Cultural Differences in Consciousness Development with Dr. Khaled ElSherbini and Martin Ucik

(See link to chart and article 39:10 below). As mentioned at the beginning of this video, this exploration began at the end of a 5-day retreat in Egypt in December 2021 when I (Martin) questioned if an authentic emergence of the Pluralistic Postmodern Green stage is possible without experience.

Dr. Khaled ElSherbini* and I continued the discussion in Istanbul from Sep. 6-9, 2022 to explore the following:

• What effect did the importing of Western technology and values have on emerging societies?
• Is an authentic, organic, and unique emergence of modern and higher stages in emerging societies possible and how does it look?
• To what extent is understanding and experience necessary (and possible) for knowledge and embodiment of an emerging developmental stage?
• Is there a difference in transcending and including/excluding of basic healthy capacities and limited views of previous stages in different cultures?
• How does all of this affect the formation (or disintegration) of love relationships and thus families, communities, and societies?

At the end of our four-day exploration I humbly realized how I had projected my Western experiences with Pluralistic Postmodern Green, Integral Yellow/Teal, and higher stages of consciousness development onto (Middle) Eastern Islamic individuals and cultures.
While I still don't see the Western versions of these higher stages manifesting, including Istanbul, Turkey where I live and teach for the past four years, I acknowledge that they can emerge and exist in their own forms/adaptations and/or are hidden from me.

The day after this recording, Dr. Khaled and I agreed about the following:
1. That stages unfold organically as response to limitations or problems of previous stages that cannot be solved at their level.
Each stage has basic capacities and healthy aspects, as well as limited views and unhealthy (pathological) aspects.

2. That the West tends to transcend and exclude both healthy and unhealthy aspects, creating many allergies, while the East tends to transcend and include, creating many addictions.

3. That aspects of what is to be transcended and included at each stage is to be defined by each culture and not to be projected by the West where these models originated from (and vice versa).

4. That the above also implies that what defines a stage as far as cognitive complexity, concerns, values, worldviews, morals, and in what cultural social environment the enactment, and behavior takes place is not to be define by other cultures.

5. That for healthy higher stage development to take place Dr. Khaled’s psycho-spiritual “stages of the heart” need to be integrated (at least for the East... I (Martin) am not convinced that this is true for the West... we will see.)

6. That contrary to Western developmental models, the rational orange stage five and pluralistic green stage six already emerged in the 9th and 12th century in the Islamic world (Bagdad and Andalusia/Iberian Peninsula) before regressing back to blue again by the 15th century, and lead to the European Renaissance and Enlightenment; not to mention achievements of Greek, Chinese, and ancient Egyptian civilizations that preceded Western civilization (here I trust the insights from Dr. Khaled and Said Dawlabani.

7. That many of the following achievements of the West became then globalized and now start to be adopted by Eastern cultures in their own unique way.

2023 Ağva Workshop Register Link with Dr. Khaled and Martin:
Dr. ElSherbini has over 25 years of experience in the fields of human development, coaching, consciousness and awareness, executive management, corporate restructuring, sustainability, renewable energy, research and development, technology management, strategic management, and teaching in the USA, Spain, Ukraine, Germany, Switzerland, China, and in Egypt.
Dr. ElSherbini created models of human consciousness evolution and development by synthesizing and integrating numerous models, mainly: the Enneagram, Spiral Dynamics, Integral consciousness, modern psychological studies, and Sufi spiritual philosophies and psychology.

Dr. Khaled ElSherbini is the founder and chairman of “Enneagram Egypt.”
He is also the founder of The Consciousness Academy, which focuses on human development and spiritual transformation.
Dr. ElSherbini is an IEA Accredited Enneagram Professional and the founder of the 3 IEA Accredited Training programs provided by Enneagram Egypt.
He is also a Spiral Dynamics Integral accredited professional by the SDi founder Don Beck through ValueMatch.