Integral theory

Framework for integrating diverse theories

This article is about a New Age concept. For the theory of integration in mathematics, see Integral.

"Aqal" redirects here. For the nomadic tribe domed house, see Wigwam.

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Integral theory

Integral theorists

* Don Beck
* Marc Gafni
* Francisco Varela
* Ken Wilber
* Michael E. Zimmerman

Integral themes

* AQAL

Influences on integral theory

* Sri Aurobindo
* James Mark Baldwin
* Jean Gebser
* Clare W. Graves
* Edward Haskell
* Erich Jantsch
* Rupert Sheldrake

Integral artists

* Stuart Davis
* Alex Grey

* v
* t
* e

Integral theory as developed by Ken Wilber is a synthetic metatheory aiming to unify a broad spectrum of Western theories and models and Eastern meditative traditions within a singular conceptual framework. The original basis, which dates to the 1970s, is the concept of a "spectrum of consciousness"[1] that ranges from archaic consciousness to the highest form of spiritual consciousness, depicting it as an evolutionary developmental model.[2] This model incorporates stages of development as described in structural developmental stage theories, as well as eastern meditative traditions and models of spiritual growth, and a variety of psychic and supernatural experiences.

In the advancement of his framework, Wilber introduced the AQAL (All Quadrants All Levels) model in 1995,[3] which further expanded the theory through a four-quadrant grid (interior-exterior and individual-collective). This grid integrates theories and ideas detailing the individual's psychological and spiritual development, collective shifts in consciousness, and levels or holons in neurological functioning and societal organization. Integral theory aims to be a universal metatheory in which all academic disciplines, forms of knowledge, and experiences cohesively align.[2]

As per 2010, integral theory has found its primary audience within certain subcultures, with only limited engagement from the broader academic community,[4] though a number of dissertations have used integral theories as "their theoretical foundation," in addition to ca. 150 publications on the topic.[5] The Integral Institute in the past[when?] published the peer-reviewed[citation needed] Journal of Integral Theory and Practice,[6] and SUNY Press has released twelve books under the "SUNY series in Integral Theory"[7] in the early 2010s but aborted further publications.[citation needed]

## Origins and background[edit]

### Origins[edit]

Ken Wilber's integral theory is a synthetic metatheory, a theory whose subject matter he intended to organize and integrate pre-existing theories themselves, doing so in a clear and systematic way.[2] A synthetic metatheory "classifies whole theories according to some overarching typology."[8] Wilber's metatheory started in the 1970s, with the publication of The Spectrum of Consciousness (1977), synthesizing Eastern religious traditions with Western schools of psychotherapy and Western developmental psychology.[9] In The Atman Project (1980), this spectrum was presented as a developmental model, akin to western structural stage theory, models of psychology development that describe human development as following a set course of stages of development.[10]

According to these early presentations, which rely strongly on perceived analogies between disparate theories (Sri Aurobindo's integral yoga, stage theories of psychological development, and Gebser's theory of collective mutations of consciousness), human development follows a set course, from pre-personal infant development, to personal adult development, culminating in trans-personal spiritual development. In Wilber's model, development starts with the separation of individual consciousness from a transcendental reality. The whole course of human development aims at reconnecting spirit to itself through developing a transcendental consciousness that passes through and then dis-identifies from a mature adult ego. The pre-personal and personal stages are taken from western structural stage theories, which are correlated with other stage theories. In his early work he posited four stages of properly spiritual development, going from the psychic to the subtle to the causal to the nondual (the last of which according to Wilber is not properly conceived of as a stage, but as the essence of all stages). This model has a broad resonance with many Eastern models of spiritual development, particularly those found in the Hindu and Buddhist Tantric traditions. They also find rough correlations with the concepts of the Great Chain of Being and Aurobindo's elaboration of the five sheaths or koshas in Hindu thought.[11]

Wilber's ideas have grown more and more inclusive over the years, incorporating theories of ontology, epistemology, and methodology,[12] creating a framework which he calls AQAL, which is shorthand for "All Quadrants All Levels All Lines All States All Types." In this, Wilber's older frameworks are primarily reworked using what Wilber calls the Four Quadrant model. This model divides views of reality into the individual-subjective (upper left), the individual-objective (upper right), the collective-intersubjective (lower left) and the collective-interobjective (lower right) quadrants. This model can then be used to contextualize and comprehend differing views on individual development, collective evolution of consciousness, and levels or holons of neurological functioning and societal organization more clearly, ultimately integrating them into a single metatheory in which all academic disciplines and every form of knowledge and experience are argued to fit together.[13]

### Main influences[edit]

#### Sri Aurobindo[edit]

Main article: Integral yoga

Aurobindo's model of Being and Evolution[14]

Levels of Being | Development
Overall | Outer Being | Inner Being | Psychic Being
Supermind  | Supermind | Gnostic Man
Supra-mentalisation
Mind  |  | Overmind  | Psychisation
and
Spiritualisation
Intuition
Illuminated Mind
Higher Mind
Subconscient
mind  | Mind proper  | Subliminal
(inner)
mind  |  | Evolution
Vital  | Subconsc.
Vital  | Vital  | Subl.
(inner)
Vital
Physical  | Subconsc.
Physical  | Physical  | Subl. (inner)
Physical
Inconscient  | Inconscient

The integral yoga of Sri Aurobindo describes five levels of being (physical; vital; mind or mental being; the higher reaches of mind or psychic being; Supermind), akin to the five koshas or sheaths, and three types of being (outer being, inner being, psychic being). The psychic being refers to the higher reaches of mind (higher mind, illuminated mind, intuition, overmind). It correlates with buddhi, the connecting element between purusha and prakriti in Samkhya, and correlated by Wilber with his transpersonal stages. Aurobindo focuses on spiritual development and the process of unifying of all parts of one's being with the Divine. As described by Sri Aurobindo and his co-worker The Mother (1878–1973), this spiritual teaching involves an integral divine transformation of the entire being, rather than the liberation of only a single faculty such as the intellect or the emotions or the body.[15][third-party source needed]

#### Structural stage theory[edit]

Main articles: Structural stage theory and Loevinger's stages of ego development

Structural stage theories are based on the observation that humans develop through a pattern of distinct stages over time, and that these stages can be described based on their distinguishing characteristics. In Piaget's theory of cognitive development, and related models like those of James Mark Baldwin, Jane Loevinger, Robert Kegan, Lawrence Kohlberg, and James W. Fowler, stages have a constant order of succession, later stages integrate the achievements of earlier stages, and each is characterized by a particular type of structure of mental processes which is specific to it. The time of appearance may vary to a certain extent depending upon environmental conditions.[16]

#### Jean Gebser - Mutations of consciousness[edit]

The word integral was independently suggested by Jean Gebser (1905–1973), a Swiss phenomenologist and interdisciplinary scholar, in 1939 to describe his own intuition regarding the structure of human consciousness that would follow the modern or mental structure. Gebser was the author of The Ever-Present Origin, which describes human history as a series of mutations in consciousness. He only afterwards discovered the similarity between his own ideas and those of Sri Aurobindo and Teilhard de Chardin.[17]

#### Spiral Dynamics and collaboration with Don Beck[edit]

Main article: Spiral Dynamics integral

Spiral Dynamics vs AQAL altitudes[18][note 1]

SD / SDi  | AQAL altitudes
(Numbers correspond to Loevinger's model[19]
source  | tier  | level  | level  | tier  | source
Inspired

Graves  | 2nd  | Coral
(unrelated and
not corresponding
to Wilber's 3rd tier) |  |  | Clear Light  | 3rd  | Spiritual
development
(Aurobindo,
Buddhism)
| Ultraviolet
| Violet
| Indigo
Turquoise  |  |  | Turquoise (5/6 Post-autonomous))  | 2nd  | Structural
Stage
Theory
Yellow  |  |  | Teal (5 Autonomous)
1st  | Green  |  |  | Green (4/5 Individualistic)  | 1st
Orange  |  |  | Orange (4 Consciountious)
\-  | \-  |  | Orange-Amber (3/4 self-consciousness)
Blue  |  |  | Amber (3 Conformist)
Red  |  |  | Red (2/3 Self-protective)
Purple  |  |  | Magenta (2 Impulsive)
Beige  |  |  | Infrared

After completing Sex, Ecology, Spirituality (1995), Ken Wilber started to collaborate with Don Beck, whose Spiral Dynamics is based on the work of Clare W. Graves, and shows strong correlates with Wilber's model.[20][note 3] The collaboration with Wilber led to a split between Beck and Cowan.[note 4] After the collaboration with Christopher Cowan ended, Beck announced his own version of Spiral Dynamics, namely "Spiral Dynamics integral" (SDi) at the very end of 2001,[22] while Cowan and his business partner Natasha Todorovic stayed closer to Graves' original model.

In his 2006 book Integral Spirituality, Wilber created the AQAL "altitudes" through which different lines of development move. The first eight of these "altitudes" parallel Spiral Dynamics, but the new concept was argued to create a more comprehensive, integrated system.[25][note 5] By 2006, Wilber and Beck had diverged in their interpretations of the Spiral Dynamics model, with Beck positioning the spiral of levels at the center of the quadrants, while Wilber placed it solely in the lower left quadrant (e.g., the collective-intersubjective quadrant that relates to a culture's interpersonal values and beliefs). Beck saw Wilber's modifications as distortions of the model, and expressed frustration with what he saw as Wilber's undue emphasis on spirituality, while Wilber declared Spiral Dynamics to be incomplete, as those who study only Spiral Dynamics "will never have a satori" (e.g., a high spiritual state experience). Beck continued to use the SDi name along with the 4Q/8L (four quadrants/eight levels) system from A Theory of Everything, while Wilber went on to criticize both Beck and Cowan.[22]

## Wilber's metatheory[edit]

In Sex, Ecology, Spirituality (1995), Wilber introduced his AQAL (All Quadrants All Levels All Lines All States All Types) metatheory, a framework which consists of five fundamental concepts, sometimes called the five elements. This includes the four quadrant model, levels of development, lines of development, states of consciousness, as well as the notion of types. In this schema the four quadrant model is foundational, and the remaining four elements are then added to flesh out topics more fully.[30] According to Wilber, the AQAL model is one of the most comprehensive approaches to reality, a metatheory in which all academic disciplines and every form of knowledge and experience fit together coherently.[13]

"Levels" are the generalized stages of development, from pre-personal through personal to transpersonal. "Lines" are specific domains of development - akin to the concept of multiple intelligences \- which may progress unevenly in a given person or a given group. That is, different lines can be, and often are, at different levels or altitudes at the same time.[note 6] "States" are states of consciousness. According to Wilber persons (and, in a somewhat different way, cultures and collectives) may go through a wide variety of states. These can include higher spiritual states, as well as states of depression or anxiety, as well as psychologically regressive states that are holdovers from earlier stages of development.[note 7] "Types" is a category meant to describe idiosyncratic styles or emphases that one might bring to any of these other elements. For example, a certain culture might bring a particular style or emphasis to the actualization of a specific stage or state, i.e., the experience of higher spiritual states within Zen Buddhism might be colored by Japanese cultural norms, while the higher states experienced by a Hindu might be colored by the philosophy of Advaita Vedanta. Types are considered non-hierarchical and non-normative, whereas other features of Levels and Lines and States can be understood hierarchically.[31] The individual building blocks of Wilber's model are holons, a term first introduced by the philosopher Arthur Koestler, which means that every entity and concept is both an entity on its own, and a hierarchical part of a larger whole.[note 8] Holons form natural holarchies, like Russian dolls, where a whole is a part of another whole, in turn part of another whole, and so on.[32]

In order for an account of the Kosmos to be complete, Wilber believes that it must include each of these five categories. For Wilber, only such an account can be accurately called "integral," describing AQAL as "one suggested architecture of the Kosmos."[33]

### Four quadrants[edit]

Upper-Left (UL)

"I"
Interior Individual
Intentional

e.g. Jane Loevinger and Sigmund Freud

| Upper-Right (UR)

"It"
Exterior Individual
Behavioral

e.g. Skinner

|

Lower-Left (LL)

"We"
Interior Collective
Cultural

e.g. Jean Gebser and Jurgen Habermas

| Lower-Right (LR)

"Its"
Exterior Collective
Social

e.g. Marx

The AQAL-framework has a four-quadrant grid with two axes, specifically the "interior-exterior" axes, akin to the subjective-objective distinction, and "individual-collective" axes. The left side of the model (interior) mirrors the individual development from structural stage theory, and the collective mutations of consciousness suggested by Gebser or through the collective value memes as offered by Spiral Dynamics. The right side of the model describes, among other things, levels of neurological functioning and societal organization. Wilber uses this quadrant diagram to categorize the perspectives of various theories and scholars:[3]

* Interior individual perspective (upper-left quadrant) describes individual psychological development, as described in structural stage theory, focusing on "I";
* Interior collective perspective (lower-left) describes collective mutations in consciousness, as in Gebser's theory, focusing on "we";
* Exterior individual perspective (upper-right) describes the physical (neurological) correlates of consciousness, from atoms through the nerve-system to the neo-cortex, focusing on observable behavior, "it";
* Exterior collective perspective (lower-right) describes the organizational levels of society (i.e. a plurality of people) as functional entities seen from outside, e.g. "they."

Each of the four approaches has a valid perspective to offer. The upper-left subjective emotional pain of a person who suffers a tragedy is one perspective; the upper-right objective neurological (brain-based) understanding of psychological and post-tragedy offers an additional perspective; the lower-left way a culture understands and conceptualizes a tragedy and how to cope with it offers an additional perspective; and a lower-right analysis of how society is set up to practically respond to tragedies (i.e., through systemic interventions or reparative measures) offers yet another viewpoint. According to Wilber all are needed for real appreciation of a matter.[3]

According to Wilber, all four perspectives offer complementary, rather than contradictory, perspectives. It is possible for all to be "correct," and all are necessary for a complete account of human existence. According to Wilber, each by itself offers only a partial view of reality. According to Wilber modern Western society has a pathological focus on the exterior or objective perspective. Such perspectives value that which can be externally measured and tested in a laboratory, but tend to deny or marginalize subjectivity, individual experience, feelings, and values (the left-hand quadrants) as unproven or having no reality. Wilber identifies this as a fundamental cause of modern society's malaise, and names the situation resulting from such perspectives "flatland".[3]

The Integral or AQAL model places a great value on the highest stages and states. This can be referred to as nondual awareness or "the simple feeling of being," which is equated with a range of "ultimates" that are recorded and sought in a variety of Eastern and Western esoteric spiritual traditions. This nondual awareness transcends and includes the phenomenal world, which is understood to be only an emanation or manifestation of a transcendental reality. Thus, Wilber promotes a type of panentheism, which signifies that God (or spirit) is both present as the manifest universe but also transcends it. Wilber argues this is the "ultimate" truth or nature of life. According to Wilber, the AQAL categories—quadrants, lines, levels, states, and types—describe the relative truths we encounter at previous stages and states.[3] This division between ultimate and relative truth borrows from the two truths doctrine of Buddhism.[citation needed]

### Levels or stages[edit]

See also: Developmental stage theories

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Developmental stages

Wilber  | Wilber[34] | Wilber (AQAL)[web 1][web 2]
(Numbers correspond to Loevinger's model[35] | Aurobindo[36][37] | Gebser[38] | Piaget[16]/Koplowitz  | Fowler[39] | Age
Levels of Being | Development
Overall | Outer Being | Inner Being | Psychic Being
Transpersonal  | Nondual  | Clear Light
(non-dual self)  | Supermind | Supermind  | Gnostic Man  |  |  |  |
Supra-mentalisation
Causal  | Ultraviolet
(causal self)  | Mind  |  | Overmind  | Psychisation
and
Spiritualisation
Subtle  | Violet
(subtle self)  | Intuition
Psychic  | Indigo
(psychic self)  | Illuminated Mind
Personal  | Centaur (Vision-logic)  | Turquoise
(Integral self)(5/6)  | Higher Mind  | Integral  | Unitary  | 6\. Universalizing  | 45+?
Teal
(Integral self)(5)  | System  | 5\. Conjunctive  | 35+?
Formal-reflexive  | Green (4/5)  | Subconscient
mind  | Mind proper  | Subliminal
(inner)
mind  |  | Evolution  | Rational  | 4\. Individual-reflexive  | 21+ years?
Orange (4)  | Formal-operational
Orange/Amber (3/4)  | 3\. Synthetic-
Conventional  | 12+ years
Amber (3)
Rule/role mind  | Red (2/3)  | Mythic-rational  | Concrete operational  | 2\. Mythic-
literal  | 7–12 years
Pre-personal  | Rep-mind  | Magenta (2)  | Mythic  | Pre-operational  | 1\. Intuitive-
projective  | 2–7 years
Phantasmic-emotional  | Infrared (1 & 2/D)  | Vital  | Subconsc.
Vital  | Vital  | Subl.
(inner)
Vital  | Magical  | Sensoric-motorical  | 0\. Undifferentiated
Faith  | 0–2 years
Sensori-physical  | Physical  | Subconsc.
Physical  | Physical  | Subl. (inner)
Physical  | Archaic
undifferentiated or primary matrix  |  | Inconscient  | Inconscient  |  |  |  |

The basis of Wilber's theory is his developmental model. Wilber's model follows the discrete structural stages of development, as described in the structural stage theories of developmental psychology, including but-not-limited to Loevinger's stages of ego development,[40] Piaget's theory of cognitive development,[41][42] Kohlberg's stages of moral development,[43] Erikson's stages of psychosocial development,[41] and Fowler's stages of spiritual development.[citation needed]

To these stages are added psychic and supernatural experiences and various models of spiritual development, presented as additional and higher stages of structural development. According to Wilber, these stages can be grouped in pre-personal (subconscious motivations), personal (conscious mental processes), and transpersonal (integrative and mystical structures) stages.[citation needed] For example, Freudian drives, Jungian archetypes, and myth are pre-personal structures;[citation needed] empirical and rational processes are at the personal level;[citation needed] and transpersonal entities include Aurobindo's Overmind,[citation needed] Emerson's Oversoul,[citation needed] Plato's Forms,[citation needed] Plotinus' nous,[citation needed] and the Hindu Atman,[citation needed] or world-soul.[citation needed]

All of these mental structures are considered to be complementary and legitimate, rather than mutual exclusive. Wilber's equates the levels in psychological and cultural development, with the hierarchical nature of matter itself.[citation needed]

### Lines, streams, or intelligences[edit]

According to Wilber, various domains or lines of development, or intelligences can be discerned.[44] They include cognitive, ethical, aesthetic, spiritual, kinesthetic, affective, musical, spatial, logical-mathematical, etc. For example, one can be highly developed cognitively (cerebrally smart) without being highly developed morally (as in the case of Nazi doctors).

### States[edit]

States are temporary states of consciousness, such as waking, dreaming and sleeping, bodily sensations, and drug-induced and meditation-induced states. Some states are interpreted as temporary intimations of higher stages of development.[45][46] Wilber's formulation is: "States are free but structures are earned." A person has to build or earn structure; it cannot be peak-experienced for free. What can be peak-experienced, however, are higher states of freedom from the stage a person is habituated to, so these deeper or higher states can be experienced at any level.[note 9]

The notion of states find additional clarification in the formulation called the Wilber-Combs lattice,[45] which argues that states are experienced and are immediately interpreted by the level or main structure of consciousness operating in the person. In this way, relatively high states can be interpreted by more or less developed and mature persons.

### Types[edit]

Types are are models and theories that don't fit into Wilber's other categorizations. Wilber makes types part of his model in order to point out that these distinctions are different from the already mentioned distinctions: quadrants, lines, levels and states.[48] They are styles, emphases, or interpretations that influence a person's or a culture's perspectives, but that are non-hierarchical and non-normative. No type is in-and-of-itself better than another. Examples includes masculine/feminine typologies, the nine Enneagram categories, and Jung's psychological typologies. All types are considered potentially valid, though Wilber also argued the evidence for types is somewhat less persuasive than the four other elements of AQAL theory.[2]

### Holons[edit]

Main article: Holon (philosophy)

Holons are the individual building blocks of Wilber's model. Wilber borrowed the concept of holons from Arthur Koestler's description of the great chain of being, a mediaeval description of levels of being. "Holon" means that every entity and concept is both an entity on its own, and a hierarchical part of a larger whole. For example, a cell in an organism is both a whole as a cell, and at the same time a part of another whole, the organism. Likewise a letter is a self-existing entity and simultaneously an integral part of a word, which then is part of a sentence, which is part of a paragraph, which is part of a page; and so on. Everything from quarks to matter to energy to ideas can be looked at in this way. The relation between individuals and society is not the same as between cells and organisms though, because individual holons can be members but not parts of social holons.[note 8]

In his book Sex, Ecology, Spirituality: The Spirit of Evolution, Wilber outlines twenty fundamental properties, called "tenets", that characterize all holons.[49] For example, they must be able to maintain their "wholeness" and also their "part-ness;" a holon that cannot maintain its wholeness will cease to exist and will break up into its constituent parts.

Holons form natural "holarchies", like Russian dolls, where a whole is a part of another whole, in turn part of another whole, and so on. Each holon can be seen from within (subjective, interior perspective) and from the outside (objective, exterior perspective), and from an individual or a collective perspective.[32]

## Reeception[edit]

### Reception in mainstream academia[edit]

According to Zimmerman in 2005, integral theory is irrelevant in, and widely ignored at mainstream academic institutions, as well as sharply contested by critics.[10] According to Esbjörn-Hargens, writing in 2010, integral theory was making inroads in the academics, both in terms of the number of academics interested in the theory as well as through its use in a number of doctoral dissertations.[5] The independent scholar Frank Visser argued there is a problematic relation between Wilber and academia for several reasons, including a "self-referential discourse" wherein Wilber tends to describe his work as being at the forefront of science.[50] Another Wilber critic, the independent scholar Andrew P. Smith, observes that most of Wilber's work has not been published by university presses, a fact that discourages some academics from taking his ideas seriously.[web 3]

Forman and Esbjörn-Hargens responded directly in 2008 to criticisms by Frank Visser regarding the acceptance of Wilber's work in the academic world by criticizing Visser's often critical website, noting it lacks peer review, resulting in an un-academic presentation of critiques of Wilber's work. They also said that presenters at the first academic integral theory conference in 2008 had largely mainstream academic credentials, and pointed to existing programs in the alternative universities John F. Kennedy University (closed in 2020), Fielding Graduate University and CIIS as an indication of the emergence of a integral movement.[51] A select group of the white papers submitted for the 2008 conference were later edited and compiled by Esbjörn-Hargens in the peer-reviewed book Integral Theory in Action, published in 2010 in the SUNY series in Integral Theory.[52] Additional academic integral theory conferences were held in the Bay Area, California in 2010, 2013, and 2015.

### Criticisms and responses[edit]

While receiving attention in publications on humanistic and transpersonal psychology in the 1980s and early 1990s, since the publication of Sex, Ecology, Spirituality in 1995 Wilber's work has mostly been discussed in alternative and non-academic fora and websites.[web 4]

Psychologist Kirk J. Schneider, a proponent of humanistic-existential psychology, critiqued Transpersonal Psychology and Ken Wilber in the late 1980s in the Journal of Humanistic Psychology, for its spiritually absolutist tendencies, which he argued ignore human fallibility,[53][54] a critique to which Wilber was invited to respond.[55]

In 1998 an edited volume was published by Rothberg and Kelly entitled Ken Wilber in Dialogue[56] which compiled written, critical exchanges between Wilber and over ten of his critics. Among the critics was Michael Washburn, who previously engaged Wilber in an argument about the nature of spiritual development, with Washburn seeing it as a return to a childhood awareness and Wilber seeing it as a novel understanding only emerging after adult development.[57]

Psychologist Jorge Ferrer, in his 2001 publication Revisioning Transpersonal Theory, included a criticism of the AQAL model as overly hierarchical and culturally biased, arguing for a more pluralistic understanding of the world's spiritual traditions.[58] The book received positive reviews for presenting fundamental new developments in transpersonal psychology. According to Gregg Lahood and Edward Dale it was representative for the changes in transpersonal psychology, after the initial east-west synthesis and Wilber's neo-Perennial hierarchical models.[59][60] Wilber responded strongly to the criticisms in an interview,[61][62] and criticized Ferrer's book in a short statement as being exemplary of the 'green mean meme',[63] a polemical term[note 10] jointly coined by Wilber and Don Beck that criticizes what they saw as the tendency for post-modern (i.e., green) thinkers to be aggressive, judgmental, and implicitly hierarchical while explicitly claiming to be caring, sensitive, and non-hierarchical.[28] Ferrer in turn rejected Wilber's criticism.[64]

According to David C. Lane, writing in 2017, Wilber's integral theory is a religious myth build on "a deeply held theological doctrine that evolution is driven by a divine purpose."[web 5]

A long standing critic of Wilber's is former fan Frank Visser, who published a biography of Ken Wilber and his work.[2][65] Visser also has dedicated a website to Wilber's work, including critical essays by himself and others.[web 6] and a bibliography of online criticism of Wilber's Integral Theory.[web 7] A major, specific criticism of Visser's is that Wilber misunderstands Darwinian evolutionary theory, and erroneously posits a role for "spirit" in the evolution of both subjective and objective realities.[66]

Wilber's failure to respond to critics following Ken Wilber in Dialogue (1998) is said to contribute to the field's chilly reception in some quarters.[web 3] According to Frank Visser, Wilber's early work was praised by transpersonal psychologists, but support for Wilber "even in transpersonal circles" had waned by the early 1990s.[65] In 2006 Wilber created a great deal of controversy when he argued in a derisive tone that many of the critiques he received were simply ad hominem and also failed to understand his model. He also stated that he had long since stopped identifying himself with the transpersonal field, citing what he found to deep and irreconcilable confusions in the field.[67] It was argued this essay "insulted his critics, degrading and dismissing them by basically stating that he was smarter then everybody else."[web 8]

## Influence[edit]

### Integral movement[edit]

Wilber's work began to draw attention from people interested in 'integral thinking' following the completion of Sex, Ecology, Spirituality in 1995.[2] Some individuals affiliated with Ken Wilber have said that there exists a loosely defined "Integral movement".[68] Others, however, have disagreed.[69] Whatever its status as a "movement", there are a variety of religious organizations, think tanks, conferences, workshops, and publications in the US and internationally that utilize the term integral and that explicitly refer to Wilber's definition of the term. In 2007, the editors of What Is Enlightenment? listed as contemporary Integralists Don Edward Beck, Allan Combs, Robert Godwin, Sally Goerner, George Leonard, Michael Murphy, William Irwin Thompson, and Wilber.[70]

Gary Hampson suggested that there are six intertwined genealogical branches of Integral, based on those who first used the term: those aligned with Aurobindo, Gebser, Wilber, Gangadean, László and Steiner (noting that the Steiner branch is via the conduit of Gidley).[71] In 2007, Steve McIntosh pointed to Henri Bergson and Teilhard de Chardin as pre-figuring Wilber as integral thinkers.[72]

### Applications and publications[edit]

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SUNY Press published twelve books in their "SUNY series in Integral Theory" in the early 2010s,[7] a number of which are mentioned below.

A number of texts have sought to apply Wilber's AQAL model to psychotherapy and psychopathology.[note 11] The Missing Myth (2013) by Gilles Herrada utilized an Integral framework to examine the topic of same-sex love and relationships from a biological, social, and symbolic/mythic perspective.[77]

Besides psychology and psychotherapy, Wilber's ideas have also found applicability in consultancy and management. Reinventing Organizations (2014) by Frederick Laloux examines the topic of organizational developmental from an Integral and Spiral Dynamics perspective. It is perhaps the most successful text applying Integral in any domain not written by Wilber, though Wilber does provide a forward to the text.[78] Elza Maalouf had used the AQAL-model in her corporate consulting worm in the Middle East.[79] In his book MEMEnomics Said E. Dawlabani uses "Spiral Dynamics" to develop insights regarding the lead up and aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis. "Integral leadership" is presented as a style of leadership that attempts to integrate major styles of leadership.[80] Don Beck, Lawrence Chickering, Jack Crittenden, David Sprecher, and Ken Wilber have applied the AQAL-model to issues in political philosophy and applications in government, calling it "integral politics".[81]

Michael E. Zimmerman and Sean Esbjörn-Hargens have applied Wilber's integral theory in their environmental studies and ecological research, calling it "integral ecology".[82][83][84][85]

Marilyn Hamilton used the term "integral city", describing the city as a living human system, using an integral lens.[86]

### Alternative approaches[edit]

Bonnitta Roy has introduced a process model of integral theory, combining Western process philosophy, Dzogchen ideas, and Wilberian theory. She distinguishes between Wilber's concept of perspective and the Dzogchen concept of view, arguing that Wilber's view is situated within a framework or structural enfoldment which constrains it, in contrast to the Dzogchen intention of being mindful of view.[87][third-party source needed]

Wendelin Küpers, a German scholar specializing in phenomenological research, has proposed that an "integral pheno-practice" based on aspects of the work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty can provide the basis of an "adequate phenomenology" useful in integral research. His proposed approach is intended to offer a more inclusive and coherent approach than classical phenomenology, including procedures and techniques called epoché, bracketing, reduction, and free variation.[88][third-party source needed]

Sean Esbjörn-Hargens has proposed a new approach to climate change called "integral pluralism", which builds on Wilber's recent work but emphasizes elements such as ontological pluralism that are understated or absent in Wilber's own writings.[89][third-party source needed]

Esbjörn-Hargens later expanded his interest in new approaches to meta-theorizing into engagements with French complexity theorist Edgar Morin as well as philosophy-of-science writer Roy Bhaskar. A multi-year exchange took place at multiple symposia between a group of integral theorists and a group versed in Bhaskar's Critical Realism, which included Bhaskar himself. The details of the meetings and its participants are recounted in a joint publication Metatheory for the Twenty-First Century (2015),[90] which "examines the points of connection and divergence between critical realism and integral theory."[91] P. Marshall's A Complex Integral Realist Perspective (2016), applying the "integrative metatheories" of Morin, Wilber and Baskar to "[outline] a ‘new axial vision’ for the twenty-first century,"[92] was also "informed, broadened and deepened" by these conferences.[93]

## See also[edit]

* Eight-circuit model of consciousness
* Interdisciplinarity
* Metamodernism
* Neuro-linguistic programming
* Post-postmodernism
* Scale (analytical tool)
* Systems science
* Transdisciplinarity
* Transmodernism

## Notes[edit]

1. ^ Note that while Visser shows two Spiral Dynamics colors above Coral, these are not present in Beck or Cowan's publications, and Cowan explicitly states that "no colors have been assigned for nodal systems beyond Turquoise and Coral. Teal and Aubergine are candidates, but Azure and Plum also have a certain appeal." (Cowan, Christopher (2006). "FAQs > Questions About the Colors in Spiral Dynamics". Retrieved August 3, 2021.)
2. ^ Nicholas Reitter notes that Wilber treated Graves "as a respected predecessor, though typically as only one among a group of recent, relevant developmental thinkers."[21]
3. ^ Wilber referenced Graves's emergent cyclical levels of existence theory (ECLET) in SES, when he introduced his quadrant model.[note 2] Don Beck and Christopher Cowan published their application and extension of Graves's work in 1996 in Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Values, Leadership, and Change.[22] Wilber began to incorporate Spiral Dynamics in the "Integral Psychology" section of The Collected Works of Ken Wilber, Vol. 4 in 1999,[23] and gave it a prominent place in 2000's A Theory of Everything.[24]
4. ^ Wilber and Beck put a strong emphasis on the distinctions between the 1st tier (Green and earlier) vs 2nd tier (Yellow and later) levels, associating integral thinking with the 2nd tier.[25] Wilber and Beck developed the concept of the "Mean Green Meme" (MGM) regarding the Green level of Spiral Dynamics, which they associated with postmodernism. Wilber further developed this idea into the "Boomeritis" concept, devoting a chapter to each in A Theory of Everything.[24] As Beck explained: "Ken and I asked: How do we uncap GREEN? How do we keep it moving? Because so much of it has become a stagnant pond, in our view. So we said, let's invent the Mean Green Meme. Let's shame it a bit. Let's hold up a mirror and show it what it's doing, with the hope that it will separate the Mean Green Meme from legitimate healthy GREEN. Let's expose enough people to the duplicity and artificiality and self-serving nature of their own belief systems around political correctness to finally get the word out that there's something beyond that.[26] Cowan and his business partner Natasha Todorovic disagreed with this view, leading Todorovic to publish a paper refuting it based on psychological trait mapping research.[27] Todorovic charged that when the Mean Green Meme concept is used to criticize a person making an argument, it "usurps arguments by undermining an individual before the debate has begun."[28]
5. ^ The altitudes use a color system based on rainbow correlations with chakras, replacing the spiraling alternation of warm and cool colors that is a fundamental property in SDi with a linear progression.[29] In place of the six-levels-per-tier structure of SDi, Wilber truncates the 2nd tier after only two levels, adding a 3rd tier of his four levels of transpersonal development, derived from the work of Sri Aurobindo and other spiritual traditions. Wilber further elaborated on this expanded and recolored system in 2017's The Religion of Tomorrow.[25]
6. ^ This interpretation is at odds with structural stage theory, which posits an overall follow-up of stages, instead of variations over several domains.
7. ^ This too is at odds with structural stage theory, but in line with Wilber's philosophical idealism, which sees the phenomenal world as a concretisation, or immanation, of a "higher," transcendental reality, which can be "realized" in "religious experience."
8. ^ a b See Wilber 2007, "A Miracle Called 'We'" and "Excerpt A: An Integral Age at the Leading Edge". Ken Wilber Online. Shambhala Publications. 2012. Archived from the original on March 4, 2012.
9. ^ In Wilber 2007, Wilber identifies a few varieties of states:
* The three daily cycling natural states: waking, dreaming, and sleeping.
* Phenomenal states such as bodily sensations, emotions, mental ideas, memories, or inspirations, or from exterior sources such as our sensorimotor inputs, seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, tasting.
* Altered states, is divided into two groups:

* Exogenous or induced states: psychedelic and other drug-induced states; hypnosis and hypnotherapy; psycho-therapeutic techniques; gestalt therapy; psychodrama; voice dialogue techniques; biofeedback states; forms of guided imagery;
* Endogenous or trained states: performance enhancement techniques in sports therapy; meditative training which work on calming, relaxation, equanimity states; and mental imaging and visualization such as tonglen meditation.
* Some techniques, such as neuro-linguistic programming, work with both endogenous and exogenous types.
* Spontaneous or peak states: unintentional or unexpected shifts of awareness from gross to subtle or causal states of consciousness.[47]
10. ^ Don Beck, quoted by Mathias Larsen Impossible rhetoric. Boomeritis and its rhetorical problems: "[T]he whole idea of the “Mean Green Meme” is a rhetorical strategy [...] let’s invent the Mean Green Meme: Let’s shame it a bit."
11. ^ Psychotherapy applications and publications:
* Andre Marquis, The Integral Intake (2012),[73] and Integral Psychotherapy: A Unifying Approach (2018).[74]
* R. Elliott Ingersoll has helped produce three texts addressing Integral and mental health topics. The first is Psychopharmacology for Helping Professions: An Integral Exploration (2006) co-authored by Carl Rak; the second is a general overview called Integral Psychotherapy: Inside Out/Outside In (2010) co-authored by David Zeitler; and a third co-authored by Dr. Marquis examining all the major forms of psychopathology from an Integral perspective.[75]
* Clinical psychologist Mark Forman has also offered a practical approach to utilizing Integral in psychotherapy in A Guide to Integral Psychology: Complexity, Spirituality, and Integration in Practice (2010).[76]

## References[edit]

1. ^ Wilber 1977.
2. ^ a b c d e f Visser 2003.
3. ^ a b c d e Wilber 1995.
4. ^ Visser, Frank. "Assessing Integral Theory: Opportunities and Impediments," Integral World. Retrieved via IntegralWorld.net on Jan. 7, 2010
5. ^ a b Esbjörn-Hargens 2010, p. 2.
6. ^ "ISSN 1944-5091 (Online): Journal of integral theory and practice". The ISSN Portal. Retrieved May 3, 2024.
7. ^ a b "SUNY series in Integral Theory". SUNY Press. Retrieved May 3, 2024.
8. ^ Wallace n.d.
9. ^ Grof n.d.
10. ^ a b Zimmerman 2005b.
11. ^ Wilber 1984, p. 76; Wilber 1996b; Visser 2003.
12. ^ Esbjörn-Hargens 2006.
13. ^ a b Rentschler 2006.
14. ^ Wilber 1996b, p. [page needed]; Sharma 1991.
15. ^ Aurobindo 1992, p. 114.
16. ^ a b Piaget, J. (1970). Piaget's theory. In P. H. Mussen, (Ed.), Carmichael's handbook of child development (pp. 703-732). New York: Wiley.
17. ^ Gebser 1986, p. 102, n. 4.
18. ^ Visser 2017b, pp. 36–38.
19. ^ Wilber's colours)
20. ^ Christopher Cooke and Ben Levi Spiral Dynamics Integral
21. ^ Reitter, Nicholas (June 2018). "Clare W. Graves and the Turn of Our Times". Journal of Conscious Evolution. 11 (11). California Institute of Integral Studies. Article 5, pages 42–43. Retrieved August 5, 2020.
22. ^ a b c Butters, Albion (November 17, 2015). "A Brief History of Spiral Dynamics". Approaching Religion. 5 (2): 67–78. doi:10.30664/ar.67574.
23. ^ Visser 2003, p. 229.
24. ^ a b MacDonald, Copthorne. "Review Of: A Theory of Everything". Integralis: Journal of Integral Consciousness, Culture, and Science. 1. Retrieved August 12, 2020.
25. ^ a b c Visser 2017.
26. ^ Roemischer, Jessica (Fall–Winter 2002). "The Never-Ending Upward Quest: An Interview with Dr. Don Beck". What Is Enlightenment?. No. 22\. pp. 105–126.
27. ^ Hampson, Gary P. (June 2007). "Integral Re-views Postmodernism: The Way Out Is Through" (PDF). Integral Review (4): 131. Retrieved March 4, 2021.
28. ^ a b Todorovic 2002.
29. ^ Hampson, Gary P. (June 2007). "Integral Re-views Postmodernism: The Way Out Is Through" (PDF). Integral Review (4): 122. Retrieved March 4, 2021. (footnote 39)
30. ^ Fiandt, K.; Forman, J.; Erickson Megel, M.; et al. (2003). "Integral nursing: an emerging framework for engaging the evolution of the profession". Nursing Outlook. 51 (3): 130–137. doi:10.1016/s0029-6554(03)00080-0. PMID 12830106.
31. ^ "Integral Psychology." In: Weiner, Irving B. & Craighead, W. Edward (ed.), The Corsini encyclopedia of psychology, Vol. 2, 4. ed., Wiley 2010, pp. 830 ff. ISBN 978-0-470-17026-7
32. ^ a b Paulson 2008.
33. ^ "Excerpt C: The Ways We Are In This Together". Ken Wilber Online. Archived from the original on December 23, 2005. Retrieved December 26, 2005.
34. ^ Wilber 1996, p. 165.
35. ^ Wilber's colours)
36. ^ Wilber 1996b, p. [page needed].
37. ^ Sharma 1991.
38. ^ Gebser 1986.
39. ^ Fowler 1981.
40. ^ Wilber 1992, p. 264.
41. ^ a b Wilber 1992, p. 266.
42. ^ Marian de Souza (ed.), International Handbook of Education for Spirituality, Care and Wellbeing, Springer 2009, p. 427. ISBN 978-1-4020-9017-2
43. ^ Wilber 1992, p. 265.
44. ^ Wilber 2000, pp. 197–217.
45. ^ a b Wilber 2007.
46. ^ Edwards, Mark (2008). "An Alternative View on States: Part One and Two. Retrieved in full 3/08 from http://www.integralworld.net/edwards14.html
47. ^ Maslow, A. (1970). Religions, values, and peak experiences. New York: Penguin; McFetridge, Grant (2004). Peak states of consciousness: Theory and applications, vol. 1, Break-through techniques for exceptional quality of life. Hornsby Island, BC: Institute for the Study of Peak States Press; Bruce, R. (1999). Astral dynamics: A new approach to out-of-body experiences. Charlottesville, VA: Hampton Roads
48. ^ Wilber 1996, p. 209–218.
49. ^ Wilber 1995, pp. 35–78.
50. ^ Visser, Frank. "Assessing Integral Theory: Opportunities and Impediments". Integral World. Retrieved July 1, 2010.
51. ^ Forman & Esbjörn-Hargens 2008.
52. ^ Esbjörn-Hargens 2010.
53. ^ Schneider, K. J. (1987). "The deified self: A "Centaur" response to Wilber and the transpersonal movement". Journal of Humanistic Psychology. 27 (3): 196–216. doi:10.1177/0022167887272006.
54. ^ Schneider (1989). "Infallibility is so damn appealing". Journal of Humanistic Psychology. 29 (4): 470–481. doi:10.1177/0022167889294005.
55. ^ Wilber 1989.
56. ^ Rothberg, D.; Kelly, S. (1998). Ken Wilber in Dialogue: Conversations with Leading Transpersonal Thinkers (1st ed.). Quest Books. ISBN 978-0835607667.`{{cite book}}`: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
57. ^ Washburn, M. (1995). The Ego and Dynamic Ground: A Transpersonal Theory of Human Development (2nd ed.). New York: SUNY Press. ISBN 978-0791422564.`{{cite book}}`: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
58. ^ Ferrer, J. (2001). Revisioning Transpersonal Theory : A Participatory Vision of Human Spirituality (1st ed.). New York: SUNY Press. ISBN 978-0791451687.`{{cite book}}`: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
59. ^ Gregg Lahood, “The Participatory Turn and the Transpersonal Movement: A Brief Introduction.” ReVision: A Journal of Consciousness and Transformation, 29(3), 2–6, 2007
60. ^ Edward J. Dale, Completing Piaget’s Project: Transpersonal Philosophy and the Future of Psychology. St. Paul, MN: Paragon House, 2014.
61. ^ "Ken Wilber, "The Demise of Transpersonal Psychology." From:" On Critics, Integral Institute, my Recent Writing, and Other Matters of Little Consequence: A Shambhala Interview with Ken Wilber," 2002".
62. ^ Iker Puente, “Participation and Spirit: An Interview with Jorge N. Ferrer.” Journal of Transpersonal Research, 5(2), 97-111, 2013. |access-date=2018-11-25 |archive-date=2009-10-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091023122215/http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/interviews/interview1220.cfm/ |url-status=dead }}
63. ^ Wilber, “Participatory Samsara: The Green-Meme Approach to the Mystery of the Divine,” 2002.
64. ^ Ferrer, “Participatory Spirituality and Transpersonal Theory: A Ten-Year Retrospective,” The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 43(1), 2011.
65. ^ a b Sullivan, Edward J. (Winter 2005–06). "REVIEW: Sullivan/Ken Wilber: Thought as Passion". The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning. 11: 97–99.
66. ^ Visser, F. (December 2007). ""What Good is Half A Wing?" The Wilberian Evolution Debate Continues". Integral World.
67. ^ Wilber, K. (2006). "What We Are, That We See: Part I: Response to Some Recent Criticism in a Wild West Fashion". Integral World.
68. ^ Patten, Terry. "Integral Heart Newsletter #1: Exploring Big Questions in the Integral World," Integral Heart Newsletter. Retrieved via IntegralHeart.com on Jan. 13, 2010.
69. ^ Kazlev, Alan. "Redefining Integral," Integral World. Retrieved via IntegralWorld.net on Jan. 13, 2010.
70. ^ The Real Evolution Debate, What Is Enlightenment?, no.35, January–March 2007, p.100
71. ^ Gary Hampson, "Integral Re-views Postmodernism: The Way Out Is Through" Integral Review 4, 2007 pp.13-4, http://www.integral-review.org
72. ^ Steve McIntosh, Integral Consciousness and the Future of Evolution, ch.7
73. ^ Marquis, A. (2010). The Integral Intake: A Guide to Comprehensive Idiographic Assessment in Integral Psychotherapy (1st. ed.). New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0415957663.`{{cite book}}`: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
74. ^ Marquis, A. (2018). Integral Psychotherapy: A Unifying Approach (1st ed.). New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-1138961524.`{{cite book}}`: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
75. ^ Ingersoll, R. E.; Marquis, A. (2014). Understanding Psychopathology: An Integral Exploration (1st ed.). New York: Pearson. ISBN 978-0131594388.
76. ^ Forman, M. D. (2010). A Guide to Integral Psychotherapy: Complexity, Spirituality, and Integration in Practice (1st. ed.). Albany, NY: SUNY Press. ISBN 978-1438430249.`{{cite book}}`: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
77. ^ Herrada, G. (2014). The Missing Myth: A New Vision of Same-Sex Love (1st ed.). New York: SelectBooks. ISBN 978-1590792421.`{{cite book}}`: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
78. ^ Laloux, F. (2014). Reinventing Organizations: A Guide to Creating Organizations Inspired by the Next Stage in Human Consciousness (1st ed.). Nelson Parker. ISBN 978-2960133509.`{{cite book}}`: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
79. ^ Maalouf, E. 2014 "Emerge! The Rise of Functional Democracy and the Future of the Middle East" SelectBooks, Inc. 978-1-59079-286-5.
80. ^ Kupers, W. & Volckmann, R. (2009). "A Dialogue on Integral Leadership"[permanent dead link]. Integral Leadership Review, Volume IX, No. 4 - August 2009. Retrieved on October 23, 2010.
81. ^ Ken Wilber (2000). A Theory of Everything: An Integral Vision for Business, Politics, Science and Spirituality, p. 153. Boston: Shambhala Publications. ISBN 1-57062-855-6
82. ^ Zimmerman, M. (2005). "Integral Ecology: A Perspectival, Developmental, and Coordinating Approach to Environmental Problems." World Futures: The Journal of General Evolution 61, nos. 1-2: 50-62.
83. ^ Esbjörn-Hargens, S. (2008). "Integral Ecological Research: Using IMP to Examine Animals and Sustainability" in Journal of Integral Theory and Practice Vol 3, No. 1.
84. ^ Esbjörn-Hargens, S. & Zimmerman, M. E. (2008). "Integral Ecology" Callicott, J. B. & Frodeman, R. (Eds.) Encyclopedia of Environmental Ethics and Philosophy. New York: Macmillan Library Reference.
85. ^ Sean Esbjörn-Hargens and Michael E. Zimmerman, Integral Ecology: Uniting Multiple Perspectives on the Natural World, Integral Books (2009) ISBN 1-59030-466-7
86. ^ Hamilton, M. (2008). Integral City: Evolutionary Intelligences for the Human Hive. Gabriola Island BC: New Society Publishers.[ISBN missing]
87. ^ Roy, Bonnitta (2006). "A Process Model of Integral Theory," Integral Review, 3, 2006. Retrieved on Jan. 10, 2010.
88. ^ Küpers, Wendelin "The Status and Relevance of Phenomenology for Integral Research: Or Why Phenomenology is More and Different than an 'Upper Left' or 'Zone #1' Affair," Integral Review, June 2009, Vol. 5, No. 1. Retrieved on Jan. 10, 2010.
89. ^ Esbjörn-Hargens, S. (2010) An Ontology of Climate Change: Integral Pluralism and the Enactment of Multiple Objects. Journal of Integral Theory and Practice, V5.1, March 2010, pp.143-74
90. ^ Bhaskar, R.; Esbjörn-Hargens, S.; Hedlund, N.; Hartwig, M. (2015). Metatheory for the Twenty-First Century: Critical Realism and Integral Theory in Dialogue (1st ed.). New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0415820479.
91. ^ Routledge, Metatheory for the Twenty-First Century. Critical Realism and Integral Theory in Dialogue
92. ^ Routledge, A Complex Integral Realist Perspective. Towards A New Axial Vision
93. ^ Marshall, P. (2016). A Complex Integral Realist Perspective: Towards A New Axial Vision (1st. ed.). New York: Routledge. p. xi. ISBN 978-1138803824.`{{cite book}}`: CS1 maint: date and year (link)

## Sources[edit]

Primary sources

* Aurobindo, Sri (1992) [1948]. The Synthesis of Yoga. Lotus Press. ISBN 978-0-941524-66-7.
* Wilber, Ken (1977). The Spectrum of Consciousness. Theosophical Publishing House.[ISBN missing]a
* Wilber, Ken (1984). "The developmental spectrum and psychopathology: Part I, stages and types of pathology" (PDF). Journal of Transpersonal Psychology. 16 (1).
* Wilber, Ken (1989). "God is so damn boring: A response to Kirk Schneider". Journal of Humanistic Psychology. 29 (4): 457–469. doi:10.1177/0022167889294004.
* Wilber, Ken (1992) [1980]. Het Atman Project (in Dutch). Servire. ISBN 90-6325-419-9.
* Wilber, Ken (1995). Sex, Ecology, Spirituality : The Spirit of Evolution. Boston & London: Shambhala Publications. ISBN 978-1-57062-072-0.
* Wilber, Ken (1996). A Brief History of Everything. Boston & London: Shambhala Publications. ISBN 978-1-57062-187-1.
* Wilber, Ken (1996b) [1980]. The Atman Project: A Transpersonal View of Human Development. Quest Books. ISBN 978-0-8356-0730-8.
* Wilber, Ken (2000). Integral Psychology: Consciousness, Spirit, Psychology, Therapy. Boston & London: Shambhala Publications. ISBN 978-1-57062-554-1.
* Wilber, Ken (2007). Integral Spirituality: A Startling New Role for Religion in the Modern and Postmodern World. Boston & London: Shambhala Publications. ISBN 978-0-8348-2244-3.

Secondary sources

* Esbjörn-Hargens, Sean (2006). "Editor's Inaugural Welcome". AQAL: Journal of Integral Theory and Practice. 1 (2): v. Retrieved May 3, 2024 - via Academia.edu.
* Esbjörn-Hargens, S. (2010). "Introduction". In Esbjörn-Hargens (ed.). Integral Theory in Action: Applied, Theoretical, and Constructive Perspectives on the AQAL Model. SUNY Series in Integral Theory. Albany, NY: SUNY Press. ISBN 978-1-4384-3385-1.
* Forman, Mark D.; Esbjörn-Hargens, Sean (2008). "The Academic Emergence of Integral Theory". Integral World. Retrieved January 7, 2010.
* Fowler, James W. (1981). Stages of Faith: The Psychology of Human Development and the Quest for Meaning. San Francisco, California: Harper & Row. ISBN 978-0-06-062840-6.
* Gebser, Jean (1986). The Ever-present Origin. Translated by Noel Barstad with Algis Mickunas. Ohio University Press. ISBN 978-0-8214-0769-1.
* Grof, Stanislav (n.d.). "A Brief History of Transpersonal Psychology" (PDF). StanislavGrof.com. p. 11\. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 16, 2011. Retrieved January 13, 2010.
* Paulson, Daryl S. (2008). "Wilber's Integral Philosophy: A Summary and Critique". Journal of Humanistic Psychology. 48 (3): 364–388. doi:10.1177/0022167807309748. S2CID 146586479.
* Rentschler, Matt (Fall 2006). "AQAL Glossary" (PDF). AQAL: Journal of Integral Theory and Practice. 1 (3). Archived from the original (PDF) on October 12, 2011. Retrieved January 7, 2010.
* Sharma, Ram Nath (1991). Sri Aurobindo's Philosophy of Social Development. Atlantic Publishers.
* Todorovic, Natasha (2002). "The Mean Green Hypothesis: Fact or Fiction?" (PDF). Spiral Dynamics Online. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
* Visser, Frank (2003). Ken Wilber: Thought as Passion. SUNY series in Transpersonal and Humanistic Psychology. SUNY Press. p. 229\. ISBN 978-0-7914-5815-0.
* Visser, Frank (May 2017). "A More Adequate Spectrum of Colors?". Integral World. Retrieved March 21, 2021.
* Visser, Frank (2017b). "Climbing the Stairway to Heaven: Reflections on Ken Wilber's "The Religion of Tomorrow"" (PDF). Integral World. Retrieved May 19, 2021.
* Wallace, Walter L. (n.d.). "Metatheory". Encyclopedia of Sociology.
* Zimmerman, Michael E. (2005b). "Wilber, Ken (1949–)" (PDF). In Taylor, Brom R. (ed.). The Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature. Vol. 2\. London: Thoemmes Continuum. pp. 1734–1744. ISBN 978-1-84-706273-4. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 8, 2010. Retrieved March 21, 2021 - via www.colorado.edu.

Web-sources

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1. ^ Integral Life
2. ^ Integral European Conference 2022
3. ^ a b Smith, Andrew P. "Contextualizing Ken". Integral World. Retrieved January 7, 2010.
4. ^ Visser, Frank. "A Spectrum of Wilber Critics". Integral World. Retrieved October 1, 2010.
5. ^ David C. Lane (2017), The Missing Nuance. The Integral Myth: Ken Wilber as Religious Preacher. A Four-Part Critique, Part Four
6. ^ Frank Visser's integralworld.net, Reading Room
7. ^ Visser, Frank. "Critics on Ken Wilber". Integral World. Retrieved January 10, 2010.
8. ^ Frank Visser, The Trouble With Ken Wilber

## Further reading[edit]

* Haney, W. S. (2002). Culture and Consciousness: Literature Regained. Bucknell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8387-5529-7.

## External links[edit]

* IntegralLife (former Integral Institute)

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Integral theory

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* Aurobindo Ghose
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* Evolution
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