The 9 Stages Of Ego Development - Part 2

Part 2 covers two Post-Conventional stages of Susanne Cook-Greuter's Ego Development Model, the Pluralist and the Strategist.

Link to Cook-Greuter's Research Paper:

Mirror Link, in case the above one breaks:

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Disclaimer: Advice provided without warranty. This is NOT medical advice. By watching & applying this advice you agree to take 100% responsibility for all consequences.

[Pablogamalielm]

My grandma enter my room while I was watching “life advice for young people” on my smart TV and she said “oh you’re watching your friend” 😂

[mirrorman]

Those moments when you realize how right this is, eyes water a little bit

[marvelllious]

Man you have no idea how thankful I am for your existence.

[popupexistence]

The 9 Stages Of Ego Development - Part 2
---PART 1/2----
*General Remark*
- This is a scientific model and thus has it's own limits
- Each stage has the capabilities of the earlier stages underneath it.
- NONE of these stages are good or bad
- each stage is its own reality but the higher stages are its own reality incorporating the lower reality. Therefore, the higher stages can understand the lower stages as it went through them.
- You have to be humble enough to admit that there is something above your level of understanding
- Just because you are in a higher stage, it doesn't mean that you are a saint. There are still dysfunctions in the higher stages. (but it tends to improve as it goes higher)
- Humans do tend to regress stages when they are threatened or stressed
- awakening or mystical experiences can happen in any stage but the interpretation is different based on their level

*POST-CONVENTIONAL*
- Previous stages, the ego was busy constructing itself, but in this stage, the ego starts deconstructing itself
- deconstruction means turning your focus inwards, starting to really question yourself, starting to reflect on your beliefs & ideas.
- Starting to realize the socially constructed nature of reality
- Aspects of reality that could be deconstructed (Asking "is this really true for all people everywhere or is it just a local phenomenon" )
+ Objective
+ Material
+ Real
+ Scientific
+ Absolute word
+ Rationality
+ Logic
+ Science
+ Government
+ Politics
+ Capitalist economic system

- Relativity is a huge theme of the post-conventional stage. This is a huge leap.
- There are many degrees of relativistic thinking
- Awareness of one's own unexamined beliefs becomes... almost painfully brought into one's consciousness
- the mind opens up to something beyond rationality, new ways of knowing the world than just logic.
- noticing evolution and self-deception. All problems become a matter of perspective and mind (not a problem with the world but how you think and relate to the world)
- There is a decrease in defensiveness and less blaming of others as you move up these stages
- language starts to be questioned and it becomes complex
- materialist assumptions are starting to be questioned (not completely but they are starting to be)
- although objects are seen are permanent, the meaning is seen to be context-dependent
- The boundaries of concepts seem to be much more flexible/movable/impersonal
- The mind can compare the whole system of thought and organization with increasing distance
- They can now look back to previous belief systems as systems
- There is an appreciation of existential, metaphysical, psychological and epistemic issues and questions

*Pluralist* (11% of the adult US population)
- Relativity (check out Leo's episode of relativity part 1)
- realizes there are multiple perspectives and exploring the perspective becomes fascinating.
- Objective judgments become impossible
- Life still pressures you into survival. While you want to explore all the perspectives, you still want to manage life. This can be difficult as it becomes hard to make decisions in life. Not all views are equally practical
So you sort these views based on practicality
- We cannot help filter our observations through our personal and subjective lenses. This humbles the mind
- becomes aware of the culturalistic conditioning and you are not in control or values
- Exercise: Travel to unconventional exotic places
- They start to see all world views as equally valid and worthy of consideration
- Truth becomes really difficult to find in this stage because everything starts to become relative and they might even deny there is such a thing as truth
- The mind can stand outside itself it grew up in and observe itself/culture from above
- Good at questioning hidden assumptions values and beliefs
- there is a realization of self-deception as a defence mechanism [just beginning] (check out leo's video on self-deception. I personally highly recommend it)
- If other people are so easily fooled, what are the chances that you are fooling yourself thinking that you are an exception to self-deception?
- The greatest danger is your own mind and the beliefs and software that was programmed into your mind that was taken for granted with all the assumptions that you never questioned
- They start questioning how do we know what we know?
- Realizes that I am not immune to all the brainwashing
- There is an awareness of how much society or awareness has shaped one's point of view, worldview, beliefs and values
- The mind is seen as completely contingent on
+historical context
+geographic place
+economic circumstance
+education
+the structure of society
+culture
+media
+advertising
+language
- The inner world becomes more interesting than materialistic pleasure
- trying to make sense of oneself
- They realize the limitation of rationality
- One of the chief ways the mind can deceive you is logic
- exploration is more important than reaching a goal
- Tends to be a distrust at the pluralist stage of conventional wisdom and hyper-rational wisdom
- The scientific frame and the judgemental frame breaks down
- They like to scrutinize their own assumptions and relish novel mental freedom
- All values are now relative but survival still demands making choices and judgements that the pluralist struggles with
- Rather than solving a problem, one must figure out what to define a problem
- problems is an interplay between polarities neither one of which can simply be eliminated
- enjoys paradox and contradiction without the need to eliminate them
- linear logic gives way to a more holistic understanding
- Not everything needs to be proven in order to be embraced
- Value is placed upon insight and breakthrough
- playful exploration and the imagination is set free
- looks for connections and subtle clues rather than analyzing independent parts
- useful information can now come from beyond science
- sources that were viewed with ridicule such as intuition, feeling, dream, meditation, self-reflection, insight, these now become highly valued
- there is a shift from doing to being and feeling
- they like to live more unconventionally
- good at finding novel ways at looking at the problem
- they like to inspire others to pursue their own interest

*Traps:*
- they can appear amoral because they appear so relativistic
- there is a dread that one's work-life won't allow self-expression and creativity
- can feel isolated from others who don't understand the post-conventional mindset
- there can be relationship problems if your partner is post-conventional and the other person is conventional
- Diversity and equalities itself become an oppressive position.
- They might judge others who do not hold their values
- They still don't fully appreciate the others are not as developed as they are
- They generally very tolerant of other's diverse ideas, behaviours, and cultures but they can come off as dreamers and non-doers
- Tend to have an attitude of "It all depends"

[ollylucky]

Listening to this, I feel like I'm watching the story of my awakening/rebirth being told. I feel so seen. Thank you, Leo.

[GingerAlle]

This is my third time listening to These 3 stages.

This is the first time I think I understand it.

I just finished watching part 1.

Thanks Leo.

Here I go for part 2.

[ravempowers]

There are a very few authentic youtubers like you Leo! Never chasing views or money but just creating in order to serve! And I think this is one of the best series we're gonna get from you. Cant wait for part 3!

[TheDhammaHub]

Would be really really welcome if you could add chapters to videos of such length, I think people would really appreciate that!

[asafthemagniv]

4 Categories of The Ego:

1. Pre-Conventional(5% of adult US population):
1) Symbiotic (Beige)
2) Impulsive (Purple)
2/3) Opportunist - 4.3% (Red)

2. Conventional(75%-80% of adult US population):
3) Conformist / Diplomat - 11.3% (Blue)
3/4) Expert - 36.5% (blue.Orange)
4) Achiever - 29.7% (Peak-Orange - orange.Green)
Bringing Orange into Green

3. Post-Conventional(15-20% of adult US population):
4/5) Pluralist - 11.3% - 27:40 (peak-Green - Green.yellow)
5) Autonomous / Strategist - 4.9% - 1:46:00 (green.Yellow - peak.Yellow)
5/6) Construct-Aware / Magician - 1.5% (Yellow.turquoise - turquoise.Coral)

4. Transcendent(Less than 1% of adult US population):
6) Unitive - 0.5% (peak.Coral+)

Every stage in SD has 3 levels :
*The stage is determined by the stage name with the upper case
entry/previous.Stage
peak.Stage
Stage.sequal_stage

to become better you have first to admit that you are not as good as you think you are
Before Post-Conventional you were constructing yourself, your ego and then in Post-Conventional you
are deconstracting your mind, you understand that the mind constructed reality to be busy try to get/achive something
In that stage you are stuck in building your ego and aren't open to the posibility of deconstructing false information

Deconstructing is turning your focus inwards, towards your psyche(program) and mind

Deconstructing what once was Absolute, for example for religious people The Holy Bible
you dont question it, but in the Pluralist(1st Post-Conventional) you start the question yourself, your program and ego
And in the later stages you start to understand that everything you know isn't absolute and 100% real for sure

Examples deconstruction: Bible, atonality, logic, science, government, politics, all aspects of your culture
you start to question and ask yourself is this really true for all people everywhere or is it relative

Relativity is a big thing that you start to understand in this stage, for the mind to think relativistically
is A Huge leap in advancements, there are many degrees of thinking relativistically

Usually people can think to some degrees relativistically Post-Conventional stages it really ramps up
You become much more relativistic in your world view

At this stage you start to be aware of illusions and self deceptions
"All Problems Become a matter of prospective"
Decreasing of defensiveness and less blaming on others, language become complex

The Ego is a meaning creating machine, also objects are seen permeant their meaning is seen as context depended
The boundaries of concept seem to be flexible

The Pluralist enjoys pardoxes and contradiction, unlike any other level below who ignore and reject
the lower levels uses this as an excuse that it paradoxes doesn't exist because of it's confusion
At the Pluralist stage nothing has to be proven in order to be embraced and values is placed upon insights and breakthrough
The imagination is set free, which include huge numbers of perspectives, the more you explore the more
creative your minds become, you see new possibilities and connections

The Pluralist looks for connection and subtle clues for connecting the dots rather than analyzing independent parts
Useful information can now come from Beyond science at this stage, sources that used to be viewed
with reticulum skepticism such as intuition feeling dreams meditation self-reflection Insight these
now become highly valued

There is now a shift from doing into being and feeling
Mind and Body connection are now recognized
At the Pluralist stage you start to open up, it's where the hippies got up
Pluralist often withrow them selves from external affiers and ordinary daily routine


Strategist is a huge leap from Pluralist, it is the first stage to recognize the need and value of all of the lower stages
All the lower levels are necessary and play their function, They Gain the world view of the whole world
The strategist can see how systems and individuals interact and understand

Strategist are able to create new meanings and ideas independently of culture or society
The strategist see's itself in an history way, a story that reason can explain all the past and with his large
understanding he can even predict the future by concocting the dots, they understand the complexity of reality

The strategist take full responsibility for their interpretation, valuation, sense-making and life story - Huge
lower levels(even Pluralist) tend to push responsibility, You become Very Responsible for Everything
Because you realize that their is nobody to blame, other than your own mind

The strategies of consciously committed to making a meaningful herself and others through self-actualization

The strategist have successfully integrated those subpersonalities
The strategist are more grounded, they're not so torn and confused as the pluralist
Usually it take a pluralist 5-10 years to move into Strategist shore flailing around playing
with different perspectives, being kind of hippie, and that's starts to congeal and come together sense of self
in the strategist as both differentiated and integrated at the same time

The strategist tends to have a transformational mission
The strategist worries most about failing to observe Universal principles so they can be very principled people
they want honesty authenticity truth and whatever principles they hold

The strategist have high standard and often times when they're downfalls they will guilt themselves
for not being able to meet these you high principles and high standards

The strategist is in the unique position now to be a leader and to help mankind figure out
all of the stuff that you figured out

The strategist have a deep desire to help others evolve and are very good coach
Strategist have an attachment to others transforming themselves, you can be too attached to having
others transform when they are not ready yet

Develop mental thinking is no an aspect of cognition for the strategist, they take into account
the self and others evolve.

The strategist convinced that higher development is always better and should be fostered at all costs
The strategist life is a journey of never-ending growth and self-actualization, they are very aware of Self Bias
inner process he's become fascinating complex and demanding to explore

The strategist needs a lot of privacy and time for self-reflection hear the self is constantly experience
transformation and it's constantly being reappraised so there's no static self anymore
the self is always growing always transforming and you're always wondering like
what should the self be tomorrow

[ReynaSingh]

Thank you for sharing. This is something so important for us to realize.

[ActualizedOrg]

Link to Cook-Greuter's Research Paper:

Mirror Link, in case the above one breaks:

[tyranisaurus]

Watching a year later. Went from expert to achiever, and I’ve been playing with pluralism. I feel I’ll embrace pluralism this year more than ever. Ready to keep moving up :)

[skygujjar]

Thanks for making our lives really better, it's a lot of consciousness, not kidding, I don't even know how you speak continuously for hours, that's not easy!!! Thank you Leo ❤️❤️❤️

[VahnAeris]

That's why you're still my favorit youtuber right now.

since 5 years lol.

legit, no adds, no trash, only one course, and I buy the booklist then discovered I didn't need to pay for books, but anyway.

[Morgan]

1:45:58 The Strategist talk starts here. I like how Leo, after calling everyone else out on their behavior in many of his videos, spends the next ~45 minutes calling himself out on his own personal behavior, particularly his arrogance (which turns out to be a notable Strategist trait.) It's a bit of humility I'm not used to seeing from Leo (or most YouTubers, for that matter.) Can't wait for Part 3!

[videostudioxnr]

As a seventy one year old guy, living in South Africa, my eldest son put me onto this channel and particularly this three part series!
Something I was told years ago by a good colleague and I when we were discussing 'life' along the lines of this series and he said "Your mind would you die than admit to itself that it is wrong"
It's always stuck with me and now I'm getting the knowledge bit by bit from Leo to truly deal with that statement!

[ansimuz]

Ego development has helped me understand myself . Before it i felt alone because nobody would really understand my pov. Thanks for your effort.

[davantetheofficial]

Been following your work for a couple years now coming out of high school Leo. Thank you for being there in a world where I feel alone. ✌

[DavidL-wdpu]

Great video. It never ceases amaze me that Leo comes up with 2 3 hour videos every single week.

[mitchfarr]

Watched part 1 last night and was absolutely blessed to have part 2 released the next night. :) cheers Leo.