“When the self’s center of gravity identifies with vision-logic,
when the person lives from that level, then we tend to get a
very highly integrated personality, a self that can actually
inhabit a global perspective, and not merely talk about it. “

Holding a world centric view is when you move from having an egocentric view, to an ethnocentric view to then a worldcentric view. The idea of each is first you or the ego, is at the center of everything. You then decenter your ego into your group. This could be a racial group, religious group, national group, sports team, etc. But in this stage your group is at the center of everything and your group holds the ultimate truth. Then when you move into world centric you’re decentering your group among the world of groups.

“So the highly integrative capacity of vision-logic supports an
equally integrated self. Which is why I call the self of this stage
the centaur, representing an integration of the mind and the
body, the noosphere and biosphere, in a relatively autonomous
self – which doesn’t mean isolated self or atomistic self or egocentric
self, but rather a self integrated in its networks of responsibility and service.”

To this day I remember when the capacity for vision-logic emerged. I was studying to be a computer programmer, but was struggling with the concepts of object oriented programming. The idea of using code to create abstract objects, and then have those objects pass information or other objects to each other, was more than my mental capacity could comprehend. But one night while I slept, it all clicked. I woke up and a project I had worked on now made perfect sense. Everything I had absorbed throughout the course was finally organized in my mind, in a way that made sense. I was able to visualize the logical networks required to write in an object oriented fashion.

Another couple of major paradigm shifts that this passage reminded me of, was the idea of integrating both body and mind. This occurs after you become aware that the mind, which is the “Me” and the “I”, is not a product of the brain or physical body. Consciousness is something beyond body and physical because it does not take up space in the physical brain. By definition, the mind is metaphysical or non-physical. This will leave you then identifying more with your mind or metaphysical half of your being. But this too is not quite right. You then can train yourself to observe the mind and all its thoughts and feelings, and you then realize that you are something even deeper than either body or mind.