Resources
Before finishing this section I want to share some history resources. Although Spiral Dynamics is a story, there is real historical context to all of these stages. I hope I have inspired interest in this story of where we came from. If you are at all interested in learning more about any of the stages I strongly urge you to dig in and learn its history first. I am a book person so my recommendations are all books, but I know not everyone is so if you know of a good documentary or movie please send it to me so I can include it here.
Beige
Purple
The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity astonished me from the very first page. It turns out Native American (Purple) intellectuals had a much bigger effect on the Age of Enlightenment than I realized. In this book an anthropologist and archaeologist team up to do the careful, painstaking scholarship needed to completely upend the existing myths about early societies. It turns out that Purple societies lived in large egalitarian cities for thousands of years. They used clever, sustainable agriculture that did not require excessive amounts of labor. And they knew all about Red, and consciously chose systems of government to prevent the empire of Red from arising. They had learned from hard experience what was necessary to lead free and full lives. This is such a great, foundational book. If you have time for only one book from this list, please consider choosing this one. They dispel the lingering myths and prejudices against the Purple age and show how much we still have to learn from it.
One important nuance that they bring up is that we did not just jump straight from one Purple to Red. There were steps along the way. It turns out that is true of all the stage changes. In the case of Purple to Red (they don’t use that terminology) there were three freedoms that were lost:
- freedom of movement
- freedom to disobey
- freedom to create or transform social relationships They discuss various empires and show how these societies varied in how many of the freedoms above were lost. Only when all three freedoms are lost are you fully launched into the full on empire of Red.
Red
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World This is such an interesting story all on its own. Genghis Khan overcame incredible adversity and then ended up conquering most of the known world quite late in life. I think he is more appealing than other famous conquerors because of the stages of freedom only freedom to disobey was lost. People, for example, still could move as they wished and practice religion as they pleased. This book also describes the remarkable story of how Genghis Khan’s son, Ögedei, had to embrace Blue before he could finish conquering China. But even then he kept a forbidden city in the center of Beijing where the Mongol rulers could retreat to their nomad tents and keep the illusion of still living on the plains.
Blue
Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes
This was such a delight to read. I was shocked to find how ignorant and prejudiced I am against the Muslim world. This book helped remedy that a little. It tells the story of a religious awakening that made the world a better place. It is a similar story in some ways to how Christianity first arose but because it happened much later the story is much better documented.
Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again
This is the book I talked about in the gifts of Blue. As we recovered from the civil war, earlier generations made taming Red their main focus, and they made huge progress. They built a solid Blue that gave Red something worthwhile to transition to. We built a society of associations and political movements. Labor unions were formed and bitter, lethal battles were fought for basic labor rights. Woman gained the right to vote. Unfortunately we have mostly let that Blue collapse and now we are going to have to rebuild. Maybe that is a good thing. Maybe the Blue of old with all its patriarchy and racism needed to die so we can recreate something better. But again we have some serious work to do. We have forgotten how to live together in community. We need to get kids out into nature together and aspiring to something higher. Grown ups need to belong to organizations that encourage everyone to take a turn at leading. And ultimately we want people joining groups that are dedicated to saving the world. This book chronicles how we did it once before.
Orange
Although the Age of Enlightenment started in the West it did not stay there. Japan was the first non-western country to jump up to great power status. It is such a fascinating story of how they did it. This book shows how they consciously chose things to pull in from the West, but also how they consciously chose to also remain very Japanese. In the same way that there are steps along the way to Red, it looks like there are probably steps toward Orange. Japan’s culture was (is?) based on Neo-Confucianism which is very centered on rationality. So Japan’s leap to full Orange was not quite as big a leap as it might first appear. And we see that the other countries based on Neo-Confucianism (Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, China) have also made the leap to full industrial economies. This is almost certainly not a coincidence.
Green
A People’s History of the United States: 1492 - Present
The key thing that seems to keep people from becoming “woke” to Green is how they view history. It currently is literally illegal in many U.S. states to teach the full history of slavery in school. Books are banned and thoughts are controlled. Howard Zinn’s book was such a beautiful revolution when it first came out. He brought up all the awkward and deeply distressing stories of our history. Without knowing them we can not step into the full truth of who we are. This is such an important battle. Unfortunately we are still fighting it.
Ron Kurtz helped create a new school of therapy called Hakomi. It was in reaction to the overly rational Orange schools of therapy prevalent at the time. I strongly recommend reading the whole book but it is at the beginning of the book where Ron lays out the basic principles. I have not seen a better Green manifesto than this. He recognizes the importance of rationality but then goes on to show that all by itself it is not enough for healing. He brings in a more ecological, wholistic way to look at the world.
Yellow
In the beginning of his book Michael Pollan dives into the history of psychedelic therapy work. It is the best history of that time that I know of. Then he goes on to chronicle what it is like to do a guided journey. This book has launched a huge wave of interest in psychedelics.
Turquoise
We don’t yet have Turquoise history — it is something we are going to have to create together.
I am privileged to know a lot of Yellow stage people. They are all amazing and making the world a better place. The problem is they have done such a good job of grounding in their inner Truth that they lose touch with the need for groups. In moving away from Green we learned to reject group think and instead learned to find the answers within. This is so important and necessary. And we need many more people at this Yellow stage. Yet even this stage is not enough. We need something even bigger. When I try to talk about saving the world to Yellow people they tend to focus on what impact they personally can make. And that part is super important – we don’t get there without all of these wise, individual contributions. But by itself it is not enough. Once we find that strength within we also need to see how we fit into the bigger picture. We need to once again come back to the group