The Spiritual Kindergarten of Ken Wilber

The self-proclaimed “philosopher” Ken Wilber (he dropped out of graduate school where he was studying biochemistry) has sought to bring together the world´s far-ranging spiritual teachings, philosophies, and scientific truths into one coherent and all-embracing vision: the integral theory.

Wilber himself is not hiding that there are hierarchies in his model: there are people who are better thinkers than others. He categorizes people in three levels of thinking capability: 1^st-Tier thinkers, 2^nd-Tier thinkers, and 3^rd-Tier thinkers. People who can think in accordance with Wilber´s system is the best thinkers, they are 2^nd-tier thinkers or 3^rd-Tier thinkers (very rare highly developed thinkers, among them of course Wilber himself). People who can´t think in accordance with his system are 1 tier thinkers.

In an article Ken Wilber is Losing it, by Michel Bauwens, it appears, that Wilber apparently has made a test in order to “separate the 1^st-Tier people from the 2^nd-Tier.

What Wilber considers to be "2^nd-Tier thinking" is the ability of practicing the same thinking as himself. It seems like a television competition in knowledge and ability to repeat what Wilber has said (who himself just is repeating what others have said).

Now, if we take the chakra system, then it is very common in New Age for the crown or third eye energies to open without embodiment or the processing of the first three chakras. Many new agers end up with a top-down awakening because they became interested in spiritual pursuits, started attending classes, doing drugs, reading literature, and finding gurus and other teachers who showed them how to seek outside themselves. This externalization of spiritual pursuits leads to advanced work without the basics of spiritual work being done. In new age there even exists a contempt for tradition and preparatory work.

Due to evolutionism, we live in a culture where we want to be advanced – more awakened, more spiritual, and above everyone who surround us yesterday. When we go through this spiritual kindergarten, where spirituality is a commodity and has a materialistic nature, we look for what can separate us from one another. This spiritual materialism allows us to consume endless books, gurus, and teachers that center around the upper chakras and participate in the competitive spirituality that is so pervasive in the modern spiritual community.

Ken Wilber, and his community, is, despite their claim of integrality, extremely marked by this spiritual immaturity. It is almost surrealistic strange how Wilber, this apparently eloquent guy, at the same time is capable of creating such a childish competitive spirituality-system.

But maybe there is another, unpleasant, 2nd-Tier or even 3^rd-tier thinker behind it? – (see my blog post: The Conspiracy of the Third Eye).

 

The above blog post is an extract from this article:

A Critique of Ken Wilber – Updated

Other sources:

Ken Wilber is Losing it, by Michel Bauwens