Ken Wilber - The Origins of the Integral Perspective (19:22)

 

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In this fascinating and memorable introduction to the Integral Vision, Ken is asked the question "How would you define what you do?" As the widely-acknowledged leader in the field of Integral studies and application, Ken goes all the way back to the beginning: a medical student at Duke University who couldn’t get any of the important questions answered from that traditional educational setting.  What’s the meaning of life?  Why am I here?  What’s the good life?  What is the Good, the True, the Beautiful?  Fundamentally, what is important in human life?

Having written The Spectrum of Consciousness when he was 23, Ken began the life-long pursuit of trying to understand the meaning and importance of being human at a remarkably early age, having since expanding his work into over two-dozen books, each building on the insights of the one before.  Life, and human life in particular, is a developmental affair.  It’s not that there are (as Gaspar and Ken discuss) 6-7 major psychological and spiritual approaches to the same fundamental human condition, there are 6-7 developmental levels of consciousness.  From archaic, to magic, to mythic, to rational, to pluralistic, to integral and beyond, there is no one answer to the meaning of life.  The meaning of life literally develops along with the structures of human consciousness, in complimentary and simultaneous growth through states of consciousness, where “wakefulness” progresses from waking-gross, to dreaming-subtle, to deep-dreamless-sleep, to ever-present nondual.  There are two “axes of enlightenment,” one in structures of consciousness and one in states of consciousness (see Ken’s book Integral Spirituality for more detail on this topic).    

Gaspar and Ken end by talking about the fact that Ken isn’t imposing an Integral framework on anyone—he’s giving people who are already at an integral level of development a map and a way to talk about what they are already experiencing, but don’t have a language to talk about their deepest insights intuitions into life.  All we do is help provide the most complete map and language for the Integral developmental wave at the leading edge of evolution, and we’d love to have you listen in and help unfold and express this blooming edge of consciousness….

 

Previously on Integral Naked:

Sally Kempton - From Bohemian Rebel to Integral Swami
Joe Perez - The Power of Integral Reconciliation
Alanis Morissette - Healing the Ruptures
Sally Kempton - Seeing Beyond the Mythic God
Joe Perez: Soulfully Gay - Out of the Closet, Into an Integral Embrace
Dan Millman: The Peaceful Warrior's Way - The Highest Teaching
Alex Grey: Integral Art - Anchoring the Seed of Liberation
Alanis Morissette: From Jagged Little Pill to Flavors of Entanglement
Sharon Stone: Like a Fine Diamond....
Dan Millman: The Peaceful Warrior’s Way - “This Is How to Do It”
Alex Grey: Integral Art - When Psychedelics Reveal the Spirit Within
Deepak Chopra: Buddha - A Story of Enlightenment
Integral Art
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