BONUS – Colours of Consciousness: Reflections on Personality, Leadership, and the Work of Transformation
Personality as Palette, Consciousness as Canvas—What Sun Tzu, Erikson, and Consciousness Teach Us About Leading Wisely
Reading for me and my family is fundamental. The eagerness with which we visit bookstores to simply peruse the shelves for new finds is almost a ritual. Admittedly, such has been so from the beginning as my wife and I would visit both bookstores and museums whenever and wherever we travelled prior to consciously bringing children into the mix of our family life. It matters little whether the knowledge comes via physical media or in the form of audiobooks; again, for us, reading is fundamental. That said, this reflection is as a result of a curious affliction I have—there are books where I only read the physical book itself; whereas, there are titles and ideas that compel me to, alongside reading the physical book, also listen to the audiobook at the same time; particularly when I am either on my long rides or when mopping our flat. In so doing, this process serves as a method for deepening my understanding of the material. For such works, in my experience repetition of exposure to the knowledge and the attendant reflection, is key. This essay discusses one such book.
On a rain-soaked Thursday morning after a night that saw a torrential downpour shower the landscape here in Cambridge for several hours, the wheel of my Peloton Bike+ turned in steady rhythm, my body settling into the calm insistence of Zone II/IIish Heart-Rate training. My breath evens. The heart finds its tempo. Sweat drips from my brow after rolling from atop my shaved head. In my ears, Thomas Erikson’s Surrounded by Idiots (2019) unfolds with its bold claim: that human behaviour can be understood through four colours—Red, Yellow, Green, and Blue.
As the minutes pass, I begin to reflect. Where do I fall within his model? Instinctively, I sense myself leaning Blue, with threads of Red and Green. Yet something in me resists reducing the intricacy of human consciousness to four shades. And if we are surrounded by anyone, it is not idiots but mirrors: reflections of ourselves, refracted in the choices, energies, and temperaments of those around us.
This thought carries me beyond the pedals. For what does it mean to be “Blue” in a world that demands both structure and spontaneity, both clarity and care? And what happens when colour meets consciousness?
The Palette of Personality
Erikson’s framework is simple, memorable, and, for many—present company included—startlingly accurate.
Red: bold, direct, decisive, action-oriented.
Yellow: optimistic, social, visionary, full of ideas.
Green: steady, patient, supportive, harmony-seeking.
Blue: analytical, precise, structured, detail-oriented.
It is not a new idea that people can be typed, sorted, or colour-coded. From Hippocrates’ humours to Jung’s archetypes to the Myers-Briggs, humanity has long sought to make sense of the variety of human expression. Erikson’s colours are one more tool—accessible, memorable, often accurate enough to spark both recognition and action.
And yet, no colour chart captures the whole. Personality is the surface. Beneath it flows something deeper: consciousness, vast and unbounded, of which these colours are but reflections.
Mapping Myself: Blue with Red and Green
If I take Erikson’s invitation seriously, I must begin with self-mapping.
Blue: My dominant mode. Years of research, writing, and teaching bear witness to a mind that thrives on precision. I take considerable care in structure—whether crafting an essay, refining a WordPress page down to hex codes, or designing a framework that integrates neuroscience, philosophy, and mysticism. Details matter, and I trust them to build coherence.
Red: When vision calls for action, I do not hesitate. Deciding to accept the offer to visit and survey Cambridge during Spring Break in 2013 to determine the feasibility of reconstituting the presence and reach of Transcendental Meditation in the region, to deciding to relocate that late-Spring, launching the International Meditation Hour, publishing bold essays on AI and democracy, reaching out to publishers, or building digital ecosystems (much to the dismay of some)—these are Red impulses. They ensure my work does not remain theory but becomes tangible.
Green: Beneath the analysis and the drive lies a commitment to service. As a teacher of Transcendental Meditation, as a husband and father, as a Mason mentoring others—I hold space for people. Green tempers Red, ensuring ambition does not become aggression.
Yellow: My least pronounced shade, yet not absent. In storytelling—the essay titled The Stranger, the Spring, and the Seed, or the torrential storm that guided me to Transcendence and has marked pivotal moments along my journey—Yellow shines. It infuses narrative with wonder, painting possibilities that facts alone cannot sufficiently hold.
To put it simply: I am Blue at the foundation, Red when decisive, Green in service, and Yellow when inspiration calls.
Leading in Colour
The real value of Erikson’s palette is not self-description but how one leads.
Teaching: Here I lean Blue and Green. Precision in thought, clarity in method, patience in guidance. Students feel both the rigour of structured knowledge and the safety of care.
Publishing: Blue and Yellow meet on the page. Research provides grounding, while narrative lifts it into vision. My essays weave citations with story so that readers are both informed and inspired.
Organisational Growth: Red and Blue dominate. Launching platforms, events, and systems requires decisive initiative grounded in structure. Strategy must be credible, not chaotic.
Movement Building: Green and Yellow are essential. To invite hundreds into an International Meditation Hour, to seed a movement of Consciousness-Based living—one must nurture community while inspiring possibility.
In reflecting on the quote from Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, “Leadership is a matter of intelligence, trustworthiness, humaneness, courage, and sternness,” I view leadership as not about being considered one colour. It is about balance—knowing when to lean Blue, when to act Red, when to soften Green, when to ignite Yellow. My own “leadership colour map” places me firmly toward Blue, leaning into Red, grounded in Green, and threaded lightly with Yellow.
The Limitations of Typologies
And yet—as useful as Erikson’s colours may be, they remain typologies. They map behaviour, not being. They describe how personality manifests, not why consciousness moves as it does.
Personality frameworks are like sketches of the surface of the ocean. They show us the waves, the ripples, even the storms. But beneath lies depth—currents, silence, and vastness that no colour code can chart. Here, I am reminded of a lesson learned during my Grad Studies in Sociology—There is always a story that informs quantitative analysis. Look beyond the surface to the depth to comprehend the qualitative aspects so as to gain a more complete picture of that which is under consideration.
This is where my own research enters.
Beyond Colour: Layers of Manifestation
In the Seven Layers of Manifestation, I outline a progression:
Pure Consciousness—silent, unbounded awareness.
Universal/Natural Laws—principles governing order.
Phenomenal World—the material domain of experience.
Human Consciousness—awareness reflecting on itself.
Human-Derived World—the structures we build.
Constructs—shared agreements shaping society.
Outcomes (Non-Local Influence)—the ripples our actions set in motion.
Where Erikson stops at behaviour, these layers begin at Being. The colours describe how we act. The layers describe why we are.
Similarly, the Model for Perpetual Growth and Progress traces a path not of categorisation but of unfolding. Growth is perpetual. Progress is not static identity but movement—a spiral through which consciousness evolves, individually and collectively.
Thus, while I may find myself “Blue with Red and Green,” I know that beneath this palette lies a field of consciousness within which colour itself dissolves.
A Society in Colour
Still, the colours are not without use. They can diagnose imbalance—not only in individuals, but in institutions and societies.
A society too Red becomes cutthroat: politics as blood sport, corporations as conquest.
A society too Blue becomes rigid: bureaucracy strangling creativity, academia consumed by perfectionism.
A society too Yellow drifts into chaos: inspiration without implementation, ideas without grounding.
A society too Green may stagnate: harmony masking avoidance, comfort breeding complacency.
We need all four. But rarely do we find balance.
Consider democracy today. In some quarters, Red aggression dominates. Elsewhere, Blue over-analysis paralyzes. Yellow distractions flood our feeds, while Green’s longing for harmony often retreats from necessary confrontation.
What is missing is balance, and beyond balance, transcendence: the anchoring of personality in consciousness.
Consciousness and Colour: An Integration
How, then, might one read Erikson from a Consciousness-Based perspective?
First, by remembering that personality is not destiny. Colours describe tendencies, not essence. Through meditation, reflection, and conscious growth, we can expand beyond type.
Second, by recognising that balance is not achieved by force but by awareness. To sit in Pure Consciousness through Transcendental Meditation is to touch the source from which all colours arise. From there, action becomes less reactive, more aligned.
Finally, by situating colour in context. Red drive must serve purpose, not ego. Blue analysis must serve clarity, not rigidity. Green care must serve growth, not avoidance. Yellow vision must serve truth, not fantasy. Consciousness provides the compass.
A Life in Colour, A Path in Consciousness
When I reflect on my own journey—the seed that sprouted in 1993 with a chance encounter, the decision to learn TM, petitioning a Lodge to become a Mason, the years of teaching, the long nights of doctoral research, the frameworks that now take shape—I see not only colours but arcs.
Blue analysis gave me rigour. Red initiative propelled me forward. Green service rooted me in community. Yellow storytelling let me share the journey.
But beyond colour, what carried me through was none other than Pure Consciousness itself: the silent ground, the source of creativity, the field of intelligence that transcends personality.
Closing Reflection: Pedals and Presence
Back on the bike, four successive sessions of thirty minutes each at 85% resistance pass. The day’s session nears its end. My body glistens with sweat, heart steady in Zone II. Erikson’s voice fades, but the reflection remains.
We are not surrounded by idiots. We are surrounded by mirrors—each coloured differently, each showing us something about ourselves. To see them clearly, we must look not only outward but inward.
Personality is useful, yes. But consciousness is essential. The former describes the palette of our behaviour; the latter, the canvas of our being.
If I am Blue, let it be with clarity. If I am Red, let it be with purpose. If I am Green, let it be with compassion. If I am Yellow, let it be with vision. And if I am all of these, let it be in service of what transcends them: the unfolding of consciousness, the growth of humanity, the call to fully embody wisdom.
For in the end, it is not colour that defines us. It is awareness. And awareness, like the horizon, is boundless.
Always remember, colour is surface-level, whereas Consciousness is fundamental.
Suggested Practice
Reflecting on Colours and Consciousness
Set aside 15–20 minutes today for reflection. You may wish to journal, meditate, or simply sit in quiet thought.
1. Self-Mapping: Which of Erikson’s colours feels most familiar to you? Which do you tend to resist or undervalue?
2. Balance: Recall a recent decision. Did you lean Blue (analysis), Red (action), Green (harmony), or Yellow (vision)? How might balance have shifted the outcome?
3. Service: Where in your life can your dominant colour best serve others, rather than just yourself?
4. Consciousness: In your meditation or silent moments, observe what remains when the “colours” of personality quiet down. What is constant beneath?
5. Integration: Write one sentence that begins, “When I lead from consciousness, my colours express as…” and complete it with your own insight.
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Dr. Baruti KMT-Sisouvong is a consciousness scholar, executive coach, and Certified Teacher of Transcendental Meditation® based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His work—spanning the Model for Perpetual Growth and Progress and the Seven Layers of Manifestation framework—explores how Pure Consciousness, neuroscience, and social systems transformation intersect in the evolution of both the individual and society. Alongside his wife, Mina, he co-directs the Cambridge and Metropolitan Boston TM Program, where they have taught thousands the art and science of meditation.
Extending this mission globally, he is the founder of International Meditation Hour (IMH), a quarterly worldwide gathering dedicated to experiencing the unifying power of silence in a time of division, precarity, and technological upheaval. An author of several forthcoming works on the future of consciousness in an age shaped by technology, he writes and teaches from the conviction that the most important race is not between nations or machines, but between the conditioned mind and the awakening soul. They are the proud parents of four children. To learn more about him, visit: https://www.barutikmtsisouvong.com/.