This post seeks to further expand upon the various levels proposed by Ken Wilber and Spiral Dynamics in light of ideas shared 100 years ago regarding levels of consciousness from the writings of Theosophy. 

Recently I was inspired to revisit some older Theosophical texts I first read over thirty years ago. The ideas there were far more comprehensive then the levels currently proposed by Ken Wilber and Edward Beck (of Spiral Dynamics). Attempting to put the various models together I have once again revised and expanded the chart I have previously featured in this blog.


Before showing the new model, I once again need to remind people of the chart I have been working from that comes from the Ageless Wisdom teachings. Here is a copy of that chart below. Please note: There are several major levels in this chart, and forty-nine minor levels. Each level represents a stage of development. Though these levels appear stacked on top of each other, development does not quite work in this way. The levels actually interpenetrate and each of us has a percentage of a number of these levels within us, a point I will speak to more on in future posts. Here is the chart.

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And, here is the chart I created months ago to put the Integral levels (seen to the far right) and the terms from Alice Bailey together. (Please note the date of creation at the bottom of the chart).

Levels and Terms

Since creating this chart I have gone back and drawn from older source books in Theosophy that define what the sub-planes are about developmentally. The source books were written nearly 100 years ago and drew from primarily from A.E. Powell as well as some information by Charles Leadbetter. Here is now the proposed revision of the chart above. Please note that in order to do a comparison I have ADDED COLORS AND LEVELS TO THE INTEGRAL SYSTEM THEY DO NOT USE. They do not have Salmon, Mustard, Lime, Yellow, Mustard, or Azure levels. The problem is in the Integral system they just are not as expansive enough to encompass what the Ageless Wisdom system has to offer. 

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So what does all of this mean?  To begin with when visiting the original Theosophical texts it means that we are way less evolved than we think we are. It also means that the gap between those on Integral’s Red, Amber, Orange, and especially Green are much larger than Integral implies. Though I will speak more about the developmental implications of these new “colors” and in a sense “levels” I am adding to Integral so it correlates better with the Ageless Wisdom teachings in later posts, notice for example how between the Integral Orange Integral Green I have added three new levels. In fact, it may be that as I continue to sort this out to truly correspond to the Ageless Wisdom teachings the Integral Green level may really drop down to what I now call Integral Yellow

Please watch for posts to follow to explain the new correlations I am making as one post would be too long to explain.