The Stages of Individual and
Religious Development |
Wilber’s Stage of
Individual Growth |
Bellah’s Stage of
Religious Evolution |
Developmental Activities |
Developmental Tools |
Social Mana |
Individual Mana |
| 1. Biochemical |
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Physical food |
| 2. Emergent sensory self |
I. Primitive: Australian Aborigines |
Communion with the dreaming. |
Ritual and trance. |
Oral language, collective memory |
Mirroring |
| 3.Representational mind |
II. Archaic: Tribal, shamanic, magical |
Distinguish nature, self, spirit |
Sensory language, story (myth) |
Agriculture (economic surplus) , Leisure |
Social Interaction |
| 4.Rule/role mind |
III. Historic: Judaism, Early Xianity,
Exoteric Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism |
Nurture the weak ego, control behavior,
organize group life. |
Creeds, codes, laws, law enforcement, ritual
instruction, "the word" |
Urban technology, in-creased economic
sur-plus, writing |
Mastery of the game, social interaction |
| 5. Self-conscious thinking |
IV. Early Modern: Protestantism, Secular-ism,
Science, Legal Theory, Philosophy |
Break away from the parent, autonomous
thinking. Rational perspectivism |
Theology, theological debate, Constitutions,
treaties |
Commerce, administrative apparatus, legal
theory, universities, printing, monasticism |
Leisure, advanced social interaction,
information, information, information |
| 6.Beginner’s existential experience |
V. Modern |
Explore interiority, emotional perspectivism |
Introspection, meditation, psychotherapy, less
orthodoxy, blurred organizational lines |
Widely distributed wealth, intercultural
communication, introspective science, global catastrophe |
Accumulation of introspective experience |
| 7. Advanced existential experience |
VI Post-Modern |
Advanced exploration of interiority |
Spiritual guidance, meditation, critique of
rationality, explore the somatic sense |
Advanced introspection |
More accumulation of introspective experience |