Growth Mode
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Growth Mode
Growth Mode is a state of consciousness and development within the Lightning Path Consciousness Framework, representing the optimal state for healing, learning, Connection, and the realization of Human Potential. Growth Mode occurs when an individual’s Basic Needs are satisfied, their environment is safe and nurturing, and their nervous system is regulated. In this mode, cognitive, emotional, and spiritual energy is freed from survival and defense and redirected towards creativity, integration, exploration, and actualization.. [1]
This mode is characterized by emotional regulation, cognitive clarity, creative expansion, and spiritual integration. Individuals in Growth Mode are no longer dominated by survival programming or trauma responses. Instead, they are grounded, open, curious, and able to actively participate in healing relationships, conscious community, and planetary stewardship.
Concept Map
List of Ego Modes
Syncretic Terms
Related LP Terms
Growth Mode > Attachments, Destruction of Attachments, Seven Essential Needs, The Work
Non-LP Related Terms
Position within the LP Consciousness Framework
Growth Mode emerges only after the individual has passed through Defense Mode and Repair Mode, two earlier states that reflect the bodymind’s response to environmental toxicity, trauma, and unmet needs.
| Mode | Description |
|---|---|
| Defense Mode | Survival-focused state characterized by hypervigilance, shutdown, aggression, or dissociation. |
| Repair Mode | Healing-focused state triggered by temporary safety and relational containment. |
| Growth Mode | Activated when needs are reliably met and connection is restored. Marks the return to innate curiosity, empathy, play, and development. |
Characteristics of Growth Mode
| Domain | Growth Mode Characteristics |
|---|---|
| Emotional | Calm, balanced affect; resilience; compassion; gratitude |
| Cognitive | Increased focus, learning capacity, problem-solving, openness to new perspectives |
| Spiritual | Connection to Higher Self/Consciousness; curiosity about meaning and purpose |
| Relational | Empathy, cooperation, healthy boundaries, secure attachment |
| Somatic | Regulated nervous system; improved immunity and physical health |
Growth Mode supports entry into higher consciousness states, including Connection Experience,.
Theoretical Foundations
Growth Mode aligns with well-established psychological and neurological theories of human development:
1. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (1943, 1968)
- Maslow proposed that self-actualization is only possible when lower needs (safety, belonging, esteem) are met.
- Growth Mode corresponds to the Self-Actualization and Transcendence levels of the hierarchy.
2. Polyvagal Theory (Stephen Porges, 1994–present)[2]
- Growth Mode corresponds to activation of the ventral vagal state—a state of calm, connection, and engagement.
- In this state, the nervous system shifts out of survival response and into relational and cognitive openness.
3. Humanistic and Positive Psychology (Carl Rogers,[3] Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi)[4]
- Rogers emphasized that when offered unconditional positive regard and empathic understanding, people naturally grow towards wholeness.
- Csikszentmihalyi's research on “flow states” describes focused, meaningful activity common in Growth Mode.
4. Trauma Healing Models (van der Kolk, 2014;[5] Perry, 2006[6])
- Healing and transformation require movement from survival states into co-regulation and eventually autonomous self-regulation—hallmarks of Growth Mode.
Strategic Importance
Growth Mode is the ultimate goal of trauma-informed, connection-centered educational and therapeutic environments. It is the state in which authentic spirituality, creativity, and self-expression emerge. It enables:
- Healing from Toxic Socialization
- Reconnection to Authentic Self
- Activation of Connection Capacity
- Social engagement and Collective Action
- Planetary Healing
Notes
A human in growth mode has a healthy mind and body free of toxic adaptations and dysfunction. A human in full growth mode is loving, empathic, strong, beautiful, competent, expressive, confident, connected, and capable of handling and expressing its animating spiritual ego. A human in growth mode will act in an aligned fashion. It will not put itself in harm’s way nor will it harm other living beings. We talk the specifics of alignment in LP Workbook Three. [7]
As Maslow said, humans have a natural built-in ability to heal, a “will to health,” [8] or a will to satisfy needs, align, and connect.
Growth mode can only manifest when the individual is safe, secure, and where all their needs are sufficiently satisfied.
An individual in growth mode can easily be focused and guided towards Healing, improvement in Alignment, and Connection.
Daniel McQueen speaks of using Cannabis to heal and move people from post-traumatic stress mode to post-tramatic growth mode.[9]
Kaufman considers there is a "fundamental biological drive" for exploration that is at the foundation of growth mode. [10]
Citation and Legal
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Footnotes
- ↑ Lightning Path Workbook Two: Healing. Lightning Path Press. https://www.patreon.com/posts/lp-workbooks-and-91290808
- ↑ Stephen W. Porges, “The Polyvagal Theory: Phylogenetic Substrates of a Social Nervous System,” International Journal of Psychophysiology 42, no. 2 (2001): 123–46, doi:10.1016/s0167-8760(01)00162-3.
- ↑ Carl R. Rogers, On Becoming a Person (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1961)
- ↑ Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (New York: Harper & Row, 1990);
- ↑ Bessel A. van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma (New York: Viking, 2014)
- ↑ Bruce D. Perry and Maia Szalavitz, The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog: And Other Stories from a Child Psychiatrist’s Notebook (New York: Basic Books, 2006)
- ↑ Lightning Path Workbook Two: Healing. Lightning Path Press. https://www.patreon.com/posts/lp-workbooks-and-91290808
- ↑ Maslow, A. H. (1968b). Towards a Psychology of Being (2nd Edition). Van Nostrand Reinhold Company. p. 193.
- ↑ McQueen, Daniel. Psychedelic Cannabis: Therapeutic Methods and Unique Blends to Treat Trauma and Transform Consciousness. Vermont: Park Street Press, 2021.
- ↑ Scott Barry Kaufman, Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualizatioon (New York: Tarher Perigee, 2020).