Feature Article: What is Second Tier: Powers and Perspectives Available to Leaders at Second Tier

Wayne Carr, Ph.D.

Introduction

My intenIion is to bring forth some different perspectives on second tier (see my definition of second tier under the next heading). I will tap into a fountain and share some water with you. I intend to look around and fine some elephants that might be in the room.

I want to clarify distinctions between first, second and third tier. I will look at the roles of stuckness, pathology, authority, contactfulness, non-local consciousness, non-dual consciousness, revelation, and vital processes as they relate to second-tier development. I hope to expose some fertile ground for the roots of effective second tier leadership. I have also tried to convey a message that transcends words.

Some terms in this discourse will not be clearly defined because my main intent is to ring a general cognitive-emotional-spiritual “bell” and see how it resonates inside of you. I believe second tier people have acquired a different, more sophisticated set of resonators and can recognize second tier space, despite differences in specific terms that are used to describe it and despite some possible disagreements.

I believe second tier people can share the same reality space much more easily and deeply because that have less “overlay” and fewer “read-ins” on top of what is. When second tier people meet, there is more of a convergence (or perhaps “meta-convergence”) of points of view (rather than being spread all over the map with points of view that tend to cancel out each other and create stalemates).

Second tier people have (and are) a multidimensional and more sophisticated set of yardsticks and resonators by which they allow, measure, co-resonate with, co-create and co-evolve what is. These yardsticks span interior-exterior, one-many.

One of the meanings of the Hindu word Namaste is “The Deity in me recognizes the Deity in you.” Similarly, the second tier in me recognizes the second tier in you. I would also add another saying: “May the darkness and blind spots in me become more illuminated by the clarity in you, just as the darkness and blind spots in you can become more illuminated by the clarity in me.”

Lastly, there are three problematic issues that can get in the way when talking to people about second tier:

1. People whose center of gravity is in the stage prior to the second tier leap (the green meme, close in meaning to cultural creatives), often think they already are second tier.
2. People centered in the green meme, on the other hand, may judge a hierarchical developmental stage rating system only as a way of allowing a few self-selected people the elite and egotistical judging that “I’m better than you.”
3. People who are mainly cognitively in second tier can mistakenly think their center of gravity is in second tier because they understand so much cognitively about the other lines of development.

Definition of Second Tier

Second tier is an exceptionally large jump upward on the scale of human developmental stages. Only a small percentage of the population has made this jump. It is the jump from a post-modern, pluralistic, green stage (which includes most cultural creatives) to a developmental level some have called Integral.

Integral second tier consciousness can look back at all previous stages (first tier) with much greater perspective and compassion. Such consciousness can also look and create forward into the “new” frontiers of being (towards third tier) with less stuckness typical of first tier.

Second tier signifies higher developmental stages of consciousness and is not to be confused with a particular state of consciousness. Second tier is capable of higher states, such as “non-dual”, more frequently and for longer periods. Higher states become more embodied as measurable traits and action-logics in second tier. Second tier is a more creative dance of many organismic states, many of which are fertile grounds for creative and effective leadership.

By saying someone is second tier; I mean that their center of gravity is in second tier, not just that their cognitive line of development is in second tier. This means that when all the lines of development are considered, (e.g. cognitive, emotional, social, spiritual, physical etc.) the majority of the lines are in second tier. There may still be parts of themselves way down (or further up) on the developmental ladder.

I say that the cognitive and emotional lines (E.Q.), however, must be in second tier (necessary, but not sufficient). One can cognitively be very integrally literate yet be relatively emotionally illiterate. (I believe this is not uncommon in some integral groups).

Leadership ability itself can be considered as a line of development in and of itself. In second tier new and currently rare kinds of leaderships are evolving and emerging. These new kinds of leaderships will be extremely important in changing the course of world events on all levels. A deeper knowledge of what is possible in second tier should further empower leadership skills.

Description of Second Tier: Into the Meat of It

I will now describe more of the general powers and perspectives available to second tier. (Of course this description is by no means exhaustive.) Second tier leaders will further embody many of these skills and points of view (e.g., freedom from authority and lack of stuckness) to actualize themselves as leaders.

Second-tier leaders are much less afraid of their own power and are less likely to attenuate it with false modesty. They can more fully feel, embody and celebrate their own power and sense of self-efficacy. This power can span the whole spectrum from bold and outrageous to soft and subtle. They can blend their powers hierarchically with the power of others in creative and collaborative ways. They can create an energetic wake that naturally brings people to act in line (entrain) with a common purpose. They en-courage a dynamic balance of support and challenge that facilitates creative action.

From my point of view, second tier means a primary shift in one’s central focus from “shouldism” and “aboutism” to “is-ism”. It is a movement from introjected shoulds to integrated direct organismic access. One’s first and more primary concern becomes what is actually present rather than what should be present. The present is continually updated with the help of a flow of new sensory input and intuitive micro anticipations.

Because second tier leaders are interested more in what is, they are more able to see group situations and processes as they are and navigate and map their way from that point. Obviously a map is most useful if you first know where you are on it.

Second tier is also a movement away from “thinking” other people’s thoughts, to a movement towards consciously thinking one’s own thoughts. From that position, there is further movement towards allowing the creative blossoming of thought from a deeper spacious source.

Second tier is primarily a space one comes from, not so much an external philosophy one talks about, or a set of shoulds or guidelines. It is the glow emitted from the burning charcoal itself rather than a flashlight shined on it. One could throw away all the incredibly useful integral tools, cookie cutters and models and still freely come from the space of second tier.

I have the hypothesis that one can come from second tier even if one limits oneself only to first tier concepts and ideas. The same ideas can be cognized differently and held in a different cognitive space. I believe it may be important to distinguish between states, stages and the cognitive tools predominantly used at each stage. I believe it may be possible that through the ages many “closet second tier people” may have been around but kept their ideas to themselves to keep from being burnt at the stake. They may have learned to more creatively use and modify the more primitive cognitive tools and myths that were available to them. The predominant myths of the time may have been held more lightly and quietly thought of as just one of many ways of looking at the world.

One comes from second tier like water spontaneously bursts from a deep, deep underground spring. There is outrageousness, gracefulness and creative awkwardness as one simultaneously discovers, learns to flow with, and find words for, the new material that spontaneously emerges from all four “quadrants” that often is a surprise. It is an out-of-the box blossoming not contained by today’s typical cultural creative thinking and being. It is out of, “out of the box”.

A Larger Sense of Awakening

In second tier one feels more awake and awakened. “What is” wakes you up. One’s own innate intelligence flows like water toward being awake. Emptiness itself wakes you up and sustains you. More fresh awakenings are woven in to the fabric of ones being. The moment to moment awakenings are refreshingly free of any authority. One’s current reality boxes are there but there is a sense of freedom from any reality box. Reality boxes and different perspectives are more like shoes that one can wear, try on, take off and outgrow. That which is phenomenologically given is seen as ever-changing evolving truth that can be used for navigation and map construction.

Use of the Fertile Void

There is often a curiosity and interest in what is arising (often simultaneously occurring with a creative indifference and relaxed detachment). There is often ample space for phenomena to arise and this space is often “rested in”. There is the “ground” and “fertile void” or source to which one returns and from which new subjects and objects emerge. This can create an experience of dying or evaporating from moment to moment (discontinuity). At times, there is a greater flowing with the discontinuities in consciousness and in the external world that continuously occurs. Everything flows in and out of existence. Subject-object collapses into a flow or fountain of self-liberating discontinuities.

It is this beautiful movement that creates an underlying sense of well-being, groundedness and healing. It is the calm that permeates the storm. This natural self-regulating process is a primary function of the adult healthy human organism as vital as the breath itself. It is a space that I believe restores the developmental self-regulation of the organism so that one can continue to move more freely up the developmental scale. It allows the developmental conveyor belt to move as it should.

Second tier leaders are more readily able to tap into, and use, “the fertile void.” Within this field of emptiness or no-mind there arises clarity of intention and clearer vision-logic. They are able to notice issues as they arise and lead according to what they notice. This allows for rapid feedback and course correction. They can operate for long periods in “blink mode”, meaning they can make decisions on-the-fly based on a deep trust of their own intuitive glimpses.

Freedom from Authority

In second tier one has much greater freedom from external authority and introjected internal authority. This means one has more of the ability to look freshly at a problem not according to any person or belief. One can use pure “beginners mind” to discover new perspectives not limited by previous views (including the integral point of view). One is able to ask the question “is it possible to be psychologically free from all authority?” (Asking the question not intellectually but organismically, this means treating the questions almost like a zen koan: in one breath, allowing the question to form, soak in, take root and permeate into one’s being and be held by one’s body-heart-mind as a pure figure-ground of “everything-nothing”).

In second tier is more able to see through many layers of the “emperor’s new clothes” and hence one is more likely to avoid becoming a blind leader-follower. (Leader-follower is another polarity within all humans, just as strength-weakness or anger-love are such polarities).

Because of this freedom from authority, one can also use existing authority wisely by exploring previous perspectives developed by others without being stuck in that perspective. This allows one to leap from shoulder to shoulder of current authorities to get higher vantage points or, to use a different metaphor, to follow by hitching a short ride on the wake of those who seemed to have traveled further.

Downloading and Receiving Revelations

In second tier, one receives insights more and more directly from primary sources (the fertile void) and less from secondary sources (external authority and models). One, more and more, receives moment to moment direct revelations that arise. One “downloads” information directly. One lives one’s life according to what one notices. What one notices is permeated by spacious emptiness and the perfume of the present.

There is a willingness to give space for the entirety of what one notices, so that one can include and transcend (vs. repress or deny). One can observe without there being the observer, from a state of “not knowing”. Gestalts of all kinds are more likely to form and complete without the interfering “self”. Thinking is gradually traded for revelation. Objects tend to want to unfold and reveal themselves and allow themselves to be seen and be fathomed to their depth. Objects are looked into rather than just being looked at. The revelation process is accentuated by putting aside everything one knows and thinks in order to be in a state of discovery.

You can’t separate yourself from truth. It is you. It goes through you. It is in front of your face. No need to believe in it, no need to have an experience of it. There is only the flow. It is a transcendent state. Truth is always different and always different or more than thought.

Achieving Higher Vantage Points and Processes

I believe that in second tier one can connect the dots on a meta-level (or even a meta-meta level) or from higher perspectives. Stuckness can be seen for what it is. One begins to get “perspectives on perspectives on perspectives” and can see that all perspectives are not equal and that no perspective is final. There are always higher vantage points and every perspective has its limitations.

The higher perspectives can transcend and include intellectual, rational, emotional, intuitive, and sensory perspectives and are based on and grounded in primary perceptions and processes. There is a movement from out of secondary processes toward primary processes, and then to meta processes and beyond.

Awareness of “the extended organism”

When the ego surrenders to the local organism-environmental field, a larger transcendent field of existence is created. However, when the human organism-environment fully surrenders to non-local fields (and perhaps to other larger or collective fields, bodies or sheaths that transcend time-space), it joins with, is nested in, and fully expresses its true nature as “the extended organism”.

Recognizing the “Screen” of Pure Consciousness

All of one’s processes take place “within” or “on” a larger process-space, screen, nothingness or no-mindness. The “screen” itself is the most primary process of all, upon which all things are noticed. The screen can never be made an object yet it is alive, intelligent and is not separate from pure non-local consciousness.

Upon this screen the organism shows us our senses, our thoughts, our sense of self and our sense of the world. These are wonderful gifts necessary to survive, but they are only the dance of information on the larger screen and are embedded with the same unqualifiable consciousness that composes the screen itself. The distinction of conscious and non-conscious loses meaning in the “no-state state” or non-dual state.

Consciousness becomes more and more liberated from its own content. Individual consciousness becomes less and less fragmented. Individual consciousness becomes more and more “congruent” or in-line with, the one unqualifiable base consciousness or hub which appears to be outside of time-space. It is and becomes the unique flowering, fountain or vortex of that one consciousness. Personal experiences are interpreted with an ever-changing open mind as part of a real-time feedback loop (possibly a vortexual flow between the thalamus and cortex).

One dwells more often in, and comes from, the space of a “pre-thought gap” or “between-thought space” (or even a “pre-existence”, “pre-quadrant” space or gap). Seeing from this space prevents a thought from becoming master by running its program without awareness. The content of the thought does not have to be the stimulus for the next thought. In this gap or space, objects and subjects flow directly out of pure potentiality and pure possibility (from superposition?). This gap or space can also be “pre-personal or “pre-identity”. It is the space in which something arises before it becomes your identity. It is a true nature we never lost in the first place.

Increased Ability to Access and Use Non-Local Consciousness

Non-local consciousness is an essential part of who we are and the ability to use it is a line of development in and of itself. It was probably evolved very early and may even be thought of as the “first sense” instead of the “sixth sense.” I believe non-local consciousness in some way plays a part in everything we do. It plays a huge part (mostly unconsciously) in how we navigate through our lives. (As someone who has taught remote viewing for 15 years, I can say its role in navigation is entirely likely.) Wide-spread skepticism has prevented most people (beyond pre-rational) from exploring and understanding the incredible implications of non-local consciousness in all aspects of life, in all four quadrants.

One implication is that possible futures can be (and are being) accessed. “Cosmic habits” and future advanced memes or stages have already been laid down in these futures. This means our own current evolution can be affected by our relationship with our future evolution.

Second-tier leaders that are adequately trained can have a much better sense of possible futures before they occur (days, months and years ahead). If their psychic line of development is that of a higher stage, they may be able to sense several possible futures simultaneously and focus on actualizing an optimal one.

Intense Open Interest and Curiosity

There is no strong identification with any position. Thinking rarely starts from a conclusion, rather from a state of “not knowing” or “no-mind”. Thoughts are beautifully formed, rather than just thought. Thoughts are formed more as an expression, rather than a deflection from a more primary process. The interest is in: What is going on, what is real, what is the truth and am I being truthful at this moment? What is the corrective feedback for my navigation? The will to believe is traded for the will to find out. One can ask is there anything beyond that which is apparently occurring. One can question everything with curiosity and excitement. From this space thoughts can blossom and become more alive.

The Ability to Acknowledge and Incorporate What One Does Not Know (the “Rest of the Elephant in the Room”) and to Incorporate New Information as It Arises

As humans with limited brain capacity, whenever we create cognitions about something, it is only part of the “whole elephant”. Most people, however, never speak and think with this knowledge that a huge amount is always missing and is not fully incorporated. This is the “dark matter” of most first tier cognitions. We talk about the trunk of the elephant as if it were the whole elephant, as if the likely unseen rest of the elephant was not there. In second tier, one has much more ability to recognize that most often people do not know more than they know no matter how much they know.

To incorporate this awareness of this dark matter into ones cognitions creates openness and sensitivity to new and missing information from all dimensions when it arises. I believe full grasping and incorporation of all the implications of new information is rare, and can even take years. In second tier, one has more of this openness to missing information and its possible implications. One also relies on, and knows more about what one knows (meta-knowledge) and remembers more about what one remembers. New experiences, new “anything”, can be better metabolized and incorporated into the current organism. More things can be bitten off, chewed and that which is not needed, not relevant or is toxic, can be spit out or discharged.

Because of this heightened sensitivity to new information, one is constantly discovering and objectifying obsolete maps and representations of one’s self and the world that are hidden in one’s wallpaper of the world. One can outrageously let go of, and act without, any conscious models or maps when appropriate. Maps (including AQAL) are not grasped tightly and are allowed to constantly morph, develop and become conscious. One gets a sense that much of what appears to be impossible in one dimension is possible in the space of the next higher dimension. Below is an affirmation stating the intension to practice and use this sensitivity.

Extended AQAL of information and feedback (Affirmation):

I discover and inquire from a state of openness, receptivity, discernment, curiosity, not-knowing, emptiness and few or no conscious assumptions. I intend to seek, find, see, address, and grasp all implications from my inquiry. I look at all quadrants, all levels, and all lines all types. I am open to gleaning any amount of truth from ALL sources of data, from all evidence, from all dimensions, from all spectrums, in their full span and depth. I incorporate, integrate, and receive feedback from, this data to the best of my abilities. I incorporate the fact that there large areas where I likely have insufficient or less than accurate information. I realize I really do not know completely what I do not know or have overlooked. I understand I have likely made unconscious assumptions and unwarranted conclusions in my blind spots, from my unconscious filters. I realize there are always limits to how much information I can assimilate and integrate. I realize I will make mistakes in how I rate the importance of certain information, and how much attention that information is due, and I am open to reevaluation as new internal and external information arises. I know I may even be incapable of knowing or cognizing certain aspects. When my assumptions are recognized I own them and take them into account. I will continually be on the ever-changing razors edge of what I am capable of discerning.

Re-cognizing Stuckness, Mentalities, Overlays, Woundedness, and Pathology

Read-ins, overlays, wallpaper and projections are traded for more direct perceptions, for seeing true implications and for seeing clear “appearancies” from lively figure-grounds. There is definitely the increased grasping or comprehension of the full implications of an action or idea less distorted by what is read-in. One gives up the speaking and listening in “read-in-ease” which is a prominent mode of communication in our society. Many first tier people are so busy reading in to what they perceive that true implications are all but lost.

The developmental stuckness and fixations, “Read-in mentalities”, and “anti-life” meme infections are passed on from generation to generation as in Reich’s “emotional plague.” Moving up the developmental spiral is more like rowing a damaged boat up a river overgrown and clogged with roots and vines. Developmental stages actually become stages of developmental arrest or stuckness. Developmental arrest or damage comes to be seen as normal or even healthy. Because this unnatural stuckness occurs and prevents growth, I believe first tier is primarily woundedness based.

In second tier there is much less being trapped in an introjected “mentality”. The mind moves from being primarily an assembly line of previous obsolete cognitions to a laboratory of new cognitions. Contradictions are met with curiosity and inquiry and are not overridden by a mentality that presents a particular view of the world as just “given” or obvious. One no longer participates in the mass psychosis. One is freed up to face the challenges of higher memes. In second tier “organismic developmental self-regulation” is beginning to be restored.

The second tier leader is more able to grasp the true implications of something, as clear “appearancies” unfold in front of his face. It becomes more and more apparent what the next thing to do is, as he begins to trade thinking for “seeing”.

Attribution: A particular kind of overlay or read-in problem that is pervasive in first tier mentalities is the problem of undue or greatly inaccurate attributions of conscious intentions, motivations and emotions to other people or groups. These attributions are communicated as “given”. This type of attribution is especially ubiquitous with the “talking heads” of the news media, with politicians, and even with academic “experts”. One only needs to listen to any characterization of one political party by a person in another.

People who have little access to their own unconscious feeling, motivations and intentions can’t accurately intuit unconscious processes in others and will most often attribute behavior of others to conscious deliberate processes. Most unconscious motivations they do pick up on will be distorted by their projections.

To accurately “see” into the heart of another requires hefty amounts of practice accessing and feeling one’s own unconscious stuff, listening to others practice accessing themselves and getting feedback from others who do have good access to themselves. Even then such “seeing” is fallible. Unfortunately our society provides few training grounds for this practice.

Do we underestimate the role of pathology? Repressed detached pain, feelings, intentions and cognitions turn into wounds. Wounds turn into pathologies and eventually end up as worldviews and wallpaper. Although pathology must play some “role” in evolution, I invite readers to perform the thought experiment of imagining how the developmental ladder (or conveyor belt) would currently look in terms of the number of people at each stage and tier and the average age of the people at each stage if there existed neither individual or social pathology (e.g., for the past 100 year or even for the past 10,000 years). My guess is the distribution among memes would be radically different. People, in general, would pass through certain stages at a much earlier age and reach much higher stages without getting stuck and “staying put”. Societies themselves would have reached stages (and developed cognitive tools) way beyond what we have now. The developmental conveyor belt would move freely.

A Deeper Understanding of Pain, Denial and Self-Deception

There is a willingness to let the deepest part of one’s pain arise. Healing takes place by finding ways to move through ones deep impasses. Deep unconscious pains are not by-passed. Pain is better bared and then processed to its deepest basement levels (following the “chain of pain” to its roots and original prototypical experiences). Worldviews are thereby more freed-up to evolve.

Anti-life, toxic, indirect and secondary “pseudo-processes” within systems are more often recognized and dealt with on all levels. There is more grounding in all things as they phenomenologically are in that moment even if there is discomfort, discontent or unbearable pain.

 

Affirmation for the Emotional Healing Process

I state my willingness and intention to heal. I state my willingness and intention to feel my feelings. I am willing to allow the gates to gently open. I am willing to allow the hardness to melt. I am willing to risk allowing the unknown and unexpected to emerge. No matter how painful, I will be there to feel what wants to be felt. I take each pain as it emerges and gently hold it in my arms and love it. I do this because it is me that I am holding and loving. It’s OK to feel afraid and lost. I give myself support with my breath and my gentle patient attention. I pay respectful attention when I feel overwhelmed. I ask for support from others when I need it.

I feel myself exactly as I am. I feel my forbidden impulses and longings no matter how unacceptable they may seem. There is no part of me that is not worthy of unconditional attention and healing. There is no part of me that does not deserve to unfold, heal and find its rightful place. I sense and trust my innate intelligence and power to heal all of my wounds. I trust my own rate of healing and opening up. Whatever time and patience is required I will give it. I will journey from the outer layers into my heart of hearts and explore my unknown territories. I am open to discovering all of what I never knew was there (even when it goes against my previous conception of myself and of the world.) I am willing to feel and experience what has never been felt and experienced so I can be and discover who I truly am. I am a being of many levels and many processes. I ask the process of life that is within me to teach me and to continue to teach me.

There is more of a moment-to-moment spontaneous “coming from” vs. talking about or “shoulding” about discomfort. Primary being and feeling processes are less likely to be deflected or bypassed into unnecessary or compulsive thinking activities. Attention is less likely to be gated away from direct painful material to indirect symbolic or even spiritual activities. Behavior is more the direct meeting of needs rather than the symbolic meeting of needs (acting out). Needs are what they are, feelings are what they are and pain is what it is. One “gets real” with others, himself and with life. One recognizes bullshit more easily.

Deep Contactfulness with self and others

Second-tier people have the ability to make real here-and-now deep contact with self, with individual group members as well as with the group as a whole (a social holon). This contact includes eye contact, the contact from the subtle micro-dance of body postures, subtle energetic contact, and particularly heart-to-heart energy. It can mean “I really see you and you really see me”. This kind of contact offers a much deeper multilevel mutual understanding, rapport, awareness of boundaries and appreciation of differences (without these differences necessarily cancelling each other out or leading to impasse or inaction). A leader can gently move these subtle micro-dances to expand into larger dances of co-ordinated mutual action towards a set goal. In this way, action flows out of contact.

Deep Contactfulness with Experience

As there is a surface structure and deep structure with language, there is also a surface structure and deep structure to experience. In second-tier that deep structure is more penetrated, experienced and enfolded into larger gestalt’s to create an experience of transcendence. There is a “homeostasis of experience” as objects self-organize according to organismic needs within larger field equanimity.

Some Dimensions of the Deep Structure of Experiencing and Thinking

A thought is a gestalt and has a phenomenology. It has a configuration and a figure-ground. It often has: feeling, words, sound, volume, color, texture, presence, motion, speed, intensity, layering, clarity, contrast, coherence, body location, images, tactile sensations, content, instructions, injunctions, meaning, size, shape, structure, sharpness, focus, serial and parallel processing, awareness, “resonance”, surrounding space (roomy or crowded), density, distance, ownership, attentional valence, “a sense of making sense”, foreignness or familiarity, pain and pleasure, beginning and ending, objectivity and subjectivity, the ability to put into a trance. A thought or experience can hold a relationship with other thoughts, perceptions and feelings and can be spawned by other thoughts or stimuli or by “empty creative space”. All of this may be sensed or seen to some degree simultaneously.

“Intouchness” with Vital Processes

There is a sense of trust in one’s own primal or vital processes. There is also a sense that one’s own processes extend beyond the body so that all processes and all other beings, in a sense, are the self; perhaps a sense of “how could it be any other way!” Every moment, every action is a creative “experiment” (and not someone else’s experiment). Both the consciousness of the subject and the consciousness of the object are recognized and seen as two facets of the same consciousness.

One is more and more grounded in one’s own “primary processes” (not in the Freudian sense). This grounding is: direct, connected, core, full-ranged, and non-fragmented and includes vital feeling, energy and being. There is less and less grounding in “secondary processes” or “substitute processes” which are processes that are symbolic, fragmented, substitutional, compartmentalized, purely external, and/or deflective.

Consciousness becomes more and more grounded, where sophisticated cognitive processes are resting on, and are coming out of these healthy primary processes (vs. being built over the top of, or bypassing unhealthy primary processes.)

Secondary or substitute processes don’t eclipse vital primary core processes nearly as much in second tier. (I believe shadow is primarily born of this eclipsing of vital processes due to the inability to process pain.) In healthy functioning, one more directly and fully feels from ones core, not losing sight of the importance of the unconscious and the involuntary. This vital “amoebic” “force” arises and moves like the Kundalini serpent. If you seek to transcend and don’t include that which is primal and vital, then what you transcend (bypass) will re-emerge as shadow or pathology.

“Parts” Take their Rightful Place in the “Whole”

In second tier there is more comfortableness with ego (ego in this case, meaning the identification with a limited, reflexive, and conditioned sense or image of a separated individual self with protective boundaries). Ego is seen as a friend and servant that has its place (not as entire self), not necessarily as an aberration. There is also comfortableness with both healthy judgementalness and non-judgementalness. These objects have their rightful place within the organism when they are not toxic introjections.

One part does not try to do the work of another. Thoughts do not try to do the work of feelings; feelings do not try to do the work of spirit etc. In this way, one’s house is put into order. All parts contribute as part of a self-regulated homeostatic balanced and flexible organic hierarchy. Dominator hierarchies are recognized by one’s emotional immune system and brought back into line.

There is a good sense of what is currently trivial and toxic in one’s larger perspectives. It is harder for clarity to be “seduced” into something less. The “authentic self” (deep, integrated feeling and cognitive structure-processes) and the “true self” (non-an-object) embrace each other.

The Increased Ability to See Through “Illusion”

Second tier offers the increased clarity to see through illusions (“Maya”) existing on all different levels and all quadrants. This includes layers upon layers of projection, fantasy, overlay, thought, belief, myths, taboos, knowing, interpretation, substitute processes, mentalities, self, continuities, separateness, limitation, time and space. This means being less likely to buy into illusion or to be triggered by it. This frees one up to be more sustained by our authentic self and real self.

When one “sees” what arises from the state of not knowing, one is less likely to be caught up in illusion (or delusion). Most of us quickly jump into content and lose sight of the actual phenomenon that is arising. We become hypnotized by the content and treat it as if it was a real thing. We keep performing mental operations that can cause us to lose sight of the here and now.

We spend much of our time in this illusory world of interpretation, being trapped by content and losing sight of the process of what is actually arising and the true essence of everything that arises. We forget that even the “experience” of length, width, color, depth, and movement are still only interpretations of what arises. We forget that interior, exterior, one and many are still only interpretations of what arises. They are not the actual phenomena, unless they are seen from the spacious place of “not knowing”.

Is it possible to jump into content without completely losing sight of, or returning to its unqualifiable phenomenology? If we are unable to do this we become “content” junkies and exclusively live in the world of continual mental operations. We can talk about integral for centuries and end up where we started. If we can hold both into one, we are more able to embody and speak from our non-duality.

Glimpses of third Tier

I have taken the liberty to share some of what may be perceived as “far out” ideas about third tier. I have relied somewhat on the many hundreds of remote viewing sessions I have done over the past 15 years that have covered all different “cosmic” subjects past and future. Some ideas are taken from my own experimentation with developing new ways of cognizing. Some are taken from my 36 years of meditation experience. Some are my direct experiencing or glimpsing of my own limited third-tier-ness.

1) In third tier, I believe ordinary models, including the integral model, can sometimes be seen as more of a hindrance and a limitation than a help. In third tier people are less likely to fit in to any box (at least those limited to three or four dimensions). I believe the integral model is not yet adequate to hold the space of third tier.

Third tier is the coming together of state and stage non-dual enlightenment in new fields of existence with a more solid “ground” in the “unqualifiable”. A new level of “homeostatic balance” is created along new dimensions. This includes a healthy homeostatic balance between “unqualifiable phenomenology” and “content”. It is a higher level of “discernment within oneness”.

Third tier will not always be totally comprehensible from the vantage points of second tier and at times third tier may appear in some ways as “far-out” first tier. To those of lower stages the words of a third tier person can be viewed as like a four or five dimensional object casting a shadow on a three dimensional surface. Sometimes only the shadow of the real thing can be grasped as the new ways of cognizing are developed at third tier.

2) I believe Inter-dimensional models that require a much more extensive use of non-local consciousness are employed in third tier. These models are not seen as separate from the territory. This is because territory itself is embedded with consciousness that resonates non-locally with the viewer’s consciousness and this leads to the revelation of the territories own “holonomic” inter-dimensional map. This is a type of map that is updated from moment to moment along with the territory. This is sort of a “real-time dynamic mapping”. Therefore, third tier can look at itself and reformulate in real time. Nothing resembling dogma can stick in third tier.

3) There is increased non-local or telepathic communication among different beings as one “joins” a more Kosmic community of “beings” that have “transcended and included” concepts like “dominant monad” or “individual participants”. Techniques such as “deep mind probes” “collective deep mind probes” and “identity and perceptive blending” (which have already been demonstrated as actualities in remote viewing) will be learned and put to good use in third tier.

Even non-local connections with extra-terrestrials (through telepathy or remote viewing may be utilized to explore the states and stages of other kinds of beings far beyond our own human levels of development. There is the potential of more rapid movement toward much higher memes that have been laid down as cosmic habits by other beings (possibly millions of years ago) in other parts of the universe (or in other universes).

A comment about the possible existence of advanced extra-terrestrials: 1. The great majority of scientists acknowledge the likelihood of life somewhere else in the universe simply due to the sheer number of galaxies and possible planets. 2. Most scientists (Einstein included) acknowledge that something real is probably going on in the field of paranormal activity. Meta studies have shown that the likelihood of telepathy is off the scale (for example, the odds against chance “conscious detection” of being stared at over 65 studies at are 8.5×10⁴⁶ to 1) 3. Quantum physics research continues to reduce previously thought limitations of entanglement across time-space.

The implication is that: if there are intelligent life forms elsewhere and if telepathy is real and extends across vast distances (non-local), then telepathic communications with ET’s at some time is not far-fetched at all. When people avoid talking about such possibilities or roll their eyes at the idea, it is more of an emotional reaction than a rational one.]

4) Objects may be perceived in many dimensions at once, extending into the past and into possible futures. The current self and the potential future selves will interact with each other on a more conscious level.

5) Matter and the consciousness of the viewer are experienced as interwoven and this consciousness affects the texture and quality of the very fabric of local space-time. Objects and consciousness can be “seen” or “resonated” with as they arise out of a “potentiality wave” function or “cloud”. Literally, several points of view can be taken simultaneously.

There may be increased resonance between every cell and DNA strand in one’s body as the very space around one’s body may be raised to a higher “gauge symmetry”. Also, conscious non-local “entrainment” or influencing of events in the external world will be practiced to a much greater degree.

6) The integration of doing, feeling, cognizing, and being is even transcended. The new vantage points are not describable except that “it” is perhaps like a “quantum cloud” that transcends all four quadrants. (The four quadrants may be the “flatland” of much higher perspectives). Many possible conscious cognitions and perspectives are in “superposition”. Cognitive holograms or what remote viewers have called “thought balls” will emerge more frequently at third tier. In third and fourth tier, leadership will take on entirely different meanings.

Overall

To be in second tier means to consciously walk a holy path of healing, life-practices, mindfulness, based more on real-time feedback from all four quadrants. It means walking a path not nearly as trapped by limited self-fulfilling, “self-proving” mentalities. One lives as a flowing open-ended, yet deeply grounded “I”, extended organism, and we-system that knocks on the door of the transcendence of all four quadrants.

There is increased ability to be grounded in and “flush” with the flow of experience (what is) in ways that are most appropriate for the moment. The space of “no-thingness” begins to permeate all that arises allowing for a more complete, unhindered and beautiful flow.

There is a much deeper congruency and a movement toward even more congruency. The integration of doing, feeling, cognizing and being is taking place to create this one smooth organismic flow. There is more freedom from all authority as one can also see the world not according to someone else. There is a deeper integration of states, stages and tools. One does not just act rational (orange meme) but one is rational. The trans-rational assumes more and more “executive” functions.

I will end with an affirmation for second tier:

Affirmation for Second Tier

 

Live according to what you notice.
Process what needs to be processed
Attend to what needs to be attended to.
Feel what needs to be felt, all the way
Down.

Think “your” thoughts and feel “your” feelings.
Need what you need.
Breath each breath as it wants to be breathed.
Let actions spring from the fertile void.
Act each action as it wants to be acted.

Grow and evolve from simplicity.
Eat when hungry. Taste and chew one’s food, stop when full, spit out that which is toxic.
Rest when tired, sleep the sleep of restoration.
Rest in emptiness.
Recognize the emptiness permeating all people, and all things.
Listen and watch.
Become the clarity within the clarity.

Allow the whole gestalt of who you are and how you are in the world.
Let go of all that you know and all that you think.
Freshly discover what is new as it arises.
Notice that which needs to be noticed the moment it arises
Greet each pain at the door; your tears are truths waiting to be spoken.
See the illusions as they arise that cleverly invite you to their false emergencies, myths and taboos.
Let all of this move you gently into your next lesson.
Hold the sacred compassionate space for others to move to their next lesson.
Leave a radically honest “wake” of who you are.

We are all human, we are all vulnerable, yet we are all part of the same flow. Second tier offers a better “container” to learn to reclaim and embrace old space that was lost and never got a chance to grow and to create new exciting transcendent spaces individually and collectively. Second and third tier leaders and leading edge groups will pioneer the further unfolding of this container and other containers so that they become spaces of nurturance and less places of stuckness.

About the Author

Dr. Wayne Carr is Licensed Psychologist, Spiritual Teacher, Philosopher, Writer, Blogger and Remote Viewer. He is also the Executive Director of The Center for Growth and Healing and The Western Institute of Remote Viewing. He is currently has a psychotherapy practice in the Seattle Area. He has a strong background in Ken Wilber’s Integral Philosophy, Remote Viewing, Non-local Consciousness, Developmental Stages of Consciousness, Humanistic Psychotherapy, Gestalt Therapy, Primal Therapy, Neurofeedback, Zen meditation, Krishnamurti, Eastern Philosophy, Consciousness Studies, Breathwork, Communication Skills and Critical Thinking.

Dr. Carr is currently completing two books titled The Nature of Reality, the Heart and the Mind – Perspectives & Stages. and The Zen of Remote Viewing. He has presented numerous times at the International Conference of Science and Consciousness, the International Remote Viewing Association Conference, the International Primal Association conference as well as appearing on Showtime, the Fox Family Channel and many other television and radio shows here and in the UK.

 

Blog: http://integralprocesses.blogspot.com/

Web site: www.growthandhealing.com/