According to Washburn transpersonal development follows the principles of a spiraling path. Central to his model is the understanding of a dynamic ground; a deep level of the unconscious, with spiritual qualities, that the person is in contact with in the prepersonal stage of development. According to commentators Washburn describes three stages of human development; the pre-personal, the personal and the transpersonal, also described as; pre-egoic, egoic and trans-egoic. In the pre-stage (up to age 5) the child is integrated with the dynamic ground. Later in life this contact is weakened, and the prepersonal stage is followed by a new stage of development where the ego is dissociated from the dynamic ground. This happens through the process of repression, and marks the stage of adulthood, and of the mental ego (egoic stage).