On the last page we discussed Levels or Stages of development. Well, it’s important to realise that these stages don’t just hang out there in the ether as detached platforms, they are achieved as part of the development of various, specific capacities, known as Lines, also known as Developmental Lines.
A Psychograph shows a person’s various capacities and life skills.
A level of development is always a level in a specific line.
Lines that are known today include such things as Needs, Morals, Worldviews, Values, Cognition, Self-Identity, Emotional Intelligence, Interpersonal Skills, and even capacitites in the aesthetic, kinesthetic or musical realms.
The nature of these potentials is that we may be better at some things than at others. Knowing what our strengths and weaknesses our is a useful piece of information. When we chart the development of each of our capacities in various developmental lines, this is known as a ‘Psychograph’, see the diagram to the right.
Constant Awareness of Your Own Psychograph
Self-knowledge. Awareness of one’s own Psychograph can be very useful.
You can be much more effective in the things that you do by becoming aware of your own psychograph – not necessarily that you need to master everything, every line of development, but simply that the awareness of your own psychograph, what you are better at, or less so, will help you to make more informed decisions.
And this awareness can be a constant checking for information, as your depths and capacities develop an change.
“Being aware of your own psychograph – cultivating a more integrally informed self-image and self-understanding – gives you more freedom (and wisdom) to choose the best way to work with your own strengths and weaknesses, as well as those of others. In fact, you can customize your Integral Life Practice on the basis of your Integral Psychograph…
“By giving special attention to the one or two lines where you most excel and expanding your greatest potentials, you can more fully offer the world your deepest gifts. Directing practice energy to your weakest lines may overcome potentially debilitating problems that would otherwise hold you back from fulfilling your highest intentions.” – Integral Life Practice
Lines Also Occur in All 4 Quadrants
Again, like Levels, Lines occur in all 4 quadrants.
Whilst we could draw a diagram of various lines of development in each of the four squares, it is better designed to show developmental lines in all four quadrants as coming out from the centre, as follows, using concentric circles to also demonstrate depth – Levels.
Developmental Lines across the 4 quadrants. The arrows show Developmental Lines, and the circles represent Developmental Levels, or Stages.
The Mind Module in Relation to Spiritual Growth
A final word about the importance of the mind – and the Mind Module – to spiritual growth and transformation.
Although the mind is often seen in some quarters as a block to spiritual activity, developmental lines show us that the cognitive line is actually that which provides the basis for any other development. Why is this? Because you can’t develop a worldview (worldviews line), make moral decisions based upon (line of moral development), or care about (line of care) that which you are not aware of – that which you cannot cognize.