The Leading Edge Of The Unknown In The Human Being: Ken Wilber 

Fifteen years ago I read Ken Wilber's book "Sex, Ecology, Spirituality," and I still regard it as the most transformative text that I've ever come across. It gave me a model of understanding of the Kosmos in which we live, and I was finally able to relax into the brilliant theory of everything. It is a long, slow, pensive read, demanding of deep reflection on virtually every page. The rewards continue to be relevant. It will stay with me forever.

There's no way I could ever thank you, Ken Wilber, enough for your work and wisdom over the decades. I named my son Ken in an attempt to at least show my gratitude. Since he's half Japanese, we used the character for Ken 賢 meaning "wisdom" as a way to recognize his namesake's defining quality.

i discovered that the brain/body is capable of setting itself Totally Free of fear, anxiety, sorrow, trauma, despair, loneliness, shame, guilt, confusion, addictions, and all other mental/emotional disturbances, once and for all, now and forever.

Waking up and growing up. Thank you Ken.

Thanks Ken. You have been one of my greatest teachers. A deep bow of gratitude sir.

New to Ken, but I've been exploring the path of non-duality in the last few months. This fellow showed me some stuff I intuitively knew was there, but wasn't quite mature enough to define. Seriously, thank you, Ken. I watched this twice so far

Oh My Gosh! This has got to be one of Ken’s most brilliant talks. He really clarified so much for me in this talk. I can see that I had been forming some ideas that were judgements because I could not see the two different aspects of growing up vs waking up. I could intuit, but it didn’t fully make sense to me. Thank you, Ken! Amazing!

Such a clear explanation of spiritual experience colliding with maturity and awareness level. I wish I knew this 20 years ago!! Thank you Ken!

Thank you Ken, for sharing such potent wisdom even when you're well into this elderly stage of your life. It still hits so clear and stands out from all other teachers.

This is the most accurate description of the spiritual levels I’ve ever heard. Incredible.

“It will be a photo finish”. Seeing Oppenheimer recently and with the war in Ukraine not going away Wilber’s words are prophetic. Alan Watts, Sadhguru, Ken Wilber are my heroes.

Ken is a brilliant and wonderful man. Integral Theory has literally changed my life. I am very greatful that I came across Ken's work.

Ken, I can only thank you in deep admiration for offering this gem of brilliance. It is the way of transcending from a human being to humanity and beyond.

Thank you Sir Ken Wilber, I am a long time fan of yours even since I read your first book No Boundary, which transformed my life. You have made a big positive impact in my life with your amazing books including "One Taste". This video was amazing, thank you for making time to share your great wisdom with all of us and making our world a better place for all of us and with your help in "Growing up" and "Walking Up" to our highest potential. With infinite Thanks. Randhir

Wow! Every time I hear Ken there's a big deep YES in my whole being. Such clear teaching, Heartfelt thanks.

Wonderful. One of Ken's best talks in years. Really planting a flag in the distinction between real time(less) experience and the completely separate activity of reporting back to oneself on it is effective.

I've heard this video 3 times in a row, thank you very much for being such a clear lens. It would be fantastic to bring these teachings to other languages.

MUCH LOVE KEN WILBER!!! You have been the Einstein of our time, that's for damn sure!

This is the most insightful talk I have heard for a long time. The founder of the meditation that I practise took 14 years to make complete sense of his initial experience of enlightenment. I have taken over 30 years to follow the practice to gain that experience as I am wavering between the egocentric and globalcentric stages of growing up. However, there are signs of cosmocentric development and some subtle thoughts/benevolent desires today and finding this video confirmed that. ❤😊

Scholarly Understanding of Mankind’s Growth and Maturing Process 😊.

Extraordinarily profoubd, useful, important, inspiring, motivational, and humbling; all at once. Thank you, Ken. This is exactly what I needed.

Ultimate joy is to stop here, to listen and learn from this brilliant mind.

An intelligent lecture, easily understandable and yet profound.

Gracias Ken. Hace unos 40 años leì tu libro "El espectro de la conciencia", y creo que ha sido uno de los mejores libros que he leido. Gracias !

So happy to ponder this wisdom, thank you sir!

Thank you, Ken.

Incredible learnings in this video Ken, I Thankyou sincerely

I found a ken wilber reader at the thrift store. I've been hooked since, I've had these feelings of integrallness my whole life.

I love him so much! Thank you Ken.

Such a grounding message in our brave new world.

Brilliant insight! Life changing. Thank you Ken.

tnx Ken, 4 throwing light on my confusion about religions appearing 2b simultaneously source of wisdom & ignorance, love & hatred, ....

OMG... Mr wilber I've heard your name but your not on my radar, but hail the gods someone who has managed to put it into words. Hallelujah

I am here. You are awesome Ken. Big hugs.

Cảm ơn Thầy vì Trí tuệ, Tình thương và sự Cống hiến của Thầy cho nhân loại !

Thank you so much!

Very clear! Thank you.

Kudos to Ken from Luxembourg (Europe)!

I’ve ear this before. Anyway, thank you for sharing such important knowledge and insights of Ken Wilber and Integral Theory.

Love this stuff!

just wow! It makes so much sense. Recognized myself immediately

I am so grateful for what reading the works of Ken Wilber did for me. Integral Theory reconfigured my hardware, in a rather profound way. I began adult life as a seeker... I feel now more like one waiting for the revolution to begin.

This is awesome. but has no bearing on who you really are. Only on how you function in life. who you really are wont come forward unless you are ready or close to ready. Never the less this stuff is intense and necessary and I am thankful for this brilliance

This is the most profound and complete lecture which I have ever listened to . I will listen again and again as it’s dept is truly blessed . Thank you Ken . You are the Man . 🐝

Great detailed info. Even some egoist Zen Buddhist and Dzogchen people could learn from this, because they are not equally developed in all the stages. Because some post modern extreme practitioners think any practice and meditation is forcing and not natural, since the ego studies, studies, practices, and strives for enlightenment. And the result is the self-centered functioning of the neurons of the human brain. Ego or personal identity, the story told by billions of neurons. And these modern thinkers mistakenly believe, what we really are, as pure consciousness, has nothing to achieve, no need for enlightenment, no suffering to be freed from.

Dear friend, tnx a lot; once again u've eased some of my tension concerning this person that is referred to as myself & its relation to other ppl, sentient beings & Mverse.

Thank you Ken. This speak is very inspiring to listen and to take action towards waking up and groving up process. Take care Ken

I decided to be happy and thankfull, to love every being made by god. It works better every day. Evil flees my presence since ever then. Still I visit a baptist church, but yes I know we have to climb alle stages and we will try to become as integral and aware as The Lord, Isa, son of man, the master, Elohim, just names...LOVE AND PEACE and may everybody start to think with your hearts! we love Kens wisdom. The world needs it, especially now. Everyone is an O in the name GOD. Gods Only Dude.

Very important talk. Thank you

Thank you!🙏❤️

THANK YOU!

Wow! Thank you so much.

Thank you wonderful lecture - read your book Brief history of evrything 10 yeras ago - and continue reading always so inspiring

Dear Ken you are one of the brilliant minds in this field...I love the way you are honestly and compassionately able to deliver the message...

Thank you for bringing this information to the surface for us to consider and hopeful strive for.

Wise words ! ❤️

LINES are Key to connecting all people to the Lattice of direct Understanding. The reason is that there are so many facets of skill that push us through personal levels of growth. The connection is in finding those simple behaviors that all people do repetitively so that the activity in moving nearly into involuntary response, yet still a learned or consciously managed behavior. Then stepping out into personally unique specialty. Then taking the step of approaching these big platforms of cultural and social significance like religion and political mode of interpretation. What are the things we do every day, chart the LINE of taking a dump for instance. You will find that people have reached very accelerated 3rd tier actuality within this LINE. They already understand that everyone does it. They will use facilities in public places and have shared rules that leave these facilities up to a global standard that have complete inclusivity, even with Baby changing stations and family rooms in certain places. We have gender identity and sometimes fluid rules gaining purpose on a global geo-political-social debate as to the certain privacy afforded to an individual on the interior of a bathroom to take care of business on their own terms without judgement. Could you imagine if practicing a religion was met with the same degree of respect for the autonomy of the individual? The reason this is likely true is that humanity has been perfecting bathroom behavior for 1000's years longer than religion and politics. In integral we have been attempting to find the common thread with the new trends that have only emerged recently in Human Evolution. On some lines of innate behavior people have already moved beyond early stage integral but integral itself is a LINE that only recently emerged, a line looking at lines, while other more commonly stationary lines have driven the statistical model of definition for the sake of simplification. We must meet each-other in those lines that have established a COMMON LINE, so common it seems obvious and annoying to take seriously, discuss those emergent traits that define that pathway of skillful adaption an purpose within that line that is translatable to these other tracks of experience. Talk to people about their take on Driving and you will find them to have achieved very High scores in waking up on that LINE and you will not be teaching them anything that they do not yet know, but finding the common ground of more inclusive actualized tendency and expectation in a line like driving that is itself evolved to the furthest edge of human evolution yet ever achieved. People are already awake we have to find them where their eyes are uniquely open and the rules they follow within that line are established beyond the common push of more stagnated lines. Telling everyone that only less than 1% of the world is integrally evolved is only pointing out there knowledge and application of the INTEGRAL LINE of APPLICATIONS themselves. By approaching each other at our furthest line growth we can begin to look into the discrepancies between the lines and really find out how a person who can use a universally public rest room has a problem with respecting another religion, yet they will enter through a green light on any street without attempting to run the car next to them off the road.

Stunning

What Kim missed is that at some point. When you get to this point of ultimate waking up and ultimate growing up. It is a stage of integral thinking and complete selfless love that is still grounded in reality. The combination of these 2 might shockingly create a magic experience and the individual can literally with this heightened awareness along with his/ her integral thinking create magic. Which if we give it proper thinking it goes as a full circle. Where the highest of the highs can give you the power of not being hurt by a snake bite or turning water into wine. Which begs the question: what if these stories in all these religions are not really absolute myths but they are real events that happened with people who touched both the ability to wake up fully non dualistically as they had this integral thought processes ! Something to think about !

I like your explanation and application

exceptional great talk. Good points on social media, which basically arrests many people into lower developmentphases. I think the takeaway is making these developmental phases less game-able. A good solution is transitioning from social media (people/companies screaming at public walls) to social networking (more personal circles, connected thru reallife events or fediverse apps like mastodon,peertube,pixelfed,fish etc).

You talk about waking up and growing up, which I FULLY understand. What about f'ing up? The bulk of humanity is in the depths of THAT right now

Wonderful, to see and hear Ken share these insights. Peace and Love :)

Thank you

The understanding of the relationship between the devotee and the Spiritual Master is of great importance since it is the basis of all spiritual traditions, prophecies and teachings. If people didn't fully study my Teaching on this matter they might tend to associate and even identify it with some of the traditional exercises. . . in such traditions as the Advaitic tradition. And there's a tendency in the Advaitic tradition to develop this kind of "talking school" approach to Realization. And therefore it tends also to legitimize the point of view of certain kinds of advocates who can be read, and even heard in public. Who "preach" to people about consciousness and call them to identify. . . merely to identify with it. They try to talk people into identifying with consciousness, or merely to relax their minds and so forth, and settle into a conscious state, that doesn't have any particular reference to the body-mind, although its still associated with it practically. There are many such advocates. I've spoken about Krishnamurti from time to time, he's just one. There are many such people these days. They all have in common, a call to people to do something like the. . . exercise of logic recommended in the Advaitic "talking school". They call upon them to identify with Consciousness, presently, to believe and affirm that the essence of the being, the consciousness behind thoughts and actions is presently and always already identical to Brahman or the Transcendental Condition. Therefore, merely by involving yourself in this kind of analytical exercise, you can presume that you are enlightened, or that you have achieved Jnana. That's not at all true. The same kinds of advocates are also busy telling people that there is no real purpose for a Spiritual Master, except to bind yourself to another ego and so on. The reason they can so easily dismiss the Spiritual Master is because they have already dismissed the whole process of spiritual practice. And all that's necessary for them is this kind of analytical effort of identifying with Consciousness. It is true that our own consciousness, that which is at the root of attention, is ultimately, even inherently, identical to the Transcendental Being. But this must be Realized to be so. And it cannot be Realized to be so until energy and attention are free for that most profound and Radical Intuition. It's not merely factually so. It's not factually so that Atman and Paramatman or Brahman are identical. It's not factually so that Nirvana and samsara are the same. By definition these are opposites. Nirvana and samsara are actual or absolute opposites of one another. That's how the two terms arose in traditions. They indicate two entirely different states of existence, one Transcendental and the other conditional. Well, in the Buddhist tradition, this formula developed eventually, that the states that are Nirvana and samsara are the same. Well, this is a confession of Adepts. This is a confession of Realization. In the case of Realization it is True. In some profound, paradoxical sense. But it is not factually true. It's true only in the case of Realization. Likewise, in the Advaitic tradition, in many places in the Hindu tradition, we hear the proclamation that Atman and Paramatman, or Atman and Brahman, are identical. This is not factually true in the original development of these terms. They were meant to indicate complete opposites. They are Realized to be identical by Adepts. The equation is Realized to be true, or the Truth in the case of an Adept. But not otherwise. The equation is not factually true, it's only true by virtue of Realization. So you cannot, merely by inverting upon the self-essence, identify with the Transcendental Being. To invert upon the self- - essence is merely to continue the act of Narcissus (the ego act of identification with a separate self). It is to meditate upon the self-essence, the essence of the ego, the root consciousness of the ego. Until the ego is transcended, that's all that's at the base of the "I" thought. We may have some sense, some intuition of that which goes beyond the limit of self-contracted consciousness, but we cannot Realize our identity with it, apart from the fullest development of spiritual practice. In fact, therefore, it is a heresy to claim that Atman and Paramatman are the same, or that Atman and Brahman are the same, until you have Realized it. It is a heresy to declare that Nirvana and samsara are the same. Its a ridiculous claim except in the case of Realization. Spiritual Understanding in our discussion is not to be equated with a kind of "talking school" conceit, or the presumption of the ego, that wants to be realized immediately without having to go through the hard school of purification, liberation, and awakening. Spiritual Understanding involves the transcendence of the ego, or conditional attention and this develops by stages - it has a number of forms. . . The reason for this is that the ego is not merely some superficial notion. The ego applies to every single aspect, every part, function, state, relation, and condition of the self. There is no part of the manifest self that is not characterized by the ego or self-contraction. It's not merely a superficial part of you, underneath which there is this eternally free essence which you should identify with. Even that essence underneath it all, that fundamental sense of self-consciousness is a fraction of this total character that is the ego or seperate self. This total character must be understood and transcended. In every feature, function, part, relation, state - waking, dreaming, and sleeping - this consciousness that is identified with in the "talking school" is nothing but the bare consciousness of the waking state, or attention apart from objects. It is not, in any sense, a practice of enlightenment or enlightened understanding; it is simply egoic consciousness. That egoic consciousness in all of its forms must be transcended for any spiritual understanding to awaken. Avatar Adi Da Samraj What Is The Conscious Process?

My part as a writer, cartooning, sharing a way to communicate the very thing you are speaking of, after a lifetime at 67, just reaching that magical time of life, I agree and support what you have said, and continue to explore what growing up, communicating what wii learn, all the "I"s together that help us take mankind and reality to a new level. That is why many of us are here as I see it, volunteers in great holographic world Wii create, a matrix that few understand Wii are here to manifest. What comes next depends upon our ability to integrate the feminine back into leaders in a balanced way rather than the past views. Thanks for your talk. Great to hear. The Book of Wibblry and Wub is the story, a satire of what happens when someone human brings these messages to Earth, the resistance to solutions that cost the messengers their ability to live a normal life, nor to ever to desire to do so. Wii came in with a gift, many for some, and a duty to use them to help manifest a future that is ever better, and I still believe that is possible, even moreso given the present destruction that will lead to the next level, higher I believe. Wii will see soon.

I will give credit where credit is due and this presentation deserves just that. Good job, Ken!

Very Good!

Interesting. My first break through experience was when reading "Psychologie in der Wende" with chapters from Stanislav Grof and Ken Wlber and I had a profound experience in the morning at 3AM reading about trans-personal psychology written by Ken Wilber. It was during that experience that I felt the total connection with all beings and it was by that experience that I knew it was nothing about an entity I call me. So I cannot align with the introduced separation of spiritual experience and maturity as in my case it seem to come together inseparable. How can there be a profound experience of unity and still an ego utilizing it as a kind of a super ego decoration? Wouldn't a strong ego identification be a solid obstacle to even have such an experience? On the other hand the introduced separation is a solid explanation to me that there can be such a thing like highly spiritual developed evil. It is a good explanation why black magic and its followers can exist which have a profound insight into the human psyche but using it only to achieve advantages for their own groups still in a mind set of being separated from the "others" they seek to dominate and coerce to obey their orders. The thrive for power requires a mind which is fully convinced about the separation from the entity it wants to have power over. Thus in my mind the thrive for power which evil always seeks was something which must lag certain spiritual insights hence to me highly spiritual beings kind of couldn't engage into evil acts. I am willing to learn!

Brilliant

This is why meditation practices are key. Without skill in meditation one never gets a chance to acquire direct experience, and without that, the theories mean little.

Ramakrishna was way ahead on this, insisting that all the major paths could lead to awakening and having practiced them to prove it.

We are one...yet everyone has their own experience

Vandana Shiva is a great example of a cosmocentric woman.

I have started listening to the “Gateway Experience”, and feel as if it’s an accelerated way to get your brain in a meditative state. Whether your ready for it or not.

I wish there were captions and/or a transcript!

Wonderful talk from Ken, undoubtedly a lighthouse in contemporary spirituality. I just wonder how ideas like Kali Yuga, Apocalypse or Ragnarok fit into his view of an ever-evolving human being, presenting post-modernism as an "evolved" stage from modernism and traditionalism. I just battle with the idea that humanity overall is headed in any positive direction. Still, his maps of consciousness along with Dr David R Hawkins´ are the few ones I have found to navigate my way through these troubled waters. I am really thankful for this contribution.

Extremely useful talk, thank you! Imagining someone having a spiritual awakening at the egocentric stage and the problems associated with that reminds me of the famous Jung quote, “Beware unearned wisdom…”

I love Ken Wilber's books. As an elder though, his appearance reminds me of Hunter S. Thompson.

Very good! It's like anything else...if you haven't EXPERIENCED it what you have is merely your 'opinion'. It needs to be a meld...

In the current state of the world with its permanent conflicts, just to name the few that are most prominent, like Ukr-Rus-war, Hamas-Israel, Armenia-Aserbaijan, Lybia, Sudan, Jemen, etc.. You would think, how can Ken be on such a meta-level, right? But try to go deeper in his analysis then you understand that he describes what the evolution of spirituality that is helping to propagate peace in the World! Thanks Ken for helping us understanding the bigger picture and the path we have to take to arrive at a more peaceful humanity.

thanks for the talk. Jolly well dug it.

Enlightening and profound

Thank you for this new level of awareness through the insight of the understanding of level of growth and its implication in human actions🙏🏼 It will be interesting to see, feel and create a way of communicating that will help and sustain the willingness of growth within those divine beings “trapped” within the “younger” growth level in a present state. Gratitude for your contribution of understanding 🙏🏼💜✨

How do we not know how to deliver ourselves from hell? It’s like everybody had all the knowledge but it’s just right now we’re open to it.

It was a challenging read but soldiering through "A Brief History of Everything" about 15 years ago changed my life for the better and I've always been very grateful both for the book and for my tenacity. When something shifts perspective on a deep level it is a real gift and I am very glad whenever I get the opportunity to hear you speak. Thank you so much.

I used to read Ken Wilber's writings when he and I were still breaking through to new awareness. In recent decades, though, he's become nothing more than a preacher, engrossed in his own worldview, enamored with his own arrogant superlatives, judgments and generalizations, and no longer on a path of learning and growing. I once considered him a mentor; now I think of him as merely famous.

darling perfect Ken Wishing you a HAPPY BIRTHDAY 1-31-23 Always Grateful to you🌸 Victoria from Boulder 2002 Love you!

I love it! "Growing Up" Exactly why Krishna warned against giving his teaching to the unworthy Ie - not grown up!

This might have been posted 5 days ago but I could have swore I 've seen and heard this video before?

Amazing and essential information which I hope everyone can realize in this lifetime. Is the transcript/text from this lecture available somewhere? I find it not so easy to hear, I like to read aswell

He goes to great ends to speak of the unspeakable - Namaste 🙏🏻

Upbringing, education, and (yes) brainwashing, will reinforce Stage 2, but the $64 question is how do they manage to arrest development? I think simple fear and insecurity must come into it. Stages 3 and 4 require a degree of leisure and detachment.

Thank you Ken for "spelling it out" as we say in the UK.

When was this recorded? It seems it wasn’t recent?

He's exactly how I imagine an alien would be...

Ken, many years ago I used to buy you wonderful magazine. Something like The Evolutionary?

Very well presented and reasonable. The application of your framework to spirituality and politics is obvious. I also see this framework appearing in the rapid advances and fundamental obstacles faced by theoretical and experimental science particularly in fields of biology and quantum theory. It might be well applied to the evolution of corporate governance and global commerce. Thanks Ken.

Classic. Thanks! Spiral Dynamics is another model to envision such concepts, particularly second tier.

Any of advice for someone who can see it?