Ken Wilber, Speaking of Everything Extended Glossary
A
Actualizations: Stewart Emery’s 1978 self-development book, Actualizations: You Don’t Have to Rehearse to Be Yourself, and associated program.
All Quadrants, All Levels, All Lines: Wilber’s comprehensive integral method for best approaching or considering … anything. It makes use of the 4 Quadrants [Upper Left: (inner-individual or intentional), Upper Right (outer-individual or behavioral), Lower Left (inner-collective or cultural), and Lower Right (outer-collective or social], different Levels of development (from pre-personal to personal to trans-personal), and different Lines of development (e.g., intellectual vs. emotional vs. athletic development).
Apollinian: Related to the Greek god Apollo, the god of light, day, music, poetry, medicine, and prophecy. Often contrasted with “Dionysian.”
Art, Morals, & Science: The “Big 3″ domains of action and discourse in the Western tradition, roughly corresponding to “I,” “We,” and “It.”
Atman: In Hinduism, the essence of the individual soul or self.
Ayahuasca: A potent South American psychedelic brew.
Avatar: A modern self-development program based on the notion that your beliefs cause you to create or attract situations in your life. Also, the incarnation of a deity (usually Hindu).
B
Bardo: The intermediate stage (or stages) between death and rebirth.
Bodhisattva: A Buddha-to-be who has taken the great vow to rescue all beings from suffering and guide them to enlightenment.
Boomeritis: An unusual and unhealthy dose of self-absorption and narcissism that characterizes the “me generation” of the Baby Boomers (those born between 1946 and 1963).
G. Spencer Brown: Author of the classic The Laws of Form; 1923 – ?
Buddha Mind: The mind’s innate enlightened state; a mind without obstacles and with all knowledge
C
Causal: A realm of formless radiance and perfect transcendence, beyond the experience, conception, or imagination of any ordinary individual.
Celestine Prophecy: The Celestine Prophecy: An Adventure is James Redfield’s best-selling 1997 metaphysical novel.
Andrew Cohen: A realized modern teacher and founder of “What is Enlightenment?” magazine.
Coral Meme: See Spiral Dynamics.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: Psychologist who has pioneered the concept of “flow” states of consciousness through several books including Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience.
Cultural Creatives: Some 50 million U.S. adults identified by sociologist Paul Ray as being on the cutting edge of cultural, spiritual, and ecological creativity; they are contrasted with “heartlanders” and “modernists.”
D
Christian de Quincey: Author of “The Promise of Integralism: A Critical Appreciation of Ken Wilber’s Integral Psychology” (Journal of Consciousness Studies, December, 2000).
Jacques Derrida: French philosopher whose works originated deconstructionism; 1930 – ?.
Dharmakaya: See “Nirmanakaya.”
Dhyana Buddha: A meditating Buddha.
Dionysian: Related to the Greek God Dionysus, the god of wine, agriculture, fertility, ecstasy, and the mysteries of personal transformation. Often contrasted with Apollinian.
Dzogchen: From Nyingmapa Tibetan Buddhism, Dzogchen holds that you are always, already, ever-presently in direct contact with, and manifesting Spirit.
E
Empiricist: Someone who holds that the only source of knowledge is experience. For Wilber, “narrow science” holds that empiricism means “experience originating in the five senses or their extensions,” while “broad science” holds that something can be empirically real if it can be directly experienced by individuals subjectively and then validated by consensus in a qualified “community of the adequate.”
EST: A popular human potential seminar, founded by Werner Erhardt, with roughly 700,000 participants from 1971-1991.
F
First Tier: See Spiral Dynamics.
Paul Michel Foucault: A French philosopher focused on the relationship between knowledge and power; 1926-?
G
Gaia: In Greek mythology, the Goddess of the Earth. Also, the living planet Earth as a self-regulating organism, said by some to have a type of conscious awareness or sentience.
The Glass Bead Game: Herman Hesse’s 1946 Nobel Prize winning novel, also known as Magister Ludi. In the novel, the Game uses music and mathematics to enable players to express ideas of great power and beauty.
Grace & Grit: A memoir, subtitled “Spirituality and Healing in the Life and Death of Treya Killam Wilber,” this is an enormously gripping and evocative personal story.
Green Meme: See “Spiral Dynamics.”
Gross, Subtle, Causal: The 3 great states of consciousness, conforming roughly to ordinary waking consciousness, the dream state, and deep dreamless sleep.
H
Hegel: Famed German idealist philosopher, 1770-1831, who saw Spirit or Mind dialectically operating through human history and nature in order to reach its full potential.
Martin Heidegger: German existentialist philosopher, 1889-1976; author of Being and Time.
Holons: Arthur Koestler’s term for something which, while a whole in one context, is also a part of a larger whole in another context, e.g., letters are both wholes and parts of words. For Wilber, reality is composed not of processes or of things, but of holons, from sub-atomic particles and smaller to galactic clusters and larger.
Hermann Hesse: Nobel Prize winning German-born Swiss writer, 1877-1962; wrote Siddhartha (1922), Steppenwolf (1927), and Magister Ludi. See “The Glass Bead Game.”
I
Integral: A holistic approach that attempts to include and integrate matter, body, mind, soul, and spirit.
Integral Institute: Ken Wilber’s integral think tank headquartered in Boulder, Colorado.
Intersubjectivity: The relationship, connection, pattern, or “space” between the inner subjective experience of two or more individuals (or holons).
Ian Stevenson: A psychiatrist who has thoroughly studied past life memories and reincarnation since the 1960’s.
Integral Transformative Practice: A group practice self-development program developed by Michael Murphy and George Leonard in their 1995 book The Life We Are Given.
Inter-subjective Hermeneutical Verification: Wilber’s term for empirical validation of subjective experience through a qualified community. See “Empiricist.”
Insight: A self-development program somewhat similar to EST, over 500,000 people have participated in Insight Seminars since 1978.
J
William James: American philosopher and psychologist, 1842-1910; a founder of pragmatism, he wrote The Varieties of Religious Experience.
K
Immanuel Kant: One of the most influential Western philosophers, his profound contributions to metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and aesthetics shaped all subsequent philosophy; 1724-1804.
Kensho: An enlightenment or awakening experience.
Koan: A paradoxical riddle, statement, or story, designed to overcome the ordinary ego and lead to spiritual enlightenment.
Lawrence Kohlberg: A psychologist who developed a theory of moral stages of development, from pre-conventional to conventional to post-conventional; 1927-1987.
Kundalini: The serpent-like primordial energy of evolution that typically lies dormant at the base of the human spine until activated by yoga, sexual activity, or other practices.
L
John Lilly: A neuro-scientist famous for his work with dolphins and flotation tanks, as well as for books such as Programming & Metaprogramming in the Human Biocomputer; 1915-?.
Landmark: Landmark Education is the successor organization to EST. See “EST.”
M
Michael Murphy: The key figure in the creation of the Esalen Institute, Michael Murphy has written about human evolution and transformation in non-fiction books such as The Future of The Body and novels such as Golf in the Kingdom, and Jacob Atabet.
Ramana Marharshi: An Indian sage known for the clarity and profound transformational power of his non-dual teachings, 1879-1952.
Meme: A term coined by Richard Dawkins, it refers to an information virus (similar to a gene, but informational rather than genetic), or a unit of cultural evolution.
Manifest Realm: The day-to-day realm of existence freely available to the five senses; the explicate, material, world.
Monads: Leibnitz’s term for an indivisible, impenetrable, unit of physical reality.
Maya: The Hindu term for creative power of Spirit, which, if viewed apart from Spirit, is merely illusory.
John Stuart Mill: British philosopher, 1806-1873, who wrote On Liberty and Utilitarianism, and developed the notion of qualities of pleasure.
Magister Ludi: The chief official in charge of the Glass Bead Game in Hesse’s novel of the same name. See “The Glass Bead Game.”
MDMA: A substance now known as “Ecstasy” and originally known as “Adam,” renown for its ability to facilitate deep spiritual and emotional insights.
N
Nagarjuna: Buddhist saint and philosopher who lived in the first to second century C.E., famous for his doctrine of the “Middle Path”
Namkhai Norbu: A Tibetan lama who is among the world’s foremost Dzogchen teacher’s. See “Dzogchen.”
Nirvikalpa Samadhi: A state of pure empty awareness and Absolute Nothingness; the pinnacle of spiritual evolution.
Nirmanakaya, Sambhogakaya, Dharmakaya: Sanskrit terms for gross, subtle, and causal realms. See “Gross, Subtle, Causal.”
Nirvana: The cessation of all suffering and the liberation from the cycles of existence. The opposite of Samsara.
Friedrich Nietzsche: German philosopher, 1844-1900, known as a forerunner or existentialism and for his statement that “God is dead” and his concept of the “Overman.”
Non-dual: One’s already, ever-present state of enlightened state of consciousness containing no dualities (e.g., the union of form and emptiness). Both the highest goal of all stages of consciousness and their ever-present ground.
O
Occam’s Razor: “Do not unnecessarily multiply explanatory entities.” The philosophical and scientific rule stating that the simplest of two or more competing theories or explanations is preferable.
Original Face: Your face before your parents were born; the pure formless Witness, prior to the manifest world.
P
Pandit: Sanskrit for a learned man; similar to English term pundit, and used by Wilber to refer to a spiritual scholar.
Paradigm: A world-view, pattern, or model, including the assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that define how an intellectual or scientific community proceeds on a daily basis; popularized by Thomas Kuhn in his 1962 The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.
Max Planck: Nobel Prize winning German physicist, 1858-1947.
Plotinus: Mystical Egyptian/Greek philosopher, 204-270 C.E., who revived and extended Plato’s theories.
Pointing Out Instructions: Instructions that point out that which is already clear and present, particularly with respect to noticing with respect to noticing the ever-present and fully enlightened mind.
Professional Satori : John Lilly’s term for a state of elevated or flow consciousness that is present during one’s ordinary working-day activities.
PSI: The 23rd letter of the Greek alphabet, standing for parapsychological abilities and phenomena (e.g., recognition, telepathy, telekinesis, etc.)
Purple Meme: See “Spiral Dynamics.”
Q
Quarks: A type of sub-atomic particle.
Q-Link: A wearable pendant device for reducing stress and damage from electromagnetic fields. Available at www.Enlightenment.com.
R
Dean Radin: Parapsychologist author of the excellent The Conscious Universe: The Scientific Truth of Psychic Phenomena (1997).
Rational Reconstruction of the Transrational: A subsequent review and reconstruction, in a rational or logical manner, of a sequence of events or experiences that may have subjectively seemed anything but rational, sensible, or logical while they were occurring.
Bertrand Russell: British philosopher, mathematician, 1and logician, 872-1970.
S
Sahaja Samadhi: A continuous form of Samadhi that enables full functioning in the world while in deep communion with the Transcendental Self.
Samadhi: The Sanskrit word for meditation; deep concentration.
Sambhogakaya: See “Nirmanakaya.”
Samsara: In Hinduism and Buddhism, the eternal cycle of existence, from birth to death to rebirth, with suffering and attachments as keynotes. The opposite of Nirvana.
Sangha: A Buddhist spiritual community; more broadly, the community of Spirit.
Satori: A spiritual awakening, or direct experience of the nature of mind, often coming suddenly.
Erwin Schroedinger: Nobel Prize winning Austrian physicist, 1887-1961.
Second Tier: See “Spiral Dynamics.”
Sensorimotor: Having to do with both sensory and motor activity.
SES: Sex, Ecology, Spirituality, the first volume of Ken Wilber’s definitive theoretical trinity.
Shankara: Early Hindu philosopher, theologian, and exponent of the Advaita Vedanta school of philosophy.
Siddhi: An extraordinary human power or psychic ability, often arising spontaneously as higher stages of consciousness are reached.
Spiral Dynamics: A model of psychosocial development proposed by Don Beck and Christopher Cowan, based on the pioneering work of Clare Graves, describing individual, organizational, national, and cultural development and evolution. The theory lays out a number of arbitrarily color-designated “value memes” (or vMemes) grouped together in different “tiers.” In the first tier, individuals, organizations, and cultures pass through the following stages: Beige meme: SurvivalSense, Instinctive, small survival bands; Purple meme: Animistic, Kindred Spirits, superstitious tribes; Red meme: Power-Gods, Egocentric, empires bent on conquest and impulsive gratification; Blue Meme: TruthForce, Authority, groups concerned with rules, traditions, and obedience; Orange meme: StriveDrive, Strategic, corporations seek-ing wealth and status; Green meme: HumanBond, Consensus, cultures sharing egalitarian feelings. The “second tier” starts with Yellow meme (FlexFlow, Ecological), and then Turquoise meme (WholeView, Holistic). Even higher “third tier” Vmemes are said to exist.
Subtle: See “Gross, Subtle, Causal.”
Svabhavikakaya: In Buddhism, the core essence of the three great states of mind. (see “Gross, Subtle, Causal”) experienced in pure, nondual, unity. The pure nature of mind.
T
Charley Tart: Prolific consciousness author, including classic Altered States; see http://www.paradigm-sys.com/cttart/
Thereveda: The oldest school of Buddhism.
Third Tier: See “Spiral Dynamics.”
Transcendental Self: Our True identity; that which gazes into the mirror of condition existence; a Self which embraces and transcends all individuals.
Transcendental Witness: An ever-present aspect of the Transcendental Self that stands back from everything and always witnesses what is occurring … right now.
Transmigrate: Reincarnate.
Transpersonal: Something that goes beyond or transcends the merely personal or individual.
Treya: Treya Killam Wilber was Ken Wilber’s first wife. See “Grace & Grit.”
Translative vs. Transformative: The former type of religion or spiritual practice attempts to give meaning and solace to the separate self, while the latter actually works to transform the individual so he or she can transcend the separate self and attain unity or nondual consciousness.
Turquoise Meme: See “Spiral Dynamics.”
U
Upanishad: Ancient Hindu philosophical treatises commenting on the even earlier Vedas.
Uroborus: The symbol of the snake swallowing its own tale, seen first in ancient Egyptian statuary and popularized by Carl Jung.
V
Vipassana: Also known as “insight meditation,” Vipassana is an ancient technique where one sits comfortably and impartially pays attention to whatever is arising, internally or externally, with no judgments, aversions, or desires.
W
Roger Walsh: A psychiatrist, author of Essential Spirituality, and close friend of Ken Wilber and Board Member of the Integral Institute.
Albert North Whitehead: British mathematician and philosopher, 1861-1947.
World Soul: The animating force of the physical world; in Lain, anima mundi.
Y
Yellow Meme: See Spiral Dynamics.
Yidam: A meditational deity that is an aspect of Buddha.
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