Transitioning from Ego-centeredness
to a World-centered Consciousness
The leap from first-tier – ego-centric – to second-tier consciousness – world-centric, as described in detail in one recent article, is a momentous transformation of the human mind and heart.
>>> Up the Jakob’s Ladder into the Heavens –
The ascent of human consciousness In 12 stages
It marks the shift from a world dominated by fragmented, competing views of other people to a world rooted in integration, complexity, and compassion.
In our time when ego-driven chaos is running roughshod over the planet, this transition is not just desirable — it’s urgently needed.
First-Tier vs Second-Tier: A New Kind of Mind
In 1st Tier consciousness, spanning traditional, modern, and postmodern worldviews, we tend to be locked into the belief that our own view is “the correct one.”
Each stage on this state/tier of development sees reality through its particular lens, often dismissing other perspectives as wrong, misguided, or dangerous.
• 1st-Tier Levels of Consciousness: These levels are generally characterized by a sense of lack of something, deficiency, or the feeling that the world needs to be different.
◦ Infrared — Archaic: This stage marks the beginning of our developmental journey, primarily associated with newborns, though adults can also be found here. It’s a prepersonal, preverbal stage with no sense of identity and no access to language. Verbal communication is limited to muttering, focused on meeting basic survival needs and sensory perception.
◦ Magenta — Magic: Dominant in young children and tribal societies. Here, individuals have a rudimentary sense of self enmeshed with their surroundings. Magical and animistic thinking, superstition, and a focus on bonding and security prevail. They cannot yet empathize with others.
◦ Red Magic — Mythic: At this stage, a stronger sense of identity emerges, perceiving the world as separate. There’s an attempt to impose this identity on the world, with little comprehension of cause and effect, leading to narcissism. The self-boundary is still flimsy, so the world is experienced as a dangerous place. Individuals are egocentric and can’t take the perspective of others. Power negotiation and impulsive behavior are characteristic.
◦ Amber — Mythic: A significant leap occurs with the ability to take a 2nd-person perspective and empathize with others within their in-group. Identity is derived from group affiliation, leading to conformity and intolerance towards out-groups. Thinking is concrete-operational and absolutistic, focused on order, discipline, and religious structures.
◦ Orange — Rational: This marks the first worldcentric stage, with the capacity for 3rd-person perspective-taking, allowing individuals to consider the perspectives of all human beings. Formal-operational thinking becomes available, enabling reflection and critical thinking based on logic and reason. This is an individual-oriented altitude with themes of material abundance and achievement.
◦ Green — Postmodern: The final 1st-tier stage, also an ‘advanced worldcentric’ stage, allows for a 4th-person perspective, leading to an understanding of the constructed nature of knowledge (constructivism) and a questioning of all previous claims to truth. It is characterized by sensitivity, pluralism, relativism, and a desire to flatten all hierarchies to remove artificial boundaries. There’s an interest in diverse viewpoints and practices. This stage focuses on authentic, pluralistic, multiple perspectives and communal values.
In contrast, in the next, the 2nd Tier consciousness we recognize that every worldview captures some important piece of the human experience.
Rather than fighting over fragments of worldviews and who is right and the best, at the second-tier we integrate them.
We see value in traditional loyalty, modern achievement, postmodern pluralism … and then we transcend them all by weaving them into a larger, living whole.
• 2nd-Tier Levels of Consciousness: This tier represents a “monumental leap” in meaning-making. The first stage is marked by the ability to embrace and integrate all previous altitudes.
◦ Teal — Integral: This is the first 2nd-tier stage, where individuals become multiperspectival and can actively integrate and utilize all previous altitudes as needed. It is an individually focused stage where systemic thinking and vision-logic cognition emerge, allowing for the understanding of systems of systems and natural hierarchies. There’s a drive to find connecting patterns and unities beyond diversities. This stage sees the world as alive and evolving, with natural hierarchies and flexible thinking.
◦ Turquoise — Integral: While still within the 2nd-tier, this stage is more communal and relies more on emotions than Teal. Individuals perceive the world as alive, loving, and evolving. Having integrated previous altitudes at Teal, there’s now a willingness to deeply question knowledge, epistemology, and ontology, with greater openness to forms of knowing beyond the intellect. The focus shifts towards attending to and healing the fragmentation created by earlier developmental stages.
Key shifts that occur in this transition
• From either/or thinking to both/and thinking
• From identification with a single worldview to recognition of multiple valid perspectives
• From ego-centered identity to a world-centric sense of self
• From deficiency-based motivation based on fear, scarcity and status to growth-based motivation characterized by curiosity, purpose and service.
It’s a fundamental reorganization of how we create meaning. Not by a temporary insight and then back to business as usual, but a lasting change in our “operating system”.
How the Transition Happens
The move into 2nd Tier isn’t achieved through a single flash of enlightenment. It is the fruit of a slow, steady maturation involving mind, heart, body, and soul.
Peak experiences — moments of expanded awareness or unity — can serve as inspirations.
But unless integrated, they fade.
True vertical development requires:
• Sustained self-reflection
• Shadow work to address unconscious fears and biases
• Practices that stretch cognitive, emotional, and spiritual capacities over time
At some point, the internal pressure of 1st Tier limitations — its fears, absolutisms, and fragmentations — creates enough dissonance that a deeper shift becomes not only possible but necessary. This is often accompanied by a period of confusion, breakdown, or intense questioning.
If the person persists, the structure of consciousness reorganizes at a higher level, allowing for greater fluidity, compassion, and complexity.
Barriers Along the Way
Several major obstacles can block this transformation:
•Ego Attachment: The Fear of losing our familiar identity or tribe can make the leap terrifying.
•“Mean Green”: At the Green level, an allergic reaction to hierarchy can freeze development, mistaking all hierarchies as oppressive rather than recognizing healthy growth hierarchies.
•Peak Addiction: Mistaking temporary expanded states for stable stage development leads to complacency, uncritical self-satisfaction
•Unresolved Psychological Shadows: Old traumas and unconscious defenses can sabotage our higher growth unless we make the effort to consciously address them thru some form of therapy.
•Social Pressure and Isolation: Our cultures, institutions, and even social circles mostly operate within first-tier consciousness. Swimming against this current can feel lonely and overwhelming. We don’t like to leave the security of what we know.
Practices That Support the Shift to Second Tier Consciousness
The transition from first to second state of consciousness can be nurtured through specific inner attitudes and outer practices:
•Mindfulness and Self-Awareness: Regular meditation or reflective practices cultivate the “witnessing mind,” loosening attachment to any single viewpoint.
•Perspective-Taking and training Complexity: Intentionally exploring diverse viewpoints, embracing paradox, and engaging in complex problem-solving challenges the mind to expand beyond first-tier limitations.
•Shadow Work and Healing: Therapy, coaching, and honest self-inquiry help clear psychological blockages that would otherwise anchor the self to earlier stages.
•Contemplative and Non-dual Practices: Meditation traditions that reveal the underlying unity of all experience (e.g., Zen, Dzogchen, Vipassana) can offer direct glimpses of the inclusive awareness characteristic of second-tier.
•Compassion and Heart Expansion: Loving-kindness practices, Meta Meditation and real-world acts of kindness and service stretch the heart beyond tribal or ego-centric limits, embodying world-centric care.
•Community and Mentorship: Seeking out or creating supportive environments where second-tier values are modeled and nurtured provides important inspiration and reinforcement.
Above all, patience and humility are essential.
Vertical growth is rarely linear.
It involves plateaus, regressions, leaps, and slow gestations. Trusting the process, staying open to being challenged, and maintaining a beginner’s mind all accelerate the unfolding.
Why It Matters
The transition from 1st Tier to 2nd Tier is not about feeling “better” or superior or “more evolved.”
True 2nd Tier consciousness comes with greater humility, deeper care, and a profound respect for the entire journey of human development.
It’s about being able to hold complexity without collapsing into confusion or cynicism.
It’s about acting from love rather than fear.
It’s about creating solutions that honor the richness of life rather than clinging to partial well-known and comfortable truths.
In short, it’s the kind of consciousness desperately needed if humanity wants to navigate the mega-crises of the 21st century with wisdom and heart.
I believe that there is no harmonious future possible for the world if the majority of us live on in first-tier consciousness.
The future — if it is to be a future worth living — will be
based on second-tier consciousness
and beyond –
3rd Tier
4th Tier
And it begins – quietly – with each of us.
With you and with me.
