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Excerpts from "The Different Drum", by M.Scott Peck
From Chapter IX - Patterns of Transformation
"Same therapy, same therapist, successful but utterly different outcomes
from a religious point of view. ...It didn't compute until I realized that
'we are not all in the same place spiritually'.
With that realization came another: there is a pattern of progression
through identifiable stages in human spiritual life. .....But here I will
talk about those stages only in general, for individuals are unique and do
not always fit neatly into any psychological or spiritual pidgeonhole.
With that caveat, let me list my own understanding of these stages and the
names I have chosen to give them:
STAGE I - Chaotic, antisocial
STAGE II - Formal, institutional
STAGE III - Skeptic, individual
STAGE IV - Mystic, communal"
[Summary of the interaction between Stages]
"...STAGE I people are threatened by just about everything and everybody.
STAGE II people are not threatened by STAGE I people, the "sinners". They
are commanded to love sinners. But they are very threatened by the
individuals and skeptics of STAGE III and even more by the mystics of STAGE
IV, who seem to believe in the same sorts of things they do but believe in
them with a freedom they find absolutely terrifying. STAGE III people, on
the other hand, are neither threatened by STAGE I people nor by STAGE II
people (whom they simply regard as superstitious) but are cowed by STAGE IV
people, who seem to be scientific-minded like themselves and know how to
write good footnotes, yet somehow believe in this crazy God business."
[On Stage IV]
"Finally, mystics throughout the ages have not only spoken of emptiness
but extolled its virtues. I have labeled STAGE IV communal as well as
mystical not because all mystic or even a majority of them live in communes
but because among human beings they are the ones most aware that the whole
world is a community and realize what divides us into warring camps is
precisely the 'lack' of this awareness. Having become practiced at
emptying themselves of preconceived notions and prejudices and able to
perceive the invisible underlying fabric that connects everything, they do
not think in terms of factions or blocs or even national boundaries; they
'know' this to be one world.
.....Finally as they (the STAGE III skeptics) begin to reach for STAGE IV,
they also begin to reach toward the notion of world community and the
possibility of either transcending culture or - depending on which way you
want to use the words - belonging to a planetary culture."
.....Because of the multiplicity of factors - most particularly instant,
mass communication that brings foreign cultures to our door....the number
of people entering the mystical stage of development and transcending
ordinary culture seems to have increased a thousandfold in the course of a
mere generation or two. They remain a minority - currently no more than
one in twenty (as opposed to perhaps one in ten thousand before and around
1 A.D.). Still one wonders if the explosion in their numbers might
represent a giant leap forward in the evolution of the human race, a leap
toward not only mystical but global consciousness and world community.* "
* Perhaps the greatest prophet of this leap was Teilhard de Chardin.
"It is also important to remember that no matter how far we develop
spiritually, we retain in ourselves vestiges of the previous stages
through which we have come... I don't suppose I could be writing
this were I not basically a kind of STAGE IV person.
But I can assure you that there exists a STAGE I Scott Peck, who at
the first sign of any significant stress is quite tempted to lie and
cheat and steal. I keep him well encaged, I hope, in a rather
comfortable cell, so that he won't be let loose upon the world. (And
I am able to do this only because I acknowledge his existance, which
is what Jungian psychologists mean by the 'integration of the Shadow'.
Indeed, I do not attempt to kill him if for no other reason than that
I need to go down into the dungeon from time to time to consult him,
safely ensconced behind the bars, when I am in need of a particular
kind of 'street smarts').
Similarly, there is a STAGE II Scott Peck, who in moments of stress
and fatigue would very much like to have a Big Brother or Big Daddy
around who would give him some clear-cut, black-and-white answers to
life's difficult, ambiguous dilemmas and some formulas to tell him how
to behave, relieving him of the responsibility of figuring it all out
for himself.
And there is STAGE III Scott Peck, who if invited to address a
prestigious scientific assembly, under stress of such an occasion
would want to regress into thinking, Well, I better just talk to them
about carefully controlled, measurable studies and not mention any of
this God business."
"...Conversions from STAGE I and STAGE II are usually sudden and
dramatic. Conversions from STAGE III to STAGE IV are generally
gradual."
"....It is during the process of conversion from STAGE III to STAGE IV
that people generally first become conscious that there is such a
thing as spiritual growth."
"....Paul Vitz, at a symposium with me, correctly told the audience:
"I think Scott's stages have a good deal of validity, and I suspect
that I shall be using them in my practice, but I want you to remember
that what Scotty calls STAGE IV is the beginning."
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