The emergent strength of this stage is the reflective construction of a personal ideology and the formation of a vocational dream with its imagined social identity. 

Stage 4 Personal Values

In this stage we become conscious of being an individual with values which may differ from those held by our significant social groups.  But we are still not likely to attend to the unconscious factors influencing our judgments, beliefs and behaviors.

Stage 4 Social Values

In Stage 4 we construct a perspective more aware of social systems and institutions. 

The ability to function relative to social systems seems to be the key to breaking through the third psychic circle.  Just as the making of a moral choice indicates the presence of a personality ready to begin the process of developing interpersonal relationships, so does the ability to function consciously as a living part of a social system indicate potential for functioning consciously as a living part of the Supreme.  This means that we have become capable of making moral choices which are simultaneously relative to the welfare of a social system as well as to the welfare of specific individuals comprising that social system. This is the point at which we are assigned a personal seraphic guardian of destiny.  This seraphim will then work to guide us through the remaining circles, toward functional identity with the Supreme and true cosmic citizenship.

Many people complete only half of the transition to Stage 4.  By virtue of experience, many persons come face-to-face with the relativity of their perspectives on life.  But they fail to interrupt their reliance on external sources of authority, -- and may even strengthen their reliance upon them -- in order to cope with the insecurity of this relativity. 

Stage 4 Supportive Stories

Rational thinking dominates; symbols and stories which were meaningful in earlier stages are consciously rejected although they inevitably continue to operate unconsciously.  The dominant story of this stage is often a vocational dream with it's projected identity in the social mileu.

Inherited beliefs and stories are replaced with stories and symbols of the scientific and philosophical world.

Stage 4 Faith Experience

For those who have previously enjoyed an unquestioning relationship with God and to their fellow worshipers through a set of religious symbols, the Stage 4 translation of the meanings and values of religious symbols into the elements of rational thought can bring a sense of loss, dislocation, grief and even guilt.  Of necessity, if we are to make this transition, we must grapple with doubt and we must have the courage to take the risk of moving forward to wherever the unflinching quest for truth might take us.

1773:5  160:1.8 "The solution of life problems requires courage and sincerity. Only honest and brave individuals are able to follow valiantly through the perplexing and confusing maze of living to where the logic of a fearless mind may lead. And this emancipation of the mind and soul can never be effected without the driving power of an intelligent enthusiasm which borders on religious zeal. It requires the lure of a great ideal to drive man on in the pursuit of a goal which is beset with difficult material problems and manifold intellectual hazards."

Stage 4's strength has to do with its capacity for critical.  But there is danger in this strength.  An excessive confidence in the conscious mind and in critical thought can create excessive self-confidence.  At this stage there is usually passionate attachment to the philosophical or metaphysical universe frames which we construct for ourselves.

Stage 4 Faith Challenges

The task of this stage is the construction of an individual world view based on critical, reflective thought.