Levin on the return arc

Following up on this post, Levin is also consistent with the linked references, in that indeed something does change at a post-rational level, another way of processing structure, or structuring process. In discussing levels he noted that level 1 is the primordial body, level 2 the pre-personal, level 3 ego-logical, level 4 the transpersonal and level 5 the ontological. He said:

"Development from stage 1 to 3 is normal and typically completed when the child becomes an adult. Stages 4 and 5, however, represent stages of individual development that require special effort, commitment, and maturity. Stages 1 and 2 are basically biological. Stage 3 is distinctively cultural.... The ego-logical body is the body shaped according to the ego's image of itself. But stages 4 and 5 go beyond what society requires. We might call them 'spiritual' stages.
"Normal development (stages 1-3) is always, more or less, a linear progression, but the progression beyond 3 is not; it is essentially hermeneutical, involving a return, a turning into the body of experience, to retrieve a present sense of the earlier stages. Beyond 3 it is necessary to go 'backwards' in order to go 'forwards.' Stage 3 is the moment when, for the first time, this return and retrieval is possible."