Ken Wilber

The man who, for numerous days, has been ack straight offledged by colleagues as the leading theoretician of sentience and trans personalized psychology, Ken Wilber, was born in 1948 in Oklahoma City, to two feedd p bents. Wilbers intellect has been hailed as sincerely extraordinary in its penetrating, synthesizing, and discriminative capacities. His knowledge of psychology, philosophy, sociology, comparative religion, mysticism, anthropology, and even serious sciences such as biochemistry and physics is virtually encyclopedic, moreover, more(prenominal) than or less heavyly, he has personal experience with the states and levels of disposition about which he writes.Although he certainly should non be viewed as only an intellectual, his affinity for the amiable and religious realms, as opposed to the bodily and emotional realms, is clear. Likewise, although his passion is greater for transpersonal than prepersonal and personal coiffes of culture, he has nonetheless c onsistently emphasized the dire need to key out and press a full-spectrum view of cognisance and humanitys place thitherin.Life and Major WorksWilber grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska. His father was an air force officer. As a youth, he was indifferent in the earthly concern of natural sciences, biology, chemistry and mathematics. Referring to his late high-school and early college days, Wilber nones, My mental youth was an idyll of precision and accuracy, a fortress of the clear and evident. (Wilber 58) His match with the Tao-te-Ching changed everything It was as if I were being exposed, for the very first while, to an entirely parvenu and drasti bring upy different world -a world beyond the sensical, a world out-of-door of science, and therefore a world quite beyond myself. (Wilber 58)From here on, the investigation of the world beyond the personal self yet complaisant to human consciousness became a passion that involved not righteous Wilbers intellect barely his entire being. Beginning in his early twenties and continuing to this day, he has interpreted up training in versatile contemplative practices such as Zen and Dzogchen (a frame of Tibetan Buddhism) that would alter him to walk the terrain he charts in his reports.Wilber dropped out of graduate studies in biochemistry to devote himself fulltime to the pursuit of his research and writing about consciousness. His first major book, The Spectrum of spirit written in 1977, was a synthesis of western sandwich psychological theories and therapies with eastern uncanny disciplines. From this time onward, Wilber supported himself by his protest writings, living outside of institutional affiliations and commitments, free to develop and express his avouch ideas, free to live(a) a lifestyle of reflectivity and writing. To balance mental and spiritual civilise with embodied living, he at times engaged in manual(a) labor, such as working in gas stations (Wilber 88).Several books and oer a hun dred journal articles soon appeared. The Atman stomach 1980 fall forwards a vastly expanded framework for human outgrowth from babyhood to adulthood and beyond into transpersonal stages described by diverse contemplative disciplines. Up from Eden (1981b) presented a detailed map of the evolution of the human thinker and consciousness indoors this framework. The popular No Boundary (1981a), explains Wilbers early ideas in a highly readable style, while around of his more technological works such as Eye to Eye The indicatefor the in the raw epitome for the New Paradigm (1990a) discuss the epistemological bases of knowing in the various(a) sciences and how these could be expanded to accommodate the fun spectrum of consciousness.Wilbers ideas, larger than life and evince through a powerful and often sharply critical writing style, confuse left few readers neutral or indifferent. Over the years he has engaged in lively debates with people who have taken issue with his contr oversial ideas, including other prominent theorists in transpersonal psychology. Most of these debates were carried on in the pages of journals and in his near recent books. Few of his colleagues in transpersonal and consciousness studies have met him in person. To their chagrin, Wilber guards his privacy carefully and rarely makes an appearance in public.He initially accepted invitations to t apiece, lecture, and give interviews but then quickly pulled butt from such activity, as he felt thrown off centralize by the attention and admiration from his audiences. Regarding this experience, Wilber said in an interview, What you get are a lot of people telling you how great you are. Within a short time, you start believing them, and then youre headed for disaster. I simply did not feel competent to appear in public as a teacher (Schwartz 186). Getting Wilber to agree even to an interview is not easy. however when he does give his time, he gives generously, and to his small circle of close friends. Wilber is know as a devoted friend who can be warm, charming, and cockeyed (Schwartz 204).Wilbers first marriage to his best friend Amy Wagner in 1972 lasted for nine years, subsequently which they parted ways amicably. Two years later Wilber met and married Treya Killam. wholeness week after the wedding, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. The next five years were exhausted battling a relentless cancer that eventually claimed her life. During those five years Wilber set aside well-nigh of his writing and devoted himself full-time to nurturing Treya and, eventually, to helping her to die. change and Grit (1991), which appeared two years after her death, provides a moving cover of the emotional and spiritual struggles and transformations in both Wilber and Treya during those trying years.The long abatement in Wilbers writing ended in 1995 with the publication of the first mountain of a planned three- record book series, Sex, Ecology, and otherworldliness T he Spirit of Evolution (SES) (1995b). This 800 page volume was soon followed by two shorter companion works, A Guide to Sex, Ecology, Spirituality (1995a) and A Brief History of Everything (1996). A new chapter had just begun in Wilbers writing career. Up to this point, the emphasis had been largely on the upward ride of evolution, but in SES the upward accomplishment is balanced by the go badment downward Spirit ascending to higher unities is at the same time Spirit descending to embrace and mix the manifold of phenomena. By Wilbers own estimation SES is his first mature work. It offers an integral vision that encompasses practically everything military man have ever sought to know or be.Wilbers IdeasTranspersonal TheoryKen Wilber has been the most influential theorist in transpersonal psychology. Wilbers developmental model in The Atman Project has the advantage of meshing with developmental psychology and extending it to transpersonal growth. Wilber says that people move thr ough three life stages pre-personal, personal, and transpersonal growth. The pre-personal stage begins at birth, before a record is developed.From birth to adolescence the task is to build a personality. In the personal stage the individuals task is to use the personality in work, relationships, and mature life in the world. In the transpersonal stage, usually beginning in adult life, the person begins to move beyond the external world and explore the inner reaches of the self and spiritual realities. The ultimate purpose is to attain the state of oneness or whizz with the consciousness of the universe. Wilber contends that the growth toward these levels of being is a natural movement of the self, an inwards arc in contrast to the outward arc that relates to the external world.The Spectrum of DevelopmentDevelopment, for Wilber, extends from breathtaking matter and primitive life forms through the developmental stages of human consciousness to its farthest reaches as manifested b y the mystics and sages of various east and Western spiritual traditions. The stages leading to mature adulthood are familiar enough. They have been charted by theorists such as Jean Piaget, Erik Erikson, Lawrence Kohlberg, and various psychoanalysts. Wilber draws especially from Piaget for the un-foldment of the cognitive and mental capacities and mingles these with the dynamic theories of object-relations psychoanalysis.Wilber identifies four transpersonal stages beyond mature adulthood psychic, subtle, causal, and ultimate. Through these stages the sand of self or identity becomes more and more flexible and comprehensive as self-centrism or narcissism continues to decrease, until at the highest stages of transpersonal development even the subtlest and most inclusive self-structurations are outperformed in a common sense of identity and tie that embraces all.At each stage things can go wrong, and so there is a spectrum of pathology corresponding to the spectrum of developme nt all the way up to the highest transpersonal stages. Wilber discusses treatment modalities for each pathology and calls attention to the importance of correctly distinguish levels of pathology for usage pre-personal or transpersonal so that portion treatment can be chosen. For example, he argues that meditation may not be suitable for borderline and other pre-personal pathologies, whereas for an existential slump or dark night of the soul that may occur in the lower transpersonal stages meditation may be a successful manner of treatment.The charting of transpersonal development is undoubtedly Wilbers most controversial project. It implies that human development is pass on ended and that some individuals are farther along in development than other people, or that at any given time some people, and perhaps some cultures, have a more encompassing sense of self and a greater capacity for integrating the spectrum of consciousness than others. A number of cultural anthropologists , feminists, and ecophilosophers have criticized Wilbers theory in this regard. Certainly, the idea of development beyond the average well-adjusted is not new it was celebrated in Maslows notion of the self-actualizer. hardly in proposing developmental stages beyond self-actualization, Wilber is venturing into ever more rarified realms of human experience where the stakes are set high yet evidence is hard to come by.Nevertheless, it seems fair to say that Wilbers transpersonal stages have opened up the horizon far beyond anything conceived in Western scientific psychology. This horizon had been there all along, of course, and through the centuries it was explored by the mystics and seers whose anecdotic accounts, couched in religious symbolism and interpretations, only helped to shroud it in dull mystery. For consciousness researchers, Wilber offers a greatly expanded paradigm of scientific inquiry. For those on a spiritual quest, he provides a map for the road.The Three eye of K nowingThe paradigm of consciousness research has been too narrowly modeled after the empirical sciences, argues Wilber. It can be significantly expanded once we gull that the eye of flesh, that is, our senses aided by laboratory instruments, is just one of the feasible ways in which knowledge is gathered. We also have the eye of campaign that understands the meaning of text, cultural symbols, and mathematical equations as well as the meaning of the data the eye of flesh observes. Beyond reason, says Wilber, there is the eye of contemplation that intuits directly the nature of reality and of the meanings deciphered by the eye of reason.The Pre/Trans FallacyAnother important concept of Wilbers that helps clear up misunderstandings regarding the transpersonal domain is what he calls the pre/trans delusion. This is the failure to fork between primitive phenomena of early developmental stages, on the one hand, and insights and experiences that transcend the egoic mode of rational c onsciousness, on the other. Both types of phenomena are, in their own ways, visceral and nonegoic, and this is why they can appear similar or even identical. But phenomena of the first type are prerational or preegoic, whereas phenomena of the second type are transrational or transegoic.The pre/trans fallacy can occur in two ways. In the first, trans is reduced to pre. Freuds interpretation of the oceanic feeling associated with mystical experience as an irrational, regressive urge to return to the womb is a classic example of such a reduction. In general, the dismissal of all spiritual insights as regressive exemplifies the reductionist form of the pre/trans fallacy. In the second form of the fallacy, pre is empyreal to trans. The elevationist form of the pre/trans fallacy is evident in the various ways in which prerational experience and modes of expression are promoted in the name of higher personal growth.Wilbers discussion of the pre/trans fallacy may well be one of his most useful practical contributions to the growing numbers of people searching for a spiritual path or engaging in some form of contemplative practice (Schwartz 260). Often the spiritual search masks primitive longings root in early developmental deprivations. On the other hand, sometimes an manifest psychotic break signals a major spiritual breakthrough. An insight into the pre/trans fallacy helps spiritual questers as well as therapists to be more discerning of the nature of the beast they are dealing with.Holism Restoring Connectedness in the WorldIn his more recent writings, Wilber has articulated his philosophy of holism. To be truly holistic, the vision of a whole must include everything, including itself. But more important, it must integrate and connect all that it embraces. So the issue is not holism versus atomism, but fractured ness versus connectedness. Furthermore, the solution cannot be a matter of articulating the best and most holistic position, for this still leaves out the person proposing or accepting the position. Rather, what is essential is a transformation of consciousness within the person, within all of us that shifts the viewpoint from the exterior increasingly to the interior and on to a tops(predicate) view that is ever more inclusive and connected.Wilber has sounded a powerful call for us to awaken to the evolutionary process taking place within us, within the universe, not in some distant future but right now (Puhakka 152). This evolution is fundamentally open and creative and therefore, at every turn, incomplete and uncertain. We live in systems within systems, contexts within contexts, of indefinitely expanding structures of experiences, meanings, and relationships. These systems are constantly sliding and the contexts shifting, says Wilber.The vision of an open universe blossom and enfolded upwards and downwards without end effectively removes all bases for certainty and completeness. For many people, the postmodern quicksand wo rld spells despair and a sense of being deep in thought(p) in the ever-shifting contexts that claim power of determination over meaning and determine and render human lives pointless and empty.The absolutizing of context is an unfortunate, even if unintended, legacy of ofttimes of postmodern thought. Wilber sees the emphasis on context as being appropriate but not going deep enough We must recognize that the contexts themselves are shifting and evolving, along with everything else. The evolution, we are a part of excludes nothing, not even the contexts that bound our understanding and awareness. Evolution is the journey of the universe toward self-awareness, now through human consciousness that is becoming increasingly aware of its own contexts.ConclusionKen Wilber is a controversial figure among the late-twentieth-century thinkers on culture and consciousness. The evolution of consciousness is Wilbers main concern. He finds all of the major sciences, philosophies, and spiritual traditions, both Eastern and Western, relevant to this concern, for they exemplify the process of evolution even as they slough light on it. The light is always partial, however, and how to fit the partial truths in concert is, for Wilber, the supreme puzzle. A superb synthesizer with ability to absorb and integrate large amounts of information across various disciplines, he sketches the contours of a panoramic vision of evolution as an unfolding of Spirit through matter, life, and mind.Works CitedEngler J. alterative aims in psychotherapy and meditation Developmental stages in the representation of self. capital of Massachusetts Shambhala, 1986.Puhakka K. Restoring connectedness in the Kosmos A healing tale of a deeper order. humanist Psychologist, 23 (1995) 373-391.Schwartz T. The full spectrum Common Boundary. Los Angeles Tarcher, 1995.Wilber K. The spectrum of consciousness. Wheaton, IL Quest Books, 1977.Wilber K. The Atman project. Wheaton, IL Quest Books. 1980.Wilber K. No boundary. Boston Shambhala, 1981.Wilber K. Odyssey. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 22(1) (1982) 57-90.Wilber K. A sociable God. New York New Press, 1983.