Jean Gebser's Five Structures of Consciousness

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= "Gebser identified five structures of consciousness (archaic, magic, mythical, mental-rational, and integral-arational) and showed that mutation of the currently dominant mental-rational structure into the last, “fifth structure” gathered momentum at the turn of the last century." [1]

Description

David MacLeod:

"Peter Pogany referenced “Gebser’s archeology of consciousness,” which “identifies five patterns, structures, or mutations” (Havoc, p. 74).

The five structures of consciousness are

  • the Archaic (zero-dimensional, undifferentiated structure of identity),
  • the Magic (one-dimensional unity, where humans seek to free themselves from the transcendent power of nature),
  • the Mythical (two-dimensional polarity, with the emergent awareness of the internal world of the soul),
  • the Mental-Rational (three-dimensional, system-building with abstract comprehension), and the yet to be realized
  • Integral-Arational (four-dimensional, capable of seeing through all dimensions).


As Pogany summarizes, the integral-arational “transcends, unites, and balances all previous structures.” Or, as Gebser himself put it, “This is a beginning if only because the individual learns to see himself as a whole as the interrelationship and interplay of magic unity, mythical complementarity, and mental conceptuality and purposefulness. Only as a whole man is man in a position to perceive the whole.” (The Ever-Present Origin, p. 531)

The process for moving through these different consciousness structures is not a linear one. Gebser described them as “discontinuous mutations,” or “leaps.” He said that “mutational periods are times of disturbance and even destruction” (The Ever-Present Origin, p. 295).

“The apparent succession of our four mutations is less a biological evolution than an ‘unfolding,’ a notion which admits the participation of a spiritual reality in mutation. Under no circumstances is this form of development to be considered ‘progress’; we must accept the term ‘progress’ for what it is… ‘Progress’ is not a positive concept, even when mindlessly construed to be one; progress is also a progression away, a distancing and withdrawal from something, namely, from origin.” - Jean Gebser, The Ever-Present Origin, p. 41

And so, we find Gebser corroborating Pogany. Pogany equates his conception of Global System 3 with Gebser’s integral-arational structure of consciousness. As we said, to bridge the gap between the current system and the one envisioned will require a major transformation of individual and collective consciousness, and it will not be easy by any means. Hence, a chaotic transition.

If our consciousness, that is, the individual person’s awareness, vigilance, and clarity of vision, cannot master the new reality and make possible its realization, then the prophets of doom will have been correct. Other alternatives are an illusion; consequently, great demands are placed on us, and each one of us have been given a grave responsibility, not merely to survey but to actually traverse the path opening before us. - Jean Gebser, The Ever-Present Origin, p. 5

“The grand and painful path of consciousness emergence, or, more appropriately, the unfolding and intensification of consciousness, manifests itself as an increasingly intense luminescence of the spiritual in man.” - Jean Gebser, The Ever-Present Origin, p. 542. "

(https://daviddmacleod.substack.com/p/global-systems-peter-poganys-thermodynamic?)


Characteristics

From ChatGPT:

"Jean Gebser's stages of consciousness and their dimensions represent increasing complexity and integration of human awareness:

  • Archaic Structure: Zero-dimensional. Pure, undifferentiated awareness, merging with the environment without any distinction.
  • Magic Structure: One-dimensional. Emergence of a basic sense of self, characterized by a mythical, animistic view of the world where events and objects are interconnected in a linear way.
  • Mythic Structure: Two-dimensional. Development of symbolic thinking and dualistic perceptions, creating narratives and myths that explain the world through opposites and relationships.
  • Mental Structure: Three-dimensional. Dominated by rationality, logic, and analytical thinking. It introduces linear time and spatial awareness, allowing for abstract thinking and individualism.
  • Integral Structure: Four-dimensional. Integrates previous stages, transcending dualities and embracing a holistic, non-linear, and non-dualistic consciousness that perceives multiple dimensions and interconnectedness simultaneously.

Each stage builds upon the previous one, adding more layers of complexity and integration to human consciousness."


Discussion

The Inside-Outside Correlation determining the form of consciousness

Peter Pogany:

‘The integrative approach is manifest in the joint use of space, time, and energy as fundamental variables in explaining the intensification of consciousness from the magic world of spaceless and timeless oneness to space and time-free aperspectivity; and in treating developments that are external and internal to the individual as identical. The two approaches are equally important and they both hinge on the clear division of energy from the human perspective into somatic and extrasomatic forms. The somatic subcategory includes work and social movements of historic relevance. Extrasomatic energy approximates the concept of technology.

…

Gebser sketched out the entire process of mutation to aperspectivity in terms of time; that is, the “breaking forth of time” of late 18th century gave way to the “irruption of time” which has two phases, “intrusion of time” and “collapse of time.” Then he brought the temporal into context with spatial and energetic aspects. To flesh out the importance of technology, Gebser connected energy to space and time sometimes through its somatic and sometimes through its extrasomatic form.

…

Gebserian thought confirms and is confirmed by perhaps the most remarkable achievement of 20th century Western philosophy. Structuralism and poststructuralism (or postmodernism) finished what Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Saussure, Wittgenstein and many others began, namely, the deflation and perhaps even the abandonment of the idea that a Cartesian-cogito-like independent subject can make an objective sense of the world. What is going on inside the individual cannot be separated from the totality of information, pressures, and impulses that engulf it. Consciousness does not live a life independent from the conditions in which it is born and develops. Hence, every mutation is connected to a moral world order revealed in more or less age-specific, typical historical, religious, political, and even esthetic consciousness. “To the extent that consciousness is an intensity and thus intangible, the space-time world represents the corresponding tangible phenomenon as an extensity.”

He underscored the external/internal equivalence regarding technology in the following way: “Machine is an objectivation or an externalization of man’s own capabilities; it is in psychological terms a projection.” (EPO 132). This is analog to saying that the employment of extrasomotatic energy is an externalization of inner powers or conditions. It is the visible, outward form of these powers and conditions.

To conclude -- Gebser saw correctly, and ahead of his time, that the human quest for material wealth will intensify global scale problems that technology, mental man’s trump card, will not be able to solve. As the overreach becomes increasingly evident and the critique of average individual behavior assumes a planet-wide, social scale with a tendency to increase, Gebserian thought becomes everyday, practical reality. Only a radically new attitude rooted in space and time freedom, that is, in the recognition of the simultaneity of structures, could either avert the looming disaster or enable us to deal with its consequences. Space and time freedom means not subjecting ourselves, each other, and the Earth’s finite resources to the generation of a self-destructive flow of energy. Our current consciousness cannot truly comprehend how and why the quality of individual life will improve through this ultimate, circle-closing mutation.“

(https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2633101936?)


More Information

Recommended by David MacLeod:

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