Spiral Dynamics - Stage Purple

"The child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel it's
warmth." - African Proverb

• Credit to Model Developers : Leo Gura acknowledges the work of Claire Graves, Don Beck, and Christopher Cowan in developing the Spiral Dynamics model and uses resources like the website https://spiraldynamicsintegral.nl/en/ and the book "Spiral Dynamics" for information.
• Overview of Spiral Dynamics : It's a model tracing the evolution of culture and psychology over time, focusing on both individual and collective progression. Each stage represents advanced forms of culture, a set of values, and an increase in consciousness and complexity.

• Stage Purple - Tribal Society : Represents mankind's earliest way of life as a clan or tribe, focusing on communal survival where individual needs are secondary to that of the group. Marked by the lack of advanced rationality, science, or technology, resulting in a mystical, nature-reverent viewpoint.
• Individual vs. Tribal Identity : Modern individualistic ideologies are contrasted against the collectivist identity of Stage Purple. Survival was based on tribal coexistence rather than individualistic efforts, reflecting deep interdependence.
• When Stage Purple Emerged : It traces back to approximately a million years ago, evolving from primitive social structures seen in ancestors like chimpanzees and bonobos who lived in social groups rather than alone.
• Social Learning in Early Childhood : From early childhood, humans are socialized into tribal dynamics through experiences in schools and playgrounds, learning to navigate interpersonal relationships and group politics.
• Family Unit and Social Expansion : Stage Purple naturally extends the family unit into larger tribal structures comprising multiple families with complex social intertwining, emphasizing communal responsibility over personal advancement.
• Importance of Tribe in Purple Stage : Leo emphasizes the critical role of the tribe in shaping one's life and identity. The tribe's well-being trumps individual desires, with survival hinging on the success of the communal group.
• Tribe Dynamics in Stage Purple : Stage Purple social organization is likened to an extended familial structure, where tribal members interact with the intimacy and cooperative spirit similar to a family unit. The tribe functions as a cohesive team, essential for survival, with defined roles and shared responsibilities not unlike managing a household on a larger scale.
• Values and Customs in Stage Purple : Honor, humility, self-sacrifice, and a strong adherence to ancestral customs are core to Stage Purple. The tribe's rituals, taboos, and ceremonies are followed without question, and life gains additional meaning through these communal activities, setting the stage for a culture that extends beyond mere survival.
• Stage Purple's Relationship with Nature and Mysticism : A harmonious relationship with nature and the mystic realm is vital in Stage Purple. The culture is imbued with magical thinking, attributing great significance to rites of passage, sacred objects, and places, as well as traditional artistic expressions like music and dance.
• Memory and Tradition in Stage Purple : Oral tradition is central to maintaining the tribe's collective memory and history, as writing systems are absent. Myths and stories, passed down with little alteration, serve as the tribe’s repository of knowledge and guidance for survival in a world where scientific understanding is nonexistent.
• Survival Dependence on Ancestral Wisdom in Stage Purple : Survival at this stage is precarious and heavily reliant on ancestral wisdom. Traditions and customs are rigorously preserved because they have been tested through time, and deviation might result in lethal consequences, emphasizing the deep reverence for elders and their accumulated knowledge.
• Interdependence and Spiritual Beliefs in Stage Purple : Stage Purple places a premium on reciprocity and cooperative interdependence, often invoking curses and blessings to manage the tribe's welfare and protect against perceived evils. Psychic phenomena and astral experiences are also valued for their perceived connection to survival and knowledge.
• Stage Purple Societal Structure : Predominantly hunter-gatherer in nature, Stage Purple societies are tightly knit, with rigid and implicit social rules that dictate everything from food to communication. Fixed social roles ensure the stability of the tribal structure, with each member understanding their place and function within the group.
• Communal Child Rearing in Stage Purple : Children are raised by the entire village or tribe, not just the mother and father. This communal approach to child rearing helps socialize children better than in modern societies where they often grow up isolated before starting school.
• Concept of Collective Property in Stage Purple : Rather than individual ownership, property and resources are shared within the community. This includes housing and food, creating a natural insurance policy and maximizing survival efficiency.
• Gender-Based Division of Labor in Stage Purple Society : A clear division of labor exists, where women typically handle cooking, sewing, or gathering, and men take on hunting and defense roles. This division often extends to social roles and expectations.
• Significance of Fertile Women in Stage Purple : Women are highly valued for their reproductive role and often have many children, expecting high infant mortality rates. Fertility and the ability to produce offspring are central to the tribe's survival.
• Stage Purple's Social Prioritization Over Productivity : Social bonds are valued far above material productivity, often leading to conflicts with the business-focused mindset of Western cultures where schedules and efficiency are prioritized.
• In-group and Out-group Dynamics in Stage Purple : A strong tribal identity creates an intense division between 'us' and 'them', leading to tribal conflicts, blood feuds, and even ethnic cleansing when differing tribe traditions and beliefs clash.
• Natural Attitude Towards Sexuality in Stage Purple Cultures : Sex is viewed as a natural part of life, without the repressions seen in later stages that emphasize morality, such as Stage Blue.
• Marriage and Sexuality Norms in Stage Purple : Arranged marriages are common, and daughters are often sold at a young age to the highest bidder for a dowry, reflecting the stage's practical approach to survival and reproduction.
• Leadership in Stage Purple Cultures : The chieftain serves as a wise elder, facilitating and guiding the tribe without seeking personal gain, contrasting with the later authoritarian leadership styles of Stage Red.
• Individual Sacrifice for the Tribe : Stage Purple emphasizes the need for individual sacrifice to ensure the survival and well-being of the tribe, often manifesting in the willingness to subsume personal desires for the collective good.
• Reverence of Natural Phenomena in Stage Purple : The elements of nature—stars, sun, water, etc.—are crucial for survival and deeply revered, often attributed to various spirits in an animistic belief system.
• Understanding Mystical Cause and Effect in Stage Purple : Without a scientific framework, cause and effect are understood through a mystical lens, as with shamans performing rain dances to bring about rain for the crops.
• Pre-scientific understanding in Stage Purple : Stage Purple lacks knowledge of scientific concepts like chemical reactions, molecules, electricity, and even basic weather phenomena. The world around them is shrouded in mystery, and perceived as magical, and causes and effects are often explained through superstition.
• Role of superstition and taboo : Superstitious beliefs are prevalent in Stage Purple, where breaking taboos is thought to bring bad luck or disaster. Simple events, like encountering a black cat or breaking a mirror, are imbued with significant consequences.
• Intuitive and right-brained dominance : This stage is identified with right-brained, intuitive, and feeling-oriented cognition. Without formal education systems, people rely on gut instinct and emotional attachment to navigate their environment, which can be surprisingly effective in non-scientific contexts.
• Mystical perception of nature : Stage Purple blurs the line between reality and imagination, resulting in animistic spirituality where every element of nature, from trees to rivers, is believed to possess a life force and intentionality that must be revered and sometimes appeased to ensure survival.
• Cyclical sense of time : Time is perceived in cycles, marked by natural events such as the phases of the sun and moon, rather than in a linear fashion. This cyclical pattern is deeply connected to farming and survival strategies.
• Origins of major religions : The animistic and polytheistic beliefs prevalent in Stage Purple are the foundations from which major religions such as Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Judaism emerged. Over time, these beliefs were systematized and modified to form the orthodox monotheistic religions of today.
• Cultural practices and artifacts : Stage Purple is rich in folklore, songs, crafts, and arts compensating for the lack of a written language. These cultural expressions are sometimes mysterious or strange to outsiders but can be sophisticated and beautiful.
• Magic and ritual in daily life : The everyday life in Stage Purple culture includes a variety of magical practices like witchcraft, shamanism, totems, omens, and fertility symbols. Such traditions are essential to the community’s cohesion and survival.
• Environmental awareness in Stage Purple : Though Stage Purple cultures appear environmentally conscious due to their closeness to nature, their impact on the environment is minimal compared to modern societies with advanced technology. True environmental consciousness that understands the broader impact of human actions emerges at more advanced levels of development.
• Cultural consciousness and adaptability : In Stage Purple, culture is not seen as a changeable social construct but as a fixed reality, which limits the capacity to critically reflect on or adapt cultural practices when environmental or social conditions change.
• Challenges of Stage Purple : Stage Purple struggles with handling diversity, alternative worldviews, belief systems, and cultures. Its closed-mindedness and rigidity lead to conflict, battle, and an inability to adapt when exposed to new perspectives.
• Attachment to Tradition : There's a strong attachment to traditional ways of living in Stage Purple. The world view is narrow, making it difficult to imagine alternative lifestyles or viewpoints.
• Inability to Adapt : Stage Purple's ultimate downfall is its inability to adapt to changing life conditions. With a static environment for millennia, rapid changes like climate shifts, new diseases, and advanced technologies severely challenge these tribes.
• Examples of Stage Purple : Notable examples include the indigenous cultures of the Amazon, African tribes, Indonesian tribes, Native American tribes like the Comanche and Lakota, and traditional cultures in the Middle East like those in Afghanistan and rural Hawaii.
• Influence of Stage Purple on Modern Spirituality : Stage Purple spirituality can be seen influencing more modern movements like Stage Green, which draws from tribal wisdom such as organic farming, sustainable agriculture, and a communal way of living. Psychedelic usage also has roots in tribal medicines.
• Representation of Stage Purple in Popular Culture : Stage Purple is depicted in various works of popular culture, including Carlos Castaneda's "Don Juan" books, the Na'vi in James Cameron's Avatar, the game Legend of Zelda, and movies like Medicine Man. These showcase a mixture of naivety and mystical wisdom characteristic of Stage Purple.
• Cultural Fragmentation in Stage Purple : The fragmentation seen in India, with numerous languages and subcultures, is indicative of Stage Purple's limitations in unifying for modern advancement. Resistance to adopting a common language slows down cultural and economic development.
• Impact of Isolation in Stage Purple : The isolated existence of Stage Purple societies is threatened by modern world changes. Tribes' inability to keep up with advancements leads to their downfall, as seen with environmental changes and new technology like aircraft disturbing their isolated life.
• Suicide Bombing as Stage Purple Dynamic : Suicide bombing can be viewed through the lens of Stage Purple dynamics, showing the extreme extent of tribal sacrifice for one's group in parts of the Middle East and in historical contexts like kamikaze pilots in WWII.
• Ritualistic and Spiritual Practices in Stage Purple : Stage Purple is heavily characterized by ritualistic and animistic practices, such as chanting, drumming, and using herbal medicine like ayurveda and acupuncture. They also partake in psychoactive plants and substances during ceremonies, such as ayahuasca, peyote, salvia divinorum, magic mushrooms, datura, and iboga, often as rites of passage.
• Physical Traditions and Mystical Beliefs in Stage Purple : The stage includes physical traditions such as tribal tattoos seen in Maori culture and odd mating rituals, historically recorded in the Philippines, epitomizing the stage's mystical and traditional approach to life activities. Superstitions like the evil eye, magical healers, and ancient burial grounds also play a significant role.
• Purple Stage Symbols and Superstitions : Folk tales, fairy tales, secret handshakes, and symbolic ceremonies reflect Stage Purple's rich mythical culture. Modern remnants of this stage's thinking are seen in superstitions like knocking on wood, the rabbit’s foot, and observances like Halloween. Asian cultures retain symbols like fortune cookies and the Maneki Neko cat, which are descendants of purple-level superstitions.
• Purple's Presence in Modern Environments : Even modern small businesses and startup work environments can mimic the dynamics of a Stage Purple society, fostering a family-like atmosphere among team members. The sacredness of trees, the circle of life, and wisdom found in books like "The Four Agreements" and "The Alchemist" also derive from Stage Purple spiritual traditions.
• Societal Expressions of Stage Purple : Various social expressions—such as proverbs 'Blood is thicker than water', honoring ancestors, and resistance to changing established traditions—demonstrate the broad influence of Stage Purple within communities.
• Triggers for Stage Purple Individuals : Individuals at this stage are triggered by disrespect to tradition, elders, and spirits, as well as by selfishness, arrogance, greed, and ambition. They are resistant to changes, including innovations and new ideas, and struggle with accepting different cultures and customs that conflict with their traditional ways.
• Unhealthy Aspects of Purple Stage : Some of the downsides include tribalism leading to warfare, ethnic cleansing, and difficulties in adapting to external changes, such as technological advances. Isolationism and a narrow worldview are major limitations of this stage, which can lead to an inability to evolve as needed by the changing external conditions.
• Consequences of Resisting Change : Reflecting on the plight of Native American tribes against modern Westernization, Leo highlights the struggle of Purple-stage communities to adapt to technology and different cultural influences. This resistance can result in losing a sense of purpose and contributes to societal issues such as alcoholism and high crime rates on reservations.
• Overly Traditional and Superstitious Nature : Stage Purple can be overly traditional, conservative, and superstitious, demonstrating a preference for magical thinking over rationality. This can pose a barrier to understanding natural phenomena scientifically and pragmatically.
• Integrating Stage Purple Wisdom : Leo suggests that while aspects of Stage Purple may seem outdated, significant spiritual wisdom can be mined from its traditions. He encourages integration of Purple's positive elements into modern practices, such as neo-shamanism and the rediscovery of ancient spiritual texts, which can be therapeutic and insightful for personal growth.
• Resistance to innovation in Stage Purple : Stage Purple often resists new technologies like synthetic psychedelics, which can be seen as a rejection of tools that could enhance enlightenment and personal growth.
• Criticism of new spiritual technologies : Traditional spiritual practitioners may criticize methods like the use of psychedelics, failing to recognize the potential benefits of such technology for achieving enlightenment or healing quicker than traditional methods.
• Stage Purple's limited influence and decline : With only about 10% of the global adult population and minimal world influence, Stage Purple is becoming outdated due to its inability to adapt and innovate, likened to a "dinosaur" stage of development.
• Stage Purple's communal governance : The governance in Stage Purple is akin to small-scale communism, where resources are distributed based on need within a council of elders, without formal legal systems, markets, military, or taxation.
• Relevance of Stage Purple to Stage Green : Stage Green looks back at Stage Purple's communal living and tries to scale up its gift economy to a global level, addressing the shortcomings of rampant capitalism.
• Lessons learned from Stage Purple : Individuals raised in modern society may lack understanding of communal living, social skills, and nature connection; revisiting Stage Purple can cover these developmental gaps and enhance one's fulfillment.
• Building Social Bonds and Combating Alienation : Emphasizes the importance of socialization, which can alleviate feelings of isolation, depression, and social anxiety, and highlights the issues caused by inadequate social skills.
• Communal Nature of Humans : Underscores the fact that humans are deeply communal and need to focus on the wellbeing of the whole community, not just individual gains.
• Importance of Sacrifice for Community : Suggests that understanding Stage Purple can help people see taxation and community contribution positively rather than theft.
• Life Beyond Material Profit : Promotes the idea that social bonds and communal wellbeing might be more rewarding than material possessions.
• Value of Nature and Emotional Connections : Encourages living harmoniously with nature, connecting with emotions, and relying more on intuition than logic.
• Psychedelics as Modern Medicines : Acknowledges the potential of psychedelics, inherited from Stage Purple, for deep healing and personal development.
• Spirituality, Mysticism, and Psychic Powers : Suggests taking spirituality, mysticism, and psychic powers seriously, as they can profoundly improve the quality of life and offer real benefits.
• Embracing Simplicity and Wisdom : Recommends slowing down, living a simpler life, and seeking the wisdom of elders and ancient traditions for a more fulfilling life.
• Organic Wholesome Diet : Advocates for a natural, wholesome, and organic diet, which can help prevent modern diseases and health conditions.
• Transition to More Advanced Stages : Encourages individuals to develop ambition, question tradition, and expand worldviews to transcend Stage Purple and embrace newer solutions in evolving societies.
• Health Benefits of Traditional Diets : Traditional diets of our ancestors, which were high quality, organic, and grass-fed, contrast sharply with modern toxic diets that contribute to disorders like eczema and autoimmune diseases. Adopting aspects of this traditional eating can lead to better health and improved living.
• How to Transcend Stage Purple : For those few who may still be at Stage Purple, moving forward requires developing personal ambition, leading towards Stage Red. It also entails questioning and letting go of tradition and magical thinking, exposing oneself to a broader range of world cultures, and adopting more rational, strategic, and scientific thinking.
• The Dual Nature of Stage Purple : Although Stage Purple can seem primitive by modern standards, there exists a wealth of wisdom within this stage. It is neither good nor bad but has both healthy and unhealthy aspects that should be understood, respected, and integrated or avoided accordingly.
• Resources for Understanding Stage Purple : There are books, videos, and documentaries available that explore Stage Purple cultures and traditions, which can be valuable for personal and spiritual growth. Resources such as Actualized.org’s blog, life purpose course, and book list offer insights into this stage and the overall Spiral Dynamics model.
• Sequential Development through the Stages : One cannot skip stages when evolving through Spiral Dynamics. After Stage Purple, one must experience and develop through Stage Red, then Blue, before progressing to higher stages like Green.
• Application of Spiral Dynamics : Future content by Leo Gura will focus on applying the Spiral Dynamics model to real-world situations such as politics, society, and individual growth, emphasizing practical benefits and integration of the model into various aspects of life.
• Building a Foundation in Lower Stages : Many individuals overlook the importance of foundational stages like Purple, Red, and Blue. Developing qualities such as assertiveness, courage, self-discipline, and work ethic embodied in these stages is crucial for overall growth and avoiding issues such as social alienation, inability to maintain employment, and poor health habits.
• Personal Development as a Lifelong Endeavor : Personal development is a long-term journey that should be pursued with excitement and passion. Utilizing Leo Gura as a meta-source for advanced, integrative guidance while seeking out practical advice in fitness, nutrition, finances, etc., from other experts, creates a holistic approach to optimizing life in all facets.
• Recognizing Your Potential : The ultimate goal of personal development work is to realize and embrace one's vast potential as a human being. This requires dedication, discipline, and seriousness, treating life as an ongoing project and a work of art to contribute positively to the broader global community.
• Continuing Journey with Actualized.org : Leo Gura assures continued guidance on personal development, not only focusing on advanced spiritual and metaphysical concepts but also connecting them with practical aspects to form a cohesive and ambitious vision for one's life potential.