Quite a few years ago I came across a life changing book for me by Joseph Chilton Pearce, called “The Biology of Transcendence.” Pearce has written a number of books tracing the developmental process of human beings as studied by science over the years. “The Biology of Transcendence,” his latest book published in 2002, covered what was then the cutting edge of brain study – the prefrontal lobes of the cerebral cortex.
The main function of the prefrontal lobes is to integrate all the other brain regions that develop in a specific sequence over the years of human maturation. What is important here is that though this part of the brain is involved in all stages of development, it doesn’t start to fully develop until around age of 15 and continues until around age 21.
This time between 15 and 21 is supposed to be the most dramatic growth spurt in becoming an adult that even surpasses in scope and affect the developmental stages we go through from birth up to mid-adolescence. Everything in the developmental process points to this being the most transcendent period in our lives as we come into full maturation as an Adult.
As Pearce described it, “…Logically we could expect that on the completion and maturation of nature’s latest, largest, and highest brain at age twenty-one, we would possess capacities more dramatically different from and more powerful than anything previously experienced… In fact, the development of these new prefrontal additions should ideally result in a mind that is so remarkably different from the one we operated with before that it would present to us in full the biological possibility of transcendence.”(Emphasis added) “The Biology of Transcendence,” pg. 51
But, as the Apollo 13 mission said, “Houston, we have a problem.” It turns out that for most of us on this planet we didn’t make it through this most crucial stage. As Pearce sadly notes, “… in fact, nothing much happens at all.”
We “flatline” developmentally and pretty much stay in “Arrested Development” for the rest of our lives, unless we undertake a major “hero’s journey” to finish this stage of development. 
Take a look around, (including a good, honest look at yourself), and you’ll see that the majority of “Adults”, though “grown up” physically, are still operating out of unresolved childhood and adolescent traumas and their corresponding limited belief systems. We have not put away our “childish things.”
How is it working for you being an “Adult” right now? Here’s a little “test”.
- What’s your body response to your image of yourself as an Adult? Do you feel magnificent, pretty good, so-so, or overall, is being an Adult not all that it was cracked up to be?
- How often have you said, or heard someone else say to you in the heat of an argument, “Why don’t you just grow up?”
- Was, or is, Peter Pan one of your favorite characters? Is “I’ll never grow up, I don’t want to go to school” one of your favorite mantras?
- As a man, do you often hear the adage “Boys will be boys” and really relate to that personally? Is the term “Arrested Development” secretly a badge of honor for you?
- As a woman, are you still complaining to your girlfriends about men, still looking for “Daddy” to recognize you in all the men you meet?
- Do you still throw “temper tantrums” at work or in your relationships?
- Do you take your life very personally?
- Are you rather reactive in your responses to life situations?
- Are you easily “triggered” and live a life mostly of complaints?
- Do you wish that someone or something whether that be a person, a guru, ET’s, the government, food, drugs, or sex, would come along and take care of you, rescue you, or recognize you?
- Spiritually, do you see yourself and others as a “child of God” and find solace in this description? Do you feel “separated” from God and consider yourself a seeker, looking for Oneness, or Enlightenment from Mother/Father God?
Any of these sound familiar? Maybe a little toooo familiar?
If you see a good chunk of yourself in this “test”, then congratulations! You’ve made the grade of “Mugglehood,” which is just my way of saying you’ve not finished your birthright of natural maturation. You’re truly in “Arrested Development” and really don’t know what it is to be an Awakened, Integrated, Actualized, Embodied Human Being – which is what we would be had we naturally matured in to what all of us are meant to be.
In Part II I will go more into these stages of development, how they have been interfered with, and the consequences of this interference. In Part III I will share some of my own journey into Adulthood and what Life is starting to look like from this perspective.
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You’re right. This area is where consciousness of purpose, think before act, gets decided. I can remember watching the ownership
of this area get tranferred to me from the sinchit karmama system, albeit from the public domain. Actions of consciousness are much quicker than when they essence driven, rather than motives of consciousness, who are nature driven. Motives are loaded with past lives, usually erroneous, I prefer the transcendence from essence: I yes I, who is always new.
Mugglehood – love it, Jim! (and, yes, all too familiar..) Looking forward to Part II & III. xoE
Jim – It seems to me, that an “Awakened, Integrated, Actualized, Embodied Human Being,” is all about the information one is, “filled with”…in connection to one’s body-response, (which is also information/signals). The collection of intangible (thoughts) and tangible (body), together, “causing information to stick,” (uniquely for each of us), and that determines our unique “place,” or perhaps “state,” “arrested” or otherwise.
Development and evolution – of anything – seems to happen when new information is received. Our human capacities and functionalities appear always available for use as we experience their “upgrade,” each time we receive new, more beneficial (accurate?), information.
I am looking forward to Part III, so that I may receive information (and physical response), which may give me clarity of the knowledge, beliefs, interpretations – information – of “Adulthood”; what “Adulthood” sounds like, tastes like, feels, smells like, etc. (The body’s response, I imagine, would be divine no matter what the emotion.) Can you post Part III before Part II? (smiling) – Namaste
Psyched for parts deux and trois. Can’t wait!
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