A Theory of Everything: An Integral Vision for Business, Politics, Science, and Spirituality [Kindle Edition]

For years I have been among those hailing Ken Wilber as the most original and comprehensive philosopher of our time. In book after book, this genius thinker has, with lucid and prolific creativity, familiarized us with the complex but unified universe of astonsihing terror and beauty we call consciousness--both human and Divine. In his monumental book Sex, Ecology, Spirituality, for example, he was able to show how consciousness, or Spirit, manifests Itself through the unfolding, never-ending evolutionary forms we term creation,life, culture, ecology, spirituality, society--the whole shebang of reality. More importantly, he brilliantly pointed out some of the radical implications a spiritual worldview may have when integrated into the dusty soil of reality. And, maybe best of all, he managed to do this with unparallelled logic and depth of scholarship, yet without loosing a sense of lightness--or humor--of being. In Marriage of sense and Soul, a popularized version of his integral thesis of the interrelationship of body, mind and soul--of all things material and spiritual--he also managed to be both profoundly sublime and simple at the same time. Moreover, he accomplished this without reading like another pop-guru a la Deepak Chopra or Marianne Williamson.

It is thus with great disappointment that his latest book, A Theory of Everything, is not living up to its cover's promise--an integral vision for business, politics, science and spirituality. Because, in this book, we no longer meet the erudite Wilber we have become accustomed to. Indeed, this book's premise is far more challenging (and important!) than his previous ones. Yet, it looks as if marketing interests, rather than deeper, integral interests, so to speak--as often is the case with popular writers these days-- lies behind the publication of this book. With a shallow, lukewarm section on business that is a mere one and a half pages long, and another, on politics, which is only a few pages longer, one gets the distinct feeling that Wilber has become a victim of the one-dimensional consumer culture he so fiercely has rallied against. He has succumbed to the lowest common denominator by promoting simplistic, half-cooked ideas in the name of spiritual transformation and philosophical authenticity and originality. In other words, he has--unwillingly or willingly-- become another promulgator of flatland ideas (his term), otherwise known as the New Age.

This book tells us little about how an integral business person or politician might operate, even less about the deeper, philosophical map he or she needs in expressing spiritual values in today's fierce political and economic reality. Nor does he paint a constructive, integral vision of how business might look like in a society based on spiritual values. When Wilber attempts to do this, he simply offers a short laundry list of people who are trying to "ïntegralize" corporate life, or he briefly explains how a liberal vs. a conservative worldview differ or complement each other. The deeper questions about an integral political platform or agenda are left unanswered, and so are questions about what kind of an economy we need to harmonize the human spirit, the workplace, or the environment. I know that Wilber is up to the task, but in this book, he has failed to answer some basic questions about the societal implications of a spiritual worldview, or, in effect, A Theory of Everything. Questions such as: Which aspects of capitalism are compatible with A Theory of Everything? Which aspects of socialism? Are new economic ideas--such as those of Sarkar, Korten, Schumacher, and others--more compatible with an integral worldview than classical capitalist and socialist ideas? Will the new, integral economy favor decentralization and cooperative enterprises? What is the integral visions answer to the growing inequity in the corporate world and in society in general? Since capitalism is based on the egoistic pursuit of self-interest, can it ever favor integral business practices? Which aspect of the socially responsible business movement would be part of an integral business agenda, and which would not?

All that said, this book may be interesting to someone who has never read Wilber before. Indeed, the sections on science and spirituality are, for the most part, well written and comprehensive. Just remember, as Wilber writes in the introduction: "...use [my]ideas...as simple suggestions; see if you can improve on them." Indeed, many of them are simple. Too simple. Thus, improve on them we must.

Ken Wilber has been criticized for repeating the same themes over and over, from book to book. He answers this criticism by saying that he wants the reader of any one of his books, who might not have read his other work, to understand the specific subject of this or that particular book in the context of his overall system of thought. And, sure enough, A Theory of Everything re-covers much ground already thoroughly covered in many of his other books. But Wilber offers this as an introductory work (perhaps to a broader readership than he ordinarily reaches.) And the new ideas he offers in this book would probably be incomprehensible to new Wilber readers without an overview of his integral theory to go with them. So, what's in this book for readers new to Wilber and for KW veterans?

For the newbie, first of all, Ken Wilber is considered by many (including me) to be among the most profound thinkers of this age. Wilber says in the introduction to this work that he considers this the best introduction to his work. Well, it is relatively brief, it outlines rather succinctly key aspects of his overall thought and then applies that structure to areas of common interest like politics, medicine and business. This is interesting and will give the new reader a glimpse of the profundity of Wilber's work, the breadth of its potential applicability and will hopefully stimulate the reader's interest in reading his more detailed works. I still think A Brief History of Everything is the best introduction to KW's work, though, because it masterfully presents an outline of Wilber's thought system in a way that leaves no important major themes out, yet manages to be both accessible and relatively succinct. In ATE, he touches on major tenets of his thinking like the Four Quadrant system, but I wonder how much the first time reader will glean from his rather shorthand explanation here, as opposed to the clear explanation available in ABHE. On the other hand, he presents his philosophy here in a more obviously practical context, applicable to many aspects of daily life, than in any other of his books, and for that reason alone would be a good first Wilber book for many.

As for the KW vet, what's in this book for you? Well, primarily some explanation of Wilber's latest thinking on topics like the adaptation of Spiral Dynamics theory to his spectrum of consciousness model. But this is also avilable in Integral Psychology, yet another introductory work. In short, I would say this book is a bit thin on new material for the KW vet, but has enough intriguing new stuff to tide you over until Wilber releases something more meaty again. Some great stuff, for example, on liberals and conservatives and "Greens," as the latest manifestations of the unfolding of consciousness in world history, a stream of thought most thoroughly treated in Up From Eden.

Meanwhile, Ken, the faithful are ready for volume 2 of the Kosmos work or something equally meaty. The last two books have been appetizers. We're ready for another main course.

What are we gonna do with Ken Wilber? He writes a book called A Theory of Everything and crams it in 145 pages. Turns out the book is more like "The Ken Wilber Reader", a condensed primer on his exhaustive theory of integral consciousness - I'm not even sure I go it right. It covers most of his bibliography, but packed enough to give Einstein a migraine.

So there's this thing called spiral dynamics. Spiral dynamics is this theory that human beings all begin from square one and evolves through the spiral. The spiral is a social construct about the evolving consciousness. It's built of embed levels called memes and each is color coded. Color coded that's for kids... wait.

There's the beige meme. At this level (Square one) is where it all begins for the young human and societies. It's the meme of instinct and pure survival. The kill of be killed level. What's important to the person at this level, is food, sex, warmth and safety. We're talking early bush tribes here. The hairless talking monkey takes a stand.

The beige meme is followed by the purple meme. This is the stage where all things are magical and animism takes form. This is where humans start taking care of each other. The world is filled with mysticism. This is the age of shamanism and rituals. The sense of family takes shape.

Then it's the red meme. This is the Tony Montana level, the "the world and everythin' in it Chico" level. It's all about survival of the strongest and getting some respect. It manifests itself in feudal kingdoms, the story of epic heroes and the terrible twos. It's all about impulse and the ego.

The blue meme is where it all goes to hell in a hand basket. It's about purpose and authoritarianism. It's about bringing order to the world, control through the absolute truth. It's about living under a moral code. The blue meme manifests itself through moral movements such as puritan America, the moral majority and codes of honor. This is where political conservatism resides.

The next level up the spiral is the orange meme. Strategy and the goal driven life lives here. This is where the overachievers live. This is where the game is played and won. Think liberal enlightenment, think Silicone valley, Fortune 500 and the corporate life.

Now we get to breath right? Heh, sit down junior, we're not done yet. We're only at the green level. The green level is the one that ignores the spiral - or at least tries to. Communalism and the egalitarian good life begin here. Where everyone is equal, where everyone has a voice. This is where Malkovitch moans about everybody's feelings being involved. This is where we shed our shackles of religious dogma. At this point in the spiral, we begin to search the inner-self. Think human rights, multiculturalism, pluralism.

Does it get better? Sure does. The yellow meme. This is where we discover the capacity of flexibility and responsibility, where we begin thinking systemically. Integrative concepts emerge. Ken then caps it with the turquoise meme. He does state that there are more to go, like the transpersonal, but that this spiral will be sufficient for the book's purpose. Turquoise is about holonic thinking. Experiencing wholeness through the mind and the spirit.

Ok you got all that memorized? Good. That was just an overview of chapter one. Only six more to go. Yeah I'm getting a headache also. But worry not it gets worse... hmm I mean better.

He starts with this spiral to then take you to his integral view, his Theory of Everything by displaying multiple diagrams about his concept of "All quadrants, all levels" ideas. Basically it's all about expanding consciousness. To me it just sounds like a western philosopher's re-interpretation of what the Buddha has taught.

But he drives the importance of all-encompassing thinking and living. That all the levels of the spiral are imbedded in each other. Some people are at the blue level, others at green, and some still at the red level. Some people are emotionally red but are intellectually blue. That spiritual growth isn't a one way line straight to the top. That people in the red zone, can still have spiritual epiphanies and still remain in the red. Evolution of mind isn't guaranteed for all. That a whole people won't move together to the next level. This isn't a race that has to be won.

He goes further when he applies the model to science. He states that modern science only studies one quadrant of reality and that they need to innovate to take in all the levels of reality. Then he jumps into the political arena. He rips the conservative side for their dogmatic ways. He demonstrates that their ideology is only a few steps from the gas chambers. So this gets you thinking he's a liberal right? Think again. He puts the liberals in a vice for refuting religion so harshly that instead of finding god, we fight to keep our wallet full. Blaming the liberal enlightenment for enslaving us to the economy after liberating us from dogma.

I wish I could explain more about this book, but as you can read, his ideas are complex and to explain more would extend this review even more.

Of course Ken is much more eloquent than I could ever be. And he can really put into words his ideas and concepts. He's of course nobody's fool. The ideas presented in A Theory of everything are brilliant - but then I rarely find myself disagreeing with his arguments, I'm surely biased. But how can you blame me. His argument is all about finding the absolute.

Reading Ken Wilber is not for everyone. He's a bit dry, coldly intellectual, clinical and does he love the name-dropping. Ken, buddy, enough with paragraphs of name dropping, it's annoying to read. We get the point. People agree with you. Enough already. But as a lover of philosophy, I can't get enough of his books anyway. On the day of writing this review, I've begun reading another one of his books. Instead of endlessly comparing what past philosophers have said and done, Ken Wilber puts forth new ideas. Ideas that can change the world.

Scientists love him, rabbis love him, the Wachowski brothers love him, and I can't get enough of him. For those who love to search for the true self, to understand consciousness, this is a book you must read, amongst his other titles also. If you've listened to his commentary on the Ultimate Matrix Box set, you'll understand that he's passionate about his ideas, though it's not obvious when reading him.

If it weren't for all the name dropping and the chilly feel to his writing I'd give it a 5 outta 5. But I give it 4 outta 5.