This is the definitive guide to the life and work of Ken Wilber, widely regarded as the most comprehensive and passionate philosopher of our times. In this long overdue exploration of Wilber’s life and work, Frank Visser not only outlines the theories of this profound thinker, but also uncovers his personal life, showing how his experiences influenced and shaped his writing.
Wilber’s impressive body of work, including nineteen books in more than thirty languages, brings together science and religion, philosophy, art, culture, East and West, and places them within the all-encompassing perspective of evolution. Visser’s book follows Wilber’s four distinct phases as he reveals not only the story behind Wilber’s writing, but also the man behind the ideas. In recounting the course of Wilber’s life and the motives that led him to the subjects he has written so much about, Visser uncovers the intricacies of one of the world’s most important intellectuals. Included in this indispensable resource is a complete bibliography of Wilber’s work.
Table des matières
FOREWORD
Ken Wilber
INTRODUCTION
Ken Wilber: The person and his work
The structure of this book
1. WHO IS KEN WILBUR? ‘I’M A PANDIT, NOT A GURU’
Top of the class
‘An entirely new world’
‘Life for me was sour’
‘The Einstein of consciousness research’
‘The lonely pursuit of the writer’
The Kosmos trilogy
‘A fundamental pattern’
So, yet another Grand Theory?
‘I’m a pandit, not a guru’
The seven faces of Ken Wilber
2. A FLYING START: ‘CONSCIOUSNESS IS LIKE A SPECTRUM’
What is transpersonal psychology?
The perennial philosophy as a guiding concept
A ‘perennial psychology’
The spectrum of consciousness
Evolution–the movement from Spirit to embodied individual
Involution–the movement from embodied individual to Spirit
Consciousness without boundaries
‘And yet, something was definitely wrong . . .’
3. CRISIS AND REORIENTATION: IN SEARCH OF A NEW FOOTING
‘Instantly the entire scheme became clear’
A forgotten truth
The search for the Self
Developmental psychology as a starting point
The prepersonal
The personal
The transpersonal
General principles of development
Pause for thought
A fall from Paradise?
Cultural evolution
The evolution of religion
New Age or Dark Age?
‘No longer lost in thoughts’
To sum up . . .
4. FURTHER REFINEMENTS: SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL ISSUES
Towards a New Paradigm?
The three eyes of knowledge
Three types of science
The pre/trans fallacy
A further refinement of the developmental model
Physics and mysticism: An unhappy marriage?
A holographic paradigm?
Quantum questions
Transpersonal sociology
Methodological considerations
The new religious movements
The stage model is complete
5. LOVE, DEATH, AND REBIRTH: YEARS OF TEST AND TRIAL
‘Love at first touch’
‘I went into a profound depression’
‘My path has been Buddhist’
‘I do not condemn the entire New Age movement’
‘And that is what Treya had done for me’
Death and rebirth in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition
6. AN EVEN BROADER HORIZON: A MULTIDIMENSIONAL VIEW OF SPIRIT
The Kosmos trilogy
Popular holism falls short
Individual and cultural progress
The four quadrants
The collapse into flatland
Ascending and descending spirituality
An interview . . . with himself
The four quadrants revisited
Global consciousness as a platform
In the grip of flatland
The eye of spirit
The integral approach
Is humanity evolving?
The ever-present Spirit
The integration of science and religion
A closer look at science and religion
Earlier attempts at integration
The integral agenda
The taste of Oneness
A day in the life
Pitfalls on the Path
Continuity of consciousness
The Collected Works
Integral Psychology
Boomeritis
A theory of everything
The Integral Institute
‘By far the most productive years of my entire life’
Towards a post-metaphysical spirituality
7. KEN WILBER IN PERSPECTIVE: THE BACKBONE OF WILBER’S MODEL
Materialist science: the domain of matter
Is there an inner dimension?
‘The hard problem’
Back to introspection
Orthodox psychology: the domain of the personality
The realms of nature
The stage paradigm
Philosophy of development
Transpersonal psychology: the domain of the soul
Wilber versus Jung
Wilber’s main opponents
The Wilber conference in San Francisco
Metaphysical religion: the domain of Spirit
The perennialists
The theosophical tradition
A Western Vedanta?
Epilogue: The map and the territory
NOTES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books by Ken Wilber
Complete bibliography of Ken Wilber
INDEX
A propos de l’auteur
Frank Visser is an internet specialist who studied the psychology of religion at the Catholic University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands, and is the author of
Seven Spheres.
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