to make sense of confusing aspects of his data. Since many adult humans do not take psychology classes (the source of his data), including those from cultures who do not participate in western educational systems, this phase also included research on how such adults might fit with Graves's collected data. Development of the theory Graves's analysis of the data collected and researched through the experiments described above became the basis for emergent cyclical (E-C) theory. Graves theorized that in response to the interaction of external conditions with internal neurological systems, humans develop new bio-psycho-social coping systems to solve existential problems and cope with their worlds. These coping systems are dependent on evolving human culture and individual development, and they are manifested at the individual, societal, and species levels. While there is an ordered progression of stages, later stages are not presented as "better" in the sense of moral superiority. Rather, each level is best suited to the existential problems that caused it to emerge. E-C theory produces an open-ended system of levels, which set Graves's work apart from many of his contemporaries, such as Abraham Maslow, who sought a final, perfectible state of human development. Both progression and regression through the levels are possible in response to environmental conditions. The emergent cyclical double-helix Emergent cyclical theory is more broad than just the well-known set of levels of existence, and Graves considered the levels themselves to simply be artifacts of the theory. E-C theory holds that new bio-psycho-social coping systems emerge within humans in response to the interplay of external life conditions or existential problems with internal neurobiology. It is this interaction, which cycles between what Graves referred to as "express self" and "sacrifice self" systems, which is the core of the theory Graves identified the existential problems / life conditions with letters in the first half of the alphabet (A, B, C, D, E, F...), and the emergent coping systems with letters in the second half (N, O, P, Q, R, S...). Each system emerges in response to the corresponding existential problems. (N in response to A, O in response to B, etc.) Color codes, which are common in later systems built on E-C theory, are not something that Graves ever used. When parallel conditions and systems are paired (AN, BO, CP, DQ, ER, FS...), they describe a level of existence. In these states, the active neuronal system is the