I spent a good part of the morning re-listening to Ken Wilber’s Kosmic Consciousness audio book. I kept a notebook with me to take notes as to what he’s actually saying, and try to incorporate his ideas into my own frame of reference. Of course it was easier than trying to take notes in a lecture class because if he mentioned a good point and it went too fast to write, I just paused it until I caught up. Here’s what I got today:

Ken Wilber considers himself a story teller/map maker. He tries to map the human potential based on the comparison of different cultures, east, west, modern and premodern, as much as has been recorded. It’s a big map, but by determining the factors all the cultures have in common, he has concluded that the equanimity represents a somewhat definitive, objective history of mankind. He is interested in examining the "most number of things from the most number of sources." In examining the thorough history of human development, he searches for patterns which, logically, could point us in the direction we are headed. He never claims to be a fortune teller or mystic or guru. In fact, he does not want students or followers.

“Really good philosophers are really good story tellers. Really good psychologists are really good story tellers. Sigmund Freud received one award in his whole life. It was the Gerta Award for literature, of all things…”

Wilber admits that he’s telling entertaining stories. But philosophy is supposed to be really passionate with pizzazz, he says. He does not condone professors who “are in a race to see how many students they can put to sleep.” He tries to lace his entertaining stories with non-fiction as well. For instance, he will tell you a story about psychological development using his theories, and then you can check it out to find out if it’s true or not. He is basically reporting on the undebatable.

"No human mind is capable of producing 100% error, therefore every single position ever offered hold some important piece of the puzzle"

more later