Guide
to the Transpersonal InternetKen
Wilber
A Brief Overview of Everything
No one has synthesized, integrated and described the path to wisdom more systematically and comprehensively than Ken Wilber. Acknowledged by many of his colleagues as the leading theoretician of consciousness, Wilber has meticulously mapped the stages of human development in over eighteen volumes synthesizing Western philosophy and developmental psychology and Eastern models of spiritual transcendence. He is a rigorous, discriminating thinker, almost completely self-educated, who refers to himself as ìa pandit, not a guruî(WIE, 2002). A pandit, by his own definition, is ìa spiritual practitioner who also has a flair for the academic or scholarly or intellectual and so becomes a teacher of the Divine, an articulator and defender of the dharma, an intellectual samurai.î
Wilber is a true warrior of the word, independent and aligned only to the force of his own genuine and passionate inquiry. What he brings to the search for wisdom is a nearly encyclopedic knowledge of philosophy, psychology, anthropology, sociology, mysticism, religion and even physics, as well as deep personal experience with the states of consciousness that can be accessed through meditation.
Wilberís writes as both a transpersonal theoretician and a critic, using his greatest strength, which is to absorb, synthesize, categorize and make sense of vast amounts of information from disparate fields. For twenty or so years, his main goal was to objectively document and map the structures and stages of consciousness development, especially those beyond the ego levels that concerned most of Western psychology.
Wilber has been fearless and unafraid of being controversial and has therefore been harshly criticized for questioning many of the most cherished assumptions of a great diversity of ideological camps. For example, his Spectrum of Consciousness model from the prepersonal stages of infancy to transpersonal enlightenment has come under fire for being hierarchical and ranking. But Wilberís hierarchy is like a Chinese box, where no stage replaces or negates an earlier one, but rather transcends and includes. What is negated is not the pervious stage, but its limitations as we move toward wholeness or unity. Each stage is a broadening of identity.
Ken Wilber was born in 1949, in Oklahoma City. His father was a career officer in the Air Force, and the family moved to a new town nearly every year. Wilber apparently adapted easily and made friends quickly. All-American successful, he was student body president, captain of the football team, graduated top of his class and gave the valedictory speech. His parents provided a great deal of security, support, and most importantly, intellectual freedom. His mother was a housewife who was very devoted to him, sometimes overly so. She had a difficult time letting him go when he went off to Duke University in 1967, intending to become a doctor. He had been passionate about science in high school, but upon arriving at Duke he realized that the objective knowledge that science had to offer was not what he wanted anymore.
In a classic existential crisis, he quit Duke after his sophomore year and returned to Nebraska where his parents were living. He wanted knowledge about interior, psychological, and spiritual questions. In an exploration of deeper meaning beyond logic, beyond science and beyond the ordinary definitions of self, he began reading voraciously in all the mystical literature he could lay hands on. He studied the mystical texts and systems of meditation of Sufism, Buddhism and Hinduism. He devoured the works of the Western philosophers and psychologists. He became fascinated with how all these people, ideas and truths fit together, and this provided the meaning he had been looking for.
Wilber returned to the University of Nebraska, in order to get a deferment from the draft. He chose to study physics and chemistry because they came easily to him, but his real commitment was to his own self-education. After classes, he spent five to seven hours a day reading from his own esoteric East-West syllabus. He also got married to a young woman named Amy Wagner, began therapy with an eclectically trained psychologist named Bob Young, and went on to graduate school in Chemistry.
One day the pieces all began to fall together when Wilber had the realization that all these thinkers, so busy trying to disprove each other, were not all talking about the same level of consciousness. He came home that day and announced to his wife that he was quitting graduate school and writing a book.
At twenty-three years old, he wrote Spectrum of Consciousness, longhand in three months. The book was rejected twenty times, before finding a publisher three years later in 1978. The book attracted immediate attention and extraordinary reviews. Two years later, he followed it with No Boundary, a slightly more accessible description of his full-spectrum model of consciousness. He continued to concentrate solely on writing, with an output of one book per year, for the next ten years, each one relating his developmental theories to a different field such as sociology, anthropology, evolution and physics. Wilberís focus on writing and meditation has earned him a reputation a something of a hermit or recluse. While it is true that he does not, for the most part teach or lecture, it is his view that he is simply focused on the talent that he has been given.
It has recently
come to light, in a letter circulated by Wilber to his close friends in
October 2002, that his health has seriously deteriorated due to having
contracted a condition called RNase Enzyme Deficiency Disease in 1985.
This disease damages the mitochondria, which produce all of the bodyís
energy. The main symptom is ìhypoxiaî or lack
of oxygen, which has left Wilber bedridden most of the time. Fortunately,
he can both meditate and write from bed, and apparently his spirit-mind
just keeps writing books, despite his painful body.
References
The collected works of Ken Wilber. Vols. I- IIX, Boston, Shambhala.
Burroughs, K.C. (ed.), (1998). The essential Ken Wilber: An introductory reader. Boston, Shahbhala.
Schwartz, T. (1995) What really matters: Searching for wisdom in America. Bantam. (Chapter 9: Putting consciousness on the map: how Ken Wilber married Freud and the Buddha).
What is Enlightenment? Magazine, (Spring/Summer 2002). ìThe Guru and the Pandit: The evolution of enlightenment, Andrew Cohen and Ken Wilber in dialogueî. Pp. 38-49, 136-143.
Websites
Ken Wilberís official Website:
http://www.worldofkenwilber.com/
Wilber scholar Frank Visser has put together this comprehensive Website with a complete bibliography, simplified core concepts, book reviews, essays, newsletter, events, integral studies programs, and everything you ever wanted to know about Ken Wilber, including Wilberís statement about his health.
http://www.wie.org/_flash/default.asp?nav=1
What is Enlightenment? Magazine. Dialogues with Andrew Cohen & Ken Wilber.
Integral Naked- is a
series of largely unedited, uncensored, live, or taped live conversations
between the worldís most influential, provocative and important thinkers and
leaders. Most of these are
moderated by Ken Wilber or his colleagues at Integral Institute.
If you would like to sign up for Integral Naked, use this
link:
http://www.integralnaked.org/maillink.aspx?signupid=S2
To learn more about Integral Naked, use this link:
http://www.integralnaked.org/maillink.aspx?tourid+S2
http://www.integralinstitute.org/home.htm
Integral Institute, founded by Ken Wilber in 2000, as a
think-tank for studying issues of science and society in an integral way.
Books by Ken Wilber-
Shambhala Press
The Spectrum of Consciousness (1977)
His first book, written at age 23, is one of the founding texts of transpersonal psychology. Introduces the full-spectrum model.
No Boundary: Eastern and Western Approaches to Personal Growth (1979)
A comprehensive guide to the psychologies and therapies available from both Western and Eastern sources- psychoanalysis to Zen, Gestalt to TM, existentialism to tantra.
The Atman Project: A Transpersonal View of Human Development (1980)
Unites over three-dozen Eastern and Western approaches to consciousness.
Up from Eden: A Transpersonal View of Human Evolution (1981)
Conscious cultural evolution examined
The Holographic Paradigm and Other Paradoxes: Exploring the Leading Edge of Science (1982)
A Sociable God: Toward a New Understanding of Religion (1983)
Presents a system of methods by which to make testable judgments of the ìauthenticityî of any religious movement.
Eye to Eye: The Quest for the New Paradigm (1983)
Examines three realms or ìeyes of knowledgeî: the empirical realm of the senses, the rational realm of the mind, and the contemplative realm of the spirit. Includes the Pre/Trans Fallacy.
Quantum Questions: Mystical Writings of the Worldís Great Physicists (1984)
Summarizes the arguments of the mystical physicists within and argues that there is no evidence for the argument that modern physics offers support for a mystical worldview.
Transformations of Consciousness: Conventional and
Contemplative Perspectives on
Development, by Ken Wilber, Jack Engler, and Daniel P. Brown (1986)
Various stages of development (conventional & contemplative), corresponding levels of possible pathology, and the correlative or appropriate therapeutic interventions.
Spiritual Choices: The Problems of Recognizing Authentic Paths to Inner Transformation, edited by Dick Anthony, Bruce Ecker, and Ken Wilber (1987)
Grace and Grit: Spirituality and Healing in the Life and Death of Treya Killam Wilber (1991)
His most personal work, a moving account of the life and death of Wilberís 2nd wife,Treya Killam Wilber, who died of cancer in 1989. Includes her journals and his narrative to convey the inner experience of their ordeal.
Sex, Ecology, Spirituality: The Spirit of Evolution (1995)
Wilber describes the ìtwenty tenetsî of holonic philosophy that are common to all evolving or growing systems. A focus on the rise of modernity and postmodernity.
A Brief History of Everything (1996)
An accessible account of men and womenís place in a universe of sex, soul and spirit. Current interest and controversies.
The Eye of Spirit: An Integral Vision for a World Gone Slightly Mad (1997)
Includes a historical summary of his own work and responses to his critics.
The Marriage of Sense and Soul: Integrating Science and Religion (1998)
Argues acknowledgement of epistemological pluralism for the integration of science and religion.
One Taste: The Journals of Ken Wilber (1999)
Intimate personal journal of the year 1997, provides insights into his life and spiritual practice.
Integral Psychology (2000)
Wilberís textbook of transpersonal psychology and psychological model
Boomeritis: A Novel that Will Set You Free (2002)
A postmodern novel, exemplifying what it criticizes, a
ìmanual for falling awakeî
Criticism
Ken Wilber in Dialogue: Conversations with Leading Transpersonal Thinkers, edited by Donald Rothberg and Sean Kelly. Wheaton, Ill., Quest Books (1998)
-An appreciative and liberally critical dialogue about Wilberís work and the issues of the transpersonal field.
R. Fisher, A Research Resource Guide to Ken Wilberís Critics, 1997 (2nd edition).
This publication contains short summaries of the various
positions, and is sold by the author, who can be contacted at: rmfisher@unixg.ubc.com