Pre/trans

I am listening to Ken Wilber's Kosmic Consciousness (10 CD series), and it is a good review of many of the insights/maps I have been working with/explored since my late teens.

One of the basic ones is of course the pre-rational, rational and post/trans-rational levels of development and views... (the confusion of which Wilber calls the pre/trans fallacy).

Development

Prerational level: Infants are possibly in a state of undifferentiated one-ness, but there is not much awareness there and little or no differentiation. Children and animals may live in the now, and children may not differentiate much, but it is because they are not capable of anything else... There is at best a low level awareness of oneness.

Rational level: As humans grow up, there is some more awareness and we learn to differentiate. We become good at seeing the parts but are less able to see the whole (and even less able to experience the seamless whole). We see the ends of the polarities rather than the polarities themselves, and have are often caught up in attractions to one pole and aversion to the other. It is a fundamentally fragmented worldview/experience. There is a half-awake awareness of differentiation and parts.

Transrational level: There are different transrational levels, with differing degrees of transdualness. Some humans reach a fully transdual view, where there is a more fully awakened awareness, and embrace of both the seamless whole and the parts (oneness and differentiation). We see, and directly experience, the polarities as well as both ends of each polarity. The rational level is baked into this, but not taken as being even close to the full picture. We experience the whole and the parts.


Views

Topic: Crop Circles, UFOs, astrology, anything paranormal

Pre rational view: Unquestioned belief in one answer that is not fully supported by data/research. This can be blind faith or blind rejection of certain theories/ideas about what is behind a certain phenomenon. For instance, those seeing crop circles as messages from extraterrestials or nature spirits, and those seeing them as obviously hoaxes, both fall into this category as the data is inconclusive and the research limited.

Rational view: Scientific and open-minded research and exploration of the phenomena.

Transrational view: Exploration of these phenomena as symbolic, reflecting something in the human psyche. Leaving open the question of the physical explanations, and recognizing them as irrelevant for/independent of their inner meaning for humans.