The Four Levels

Every person is naturally at a different stage on their journey to god or death or whatever. In his book, Further Along the Road Less Traveled, scott peck theorized that there are four stages of spiritual growth that a person may go through. Once I started categorizing people I knew into his system, I found a vast amount of truth in it.

Stage one :
- Chaotic, reckless, and disordered.
- Defiant and disobedient to everybody. Believe nobody is above themselves.
- Comparable to young children, some criminals, and low IQ individuals.

Stage two :
- Blind faith in God or authority.
- Attached to own self's views, doesn't question anything.
- Visualizes God as external, as a "Giant benevolent cop in the sky".
- Most law-abiding citizens never really move out of this category.

Stage three :
- Parents are generally stage two.
- Literal and scientific minded.
- Questions dogma and religion.
- Often agnostic, doubters of their religion, or atheist.
- Belief is gone. Everything has to be proven to them.
- Many teachers, press, teenagers, college students reside in this category for life.

Stage four :
- Enjoys the beauty of life and nature.
- Acquires a deeper understanding of the questions of life (good and evil, death, purpose of life, compassion and love).
- Can be of any religion or even atheist, and doesn't blindly accept things, but does so out of genuine belief.
- Doesn't judge others harshly, and rids themselves of ignorance.
- Learn to really love self and others.

Don't make the mistake of seeing this as four distinct categories. It is a hierarchy system, meaning each stage is more spirituality mature than the last. Also, you don't have to
fit into a single category, you can have qualities from a few, although it's uncommon. Individuals in stage four have been labeled throughout the ages as mystics because they are able to see cohesion behind physical reality. Personally, I think the method to working your way towards stage four is to just ask questions. It doesn't take somebody extremely intelligent to achieve the last stage, it just takes somebody real and in touch with themselves and their lives. Ignorance will hinder your progress greatly though, so learn to be more open-minded.

I would love to say that I'm completely in stage four, but I don't think I can quite yet. There's still much I have to learn, and I still retain the thinking of "it must be proven to me" sometimes. What category are you in ?