What is Integral Theory and who is Ken Wilber?

 

Here is what one of the Edinburgh Integral Group, Violet Dalton, has to say about it.

 

Ken Wilber.  He’s some kind of genius.  For the first time ever, we have available information from all the world’s religions, philosophies, from science, art, culture, etc, etc. Integral theory provides a framework that allows us to see what is common from all of these and apply it to our situation today. 

Integral Life Practice is a framework to get the best from your life by making sure that you are working on all aspects of it - mind, body, spirit and shadow. 

Ken Wilber, in addition to being trained in science, philosophy, psychology and spirituality, is also a sociologist, so there is a new language to learn - quadrants, lines, levels, stages and states.  Once you have grasped the basics of this, it all starts to fall into place and provides an exciting, new, inclusive and fresh perspective on all aspects of the human situation.

 

Another perspective from an Integral thinker sums it up very clearly in this elevator pitch.

 

"In a nutshell, 'integral' is a comprehensive and inclusive philosophy, and on a deeper level, an emerging consciousness; a grand synthesis uniting eastern and western philosophy, religion, science, politics, business, art, morals, values, meaning, etc., that can apply to any contemporary issue. It's a new way of looking at the world, it's problems, and their possible solutions....here...let me give you my card...." :)

Any of these, and your own, should be short enough to prevent the familiar "glazing over the eyes" that we've all experienced when explaining "integral" to our families and friends. You're welcome to borrow anything I've written here, but if you haven't done this exercise, you should, I believe it's a critical step in solidly formalizing your cognitive awareness of what integral means....even if you never wind up in an elevator.