A Theory of Everything: An Integral Vision for Business, Politics, Science, and Spirituality by Ken Wilber




“Civilization is a movement and not a condition, a voyage and not a harbor.” (Arnold Joseph Toynbee)

“Man knows himself only to the extent that he knows the world; he becomes aware of himself only within the world, and aware of the world only within himself. Every object, well contemplated, opens up a new organ within us.” (Goethe)

“Our capacity to see and change the world co-evolves with our capacity to see and change ourselves.” (Robert Quinn)

“You must be the change you wish to see in this world.” (Gandhi)

 

Excerpted from a review by Copthorne Macdonald

In his latest book, A Theory of Everything, Ken Wilber draws on several decades of insightful model building (his own models and those developed by others) to create a much more comprehensive “theory of everything.” Wilber’s map of reality embraces the entire mental-physical “Kosmos,” not just the particle-physics aspect of it. Wilber uses this word Kosmos because it meant for the Greeks “the patterned Whole of all existence, including the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual realms. Ultimate reality was not merely the cosmos, or the physical dimension, but the Kosmos, or the physical and emotional and mental and spiritual dimensions altogether. Not just matter, lifeless and insentient, but the living Totality of matter, body, mind, soul, and spirit.”

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“. . . we need an integral vision and we need an integral practice. The integral vision helps provide us with insight, and thus helps us overcome dissonance and face toward our own deeper and wider opening. And integral practice anchors all of those factors in a concrete manner, so that they do not remain merely abstract ideas and vague notions.”

Regarding integral practice, Wilber says, “Even if we possessed the perfect integral map of the Kosmos, a map that was completely all-inclusive and unerringly holistic, that map itself would not transform people. We don”t just need a map; we need ways to change the mapmaker.” He calls for a practice that exercises “physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual waves in self, culture, and nature.” Regarding the self, he suggests such practices as “physical exercise (weightlifting, diet, jogging, yoga), emotional exercises (qi gong, counseling, psychotherapy), mental exercises (affirmation, visualization), and spiritual exercises (meditation, contemplative prayer).” Moving to culture, he suggests getting involved in community service of various kinds, and making use of “mutual respectful dialogue” and relationships in general to further our own growth and the growth of others. In the arena of nature, Wilber suggests getting involved in activities which respect nature such as recycling, environmental protection, and nature celebration?activities which both honor nature and promote our own capacity to care.

 

From a review by David Desjardins

There’s the beige meme. At this level (Square one) is where it all begins for the young human and societies. It’s the meme of instinct and pure survival. The kill or be killed level. What’s important to the person at this level, is food, sex, warmth and safety. We’re talking early bush tribes here. The hairless talking monkey takes a stand.

The beige meme is followed by the purple meme. This is the stage where all things are magical and animism takes form. This is where humans start taking care of each other. The world is filled with mysticism. This is the age of shamanism and rituals. The sense of family takes shape.

Then it’s the red meme. This is the Tony Montana level, the “the world and everythin’ in it Chico” level. It’s all about survival of the strongest and getting some respect. It manifests itself in feudal kingdoms, the story of epic heroes and the terrible twos. It’s all about impulse and the ego.

The blue meme is where it all goes to hell in a hand basket. It’s about purpose and authoritarianism. It’s about bringing order to the world, control through the absolute truth. It’s about living under a moral code. The blue meme manifests itself through moral movements such as puritan America, the moral majority and codes of honor. This is where political conservatism resides.

The next level up the spiral is the orange meme. Strategy and the goal-driven life lives here. This is where the overachievers live. This is where the game is played and won. Think liberal enlightenment, think Silicone Valley, Fortune 500 and the corporate life.

We’re [now] at the green level. The green level is the one that ignores the spiral – or at least tries to. Communalism and the egalitarian good life begin here. Where everyone is equal, where everyone has a voice. This is where Malkovitch moans about everybody’s feelings being involved. This is where we shed our shackles of religious dogma. At this point in the spiral, we begin to search the inner-self. Think human rights, multiculturalism, pluralism.

Does it get better? Sure does. The yellow meme. This is where we discover the capacity of flexibility and responsibility, where we begin thinking systemically. Integrative concepts emerge. Ken then caps it with the turquoise meme. He does state that there are more to go, like the transpersonal, but that this spiral will be sufficient for the book’s purpose. Turquoise is about holonic thinking. Experiencing wholeness through the mind and the spirit.

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Published::
11.2.07 / 9am
Category:
Appropriate Science and Technology, Change in Change, Learning for Life, Man, Means, Paths, Ends, Spirituality, Unity in Diversity
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