Mapping the Progression of Human Mindsets: A Framework for Understanding Personal Development

In this thought-provoking discussion, Malcolm Collins presents a new framework for understanding the evolution of human mindsets and personal development. Inspired by the shortcomings of existing models like Spiral Dynamics, Malcolm's tree-like structure outlines various branches of mental states, ranging from animalism and perceptualism to utilitarianism, mysticism, and pragmatism. He explains how individuals can progress through these stages, sometimes regressing or becoming stuck in suboptimal states. Malcolm and Simone explore the implications of this framework, discussing how it can help people identify their current mindset, understand the potential pitfalls of each branch, and navigate towards more intellectually sophisticated and mentally healthy states. They also delve into the practical applications of this model and debate its utility for personal growth and cross-cultural understanding.

[00:00:00]

Malcolm Collins: Hello simone Today, we are going to do one of those episodes that excites me so much. I have put so much effort into today's content, and I know it will do horrible in the algorithm, but it's a development of my view of the world further, where I feel that because of this revelation I've had, where I'm like, oh, now I understand things better when I have systematized them in this way.

So it's a

Simone Collins: paradigm shift. Yeah,

Malcolm Collins: my paradigm shift for me. Yeah.

Simone Collins: Yeah. Okay.

Malcolm Collins: And it actually came from reading about a theory that I find very distasteful, which is spiral dynamic. So I ended up, because it was a paradigm shift, I wanted to write it down. So I'll read what I've written down and we can talk about it.

Okay. Like I used to do with the tracks. Sounds good. Yeah.

Would you like to know more?

Malcolm Collins: The idea of spiral dynamics has come up a few times when talking to fans, and since then, I have noticed some related channels like [00:01:00] HoMath, WhatIfAltHist, and Brittany Simon delineating level systems for how people evolve in their thinking. Anyone who knows us knows how viscerally negatively we would react to such a system at first glance, given that humans seem to have a natural inclination to categorize themselves and others based on simplistic criteria.

If you don't understand why this would create a negative reaction, just watch any video on Spiral Dynamics and watch the person explaining the concept, happily classifying leaders of the political opposition to their beliefs among the examples of the lower order mindsets. All Spiral Dynamics really gets right is a broad ordering of the very lowest levels of personal development and then transitions into a moral and religious system at most of the two tier systems and beyond.

Though, I suppose it is only axiomatic that an individual cannot accurately predict mindsets that are above their own. Thus, if they are at a relatively low level of personal development, will just project a mystical pseudo [00:02:00] religious worldview as being the higher order mindset. However, despite dismissing these systems early on, I began to think more about the ways humans relate to each other.

relate to reality, a life well lived, and a self conception about how those systems build upon others, and it helped me realize that there is a real way to build out such a map. However, the two keys to doing this that others have missed, is that this is not a line, but a branching tree of life philosophies that sometimes, in fact, frequently, has a mindset that is strictly worse than its progenitor.

By this, what I mean is the mindsets don't get better as they go further along the path.

Simone Collins: Would you describe mindsets in this model that you're going to go into deeper, of course, as straying from the path or straying from an ideal? Scenario when they get an

Malcolm Collins: example, which I have written in the next sentence, for [00:03:00] example, we would argue that a strict deontological religious world perspective, which is one of the earliest mindsets is also one of the most mentally healthy and intellectually sophisticated for this reason,

we draw our map of mindsets with a quote unquote waterline with the sophistication and mental health associated with a mindset being determined by where it is along the waterline. So if you think of this like a Line graph that then ends up branching. There is a waterline and some nodes of the line are below the waterline.

Some are above the waterline. Some are below the waterline. Okay. Now before I go further, have you heard of spiral dynamics? Do you know broadly what I'm talking about here? When I'm talking about these level systems for understanding how people think

Simone Collins: I've learned it about five times, and then each time I learn about it, I completely forget about it because that's what I do when I come across information, I disregard.

It is. It's not being useful, I don't maintain space for it. Can you? And that's the way I

Malcolm Collins: was. And that's what this [00:04:00] sort of caused this breakthrough for me is just having my face shoved in it again and again recently. And eventually my distaste for how stupid the predominant theories in this space are became shadowed by the, Oh, but you probably actually could build a system like this that works mindset.

Simone Collins: Interesting. Huh. Yeah.

Malcolm Collins: Okay. So that's where, cause I kept seeing things. It was like, no, if you really wanted to do it, you would actually probably order this and this. I should point out that with this system, single individuals don't necessarily need to pass from one node to another node within the system, but a society might.

So if you start at one node, you can often like within your larger society, you can often process further on your own. And that most societies, and I'll get to a point in the graph when I say, this is the node that is a starting node for most people born in a Western society right now.

Simone Collins: Can you start by giving the CliffsNotes version of spiral [00:05:00] dynamics as it is interpreted by the mainstream?

Malcolm Collins: With Spiral Dynamics really all it is very basic, human society progresses through these various mindsets, which they're right about for the first three mindsets, and then it turns into like mystical religious mumbo jumbo, basically.

Simone Collins: And it's it's this Spiral, but you're describing it as a sort of linear. So you ignore

Malcolm Collins: the word spiral. Just think of it as an upwards line. Okay. They have some things where they call it a spiral because they see certain themes repeat as societies develop. And they're like, Oh, and society oscillates between this mindset and this mindset as it moves to higher phases.

However, I think most of this is just an artifact of how the map was constructed. And I don't think that they're actually noticing something that's real in the ways humans develop because they are only through one spiral. Like IE one cycle when they get to the end of their accurate observations before they get into their like pseudo religious [00:06:00] observations.

Simone Collins: Okay. That's important because people who follow this podcast will know that you love what you call spiral energy. And now they're learning that you hate. What you call spiral dynamics. And it might be a little bit confusing.

Malcolm Collins: And we can do another future video going deep into why spiral dynamics are the bad t