Ever wonder what spiritual warriors fight about? I did. When I looked up the word "warrior," I found that it had its roots in the old Saxon word, "werran," which means "confusion" or "discord." Originally, it seems, warriors were those who dealt with confusion by relentlessly seeking clarity. They dealt with discord by doing whatever it took to get to harmony. Soldiers, on the other hand, went around fighting wars and conquering people. Warriors were not interested in such ego-driven activities. They were, in fact, at war with the ego itself.

Now, there is an odd thing that happens when the ego is defeated, even momentarily. You want to share that freedom with others. This attempt to share, of course, leads most of us right back into our egos, which love the idea of being put on the guru-pedestal. Still, in a halting but steady fashion, humankind has slowly marched away from its ignorance of its True Nature. Our civilizations trace this evolution back to Spirit.

Ken Wilber, the transpersonal theoretician, explains this evolution as a series of levels. Level 1 is material exchange, which tribal systems used to ensure that all tribal members were fed and clothed. Level 2 is emotional exchange, which the later city-states used to ensure the emotional needs of the citizens were met, primarily one's need of belonging.

Level 3 is the exchange of ideas, which Socrates advocated. Level 4 is the exchange of mutual self-esteem, which is the codification into law that a person owns himself. Level 5 is extending what I want for me (in terms of freedom, civil rights, and so on) to all who inhabit the planet, which is where the leading edge of humanity is now situated. The bulk of humanity at this time is situated at Level 4.

A spiritual warrior today is concerned with the task of bringing his or her companions on earth to Level 5. But, the question looms, what would that look like? What would a society that extended freedoms, civil liberties, rights and responsibilities in such an egalitarian way to everybody actually look like? Oddly enough, there have been societies that achieved this Level 5 type of social organization in the past. Sadly, however, they were not as technologically advanced, nor as brutally oriented, as those who conquered and destroyed them. One such society met with the Europeans when they settled in the thirteen colonies that would become the United States.

Many developmentalists hold that social development is tied to technological development. Tribal societies live in a hunter-gatherer world; mythic societies, in a city-state, agricultural world; scientific societies, in an industrial world. We are often told that one proof of a society's evolution is its technological advancement, but is this necessarily true? If we base their views on Western society's form of advancement, then that advancement is, undoubtedly, pathologically compromised. Is it not likely that societies that did not repress nature (which European cultures did) would evolve in a different (perhaps less technological) way?

The answer to that question is hard to track, but one thing we know is that the rules governing the Iroquois Federation were one template for the original Articles of Confederation (1781), which eventually gave way to the U.S. Constitution (1788). In a discussion about the development of the U.S. system of government, Holcombe (1998), noted: "The Iroquois composed a confederation of five Native American nations established between 1000 and 1400 A.D. During colonial times, they were the dominant power east of the Mississippi, significantly outnumbering the colonial population. The Iroquois were united by a constitution with many of the same features as contemporary American government, including a federal system with substantial sovereignty and independence for the five nations, a common military defense, and a collective decision-making process that allowed all of the nations to work together to produce unified policies in foreign affairs, which were conducted by the central government."

As the colonial governments began the lengthy process of developing the Constitution, the Iroquois system of government was examined and found to be too cumbersome because of its emphasis on consensus decision-making (rather than majority rule). Holcombe did highlight the fact that a government by consensus (long an item on the feminist wish list) is not, therefore, "just a theoretical possibility;" it actually existed in pre-Columbian American. He further stated that consensus-governance protects the interests of each individual: "[Consensus government] provides powerful protection against political exploitation. As a result, the Iroquois society was one of relative freedom and equality, especially in comparison to the hierarchical European societies of the time. Cadwallader Golden, a firsthand observer of the Iroquois, wrote in 1727 that 'the Five Nations have such absolute Notions of Liberty that they allow no kind of Superiority of one over another, and banish all Servitude from their Territories.'"

The overarching fact is that Western civilization has been hampered in its development by incomplete shifts among Level 1 (material exchange), Level 2 (emotional exchange), Level 3 (cognitive exchange), Level 4 (mutual exchange of self-esteem). These incomplete shifts have had pathological consequences. It would seem that the Iroquois League did not suffer that same fate (however, a worse one awaited them). In Wilber's model, the Iroquois League was operating from Level 5. They were approaching late-stage, formal operational status. However, the technologically superior Western European invaders eventually eliminated these "primitive" societies. What we have left of their remarkable social structures are fragments. We will need to find our own way to a Level 5 society rather than following their lead. The fight is on.

Bruce Bibee, MTP, is a counselor in private practice. He is also the owner/instructor of the Kung-Fu San Soo Center. He can be reached at 562-6902.