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FAQs > Questions About the Colors in Spiral Dynamics
Chris Cowan applied the color scheme to Dr. Graves' levels of existence in the 1970s when he was making title slides for use in teaching the theory. The color code was created as a design element for training materials and became a common language when included as part of the publication of the Spiral Dynamics book by Beck and Cowan in 1996. While there was a loose metaphor behind the colors, Cowan didn’t intend any metaphysical significance or derive the colors from chakras or any other system. The ordering was deliberately picked to differ from the visible light spectrum, though we've received complaints now and then from literal-minded folks asking if we can recognize a rainbow when we see one. The color code has taken on a life of its own (colors becoming memes), sometimes to the detriment of the spiral and Gravesian models since color-speak makes discussion of the transition states almost impossible. The Gravesian letter pairs—admittedly somewhat tedious to learn at the outset—offer far more power with differentiations like CP/dq versus DQ/cp possible. Some who fall into the trap of color-speak jargon then use it like a judgmental
paintball gun to compliment
friends and assault foes because they simply don’t understand the
theory and the idea that the systems are inherently neutral
containers. It's their contents and manifestations which are
for-better or for-worse in contexts. While the Spiral colors have become a
lingua franca for some spin-off movements and spread widely by some
knock-off artists, we don’t put much store in the colors, per
se, and continue to teach a terminology closer to Gravesian roots than the pop-spirituality
derivatives because they offer more explanatory power.
The First Subsistence Level: The AN or Autistic Existential State "Express self as if just another animal according to the dictates of one's imperative physiological needs and the environmental possibilities" SurvivalSense: Instinctive AN/bo
"Sacrifice one's desires to the ways of one's elders" KinSpirits: Clannish BO/cp
"Express self to hell with others lest one suffer the torment of unbearable shame" PowerGods: Egocentric CP/dq
"Sacrifice self now to receive reward later" TruthForce: Purposeful DQ/er
"Express self for what self desires, but in a fashion calculated not to bring down the wrath of others." StriveDrive: Strategic ER/fs
"Sacrifice now in order for get acceptance now and so all get now" HumanBond: Relativistic FS/a'n'
"Express self for what self desires but never a the expense of others, and in a manner that all life, not just my life, will profit." FlexFlow: Systemic A'N'/b'o'
GlobalView: Holistic Metaphor Level Understanding and Use - Paintball
This style of the second of five levels of understanding was made popular in early applications of Graves and revived in many ‘integral’ attempts beginning in the early 2000s to absorb and digest the Spiral Dynamics color code. Use of color-coded jargon conveys mystique and an air of erudition to awe the naïve listener and leave the speaker/writer/critic unchallenged. Yet the use was haphazard and tended to be more a reflection of the speaker's own inner machinations than anything the more thoughtful analysis required to reach theoretically sound conclusions. It’s easy to slap on colors; it’s hard to explain why they’re justified. We call the metaphor level approach of the color code the ‘paintball approach.’ The gun (the observer), the balls (the SD colors), and any random target – person or idea - will do. When playing, knowledge and accuracy become less relevant because players have somehow entered an age of "I think; I type; therefore, my text is truth," and it appears on the internet for all to marvel over. With the vision of a potential viewership of millions comes conviction that the linkage is infallible. Yet those linkages, in most cases, tend to be simplistic complex equivalencies with single-symptom analysis that relies on metaphorical and content-only connections of peripheral effluvia. From small signs grand conclusions easily grow at the metaphor level. The broad use of the SD color code becomes like a Rorschach test with each user’s ideas, opinions, and views legitimized by citing the "science" of Graves, yet with most metaphor-level claimants having only a rudimentary understanding of what Graves did and did not conclude. So wild claims go unfiltered, unchallenged, and unchecked. The lingo drawn from Spiral Dynamics becomes a whole new way to be taken seriously and uncontested behind a cover of inscrutability. The situation has become more confounding as a race emerged in discussion groups, blogs, and threads where anonymous individuals holding similar interests sought to outdo one another in the exhilarating new game of Spiral Paintball. Virtually anything that gets a person's attention - whether an idea, behavior, person, or incident - it doesn’t matter. It gets "colored," sometimes more like a child with a new box of crayons scribbling indiscriminately upon walls and furniture rather than cogent analysis. Paint balling becomes name calling – both compliments and curses. In those rare instances when there is something Gravesian in the discussions, the likelihood of accuracy in the labeling tends to be one-in-ten. To up those odds, users must stretch beyond the comfort zone of pigmented personality and look to the double-helix biopsychosocial elements at work.
* * For those who are curious, the colors were chosen back in the 1970's by Chris Cowan as a design element for 35mm title slides. They were for aesthetic proposes and to make B&W titles more attractive, not theoretical labels. Dr. Graves never used colors; they are not his and those who present them as such demonstrate a lack of background. In addition, there is no intentional correlation with the chakras or any other model, and the colors have only slight metaphorical significance as a memory aid and explained in the book, Spiral Dynamics, and elsewhere on this site. Sources for this page include Dr. Graves' 1981 and 1982 Summary Statements, as well as other published and unpublished materials. See the clarewgraves.com website for more references, as well as links to other applications of Dr. Graves' work.
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