Cracking the Codes for Peace
Mark Gilbert
 “Peace stands at the door of our consciousness and awaits our acceptance of It. However, It does not stand outside our door, waiting for entrance, so much as It stands inside waiting to be expressed in everything we do,” wrote Science of Mind founder Ernest Holmes. That peace begins with each and every one of us in our own consciousness was a frequent refrain of Holmes. Today, many of us respond to that inner call to “be peace” and from that place seek to understand others so as to foster outer peace.
One tool that many of us have found useful to understand how others view the world is the practical theory of Spiral Dynamics. This theory sprang from the data on personal values gathered by social scientist Clair Graves in the last half of the twentieth century. By employing different measurement techniques on individuals over a period of time, he began to see that individuals not only have a value based “world view” which guides how we see things in the world, his data also indicated that we all grow or evolve through the same sequence of world views before settling into a predominant one based on our life conditions. Furthermore, Graves realized that many of our outer conflicts are driven by our differences in these inner viewpoints—we often cannot agree on things because we simply see the world differently.
Graves’s theory was popularized and named “Spiral Dynamics” by way of the book by that title written by his friends and colleagues Don Beck and Chris Cowan in the 1990s. Since that time, Beck has made it his life calling to bring the theory to life in practical applications—especially where it can also lead to open dialogue and peaceful solutions. Beck worked closely with Nelson Mandela on the end of apartheid in South Africa, this work described in the book The Crucible. Today he travels the globe working in “hot spots” seeking to bring people together in peace.
Beck describes these various world views as being “codes” that are actually in us. As we move through the world and are able to meet the needs of current life conditions, new conditions in life emerge which allow a related inner dormant “code” to come into play and change how we see life. Hence, we can encounter different groups of people using different codes all viewing the same external world with a different lens.
Predominant in modern culture are three groups: (1) those with a “traditional” outlook (includes religious fundamentalists), (2) those with a “modern materialistic” outlook (strive and achieve types such as many Wall Street tycoons), and (3) those with a “post modern-pluralistic” outlook (includes those cultural creatives who believe we must honor everyone, seek consensus, value the planet, etc.). For a more complete explanation of Spiral Dynamics, please see the internet links at the bottom of this article or the article “Evolving Consciousness” in the April 2008 issue of Science of Mind magazine.
The problem, Beck says, is that people who are viewing life from each of these three predominant types do not recognize that the other types even exist. Hence, an initial goal for all of us is to become aware of all these levels or codes so that we can communicate with people in language they understand. This awareness comes at an even “higher” level of consciousness where we can look at all the other “lower” levels and see how they have benefited our personal and collective evolution. Spiral Dynamics calls this awareness “level two” consciousness. Here, as we sense that outer perfection in the process of moving through these levels, we also can more easily move to that sense of inner peace of which Holmes wrote.
And, when we can navigate easily and consciously among all of the levels or codes as we work with different people, Beck says we become “spiral wizards.” Here we have taken that inner peace and moved into outward action in truly seeking to understand those around us who may act from different motivations. It is this state of awareness and action that Beck seeks to attain in his organization's upcoming “peace conference” in Dallas on September 8-11.
The conference is entitled Cracking the Codes for Peace. In describing the conference, Beck says, “Together with concepts such as hope and change and making a difference, in our more caring worlds no dream burns brighter in the human heart than that of peace and harmony for all.” Beck believes that past efforts to move to that state of peace have failed because we did not take into account these different codes at play in our complex human culture. Assisting us in understanding these differences has motivated him to dedicate a full conference to the topic of peace.
Rev Petra Weldes, senior minister of the Center for Spiritual Living-Dallas, has worked with Don and his organization on past Dallas events which have served as the seeds for his upcoming peace conference. Rev Petra stated, “Spiral Dynamics is a powerful tool for understanding the values we speak and act from and how this can create resonance or impede our connection with others.”
Similarly, CSL-Dallas Practitioner Bob Schwaller has been involved with prior numerous Spiral Dynamics training and events and knows that the system supports his Science of Mind training. As Bob described, “Dr. Beck has developed a solid system for social change, and he puts it to work in South Africa, Palestine, Mexico, as well as organizations around the world. Whole Foods and other corporations, governments and sports teams use his system. I’ve studied Spiral Dynamics integral since 2004 and found it a sound, practical way to understand evolutionary spirituality, both within my family, my church community and the local community and world at large. Spiral Dynamics has quite literally changed the way I see and work in the world.”
Those who may want to gain more insight into the basics of Spiral Dynamics are invited to enroll in the “level one” training to be held in Dallas September 5-7. This will be immediately followed by the “level two confab” peace conference. Presenters at the conference include Beck and a number of other individuals from around the world who are on the cutting edge of cultural understanding and future trends. Not only will you learn from some of the best, you will leave with a sense of how you can both be peace in your life and bring peace to the planet.
For more information on the Dallas Conference: www.spiraldynamics.net/training.html
For more information on Spiral Dynamics: www.spiraldynamics.net |
