INTEGRAL WORLD MAILING LIST http://www.integralworld.net Newsletter Nr. 560 Amsterdam, April 27th, 2015 QUANTUM THEORY AND THE TRANSCENDENT - DAVID LANE I have always felt that Ken Wilber was at this best when he wrote as a skeptic, particularly when applying his considerable wit to all things New Age. He was tremendously insightful, even if one found him disagreeable, in such books as The Holographic Paradigm, Quantum Questions, Eye to Eye, and A Sociable God (all written within three or so years of each other). As I have mentioned previously, I first met Ken Wilber in 1983 at the annual transpersonal psychology conference held in Monterey. It was an accidental meeting since he bumped into us asking for directions to a particular meeting hall. We began a friendly association for a number of years and I have used his books in a large number of my courses both at the graduate and undergraduate level. It was in this context (as an appreciative reader of all things Wilber) that I wrote the following article for FATE Magazine (mid-1980s). Read more: http://www.integralworld.net/lane91.html EXPERIENTIAL SKEPTICISM - And an Exploration of Mediumship and Life after Death - ELLIOT BENJAMIN In the inscription to Michael Shermer's book Why People Believe Weird Things, the following quote from Carl Sagan's 1987 The Burden of Skepticism Pasadena lecture is included: "It seems to me what is called for is an exquisite balance between two conflicting needs: the most skeptical scrutiny of all hypotheses that are served up to us and at the same time a great openness to new ideas. (Shermer, 2002, inscription)" It is in this demanding context of skepticism that I consider myself to be a skeptic when it comes to investigating some of the popular current trends in religion and spirituality throughout the world. The title of my 2012 Ph.D dissertation is An Experiential Exploration of the Possibility of Life after Death Through the Ostensible Communications of Mediums with Deceased Persons (Benjamin, 2012), and my approach was a reflexive open-minded agnostic investigation that I believe was entirely consistent with the above context of skepticism as described by Sagan. Read more: http://www.integralworld.net/benjamin74.html