Question:
In your perspective, dear Fernando, what do you think is necessary to transcend stage 2 of the levels of positive disintegration suggested by Polish psychiatrist Kazimierz Dabrowski? Because there are many of us who simply give up and choose to return to level 1.
Response ENArmonya:
Thank you for the interesting question. In perfect synchronicity since I recently spoke about it in a talk. I will surely publish a video on the subject.
Reflecting and wondering is a step that almost no one takes, because as Dabrowski explained, the majority of people remain on Level 1 stage of development, where everything happens by convention and no one questions anything: people grow up like the rest, go to school or university, working from dawn to dusk, until exhaustion, exploited by others, with little time for themselves, etc. There may even be some coherence, within social functioning, and an absence of psychological problems. But this does not imply there is Personality development.
Now, as Dabrowski pointed out, when level 2 is reached, Positive Disintegration itself appears: one sees that something is not right in society and the interior begins to feel depressed, stressed, disoriented, even suffering ailments (skin rashes, allergies...). But one does not know how to change it. That is why most people cannot stand it and prefer to sink back into conventions, especially with medication or any accepted social pattern: mechanical work, family chores, etc.
Others remain at level 2, but with suicidal and psychotic tendencies, and even silence their voices with drugs, alcohol and other addictions.
Leaving level 2 towards level 3 requires seeing what the real alternative is, what higher values the personality should manifest. However, at level 3 contradictory behaviors begin to be perceived. Just as the apostle Paul said: “For the good I do not do, but the evil I do not want, that I do (Romans 7:19).”
This is what Gurdjieff called the stage of self-observation, which leads to friction between the Real Self of the inborn Essence, and the chaotic behaviors of false characters, pseudo-personalities.
Therefore, he did not speak only of Personality, which is the funcitioning acquired by imitation learning in the world; his vision emphasizes the need to develop an Essence, which is inborn and inwardly inherited, but includes both Consciousness, Conscience and Will, as aspects of developing spiritual individuality, the fruit of understanding. This development begins on the vital and emotional level, moving to a more mental level, which is integrated in a deeper Logos/Mind.
Unlike many Eastern philosophies, the Essence in this Teaching is not necessarily void of personal content, it is not merely the Buddhist Shunyata nor the Hindu Atman, but can also include soul history, as well as astral elements of the sun and the planets, configured according to the degree of Conscious Being in each one.
Balancing Essence and Personality is a very long and painful process that requires adequate Teaching and guidance, from a collective Work. It is not something that one can achieve alone. No one can develop the Master at home, one hand washes the other, said the Armenian. One can only see oneself in connection with others.
Hence Master Yeshu said: one new admonition I give you: love one another as I loved you (John 13:34-35)
The Master loves humanity in the context of Working in the Family Tree of Life, not by praising a Lord with empty words or a Void/Disolutiuon. Transformative facts, not superficial acts or nihilistic mindsets, is what we are required, to be the Light of the Kosmos, manifesting the Essential Personality of the Father/Primordial Origin.
As for Dabrowski's vision, the most similar to the essence is what he called talents, which, when not developed, generate Hyperexcitabilities or Hypersensitivities (roughly translated from Polish).
It is precisely these talents or abilities what allow us to overcome Level 3 of indecision and confusion.
Dabrowski noticed that people with a great capacity for evolution have these hypersensitive traits, either motor, sensory, imaginative, intellectual or emotional.
Nope, when these are not regulated, there can be a display of disorders mistaken for severe autism, chronic allergies and other supposedly incurable ailments.
Yet Dabrowski, rather than seeing them as a disease, saw them as an indication of a higher evolutionary potential to develop a personality which can transform a sick society. He stated most institutions, including medical and political institutions, are ran by psychopaths.
On Level 4 of Positive Desintegration, the person already begins to manifest a personality with some higher values, being able to overcome addictive and regressive behaviors. However, there is still a risk of falling back into the old.
Likewise, Gurdjieff pointed out how the Human Type number 4 must avoid succumbing social hypnotism, by developing hidden capacities, in communion with other genuine seekers. This implies becoming a sly researcher and seeker, reconciling mind, heart and body.
It is often said in Fourth Way advanced teachings that when a person senses a certain nervous energy in the body, suffering from it, this means one is close to a greater stage of evolution.
Only when one begins to transform one´s own energy, overcom¡ng neurotic tendencies, physical, emotional and mental mechanicity, does one begin to develop the best version of oneself, and thus reach phase 4 of Positive Desintegration, which can be equated to Stage 4 in the Enneagram of Development, as explained by P.D.Ouspensky in Search for the Miraculous, which gathers Gurdjieff´s views.
And if for some reason the essence/personality stops in their evolution and the person dies early, at that stage, the essence can project a very similar personality to the earth, picking up the Work where it left off. But not endlessly. The number of possibilities is limited.
Dabrowski´s view is more simple, yet it also points there can still be regressions to phase 3, despite being able to overcome certain fears and depressions through a behavior more focused on higher values. There can even be a sharp fall to phase 2 or phase 1, which usually does not bring good consequences. A person can die after abandoning intense inner Work or falling asleep too much after having begun to awaken. That is why it was said:
he who has put his hand to the plow and looks back is not worthy of the Kingdom of Heaven (Luke 9:62)
Only upon reaching Level 5 does the Disintegration of false selves disappear and the Authentic, Coherent, Secure, Full, Self-Aware Personality remains; or as Gurdjieff would say, the unified Self emerges, reconciling Essence and Personality, allowing a further higher development.
It is surprising to see how these ideas fit with those of the Tree of life as well as the Fourth Way, explained by Gurdjieff, and Ouspensky after him.
Actually Dabrowski studied Ouspensky, and he was surely inspired even by the stages of the Enneagram, since point 5 is where the Unified Personality Self is reached. Just as in the Sefirotic Tree the fifth spehere, counting from Malkut, is Tifereth, the Beauty of Armonía in Self-Recognition as part of a Divine Family.
That is where the solar/mental development of the Astral Body to deepen the growth of the Soul.
Needless to say, even Dabrowski accepted the Astral Body as possibility.
I'll leave it there.
These views explained so many phenomena in my own life that I´m grateful for finding these two approaches, specially Fourth Way Teachings, since an early age. After 30 years in the Work I´ve noticed many facts, which to me are undeniable and have kept me sane and alive in this madhouse called human society and tortured planet earth.
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[1] Summary On Positive Desintegration:
https://tragicgift.com/dabrowski-five-levels/
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