Dark As Ignorance

"This house is as dark as ignorance,
though ignorance were as dark as hell;
and I say, there was never man thus abused.
I am no more mad than you are: make the
trial of it in any constant question"

Twelfth-Night (Act IV, Scene II)

According to Robert Kegan, there are three broad stages of ego development, these are – fantasy, concrete and abstract.

These stages of maturity are linked to age. Around the age of six (+/- 2 years), we move from the fantasy age where the mysterious world floats around our reality to a concrete world. This is a painful transition as we move from feeling and acting out of intuition to sense making.

We suddenly want answers, we need to make sense of Father Christmas, how cars work, where clouds come from, who are our friends and why do we have to put up with teachers, parents and friends?

Around about the 16 (+/- 4 years) we transition from concrete to the abstract. An even more painful transition, as we realize that the world is full of chaos, there are more things to know than we will ever know.

Puberty opens up the pearly gates of abstraction, in pours the imperfection of our parents, with this realization also arrive the media mongrels who size up and seize their feast, (this is not the fastest growing sector of the economy for nothing).

There are no simple linear rules, but mysteries feeding into deeper caves of mysteries, we spiral and seek a way of grasping a truth that does not exist, except in the fantasy of our eyes, the concrete comfort of years past.

According to Kegan, this is the moment of truth. Some press on, some have no choice, most regress back into the comfort of concrete fantasies.

The next stageis the shift to the highest form of ego development which is to transcend these three states of fantasy, concrete and abstraction.

The fourth state is nirvana. This is the ability to dance out our rage on the stage and sit dispassionately in the audience at the same time. This state is so elusive that the magnet of the fantasy and concrete world tugs us back all the time. The default is back here, we have to reset and refresh on purpose to escape the default.

When we are at the fourth stage, the fantasy opens up the child within us, the concrete provides the parental boundaries and the abstract sets us free to fly. The spiritual quest is not an isolated element, it grows out of these ego states and it returns to these.

Knowing where we are at any point in time helps us take the next step with clarity and purpose.