Integral Psychology: Consciousness, Spirit, Psychology, Therapy

"I recommend this book to anyone that is trying to understand our consciousness from a multidimensional perspective. It is one of the best books I have ever read on the subject. I love his writing style and found his descriptions of the Godhead especially enjoyable. "
~ Written on 2008-06-02

"As with "A Brief History Of Everything", this title begins strong, thorough, thoughtful, profound and expansive, continuing this momentum until about the books halfway point. Once at this juncture, Wilber begins to double back and hammer away at material already thouroughly covered in the previous pages, trying to pound it into a solid, consumer-ready product. The paradox of Wilber, in a nutshell. Though he should not be disregarded (for what is NOT percieved as being filthy with paradox, after all?), his intent in skipping over important details and reducing broad topics such as the place of art in conciousness evolution should be scrutinized and criticized. For unfolding an inclusive map of human conciousness and for including passages on theraputic approaches, Wilber gets props. For giving it the hard sell and looking down his nose at possible arguments, Wilber gets a thumbs down. For more concise, to-the-point Wilber, check out "No Boundary". For more involved reading, check out "Sex, Ecology and Spirituality". This feels like a slightly expanded re-hash. Plus, this "epoch" of Wilber's writing finds him using an uber-agressive voice, full of pomp and spiritual arrogance."
~ Written on 2008-05-10

"In the early chapters Wilbur makes the claim that modernism shifted the focus from ontology to epistemology. Unfortunately for him and his gullible readers, Wilbur gives no thought to epistemology or verification. Truth to him seems to be based on appeal to authority. He offers no arguments in this book, only assertions or quotes from others making unjustified assertions. Time and again he presents a false dilemma between total reduction of the mind/soul/spirit to physical matter and his robust mystic metaphysics. This is a FALSE dilemma, especially considering the identity theory hasn't been taken seriously in philosophy in over 30 years! Ken needs to quit trying to show how smart he is and spend some time catching up with the last 30 years of research in philosophy of mind and cognitive science. Very few philosopher or cognitive psychologists would take this book seriously because it is offering an integral alternative to ideas that are outmoded already, yet it doesn't recognize at all why those ideas are no longer talked about. Bottom line: Pure assertion/speculation and no argument. How do I verify that? He doesn't cite a single academic journal or present any justification for any of the premises he uses in his already spurious arguments (if you can even call them arguments). This is a great example of someone trying to do philosophy who has no formal training in philosophy. Sure its possible, but Wilbur is a good example for why philosophical training is useful. Perhaps if he had some he would understand why an appeal to an unqualified authority is fallacious."
~ Written on 2006-10-29

"This book will not necessarily make good bed timing reading from the standpoint of being "light." Between the covers, it presents a deep exploration of the shortcomings of modern reductionistic ways of looking at the psyche and in its place posits and optimistic, embracing and holistic view that revives the original meaning of the term psyche in most broad sense i.e. mind or soul.

In Chapter One Ken Wilber points out that the great problem of psychology has always been that different schools of thought have taken one or a few aspects of psychology and declared it the only worthwhile aspect(s) worth studying. In his model, the goal is to honor and embrace every legitimate aspect of human consciousness.

Ken also looks at reality as a hierarchy (holoarchy) made of wholes that are also parts. He calls these holons and each one has four dimensions; 1) subjective; 2) objective 3) collective objective (objective systems); and 4) intersubjective (worldviews and cultures). He further argues that each dimension is not reducible to any other, which means that the subjective and intersubjective are legitimate areas of inquiry with their own unique validation criteria.

Ken Wilber's model also embraces a synthesis of over 200 worldviews and he includes mystical experience and other ways of knowing as legitimate epistemologies. He goes on to explain that the subjective nature of reality is "real," but that the scientific method is not the correct mode of inquiry for this exploring this domain. However, he says that its existence is both undeniable and has been explored for thousands of years by highly developed people of all faiths. In other words, we can have real knowledge of this area.

His model honors the full spectrum of human experience including the body, emotions, mind, soul and spirit. These are presented as different developmental levels which exist within each quadrant that make up an entire holon.

Another important part of Wilber's model is the notion of evolution. According to him, we are evolving personally and collectively toward higher states of being that include subtle and non-dual states.

Ken opens the book with a definition of psychology which very nicely summarizes the scope of this work: "Psychology is the study of human consciousness and its manifestations in behavior. The functions of consciousness include perceiving, desiring, willing, and acting. The structures of consciousness, some facets which can be unconscious, include body, mind, soul, and spirit. The states of consciousness include normal (e.g. waking, dreaming, sleeping) and altered (e.g. nonordinary, meditative). The modes of consciousness include aesthetic, moral and scientific."

According to Wilber, "the development of consciousness spans an entire spectrum from prepersonal to personal to transpersonal, subconscious to self-conscious to superconscious, id to ego to Spirit. The relational aspects of consciousness refer to its mutual interaction with the objective, exterior world and the sociocultural world of shared values and perceptions." I think this describes his notion of development well, but this is even further developed in his book the Atman project.

This book really represents a well-research and holistic model of the psyche including its intersubjective aspects. This is often a piece that is left out as though we are isolated monads wondering through the world.

While this text is valuable, fascinating and thorough, it is not the easiest read for people with a weak background in philosophy or psychology. If this applies to you, you may want to read his book "A Brief History of Everything" first. This presents his major ideas in a more "user friendly" format.

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~ Written on 2006-06-13

"I would think that a person such as myself would be an ideal audience for Mr. Wilber's ruminations on mind and spirit. Like the Pandit, I have a broad interest in interdisciplinary approaches to the psyche and the spirit. We share a taste for Eastern and Western philosophy, psychology, and the emerging discourses of self-organization and systems analysis. Yet for the life of me I cannot understand what this book is supposed to add to our understanding.

Wilber is extremely erudite and a strong thinker, I will grant him that. His book draws broadly from the marketplace of ideas and would seem cosmopolitan in a manner of speaking. Yet despite the variety of ideas he examines, this book remains narrowly confined by the basic self-absorption of its project.

What we have here is a work that articulates Wilber's framework for understanding and integrating a wide variety of approaches and techniques under an overarching interpretive system. All of the thoughts and thinkers he considers are neatly arrayed in their respective quadrants on his gigantic graphs. So? What does this get us, other than the intellectual autobiography of one well-read meditator? Is his thinking that it will not occur to researchers that there are other fields of study than their own, without such a framework?

Most of what he says is fairly obvious to anyone who looks at the material he digests for us like a mother bird. There will be readers, of course, who have no desire to come to terms in a meaningful way with the source material, and for them, Wilber will save a lot of reading.

In the final analysis, Wilber is a systematizer, which explains the strangely plastic and lifeless quality of his prose, for systems are strikingly inert. As Hugh Kenner observed, a system can only mechanically unfold, or decay, like the orbit of a satellite. "
~ Written on 2006-01-15