The graphic above shows how vMEMES emerge in waves. Each emerges, peaks and recedes. As it recedes, the next one in the Spiral hierarchy emerges.
When the receding vMEME is still stronger than the emerging one in the psyche, then, in Spiral Dynamics, the receding vMEME is said to be in the exiting phase - eg: Exiting PURPLE. This is annotated with the receding vMEME in capitals and the emergent one in ordinary case - eg: PURPLE/red (B-O/c-p in the orginal Graves coding).
Once the crossover point has been reached and the emergent vMEME is stronger, then it is said to be in the entering phase - eg: Entering RED. This is annotated with the receding vMEME in ordinary case and the emergent vMEME in capitals - eg: purple/RED (b-o/C-P).
The full set of transition stages* are portrayed in the graphic below.
I CORAL V
h-u/I-V turquoise/CORAL
H-U/i-v TURQUOISE/coral
H TURQUOISE U
g-t/H-U yellow/TURQUOISE
G-T/h-u YELLOW/turquoise
G YELLOW T
f-s/G-T green/YELLOW
~
2nd TIER
~
F-S/g-t GREEN/yellow
F GREEN S
e-r/F-S orange/GREEN
E-R/f-s ORANGE/green
E ORANGE R
d-q/E-R blue/ORANGE
D-Q/e-r BLUE/orange
D BLUE Q
c-p/D-Q red/BLUE
C-P/d-q RED/blue
C RED P
b-o/C-P purple/RED
B-O/c-p PURPLE/RED
B PURPLE O
a-n/B-O beige/PURPLE
A-N/b-o BEIGE/purple
A BEIGE N
*Note: TURQUOISE/coral and beyond are included by Don Beck & Chris Cowan in Spiral Dynamics purely to illlustrate Clare W Graves conjecture that the human mind-brain would continue to develop new systems of thinking to cope with new problems of existence (Life Conditions). Reliable evidence of thinking beyond TURQUOISE has yet to be validated scientifically.
The transition stages are relatively under-researched but the declining influence of one vMEME as another emerges clearly has major implications for the way motivations shift and change. This is especially important when a transition process is lengthy. Some people can even appear to be 'stuck', the transition process can be become so elongated.
Certainly Don Beck has named transition stages and treated them as styles of thinking and behaviour in some of his work on conflict management. It's also worth noting that Jane Loevinger's model has levels which match both to peak vMEMES and transition stages.
Yet transitions can also be incredibly quick - to the point where there seems to be no transition stages in process. On occasion people have seemed to progress two or more levels up the Spiral at once - termed a 'Quantum Leap' by Beck & Chris Cowan.
To get the full picture of how Spiral Dynamics maps the development of human motivational systems, it is vital to include the transition stages as well as vMEME harmonics .
Click here to learn about Integrated SocioPsychology open workshop programmes, some of which deal with vMEME transition stages.
