Integral Pavlina
March 26th, 2006
Steve Pavlina (Personal Development for Smart People) clearly defined some core concepts of Integral Theory(pdf) in a recent post. I love seeing these ideas spread around, even if Wilber is never mentioned.
One little human’s sniveling complaints don’t amount to much when viewed from a broad enough perspective. All the things you think are important — your job, your home, your family, your health — really aren’t that important from a cosmic perspective. They only seem important from the perspective of your individual ego. But beyond yourself and perhaps a handful of others, virtually no one cares.
I recommend reading the whole post. Good stuff.
March 26th, 2006 at 4:22 pm
I find it odd that lately several people have been telling me I sound like Ken Wilber and that I write about Integral Theory, even though I haven’t encountered either before. I don’t even know who Ken Wilber is. Perhaps he followed the same trail of breadcrumbs through human consciousness.
One person sent me a Ken Wilber audio/video program a few weeks ago. Perhaps I should take a look at it….
March 26th, 2006 at 7:08 pm
[From my emailed reply to Steve's comment]
Hi Steve,
Thanks for the comment on my blog. You do indeed sound like Ken Wilber frequently.
Sorry if I implied that you were paraphrasing his work without attribution. Given the uncanny similarities between some of your writings and his theory, it seemed a safe assumption. I also realise that ideas tend to manifest in world at the same time, but in different places (and minds). It seems like that’s what happened here.
If you decide to spend some time learning about Wilber’s work, here are some links:
Integral Institute - An Integral Approach
A longer introduction to Wilber’s theory (37 page pdf)
Wilber’s official site
If You decide to read one of his books, I recommend this to start with:
A Theory of Everything
Another great introduction is this audio CD set:
Kosmic Consciousness
If you do choose to look into his work I predict that you will find it profound, yet familiar. After being introduced to his work, many people say that they already understood things from that perspective, but couldn’t articulate it. You seem to have arrived at many of the same conclusions as Wilber and been able to articulate them.
The ideas in his theory that you haven’t already arrived at will likely be congruent with your view of reality. I find his theoretical framework tremendously beneficial for understanding how various aspects of reality fit together.
March 26th, 2006 at 11:05 pm
nice Sean! hahaha. Pavlina will now be assimilated… resistance is partial! seriously, this only proves that Ken Wilber may be UBER-FLUFFY but he’s no Microsoft of everything Fluffy. is Steve Pavlina reads this and scratches his head… don’t worry Steve, carry on. coz you’re still the kick-ass personal development Bodhisattva in my book.
March 26th, 2006 at 11:17 pm
Steve Pavlina On Ken Wilber…
via DeepSurface — “I find it odd that lately several people have been telling me I sound like Ken Wilber and that I write about Integral Theory, even though I haven’t encountered either before. I don’t even know who Ken…
March 27th, 2006 at 11:58 am
As a fan of Steve’s writings myself (initially due to his writings related to veganism ), I was pleasantly surprised when I started noticing frequent references to Steve by others into all things integral on Zaadz - and now this! Thank’s for passing this on Sean/Rommel.
April 4th, 2006 at 12:35 pm
Haha, I just stumbled across this same post of Steve’s this evening and thought: “there is no way that Steve could write this compellingly and personally about expanding consciousness if he had read Ken”.
You know, I’m getting such a kick out of coming across so many fantabulous individuals who have developed integral awareness without ever hearing of Ken Wilber. I think we should start an encyclopaedia.
Blessings, y’all!
Helen
April 4th, 2006 at 10:28 pm
I’m curious what will happen once Steve takes a close look at the ILP practices and then goes and runs with it. This is definately a guy you would like to see on the ILP team…
April 5th, 2006 at 11:59 am
Hmmm, I think he’d be more likely to stay outside and come up with some constructive criticism… at last! Whaddya think, Steve - you listening?
April 5th, 2006 at 12:43 pm
Either way, I would love to get his take on Integral. I doubt he would be willing to publicly criticize Wilber’s work unless he thought it would help people grow. Still, it would be nice to have a mind as sharp and evolved as his expose any serious flaws. I don’t see Steve laying out the typical ad-hominem green meme crap.