Serializations

Editor’s Note: The following is the third in a series of excerpts from The God Seed by M. Catherine Thomas. To see the previous installment, click here. 

Spiritual development is…
an adventure through strange lands full of surprises,
joy and beauty, difficulties, and even dangers.
It involves the awakening of potentialities hitherto dormant,
the raising of consciousness to new realms,
a drastic transmutation of the “normal” elements of the personality,
and a functioning along a new inner dimension.

(Robert Assagioli)

 That which is of God is light;
and he that receiveth light,
and continueth in God,
receiveth more light;
and that light groweth brighter and brighter

until the perfect day.

(D&C 50:24)

In this life, we unfold from birth to adulthood in predictable, recognizable stages. We grew by stages in the world before and will, in the post-mortal world, continue growing in divinity. The plan is that we develop until we come “unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13).

Of special interest in recent years have been studies in the higher stages of the development that can emerge in adulthood. Whereas it was thought not so long ago that adults don’t undergo much psychological growth once they reach physical maturity, studies in developmental psychology show that they can undergo growth that has significant spiritual implications. These studies provide us with a broad overview of our own developmental possibilities, giving us a reference point for where we’ve been, where we are, and where we can go spiritually. The studies give us hope that, in this very life, we could actually “mature” out of some of the afflictions particular to the stage we may currently find ourself in and enjoy more of the benefits of the higher stages. 

More specifically, the progression of stages outlines development from the egocentricity of the child (everything is about “I,” “me,” and “mine”), continues through the ethnocentricity (“our group is better than theirs”), to what might be called a global-centric, even cosmic-centric, stage, which is characterized by high levels of compassion and spiritual sensitivity for all living beings. 

We will also see that the lower stages of development are heavily influenced, even run by, the programs of the ego, which create anxiety and suffering. We will observe that each ascending stage of development can allow us to experience life more abundantly, freer of the afflictions of the spiritual immaturity of the ego, increasingly able to see ourselves and others more clearly, to feel more deeply, and to become more aware of joy in life. Not surprisingly, there is a high correlation between happiness and higher spiritual development. And it helps to see, lest we become impatient, that we are at every stage always beings in process.

With practice, traveling the developmental path results in our becoming like the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, having developed His attributes and powers. If we can discern the path and gain some sense of how to proceed, ultimately we will be filled with the joy that accompanies eternal life, because “when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” and “be purified even as he is pure” (Moroni 7:48). 

That is to say, the progression of stages illuminates, among other things, a purification process, whereby the lens through which we view the world is gradually cleansed of ego-perceptions. The mind, in the process of developing sanctification, moves increasingly toward singleness to God and a comprehension of all things (as in D&C 88:67–68). We find great benefit in pursuing practices that purify the body, mind, and spirit to that point of singleness. 

This description of higher development might sound a little dry and juiceless, but it turns out to be quite the contrary, as in Mosiah 4:20,“He has poured out his Spirit upon you, and has caused that your hearts should be filled with joy… that ye could not find utterance, so exceedingly great was your joy”; or the descriptions of the people in 4 Nephi:16: “Surely there could not be a happier people among all the people who had been created by the hand of God”; or Helaman 3:35: the people had fasted and prayed oft, were stronger in their humility, and firmer in the faith of Christ, “Unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation, yea, even to the purifying and the sanctification of their hearts.” 

We are not alone in this undertaking to spiritual maturity. The Lord Jesus Christ accompanies us as the origin and fountain of our life and director of our unfolding. He is the light of our minds and our eyes, of all our senses. He is the source of the energy that gradually unfolds the divine seeds, working through the spirit, brain, and nervous system; He is the power behind physical, mental, and spiritual development. That is, we are able to see, hear, feel, think, be conscious, and grow because of His continually flowing power in all Creation and in us (as in Mosiah 2:21). A friend wrote to me the other day: “[Grace] is given with a generosity that would explode our hearts into every corner of the universe if we were to fully realize it all at once.”

Godly attributes are already embedded within each of us because of our birthright as Christ-permeated beings in a Christ-permeated world (see D&C 88:47). All this infinite potential, in its many varied aspects, is present with each of us in every moment, waiting only to be recognized, awakened, and developed in its time, while the Master Gardener quietly goes about His pruning, digging, and nourishing in each of our souls (see Jacob 5:27). 

The Lord, then, is the Source of the god-making, exalting power, the force by which we are born into this world and grow toward our destiny through this life—and beyond. We seek to be infused increasingly with this god-making power. 

Many generations of spiritual seekers have perceived this power that moves in Man, urging him toward a divine end. Many from diverse traditions could be cited. A Catholic Father observes that the developmental power works not only spiritually but also neurologically: “This energy gradually unfolds, if it is not interfered with, from conception to full bodily maturity, and at the same time, it serves through the brain and nervous system as the basis of mental and spiritual development.”  

A Brief Overview of Development

To focus now more closely on a spiritual overview of our development. 

As infants, we begin earth life in the vast ocean of infinite physical and spiritual Reality, but not yet able to make sense of it or differentiate what is within it—in human terms.  The child grows in discerning and identifying the elements of reality itself, which lie about him in splendor. 

The poet Wordsworth recalls his early days of infancy and the eventual fading of the heavenly light from his awareness:

There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,
The earth, and every common sight,
To me did seem
Appareled in celestial light,
The glory and the freshness of a dream.
It is not now as it hath been of yore;—
Turn wheresoe’er I may,
By night or day,
The things which I have seen I now can see no more.

As we grow we gain the mental tools for operating in this material world. But at the same time, Wordsworth’s experience is that we lose our felt connection with the spiritual world. What we no longer see is that we are like the proverbial fish in water who do not fully perceive the medium they swim in. 

Ken Wilber observes: “We lie in the lap of immense intelligence, which makes us receivers of its truth and organs of its activity.” We are drenched in and “afloat in a current of care and profound value, ultimate significance, intrinsic awareness. We are part and parcel of this immense intelligence, this Spirit-in-action, this God-in-the-making.” 

Though we are likely unaware of this infusing of power in our beings, nevertheless it has created and enlivened our very being. For example, the sperm and the egg unite, the zygote’s cells divide, the fetus’s heart beats, the rhythm of labor establishes itself, the milk flows. Later, the eyes focus, the baby turns over, sits up, crawls, walks, and talks. These developments do not go forth by the will of Man (or of even the most eager parent) but rather reflect the conscious action, power, and purposes of God in man’s development. 

In the same manner, farther along the developmental path, our spiritual rebirth comes to us not by our own power, but by our desires and intentions through the power of God (see John 1:12–13). This is the power of which we are mostly unconscious and, as Father Keating observes, a power “which most of us are more or less out of touch with when we first set forth on the spiritual journey.”  However, as we move from stage to stage, more of these unseen spiritual realities become apparent to us. And then as our consciousness approaches God’s, we begin to sense how we are instruments of God’s life acting within us and even “living” us, as an eternal Presence in our being.

As with the body, human awareness and perception develop in increasing acuity and complexity. We contrast the baby’s consciousness, his initial level of awareness of “things as they really are” (Jacob 4:13), with that of the college student, whose consciousness is obviously more complex. Then we compare the consciousness of the student with God’s consciousness—a comparison we can only vaguely imagine. Thus, each person’s consciousness begins at a rudimentary level in this life and grows in complexity along a divine spectrum to higher and higher levels of awareness and understanding, until ultimately he has become as God, whose consciousness comprehends and embraces infinity. In fact, under the influence of God, humans can see as God sees in His perfect degree of awareness: 

Moses cast his eyes and beheld the earth, yea, even all of it: and there was not a particle of it which he did not behold discerning it by the Spirit of God. And he beheld also the inhabitants thereof, and there was not a soul which he beheld not; and he discerned them by the Spirit of God. (Moses 1:27–28) 

Thus, 

That which is of God is light; and he that receiveth light, and continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day. (D&C 50:24) 

One goal, in making our way toward Godhood, then, is to become as conscious as God Himself, able to perceive in all moments the whole of Things-As-They-Really-Are, rather than the relatively small portion of that which we perceive now. Along this path our mindful attention produces a wider experience in life, keeping us more consistently in the present moment. It becomes apparent to us that growing in consciousness of the minutia of Reality and of the Divine Medium in which we flourish, underlies the path to godhood.

Let us turn now to some preliminary remarks on the stages of development themselves, in which we will engage the work of some developmental psychologists, although our interest here is not in the technical aspects of this complex field of study, but rather in what we can learn about the path of our own spiritual development.

In the earlier history of psychology, as mentioned before, studies saw human psychological development as commencing with infancy and continuing to later adolescence, concluding that when the body was mature, the mind did not continue to evolve much. This was understood to mean that the brains of adults were not able to develop past the level they reached as young adults; and as corollary, if one had had damaging experiences as a child, he was hardwired by them and would not fully recover from them. 

But then there was a significant breakthrough. One of the most prominent developmental psychologists of our day, Robert Kegan, reports, “When we began our work, the accepted picture of mental development was akin to the picture of physical development—your growth was thought fundamentally to end by your twenties.” 

But after a generation of research, a revolution in understanding the growth potential of adults overtook the world of developmental psychology. Kegan describes a little of it:

When we began reporting the results of our research in the 1980s, suggesting that some (though not all) adults seemed to undergo qualitative advances in their mental complexity akin to earlier, well-documented quantum leaps from early childhood to later childhood and from later childhood to adolescence, our brain-researcher colleagues sitting next to us on distinguished panels would smile with polite disdain…. [But] today they talk about neural plasticity and the phenomenal capacities of the brain to keep adapting throughout life.

He concludes: “Even ‘grown-ups’ can continue to evolve more complex mental systems, analogous to the transformations from childhood to adolescence, enabling a more penetrating, more responsible, less egocentric grasp of reality.” Kegan, among several other modern psychologists, reports that continual development to higher stages of human capacity is especially likely when supported by appropriate life practices. 

Even though, as Allen Bergin says, “The vast majority of human beings suffer from some degree of social and emotional difficulty, including emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect and deprivation, distorted parenting, divorce, fetal syndromes, and physical disease that affect the brain,” all is far from lost for those of us who have experienced these challenges. 

For example, another prominent researcher, Daniel Siegel, speaking of the emotional deprivations that many people experience in their childhood, updates the idea that we might be scarred forever by these damages, and reports, referring to new studies in neuroplasticity, “The good news is that whatever our early history, it is never too late to stimulate the growth of the neural fibers that enable mindsight[the skill of rewiring the human mind toward greater health and wellbeing] to flourish.” We should not underestimate the powerful forces of healing both within and without the human being. 

But even though capable of greater development, studies show that most adults do not develop much in terms of moving to higher developmental stages in their adult lives. In fact, many people in our society tend to be generally unaware that, for example, significant spiritual development can continue through adulthood. 

Lest the Reader despair in this discussion over his own intellectual capacity, these higher stages are not about how big a person’s IQ is, or “finally being able to understand a physicist’s blackboard filled with complex equations” rather, in each advancing stage a person becomes able to deal with life and to operate in the world in profoundly different ways from the earlier stages—“enabling a more penetrating, more responsible, less egocentric grasp of reality,” a more fulfilling life experience. As life becomes more and more fulfilling, it also becomes less and less “all about me.” 

Like all of Creation, we are in constant motion. As a result, developing from one level to another necessarily includes mini-deaths and births, the dying of old perceptions and beliefs as we move toward an increase in the Lord’s image (see Alma 5:7-14). These transitions can be quite disorienting, but as one continues to live a godly life the best he can, the confusions resolve. All of this we have already found in our own growth experience. 

What we see in the human developmental stages is the tendency of a normal human being to develop divine attributes.  Every aspect of the developing human being is sacred.  We see that each of us, flowed forward by the empowering love of Christ, can unfold like a flower; each of us can grow in complexity of capability, with the possibility of a purer and purer love, with its accompanying clarity and joy. That work is ongoing, initiated from a dimension beyond this one, but facilitated by our desires, intentions, and practice.  

In what follows, a hierarchy of stages is presented, from lower stages of development to higher. And even though we speak of lower andhigher, apparently most of us pass to some degree through each of these developmental stages from birth to adulthood as the Divine plan works within us. Most do not jump stages, anymore than an acorn does, each stage laying the foundation for the next one up. This realization helps us to be patient with ourselves and with one another, recognizing that certain types of spiritual maturity are not even possible in the lower stages. 

The Lord loves His children at each stage, even as He works with us in each stage to keep us developing toward a fullness. And, as we said, it’s not that one stage is more important than another or that a person at a higher stage is more valuable than one at a lower, or is more acceptable to God; rather, the higher the stage, if it is balanced development, the greater one’s personal sense of fulfillment and the more enhanced one’s ability to contribute to others. 

In general, Man moves from one stage to another slowly: “line upon line, precept upon precept” (D&C 98:12). And much movement happens in each of us just in the process of living life. But these higher levels of development remain, at least with respect to this life, more in the potential rather than the kinetic realm, unless the adult supplies the faith, the will, and the practice to encourage these higher levels to unfold.

Spiritual development is, in the adult years, a team effort: Man provides the appropriate practice, and God provides the power by which development goes forward. It is something like this: “For we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do” (2 Nephi 25:23). We can’t do it without Him, nor can He do it all for us without our desire, intention, and practice.