# Recommend a Ken Wilber book **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 6, 2009, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-ken-wilber-book/492091 "2009-04-06T02:34:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-ken-wilber-book/492091/1 "2009-04-06T02:34:40Z")
I have a basic understanding of Ken Wilber’s AQAL theory and I’d like to expose my brother to it as food for thought. From the wiki page my brother was tempted to get the impression that it’s all New Age frou-frou stuff, but I understand that the whole point of integral theory is to integrate what’s useful from different spiritual systems (and scientific and psychological etc) while discarding the unnecessary cultural baggage and myopic focus of various different forms and systems. In other words, analyzing something is not the same thing as advocating for it in whole. So I’d like to give him a book either by Wilber or about his theories that is while remaining understandable, as ‘scientific’ and concrete as possible, concentrating more in terms of physics, psychology, and systems, than using, say, Buddhist terminology. I understand that in the end the point is that all these different systems are talking about the same thing, but I’d like to introduce my brother to it from the perspective that is most comfortable to him already as I feel that will make him more open to it. Any suggestions? ---
**Author:** ![kurilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ea5d25/32.png) [@kurilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kurilla)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-ken-wilber-book/492091/2 "2009-04-06T03:10:18Z")
I found [this](http://www.amazon.com/History-Everything-Schwartz-Spinella-Wilber/dp/B001HYVC46/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238987339&sr=1-5) to be thorough and eminently readable. I’ve read some of his later books and Wilber seemed to buy into his own hype. This one is a good summary, I think. ---
**Author:** ![jormundgondir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/dfb087/32.png) [@jormundgondir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jormundgondir)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-ken-wilber-book/492091/3 "2009-04-06T05:19:56Z")
> [@kurilla](#): > > I found [this](http://www.amazon.com/History-Everything-Schwartz-Spinella-Wilber/dp/B001HYVC46/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238987339&sr=1-5) to be thorough and eminently readable. > > I’ve read some of his later books and Wilber seemed to buy into his own hype. This one is a good summary, I think. I second that recommendation. It’s concise, gets his message across, and doesn’t get mired in the touching-personal-anecdote stuff. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-ken-wilber-book/492091/4 "2009-04-06T14:32:05Z")
Thirded, tho it is a little out of date. His publishing rate has greatly decreased over the course of this decade-heck he’s been working on a sequel to _Sex, Ecology & Spirituality_ (his magnum opus) for about 15 years now, and it still isn’t close to seeing the light of day. ---
**Author:** ![Demo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demo/32/8472_2.png) [@Demo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Demo)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2009, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-ken-wilber-book/492091/5 "2009-04-06T17:08:00Z")
I had to read _A Brief History of Nothing_ last semester in school and found it to be the most worthless piece of crap I have ever read. The book, sans covers, is now being used to hold up the wobbly leg of a couch in the garage. I’ve never read a more self-absorbed, horse’s ass of an author before. This guy tries to bridge science and mysticism (which is stupid in the first place) but he has no grasp on science whatsoever. He needs to go read a book on evolution. In short, fuck Ken Wilber. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-ken-wilber-book/492091/6 "2009-04-07T04:53:42Z")
THanks for the suggestions everyone. > [@Demo](#): > > This guy tries to bridge science and mysticism (which is stupid in the first place) but he has no grasp on science whatsoever. He needs to go read a book on evolution. Which part of his book did you feel was counter to evolution? ---
**Author:** ![Demo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demo/32/8472_2.png) [@Demo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Demo)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-ken-wilber-book/492091/7 "2009-04-07T05:02:11Z")
> [@jackdavinci](#): > > Which part of his book did you feel was counter to evolution? Pretty much all of it. Take a look at [this cached page](http://209.85.173.132/search?q=cache:6rSfxx9J-3YJ:www.kheper.net/topics/Wilber/Wilber_on_biological_evolution.html+ken+wilber+on+evolution&hl=en&client=firefox-a&gl=us&strip=1) (original was down) to get an idea. “KW: …The standard neo-Darwinian explanation of chance mutation and natural selection - very few theorists believe this anymore.” Basically, Ken Wilber believes evolution is _magic_. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-ken-wilber-book/492091/8 "2009-04-07T14:39:24Z")
> [@Demo](#): > > I had to read _A Brief History of Nothing_ last semester in school and found it to be the most worthless piece of crap I have ever read. The book, sans covers, is now being used to hold up the wobbly leg of a couch in the garage. I’ve never read a more self-absorbed, horse’s ass of an author before. This guy tries to bridge science and mysticism (which is stupid in the first place) but he has no grasp on science whatsoever. He needs to go read a book on evolution. > > In short, fuck Ken Wilber. Hell, he wrote a book on evolution (_Up From Eden_). Granted that a goodly portion of said tome was about the evolution of consciousness. He did work in an evolutionary dept. of a major university, back when he was a postgrad. But gaffes like that are one reason why I’ve kind of drifted away from him over the past several years-he’s been drifting on his reputation for quite some time now, even tho this incident is more than a decade old now. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-ken-wilber-book/492091/9 "2009-04-08T04:00:18Z")
> [@Demo](#): > > Pretty much all of it. Take a look at [this cached page](http://209.85.173.132/search?q=cache:6rSfxx9J-3YJ:www.kheper.net/topics/Wilber/Wilber_on_biological_evolution.html+ken+wilber+on+evolution&hl=en&client=firefox-a&gl=us&strip=1) (original was down) to get an idea. Wow. That’s… disappointing. Looks like that’s a idiosyncrasy of Wilber himself though - that page mentions his own students have taken him to task for it and it’s not something inherent in integral theory itself, in fact in seems counter to it. ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2009, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-ken-wilber-book/492091/10 "2009-04-08T09:58:33Z")
[Here’s](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=155173) a link to a previous discussion of Wilber’s faults and virtues–\*\*SkipMagic \*\*has some interesting things to say, I thought. Personally, I think you’d learn more from Mister Ed than Wilber.