Psychologist Ken Wilber’s Eight Awareness Waves

Here are the ego’s eight awareness waves detailed in Psychologist Ken Wilber’s work in transpersonal psychology. Included are examples of each Wave, the percentage of the population, and the social power they possess. The population figures and percentages continue to change.

The Beige or Instinctual Wave is all about survival. Necessities like food, warmth, water, sex, and safety rule immediate behavior. This Wave exists in newborn infants, late-stage Alzheimer’s patients, the elderly, starving masses, mentally ill street people, and PTSD patients. One percent of the population falls into this Wave. They have zero percent of the social power.

The Purple or Animistic Wave focuses on magical spirits. This Wave includes ethnic tribes. Those tribes believe in and incorporate curses, blessings, and spells to determine events and future experiences.

This Wave exists in family rituals, third-world cultures, gangs, corporate tribes, and athletic teams. Ten percent of the population displays this awareness, and they incorporate one percent of the world’s social power.

The Red or Power God Wave lives by the urge to believe in powerful beings. Powerful beings like archetypal gods, goddesses, spirits, dragons, and feudal lords. This Wave tends to be impulsive. And Red also displays egocentricity and a heroic mindset.

To the Red Wave, the world is a jungle full of bad guys and threats. They enjoy trying to outfox, conquer, and dominate others.

This Wave exists in kids in the terrible twos, feudal kingdoms, gang leaders, New-Age narcissism, epic heroes, rock stars, and soldiers of fortune.

They incorporate twenty percent of the population and have five percent of the social power.

The Blue or Mythic Wave incorporates the belief that life has purpose and meaning. The outcome results from the action of a powerful order or supreme being.

Religious order enforces a strict code of conduct based on the principles of right and wrong. Code violations demand serious consequences, but following the code yields a lasting reward.

Blue believes in one right way and a wrong way to think about life. And there is a group of rigid higher-order judges who deal with violators. This Wave is fiercely conventional and extremely conforming.

Blue exists in Puritan America, China, religious fundamentalists, Girl and Boy Scouts, and the moral majority.

They hold thirty percent of the social power and forty percent of the population.

The Orange or Scientific Wave likes to escape from the herd mentality. Orange seeks the truth using rational deduction and objective experiments. They believe in natural laws, and they learn, master, and use them as manipulation tools.

Orange are high achievers. And they focus on materialistic gains.

Orange believes the laws of science rule human behavior and the economy. To them, the world is a chessboard. Winners gain perks and prominence over the losers.

The earth’s resources are there for strategic gain.

This Wave exists on Wall Street, the emerging middle class, the cosmetic industry, The Cold War, the enlightenment set, the fashion industry, and corporations.

They hold fifty percent of the power and thirty percent of the population.

The Green or Sensitive Wave believes in human bonding, ecological sensitivity, networking, and open communication. Green believes the human spirit must free itself from greed, divisiveness, and dogmas.

They cherish the earth, and feelings trump cold rationality.

They are against the hierarchy and cherish relationships.

Green also believes in subjective thinking. And Green also believes in conscious multiculturalism with a relativistic value system. Green believes this system brings harmony to the body, mind, and spirit.

This Wave exists in postmodernism, Greenpeace, animal rights, human rights advocates, Canadian health care, humanistic psychology, and Netherlands idealism.

They hold fifteen percent of the social power and ten percent of the population.

The Yellow or Integrative Wave believes that knowledge and competency supersede status, power, and group sensitivity. The current world order results from different levels of reality, which contain unending probabilities and choices.

Spontaneity, flexibility, and functionality are Yellow’s highest priorities. Differences are lessons, and they are part of the natural flow of non-judgmental discernment.

Yellow holds five percent of the power and one percent of the population.

The Turquoise or Holistic Wave unites feelings with knowledge. Turquoise believes multiple levels of consciousness mesh into one conscious waking system.

They think there is a universal order, and that order supersedes the external rules of the blue and green Waves.

The Holistic Wave also believes the whole of All There Is is greater than its parts. To Turquoise thinkers, all life unites in the free-flowing stream of the whole’s consciousness. And they sense an unending unification within the energy that exists in all awareness.

This Wave has one percent of the social power and 0.1 percent of the population.

The interesting point is we all identify some of our beliefs in the first six Waves. Beliefs in the last two Waves are still foreign to some. But Waves of awareness continue to wash over all of us. And when they do, we experience life based on perceptions developed from focused beliefs in each Wave.