There are two definitions of Spiritual evolution<\/p>\n\n
One, to quote from the\u00a0\u00a0Wikipedia page on the subject\u00a0which I co-authored, is the\u00a0Cosmological or Philosophical perspective<\/em>, which is<\/p>\n\n the philosophical, theological, esoteric or spiritual idea that nature and human beings and\/or human culture evolve along a predetermined cosmological pattern or ascent, or in accordance with certain pre-determined potentials.<\/p>\n Within this broad definition, theories of spiritual evolution are very diverse. They may be cosmological (describing existence at large), personal (describing the development of the individual), or both. They can be holistic (holding that higher realities emerge from and are not reducible to the lower), idealist (holding that reality is primarily mental or spiritual) or\u00a0nondual\u00a0(holding that there is no ultimate distinction between mental and physical reality). All of them can be considered to be\u00a0teleological\u00a0to a greater or lesser degree.<\/p>\n Philosophers, scientists, and educators that have proposed theories of spiritual evolution include Nader Angha, Schelling,\u00a0Hegel,\u00a0Max Th\u00e9on, Henri Bergson,\u00a0Sri Aurobindo,\u00a0Jean Gebser,\u00a0Pierre Teilhard de Chardin,\u00a0Arthur M. Young,\u00a0Edward Haskell,\u00a0E. F. Schumacher,\u00a0Erich Jantsch, Clare W. Graves, Alfred North Whitehead, Terrence McKenna, P.R. Sarkar,\u00a0Spiral Dynamics, and\u00a0Ken Wilber. Thesy tend (for the most part) to be non-materialistic or non-reductionistic.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The other (which sometimes overlaps with the above) is the\u00a0occult perspective<\/em>\u00a0of the evolution of the\u00a0immanent\u00a0Divine\u00a0Principle, the\u00a0Higher Self or Soul, through\u00a0successive lifetimes. This is explained by\u00a0H. P. Blavatsky(the Higher Manas or Immortal Ego in Theosophy), Sri Aurobindo (the\u00a0Psychic Being), and elsewhere. Because this assumes reincarnation as an integral fact, these ideas are less likely to be embraced by the mainstream.<\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n
Spiritual evolution – some diagrams<\/h3>\n\n