I think all of us try and make sense out of our existence by adopting, consciously or unconsciously, some sort of world view or life map that guides our actions in a complex and unfolding world. Like any map a life map is a symbolic representation that shows us the way around. There are many maps/beliefs/theories available for use to choose from. Our body, friends, parents, culture and subcultures already have or inherited maps that we can use and adapt to our own particular personality and life circumstances.

Maps are no joking matter,) often people go to war, physically or psychologically, to impose their map on others or protect it from being changed. In some ways this can be a futile excercise because reality(lila) continually tests our life map, so to speak, and we have to adapt our map if we want to continue evolving and 'see' or make sense of our surroundings more clearly. If our map leads us to a swamp when it said we would find a holiday resort the wisest course of action would be to redraw the map.

In my life i've used a few different maps along the way; we all have. For myself the Integral map is cutting edge at the moment and allows the greatest amount of illumination in my life. An important point to remember is that new evolving maps include many aspects of old maps. For example think of how the geographer's maps of the world have evolved as we explored the earth and into space. They didn't throw away old maps but they refined the shape of continents and coastlines, added islands, mountains and cities, re-organised perspective and so on.

Here are some of the maps that are available in rough sequence of development. Of course there can be mixtures of maps or some parts of your personality might use different maps at times.

• Automatic/Instinctual map:
  Newly born infants and early man use this map - Biological needs: food, water, temperature, sleep and safety are satisfied moment to moment. When your very tired, hungry,stressed or threatened this map may come into play. Trust vs mistrust
• Magic/Tribal map:
  Mysteries and togetherness are now added to the world. The infant begins to learn certain actions have certain effects. Early small clans used this map.
• Egocentric/Self-assertive map:
  The world revolves around me. Impulsive. Morality centers on punishment and obedience. Autonomy vs. shame/self-doubt
• Absolutistic/Law & Order map:
  Authoritarian spirits, demons and god figures have to be obeyed and apropiated to ensure survival and blessings. Conformist Good boy morality and law and order morality. Initiative vs. guilt
• Rational/Individualistic map:
  Cause and effect. What you see and sense is what you get and they act according to objective laws. Materialistic. Morality of the democratic contract. Industry vs inferiority
• Socio centric/Relativistic map:
  All other maps, beings, the environment need to be treated sensitively, equally and given the same rights. Morality of individual principles. Identity vs Role difference
• Integral/Existential map:
  Hierarchical in and evolution towards ever increasing complexity of everything, where subjective consciousness and culture, and objective matter and social structures portray different perspectives of the same process.
• Holistic map:etc..

For a nice graphic overview of this schema go to Formless Mountain(start at the bottom). Also look at Spiral Dynamics and click on Explore the Spiral. This is a very nice flash graphical presentation. Also the glossary at integralscape.org