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Kosmos

Wilber's concept of "Kosmos" (with a capital "K") differs from the scientific view of the cosmos. Where cosmos is by definition a physical reality (which pronounces physics as the perfect and only real science), Kosmos refers to the traditional and pre-scientific worldview which acknowledges not only matter, but also life, mind, soul and spirit.

In a real sense, the Kosmic worldview offers us a map of our own inner world -- the world that can never be seen with the physical senses.

Huston Smith has argued all religions teach at least four levels of being, worlds or spheres:

1. INFINITE WORLD
2. HEAVEN WORLD
3. INTERMEDIATE WORLD
4. PHYSICAL WORLD

Science only takes the lowest world to be real, but a wider view of science can handle all four of them.

The fact that sciene has found no proof for heaven should not worry us in the least. It is exactly what we should expect! Science, basing itself on the physical senses, can only reveal a physical world. But our inner senses reveal an inner world, or more to the point, worlds within worlds, which are as real, or even more so, as the world that can be touched and seen outwardly.

Wilber's Kosmos-trilogy, of which only the first volume has been published untill now (Sex, Ecology, Spirituality, 1995) will explore the implications of that ancient view of the Kosmos for our modern understanding of science and reality.


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