Transcript for:
Levels of Thinking Summary

so what the hell is this all about this video is about levels of thinking it is theoretical which is fascinating and it also has colorful jokes I use this diagram a lot in my videos because it helps explain some of the wild things that people say and do it's based on the work of several researchers I'm trying to make it easier to read for a wider audience this is my interpretation of a model of Consciousness that I studied it includes quadrants levels lines States and types today I'm talking about levels I want to make a big long video explain in each level in detail but for now I'm just going to do this short version to get it out of the way and get the ball rolling but before we get started here are some misspelled vegetables because I'm told that it helps if I'm cute here's a cactus so these levels are stages of psychological development they have been studied by numerous researchers some of the most famous models come from Jean P here's a snapshot of his work and Abraham maslo who had the hierarchy of needs everybody is born down here and nearly everybody gets up to at least this stage by adulthood there are many factors that determine how you will develop and when including your surroundings your choices your culture and the Brain you were born with these are the quadrants they are different ways of looking at reality in this case this would be your mind your brain your culture and your Society they all happen at the same time because the mind is the brain and culture is a lot of minds and Society is what those Minds do I should also say that people are never really in a level you just slowly develop the ability to think at higher levels as you gain experience but we all use the lower levels every day when you have to use the bathroom for example that's a level one process it's not a complex style of thought it's just a feeling or an urge so some people make it up to higher stages and some people never do most people on Earth spend most of their time in these four stages and this one is only very common in modernized places and it's the first stage where you can adopt a world- centered level of understanding which means understanding how people think the way they do based on where they're from before that level there are right and wrong ways ways of thinking so you would either be doing it right or you're not and then they would say you're either doing it right or you're not after that it's more like well maybe I would think that way if I was from there or maybe I would be more like you if I lived your life that's where Global thinking begins speaking of global thinking this is my first sponsored video it's brought to you by Atlas VPN which allows you to access all the stuff you like from all over the globe it feels illegal but it's not with Atlas VPN you can just go sorry I'm totally in America right now it's like a tiny little Embassy atas has the best VPN deal on the market with a Black Friday price cut it is $1.70 a month with 6 months extra for free which also feels illegal and is not check the video description for the link Atlas VPN makes you Anonymous which is a big deal for me I do not need people knowing whose order this is give me the regular price please Atlas also stops ads in malware it blocks malicious links ads in trackers and it notifies you when someone tries to steal your data you want to keep your data right I do you want better deals on shopping and subscriptions you want to cover unlimited devices you want to hide from the Illuminati get the Black Friday price cut $1.70 a month 6 months extra for free 30-day money back guarantee protect your privacy other benefits ridiculously low price click the link in the video description below limited time offer I hope it's also a limited time that we stay in these lower levels of thinking let's talk about what they are and how they work and how to move on before I get started I should say that higher uh does not always mean better some people watch my videos where I talk about my mistakes and they say oh you think you're at a high level you sound like a jerk but higher doesn't mean better person it means more aware so here's the lower level of awareness seeing things and then as you go higher in the levels of awareness it becomes much more complex you're seeing people seeing people seeing almost into infinity and so when I make mistakes in here I usually know exactly why they're happening I usually can say things like I choose women who probably will not stick around why because I don't think I can support them anyway well why does that matter well usually most of them want a higher level of support that I can provide and why does that matter well it doesn't feel good when they leave because I can't support them okay well why do those feelings matter can you change it some other way can you get a better job or something well I tried to do that I'm doing the best that I can is there some way that you can change the way you try to get money from the world well I've already done everything I can here and this kind of gets fuzzy so why am I spending time with the wrong woman comes back to this experience that I've had over and over and over again and I haven't been able to fix it's the ability to see through what's going on your mind and also to see through similar levels of complexity in what's going on in the world around you so it's not about being good it's about getting it moving up in the levels does not always make you more effective in fact this level is famous for making people into hippies this is the point in development where you begin to understand that everyone has their own way of seeing things and so who's to say what we should and should not do this is an illustration of an interaction from each level this girl is getting validation from a guy that she's not interested in so she knows how to get the validation and then she stands back and she can plan how to give less to get even more and then she looks at that and asks well is that the right thing to do not really but am I going to do it anyway in this circumstance because I think it would be better overall so that's in order wanting something knowing how to get it from someone knowing how to control the interaction knowing whether that's right or wrong according to the rules that you live by and then becoming the author of your own sense of right and wrong and then when you take another step back to this hippie level it's like well who is anyone to judge my choices my choices are right for me and so there isn't really such a thing as right and wrong it's just what works for me that's why they call that level the individualist different people go through the levels differently and when I went through this one it really stressed me out I felt like like I couldn't get my feet on the ground I saw so many different ways of seeing the world so many different philosophies so many different life choices and I didn't know how to pick one and if I can't pick one then I can't get anywhere so I would say I don't know what to do and people would say just pick something and I would say how do I know what to pick and they would go pick something you like and I would go how do I know what I like so I really like to plan things out I like certainty but at this level you you realize that you're never going to know what happens until you try it so it goes what I see what you see what works for for me what works for us and then hey look those people have a different thing that works for them that's level five when you can say okay I'm like this cuz I'm from here and you're like that cuz you're from there and then at level six it's like well where I'm from is really just myself everybody is just from their self and so how can one self have an idea that's better than any other self whereas at an earlier level you might be able to say something like well my dad was an accountant and so I'm an accountant that's just what we do and you don't have have to deal with any of this uncertainty so higher is more complex but complex is not always good the way I explain it is that you can have a really good shoe or a really bad car and I think what I have is a sinking cruise ship so if hire is not always better then why should we grow well because higher is usually better if everyone was at these lower levels we would not be able to have grocery stores and electricity we have a complex world and it requires complex thinking and some problems cannot be solved at the level they came from everybody watching this is going to have a different fingerprint of development that means that your different lines or capacities or the ways that you use your intelligence are all going to be developed to different levels it's possible to be very lopsided for example you could have your cognitive line all the way up at 9 but your moral line all the way down at 3 you could also be higher up than another person overall but they're still way better than you at a particular thing for example this could be somebody who really understands history and politics to a high degree but has low empathy and this would be someone who kind of gets it but is great with people so as I go through them one by one try to remember where you went through them and what that felt like and where you think you are now okay level one I call this survive because it's just basic moment to moment what do I need do I need food do I need sleep it's just my own feelings and there's no such thing as someone else's mind if we were living in this level we would be in small survival bands and we would not be thinking much about each other's thoughts we would be doing what we must in order to survive level two I called connect because now you can think about what is in someone else's mind what does this person want or need primitive people at this level will sometimes do rain dances or throw virgins in a volcano I'm not sure if that's real but it's the kind of thing you'd expect to see because at level two you're realizing okay I have a mind and I need things and other people have minds and they need things so maybe it's not raining because we haven't pleased someone in the sky maybe the volcano is angry because it wants something and what do I want virgins so level two is all about what I do affects what other people think about me and what they do for me basically like this if we were living at level two we would be in small tribal groups and we would be focused on Safety and Security and maintaining functional habits and dependable practices just dayto Day level three I called control this level is still very popular in modern society so at level one I have a mind with feelings and needs and at level two I know that other people have Minds with feelings and needs and sometimes maybe I think a volcano does too and at level three now I know that other people are aware that other people are aware that they have feelings and needs so I know that these people have a relationship to each other the same way that I have a relationship to this and to this and to this and to this now I know he has a relationship to her so instead of just direct connections this creates social situations here is a woman seeing man bad on her phone and then she sees the man in her life and goes oh wait a minute if man bad then maybe that man bad and then at level three you would step back and say well what do I do about this situation why is why is he being bad and what can I do about this relationship if we were living at this level we would be living in something like the Roman Empire Mythic feudal and exploitative Empire you see this level a lot in things like the Mafia and in sports teams firemen police military so even though these levels two and three involve thinking about thinking it's mostly just for the purpose of getting what you want and having power over others level four I called belong because the primary drive is to fit in and that drive is motivated by what they call second person perspective so again at level one you have your own feelings urges and needs at level two you see those of others and you can react to them but it's still all about what those feelings mean to you and at level three you understand that you're in a complex Social Web of relationships and you can react to those relationships and exert control over your situation and at level four that's when you realize everyone is in their own situation that's where we get the classic folk wisdom of don't judge somebody until you've walked a mile in his shoes you are in this situation over here but imagine if you were him in this situation over here maybe would have done what he did too that doesn't come online until you get the second person perspective at level four when level four was brand new it was basically medieval Empires it says Mythic Empires here nation states basically large groups of people that lived by a set of rules that they shared as opposed to the do what you want mentality of level three level four focuses on good versus evil the entry to that level is called the Diplomat because of the way that they focus on acceptable behavior and social Norms that's their way of getting over the problems from the previous stage you can tell when second person perspective is coming online in children cuz they start looking in the mirror more they start to realize oh I have other people looking at me the way that I look at other people and I have feelings about them they're looking at me and having feelings about me so I better be up to their expectations level four is the beginning of what we traditionally refer to as morality here again is the woman seeing man bad on her phone and then she feels like well maybe this man is bad because my phone said so she's projecting that onto him having a a negative experience and then deciding what to do about it I'm going to break up with this guy he must be bad because I felt like it was true when I saw it on my phone and then out here she takes a step back and looks at herself as if she is a second person which is why they call it second person perspective and thinks is that the right thing to do this is the first point where it becomes obvious that Consciousness is important because a lot of people see things on their phones or on TV and it gives them a feeling and then they see that feeling coming from others and then they do something about that relationship so they might begin treating somebody poorly because they saw something on their phone that made them feel like well if that's happening here it must be happening here too and it's not until you slow down enough to get to level four that you can take a step back and ask yourself is this a valuable process the way that level four typically functions is through Conformity and agreement I believe this is the wrong way to behave I believe this is the wrong way to behave agreeing on what's right and wrong and creating a set of rules and following them can solve some of these earlier problems but also there are an infinite number of ways to decide what is right and wrong you can have this set of rules over here or this set of rules over here and that's where level five comes in level five introduces objective observation as a value basically okay you guys think a BC is right and you guys think XYZ is right well let's figure out which one is better and in order to do that you have to take another step back into a third person perspective so again the first three levels are all about me and then level four is if I was another person in my culture how would I view my behavior and then level five is another step back if I was an alien or a stranger how would I view my culture this also enables you to view other cultures and sets of social norms that's why it's Global it's the first time that you can go oh I get why they're like that because they're from somewhere else level five has only really been around for a few hundred years and it is basically where we get science and the assembly line and other forms of modern conveniences level six is where things get really fun you might remember how it went for me level five is into objective observation but level six recognizes the role of the perceiver a different perceiver is going to equal a different perception that brings in the fourth person perspective so down at one you have me and my needs the way I relate to others and the way I get my way in my social situation and then you take a step back what does my behavior look to others around me and what rules do we make about that and then another step back what would our set of rules look like to a different group of people and then level six you step back again and well the way that you are looking is going to determine what it looks like so when when you look here you'll see one thing and when you look here you'll see another thing and when you look here you'll see a third thing because of who you are and where you came from so there isn't really any way to objectively observe not being able to objectively observe can feel weird level six is very new there were a few philosophers talking at that level in the 1800s but it didn't really show up in mainstream Society until 1960s America so because the way that you're looking determines what you're going to see that means there are multiple perspectives that that are valid because we all have a unique personal subjective reality that's not observable to others basically how do I know that the red that I see is the same as the red that you see maybe my red is your green from the fourth person perspective there's no way to know level six is a really good example of why higher development is not always necessarily better it is a very high degree of moral development recognizing the validity of everyone's perspective but let's say for example that there's a problem going on down here let's say that this guy did something that is considered morally wrong in this culture but wait a minute he says that's how we do it where I'm from so when level six goes crazy they start saying things like we can't make this guy follow these rules just because he's here he has these rules where he's from and and who are you to judge which set of rules is better we should recognize everybody's unique perspective and that can and often does give people the idea I guess I can just do whatever I want because who are you to judge that's why we have problems like this and yeah some of these people are unfortunate and that's sad but some of them are just doing whatever they want and we now have laws that don't distinguish between them because who are you to judge so at this point there is this white break in the chart and that's because we are moving up to second tier Consciousness and what that means is that level seven is the first level that and understand and include all the previous ones at level six they still insist that they're correct and no one else is for example at level four you might have a Christian church and a Muslim Mosque next door arguing over who has the true Faith but at level six we can all get along we just need more understanding when that's not what either of those groups wants so even if level six says that they're about equality they're saying we all need to be equal even if we don't want to and it's not until Level seven that we understand how to actually give each previous level what it wants to have so that they can live in harmony at level 7 this fourth person perspective gets expanded through time which creates awareness of the self as a history of your own experience at level six everyone has their own View and so who's to say who's right and who's wrong but at level seven you take yet another step back and you realize that that unique view didn't come from nowhere it developed over time and everybody else is developing over time so at level six because we are all the same everybody belongs wherever but at level seven since we know we all change over time people belong where they fit the best so for example does this Behavior fit here if not then it has to go where it belongs and if it does then we can all learn something new from it that's why I called it harmonize because it's no longer about radical in inclusiveness it's about recognizing interrelated systems and how they are either synergistic or clashing radical relativism and radical inclusiveness they sound nice but they do create a lot of clashing people who are at level s tend to naturally recognize development without studying this chart or any of the stuff it came from and it's pretty fun to see I asked one of my life coaching clients a question and he said well a little while ago I would have answered it like this and before then I would have answered it like that and maybe a few years ago I would have answered it like this but now and so he told me all about his development through the levels as his answer to the question as far as I know there is not yet any large collection of people at level s you can find a lot of these people in San Francisco and you can find a lot of these people in New York and you can find a lot of these people in Alabama and so on so let me know if you think that you're up at this level I'm trying to build a Time Army so we can all get together and work on all this from up here and I'm not really sure if these numbers are accurate I get more confident the lower it goes but I know I enjoy meeting them because their ability to naturally balance and synergize things and put everything where it belongs means that uh they're going to be instrumental in solving a lot of the problems caused by the previous levels the levels get more difficult to explain the higher they go you may have noticed there's a lot of words here and level eight is pretty rare I don't meet a lot of people who are stably at it and even when I do don't think they spend a lot of their time there so level eight appears when you take another step back from this and we are now witnessing ourselves change over time in the moment as you behave as you think and feel new parts of you emerge from The Ether that's what it means to be construct aware it means that you're watching your own mind construct itself as you go so at level eight you can see all these different parts of yourself kind of coming out to play for for example you could look at an image of a dut or a dut sitting on a plate and you can go hm I'm feeling many things right now I'm feeling hunger for the doughnut cuz it's good but I'm also feeling a sense of guilt from one time that I ate a whole box of donuts that were not meant for me and then somebody gave me social punishment and shame for that and I also got a stomach ache cuz I ate too many I'm recalling that memory as I look at this and it's influencing what I want to do so now that I'm aware of all that going on in me do I want to listen to it or not do I want to be the kind of person who just has a donut anyway cuz I'm an adult and I can do what I want and it might sound silly when you're talking about Donuts but imagine that this is something like global politics or even an interpersonal relationship like yeah I saw this on my phone and it gave me a feeling and I'm aware of where that feeling is in myself and I'm aware that I'm projecting it onto this person and I'm aware of my impulse for what I should do about it and I'm aware of what my culture says I should to do about it and then all of that is wrapped up in objective observation and the story of who I am and how I got here over time and how I'm viewing the event because of my personal history do you see how that gives you a lot more power to change your behavior in situations like this imagine if more people could see something and then see their own reaction to it instead of just reacting and then know where that reaction comes from in terms of their history and their culture think how much more power that would give us not to just react in the moment that's why you should be thinking about thinking anyway level 9 is very hard to describe I do think that I spend some time up at this level and the way that it feels to me is like all I'm doing ever is watching and wishing and that's all I've ever been doing at these first three levels you are the main character and at level four you understand everyone is their own main character and then you understand that everyone's watching a different show because everyone is a different show and that show is constantly evolving and changing over time and at level eight you're just watching the show happen you're not even identified with being the show anymore you're just watching yourself be so when my mind is up here it's like okay I'm I'm seeing myself seeing my history and where I came from and what I'm like and what I do which is made of all this stuff all the memories and habits from the lower levels I'm I'm watching myself observing my emergence over time interacting with the present moment I know where I'm from and what that has made me like and I know what's happening now and I'm watching them come together and I'm I'm looking at myself looking at that and so what how you do the looking is what's important at this level it's like what are you looking at I I think you need to be looking at at this part right now I think you need to be looking at this function in your life maybe you're you're looking from here when you should be looking from here so it's like what I'm watching is watching itself and again here you would be watching your personal needs and here you would be watching the reactions of others and here you would be watching your situation that you're in and here you would be watching what others expect from you and here you would be watching observable reality and here you'd be watching where you're from to know how you interpret things and here you'd be watching what are all your habits and pieces of you put together and how are they interpreting your reality and here you'd be watching those habits and pieces coming together in the moment and sometimes being surprised by what they do and then here I feel a responsibility for knowing where to watch those things if that makes any sense sense so yeah that's this chart and how it works the levels part of it anyway the rest of it I'll get into another time and if you want to move up the levels the best way to do that is just sit with your thoughts and think about them and figure out where they come from here's another example of what that looks like so sometimes I worry that my little scribbly drawings are kind of embarrassing to show to 200,000 people so why am I feeling the embarrassment well I guess I'm worried that it's going to have some kind of a negative impact on me what kind of negative impact would it have well I guess maybe people would not like my Channel or might say some bad things about me because I don't have more sophisticated graphic processes well why would it be so bad if that happened well then I might lose out on opportunities that I could otherwise have if I had better looking Graphics well how do you know you would lose out on those opportunities hm that's a good question because so far I've been doing pretty good with my scribbly whatever this is so then if you don't have any evidence that you're going to lose out on opportunities because you're doing this then what's wrong with it okay I guess problem solved I can do this for now and that's why I called this level complete all right I hope you enjoyed this presentation on levels I will do another one that's going to be really excruciatingly long at some point but I'll make it fun and um uh video's done you can close you can go away if you want I'm just going to ramble for a minute I'm going to do a longer thing on levels somewhere down the road very soon I'm going to do self maximize it's going to be about how to make yourself the best possible partner so people like you and then want to keep you I'm going to be talking about itemized delusion I'm going to break people up into groups and talk about the general delusions that they have um about themselves and the dating Market I'm going to talk about the not people Zone oh I'm going to be um arguing with mac and Murphy soon