoise person, each act of life is seen from a cooperative/sense-and-respond perspective, hence the new set of emotions will evolve to sustain this kind of life strategies. The new set of emotions does not feel to have us in control. If the outcome is not as we predicted it, an old emotion will make us to feel frustrated, betrayed and even not secure. The new set of emotions, fitted for a sense-and-respond life strategy, will help us to deal constructively and adequately with every life situation, though we will not own its control. It sees and feels from an ecological perspective, being able to integrate in the equation the others needs, their possibilities and modalities of collaboration, their contextual situation, their perspective.
The dynamic processes of Life are impossible to be managed through predict-and-control strategies, because Life is beyond control. Life comes forth through synergy. The old self-centered set of emotions prefers the predictable and known situation. It prefers not to “get out into the unknown”, not to evolve. Because it can not feel secure when it can not control the desired outcome. The new planet-centered set of emotions feels somehow secure even in the middle of the unknown. Because it feels connected with a “greater order of things”.
From a synergistic perspective, after you have found your authenticity, you don’t feel to compare with others or to compete. All you want is to synergise with others. Life should be a continuous metamorphosis: getting out from your old shell to embrace the new, the other, to bring forth with others a new reality. This is the only way of the Universe to go further.
How to evolve a new set of emotions?
I discovered that you can not renew your emotions toward more cooperative life strategies when you struggle in a capitalistic world. We will be able to evolve a new set of emotions, fitted for a conscious cooperative society, when we will start to perceive life from a synergistic perspective and to live in brotherhoods and communities. As long as we continue to choose individualistic ways of living, for sure we will continue to strengthen our old set of emotions, based on fighting and ranking, predict and control. If we want to be part of Life’s step further, we have to cross the invisible threshold between self-centered and planet-centered consciousness and choose collaborative life strategies. Let’s co-create around us Butterfly Communities, places where we can consciously evolve a new set of emotions, based on empathy and cooperation.
We can consciously remodel our emotions. Let me give an example. If you already managed to develop a reflective attitude, you could observe your emotions and reflect on them. You will see that your emotions prepare you mainly for competing with others. You will probably feel not very well, even frightened or inhibited when you will realize the superior abilities of others. But this is precisely because you feel from a competitive point of view. You can use your mind to convert these frightening emotions in the face of others’ superiority with trust and joy: in a cooperative environment, their superior qualities are not competing with you but are complementary with your qualities. In a competing mode, first we observe others’ superiority as a threat because our old set of emotions evolved to prepare us for competing with them. In a collaborative mode, first we observe the complementarity between us. Feeling connected with others, we see first how we could complement each-other with our resources and abilities, how we could help each other, how we could co-create something in a stigmergic way. This new set of emotions is available to us as a consciously modelled one.
A circle of morality that could encompass the entire planet
Morality is deeply related with our survival endeavor as a social species. It’s a kind of “inner commandment” that drives us to relate with our circle of solidarity (our tribe and shared environment) in ways that enhances its well-being. Our circle of solidarity is our circle of morality. Depending on our level of understanding (which is our “tribe” and our shared environment that ensure our survival), we could extend our circle of morality from “me and my private properties” to encompass the whole Planet. In the end, what is moral has deep connections with what each of us believes that it enhances its chances for survival.
We have lived in small brotherhoods and clans 99% of our history as a species. So, we relate our survival with acting morally (solidary) with whom we considered that are our clan-mates. When you enhance, through your words and actions, the well-being and the survival chances of one of your clan-mates, it’s moral. When you diminish consciously, through your words or actions, the well-being and the survival chances of one of your clan-mates, it’s immoral. When you steal food for your kinship, it’s moral; when you steal food from your kinship, it’s immoral. This is what morality is all about! It is about surviving together.
Now we are pressed to enlarge our circle of solidarity/morality to encompass the whole planet. It is about our surviving not as a clan, but as a species and even as a Planet! When all humanity becomes “your kinship” and all the planet becomes “our shared environment”, you can not steal anymore from others. You can not anymore exploit others or the natural environment.
We identify ourselves with all those that are inside our circle of solidarity. To protect them, inclusive the shared environment, means to enhance my surviving chances. Our circle of morality is given by our capacity to encompass and integrate the others in our life. As we go further on the evolution path, our perception is getting finer, being able to encompass a larger perspective, to deal with and integrate a larger world. Evolving toward Yellow-Turquoise consciousness we are enlarging our circle of morality. Enlarging the world we identify ourselves with/ we feel solidary with, we will act differently toward people and Nature.