Mature Ego Development: A Gateway To Ego Transcendence?

This paper explores whether the highest stage in ego development is indicative of ego transcendence as I initially surmised. Overall, I will review some of the similarities and differences between rational awareness of the limits of representational thought and genuine post-symbolic knowing. I will present the research territory with a linear and a non-liner model of human development. Both models can accommodate both Eastern and western self theories including ego development theory and Alexander’s levels of mind. Next, I will outline an alternative developmental trajectory based on Alexander’s notion of the shifts in the dominant mode of processing from person-verbal-discursive to transpersonal-postsymbolic. Then, I will present ego development theory as I conceive of it now and outline the important characteristics of the highest stage (Cook-Greuter, 1999). Finally, I will consider the question of whether and in what way the Unitive ego stage is related to higher consciousness and introduce two testable propositions to clarify the issue. I’ll add the distinctions between structure stages and state stages not yet made clearly on first publishing of this article. ______________________________________________