I sense he has a more boundless sense of our divine agency than he shares publicly. Things he's experienced personally and/or heard from others. I could be wrong of course!
In a similar vein to Richard Rohr for me is Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The Lutheran theologian who was executed by the Nazis. Somebody I intend to read more of this year.
This will sound very out of place, but healthy gamer on YouTube has memberships where he talks about psycho/spiritual stuff, giving concrete actions for evolution of our inner world. Highly useful and not just philosophy.
Thanks Tom, I resonate with your journey through the quadrants, and I can also see how each of them has played a necessary role in the gradual flowering of my own awakening and integration.
Reading this stirred a further question for me, about how much weight we place on frameworks and theories of consciousness, and on our efforts to work it all out or master it all.
If we trust that we’re intelligently designed, then perhaps we also have to trust that the primary “technology” for the unfolding of consciousness is already within us. That’s what the great spiritual traditions consistently point toward. Models and language can be genuinely helpful - they give us language and something to point towards. The teacher who appears when we are ready can be crucial for opening us to the next step.
At the same time, I’ve noticed in myself how easily the pursuit of being more conscious, more awakened, or more evolved can become another subtle way the ego stays in charge. When that happens, the effort to grow can become an obstacle to growth itself. My drive to understand can become a refined way of avoiding the real inner work, which often unfolds in ordinary life - and in a sense, cannot be rushed.
I suspect the great contemplatives and mystics would agree that one sign of maturing consciousness is a loosening of our urgency to get somewhere. Less striving to understand, and more willingness to stay with what is unresolved, uncomfortable, or beyond our control. At times, my appetite for reading, listening, and mapping feels like a way of staying slightly ahead of myself, rather than fully with myself.
In periods that feel akin to the deeply illuminative dark night, I’ve noticed a sudden distaste for much of the material I once relied upon, even if only for a time. Not because there is anything wrong with the material, but because something deeper has begun to take precedence.
The more I’ve learned to attend to my inner life, the more I sense that consciousness is already unfolding in its own way and time (God’s time?). My role feels less like directing the process, and more like giving permission, clearing what gets in the way, and consenting to the ride. It’s more personal, and far more mysterious than any framework can capture, but it has been profoundly fruitful.
Like much of life, I now see that growing in consciousness involves a tension that can’t be resolved, only lived: between seeking understanding, doing the inner work, and letting go enough for the unfolding to happen in its own time and way.
Yes/and: and you’ve written: “I’ve noticed a sudden distaste for much of the material I once relied upon, even if only for a time. Not because there is anything wrong with the material, but because something deeper has begun to take precedence.”
The question I ask is could that presence have taken place without first going through that material? I think that the place you are in is paradoxically what the later point of a process looks like. The inescapable fact remains that some people are further along the path than others, and therefore there must be some levels to it. But that higher levels don’t look like anything that we would understand as agency and are therefore quite hard to identify and even harder to express. But I believe it’s something like where my will and “thy will” become indistinguishable.
Yes, I don't have any issues with naming 'levels' or stages, and no doubt the material consumed as been important for my evolution. But there have also been times when I have had to consciously restrain the drive to 'understand more', in order to honour and trust the deeper wisdom at work. Part of good discernment, I suppose - not just being deliberate about what content we consume, but when and how much...and to what degree we allow it to shape or limit us. Reminded of Pascal - “All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”
Totally, and I definitely err on the side of reading and learning too much. I get better with time at just not reading anything for 6 to 8 weeks until I get really enthusiastic about something which to be honest is more fun.
Tom - I hugely appreciate this piece of work. Our journeys are extremely similar, but you have made it quicker into the top right quadrant and are now shining a torch back into the darkness for the rest of us.
Joe Hudson of Art of Accomplishment. He is a coach in Silicon Valley. His work is basically emotional/somatic intelligence in a type A personality wrapper. Taking his Connection Course with my wife was the single most impactful thing I've done to show up in the world differently. More eye contact. More crying. More connection.
His Master Class course opened me up to allow love in undefended (occasionally, although much more than before). I now regularly catch the various ways at which I deflect compliments. It has been a great joy in my life to feel comfortable (and worthy) asking for compliments again to let them sink in.
That said, I don't think I would have been open to it it I wasn't reading your work over the years Tom. Much love!
that’s super interesting! The third time he’s come up! He actually did a very powerful coaching session for leading edge! Very gratifying to hear he did transformational work in your own life.
Great article and description of your journey, Tom. Thank you. I would add Patrick Connor to the 4th quadrant and Justin Patrick Pierce and Londin Angel Winters, teachers who walk their walk, awakening through 2-bodied practice.
Thanks for this great article, I found if very clarifying. I feel like I spend some time in each quadrant on a daily basis. In my life though I never made significant process as an Agentic Fool, so even the few times each week I'm perhaps in Agentic Sage - it still feels like Spriitual Bypassing, since I'm on marginal ground financially.
AI and Behavioral Science in grad school 35/40 years ago made me aware of how distorted our memories are, how we jump to conclusions, and seek narrative and authority to soothe our uncertainty. Took me 20+ years to come to grips with how all the pieces fit together on how so many people can be so easily manipulated, although it's still a work in progress. Not looking for gurus or spirituality, so I guess my top right quadrant is a mirror. But I really appreciate your perspective which is so different than mine, but often leads to similar conclusions. Perhaps there are infinite paths in an infinite universe?
Yeah it’s been fun to have so many discussions about the quadrants; I think I could have made it clearer that the thinkers in each quadrant represent my journey rather than solely how I feel about them this thinkers.
It’s so nice to see someone give @timfreke some credit. I stumbled across his work a few years ago and it instantly filled a lot of holes and gaps I had with my own questioning. It gave shape and credence to my intuitions. I can’t recommend him enough!
I still cannot figure out why he is not more commonly known! It feels like this
moment in history is desperate for a spiritual vision that can hold more of reality together without diminishing any of the beliefs people already hold dear (religion, science, god, individuality, etc). To me his work is an incredible contribution in synthesizing and moving the needle forward.
His role of the individual in terms of the importance of both individuality and integration seems like a huge missing piece to me despite simplicity. It also supports your point, and also my confusion is that he appears to have had a conversation with literally every great mind of our era…
The ‘What is Life?’ Series is incredible. It’s refreshing in a time with so much pointed conversation and prognostication about ‘the situation we are in.’ You get the sense listening to it that many of these incredible thinkers (McGilchrist, Vervaeke, Sheldrake, Schmactenbeeger, etc) were not prepared to have someone ask them a question as simple, yet as rare as ‘what do you think this is?’ (By which he means Reality/Existence/Life/Cosmos). It’s such a fundamental question that the modern world seems to have completely stopped asking, or taking seriously, yet clearly deep intellectual thinkers such as the ones Tim interviews still ponder the nature of reality, they just rarely get to express their thoughts, which Tim coaxes out of them so thoughtfully. It’s a joy to listen to. He also is just a radically positive and cheerful person that leads from such a sincere place, it’s hard not to like the guy…
I interviewed him recently and was just really struck by how often he laughs: underrated from people in this sphere. Part of the reason I like amplifying his work, look around and try and find me someone with an optimistic view of humanity. That’s well founded.
> While I find the video game term Non-Player Character (NPC) unpleasantly dehumanising, I’d broadly class “NPC content” as politics, news, celebrity gossip and sports
Surprised by the absence of developmental language around this, i.e. there’s a stage of everyone’s social development when it’s right to be fascinated by what other people are doing, as we’re building theory of mind, choosing role models, practicing conformance to group norms and values, etc.
The problem of “NPC content” is, as you say, one of excess consumption driving negativity spirals, but it rides on top of something totally natural.
I wrote this to try and address the developmental aspect. “Moreover, like stages models, these content types build on themselves sequentially. As with most things, it’s a holarchy not a hierarchy. It’s hard to be materially successful without a basic understanding of what’s happening in the world. It’s then easier to focus on deliberately evolving your consciousness after your basic economic needs have been met. This balance then provides the foundation to use your skills and resources in a positive-sum way.”
I keep thinking about Richard Rohr - contemplation AND action. An off the record conversation with him would probably yield astonishing insights.
Hmmm, we have direct connections inside LE. What would you want to hear/learn?
I sense he has a more boundless sense of our divine agency than he shares publicly. Things he's experienced personally and/or heard from others. I could be wrong of course!
In a similar vein to Richard Rohr for me is Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The Lutheran theologian who was executed by the Nazis. Somebody I intend to read more of this year.
This will sound very out of place, but healthy gamer on YouTube has memberships where he talks about psycho/spiritual stuff, giving concrete actions for evolution of our inner world. Highly useful and not just philosophy.
I love that. And again: exactly why I write online, to find new people in places I’d never expect.
I definitely agree with you Varsha! I love the more esoteric and spiritual topics that Dr. K gets into on Healthy Gamer!
Thanks Tom, I resonate with your journey through the quadrants, and I can also see how each of them has played a necessary role in the gradual flowering of my own awakening and integration.
Reading this stirred a further question for me, about how much weight we place on frameworks and theories of consciousness, and on our efforts to work it all out or master it all.
If we trust that we’re intelligently designed, then perhaps we also have to trust that the primary “technology” for the unfolding of consciousness is already within us. That’s what the great spiritual traditions consistently point toward. Models and language can be genuinely helpful - they give us language and something to point towards. The teacher who appears when we are ready can be crucial for opening us to the next step.
At the same time, I’ve noticed in myself how easily the pursuit of being more conscious, more awakened, or more evolved can become another subtle way the ego stays in charge. When that happens, the effort to grow can become an obstacle to growth itself. My drive to understand can become a refined way of avoiding the real inner work, which often unfolds in ordinary life - and in a sense, cannot be rushed.
I suspect the great contemplatives and mystics would agree that one sign of maturing consciousness is a loosening of our urgency to get somewhere. Less striving to understand, and more willingness to stay with what is unresolved, uncomfortable, or beyond our control. At times, my appetite for reading, listening, and mapping feels like a way of staying slightly ahead of myself, rather than fully with myself.
In periods that feel akin to the deeply illuminative dark night, I’ve noticed a sudden distaste for much of the material I once relied upon, even if only for a time. Not because there is anything wrong with the material, but because something deeper has begun to take precedence.
The more I’ve learned to attend to my inner life, the more I sense that consciousness is already unfolding in its own way and time (God’s time?). My role feels less like directing the process, and more like giving permission, clearing what gets in the way, and consenting to the ride. It’s more personal, and far more mysterious than any framework can capture, but it has been profoundly fruitful.
Like much of life, I now see that growing in consciousness involves a tension that can’t be resolved, only lived: between seeking understanding, doing the inner work, and letting go enough for the unfolding to happen in its own time and way.
Thanks for the great value you continue to offer!
Yes/and: and you’ve written: “I’ve noticed a sudden distaste for much of the material I once relied upon, even if only for a time. Not because there is anything wrong with the material, but because something deeper has begun to take precedence.”
The question I ask is could that presence have taken place without first going through that material? I think that the place you are in is paradoxically what the later point of a process looks like. The inescapable fact remains that some people are further along the path than others, and therefore there must be some levels to it. But that higher levels don’t look like anything that we would understand as agency and are therefore quite hard to identify and even harder to express. But I believe it’s something like where my will and “thy will” become indistinguishable.
Yes, I don't have any issues with naming 'levels' or stages, and no doubt the material consumed as been important for my evolution. But there have also been times when I have had to consciously restrain the drive to 'understand more', in order to honour and trust the deeper wisdom at work. Part of good discernment, I suppose - not just being deliberate about what content we consume, but when and how much...and to what degree we allow it to shape or limit us. Reminded of Pascal - “All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”
Totally, and I definitely err on the side of reading and learning too much. I get better with time at just not reading anything for 6 to 8 weeks until I get really enthusiastic about something which to be honest is more fun.
There’s a funny paradox to the effect of: “stages models are a very orange thing to be interested in.”
Love this. I’m reading Springett’s The Stairway to Heaven right now and this really resonates! :)
Thanks Stephan! we interviewed her recently and it was super fun https://newsletter.theleading-edge.org/p/the-light-at-the-top-of-the-stairway?r=2613wg
So useful and practical:
"I’ve found it really helpful to mentally pass each book, podcast and article I consume through the quadrant filter first."
It literally only started happening since I wrote this article
Thomas merton, jonathan pageau, yoshi matsumoto
Tom - I hugely appreciate this piece of work. Our journeys are extremely similar, but you have made it quicker into the top right quadrant and are now shining a torch back into the darkness for the rest of us.
Thank you.
Shane
Too generous! I think a lot of people will look at me, and my choices, and laugh. But I really appreciate you saying.
Joe Hudson of Art of Accomplishment. He is a coach in Silicon Valley. His work is basically emotional/somatic intelligence in a type A personality wrapper. Taking his Connection Course with my wife was the single most impactful thing I've done to show up in the world differently. More eye contact. More crying. More connection.
His Master Class course opened me up to allow love in undefended (occasionally, although much more than before). I now regularly catch the various ways at which I deflect compliments. It has been a great joy in my life to feel comfortable (and worthy) asking for compliments again to let them sink in.
That said, I don't think I would have been open to it it I wasn't reading your work over the years Tom. Much love!
that’s super interesting! The third time he’s come up! He actually did a very powerful coaching session for leading edge! Very gratifying to hear he did transformational work in your own life.
Great article and description of your journey, Tom. Thank you. I would add Patrick Connor to the 4th quadrant and Justin Patrick Pierce and Londin Angel Winters, teachers who walk their walk, awakening through 2-bodied practice.
Oh so interesting thanks: Patrick has come up a lot but not the other 2, thanks for the pointer!
Thanks for this great article, I found if very clarifying. I feel like I spend some time in each quadrant on a daily basis. In my life though I never made significant process as an Agentic Fool, so even the few times each week I'm perhaps in Agentic Sage - it still feels like Spriitual Bypassing, since I'm on marginal ground financially.
Thanks Sam- I think we need to be very self aware that we all spend lots of time in each quadrant, I guess the balance is key.
AI and Behavioral Science in grad school 35/40 years ago made me aware of how distorted our memories are, how we jump to conclusions, and seek narrative and authority to soothe our uncertainty. Took me 20+ years to come to grips with how all the pieces fit together on how so many people can be so easily manipulated, although it's still a work in progress. Not looking for gurus or spirituality, so I guess my top right quadrant is a mirror. But I really appreciate your perspective which is so different than mine, but often leads to similar conclusions. Perhaps there are infinite paths in an infinite universe?
Yeah it’s been fun to have so many discussions about the quadrants; I think I could have made it clearer that the thinkers in each quadrant represent my journey rather than solely how I feel about them this thinkers.
Fair point Tom. You got me on that one. Ya gotta walk the talk to get in the upper right hand corner.
(Not that I’m dad or husband of the year)
Excellent conversation starter Tom. By what criteria are you estimating agency?
Thank you! How effectively you can align “thy will” with “my will”. Where your ego merges with the Tao.
Sound criteria. I have a few other such maps to share with you.
Exciting: why I write in public is to get better answers and good inputs.
We have a chat coming up.
It’s so nice to see someone give @timfreke some credit. I stumbled across his work a few years ago and it instantly filled a lot of holes and gaps I had with my own questioning. It gave shape and credence to my intuitions. I can’t recommend him enough!
I still cannot figure out why he is not more commonly known! It feels like this
moment in history is desperate for a spiritual vision that can hold more of reality together without diminishing any of the beliefs people already hold dear (religion, science, god, individuality, etc). To me his work is an incredible contribution in synthesizing and moving the needle forward.
His role of the individual in terms of the importance of both individuality and integration seems like a huge missing piece to me despite simplicity. It also supports your point, and also my confusion is that he appears to have had a conversation with literally every great mind of our era…
The ‘What is Life?’ Series is incredible. It’s refreshing in a time with so much pointed conversation and prognostication about ‘the situation we are in.’ You get the sense listening to it that many of these incredible thinkers (McGilchrist, Vervaeke, Sheldrake, Schmactenbeeger, etc) were not prepared to have someone ask them a question as simple, yet as rare as ‘what do you think this is?’ (By which he means Reality/Existence/Life/Cosmos). It’s such a fundamental question that the modern world seems to have completely stopped asking, or taking seriously, yet clearly deep intellectual thinkers such as the ones Tim interviews still ponder the nature of reality, they just rarely get to express their thoughts, which Tim coaxes out of them so thoughtfully. It’s a joy to listen to. He also is just a radically positive and cheerful person that leads from such a sincere place, it’s hard not to like the guy…
I interviewed him recently and was just really struck by how often he laughs: underrated from people in this sphere. Part of the reason I like amplifying his work, look around and try and find me someone with an optimistic view of humanity. That’s well founded.
Do you have a podcast or YouTube of the interview? I’d very much like to hear that conversation…
I’ll also have to look more into your writing, I just came across it from a repost by (drumroll) Tim!
Loved it: https://newsletter.theleading-edge.org/p/at-the-leading-edge-of-a-new-worldview?r=2613wg
> While I find the video game term Non-Player Character (NPC) unpleasantly dehumanising, I’d broadly class “NPC content” as politics, news, celebrity gossip and sports
Surprised by the absence of developmental language around this, i.e. there’s a stage of everyone’s social development when it’s right to be fascinated by what other people are doing, as we’re building theory of mind, choosing role models, practicing conformance to group norms and values, etc.
The problem of “NPC content” is, as you say, one of excess consumption driving negativity spirals, but it rides on top of something totally natural.
Not sure if you mean by me or in general?
I wrote this to try and address the developmental aspect. “Moreover, like stages models, these content types build on themselves sequentially. As with most things, it’s a holarchy not a hierarchy. It’s hard to be materially successful without a basic understanding of what’s happening in the world. It’s then easier to focus on deliberately evolving your consciousness after your basic economic needs have been met. This balance then provides the foundation to use your skills and resources in a positive-sum way.”
Oh yes, I did miss that part
Peter Kingsley
Here’s in there too for me.
Where would you place parts work such as IFS?
Good question, it’s a big hit within leading edge but I’m not up to speed beyond having 6 sessions