MODELS OF CONSCIOUSNESS
Rinku was talking to me lately and told me about how he had read in those Radical Honesty books about a new theoretical model for the stages of consciousness that one progresses through. I like the system a lot, it's better than the previous model of consciousness (Ken Wilbur's) that I thought to be the most accurate. It seems to describe most people I know rather well, but one must realize that people don't tend to conform to any one of the levels, but rather a combination of levels with one being the dominant or primary one. In order, they are:

Level I - Beliefs

This is people who are stuck in the abstracts of their beliefs: fundamentalists, Christians, Republicans, Democrats, Liberals, Conservatives, any one who forms their opinions entirely by the "party line" but can't really tell you what those beliefs mean when practiced in reality, or whose behavior doesn't fall in line with those beliefs. Basically, someone with no grasp of reality, who exists only in concepts.

Level II - Social Contracts

This is people who (often only temporarily, or when convenient) set aside their beliefs from Level I for the sake of surviving, endearing themselves to others, forming friendships, making contracts, deals, or promises, etc.

Level III - Ego / Saint

This is the kind of person who says "Everyone's an idiot but me!"; someone who thinks of themselves as an ubermensch before whom nothing can stand. As rinku said, a Muhammad Ali type figure, someone who thinks of nothing but their own ideas and divorces them from the context of the world outside. Most teenagers I know reside here, as well as most artists.

Level IV - Philosopher / Charlatan

This is the kind of person who has set aside the ego of Level III as "childish" and who wants to help others using what they perceive as their own wisdom. The word philosopher seems to be juxtaposed with charlatan, because the belief systems of these people are usually false, even if borne of good intentions. For example, priests who want to help others would fall here, and literal Saints. So would idiots who want to be Bodhisattvas!

Level V - DESPAIR!

This is where one realizes that the universe is meaningless, there is no God, no purpose to anything, and nothing but death and oblivion awaiting, no matter what actions we take to forestall it. Everything from I-IV crumbles when confronted with this.

Level VI - SUICIDAL PANIC!!

This is when one realizes that even the realizations of Level V, the railing against nihilism and pointlessness is itself useless, and sees how truly bleak and pointless the void actually is, when the philosophizing ends. To escape from this stage, there are three options: run screaming back to levels I-IV (what most people do according to the book), commit suicide, or advance to the final stage...

Level VII - The Here and Now

In this level, people achieve a Zen-like state of moment-conscious living, focusing on each thing as it arises and then letting it go, perceiving reality directly with the senses, without the filter of opinion, judgment, or conceptualization. As rinku says, there is only "suchness"; one identifies and groups things not by the common categories, but by the sensory essence. To simplify, "chair" is defined not as having 3-4 legs and being made of wood or something senseless like that, but rather as the sensation of being seated. In this way, the ground or the edge of a bed or a sidewalk curb can be said to have "chairness". This seems simple, but applied to ALL THINGS, implies a very strong overhaul of the entirety of one's consciousness and way of thinking.

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My own thoughts are that I'm still not convinced that the Here and Now phase isn't just reverting to Level III, only this time making it go down nicer by simply negating the existence of other people altogether. Rather than saying "other people are stupid", it seems like one now just says "elsewhere, there are atoms of carbon, colliding by chance. let's see what they do today," while remaining just as insulated as the Ego / Saint.

I also think there should be a Level 0, for those whose personality is ruled by subconscious impulses and urges, those people who do what feels or seems right or good, moment to moment, with nothing to unify it all together. The "BEAST" level.

One thing to point out, and this is the thing that makes this model pretty unique, is that it places the pondering of abstracts on the lowest level, and leaves direct, physical interaction with concrete things for the highest of levels. Usually, this is thought of as being the opposite way around; it's dullards who have to dig ditches and geniuses who just sit around all day talking about how many angels can fit on the head of a pin.

For the record, I place myself in a constant state of oscillation between Philosopher / Charlatan and SUICIDAL PANIC.