AQAL SQUARE TO AQAL CUBE

The Third Axis Injunction

by Lexi Neale

ABSTRACT

The All-Quadrant, All-Level (AQAL) Cube model is predicated on two expansions of Integral

Theory. First: Wilber’s Eight Fundamental Perspectives, as an AQAL Octo-Dynamic, are

differentiated equally as Four AQAL “Inside” and Four AQAL “Outside” Quadrants, where

“Inside” pertains to AQAL Subtle existence, including Subtle awareness as Consciousness,

Bodies and Realms; and “Outside” pertains to AQAL Concrete existence, including Concrete

awareness as Mind, Bodies and Realms. Second: Each Person-perspective (First, Second, Third

etc) is itself an AQAL Cube Octo-Dynamic of perspectives, resulting in a vastly more complex

web of self-referencing perspectives through all the Persons. The resulting First Person AQAL

Cube models the Octo-Dynamics of the Eight Fundamental Perspectives between the non-

physical as Consciousness and the physical as Mind; where the Consciousness Quadrants pertain

to the AQAL Knower, or experiencer, and the correlated Mind Quadrants pertain to the AQAL

known, or experience.

INTRODUCTION

It is now seven years since Ken Wilber first saw my paper “Introducing The AQAL Cube”,

which was then slated to appear in his AQAL Journal in 2007. The AJ went defunct, the

succeeding JITP rejected the paper, and on June 12th 2009 Ken published it in his kenwilber.com

blog. There was a strong favorable response from the Integral community, but silence from

Integral academia. A primer to the AQAL Cube was published in the Integral Leadership Review

in June 2013. www.integralleadershipreview.com/9013-the-aqal-cube-for-dummies/

“The Third Axis Injunction” made by the AQAL Cube introduces a very radical notion to

Integral Theory - radical to Integral Theory but not at all radical to Idealist, Buddhist, Hindu or

Taoist philosophy - that our evolution in this Concrete, physical arena is effected by the co-

evolution of our Subtle “Self”, or our “Soul”, or “Consciousness monad”, in countless

incarnations through a spectrum of identities and correlated physical vehicles. Given such a

supposed evolutionary continuity of Consciousness as taught by the Buddha and the Ancient

Traditions, one wonders in what “subtle” state our individual Soul exists between these

incarnations as well as during incarnations.

Integral Theory brings in our “Soul” Self-awareness at Second Tier “Indigo” on the spectrum of

Consciousness, emerging as a Level of Subtle identity. Wilber 5 denies the Soul its Subtle

existence prior to that, as “all the way down”. In a recent personal discussion via email about this

with Ken, he indeed affirmed:

“subtle anything emerges; i.e., does not go all the way down”.

However, previous to Wilber 5 in his Sex, Ecology, Spirituality, Note 28, p635-6[14] we read:

‘Plotinus has a remarkable theory of the self, which is still altogether viable. Aside from the

notion that we have “two souls” (the timeless witness and the temporal self), the self (or Soul)

for Plotinus has two different meanings. One, it is a particular level [my bold] or dimension of

existence – the World Soul (or psychic level). But two, the Soul is what we moderns would call

the “self-system”, the actual navigator of the great holarchy – not a particular stage but the

“traveler” of each stage; not a rung in the ladder but the climber of the ladder. As such,[my

bold] the Soul or self-system can span the entire spectrum of development (except the higher

limits, where it is transcended or becomes the Absolute)… Development, then, is a case of the

Soul growing and expanding, taking more and more of the external world into itself, as Plotinus

puts it.’

Given that the Soul is our Subtle vehicle, there is a sense here that Ken later came to conflate the

Soul’s “emergence into Self-awareness” in Second Tier with its “emergence into existence” in

Second Tier. The thesis presented here is a validation of his earlier position - that the Subtle Soul,

as our individual Consciousness, goes all-the-way-down. The Ancient Traditions have the Subtle

Soul reincarnating through the lowliest of vehicles before reaching the human form, where we

finally differentiate Soul Self-awareness in “Indigo”. Not only do the Ancient Traditions imply

that the Subtle Domain of Soul-existence is as full-spectrum as the Concrete structures through

which it co-evolves, but they also make it very clear that our Subtle Soul cannot rise through

Gross, Subtle and Causal Levels of Self-awareness except by evolving through correlated

Concrete Body-Mind incarnations. The reason is downward causation.

Most of the world’s Creation stories, including the Christian Bible, describe the Creation of the

Kosmos in two phases: First is downward causation, where from out of “Nothing”, Spirit

descended into primal manifestation by creating first the Causal Domain and its primal angelic

forces, which then created the Subtle Domain of the primal heavens, and finally (the Third Day

in the Bible) the “dry land” of this Gross Domain. The rest of the Week was the upward

causation of life forms, ending with the crown of creation, human life on the Sixth Day, who then

looks up at the Creator in worship on the Seventh Day. In redeeming the Soul back with its

Source, the cycle was completed. The point being that Integral Theory fails to provide an Integral

map of the downward causation through the Three Domains; and the upward causation, or

journey of our Soul, back through those Domains in Causal reconciliation and remembrance.

In the involutionary spirit of downward causation, the Big Bang emergence of energy into this

Concrete Domain of physical existence is a classic example of that process. Naturally, it is

inconceivable for physics to be able to determine where all the energy required for a Big Bang

actually came from in the first place? However, with the Ancient Traditions, downward causation

into Concrete existence comes from the next level up, from the Subtle Domain. And then, in the

evolutionary spirit of upward causation, the Subtle Consciousness monad recapitulates its levels

of origin from Concrete identification back through Subtle to Causal identification to complete

the cycle of Creation.

In other words, the thrust of this paper is to bring Idealism and the Ancient Traditions fully into

the post-metaphysical Integral arena, in providing them with a comprehensive Integral map that

shows how the Subtle All-Level “Soul”, or “Consciousness monad”, or “Witness” co-evolves in

Concrete All-Level vehicles, just as an evolving Driver gets behind the wheel of successive

faster and more complex Cars, until the Grand Prix of Consciousness is attained.

Integral Theory, like the West in general, has not provided our immortal Self with an AQAL

Subtle environment (all-the-way-down, all-the-way-up) in which to exist between and during

Concrete incarnations! Whereas the East provides it with all the Subtle Lokas, Bardos, Heavens/

Hells and Subtle embodiments through all the Levels that the Self could ever imagine!

Accordingly, AQAL Cube Octo-Dynamics differentiates the Two Axes of the AQAL Square

(Interior-Exterior and Individual-Collective) along a Third Axis, the poles of which are AQAL

Concrete existence below (as per Wilber’s AQAL Square) and AQAL Subtle existence above.

This Third Axis is the true vertical and primary Axis separating “Heaven from Earth” in the

kosmogonic unfoldment. To that end, this paper presents the Third Axis Injunction, through an

admittedly exhaustive series of examples covering a broad field of Integral Theory. For example,

the First Person AQAL Cube correlates the immortal Subtle-Soul-Self, as AQAL Consciousness,

with its mortal Concrete-Cognitive-Self as AQAL Mind. In other words, we expand Integral

Theory’s notion of a “Climber” and a “Ladder” as our “Consciousness” and “Mind”

respectively, where the one Climber gets to climb higher and higher Ladders life after life. This

transforms Integral Theory’s view of evolution.

I have also had discussions about this with Ken, and we have not yet come to a full agreement

about how full-spectrum Consciousness as the Proximate Self correlates with full-spectrum Mind

as the Cognitive Self. So my intention here is to expand that discussion in a way that shows the

above is already implicit in Integral Theory. This is a crucial argument because, while in the

West and in Integral Theory the terms “consciousness” and “mind” are used synonymously, in

the East they are very clearly differentiated as full-spectrum Subtle and correlated full-spectrum

Concrete awareness. We deal with this first.

IDEALIST KOSMOLOGY OF POLARITY

As a primer to this argument, the Idealist view of Subtle and Concrete co-existence transcends

and includes the Materialist view that this physical universe is the be-all and end-all. The Integral

model leans heavily towards being a Materialist kosmology in that the AQAL Square only maps

physical existence. The AQAL Square’s mapping of the Concrete, the Subtle and the Causal are

as Levels of Concrete structural emergence only, and are valid as such; but the Idealist view of

this holarchy has an additional dimension, that the Concrete Mind, the Subtle Soul and Causal

Witness are each full-spectrum Domains of Existence. The Ancient Traditions describe this

trifold embedded-embodiment as sheathes, with the Witness at the core, shown in Fig. 8. Amit

Goswami in his pivotal book The Self-Aware Universe[1] states:

‘In the Vedanta literature of India, the Sanskrit word “nama” is used to denote transcendent

archetypes, and “rupa” signifies their immanent form. Beyond “nama” and “rupa” shines the

light of Brahman, the universal consciousness, the one without a second, the ground of all

being…

‘Perhaps the Taoist symbol of yin and yang is more generally familiar than are the Indian

symbols. The light yang, regarded as the male symbol, defines the transcendent realm, and the

dark yin, regarded as the female symbol, defines the immanent. “That which lets now the dark,

now the light appear is the Tao”, the one that transcends its complementary manifestations…

‘In all these descriptions, note that the one consciousness is said to come to us through

complementary manifestations: ideas and forms, nama and rupa, Sambhogakaya and

Nirmanakaya, yang and yin, heaven and earth. This complementary description is an important

facet of idealist philosophy.’

In other words, Goswami asserts that the Subtle (Sambhogakaya) and Concrete (Nirmanakaya)

Domains co-exist as two poles of manifestation from the One Un-manifest; and as two polarities

they are complementary to each other, and therefore co-manifest and co-evolve as two co-equal

Domains. He goes on to say that “Manas”, etymologically as Mind, is our field of reference

within, where our Subtle Consciousness monad-as-experiencer (Vijnanamaya) identifies our

Concrete Mind-as-experience (Manamaya). This is a key claim, and one that profoundly expands

the Integral model, in that the Subtle Vijnanamaya/Sambhogakaya (Consciousness/Monad) and

its correlated Concrete Manamaya/Nirmanakaya (Mind/Body) are both co-AQAL and co-

evolving. This is the Third Axis Octo-Dynamic.

Throughout history the cultures of the world have consistently discussed human awareness as an

interaction between two Domains or Fields of awareness: Between Gross Life and Subtle

Consciousness, or Ming and Hsing (Chinese), Soma and Psyche (Greek), Tonal and Nagual

(Mayan), Jivan and Atman (Hindu), Nirmanakaya and Sambhogakaya (Buddhist), Body-mind

and Soul (Christian), Earth and Moon (Alchemy). In each pair, the former is the incarnate

vehicle of the latter. And beyond each is their Causal Source respectively in Tao, Pneuma,

Tonacatecuhtli, Brahman, Dharmakaya, Spirit, and the Sun. These Gross/Subtle/Causal “holy

trinities” are shown merely as Levels in the AQAL Square, but the Integral Relativity proposed

here is that the Gross Domain/Mind and the Subtle Domain/Consciousness are both equally

AQAL Domains in the Causal Source. As Lao Tzu intoned in the Tao Te Ching: Out of the One

came Two; out of the Two came Three; and out of the Three came Ten Thousand Things.

The proposed Third Axis injunction, which expands the Integral model’s AQAL Square to the

AQAL Cube, recapitulates the primary injunction of kosmic unfoldment. The Third Axis

injunction primarily differentiates the Kosmic Patrix (Heaven etc) from the Kosmic Matrix

(Earth etc); and kosmic unfoldment then proceeds through all the subsequent Levels of polarity

differentiation according to this same fundamental paradigm. This ancient and powerful myth of

the given regarding the primary Kosmic Polarity seems to keep re-establishing itself as world-

views evolve, such as from Materialism to Idealism. We would therefore suggest that the Third

Axis injunction proposed here, which expands the Integral AQAL Square model to the AQAL

Cube, is completely synonymous with numerous cultural injunctions of the Kosmic Polarity:

Subtle existence Concrete existence

Implicate order Explicate order

Non-local existence Local existence

Non-Possessive pps Possessive pps

“Inside” view “Outside” view

Intention Extension

Disincarnate existence Incarnate existence

Image/Archetype Analogue

NON-PHYSICAL AND PHYSICAL POLARITY

The most significant general model being used in quantum physics is the CEDMS - Complex

Eight Dimensional Minkowsky Space. Well before Einstein, Minkowsky was the first to add the

fourth dimension of time to three dimensional space. Einstein later adopted that model. Then

Minkowsky went a step further, where even Einstein feared to tread, and added to the four

physical dimensions an additional four correlated, but hypothetical, dimensions that mapped a

correlated hypothetical reality beyond the domain of conventional physics. It was an intuitive

leap into a domain that would later become known as Non-local, shown in Fig. 1, from K.

Renshaw’s “Why Quantum Entanglement Works”[2].

Fig. 1. Complex Eight Dimensional Minkowsky Space

The person who adapted the CEDMS model to Quantum Physics was Elizabeth Rauscher, who

continues to be its leading advocate. She explains[3]:

“Events that are remote in four (dimensional)space... are contiguous in the complex eight-

space... In this model, space-time events can become contiguous in the complex eight-space,

demonstrating that the remoteness of the observer and the observed can become contiguous in

the complex eight-space in which causality conditions are preserved and the acquisition of

apparent remote information is allowed”.

In other words, a direct connection can exist between local and non-local energy, a condition

called entanglement, that can be modeled by CEDMS.

The CEDMS model set the stage for a groundbreaking discovery published in arXiv[4] and

reported in Nature a few days later, on November 17th 2011, by Eugenie Reich: “Whereas many

physicists have generally interpreted the wave function as a statistical tool that reflects our

ignorance of the particles being measured, the authors of this paper argue that, instead, it is

physically real.” “Physically real” means that the quantum wave function carries real

information from what is now called “Superspace”, rather than mere statistical probabilities. This

is a pre-requisite to be able to model Non-local reality. The findings of the paper received further

validation in March, 2012, which in effect validates the basis of quantum consciousness/mind as

an empirical science.

At the Institute of Noetic Science, Dr Dean Radin does rigorous quantum experiments to

demonstrate both the non-locality and locality of a subject’s awareness[5]. The inference is that

quantum consciousness/mind, operating in non-locality near the Zero Point of the quantum

vacuum, is firmly embedded at the core of this Concrete Physical Universe. Radin has recently

published a compendium of empirical research from around the world that similarly

demonstrates the non-locality of consciousness/mind[6]. Previously calling it the Psi Field,

Radin’s experiments are paving the way towards the physics of quantum consciousness/mind. Dr

Amit Goswamy in a paper[7] also compared Rupert Sheldrake’s Morphogenic Fields[8] with

quantum consciousness/mind. The experiments of Sir Roger Penrose and Dr Stuart Hameroff are

on the same trajectory[9]. Hameroff, in an interview with EnlightNext[10] said:

“You know, most people think that consciousness emerged over eons as a byproduct of random

mutations and the inherent complexity of natural selection, but I look at it the other way around.

I think a fundamental field of protoconscious experience has been embedded all along – since the

big bang – in the Planck scale, and that biology evolved and adapted in order to access it and to

maximize the qualities and potentials implicit within it...

“...(Penrose) suggested that consciousness is the wave-function collapse, or at least one

particular kind of collapse. It’s a quantum collapse that gives off fundamental units of conscious

awareness, just like an electron orbital shift gives off a photon of light. And like photons, quanta

of consciousness come in a spectrum of different intensities, frequencies and qualities...

“In Roger’s model, which he calls orchestrated objective reduction, you don’t always need an

outside observer. If a quantum system evolves to a critical threshold – which involves

gravitational warping on the quantum scale – it will self-collapse. There’s an objective, natural

reduction of the quantum wave function that results in a simple moment of consciousness, or a

simple “quantum” of consciousness, if you will. And when these collapses happen again and

again in your brain, you get a series of conscious moments that give rise to your experience of a

stream of consciousness. So consciousness, in this model, consists of a series of discrete events,

yet is experienced as continuous. You can think of it kind of as frames in a movie, only with a

movie you have an outside observer. In this case, the frame itself has the observer built into it.

The conscious moment and the quantum wave-function collapse are one and the same event...

“Neutral monism says that there’s one common underlying entity that gives rise to, on the one

hand, matter, and on the other hand, mind. In our model, that underlying entity that gives rise to

both matter and mind is quantum spacetime geometry. In the Vedic traditions you could call it

Brahman, the underlying ground of being. So it’s not materialistic – it goes below matter… You

can call it whatever you like – Spirit, the cosmos, quantum gravity – whatever it is that gives rise

to both mind and matter and underlies all of reality.”

However, it is here that the cart is being put before the horse if a clear differentiation is not made

between Spirit and quantum gravity. In the Integral model, fundamental physical energy at the

bottom of the spectrum cannot be equated to Spirit at the top of the spectrum, but it can be

equated to the energetic foundation of awareness in this Concrete Domain, as Hameroff’s “proto-

consciousness”, which Wilber correctly equates with Prana, and which this thesis calls Mind, as

discussed next. With this in mind, we can say on the one hand that the behavior of fundamental

quantum states around the Zero Point is non-local, in that they are not yet bound by space-time

parameters like the speed of light; and we can say on the other hand that the non-local behavior

of energy similarly applies, beyond the Zero Point interface of the Concrete Domain, to the

Subtle Domain. In other words, the term “non-local” can be equally applied to the Subtle

Domain, like David Bohm’s Subtle “implicate order” behind the “explicate order” of Concrete

manifestation[11].

SUBTLE AND CONCRETE POLARITY

The definitive work here as regards mapping all this on the AQAL Square is Wilber’s “Towards

A Comprehensive Theory of Subtle Energies”[12]. It is a full-spectrum 4 Quadrant map of

energy and correlated consciousness that updates the old maps of the Ancient Traditions. In Fig.

10 of that treatise Wilber maps the Upper Right Quadrant of the AQAL Square as an evolution of

increasingly complex physical energy structures into increasingly complex physical forms, with

“subtler energies” emerging as Lines from various Levels of this progress. These “subtler

energies” of the Upper Right Quadrant are the exterior correlates of Levels of consciousness in

the Upper Left Quadrant. What we see in his diagram, shown in Fig. 2, is a palimpsest of energy

structures overlaid on coexisting energy states.

Fig. 2 Wilber’s Map of “Subtler Energies”

What we are not shown is how these “subtler energies”, with their correlated awareness, also

correlate with their “subtle energy” bodies in their “subtle energy” realms. This is a Gordian knot

begging for an Alexander’s sword.

We have already seen how, through downward causation, the involution of Spirit laid down the

Causal, Subtle and Gross Domains in the first phase of Creation; and then how in the second

phase the Subtle proto-consciousness monad, through upward causation, began to evolve via

Concrete proto-mind Life forms back towards Spirit. Therefore, the Alexander’s Sword is the

Third Axis injunction that differentiates the AQAL Concrete Domain from the co-existing and

co-evolving AQAL Subtle Domain.

Wilber’s palimpsest becomes transparent when we consider that what the Upper Right Quadrant

is really all about is Concrete Energy Processing via Concrete Energy Structures. An atom is

an information processor of a variety of more fundamental energies. From the very Zero Point of

manifestation, the most fundamental quantum/pranic energies that emerge from the quantum

vacuum convey information in the form of self-organization potentials. These do indeed self-

organize into more sophisticated processors we call quarks, leptons and so on. Accumulating

information is then processed through atoms, molecules and, before we know it, sentient life

forms with organic intelligence. Such information processing, as energy all-the-way-down

(Upper Right), is the vehicle of proto-mind all-the-way-down (Upper Left). As proto-mind itself

evolves cognitively in the Upper Left Quadrant, the correlated processing in the Upper Right

becomes more and more sophisticated and complex, and pretty soon we have organisms with

brains processing exponentially more amounts of information. And this is where it gets tricky,

because the more complex the processors become, the more fundamental the levels of energy

they process. The evolving brain, for example, uses increasingly more fundamental quantum

states at higher frequencies, and processed by structures of greater and greater complexity.

Exactly the same applies for the increasing complexity of electronic processing required for

more fundamental quantum energy states. The evolution of Artificial Intelligence is indeed an

extension of the evolution of the Organic Intelligence creating it.

The point is this: we are talking about processing more and more fundamental physical

energies, at higher and higher frequencies, that can convey more and more information from

Gross, through Subtle to Causal Levels of Concrete complexity. This is what the AQAL Square’s

Upper Right Quadrant is really mapping. To use the term “subtler energies” synonymously with

“fundamental physical energies” is therefore misleading as to the true Integral meaning of

Subtle as used by the Great Traditions. The sword that cuts this Gordian knot of conflation is the

Third Axis injunction, which in one stroke differentiates an AQAL Subtle Domain from Wilber’s

correlated AQAL Concrete Domain. This unfolding of the Integral map from AQAL Square to

AQAL Cube shows how, through the Third Axis Injunction, AQAL Subtle existence is embedded

in, and embodied by, correlated AQAL Gross (or Concrete) existence:

SUBTLE DOMAIN AND CONSCIOUSNESS (Sambhogakaya and Vijnanamaya):SUBTLE CONSCIOUSNESS SPECTRUM - Consciousness as Levels of Subtle Identity SUBTLE ENERGY STRUCTURES - Subtle Identification of Bodies and Realms < Ego / Low > < Soul / High > < Witness >

< Gross Mind / Simple > < Subtle Mind / Complex > < Causal Mind >

GROSS DOMAIN AND MIND (Nirmanakaya and Manamaya):GROSS MIND SPECTRUM - Mind as Levels of correlated Cognitive IdentityGROSS ENERGY STRUCTURES - Gross Identification of Bodies and Realms

Looking at the above chart, it will be noticed that there is an Integral Relativity going on that not

only shows the horizontal holarchic progression of Gross to Subtle to Causal, as Consciousness

and Energy structures, but also the vertical holarchic causation from the AQAL Subtle Domain

above to the AQAL Gross Domain below, with the Causal Domain transcending and including

both as not-two. This latter Third Axis classification of an entire AQAL Concrete Domain below

(aka Nirmanakaya) correlated with an entire AQAL Subtle Domain above (aka Sambhogakaya)

totally conforms with Vedantic traditions and Idealism as discussed by Goswami.

Given that the AQAL Square is a very good Integral map of AQAL Concrete existence, we need

to see how the AQAL Cube’s Third Axis injunction actually differentiates and correlates AQAL

Subtle existence with AQAL Concrete existence. The key to this is in our own awareness, in how

our Subtle Consciousness is differentiated from, and correlates with, our Concrete Mind. In other

words, we now move from the AQAL Square’s Upper Right to the Upper Left.

CONSCIOUSNESS AND MIND POLARITY

In the classic Third Person AQAL Square the Upper Left Quadrant (First Person) shows the

Levels of consciousness structures, from irritability to vision logic. However, in actual

experiential First Person, these can now be called Levels of Cognitive awareness as Mind. In

the Appendix of Integral Spirituality[13] is Fig I.6., “Some Aspects of the 4 Quadrants as They

Appear in Humans”. The view given here in the Upper Left Quadrant is called “Self &

Consciousness”, as Levels of the Self-system from instinctual to integral, and as Levels of

cognitive awareness he calls consciousness. So Wilber differentiates the full-spectrum Self-

system (the Climber) from the full-spectrum structure-stages of correlated Cognitive awareness

(the Ladder), and yet Climber and Ladder are both located in the Upper Left Quadrant of the

AQAL Square. It is proposed here that the Consciousness Self as Climber is differentiated from

the Cognitive Self as Ladder by the terms Consciousness and Mind respectively. The inference is

that the differentiation between Consciousness and Mind has already been made, but without

the Third Axis injunction.

In Wilber’s Sex, Ecology, Spirituality, Note 28, p635-6[14] we read:

‘Plotinus has a remarkable theory of the self, which is still altogether viable. Aside from the

notion that we have “two souls” (the timeless witness and the temporal self), the self (or Soul)

for Plotinus has two different meanings. One, it is a particular level [my bold] or dimension of

existence – the World Soul (or psychic level). But two, the Soul is what we moderns would call

the “self-system”, the actual navigator of the great holarchy – not a particular stage but the

“traveler” of each stage; not a rung in the ladder but the climber of the ladder. As such,[my

bold] the Soul or self-system can span the entire spectrum of development (except the higher

limits, where it is transcended or becomes the Absolute)… Development, then, is a case of the

Soul growing and expanding, taking more and more of the external world into itself, as Plotinus

puts it.’

Here Wilber openly proclaims an All-Level Subtle Domain, where his description of an All-

Level Soul-Self is exactly that of Goswami’s All-Level Subtle Consciousness Monad. So it now

becomes necessary to re-contextualize some established terms in Integral Theory, in order to

define the Subtle and Concrete differentiation between Consciousness and Mind as made by the

Third Axis injunction.

In Integral Theory and Western science the terms “consciousness” and “mind” are used

synonymously in a Concrete context, because they have not yet been differentiated. As the

experiencer, Con-Sciousness means “knowing-with” - but knowing with what? Early Greek

philosophers deduced that perception results from the interaction of three factors: The Knower,

the Means of Knowing and the Known. We perceive the world out there as the realm of the

Known, which is the realm of Energy; but the problem all the philosophers and empiricists have

had throughout the ages is to correctly identify the Knower and the Means of Knowing.

So on the one hand we introduce the Soul as the Consciousness Self, the Subtle All-Level

Knower or Experiencer, the First Person Climber with a Level-specific identity. And on the

other hand is its correlated Cognitive Self or Mind, the Concrete All-Level Means of Knowing,

the First Person Ladder of cognitive experience as sensations, feelings and thoughts.

Experiencer and experience, subject and object all point to a core issue of a Third Axis Integral

Relativity between Consciousness, Mind and Energy. What is becoming patently obvious is that

Concrete full-spectrum Mind, in processing Concrete full-spectrum Energy, is really the

Storehouse of all the “Psi”, “Morphogenic”, “Etheric”, “Astral”, “Non-local” and “Akashic”

Templates that are laid down in unfolding Waves of Concrete evolution (discussed later in “The

Third Axis Injunction”).

Seen in this way, the Wilber-Combs lattice[15] indeed also makes a Third Axis differentiation

between Self-experiencer and correlated Cognitive experience - again without the injunction -

differentiating full-spectrum Subtle and Concrete existence. Fig.3 (a) is the Wilber-Combs lattice

on the AQAL Cube when correlating Self states (Octant 1) with Cognitive structures (Octant 2),

and numbered according to Wilber’s “Eight Zones”. And yet the #1-#2 W.C. lattice is merely one

of many binary perspective lattices between the Octants of the AQAL Cube as in Fig.3(b).

Fig.3(a) The Wilber-Combs Binary-Perspective Lattice

(b) Other AQAL Cube Binary-Perspective Lattices off 12 edges and 12 diagonals:

“INSIDE” AND “OUTSIDE” POLARITY

Then another key development in Integral Theory once again made the Third Axis injunction

by default. In 2006 Wilber differentiated an additional perspective-polarity, “Inside-

Outside”[16], doubling the Four Fundamental Perspectives to Eight. However, he did not define

how the added dimension came into existence to create the Eight Fundamental Perspectives.

Nevertheless, it is self-evident that we can take “Inside” and “Outside” views, and that our

capacity to do so is in some way a consciousness issue.

The “Inside” and “Outside” differentiation was a profound step for Integral Theory, in that it not

only made a precedent for the Third Person “Eight Zones” and “Eight Methodologies”, but also

for the First Person AQAL Cube. The key was to identify how it is possible for our First Person

awareness to take “Inside” and “Outside” views. It is the key of differentiating Consciousness

from Mind, where the Subtle Consciousness-as-experiencer can view through the Concrete

Mind-as-experience, as discussed previously.

The proposed Third Axis injunction causes the differentiation of Wilber’s Eight Fundamental

Perspectives as Four AQAL “Inside” and Four AQAL “Outside” Quadrants; where “Inside” now

pertains to the view of AQAL Subtle existence through Consciousness, Bodies and Realms; and

“Outside” now pertains to AQAL Concrete existence through Mind, Bodies and Realms. In

Fig. 4 the Eight Fundamental Perspectives differentiate on the Third Axis of Non-local/Subtle

existence (above) and Local/Concrete existence (below).

Fig. 4. The Eight Fundamental Perspectives of the AQAL Cube

One of Wilber’s critics, Andrew Smith, concisely summed up what Wilber was attempting to

explain about the “Inside-Outside” development[17]:

‘Inside is the view of a holon when it asserts its independence from other holons like itself.

Outside is its view when it interacts with other holons like itself.’

This is precisely the relationship between the Subtle knower and its Concrete means of knowing.

We explore this further through the Third Axis injunction made by the Personal Pronouns.

PERSONAL PRONOUNS POLARITY

The personal pronouns are the foundation of any language. “Me Tarzan, you Jane”. Wilber

allocates the AQAL Square with a personal pronoun perspective for each of the Four Quadrants:

First Person “I” and “We” to the Upper and Lower Left, and Third Person “It” and “Its” to the

Upper and Lower Right. However, languages as a whole differentiate eight personal pronouns

per Person in exactly the same way as the Eight Fundamental Perspectives, as shown in Fig. 5.

Fig. 5. The Personal Pronouns Cube.

NON-POSSESSIVE NON-POSSESSIVE SUBJECTIVE OBJECTIVE SINGULAR SINGULAR

NON-POSSESSIVE NON-POSSESSIVESUBJECTIVE OBJECTIVEPLURAL PLURAL

POSSESSIVE POSSESSIVE SUBJECTIVE OBJECTIVE SINGULAR SINGULAR

POSSESSIVE POSSESSIVESUBJECTIVE OBJECTIVEPLURAL PLURAL

Mark Edwards’ treatment of the personal pronouns[18] addressed a huge gap in perspectives

missing from the Integral model, but even his treatment did not address the Third Axis

injunction. At the ITC in 2008 the author asked him what happened to the Non-possessive/

Possessive axis, and he said he had often thought about that! It is really a differentiation of the

Intangible and the Tangible, which is another way of saying of the Subtle and the Concrete.

When we consider the six faces of the First Person Cube, there is a Singular Self, a Plural Self, a

Subjective Self, an Objective Self, a Non-Possessive intangible Self and a Possessive tangible

Self, which results through recombination in Eight Fundamental Self-Perspectives. Applying the

above Fig. 5. format to the First Person pronouns gives the First Person AQAL Cube, shown in

Fig. 6. This model is numbered exactly in the way Wilber numbers his Eight Zones. So we begin

with the Eight Zones as First Person pronouns.

Fig. 6. The First Person AQAL Cube.

The first thing that is apparent is how the Non-Possessive Quadrants 1,3,5 and 7 are intangible

First Person identities, and how the Possessive Quadrants 2,4,6 and 8 are tangible First Person

attributes of those identities. The differentiation is exactly the same as between Wilber’s four

“Inside” perspectives (“Non-possessive”), and four “Outside” perspectives (“Possessive”).

The second thing we notice about the First Person Cube is that there is no differentiation in

English between the two “I’s” and two “We’s” as First Person pronouns in the Subjective Octants

1,2,3 and 4. Language is a two-way street: One the one hand it identifies pre-existing

perspectives as a common experience, which then become cultural givens; but on the other hand,

in naming them, it can culturally bias some perspectives at the expense of others. Cultures that

are objective diminish the subjective; cultures that are collective diminish the individual; cultures

that are materialistic diminish the non-material – by not differentiating them. In Russian there is

a differentiation between an “inner We” and an “outer collective We” as in “We the people”. In

Yiddish there is a differentiation between “I” as a spiritual identity and the “I” of everyday life.

In evaluating his “8 Zones” in First Person, Wilber encountered this anomaly himself in

differentiating an Inside “I” from an Outside “I”; and an Inside “We” from an Outside “We”.

From “Integral Spirituality”[19]:

‘ – for example, the experience of an “I” in the UL Quadrant. That “I” can be looked at from the

inside or the outside. I can experience my own “I” from the inside [Octant 1], in this moment, as

the felt experience of being a subject of my present experience, a 1st person having a 1st person

experience. If I do so, the results include such things as introspection, meditation,

phenomenology, contemplation, and so on (all simply summarized as phenomenology… But I can

also approach this “I” from the outside [Octant 2], in the stance of an objective or “scientific”

observer. I can so in my own awareness (when I try to be “objective” about myself, or try to “see

myself as others see me”) …Likewise, I can approach the study of a “we” from its inside or its

outside. From the inside [Octant 3], this includes the attempts that you and I make to understand

each other right now. How is it that you and I can reach a mutual understanding about anything,

including when we simply talk to each other? How do your “I” and my “I” come together in

something you and I both call “we” (as in, “Do you and I – do we – understand each other?”).

The art and science of we-interpretation is typically called hermeneutics.

‘But I can also attempt to study this “we” from the outside [Octant 4], perhaps as a cultural

anthropologist, or an ethnomethodologist, or a Foucauldian archaeologist...And so on around

the quadrants. Thus, 8 basic perspectives and 8 basic methodologies.’ (The Octant designations

in brackets are mine.)

In other words, Wilber completely endorses the Left Octants (1,2,3 and 4) of the First Person

AQAL Cube, but he does not extend this argument to the First Person Right Hand Quadrants (5,

6, 7 and 8). He does, however, begin to address the objective-self issue:

‘If you get a sense of yourself right now – simply notice what it is that you call “you” – you

might notice at least two parts to this self: one, there is some sort of observing self (an inner

subject or watcher); and two, there is some sort of observed self (some objective things that you

can see or know about yourself… The first is experienced as an “I”, the second as a “me”… I

call the first the proximate self (since it is closer to “you”), and the second the distal self (since it

is objective and “farther away”).’

The Proximate and Distal Selves are an Octant 1 and Octant 5 differentiation on the First Person

AQAL Cube. Octant 5 is the Distal Self, or the way I formulate my Proximate Self as a Persona

in its true etymological sense, as my mask, as how “I” want others to identify with “Me”. This is

the All Level “Me” “Inside”. (Note: This differentiation of the Distal Self as Persona is not the

persona of fulcrum 4.) And the corresponding behavior of this Persona is “My” personality

“Outside”, where Octant 6 pertains to “My” personality through “My” behavior. The Enneagram

as elucidated by Riso[20] makes this differentiation very clearly.

Equally, our Social Persona or our identification with “Us” “Inside”, and our Social Personality

behavior in “Our” tribe “Outside”, follow the same First Person differentiations. These eight

important First Person Self-differentiations have not yet been made in Integral Psychology,

even though they are experientially self-evident to the point where Wilber himself has discussed

seven, including “Mine” and “Us”. Nevertheless our eight Selves remain a blind-spot in I.T.

NAVIGATING FULCRUMS AS A THIRD AXIS INJUNCTION

When we talk about the Self as navigating through the Levels, such as a Cognitive Fulcrum shift

in Octant 2 from Red to Orange, the integration of a Fulcrum shift with seven other Self-Octants

is a far more complex process than Integral Theory describes. The First Person AQAL Cube

shows that a Fulcrum shift, merely as an “Individual Quadrants” process, is a complex

integration between all four “Individuals” Octants 1, 2, 5 and 6; where stable Subjective identity

shifts (Octants 1 and 2) also need to be accompanied by stable Objective identity shifts (Persona,

and Behavioral Personality, Octants 5 and 6), shown in Fig. 7. (Note: the Intuitive Quadrants

pertain to Non-Local Consciousness and the Empirical Quadrants pertain to Local Mind).

Fig. 7. First Person “Individuals” Tetra-Dynamics

I propose that when our Proximate Self “I” (Octant 1) transcends and includes the previous

Fulcrum “I” (Octant 2) to its next Level of identity, the Proximate Self also becomes further

objectified as the Distal Self/Persona “Me” (Octant 5); and those identities then materially

consolidate as the next correlated structure stage of “My” Personality (Octant 6.). This is a very

tricky balancing act, and there is many a slip twixt cup and lip. I propose that this entire process

needs to be re-evaluated using the First Person AQAL Cube Octo-Dynamics. Integral Theory

lacks a First Person AQAL Cube model to map the Octo-Dynamics of psychopathology

associated with Fulcrum failures, or to map appropriate psychotherapies.

A very simple example of a psychotherapeutic, First Person, “Individuals” Tetra-Dynamic is the

breath cycle. In consciously taking and experiencing “My” breath (Octant 6), “I” experience a

calming of thoughts (Octant 2), which “I” Witness (Octant 1), as transforming “Me” (Octant 5).

This is how the breath cycle can be analyzed as a transformative meditative First Person AQAL

Cube practice towards greater self-awareness in vertically integrating the Third Axis between our

Subtle Consciousness and our Concrete Mind. In other words, every self-aware act we undertake

becomes potentially transformative.

THE THIRD AXIS INJUNCTION

At the heart of existence is the mystery of how Consciousness and Mind, as Subtle and Concrete

awareness respectively, are even able to make the three axial injunctions to assume all the above

resulting perspectives.

The AQAL Cube Third Axis injunction is approached from the most fundamental level - from

the Kosmic Zero Point of manifestation. The Two Axes of the Integral model emerge into

manifestation from the Kosmic Zero Point, as does the proposed Third Axis, in a correlated

symphony of change. From the onset of its tri-axial unfolding, an embedded and embodied

Subtle proto-conscious monad, processing its awareness via its Concrete proto-mind, ultimately

attains self-clarity and cognitive complexity respectively.

When we look at the Integral model as a process of triaxial unfolding, it becomes clear that each

injunction for each axis actuates a corresponding differentiation of primary perspectives, through

a classic sequence of four pivotal stages of Self-differentiation: The Id, as non Self-aware fused

Mind/Consciousness, at a Level of Concrete fascination; the Ego, as Self-aware fused Mind/

Consciousness, at a Level of Concrete identification; the Soul, as Self-aware Consciousness

differentiated from Mind, at a Level of Subtle identification; and finally the Witness, as pure

Self-awareness differentiated from Consciousness, at a Level of Causal identification.

I propose the above sequence results from the way each of the Three Axes arrives at its

injunction, which in turn is how an organism learns to orientate itself to and survive in its

environment: The Id identity primarily engages subject with object, or its interior with its

exterior (First Axis injunction), identifying through its feelings of hunger, fear, desire, anger

etc. Next the Ego identity primarily engages singular with plural, or as an individual in a

collective (Second Axis injunction), identifying through its role in the tribe etc. Finally the Soul

identity primarily engages the AQAL Subtle with the AQAL Concrete (Third Axis injunction),

through its capacity to differentiate its Subtle AQAL Consciousness from its correlated Concrete

AQAL Mind.

The Ancient Traditions explained our individual existence as being a series of embedded and

embodied Causal, Subtle and Gross sheathes (meaning they are each of them all-the-way-down,

all-the-way-up), which are our differentiated Concrete, Subtle and Causal awarenesses with their

correlated energy vehicles as discussed, and shown in Fig. 8.

Fig. 8. Causal (1), Subtle (2) and Gross Sheathes (3&4)

1. Causal Core as Witness. 2. Subtle Sheath as Consciousness.

3. Gross Sheath as Mind. 4. Gross Sheath as Body.

Simplistically, there seems to be a clear-cut linear sequence of our evolving Self-identification as

Ego, Soul and Witness through our Gross, Subtle and Causal Sheathes respectively, but in reality

the unfoldment is much more complex, messy and muddy.

Don Beck’s Spiral Dynamics Integral model[24] maps this unfoldment of awareness through

Three Tiers, the mechanics of which are not really explained by that model but are perfectly

explained by the AQAL Cube’s triaxial injunctions. Here our individual evolution is described

with the Newtonian/Wilber spectrum:

In First Tier, Infra Red through Green, our level of identification is our Concrete existence,

and that our materially-identified Self is the Id (Concrete fascination) leading to the Self-aware

Ego (autonomous Concrete Self). This is because our First Tier Consciousness-as-experiencer

is so identified with Mind-as-experience as to assume it is Mind. It subsequently assumes that

Mind is the Knower of the Known out there, and that the Body is its Means of Knowing. This

mistaken material Consciousness identity is called Ego.

In Second Tier, Blue through Indigo, our level of identification shifts to our ongoing Subtle

existence, and that our subtly-identified Self becomes the Self-aware Soul (autonomous Subtle

Self). Here, the Soul assumes a spiritual identity, where Consciousness assumes it is the Knower,

and that the Mind and Body are now its mere Means of Knowing. The Ego has been humbled,

and this new more subtle (yet still mistaken) Consciousness identity is called Soul. By definition,

Soul awareness now becomes truly Psychic, or spiritually aware of its Second Tier existence in

the Subtle Domain. This is a big leap of identification, culminating in Indigo, leading to our

psychic awareness of Subtle bodies and realms. This is modeled in the AQAL Cube as the Subtle

Quadrants, the awareness of which is the Third Axis injunction. It is called in Tibetan Buddhist

literature “the turning about in the seat of Consciousness”, meaning our awareness turns from

our Concrete to Subtle identity. It is a profound life-changing inner experience. For example,

here is where our Higher Mind, the Concrete vehicle of Soul, comes into play. At this Level the

Higher Mind now has the autonomy for non-local, out-of-body Astral experience because it

processes very fundamental levels of energy close to the Zero Point. In this context of the Third

Axis injunction, Don Beck’s claim - that not many have yet made Second Tier awareness - would

seem very much in order.

In Third Tier, Violet through Ultra Violet, our level of identification shifts to our ongoing

Causal existence, and that our causally-identified Self is the Self-aware Witness (autonomous

Causal Self). Here the Soul identity, in becoming aware of Pure Consciousness, shifts to the One

Knower; where Soul Consciousness is now yet another mere Means of Knowing along with

Mind and Body - a humbling experience indeed. In other words the Witness, on whatever Level

of the Consciousness Spectrum, is the true Experiencer of all its mistaken identities. Here, in

Enlightenment, we are aware of our Subtle and Concrete existence as not-two, as a total

integration of our One Being. At this Level, the Witness has the Causal Mind as its vehicle,

which is the Universal Mind, or Akasha. So in Third Tier the One Knower, as the Supreme

Identity (the I Am), ultimately makes Consciousness as transparent as Consciousness had made

Mind transparent in Second Tier. From initially being fused as a proto-conscious / proto-mind

monad, Pure Consciousness (as the Supreme Knower) and Universal Mind (as the Supreme

Knowledge) are ultimately not-two.

The above Three Tiers have also been described in synonymous First Person language used by

meditators. Our All-Level Consciousness monad identifies with, or attaches to, a specified Level

on the Spectrum of Consciousness according to its Level of Attention or Self-identification. The

At-tention is the Knower “holding on” to that Level. There are three Levels of Attention that

exactly correspond to the Three Tiers. The First Attention holds on hard to everyday physical

reality; the Second Attention lets go of Concrete reality to Subtle reality; and the Third

Attention is the big let-go to Causal reality. From the Attention, on whatever Level,

Consciousness can operate with Intention. I propose that In-tention, or “holding in”, is how

Subtle Consciousness initiates its own wave-collapse, thereby initiating a Concrete effect

through a correlated quantum of Mind. Mind is therefore the Extension, the “holding out” of

Subtle Consciousness to project an Intention into its coexistent Concrete reality as a particle with

Mass; and that Mass then achieves the desired Concrete effect as “en-ergia” meaning “at work”.

The converse is also true: To pass from Mind to Consciousness, such as in meditation, we Subtly

intend the suspension of Consciousness wave-collapse into Mind, resulting in the suspension of

Mind “en-quietus”, which is meditation. The conscious intent of a First Tier (fused)

Consciousness/Mind to meditate is to let go of Gross identification, and so dis-identify with the

Mind. This is the first step in moving towards a Second Tier perspective. Similarly, the conscious

intent of a Second Tier Consciousness to meditate is to suspend its collapse into Mind, resulting

in the No-Mind of Third Tier. This brings us to how states of Consciousness and Mind arise.

STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS AND MIND AS THIRD AXIS DYNAMICS

It has been discussed how the Three Tiers unfold when Consciousness, first identified and fused

with Mind, then dis-identifies and releases itself through three Levels of Attention (“holding

on”), resulting in the Three Tiers. Here I propose that all states of awareness, in a First Person

context, are caused in exactly the same way - by the Attention operating at various Levels, and in

various conditions of engagement and disengagement, between the Subtle Consciousness as

experiencer and the Concrete Mind as its correlated experience.

The First Person Octo-Dynamics are essentially between the Consciousness Quadrants 1,3,5 and

7, and the Mind Quadrants 2,4,6 and 8. Consciousness and Mind States pertain to the Self in

waking, dreaming, lucid dreaming, deep sleep, deep absorption meditation, out-of-body and

near-death experience, after-death experience and past life memories, hallucinogenic, hypnotic

and delusional states. Some of these evaluations stem from personal meditative experience.

In the waking state the Mind is in full physical (Concrete) awareness. In First Tier, Lower

Mind assumes itself as the knower of phenomena and identifies with its thoughts, emotions and

feelings. This is a result of being fused with Consciousness in a material identity we call Ego.

But in Second Tier, when Consciousness differentiates from the Mind, the assumption

accordingly shifts to Consciousness as the Knower of phenomena, with its Identity we call Soul.

Its Higher Mind correlate accordingly assumes itself as the means of knowing. In Third Tier,

the ever-awake Witness finally differentiates itself from Consciousness as the One Knower of

phenomena. Its Big Mind, or Akasha, is its correlated Experience. In the Non-Dual state, Mind,

Consciousness and Witness are Integral, as the All-Knower.

In dreaming sleep the Mind is in partial shutdown to allow its structures metabolize its waking

experience; and is able to remember its dreams on waking. However, Consciousness never shuts

down. In First Tier, if it is fused or over-identified with the Mind, then it plays no part in

dreaming sleep other than as a fused witness of the dreams. In this state the Conscious Identity is

fluid, and can change according to the dream. In Second Tier, the Conscious Self has

differentiated itself, and can witness and even participate in the Mind’s dream in a state called

lucid dreaming that has full conscious recall. In one lucid dream a far-away friend visited me

and we went on a lucid journey. The next morning she called me to ask if I had experienced it. In

Third Tier, lucid dreaming sleep is an Akashic experience of the Causal Mind.

In deep sleep there is total shutdown of the Mind. In First Tier, with a Consciousness fused or

over-identified with Mind, the result is total unconsciousness. In Second Tier, while the Mind is

in shutdown, the Consciousness can enter states of deep absorption into Causal Consciousness,

with total recall, as in Third Tier.

Deep absorption can also be entered with the waking Mind through meditation. Here the Mind

is shut down intentionally by the Attention. The Attention then surrenders its hold on all lesser

Consciousness identities until there is only the Third Tier Knower in Causal Consciousness.

In near-death experience a trauma shuts down the Mind, leaving the Conscious identity in

limbo and free to witness the transition from physical reality (such as the scene of an accident,

and leaving one’s body) to the non-physical reality of the after-death state, and finally the return

back to one’s body. There is a great amount of empirical evidence that comes with n.d.e’s, when

the brain and Mind flatline. In First Tier, Mind and Consciousness remain fused and the result

is an unconscious coma until reawakening. But in Second Tier, Consciousness is differentiated

and free to witnesses the surrounding events, along with many commonalities such as entering a

tunnel of light and entering non-material realms “beyond” the physical, all of which are

remembered despite the flatlined brain. This attests to the autonomy of non-local Consciousness

from the local reality of the Body-Mind. A key article in this regard is by Pim Van Lommel in the

Journal of Consciousness Studies[25], with the following Abstract: “In this article a concept of

Non-local Consciousness will be described, based on scientific research on Near Death

Experiences (NDE’s).”

In after-death experience, the physical body and Mind disintegrate, leaving the Consciousness

free to experience and identify with after-life phenomena at the Level to which it has evolved. In

First Tier, the process begins with the “death swoon” when Consciousness is fused with Mind

and lapses into unconsciousness when the Mind disintegrates. It then reawakens in whatever

after-death state, or Bardo, that corresponds to its Level of evolution; and remains in that after-

death experience until the time comes to choose a corresponding incarnation. In Second Tier,

Consciousness is drawn to the its Causal State and is given the opportunity to let go into post-

mortal Enlightenment. If it cannot, it retreats to whatever Bardo correlates to its Level of

evolution until the time comes to choose a correlated incarnation. In Third Tier, Consciousness

automatically merges with its Source in post-mortum Enlightenment. From the latter perspective

of Continuous Consciousness between incarnations, accounts of the after-death state come from

such Enlightened souls as the Buddha, living Dalai Lamas and bhodisattvas, whose words carry

great weight. A Dalai Lama consciously chooses the next reincarnation and is identified by the

devotees who find the child by its ability to correctly identify possessions from the previous life.

This is as empirical as it gets.

Hallucinogenic states can also lead to out-of-body experiences and n.d.e’s, following the same

process where the hallucinogen aids in the differentiation of a fully-awake Consciousness from a

fully-awake Mind, and where the resulting experience is Level-specific.

Hypnotic states have a similar cause, where the hypnotist aids in the differentiation of a fully-

awake Consciousness from a fully-awake Mind, and where the resulting experience is guided by

the hypnotist’s suggestion.

Delusional states such as Schizophrenia with multiple personalities usually happen at an early

fulcrum arrest of the Mind (Octant 2) due to trauma, where the fused First Person Consciousness

safely splits off the traumatized proximate “I” (Octant 1) as a compartmentalized distal

“Me” (Octant 5), accompanied by “My” sub-personalities (Octant 6).

There are also Mind States and Consciousness Structures. First Person Mind States are our

felt-states at All Levels of Mind, where feelings in both the experiential intelligence (Octant 2)

and correlated personality (Octant 6) form a combined experience, positive or negative, be it

anger, joy, hatred, love. First Person Consciousness Structures at All Levels are Non-Local, such

as the Attention that stabilizes our position on the Spectrum (Octant 1), or the Intention as a

behavioral motive of Consciousness (Octant 5).

From this brief survey it can be seen how such a very simple Third Axis dynamic, as Levels of

engagement and disengagement between the Subtle Consciousness and the Concrete Mind,

explains such an immense Octo-Dynamic complexity of awareness.

DISINCARNATE AND INCARNATE EXISTENCE

The direct implication of the above various states of Consciousness and Mind is the continuity of

Consciousness awareness after death, after the dissolution of the physical Body-Mind, and even

from life to life. In the Pali Canon[26] the Buddha is recorded to have said:

"There are four conditions of the embryo into the womb. Bretheren, in this world, one cometh

into existence in the mother's womb without knowing. This is the first. Bretheren, one cometh into

existence in the mother's womb knowingly, remaineth in it without knowing, and cometh out of it

without knowing. This is the second. Bretheren, in this world, one cometh into existence in the

mother's womb knowingly, remaineth in it knowingly, and cometh out of it without knowing. This

is the third. Bretheren, in this world, one cometh into existence in the mother's womb knowingly,

remaineth in it knowingly, and cometh out from it knowingly. This is the fourth."

In ancient Tibet the deep-absorption meditators were so adept at going into the after-life realms

that they compiled a detailed experiential map of after-death states that became “The Tibetan

Book of the Dead”. They called the after-death realms Bardos, which reflected the surviving

Consciousness of the deceased, the experience of which determined the nature and circumstances

of the next birth. An unbroken continuity of Consciousness as recommended by the Buddha led

to the best rebirth. For example, the next Dalai Lama is empirically chosen by his ability to

remember his previous life as Dalai Lama; and objects either precious or significant to him in

that life have to be identified by the new incarnation.

The Idealist view of this is that we each of us are a Consciousness Monad, an evolving entity

with our own agenda, similar to the Christian “Soul”. Our cognitive evolution in the Concrete

Domain is continuous from life to life following the continuity of the evolving Subtle

Consciousness. The implication here is that our Consciousness intends our incarnation, and that

our rebirth therefore has perfect continuity whether we remember the process or not. So the

traditional evolutionary debates, even in Integral circles, about the evolution of physical forms

are extremely one-sided. Even Wilber’s First Tier Integral model, in making no allowance for the

co-evolution of the Subtle Consciousness monad, has to try to explain the physical evolution of

Life-forms in the vague spiritual terminology of “Eros” and “Agape” drives, which advance the

debate no further than any other Primum Mobile “explanation”.

The Third Axis injunction clarifies this completely, in that the evolution/involution of the Subtle

Consciousness monad are the Eros/Agape drives. The more the Subtle Consciousness gets

involved in its Concrete Life, the more its Life and Mind get evolved into Consciousness. This

Third Axis dynamic can easily explain such phenomena a child prodigies and genius, when an

evolved Consciousness monad incarnates and can then “fast track” its cognitive development to

the Level it was at in a previous life.

Perhaps the most rigorous empirical experiments regarding Subtle disincarnate existence have

been done by Dr Gary Schwartz, U. Arizona[27] at the Human Energy Systems Laboratory.

Through a series of rigorous double blind experiments he had a number of reputable psychics

and mediums individually contact one named deceased entity per experiment, with living

relatives accessible for cross-confirmation under extremely isolated and insulated conditions,

asking the same list of of personal and intimate questions. In most experiments the psychics and

mediums averaged 80% unanimity. These experiments are ongoing to determine whether Subtle

conscious existence is parallel with physical Concrete existence.

The Afterlife Experiments beg the question of how the Subtle Consciousness extends its agenda

into Concrete Life. It is not only a question of how we choose our next incarnation, but also how

Subtle Consciousness meshes with Concrete Mind. This involutionary/evolutionary dynamic is

called Volution.

VOLUTION AS A THIRD AXIS DYNAMIC

We have seen how our evolving states of awareness, as a transcend-and-include dynamic, is

really a two-way process between the Subtle Consciousness Self and the Concrete Cognitive

Self. As Consciousness gets more and more involved in its physical life on the one hand, the

correlated Mind gets more and more evolved as a Consciousness vehicle on the other. This co-

involution/evolution process is called Volution. “Volution” is a holistic model of kosmic

manifestation presented by Peter Merry in a paper by the same title[28]: That as we involve so

we evolve, immediately feeding back the evolutionary information we acquire back into the

system.

“A Vector Equilibrium is six pairs of vectors, six polarities holding the structure in balance...

“It is literally a process of the integration of heaven and earth, of in-formation, as subtle energy

potential inspires (“breathes into”) physical form and physical form draws down the energy

through its density and gravity so it can manifest in three-dimensional reality...

“Seeing the Spiral in this way, as an example of a deeper creation dynamic, links it very closely

to the dynamics of the torus. It is essentially a spinning dynamic... Ultimately then we can look at

the human story more in terms of spin, pulses and breath, rather than linear evolution. It was this

realisation, that evolution and involution are both part of the core life process, and that it is

neither one without the other, that triggered me to use the term “volution” instead...

“If we are to adopt the perspective of volution as the framework for our understanding of the life

story, the great question remains: what is it that triggers disequilibrium in the unified field,

leading to a collapse within the (Vector Equilibrium), toroidial spin dynamics and the localized

manifestation of a life form? What creates life?...

“Marshall Lefferts shared how the quantum level is what bridges the unified field and manifest

reality. So the trigger must be related to the quantum field. He also shared how it is our

consciousness that impacts this quantum level. The implications are that it is consciousness that

can trigger the emergence of a life process through influencing probability in the quantum field.

“In-tention” literally means bringing something into tension and as we know from the above,

creative tension leads to manifestation. Conscious intention creates form – very literally in the

form of sacks of manure and garden tools in the Perelandra context (Small Wright 1997) I

understand the process as conscious intention bringing waves of potential into coherence, and

exerting a pull in the unified field which sets off the process of volution. Arthur Young stated

“The universe is a process put in motion by purpose”.

To go back to Wilber’s treatment of “subtle energies”, he calls for their emergence from the Zero

Point quantum vacuum, first as Concrete Prana, followed by what we now re-valuate as further

“fundamental Concrete energies”. Wilber shows these as following the evolutionary arrow in

tandem with the structures they co-evolve with. However, we have seen how volution tells an

additional story through exponential feedback; that as we move up the Ladder of Cognitive

structures, experienced in First Person as Mind, we are simultaneously opening the valve at Zero

Point to more and more Prana to power the exponential of information involved. Volving in this

way is with a Prana based meditation, from the Zero Point of unconscious quantum simplicity

at one end of the Concrete Spectrum to super-conscious Causal complexity at the opposite end.

It is a process of ultimately powering infinite Prana/Kundalini within our being from our Root

Chakra to our Crown Chakra. Clearly in this context the Chakras serve as portal interfaces

between our Subtle and Concrete awareness, whereby information through Intention can be

enacted through Extension.

Within the context of “fundamental Concrete energies”, what is actually going on here? Plank’s

law basically states that energy potential is in direct proportion to frequency. This is because the

higher its frequency, the more information energy can encode. So Prana at the level of

“unconscious quantum simplicity” is low frequency compared to Prana at the level of “super-

conscious Causal complexity”.

It would appear that Consciousness is the great Subtle organizing principle that organizes its

entry into Concrete existence; first through the “play doh” of Zero-Point physical matter, which

is then molded into a more advanced vehicle as physical Life. Seen in this way it could be said

that the origin of Life is Consciousness. Consciousness, as the experiencer, first organizes

organic intelligence as its primary means of physical experience; and that organic intelligence in

turn organizes inorganic intelligence as its secondary means of physical experience. Either way,

the Subtle Consciousness remains the experiencer; and Energy, whether organically intelligent as

Mind or inorganically intelligent as Artificial Intelligence, that Energy is merely its Concrete

experience. This is suggestive of an all-embracing Integral Relativity.

INTEGRAL RELATIVITY AND THE THIRD AXIS INJUNCTION

Throughout the broad spectrum of this Third Axis thesis, there has been an implied perspectival

Integral Relativity between Consciousness, Mind and Energy.

When the Spectrum of Consciousness is viewed in parallel with the Spectrum of Energy, our

evolution through the Spectrum of Consciousness leads us to Who we are, and our evolution

through the Spectrum of Energy leads us to What we are. Energy, or “en-ergia”, means “at

work”, implying that Energy can be correctly defined as the activity of a doer. If Subtle

Consciousness is the doer through Intent, and Energy is the doing through Extent, then Mind is

the Concrete experience of Subtle Consciousness “at work” as Energy; and when Consciousness

is “at rest”, “en-quietus”, implied is that there is no Mind, no Energy, only the Experiencer. This

is the basis of perspectival Integral Relativity.

In the section differentiating Mind and Consciousness through levels of perspective relativity

between Knower, Means of Knowing and Known, it became apparent that Consciousness, or the

Consciousness monad, or Soul, is simply the experiential projection of the Causal Witness into

Subtle reality. And similarly that Mind is simply the experiential projection of the Subtle

Consciousness into Concrete reality. This is downward causation, where the Knower through

experiential Knowledge assumes form; and upward causation is the reversal, where the Knower

through experiential Knowledge resumes formlessness. Experiential Knowledge, or Mind, is

therefore a two-way mirror connecting the Knower to the Known, where downward causation is

the pursuit of experiential Knowledge of the Known, and upward causation is the pursuit of

experiential Knowledge of the Knower. This was the famous injunction of Socrates - “Know thy

Self”, meaning the Supreme Knowledge of the Supreme Knower.

In other words Existence through all its Levels is a holarchy of Witness perspectives. But

because the Knower is Level-specific, according to its position on the Consciousness Spectrum,

any “reality” being witnessed is relative to that Level of witnessing. An illusion is therefore an

“apparent reality” when it has no transparency on that Level of witnessing, where the greater

reality behind it cannot be seen until evolving to a higher Level. Wherever our Consciousness is

located on the Spectrum, that is the Level of reality we identify with. The relativity between

Consciousness and Energy is therefore Level-specific throughout the Consciousness/Energy

Spectrums. This hypothesis is again supported by Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, which

demonstrates how subject and object, as observer and observed, are mutually inclusive as a

perspective-induced illusion; and that in the relative realms of manifestation, nothing is certain.

The inference here is that only the undifferentiated One Knower is the One Certainty, the One

Reality, from which emerges this proposal of the “Three Tenets of Integral Relativity”:

The First Tenet of Integral Relativity is a transcendent but inclusive interpretation of General

Relativity - that Energy and Mass are inter-relatable. Extending that through the Third Axis

injunction, it is proposed:

The First Tenet of Integral Relativity is “The Equation Of Energy With Consciousness”,

which states: “The Knower taking Subtle perspectives is Consciousness, and Consciousness

acting through those perspectives is Energy; where full-spectrum Consciousness initiates full-

spectrum activity as Intent; and where full-spectrum Energy, both Subtle and Concrete, is the

vehicle, or Extent, of that Intent.”

In other words, Full-Spectrum Consciousness at work is Full-Spectrum Energy, whether Local or

Non-local. The Energy Spectrum is therefore the matrix, the vehicle, of the Consciousness

Spectrum. Vehicle here includes Subtle vehicles, as well as the Concrete vehicles of Mind and

Body. Car and driver on all Levels.

The Second Tenet of Integral Relativity is a transcendent but inclusive interpretation of the Law

of Conservation of Energy - that Energy cannot be created nor destroyed, but only transformed

from one state to another. It is proposed that:

The Second Tenet of Integral Relativity is “The Law of Conservation of Consciousness”,

which states: “Consciousness cannot be created nor destroyed, but only transformed from one

state to another.”

In other words, the Consciousness-Energy continuum is all-pervasive - infinite and eternal. In

this light, the Equation Of Energy With Consciousness and the Law of Conservation of

Consciousness essentially become spiritual laws, in bearing out Gautama Buddha’s assertion in

the Pali Canon of the continuity of Consciousness between incarnations. This implies that we

even intend our incarnations in an on-going imperative to return to the Source, to the One

Knower.

This brings us to the final element of the Integral Relativity equation. In General Relativity,

physical light is Einstein’s Universal Constant in Locality. In Integral Relativity the Non-local

Kosmic Constant is the Kosmic Light, as the One Knower. If Subtle Consciousness is the

“heads” side of the coin, and Concrete Mind is the “tails”, then the coin itself is the Kosmic

Constant, the One Knower. As such, the Knower would be the true Unifier, the carrier wave of

all superimposed modulations of Consciousness and Mind. Without any Intent there is only the

carrier wave, the “Primordial Vibration”, the “OM”, which is Pure Consciousness, or No-Mind.

So the Third Tenet of Integral Relativity is a transcendent and inclusive interpretation of

Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, via Plank’s Constant: where the very act of measuring an

energetic phenomenon causes a quantitative and qualitative indeterminacy, the outcome of which

nevertheless conforms to the direct proportionality of that energy to its frequency as per

Plank’s constant. Given the infinite primordial frequency of infinite energy, it is proposed that:

The Third Tenet of Integral Relativity is “The Law of Kosmic Constancy”, which states:

“The one Constant through which all subsequent phenomena can be determined, as Known, is

the Primordial Frequency of Primordial Energy; and via the First Tenet, that Constant is therefore

the One Knower”.

In other words, from such a perspective, the non-differentiated Pure Consciousness Subject as

the infinite eternal Supreme Knower, and the undifferentiated Pure Energy Object as the

infinite eternal Supreme Knowledge, are not-two. It is the culmination of all previous Levels of

Epistemic and Ontic AQAL world views, of all knower-to-known polarities, such as Subject to

Object, First Person to Third Person, Subtle Consciousness to Concrete Life; where an evolving

AQAL world-view elevates the assumed Knower up a mountain of mistaken identities, from

Mind/Ego to Consciousness/Soul to Supreme Witness at the top. In that analogy, a Second Tier

Consciousness monad (a Blue to Indigo Climber) appreciates the view from half-way up the

mountain of Cognitive structures. But the Integral Relativity here is whether the Climber is

ascending to the top or descending from the top, giving two completely different views from that

altitude. This is the Third Axis volutionary dynamic.

CONCLUSION

The evidence is overwhelming that Integral Theory is conflated (if not to use the dreaded “f”

word flatland!) in two major areas: As the AQAL Square, in lacking the differentiation of Subtle

AQAL dimensions of Consciousness and Energy from the Concrete AQAL dimensions of Mind

and Energy; and again as the AQAL Square, in lacking the additional dimensions of an AQAL

Cube-per-Person. This extensive conflation has prevented Integral Theory from evolving in the

way it should, into a very expanded dimensionality of Second Tier modeling.

It is one thing for someone down in the First Tier flatlands to look half way up the mountain to

Second Tier and draw their conclusions of what it is like to be up there. It is another thing to be

half way up the mountain looking down on Flatland, at the orderly grid of streets and backyards,

observing all the coming and going. Integral Theory will become a tool that truly helps the

course of human evolution when it elevates to a Second Tier model used by Second Tier

practitioners. Guidance and leadership in this world need to come from top-down. Without

moving experientially into the Second Tier dimension of Consciousness as Soul, wherein we are

truly Integral, Integral Theory will remain stuck in a horizontally-stagnant flat-landed First Tier

concept.

The First Tier AQAL Square model leads to an understanding of Concrete reality, of Life and of

Mind. The Second Tier AQAL Cube model is a call to our differentiated Subtle Consciousness, a

call to wake up. The culmination of the Integral model is AQAL Enlightenment, where an

individual has evolved all Quadrants of knower and known all the way up to a Supreme

Knower (Causal Consciousness) of a Supreme Knowledge (Causal Mind) in “Ultra-Violet”.

REFERENCES

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Space. Physical Interpretations of Relativity Theory. British Society for Philosophy of Science

Conference. Imperial College London.

4. Pusey, M.F., Barrett, J., Rudolph, T. On The Reality Of The Quantum State. arXiv1111.3328.

5. Radin, D. 2013. www.deanradin.com/papers/Physics%20Radin%20final.pdf

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About Lexi Neale

1966-1969, B.Sc. Zoology and Psychology, London University. 1971 he met his thirteen-year-old Master, Prem Rawat, just arrived from India. Prem Rawat teaches a time-honored integral practice that he calls Knowledge of the Self – as in Know the Knower. Lexi Neale is affiliated with The Prem Rawat Foundation, an award-winning charity providing aid for the relief of human suffering. Contact www.tprf.org and wopg.org. He is an Integral Theorist and a member of the Integral Research Center. Contact Lexi Neale personally at lexneale.integral@gmail.com