rbateman:

Can anyone summarize how the terms Translation and Transformation are defined in AQAL please? I have my suspicions but I am not really sure.

Thanks.

Very briefly I would say that transformation is vertical development and translation is horizontal development. In other words transformation is moving up a level, and translation is becoming more full or healthy at you current level.

I'm very glad that Ken is now saying openly that healthy translation is always the primary goal, instead of trying to chase the next higher level.

I am also wondering if there is an official AQAL way the terms Contraction and Inflation are used.

Thanks again.

Can anyone summarize how the terms Translation and Transformation are defined in AQAL please? I have my suspicions but I am not really sure.

Thanks.

Learn something new everyday.

The term "center of gravity" goes all the way back to William James!

" . . .It is assumed to reflect a person's most ego-syntonic and habitual frame of reference or preferred mode of responding to life. James, (1902) refers to this as a person's "center of gravity," a particularly felicitous metaphor."

-Susanne Cook-Greuter, Postautonomous Ego Development: A Study of Its Nature and Measurement 1999,2005 pg. 27

Incidentally:

syn·ton·ic   –adjective

1.	Electricity. adjusted to oscillations of the same or a particular frequency.

2.	Psychiatry. of or denoting a personality characterized by normal emotional responsiveness to the environment.

Well, there's still the "got a click on it 'cause it's squished" phenomenon, but awesome none the less.

 . . . . click on the image to enlarge.

Notice that we are all one with galaxies, atoms and prehension  . . .

That's great Rick! Here, let me test one . . .

Here is a link to some Integral graphs, charts and diagrams. I am ONLY including "official" Integral diagrams to keep with the "basics" theme of this thread. These are simply meant as reference images in case you want to refer to them in regards to a post. I am not including explanatory text because... Ken already wrote those books!

http://rbateman.com/images/integral/map.htm

Dear Tim and all You Good and Generous Guys.

I will be eternally grateful for what you are planning here.  I started with SES 10 years ago and have read almost all of Ken's works and have the kits, CD's etc.  It will be so great to have this other information.  After starting Carl Jung with the book, The Portable Jung, I needed the modern Jungians to tell me what was written.

Not that Ken is not modern. Starting with SES was a huge challenge and I wouldn't have continued if I had not recogniszed many areas that I had interest in.  And like the Portable Jung, half the time I did not know what I was reading but I knew it was

true for me at that time.  And it still proves to be great background.  But sometimes when reading another author where I can say, "Oh that is what he meant."  This last book Integral Spirituality, was hard in a few places and I kept wanting to ask for help.  I did not know what the question was.  One person wrote back that I would

"get it eventually".  I do hope that there will be some stuff that is not so hard.  Even when Ken writes about his own books, he will come out with very simple understanable ways of saying something as he does in "RoadRules"  or when or when he is talking.   And all these links will be helpful and I can choose what I want

to read or listen to.  There are days now when I feel I need to quit reading and that my mind is going very soft or no thoughts at all.    However there are only a few points that I need to go over, or learn in a different way.  Thanks for what you are

thinking of doing here.  I have been following this thread and I may be stuck here for some time.   Unless Tim and his wife have another baby.  Smile.  Love Pattye

No problem, Rick! Now I expect to see frequent healthy doeses of your own personal bandying of those terms.

Also for further quick reference check TOE pg. 152, notes 8 and 9 and maybe the index refs for "Vertical depth" and "Vertical integration."

This is a good thread. More, more!

Wow! That is just an awesome response Tim. I get it! Thank you so much, I really appreciate you taking the time to do that.

rbateman:

I have heard the term "center of gravity" bandied about on the forums recently and, knowing the most terms here are originated by Ken, am wondering if there is an official "Integral" definition for this term?

Sorry for the bandying. But I think I can kill all these birds with one stone, and then you too (and all that shall read this thread) can have an exciting career going throughout the forum bandying about the same terms as well.

(note: definition of these terms is certainly open to further input-or better explanation-from others)

Horizontal and Vertical

Basically "horizontal" means movement at or within any given level.

"Vertical" means movement from one level to the next higher level.

(Gratuitous expatiation)

These terms are also roughly synonymous with the also often used terms translation and transformation.* When I move horizontally at or within any given level I translate my life, the world, my experiences at or from that level. When I move vertically from one level to the next there is an upward transformation, where I begin to see and understand my life, the world, my experiences from a new, higher and generally more encompassing (and actually more integrated**) level.

(A few years ago the emphasis was on an Integral Transformative Practice-with perhaps an emphasis on vertical. Of recent, as you know, it has changed to simply an Integral Life Practice which may emphasize a more translational, horizontal practice, or perhaps potentially encompass both.*** )

General development always encompasses both, or is an intersection of both horizontal and vertical movement. This being so, a more accurate representation of what is actually happening is a spiral. A spiral representation of development can illustrate both the ongoing horizontal and gradual vertical movement of development –as well as potentially illustrate more encompassing levels if the spirals increase in breadth and scope with the upward, vertical movement (as with Beck and Cowen’s Spiral Dynamics).

Center of Gravity

The term "center of gravity" is roughly synonymous with the term "altitude," representing an individual's (or a collective’s) general altitude along the spiral.

(Additional gratuitous expatiation)

It actually has, in a sense, two meanings and those two meanings are also roughly horizontal/translative and vertical/transformative.

The first definition –which is roughly horizontal/translative- is that as we move up the developmental spiral there will be fluctuations and moments of regression or spiraling backward to lower centers for a time (often under moments of stress and/or confusion). But our general center of gravity will exert a pull to reintegrating these moments and experiences back upwards to one's general higher level. (Ex. If I am at orange, situations of great stress may eventually cause me to temporarily regress to a more red level where I might have a self-absorbed temper tantrum and with all of the associated red worldviews. After a time, however, after I “cool out” and/or the situation calms, I will once again return to a much more rational level, view, understanding and handling of things. Orange will be acting as my "center of gravity.") It can also work the other way where moments or situations of potential transformation come about, or we are faced with potentially transformative experiences or knowledge, but our "center of gravity" will or may exert a pull on that potential downward into the more stable and reliable level along with its more familiar means of translation, worldview etc.

The second meaning would be that my general "center of gravity" acts to "pull up" and/or even “pull together” the altitude of all of the various developmental lines or streams, of which there are at least two dozen and maybe more. Development is not at all a ladder like affair, for a person can have a relatively high altitude in one line and extremely low in another, and any number somewhere in between. A commonly used example of an individual with a high altitude in the cognitive line and low altitude in the moral is the Nazi Doctor.

The basic idea in all is that while it really is not true that an individual “is orange” or “is green” in their overall makeup, development or station (see below), none the less recognizable patterns can be seen and or detected and can be said to be that person’s general “center of gravity.”

Center of Gravity also applies to the collective and has a very important meaning in this regard. Basically, it means an entire culture's general highest stable altitude "center of gravity" which acts in certain way and creates various collective forces (both interior and exterior) that pull both individuals within the collective and the collective itself to whatever is the applicable altitude along the  spectrum/spiral. (Ex. The political democratic process exerts a certain pull for all adult citizens to develop to at least orange, for that altitude is necessary to consciously, adequately and appropriately participate in the democratic political process.)

*translation and transformation may also sometimes be used –and were in Wilber’s earlier works, mostly pertaining to religion and spirituality- to mean exoteric (exterior translation) and esoteric (interior –now especially state-transformation). See A Sociable God. In that book, for example, Wilber posits that contemplative, mystical and escoteric spiritual practices are transformational (and they are) while the majority of religious practice and religious involvement is exoteric and translational.

**each succeeding level, from infrared/beige all the way up is, if healthy, essentially more integrated than the last.

***Generally speaking, children are born and undergo numerous major vertical transfomations-while still horizontally translating each successive level in between- up to a certain age; perhaps anywhere from 12-21. But when adulthood is reached vertical transformation generally comes to a hault for many various, as well as unknown, reasons. That said, most ordinary and especially day-to-day adulthood is horizontal. Horizontal movement is sometimes represented in phases, seasons of life, etc. as well as in types, such as the Enneagram, or even astrological signs, or basic male and female typologies. Yet horizontal types or seasons, etc. do not generally account for vertical levels. Arriving at and/or generally staying at a certain level also lends itself to the various levels being "stations." 

Hi Pelle. I appreciate your idea of restructuring the links however I am of two minds in that regard. The reason I went with the structure you see here is that it is interactive i.e. if I post a link then someone else will be reminded they have a good one and add that. If I post a glossary definition and you don't agree with it then we will have a debate and I think the debate will help new poeple trying to understand the definition at a deeper level.

Even so, given what I have just said, I do see merrit in your approach as well. Lets wait a little while and see.

Meanwhile, anyone new to the forum can feel free to post your preference too!

Here's that post I mentioned.

An excerpt from the post: A con-call with . . .

David Zeitler

                              Thurs., Jan., 18, 2024

                        7-9 p.m. EST (NYC; GMT is –5 hrs.*)

David is one of the faculty members at JFKU’s Integral Studies program and a teacher in I-I's Integral Psychotherapy Center  (see his bio below).  In this concall, he will give a talk followed by Q & A, on:                                            

Creating Your Integral Psychograph