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Critiques of Ken Wilber

  • Norman Einstein chapter in Stripping the Gurus.

    As summarized by Jim Andrews, the chapter details that, in his career, Wilber has done the following:

    1. Provides glowing endorsements of his work in his books and at his website.

    2. Claims kensho (glimpses of enlightenment) which are merely confirmed by his teacher.

    3. Professes need for free exchange of ideas in consciousness-studies marketplace, yet may have obtained pre-publication knowledge of Christian de Quincey's paper and known about alleged attempts at its suppression.

    4. Misrepresented basic concepts in evolutionary theory in ABHOE denying the fundamentals of natural selection and that evolutionary processes are blind, and asserting that "absolutely nobody" (later changed to "very few theorists") believes in chance mutation and natural selection anymore.

    5. Misrepresented the basic ideas of David Bohm's ontological formulation of quantum theory despite his claims that his writings are balanced with appreciation of the positive contributions of those he criticizes.

    6. Despite his claims that he greatly appreciates responsible criticism, he has ignored:

      • David Lane's deconstruction of his worldview.

      • V. Walter Odajnyk's questioning of his representation of Jungian archetypes.

      • Christopher Cowan's criticisms of his comprehension of Spiral Dynamics.

    7. Misstated Pythagorean theorem.

    8. Denigrates as pre-rational magical/mythical the New Age suggestion that we can overcome any disease or hardship if our faith in our own minds in strong enough, yet accepts the existence of psychic phenomena, subtle energy currents, hands-on energy healers, and possible effects of his wife's death on the weather.

    9. Praises spiritual teachers that he never met (Ramana Maharshi and Aurobindo) based solely on their extant writings despite their grandiosity, hubris, and narcissism.

    10. Fails to show level-headed discrimination of the guru-disciple relationship by naïvely asserting that "rude boy crazy wisdom" occurs in very strict ethical atmospheres, devoid of authoritarian pressure, without having lived under the respective disciplines.

    11. Seems not to allow free and open criticism in his own community, especially a critical appraisal of his own teaching, and his Q&A sessions are not dialogues with meaningful exchanges of opposing viewpoints.

    12. Claims that Integral Institute has hundreds of the finest scholars in the world, ignoring the skeptical objections to the mysticism-influenced work of many of them.

    13. Advocates community verification of meditation which may be merely a shared delusion based on self-fulfilling expectation—an appeal to popularity and conformity; there are no controls in place to guard against meditators simply experiencing what they expect to experience, and then viewing that as a confirmation of the truth of the metaphysical theory previously taught to them.

  • "Norman Einstein": The Dis-Integration of Ken Wilber

  • Wilber and Bohm

  • The Blind Eye of Spirit

  • Integral Censorship and Cargo Cult Philosophy

  • Bald Narcissism

  • Ken Wilber on Meditation (by Jim Andrews)

  • Twenty Boomeritis Blunders (by Jim Andrews)

  • Criticism of the writings of Ken Wilber (Frank Visser's integralworld.net website)

  • A Spectrum of (Wilber) Critics


Recent Wilber-Related (Blog) Postings:



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