Customer Reviews

Ken Wilber: Thought As Passion (Suny Series in Transpersonal and Humanistic Pyschology) (Suny Series in Transpersonal and Humanistic Psychology)

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March 04, 2004

If you want a well researched, thorough overview of the work of Ken Wilber, then Frank Visser's Ken Wilber: Thought as Passion is a great choice. It covers a broad scope and is a relatively easy read. That's the short version.

The long version must take into account Wilber's five periods or models to date. Visser's book nicely introduces the first four periods in a general way, and sets the stage for further study of the oeuvre. Wilber-5, so-called, has emerged in the last few years and will be published for the first time in the upcoming Kosmos, Vol. 2 (whose working title is Kosmic Karma and Creativity). One of the novel aspects of Wilber-5 is what he calls a post-metaphysical approach (among other things), which relies on empiricism in the three great domains of body, mind, and spirit. So the jury is still out on the niggly details of Wilber-5, and how its critic's will respond. But one thing is certain, once published it may be easy to misconstrue criticism of this Visser opus because it's NOT Wilber-5 and appropriately focuses on the influence of the perennial traditions in Wilber-1 through Wilber-4. But to Frank's credit, he mentions Wilber-5 several times and acknowledges that Wilber's views continue to develop.

Having said that, if you really want to get inside Wilber's head, or at the very least, into his heart, then it's appropriate to study his work beginning with Wilber-1. Why? First, Wilber is a developmental, evolutionary, transcendentalist thinker and doer. It's apt to see how his theory developed as it was informed by his own bodily, mental, and spiritual growth. Second, even though Wilber no longer recommends his first two books, The Spectrum of Consciousness (1977) and No Boundary (1979), they're required reading because we can trace the "integral impulse" at work from the very beginning along with what are now acknowledged flaws (the so-called pre/trans fallacy in particular). That integral impulse included nascent awareness that the three great domains of body, mind, and spiritual science must be included in any integral approach. Put another way, it reflected Ken's precocious understanding that transcendental experience is not solely pathological, and properly developed could greatly inform human development. He also refined transpersonal psychological theory to include the full spectrum of consciousness, from body to mind to soul to nondual spirit, along with identifying appropriate pathology and therapies.

Thus, Visser's book handles Wilber-1 through Wilber-4 with the skillful means of one who is far more than a journeyman with the material. In fact, Frank includes a great deal of biographical material that provides a human face and heart, background in the transpersonal field in general to situate Wilber's oeuvre, major critics, a summary of their differences, as well as his own critiques. He also includes a thorough bibliography of Wilber's work that alone is worth the price of the book! In the closing chapter Visser offers further insights and suggestions that may help refine the inchoate Wilber-5 model based upon his theosophical background.

In summary, if you're seriously interested in learning about Wilber's work, this is a great place to start. Ken personally recommends A Theory of Everything (2000) because it's concise, and A Brief History of Everything (1996). Together, they give a full accounting the major insights of Wilber-1 to Wilber-4, now called AQAL: all quadrants, levels, lines, states, types (and the kitchen sink. It is a thorough model :-).

All in all, let's give Frank Visser a hearty congratulations for a job well done!

I had expected Visser to play the role of a cheerleading reporter of Wilber's works, and was pleasantly surprised to see that Visser is a capable thinker in his own right. Not only does he manage to clearly and concisely convey the gist of Wilber's vast collection of writings, but he also contributes many insights that help put Wilber's work in context and in perspective. There seems to be a healthy undercurrent of friendly disagreement and tension between Wilber and Visser on a number of issues, and I think Visser displays a remarkable objectivity for one who maintains the main website on Wilber's work.

In sereral places I wished Visser had put even more of his own thoughts into the book, but of course the subject of the book is Wilber's thought, not Visser's. Specifically, Visser had a short section in which he explores the similarities between Theosophy and the Integral perspective. I haven't read all of Wilber's writings, but from what I have read there seems to be a major avoidance of the Western esoteric tradition, with the possible exception that Wilber once wrote that he admired Rudolf Steiner's writings. By esoteric I don't mean Western mysticism, which Wilber covers well enough, but the strand of Kaballism, Rosicrucianism, Anthroposophy, Theosophy, Alice Bailey, etc. There is a vast amount of material there dealing with involution, evolution, stages of consciousness, and so forth, that should rightly be incorporated into a fully integral spirituality. I have found that most Wilberians and Integral thinkers in general show little interest in the occult traditions, and most occultists show little interest in Integral studies. This means we have two almost exclusive strands of practioners trying to cover very similar ground without communicating much with each other. The result is not healthy in my view.

I imagine Wilber avoids the Western esoteric tradition because it does not play well with academics, whom he is trying to reach. But Visser appears to have a Theosophical background and may will be a thinker capable of championing an expansion of integral thought that embraces the esoteric and occult as well as the usualy religio-mystical traditions.

Visser, as I stated before has done a great job in explaining the works of Ken Wilber. Yet Wilber denounces this book because of Visser's affinity for Theosophy. Wilber is not a theosophist or a Alice Bailey follower even though his first two books were published by the Theosophical Society. Interestingly, Wilber wrote the forward to this book. Wilber, and rightfully so does not want to be catagorized as a Theosophist. He has worked many years to bring legitimacy and validity to transpersonal studies through hardcore analysis and synthesis of the sciences, the humanities, and philosophies. Some think he is overly sensitive to being labeled a new ager or even a theosophist, but given the trashing he has received concerning many of his books, it is probably founded. Anyway, please read this book, but know that the Theosophical connection in the last chapter is solely Visser's.

As Wilber's Chief of Staff, I observe a lot of people attempting to reflect on his life and work in ways that are often speculative and confused. There are so many things to react to, and people line up to do so. It's refreshing to finally have a text that is able to represent Wilber's work and life in a way that is at once informed, critical, fair and inspiring. Visser echoes and reverberates Wilber's clarity of style, while infusing a revealed humanity in the process. Well done.

I've tried to read K.Wilber in the past, i've never got more than through the first few chapters. I realize i ought to come to grips with his ideas and this book is an excellent place to start. For not only does it carefully look at the thought but is stimulating enough to get me (i hope) through some of the hard spots in K.Wilber's writings, in the near future. That makes it an outstanding book, not just informative but inspirational, nice job.

The book is basically a chronological look at the evolution of K.Wilber's transpersonal philosophy/psychology. It is not strictly intellectual but rather does a rather nice job of presenting K.Wilber as a man, as a mediator, and in the tear provoking chapter on his wife Treya, as a care giver for a terminally ill spouse. All in all much more satisfying a look then a strictly intellectual examination of a philosophic system. The major point of the book is that K.Wilber is interested in synthesising the Western scientific viewpoint on human development with the Eastern, primarily Tibetan Buddhist, in order to reach a syncretism of what human beings know about themselves. The book presents his thought as a dialogue with pieces of each world, what K.Wilber was interested in understanding, in the overall context of the development of his systematic philosophy/psychology. The structure is both accessible and interesting, rarely did i find interest flagging, more often i had to set the book down for a minute to think about what i had just read and try to make connections. This book, like the philosophy it outlines is not easy, nor simple, nor without dozens of references and rabbit paths to wander down, it is well documented, both in the text and in excellent endnotes, and as expected a substantial index that i for one used many times.

As for a chapter to read to get an idea of the book, i don't think this is a book you can pickup in the middle and profitably read, i'd stick to either of the first two chapters, introduction and who is ken wilber, although the chapter 5, Love death and rebirth, about his wife is worth a try to read by itself, if only for the window into his soul it presents. Generally, it is a read from the beginning, take notes, run to the computer to google a word or phrase, run to amazon to look at customer reviews of books cited, hightlighting on every page, some pages more than 1/2 coated, etc type of book. It took me about 3 times as long to read as a "normal" book of it's length, mostly because of the constant dialogue with the author i was mentally involved in while reading, not an argument as much as a constant series of questions and desire for more background and explanation.

Well, "who is Ken Wilber?" and "why should anyone care to read him?"
He has for 25 years set himself to a daunting task that only few authors have ever attempted, a comprehensive analysis of what human beings know about themselves and how all these systems can be unified (integrated) into a system that allows them to genuinely talk and interact with each other, rather than catfighting forever. To that endeavor he has read several books per day for decades on end, produced a flow of readable words that fill 11 volumes of his collected works, mediated several hours per day until he had a spiritual vision of non-duality that remains a constant companion. A lifetime apparently well spent in pursuit of his goals.

He has ideas and pictures that are valuable to anyone thinking about these issues. How do people grow and develop? How do cultures grow, is there a similarity between the two? What are we made of? What can i do to develop (although this is not a major goal of the book) further? How do different systems interact, like Western psychology and Eastern mysticism? Can this knowledge be unified so that we can remember it, deal with things that are similar in the same ways while avoiding putting different things into the same unappropriate boxes?

It is questions like this that make a comprehensive system like K.Wilber's worth studying, even if you disagree with several or even all of the basic assumptions and goals. Thinkgs like: the 3 eyes: physical, mental, spiritual; the great chain of being; development from prepersonal, personal to transpersonal, interiority vs exteriority on the same graph as individual vs collective; etc. are all useful conceptions and maps that i can use, certainly a gift from a dynamic and fruitful mind.

So i think this a very good introduction to K.Wilber and i am interested in getting into a few of his books now. with this background i hope it will be a little easier and less confusing then in the past. thanks to the author for a very good book.

If you want to know about Ken Wilber's philosophy, this is the book to get. In many instances he is more clear than Wilber.
That is incredible for Wilber is a very clear writer. Many people have attempted to present the works of Wilber, but this is by far the most in depth and complete study available.
Get this Book

If you want to know about Ken Wilber and his work, without reading all of his collected works, this is the book to read.
I have read Ken Wilber since 1977, and have learned things about Wiber's thoughts that I never knew. A must read for those interested in Integral Studies. The author is a very good writer, so confusing concepts are very clear. Get this book!!

I have read most of Ken Wilber's work and have been studying his thought for years. The breadth of his work is incredible and difficult for the average person to wrap their arms around. It is also very difficult to know where to start or to position any particular work in the evolution of his thought. This book is an excellent roadmap in this respect.

In a nutshell, this work provides an introduction to Ken Wilber's most important ideas and the man behind them. Ken is a popular figure, but he doesn't attend many conferences, appear in public, do a lot of interviews, etc. This makes it difficult to understand him as a person and contextualize his work with his own personal evolution. This book will give you a good feel for Ken Wilber the person, the major milestones in his life and how they correlate to the evolution of his ideas.

While this is an excellent book and fills in some important gaps, it is not a comprehensive introduction to Ken Wilber's body of work. This would be impossible in a book of this size. However, if you purchased Kosmic Consciousness or A Brief History of Everything to go along with it, you would be in excellent shape to move forward and make good decisions about what to read next. You would also be very well prepared to speak intelligently about Wilber's thought and the development of his Integral Model.

Another product that could be very useful as an accompaniment to reading more of Wilber's books would be Embracing Reality, which is sort of a Cliff's notes of Ken's major works. If you got all three of the resources I mentioned on this page and Integral Spirituality: A Startling New Role for Religion in the Modern and Postmodern World, you would have a good end-to-end sense of Wilber up to his most current thought.

I personally think Ken Wilber is a very major figure and will go down in history as an extremely important thinker. Among other things, he has a 20 year track record of writing and 30 books which have been in print continuously since he wrote them -- a rare achievement for a largely academic writer. In addition, Random House is compiling the collected works of Ken Wilber who is a living author! It is very unusual for a major publishing house to undertake such a large project while a prolific writer is still living. I think this speaks for itself in terms of the quality and enduring impact of his thought on this period in history. In short, I think what we are seeing now is only the tip of the iceberg. In my opinion, Ken's work has the potential to transform how we do business, medicine, education, ecology and every other major human endeavor.

While I don't think Ken Wilber is flawless and above being human, he is an intellectual giant with a lot to offer modern society in a search for meaning and a model to apply to solve contemporary problems. I am glad to see that he is getting more and more traction in the marketplace.

On a critical note, I think that Wilber himself has evolved into a major figure and I would love to see more editing and organization in his books going forward. In much of his work, there is a lot of repitition, overlap and unnecessary meandering. This certainly does not reflect upon the quality of his thought, but Visser's book certainly helps someone new cut to the chase and get a handle on the best way to navigate the voluminous Ken Wilber body of work.

Ken Wilber is a spiritual teacher and writer based in the United States. His teachings are known as Integral Theory, and have created both interest and controversy in New Age circles over the years. Wilber has attempted a grand synthesis of several different spiritual traditions, including transpersonal psychology, Mahayana Buddhism and the cosmic evolutionism typical of much New Age thinking.

"Ken Wilber: Thought as passion" is a book by Frank Visser, introducing Wilber to a broad, popular audience. The book was originally published in Dutch. The English translation is dated 2003. "Thought as passion" has a foreword by Ken Wilber himself, thus giving it a kind of quasi-imprimatur. Indeed, the book is pro-Wilber. Later, Visser broke with Wilber and became one of his foremost critics. Strangely, Visser's website Integral World still carries an ad for "Thought as passion".

Wilber's thinking has gone through several different phases, and although he has written voluminously over the years, there is even more in the form of unpublished manuscripts. Still, it seems that Visser have captured most of Wilber's thinking up to the publication date (apparently, Wilber is now embarked on a "post-metaphysical turn", which naturally isn't described in the book).

Wilber began as a supporter of the movement known as transpersonal psychology, a more explicitly spiritual version of humanistic psychology. Later, he began to steer a more independent course. Wilber makes a fundamental distinction between the "prepersonal" and the "transpersonal". In his opinion, much of New Age spirituality is regressive, since it confuses prepersonal states with true mysticism, which is transpersonal. Examples of prepersonal spirituality include Gaia religion, neo-shamanism, Jungian archetypes, attempts to relive a paradisiacal childhood, etc. Wilber also believes that the personal is a positive development and a necessary precondition for the transpersonal. This leads him to look positively upon modernity, liberal democracy and individualism. This, too, creates conflicts with certain alternative milieux, such as ecofeminism. All these themes are extensively covered in Visser's book.

Visser have also included several biographical chapters, since these are important for Wilber's spiritual development. Indeed, Wilber's bestselling book seems to be "Grace and grit", an autobiographical account of his tragic second marriage.

A concluding chapter discusses possible influences on Wilber's Integral Theory. Since Visser was a Theosophist when writing "Thought as passion", he quite naturally sees a lot of parallels with Theosophical teachings. He also mentions Huston Smith and other Traditionalist writers. There are also intriguing similarities with E.F. Schumacher's "A guide for the perplexed" (Visser never discusses Schumacher's sources, however). A more sinister character who pops up now and then is Adi Da, who may have been a cult leader. Since Wilber turned "post-metaphysical" shortly before the publication of Visser's book, there are probably other sources of inspiration today.

"Ken Wilber: Thought as passion" is well written, and presumably well translated. It's subject-matter is probably too narrow for the general reader, but it might be of considerable interest to spiritual seekers who are into Buddhism, Hinduism or New Age. Obviously, it's also of some interest to admirers of Kenneth Earl Wilber II.

In real life, however, Ken has moved on... And so, apparently, has Frank Visser.

I bought this book b/c I was interested in knowing more about Ken Wilber and his theory. I came away with both so I would consider the book a success. I did find it ironic that Wilber purports to read 3 books a day but did not read this book while providing the foreward to it. I almost felt that he didn't want to endorse the book, not b/c he didn't read it but b/c then he would give others fresh ammo to attack his theory. Nonetheless, I felt the author was complete and performed a remarkable feat in compiling and organizing Wilber's material and theory. Recommended if you are interested in a theory that expands on psychological theories to include the spiritual realm.