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Integral World: Exploring Theories of Everything
An independent forum for a critical discussion of the integral philosophy of Ken Wilber
GEOFFREY FALKBOOKS, BLOGS AND ARTICLESFollowing the trail of David Lane, Geoffrey Falk has been the most active, the most merciless, and the most ignored, critic of Wilber's writings to date. He recently gathered his numerous and lengthy blog comments on Wilber into the ebook "Norman Einstein". This expression comes from a famous sports quote by football commentator and former player Joe Theismann: "Nobody in football should be called a genius. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein." (See: The Dumbest Sports Quotes of All Time) To counter balance the increasingly commercial, not to say marketing-savvy language of the current Integral Institute, which is now trying to reach out to a larger audience, we need to take the dissenters and sceptics on board. In fact, if "face everything, avoid nothing" is the motto, this definitely includes the shadow aspects of gurus and institutes, especially the ones we admire, as well as the objections and refutations coming from whatever field of science or philosophy. Ignoring all this is not a wise strategy. Actually, integral doesn't need strategy -- it needs intellectual honesty. Like Lane, Falk started out as Wilber fan, but lost his enthusiasm when he stumbled on Wilber's remarks on David Bohm, which he carefully analysed and refuted (see below). From that time on, he continued researching and questioning Wilber's many statements about science. "NORMAN EINSTEIN": THE DIS-INTEGRATION OF KEN WILBER"THIS BOOK GREW OUT of a chapter and an appendix in the original online version of Stripping the Gurus (STG). Following the electronic publication of that, over the first half of 2006 I posted three additional appendices concerning the flaws in the ideas and character of Ken Wilber, with the material being presented there largely in the order in which it was written. Here, the same information, with less commentary, has been regrouped by subject—although the “Bald Narcissism” chapter and the appendix on “Wilber and Bohm” remain largely as they were originally written. Even with that new, non-chronological presentation, however, the chapters still provide an instructive example as to how even the most well-intentioned of spiritual communities will invariably degenerate into closed, unquestioning, cult-like environments." Read more: http://www.normaneinsteinbook.com STRIPPING THE GURUS: SEX, VIOLENCE, ABUSE AND ENLIGHTENMENT"ONE OF MY DEAR, late mother’s most memorable expressions, in attempting to get her children to behave, was simply: “Be sure your sins will find you out.” It may take a minute, an hour, a day, a year, ten years or more, but eventually the details of one’s behaviors are likely to surface. Whether one’s public face is that of a saint or a sinner, ultimately “the truth will out.” This book, then, concerns the alleged sins which have been concealed behind the polished façades of too many of our world’s “saintly and sagely” spiritual leaders and their associated communities, with a marked focus on North America over the past century." Read more: http://www.strippingthegurus.com -- From the Integral World Newsletter, Nr. 162, August 15, 2006. OTHER WRITINGS BY GEOFFREY FALK
ESSAYS BY FALK ON THIS WEBSITE
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