A Case for Human Progress

A “meditational hologram” – that’s what I’m calling what you see above. More than a mere infographic, it arranges things in a way meant to guide a deeper meditation. A large Diamond in the background, a diamond-shaped formation of smaller diamonds in the foreground, and the zig-zag pattern of arrows at midfield, all provide distinct lines of sight into the same mystery – the mystery of human consciousness.

Those smaller diamonds in the foreground represent four threads of intelligence that comprise the braid of consciousness in humans, what I name our Quadratic Intelligence.

Mind (rational intelligence: RQ), Will (visceral/volitional intelligence: VQ), and Heart (emotional intelligence: EQ) are arranged along the horizontal axis, suggesting facets or faculties of consciousness. Soul and Spirit are not different threads of intelligence but rather distinct nodes on the same thread of spiritual intelligence: Soul (SQ₁) the mystical-contemplative node (or pole of the SQ continuum), and Spirit (SQ₂) the communal-transpersonal node.

The entire meditational hologram is framed by four terms that name the frontiers of our human journey, starting out from the “I” (ego = the orange-colored disk or sphere in the middle of everything) that looks out from its separate center of personal identity.

“I” can look in to Oneself or out to Another, release and descend to the deeper oneness of the Ground, or connect and transcend to the higher wholeness of Community.

It can also happen that ego gets stuck in its own neurotic spiral of insecurity, feeling alienated and exposed in its separation, which in turn compels the production of compensatory strategies that end up obscuring the natural clarity of the three faculties. Convictions close the Mind, Ambitions entrap the Will, and Obsessions captivate the Heart – all preventing the light of awareness from penetrating to the Diamond’s interior (Soul) and suppressing its outward shine or brilliance (Spirit).

From ego’s perspective, however, these compensatory strategies are more or less desperate attempts to resolve the insecurity that attaches to its very existence. The unpleasant side-effect, however, is an unstable bipolar dynamic between anxiety and exhaustion, with the latter pole frequently pulling everything into a melancholic state of depression, despair, and suicidal ideation.

In the space remaining, I want to explore an element in my meditational hologram that was only a recent discovery for me. As I explained in Clarity and Brilliance, the faculty of Will, having been squeezed to the side by Western psychology and absorbed into its preferred cognitive paradigm, played a secondary role in my own scheme of Quadratic Intelligence (VQ, EQ, RQ and SQ).

When I realized that the Will is our faculty of action, and that it drives action not only at the level of our coordinated behavior in the world but also in the cells, glands, organs and organ systems of the body, its equivalence with our volitional intelligence (VQ) became clear to me.

Not only did this move take the Will from the sidelines of psychology, but it placed it at the very center of my model. The only remaining step in my theory was to draw a distinction between the autonomic and unconscious actions transpiring in the body, and the conscious, intentional, and purposeful behavior of the embodied ego.

So, using the convention I had employed to differentiate between Soul (SQ₁) and Spirit (SQ₂) in our spiritual intelligence, it was helpful now to distinguish between unconscious-autonomic (VQ₁) and conscious-intentional (VQ₂) zones of our visceral intelligence, further clarifying this distinction by naming the deeper zone “visceral” proper, and the upper zone “volitional.”

The threshold demarcating this difference is indicated in my hologram by a dashed horizontal line through the faculty of Will. Its position in the hologram overall suggests that these threshold dynamics might play a pivotal role in the whole system, and even have a determinative influence on the integrity of consciousness itself.

Thanks for your patience. We have finally arrived at the special focus of this post.

Associating the threshold between VQ₁ and VQ₂ with ego formation makes a case for regarding it as serving a critical role, not only in individual development but in our evolution as a species.

In Helping Each Other Fly I reflected on the strategic value of skills as hyper-intentional behavior which is not instinctual but must be learned. The initial invention, ongoing acquisition, and gradual perfection of skills became the foundation of human culture – the complex system of technologies, routines, institutions, ideologies and traditions that effectively liberated our young species from the instinctual field of survival concerns, perhaps as early as 2.5 million years ago.

Without an ego – without a separate center of self-conscious personal identity, subjectivity, agency and perspective – this entire project of developing skills and creating culture would not have been possible. Personal identity is itself a social construct engineered for the task of domesticating an animal nature into a well-behaved, responsible, and productive member of the tribe.

Through the process of training, shaping, instruction and assignment of each new generation, society conserves and advances the project overall. These skills range from controlling our sphincters and using the toilet, to tying our shoes and operating machinery, but also how to think well, manage our emotions, get along with others, resolve conflicts, and foster community.

If someone doesn’t teach us these skills, inventing them on our own would be equivalent to starting the history of human culture all over again.

We need the effective learning alliance of wise and caring parents (and teachers) together with devoted and hopeful children (and students) to ensure a continuity of skills from generation to generation, and the steady progress of our evolutionary journey as a species.

If no one teaches us how (skill) to respect and welcome others of different backgrounds, lifestyles, and moral values from our own, it’s likely that our insecure ego will be overrun by feelings of anxiety, suspicion, hostility and aggression. We may master the technique of how to load and shoot a gun, but our ability to negotiate social differences and live in community will be tragically underdeveloped.

Such are the conditions – weapons in hand, no love in our hearts – that put civilization at risk, threatening to pull down the whole project of human culture and a civil democracy.

Without the achievement of ego strength and self-control, history will throw us back millions of years to start again – if we can only manage to survive.