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[[Image:Matrix kenwilber 600.gif|thumb|300px|right|Ken Wilber]]
'''Kenneth Earl Wilber Jr.''' (born [[January 31]], [[019491949]], [[Oklahoma City]], [[United States|USA]]) is an [[United States|American]] [[philosopher]] and [[psychology|psychologist]]. His work focuses mainly on creating an "[[integral theory]] of [[consciousness]]" in which the insights of [[mysticism]], [[postmodernism]], [[science]] and [[systems theory]] come together to form a coherent picture of the Kosmos. In ''Kosmic Consciousness'', Wilber states that he considers himself a storyteller and a mapmaker; his stories address universal questions and his maps integrate various perspectives of the cosmos.
Although he is considered a founder of the [[Transpersonal psychology|transpersonal]] school of [[psychology]], he has since disassociated himself from it [http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/interviews/interview1220.cfm]. In [[019981998]] Wilber founded the [[Integral Institute]], a think-tank for studying issues of science and society in an [[Integral (philosophy)|integral]] way. He has been a pioneer in the development of [[Integral psychology]] and [[Integral politics]].
In the [[4 January]] [[019971997]] issue of the German newspaper ''[[Die Welt]]'', a reviewer called Wilber "the foremost thinker in the field of the evolution of consciousness."
{{Integral theory}}
==Biography==
===Education===
Ken Wilber was born on [[January 31]], [[019491949]] in Oklahoma City, OK. His father was in the Air Force and Oklahoma was just a temporary sojourn in a journey through [[Bermuda]], [[El Paso, TX]], [[Idaho]], and [[Great Falls, MT]] where he began high school. For his senior year they moved to [[Lincoln, NE]] where he was [[valedictorian]] of his high school class. He remembers the frequent moves as traumatic, though he was successful in athletics and was several times elected student body or class president. "People think I am anti-social, but that is quite wrong. When at twenty-three I engaged my adult interests of writing and [[meditation]], it was hard for me to stop being with people and spend my life in a corner." (p. 19, Visser)
In 019681968 he enrolled as a pre-med student at [[Duke University]], but almost immediately experienced a crisis of disillusionment with what science had to offer. It was not the [[Hallucinogenic drug|psychedelics]] then in vogue which inspired him. It was Eastern literature, particularly the [[Tao Te Ching]], which catalyzed his conversion. Academically he lost that first year, but returned to Nebraska, enrolled in the [[University of Nebraska|University]], and completed a bachelor's degree with double majors in chemistry and biology. This he managed to do while spending much of his time pursuing Eastern philosophy and Western psychology. He won a scholarship to do graduate study in biochemistry, but by this time he was thoroughly ensnared by the philosophical and contemplative life, and dropped out. He describes his academic accomplishments as "a Master's degree in biochemistry, and a Ph.D. minus thesis in [[biochemistry]] and [[biophysics]], with specialization in the mechanism of the visual process."
While tutoring he met Amy Wagner in 019721972. They decided to live together and married a year later. The relationship was committed to shared responsibilities, and Wilber did odd jobs such as dishwashing for the next nine years to contribute his share to their support. The menial work provided balance while he continued to write. He never relished writing, but thought of himself more as a thinker. To hone his writing skills he copied all the books of [[Alan Watts]] verbatim, in longhand. His method for the next ten years was to study for ten months or so, conceive a book in its entirety, then to write [[obsessive]]ly to complete it in two or three months.
===Early career===
In 019731973 he completed the manuscript for his first book, ''The Spectrum of Consciousness'', the first fruit of his quest to integrate thought from disparate fields. After rejections by more than twenty publishers it was finally accepted by Quest Books, a [[theosophical]] organization in 1977. It was well received, with Wilber being compared to such luminaries as [[William James]], [[Freud]], and even [[Einstein]]. The success brought opportunities for many lectures and workshops, which he gave up after a year to provide more time for his writing. He also helped to launch the journal ''ReVision'' in 019781978. ''No Boundary'' was a popularized summary of ''The Spectrum of Consciousness'' published in 019791979. It was followed by the sociological works ''The Atman Project'' (019801980) and ''Up from Eden'' (019811981). The editorial demands of the journal on his time increased, and in 019811981 he agreed to an amicable divorce from Amy and moved to [[Cambridge, MA]] to work on ''ReVision'' projects.
In 019831983 he moved to [[Marin County, CA]], where he met and soon married Terry (Treya) Killam. At the same time she was diagnosed with breast cancer. From the fall of 019841984 until 1987 Wilber gave up most of his writing to focus on caring for her. During this stressful time their relationship was tested when he temporarily ceased meditation and turned to alcohol. During their brief stay in a home they had built at Incline Village ([[Lake Tahoe]], NV), Wilber contracted a chronic illness in 019851985 which he still struggles with today. In 019871987 they moved to [[Boulder, CO]] to be near the [[Naropa Institute]], a [[Buddhist]] University founded by [[Chogyam Trungpa]]. Here they found the peace they had been seeking, even though Treya died in January, 019891989. Their joint experience was recorded in the book ''Grace and Grit'' (019911991).
===Recent works===
He worked for a time on a textbook of integral psychology (eventually published in 019991999 as part of volume IV of his ''Collected Works''), but left it to focus on the three year project ''[[Sex, Ecology, Spirituality]]'' (SES), (019951995), the massive first volume of a proposed ''Kosmos Trilogy''. During that period of isolation he experienced an extended, eleven day mystical enlightenment. ''A Brief History of Everything'' (019961996) was the non-footnoted, popularized summary of SES in the form of an imagined, extended interview. ''The Eye of Spirit'' (019971997) was a compilation of articles he had written for ReVision on the relationship between science and religion. A shorter revised edition was published by [[Random House]] in 1998 as ''The Marriage of Sense and Soul''. In 019971997 he met Marci Walters, a young student at the Naropa Institute. They lived together for five years, getting married in June 2001, but then separating in 020022002. Wilber considers that time as the most productive thus far of his career, but had felt from the beginning of their relationship that Marci would eventually move on to raise a family.
Throughout 019971997 he had kept journals of his personal experiences, which were published in 019991999 as ''One Taste'', his term for cosmic, or unitary consciousness. Over the next two years his publisher [[Shambhala]] Publications, took the unusual step of releasing eight re-edited volumes of his ''Collected Works''. The year 019991999 was particularly productive as he finished his ''[[Integral Psychology]]'' and wrote ''A Theory of Everything'' (020002000) which attempts to bridge business, politics, science and spirituality in a short introduction to his thought that also integrates [[Spiral Dynamics]]. In 019991999 he also wrote the first draft of ''[[Boomeritis]]'' (020022002), a novel that attempts to expose the egotism of his generation.
Since 019871987, Wilber has lived in Boulder, CO, where he is working on his Kosmos trilogy and supervising the work of the [[Integral Institute]].
==Ideas==
=== New work ===
In 020052005, at the launch of the [[Integral Spiritual Center]], a branch of the [[Integral Institute]], Wilber presented a 118 page rough draft summary of his two forthcoming books [http://integralspiritualcenter.org/Integral%20Spirituality.pdf (1.3 MB .pdf file)]. The essay is entitled "What is Integral Spirituality?", and contains several new ideas: [[Integral methodological pluralism]], [[Integral post-metaphysics]], [[Integral math]], and the Wilber-Combs lattice.
Wilber connects his various frameworks in the following quotation:
:"I have tremendously appreciated Wilber's work. He has managed to integrate so many things, and to keep his horizons open, where most of our culture keeps closing them down. It is magnificent work."
Wilber's 020042004 collaborative commentary on ''[[The Ultimate Matrix Collection]]'' DVD with [[Princeton University|Princeton]] professor [[Cornel West]] represents the most undeniable and enthusiastic acceptance of Wilber's importance by an academic philosopher.
The reluctance of other academic philosophers to warm to Wilber's work is undoubtedly due to its embrace of mysticism. To put it in terms of Wilber's philosophy, much of modern philosophy remains within the analytical/rational phase of Wilber's model of the spectrum of consciousness, and is therefore not attuned to the [[transrational]] aspects of consciousness. Wilber draws attention to what he describes as "[[AQAL#Eight indigenous perspectives|eight indigenous perspectives]]" and considers would be needed for a more comprehensive understanding of reality, offering significant support for integrating philosophical traditions of [[phenomenology]], [[hermeneutics]], [[structuralism]], [[behaviourism]]/[[empiricism]], [[systems theory]] and [[cultural anthropology]].
:"In other words, all of my books are lies. They are simply maps of a territory, shadows of a reality, gray symbols dragging their bellies across the dead page, suffocated signs full of muffled sound and faded glory, signifying absolutely nothing. And it is the nothing, the Mystery, the [[shunyata|Emptiness]] alone that needs to be realized: not known but felt, not thought but breathed, not an object but an atmosphere, not a lesson but a life."
::―"Foreword", to Frank Visser's ''Ken Wilber: Thought as Passion'', 020032003
:"I have one major rule: everybody is right. More specifically, everybody—including me—has some important pieces of the truth, and all of those pieces need to be honored, cherished, and included in a more gracious, spacious, and compassionate embrace."
===Works by Wilber===
* ''The Spectrum of Consciousness'', 019771977, anniv. ed. 019931993: ISBN 0835606953
* ''No Boundary: Eastern and Western Approaches to Personal Growth'', 019791979, reprint ed. 020012001: ISBN 1570627436
* ''The Atman Project: A Transpersonal View of Human Development'', 019801980, 2nd ed. ISBN 0835607305
* ''Up from Eden: A Transpersonal View of Human Evolution'', 019811981, new ed. 019961996: ISBN 0835607313
* ''The Holographic Paradigm and Other Paradoxes: Exploring the Leading Edge of Science'' (editor), 019821982, ISBN 0394712374
* ''A Sociable God: A Brief Introduction to a Transcendental Sociology'', 019831983, new ed. 020052005 subtitled ''Toward a New Understanding of Religion'', ISBN 1590302249
* ''Eye to Eye: The Quest for the New Paradigm'', 019841984, 3rd rev. ed. 020012001: ISBN 157062741X
* ''Quantum Questions: Mystical Writings of the World's Great Physicists'' (editor), 019841984, rev. ed. 020012001: ISBN 1570627681
* ''Transformations of Consciousness: Conventional and Contemplative Perspectives on Development'' (co-authors: Jack Engler, Daniel Brown), 019861986, ISBN 0394742028
* ''Spiritual Choices: The Problem of Recognizing Authentic Paths to Inner Transformation'' (co-authors: Dick Anthony, Bruce Ecker), 019871987, ISBN 0913729191
* ''Grace and Grit: Spirituality and Healing in the Life of Treya Killam Wilber'', 019911991, 2nd ed. 020012001: ISBN 1570627428
* ''[[Sex, Ecology, Spirituality]]: The Spirit of Evolution'', 1st ed. 019951995, 2nd rev. ed. 020012001: ISBN 1570627444
* ''A Brief History of Everything'', 1st ed. 019961996, 2nd ed. 020012001: ISBN 1570627401
* ''The Eye of Spirit: An Integral Vision for a World Gone Slightly Mad'', 019971997, 3rd ed. 020012001: ISBN 1570628718
* ''The Essential Ken Wilber: An Introductory Reader'', 019981998, ISBN 1570623791
* ''The Marriage of Sense and Soul: Integrating Science and Religion'', 019981998, reprint ed. 019991999: ISBN 0767903439
* ''One Taste: The Journals of Ken Wilber'', 019991999, rev. ed. 020002000: ISBN 1570625476
* ''[[Integral Psychology]]: Consciousness, Spirit, Psychology, Therapy'', 020002000, ISBN 1570625549
* ''A [[Theory of everything (philosophy)|Theory of Everything]]: An Integral Vision for Business, Politics, Science and Spirituality'', 020002000, paperback ed.: ISBN 1570628556
*(forward by Ken Wilber), ''Putting on the Mind of Christ: The Inner Work of Christian Spirituality'' by Jim Marion, 020002000, ISBN 1571741739
* ''The Mission of Art'', (coauthor Alex Grey), 020012001, ISBN 157062545X
* ''Speaking of Everything'' (2 hour audio interview on CD), 020012001
* ''[[Boomeritis]]: A Novel That Will Set You Free'', 020022002, paperback ed. 020032003: ISBN 1590300084
* ''Competitive Business, Caring Business: An Integral Business Perspective for the 21st Century'', (coauthor Daryl S. Paulson), 020022002, ISBN 1931044392
* ''Kosmic Consciousness'' (12 hour audio interview on ten CDs), 020032003, ISBN 1591791243
* With [[Cornel West]], commentary on ''[[The Matrix]]'', ''[[The Matrix Reloaded]]'' and ''[[The Matrix Revolutions]]'' on ''[[The Ultimate Matrix Collection]]'', 020042004
** Appearance in ''Return To Source: Philosophy & [[The Matrix]]'' on ''The Roots Of [[The Matrix]]'' DVD enclosed in ''[[The Ultimate Matrix Collection]]'' package.
* ''The Simple Feeling of Being: Visionary, Spiritual, and Poetic Writings'', 020042004, ISBN 159030151X (selected from earlier works)
* ''The Integral Operating System'', (a 40 page primer on AQAL with 2 audio CDs) October 020052005, ISBN 1591793475
* ''The Many Faces of Terrorism'', (forthcoming)
* ''Kosmic Karma and Creativity: Volume Two of the Kosmos Trilogy'', (forthcoming)
===Books about Wilber===
* Donald Jay Rothberg and Sean Kelly, ''Ken Wilber in Dialogue: Conversations With Leading Transpersonal Thinkers'', 019981998, ISBN 0835607666
* Joseph Vrinte, ''Perennial Quest for a Psychology with a Soul: An inquiry into the relevance of Sri Aurobindo's metaphysical yoga psychology in the context of Ken Wilber's integral psychology'', 020022002
* Frank Visser, ''Ken Wilber: Thought As Passion'', SUNY Press, 020032003, ISBN 0-7914-5816-4, (first published in Dutch as ''Ken Wilber: Denken als passie'', Rotterdam, Netherlands, 020012001)
* Brad Reynolds, ''Embracing Reality: The Integral Vision of Ken Wilber: A Historical Survey and Chapter-By-Chapter Review of Wilber's Major Works'', 020042004, ISBN 1585423173
* Lew Howard, ''Introducing Ken Wilber'', May 020052005, ISBN 1420829866
==External links==
* [http://www.chaosobral.org "A 4Quadrants analysis of the Portuguese mountain village Chão Sobral"]
* [http://homesweet.home.sapo.pt "HomeSweetHome"] "A personal site inspired in and about Integral Philosophy"
* [http://arkady.indymedia.org/media/audio/Ken_Wilber Audio interviews] - A collection of audio interviews in .mp3 and .ogg format
===Critiques===
===Interviews===
* [http://www.dialogonleadership.org/interviewWilber.htm Interview by Otto Scharner] (August 02003´03) ▼* [http://arkady.indymedia.org/media/audio/Ken_Wilber Audio interviews] - A large collection of audio interviews in .mp3 and .ogg format (02005)
▲* [http://www.dialogonleadership.org/interviewWilber.htm Interview by Otto Scharner] (August 02003)
* [http://www.integralnaked.org/talk.aspx?id=205 Interview with Larry Wachowski]
* [http://www.andrewcohen.org/andrew/evolutionOfEnlightenment.asp Interview with Andrew Cohen]
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