Exercising my capacity to judge and take immediate responsibility for my behaviour

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In this episode Mats Edin describes how to transcend the "don't judge!," every perspective is equal, unhealthy "Green" swamp. He uses the model "It's your choice!", the three step-model, together with a developmental scale. In this example he goes 180 degrees against the "Green" Swedish pedagogy and has students judge their own and each others behaviour. The result is nothing less than rapid and dramatic transformation out of a very troubled situation.

"I asked twenty four thirteen year old kids to give a number on a scale between one and ten as to how much they contributed to the emotional and psychological climate in the class. Ten means ‘I take full responsibility for the whole class and I'm doing everything I can and even more.' One means ‘I am totally destroying everything all the time, trying to sabotage.'"

"This is the next level. My goal here was to point out, confront and have students map them selves on a development map. Because when you do that you can move forward."

The desperate need to transcend "Green" Swedish pedagogy
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In this episode Nick Drummond and Mats Edin discuss the model Spiral Dynamics and the desperate need for headmasters and teachers in Sweden to transcend 40 years of entrenchment in the unhealthy "Green" egalitarian (every perspective is equal) swamp.

"Green" Swedish pedagogy is preventing kids from moving into the "Blue" system and further along the Spiral. "Red" is romanticised by "Green" as being fully mature.

From "Greens" perspective "Blue" is not a necessary system through which an individual centred in "Red" has to pass through. Because from "Greens" perspective nobody has the authority to tell anybody else what to do!! Edin and Drummond see very few Swedish teachers being able to create a healthy "Blue" teaching environment, while those few teachers who are able to express strong healthy "Red" and "Blue" are looked down upon by their colleagues for lacking empathy, for being too rigid and authoritarian and for not showing any love and compassion. When "Green" has power it is politically incorrect to judge, to push, to demand, to insist on develop, and to say that maturity is vitally important. "Green" says: "Are you valuing people!? Are you saying that some people are better than other people!?" When "Green" is leading there can be no higher truths or comparison between truths. There is nothing more important than an individual's feelings and emotions, no higher purpose than "me feeling good".

"Blue" is seen as being too restrictive, and too authoritarian, while "Red" is seen as a true expression of authentic individual freedom.

When "Blue" morality is not recognized as being a necessary system that EVERYBODY has to pass though, then headmasters and teachers who are centred in "Green" sanction students centred in "Red" - from preschool age and up - to do whatever they feel like doing, whenever they feel like doing it, and without anybody having to take any responsibility for the results. Life conditions become so bad that the Green system either collapses or transforms.

When "Yellow", the seventh level system, awakens we become interested in asking the integral design equation: How should Who Teach Whom to do What? "Yellow" has the advantage of being able recognise vertical plurality - the ablity to distinguish between levels of depth and to unblock blockages along the Spiral.

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Nick Drummond talks with psychologist Mats Edin about a model they use which is called the leadership pyramid.The model is inspired by integral philosopher Ken Wilber and describes the relationship between depth and span. Depth refers to verticality or levels of development in human consciousness for example from egocentric, to group-centric, to worldcentric to kosmocentric.

Span is show on the horizontal axis and refers to the number of individuals and groups at each level. The diagram shows that the number of individuals and groups decreases as depth increases.

But the model can also be used to show a flip in perspective from no responsibility to taking full responsibility. At the bottom of the pyramid is a position of having many choices but not talking any responsibility. While at the top is the position of only having one choice which is to participate, and take more and more responsibility in the developmental process we are already a part of.

In the middle of the pyramid we find a barrier for this flip occurring. If we use Spiral Dynamics as our measure of depth, then in the middle we would find the sixth value system Green, expressed negatively, which holds the position: Don't judge! Everything is relative! The result is what Ken Wilber calls "flatland" a worldview that will not distinguish differences in levels of depth. There is nothing higher or anything lower. Everyone is equal. When this happens we find an unnatural hierarchy and chaos in the classroom. When negative Green pretends everyone in the classroom is equal Egocentric Red takes over and everyone ends up at the bottom of the pyramid. But when the teachers and school leaders awaken to what we call a natural hierarchy, they recognize verticality and move from the middle to the top of the pyramid, and all the levels become aligned. When this happens everyone is on their developmental edge, everyone is participating 100%, and in a sense everyone is together in a very natural way at the top of the pyramid.

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Our models are like maps that we can use to orient ourselves. Our best chance for mirroring your reflection and showing where you are is if we point to the middle of the pyramid over moral development. You are here. "Don't judge! Truth is relative!" (according to Green).

"There are as many truths as there are people."

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder."

"I'm not angry at you, I'm angry at what you do."

"It is always both who are to blame when two argue."

"Everything is relative."

Do you recognise these phases?

The top of the pyramid is pointed. It's easy to see how uncomfortable it might seem to be here and how much more comfortable and pleasurable it must be to be in the bottom regions of the pyramid: to be seen, without needing to be responsible.

So who is at the top? We name people like Nelson Mandela, Aung San Suu Kyi, Gandhi, Kofi Annan, Mother Theresa, Olof Palme and you. "Yes you", we say to a group of parents, teachers, or school leaders. Who else should be there if not you? You're responsible for your group of children, are you not? Is there really any difference? Between you and Mandela? Between being responsible for a small group of children or a whole country. Maybe, but the point is that they are depending on you; they trust that you will do what is best for them. They need you to see them. In every moment! Regardless of how you happen to be feeling.  

Here are more expressions that come from the middle of the Leadership Pyramid: 

• I'm a victim!
• It's society that has to change!
• We are all equal!
• I will never accept an idea that doesn't give everyone equal value.
• I am against all forms of elitism and segregation.
• Everyone is right!
• Everything is relative!
• All choices are equally good!
• Who is it that judges what is right anyway?
• Who is it that chooses?
• You write that schools must teach students to make good choices. But what is a good choice? What's good for me doesn't have to be good for you? Everyone is different.
• All children are born inherently good.
• We must place our trust in the goodness that exists in our youth.
• One should be proud that one exists.
• Don't judge or rank other people!
• I think it is very harmful and unwholesome to have children judge themselves or others.
• We are against using a scale to judge teachers, children or behaviour.
• I don't want to be judged!
• Everyone can decide.
• All truths are of equal value.
• Don't think that you are somebody special.
• I will always be proud of my children.
• Love means that you love your children no matter what.
• There is NO higher truth! Everyone has their own truth.
• I question if schools really are in the chaos you describe. Children are children.
• Children have to learn to get along with each other.
• It's good to be honest and show children how you are feeling, then they learn that adults can also have moods and be angry.
• It's wrong to discuss with others how they teach or lead. That's not my responsibility.
• We all need to be seen and praised, especially me.
• I get very angry when you say that teachers avoid taking responsibility and choose to be victims. 

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Nick Drummond talks with psychologist Mats Edin about the three-step model, which is used for creating more positive and more responsible behaviour in individuals and groups.

(NB: Each of the steps in the three steps can also be found in the widely accepted and evidence-based Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). What is new is that we introduce a perspective to each of the steps that shines light on our ability to take absolute responsibility for our behaviour and the choices we are making, and to do so immediately.)

Step 1: Give attention to positive behaviour
This is, optimally, the most important and perhaps also the most demanding step. The reason is that we are very unaccustomed to focus on the desired behaviour.

Give attention to, i.e. strengthen, reinforce and reward that which is positive and developmental.  How do we know or distinguish between what is positive and negative? What is developmental depends on the group, individual, context and perspective from which we look and judge what leads to development, for the group and for the individual.

How can we reward the positive in a way that is good? This is something we have to investigate and learn. We have for too long put all our energy and attention on that which is negative - it's time we do the opposite!

Step 2: Ignore negative behaviour
This step is very demanding because we will find ourselves compulsively wanting to reprimand, i.e. nag about negative behaviour. We must endure the feeling of "not doing or saying anything", and wait until the right moment arrives - one where we can reward the desired behaviour.

This step assumes that there is a functioning bond/relationship between the teacher/parent and the student/child. It doesn't help to ignore someone's behaviour if it doesn't mean anything for that person to be given attention by a particular adult. The adult's attention has to mean something and it can mean something relatively fast. For this the adult must have presence and attentiveness, i.e. the adult must shift his/her attention from themselves (emotions and thoughts) to the field of development that is already happening around them.

When we have done this they will want even more attention. Only when this is the case can we modify a particular behaviour by ignoring it. We must do this in a way that is subliminal. You can't ignore in an aggressive or conscious way - there is no aggression or showing of strong emotions (love or anger) whatsoever in any of the steps.

Not even in step three.

(NB. Negative behaviour tends to increase initially, sometimes radically, when we begin ignoring it, especially when we have always giving it attention. However after this initial period of hours, days or weeks it decreases as we keep on ignoring it and only reward positive behaviour. It is also indicates that the relationship is improving.)

Step 3:  Stop what has to be stopped
This step can also be called Yellow card/Red card because we should, in most cases like in sports, give one chance before a consequence, e.g. removal. This step could be very demanding because we are afraid to take a strong position. Here we must go all the way, i.e. never yield - no matter how angry or sad the child/adolescence becomes.

You are prepared to go all the way because you realise that a particular behaviour must be stopped.

"But we have tried stopping it many times and it just doesn't work!"

"Trying" doesn't really sound all that convincing. If we really want to stop a negative behaviour we do more than "try".  We just do it. This step needs to be taken only once by any adult. When we show the child or adolescent that we won't back down, no matter what they do, they stop testing and develop confidence in Life and in us.

In step three we can really free up our creativity and inventiveness. We need to think outside of the box and do what will shock people and have an effect - without being violent, offensive or misusing our position or power.

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In this episode Nick Drummond talks with psychologist and co-author Mats Edin. They give an introduction to the model "It's your choice!" The model is based on the second tenet of Andrew Cohen's teachings of  Evolutionary Enlightenment.

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Nick Drummond and psychologist & co-author Mats Edin talk about their book "Order and structure in the school: one step on the path to dynamic harmony in the classroom" (Ordning och reda i skolan - ett steg på vägen mot dynamik och harmoni i klassrummet). The book was published in Sweden in May 2006, with the authors planning on having an updated version published in English as well as Dutch and Danish.

Mats and Nick give an overview of the book and describe the use of Clare Graves model Spiral Dynamics, Kohlberg and Gilligan's model of moral development as well as using Developmental Scales as a tool for objectively describing levels of maturity.

The book also introduces an enlightenment or absolute perspective to education. This makes development and transformation from chaos to "dynamic harmony" an immediate possibility in every classroom and school. This is done using the model "It's your choice!" (see http://www.nordicintegral.com/education.html) which is based on the teachings of Andrew Cohen.

This post is about a story that started in March 2004. It was one of the first times I deeply appreciated the potential of what an enlightenment context, i.e. Andrew Cohen's  Evolutionary Enlightenment perspective, could bring to the field of education. I was asked to help a group of five teachers at a small resource school. They were in deep crisis and nobody knew how to respond, including the administrators and the psychologists. In a culmination of events eight students had taken over the school, smashed the windows, climbed onto the roof and threw stones at the teachers.

Was this the Gaza Strip? Was it Lebanon? Was it Bagdad? Was it Addis Ababa? No, the place was Malmö and the kids were 7 to 12 years of age. But wait, this city is in Sweden, not on the West Bank.... So why has the Swedish education system ended up in such a bad situation with countless stories like this one?

As I have written previously, the Swedish culture and education system is trapped in Green pluralism, what Don Beck refers to as Egalitarian Collectivism, or what Ken Wilber calls "flatland" a culture having no higher perspective of morality, maturity, ethics, philosophy, or spirituality. Everything is equal and thus reduced to the lowest common denominator.

As the teachers lacked Blue authority they rang the police to regain control over the children. The school was then closed for three days, which is when I was asked by the one of the cities Heads of Children and Youth to help.

When in crisis you need a map. When I looked at the situation through the Spiral Dynamics lens I saw that the teachers were trapped in negative Green and the kids in negative Red. When I used Kohlberg and Gilligan's model of moral development I saw teachers who had no idea  as to how to raise kids trapped at level one "Might makes right! to level two "Treat others as you would like to be treated." When I used Ken Wilber's four quadrants I saw total fragmentation between all the quadrants. When I used the Mats Edin's Leadership Pyramid I saw a total absence of natural hierarchy, with the teachers at the bottom. And when I used Andrew Cohen's models of ego and the authentic self, I could see that everyone saw themselves as victims.

In an interviewed with the headmaster, he said, "After seven years of trying everything we have reached the end of the road. If we fail this time to find a solution we will have to close the school."

What an awful mess! Nobody saw themselves as being responsible.

What I had to offer was a perspective that came from Andrew Cohen. And the simplest way for me to convey this perspective was through the model "It's your choice!" (see above).

But it wasn't until the evening before my first meeting that I was sure what to do. I took part in an Enlightened Communication discussion at the EnlightenNext centre in Copenhagen and realising that more fundamental than any of the Integral models I could bring was the paradoxical perspective of emptiness: of knowing nothing and wanting to know.

And the only way to do that was to be it: to be totally present. To not pay attention to what was going on in my own mind and only pay attention to what the teachers were saying. When I listened in this way I found that I had a capacity to point out what was fundamentally higher and what was fundamentally lower, and when I pointed it out these distinctions to the people speaking they were able to see it just as clearly as I could. I later discovered that even three year old kids have this same ability, to make basic distinctions between right and wrong and higher and lower. But when the adult culture pretends all perspectives are equal and the kids can distinguish between levels of maturity you have a modern day version of the Emperors New Clothes.

And this is the revolution that will and is happening in Swedish education.

I remember the first morning I visited the school after it reopened. We were four adults and three children sitting at a table eating breakfast. One of the first things I noticed was that the adults talked constantly about all the problems they had. It was true that two of the boys at the table behaved rudely, but what struck me was that nobody noticed or said anything to the third boy who asked politely for something to be passed to him. When I pointed this out to the staff they replied, "Sure, but he just wants attention." This marked the beginning of a change in perspective. For if we want development towards higher levels of maturity then we have to stop dragging each other down and seeing ourselves as helpless victims. We have to change where we put our attention. I was not there to listen to their sensitive selves talk about how they felt. If I had done so they would have collapsed in tears and been emotionally incapable of doing anything for anybody else.

Instead I began with a very bold and radical statement. "Don't take what I am about to say personally: I DON'T care about how you feel." I repeated it and added, "What matters is what you do now." After ten hours of this sort of counselling, the change was radical and tangible. But I was taking a big risk and going against Swedish political correctness. I could have been seen as being a very uncompassionate person and lost a client. But I was able to transmit a perspective that gave them confidence in me and what I was saying, so that when I told them what they had to do, they did it. What mattered most was getting results, and when they saw results after two weeks everyone's confidence continued to grow week after week.

The staff transformed from a position of being caught up in unhealthy Green, seeing themselves as victims and promoting a victim culture, to recognising the necessity for hierarchy, authority and taking responsibility. They also recognised that there was no neutral ground to stand on anywhere. The model "It's your choice!" made this very clear. You are ALWAYS choosing. You are either helping development, or you are violently stopping it from happening. There is no neutrality.

The teachers realized that they had to take responsibility for what they were saying and doing in every moment and developed healthy Red and Blue environments for their students. They gave them clear choices, rewarded their positive behaviour immediately as well as holding them accountable for any negative choices and giving consequences. In a Green culture where these things do not exist we had to design them and come up with tools that would work.

The staff also demonstrated that those who lead must be the first to change their thinking to more mature levels. It wasn't about the kids changing first; it was about the adults maturing.

As part of my research I interviewed a mother who had a nine-year-old son at the school. He is diagnosed with ADHD, hyper activity and receives amphetamine medication (Ritalin). She described how her son's behaviour and thinking had changed significantly, as had her own attitude, way of thinking and parenting style, when the teachers had begun using the model "It's Your Choice!"

She explained how she, much like the teachers at the school, had been very tolerant of her son's negative behaviour and how she had now become very tough and consistent in order to help her son.

The mother had been expressing a negative Green leadership style. She described how difficult this change in attitude had been, partly because of her son's extreme behaviour, but also because what I was saying, despite making sense, was not found in any books or talked about by the Swedish child-development professionals she had been in contact with. After two and a half months, her son's negative behaviour and bad language had radically decreased. As an example, his ability to sit still and concentrate on a task such as maths had increased from five to thirty minutes.

The teachers and parents created a structure of order, healthy Red and healthy Blue, that had clearly been missing. Once this structure was in place, dynamic harmony and "going up the ladder" - as this nine-year-old boy expressed it - become the norm rather than the exception.

But the point that stunned me the most was hearing from everybody I spoke with just how much this child developed and matured. When I first met this young boy he sat at the breakfast table trying to provoke everybody with bad language and aggressive behaviour. He was constantly getting into fights and couldn't concentrate for any period longer than five minutes. Two months later all of this had stopped and one morning he amazed his teacher by asking "If this staircase is going up, then where is it leading?"

When I arrived back in Sweden on March 6 I knew things were going to be different. I had just finished the eight day winter retreat at Foxhollow, Andrew Cohen's EnlightenNext World center. Jeff Carreira, one of Andrew's senior students, has written an excellent day by day account of the retreat, where Andrew "conducted a real-time experiment in conscious evolution through guided discussion groups with all of the retreat participants". I was one of the participants in the group led by Jeff Carreira, where day after day we intentionally come together in an intersubjective field of egoless consciousness, not for our own sake, but so that enlightenment could enter the manifest realm.

In Jeff's last blog entry for the retreat (day 7) he writes * "By the end of the discussion each person began to recognize that they were the only one. That they were the energy and intelligence that had created the universe - the project of evolving the universe (what Andrew had called the Universe Project in his teaching) was their own project. Before time began they had started it and now they were waking up needing to finish it."

(* Note for Swedish readers: I have purposely left out what Jeff writes at the end of this entry. For me to include that would be too much. Sweden is a technologically advanced culture, but when it comes to interpretations of  "God" Swedes believe he/she either still lives on a cloud and takes care of them (a premodern mythic perspective), or that there is no "God" or enlightenment perspective. There is just rocks, dirt, some plants, some animals and us and we should just learn to accept that (a modern scientific perspective). But for Swedes who think that they can handle reading what Jeff writes, remember that when you do "context, i.e. interpretation, is everything", dvs "beakta tolkningen.")

When I arrived back in Sweden I found out that Lärarnas tiding,** Sweden's most widely read fortnightly newspaper for teachers, was doing a large article about my work at Sofielundsskolan. I also realized that I was hitting a nerve and that I had stuck my head well and truly above the poppy plants.

(** The paper is published by the Swedish Teachers' Union, Lärarförbundet, the largest union for teachers and heads of schools and the fourth largest professional trade union in Sweden. Lärarförbundet has 230 000 members' at all educational levels.)

Both Mats Edin and I have invited Lärarnas tiding to report on our work several times previously, in particular about a school that in 2004 went from total chaos to dynamic harmony with ten hours of my help. I will write about this soon. But the Swedish Teachers' Union showed no interest. When our book came out in May last year (2006) they wrote a harshly critical book review with the heading "Complicated book leaves teachers to their fate".*** Now they were writing a four page article on my work at Sofielundsskolan, and in particular my connection to Andrew Cohen and EnlightenNext.****

(*** "Fate"? The book is built around our ability to choose and take responsibility for the choices we make, as well as our ability to evolve and mature morally. The Swedish Teachers' Union wasn't exactly welcoming such a perspective.)

(**** Andrew Cohen's Five tenets are also written about in our book. You can read the interview I did with Patrick Bryson in March 2004 that led to the development of the model "It's your choice!" and it's connection to Andrew Cohen's teachings. But the model itself actually came from a group of kids.The interview is called: A Moral Dimension to Parenting and Teaching. An Introduction to Awakening Children to the Authentic Self and to an Evolutionary Context)

By March 16 Läranas tidning nr 5 is out in nearly a quarter of a million copies. The front page has a picture of a teacher sticking stars on a sheet, while the text underneath reads "Judgment. The points that students are given for each lession result in golden stars that in turn can be used for rewards such as bowling". The bold heading on the front page reads "Golden stars return." The text on the front page reads "Golden stars have returned to Sofielundlundskolan in Malmö. They are used in the method "Good Choice" that according to many teachers has created a calm and secure work environment in many classrooms. But to give small children points for good behavior as well as after each lession has led to debate, both within and outside the school. The  method is most criticized for its connection to the new age organization EnlightenNext."

The first article has the heading: "Points system creates peace in the classroom."

One of the teachers', who is very critical, is asked to give his view. His critique is about my being a member of EnlightenNext which he refers to as a "sect", which as I wrote before is a really bad word in Sweden. But he is not the only one who sees my being a member of a "sect" as being "unfortunate". This opinion is shared by many teachers: "That Nick and Mats are members of EnlightenNext is just bad luck."

What a stunning conclusion!!! I really must be hitting a nerve.

The headmaster Yvonne Bengtsson is interviewed. The heading is "Students take on more and more responsibility for their actions" and she tells about their amazing development. But this developmental perspective is ignored in Sweden.

Instead of giving weight to this view one of Sweden's most famous paediatricians, Dr. Lars H Gustafsson, is interviewed to give his opinion about the "Good Choice" method. Gustafsson is a well known author, lecturer and media personality, but stuck in the Green meme sensitive self perspective. The heading reads, "Some children will lose."  Gustafsson says: "I can never believe that judging a students' behaviour each day will be fair. Some children are going to lose in such a system."
Journalist: "Teachers say that most students get fours or fives." [Five being the highest]

Gustafsson: "Yes, but some don't. What happens with those children?"
J: "Everyone who uses the method says that the atmosphere has become calmer at the school. Isn't that reason enough to use it?"
G: "Yes but I think that one will have to pay a price for it in the end. As a parent I would never sign a contract, where the children are given points after every lession" He says that there is often an ideological base in methods that are about order and discipline, and call it "moral virtues training" [which he is against]. "There are a lot of new age organisations that want to educate children and youth in their thinking."

My colleague Mats Edin is also interviewed. The heading is, "Student's choices will create a better world" and there is also a piece giving readers a background to Andrew Cohen and EnlightenNext.

There is a lot to go into here but before I do its time for a quick quiz.

Quiz 1
How many telephone calls and emails from teachers and headmasters throughout Sweden do you think all this publicity about our work has generated in a culture desperately needing results?
a) 254  "This is fantastic! When can you come? We need to clone you!"
b) 16  "We aren't concerned about negative opinion. We want results. You guys are pioneers."
c) 0  "Shhhh!!! Please, no spirituality!" [Silence]

Quiz 2

What did Sweden do during the Second World War?
a) Fought with the allies against the Germans and doing all they could.
b) Were on side with the Germans, but taking it easy.
c) They said they were "neutral", i.e. remained on the sidelines and did ABSOLUTELY nothing for the entire period of the war except to retreat into caves and mediate on the Ground of all Being.

Quiz 3
What did the class of eleven years old student's say to their teacher when they heard what Dr. Gustafsson had said?
a) They could not believe what they were hearing and wanted to speak with this crazy doctor as soon as possible.
b) They (and their parents) were shocked and wanted the school to stop working with the method as well as me.
c) They said that everyone is entitled to their own perspective, left it at that, and went out to play.

Before I continue let me once again reiterate what the Swedish resistance towards higher levels of maturity is about. The simplest definition would be a person's unwillingness to distinguish between different levels of development and that person's unwillingness to lead each level in the way most appropriate for it to evolve healthily together with the other levels.

I use the word "unwilling" purposely. I mean that people living in the Swedish culture, me included, are unwilling to distinguish between basic levels of human development such as: egocentric, group-centric, worldcentric and kosmocentric. This is not because of ignorance, it is done volitionally, i.e. there is an active choice being made by each and every mentally healthy person in the culture. And this turns the resistance towards levels of development or verticality into a whole different ballgame. It brings in the aspect of hope and the possibility for change. And it doesn't need to take time. Despite how bad things are in this culture, it doesn't have to be this way. Nobody is forcing us to give our children such a bad and ugly future as egocentric brats, ethnocentric racists, or worldcentric narcissists. (Maybe it's the same in other cultures as well???) But if we have reason for having to change the way we think - for example for the sake of our children, the planet or consciousness itself - we can actually take on the responsibility for the situation and change very fast. Who is stopping us???? And when life becomes filled with a meaning and purpose beyond living for ourselves, i.e. our ego, it also takes on a spiritual* dimension.

(* For Swedish readers: when I use the word spiritual I mean living a life that expresses the highest and deepest dimensions of human maturity and moral virtues. Sorry for all the bad language, teaching kids about spirituality, as I use the word, and moral virtues or even talking about moral virtues is frowned upon in Sweden. But talking about sex is great. We have a lot to sort out in this crazy culture and world. I think sex is great to, but what happened to spirituality and moral virtues??? I remember reading in the Lonely Planet guide to Sweden a warning to visitors about bad behavior: "Although most Swedes are friendly - ethnocentricity, spoiled kids and teenage alcoholics are likely to create irritation in many visitors." I wonder how LP gets all these tit-bits of information? )

On January 30^th 2007 Sweden's public channel television news program SVT Rapport (Sweden's most popular news program) did a report about my work at Sofielundsskolan. The heading was "Students get given grades after every lession - successful method at a Malmö   school".

My colleague Mats Edin and I were both very happy about finally getting some serious media attention for the work that we have been doing. (That a school in Sweden had found a successful way to help kids develop from egocentric to group-centric wasn't of interest to the journalist who interviewed us, the kids, the teachers or the headmaster. What was of interest was that some of the teachers for the older students didn't like the method and that it involved giving kids grades and rewards for behavior - which is politically incorrect. That the kids were getting top grades for each lession and doing really well wasn't of interest. What was of interest for the worldcentric sensitive-self journalist was asking the kids "Have you ever received the lowest grade? Why? How did it feel?")

Then February 9^th just one day before I headed off for a four week retreat** at my guru*** Andrew Cohen's EnlightenNext World center, two of Sweden's tabloid newspapers Kvällsposten, Expression and Aftonbladet published scathing articles about my work. The heading this time read, "Sect leads school project at Sofielundsskolan" and "Leader [ie Andrew Cohen] leads with an iron hand."

(** I first did a ten day silent retreat, going from ego to the ground of being, followed by an eight day intensive retreat going from the ground of being to the authentic self. It was an extraordinary time, especially doing these two retreats back to back, as well being another huge development in Andrew's teachings. I will write about the significance of this later. I learnt a tremendous amount and consciousness evolved.)

(*** For Swedish readers: I apologize for my bad language, saying that I have a spiritual guru. To say such a fetid thing is REALLY breaking with political correctness in a culture as tolerant as Sweden. You would definitely loose your job, many thousands of kronor, and most of your clients. A certain few may even want to pursue a public investigation. But wait, what IF I said I had my very own personal world leading sex guru, I bet the Swedes wouldn't even think twice about it. Or maybe they would...can you IMAGINE....the looks I would be getting...the invites ...what the liberated women would be saying. Sorry... my mind - the mechanism it is - is wondering, to much biological programming...Don't worry I can take responsibility for it and relieve the world and everyone else from at least that burden. That gives me an idea, what if a group of people who could take such responsibility got together? What would be possible? Such a group might even function so well that more people may want join and become members, or maybe just be inspired by what that core group was demonstrating to the world. Hell, even crazy Swedes might get inspired.)

One word that is REALLY bad for business in Sweden is to be called a member of a "sect", even a good one. It is much worse than being called a "racist" and nearly on par to being called a "pedophile". People tend to look at you very strangely... (Remember the time when being homosexual led to a prison sentence. And remember reading about when questioning the doctrine of the church led to a death sentence.)

So while I was retreating from the world for a month and really learning what it meant to come together with other people in an atmosphere that had it's focus on the development of consciousness, the Swedish media started to become very interested.

This led to Sofielundsskolan writing a letter requesting Sweden's National Agency for Education to examine the program we had started. That led to even more articles being published in the tabloids Expressen and Metro.

Then the National Agency for Education replied that there was no need for an investigation, nor into Mats Edin or myself or into EnlightenNext. This news led to one article being printed in Sydsvenskan.

By then I had returned home to Sweden for the next round and to see what damage had been done....

But, as my father reminded me recently, "All publicity is good publicity".

On Friday September 30th 2005, I was invited by headmaster Yvonne Bengtsson and five vice principals from Sofielundsskolan in Malmö Sweden to give a two-hour presentation on the application of Spiral Dynamics in education. (The school has 500 students from kindergarten to ninth-grade as well as four day-care centers for children aged one to five.) They were so interested that the meeting went on for three hours. This was the first time I had received such a positive and open response to Spiral Dynamics from any school in Sweden, it was a real breakthrough in being able to talk to adults in Sweden about levels of development in consciousness.

Sweden is seen by many as being centered in the Green meme, along with such countries as Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, UK, Canada, Australia, and parts of the US. However unlike the Danes, the Dutch, the British, the Canadians, the Aussies, and the Americans there is virtually no interest for Second tier or integral thinking in Sweden at all.

(Compare my description of Sweden to Peter Merry's recent blog describing the Dutch emergence.)

The Swedish resistance towards integral thinking is quite unbelievable. These other cultures have pockets of avant-garde people who have broken from the pack to develop new ways of thinking. But this is not so in Sweden, a postmodern culture that firmly believes there is nowhere higher to go. Swedes pride themselves on being an open, caring, pluralistic thinking culture of democratic individuals expressing global ethics and values. But the amazing reality is that development towards higher levels of maturity is seen as being EVIL and either ignored or aggressively stopped. And any pioneer in Sweden working in this field can show you the scares to prove it.

In March 2006 I was rung up by one of the vice-principals from Sofielundsskolan who was very alarmed after having heard from a psychologist employed by the city of Malmö that Spiral Dynamics and Don Beck were connected to Scientology. She was quite distraught and asked me again and again if this was true or not. I later found out that this particular male (males tend to be very proud!) psychologist had become jealous of the successful results that Mats Edin and I were having and fought back by spreading a wave of rumors and false accusations.

Then in September 2006 one of the male teachers at Sofielundsskolan started spreading accusations about me. He did a search on the internet and found a series of video interviews with me by Helen Titchen Beeth on her website Polilogues. He saw a link to Ken Wilber's Integral Spiritual Centre (ISC) and Integral Naked and became, together with a growing group of teachers very concerned with my connection to these sites and the very "sinful", "offensive", "religious", "spiritual", "sexist" and "cultish" symbols portrayed. I was accused of wanting to take over people's minds as well as the school. My profile here on Zaadz and the Zaadz site itself was seen as evidence of immoral business activity.

It put the school administrators in a challenging situation. I am the most important person they have and the easiest person to get rid of. On the one hand they were now getting very impressive results in the classes I was working with, while on the other hand a growing number of staff started expressing resistance (a backlash reaction towards what they know is inherently good and true) and anger towards working with me. The school administrator's where put under increasing pressure to stop using my services.

To add to things I had also recently circulated a paper describing the shift from Red to Blue and the necessity for the school to design a Blue system for the students to pass through. It stated: In Blue we are saved. In Blue we awaken to a transcendent purpose or "sacred cause." We give up our impulsivity, obey a higher power and do what we "should" do to satisfy our consciousness. The teacher is a rightful authority figure who gives hope and reveals life's meaning.

Many of the teachers reacted negatively when reading this and saw it as further evidence that I was sent to the school by a religious sect. I saw it as Green not liking Blue, and the lack of Blue in the school, which was one of the primary reasons this school, like many others in Sweden, is having so much trouble handling Red.

The school administrators rang and wanted to meet me urgently as things were heating up. I  saw that it was vitally important that I was authentic, bold and upfront about who I am, what I stand for and about being a student of Andrew Cohen. Until this time no one had even mentioned his name, or new who he was. I said to them that it was important that they knew now as I expected an even greater negative reaction sooner or later. They felt comfortable and continued working with me.

Anyone that deeply cares about changing the world (while living in Sweden) in the way I am describing is either crazy, asking for trouble, wants to become unemployed, or is a hero. The "tall-poppy" syndrome is very active in Sweden and you will be told when you break from mediocracy.

Amazingly headmaster Yvonne Bengtsson said, "I was worried yesterday afternoon, but not now. We have a business deal and buy a product from you. I don't particularly care if you are a member of the Scientology church. What you help us with works and that's what counts." For Yvonne and the other administrators to support me in this way and the way she has continued to do is nothing less than bold and brave.

Many of the teachers demanded that the school administrators stop working with me and threatened to do that by going to the media. However the administrators felt that the situation could be handled if I met with all the staff and told my story. Which I did, though it felt more like an inquisition. I was defending myself in front of some 60 teachers for nearly one hour.
What does Nordic Integral stand for? What is Zaadz.com? How and why does Zaadz make money? What is your involvement with Ken Wilber's ISC? What does ISC mean by "an ongoing experiment called ‘teach the teachers'" and "the shape of a future religion will be born"? What does mind-shift mean? Who is paying you? Who sent you? Are you a member of the Church of Scientology?

Critical reason seamed to have left the room and many people became emotionally irrational. Rather than face their unwillingness to take on what they had to do in order to help students in Red become responsibility and mature, many, but not all, felt better by attacking me and thus not having to change themselves, thus leaving the kids in chaos and behaving destructively. The result was that half the teachers supported working with me (those working with the lower grades) while the staff for the higher grades were against working with me.

The simple reason for this is that it is much more demanding to handle Red in a teenager (and even more in an adult) than it is in a child. It is not impossible, but it demands more cooperation between the teachers who have to stand united and support each other in what they are doing. It demands a group of teachers who are prepared to take a stand and be nothing less than bold and brave.