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The concept of “integral” means that in a particular area they strive to synthesize into a single complex model methods and theories that have proven their correctness in certain contexts, while abandoning both gross reductionism and the so-called “fine” reductionism (in other words, from unjustified extension of a method that is effective in one specific context to all others). This concept also applies to the integration of individual spheres of human activity into metaspheres.
Despite the fact that various authors have made several attempts to create an integral approach to one or another area of human activity, at the moment the most developed can be considered an integral approach based on Ken Wilber’s “all-sector, all-level” model (AQAL), as well as a number of other discoveries , like spiral dynamics. This methodology is used by a number of organizations and government agencies around the world, and some of the most famous proponents of the integral approach include Albert Gore and Bill Clinton.
The integral approach includes such areas as integral philosophy and integral psychology, as well as integral ecology, integral politics, integral business, integral spirituality and integral art. Supporters of the integral approach try to develop comprehensively and strive to go beyond the conventional and post-conventional levels (according to L. Kohlberg) in various lines of development and reach the post-postconventional level and higher (“post-postconventional” level was introduced by Ken Wilber as a complement to the model of moral development, given by Lawrence Kohlberg, according to him, based on the presence of numerous empirical data indicating that development can continue after reaching the level of post-conventionality).

Defining spirituality in terms of Wilber's integral model

Based on his integral model (AQAL), Ken Wilber derives four definitions of spirituality, each of which recognizes the right to exist.

Terminology

Briefly, the integral model of man includes:
- Multiple abilities (intelligence), or lines development (one of which is the so-called line of faith, explored by James Fowler, professor of theology at Emery University);
- A person’s abilities develop during his life through certain levels or stages- from sensations through the mind to the spirit;
- States, such as gross (waking), subtle (variations of the dream state), causal (deep sleep, emptiness, extinction of all forms; conscious entry into this state is the achievement of nirvana) and non-dual (consciousness of the unity of emptiness and forms). Any condition can be experienced by a person regardless of the stage of development at which he is, and so-called peak experiences, moments of extreme intensification of any state, accompanied by a feeling of total unity with objects perceived by the individual in a given state (or “with the absence of any objects”, if we are talking about the causal);
- Quadrants, formed by the superficial (exterior) and deep (interior) and individual and collective “dimensions” of a person. In the superficial individual quadrant “is” the material body of a person, in the deep individual quadrant - his bodily sensations, emotions, thoughts, etc.
Four Definitions of Spirituality

The following is an excerpt from Wilber's book Integral Spirituality:
If you analyze the meanings in which people - both researchers and laymen - use the word "spiritual", you will find at least four main meanings attached to this word. Although people themselves do not use these technical terms, "spiritual" can obviously mean the following: (1) the highest level of development of any of the lineages; (2) a separate line as such; (3) an exceptional peak experience or state; (4) a special attitude [towards people and nature]. My point is that all of these use cases have their place (and I think they all have some basis in actual reality), however, we simply MUST specify which one we mean, otherwise any discussion will very quickly start slide into nowhere. In all my life I have never heard people waste more words than in such discussions.
These 4 important values are briefly described below, each of which I hope will be given due attention:
1. If you consider any line of development - cognitive, or affective/emotional, or needs line, or value line - people usually do not think of the lower or middle levels of these lines as spiritual, but they describe the higher and highest levels as such. The word "transpersonal" ("transpersonal"), for example, has been adapted to be used in this sense: the spiritual is not usually thought of as pre-rational or pre-personal, nor as rational or personal, but is thought of as highly trans-rational and trans-personal - these are the highest levels for any of the lines. (Following Maslow's terminology, we often use the phrase "third order" as a very general term to describe these perspectives on the development of transpersonal stage structures).
2. Sometimes people talk about something like "spiritual intelligence", which is not only available at the highest levels of any of the lineages, but which has own line of development, going deep into [the individual’s] past. James Fowler is one example of researchers of this line. "Spiritual" in this understanding is not that which refers to the highest, transpersonal and transrational levels of the various lines (which is the first meaning), but that which has its own first, second and third order (or stage structures), and these stages go down to the very base (to Fowler's stage 0, for example). The spiritual lineage also has its own prepersonal, personal and transpersonal levels/stages. This is one of the reasons why you should use these meanings very clearly, because if you combine the second meaning with the first, it turns out that only the highest levels of the spiritual line are spiritual. This, of course, causes enormous confusion. (AQAL's position is that both usages - in fact, all four - are correct; you just need to be clear about which one you are using at a given moment, otherwise you will become completely confused).
3. Sometimes people talk about spirituality in the sense religious or spiritual experiences, meditative experiences or peak experiences (which may or may not unfold in stages). In fact, the entire body of shamanic traditions falls into this category (see
4. Sometimes "spiritual" is simply meant special treatment, which may take place for any stages and in any state: perhaps love, or compassion, or wisdom (that is, this type[fifth element of AQAL]). This is a very common usage and, interestingly, it usually boils down to one of the previous three, because there are stages of love, compassion and wisdom (a fact missed by almost all green wave writers [i.e. postmodernists]). But still, just in case, we always indicate it separately.
I will not go further into these 4 meanings. They are discussed in detail in the book “Integral Psychology”. Let me just say that my point is that all 4 are legitimate meanings of the word “spiritual”, but people often mix them up in their discussions and it ends up being...well, even more of a jumble.
General information

The concept of “integral” means that in a particular area they strive to synthesize into a single complex model methods and theories that have proven their correctness in certain contexts, while abandoning both gross reductionism and the so-called “fine” reductionism (in other words, from unjustified extension of a method that is effective in one specific context to all others). This concept also applies to the integration of individual spheres of human activity into metaspheres.

Despite the fact that various authors have made several attempts to create an integral approach to one or another area of human activity, at the moment the most developed can be considered an integral approach based on Ken Wilber’s “all-sector, all-level” model (AQAL), as well as a number of other discoveries , like spiral dynamics. This methodology is used by a number of organizations and government agencies around the world, and among the most famous proponents of the integral approach are Al Gore and Bill Clinton.

The integral approach includes such areas as integral philosophy and integral psychology, as well as integral ecology, integral politics, integral business, integral spirituality and integral art. Supporters of the integral approach try to develop comprehensively and strive to go beyond the conventional and postconventional levels (according to L. Kohlberg) in various lines of development and reach the post-postconventional level and higher (“post-postconventional” level was introduced by Ken Wilber as a complement to the model of moral development, given by Lawrence Kohlberg, according to him, based on the presence of numerous empirical data indicating that development can continue after reaching the level of post-conventionality).

Defining spirituality in terms of Wilber's integral model

Based on his integral model (AQAL), Ken Wilber derives four definitions of spirituality, each of which recognizes the right to exist.

Terminology

Example of a psychogram - depictions of multiple abilities (intelligence) unfolding through levels of consciousness

Briefly, the integral model of man includes:
- Multiple abilities (intelligence), or lines development (one of which is the so-called line of faith, explored by James Fowler, professor of theology at Emery University);
- A person’s abilities develop during his life through certain levels or stages- from sensations through the mind to the spirit;
- States, such as gross (waking), subtle (variations of the dream state), causal (deep sleep, emptiness, extinction of all forms; conscious entry into this state is the achievement of nirvana) and non-dual (consciousness of the unity of emptiness and forms). Any condition can be experienced by a person, regardless of the stage of development at which he is, and so-called peak experiences, moments of extreme intensification of any state, accompanied by a feeling of total unity with objects perceived by the individual in a given state (or “with the absence of any objects”, if we are talking about the causal);
- Quadrants, formed by the superficial (exterior) and deep (interior) and individual and collective “dimensions” of a person. In the superficial individual quadrant “is” the material body of a person, in the deep individual quadrant - his bodily sensations, emotions, thoughts, etc.
Four Definitions of Spirituality

The following is an excerpt from Wilber's book Integral Spirituality:
Wilber-Combs grid - connection between levels and states of consciousness (in this illustration the levels are presented in more detail)
If you analyze the meanings in which people - both researchers and laymen - use the word "spiritual", you will find at least four main meanings attached to this word. Although people themselves do not use these technical terms, "spiritual" can obviously mean the following: (1) the highest level of development of any of the lineages; (2) a separate line as such; (3) an exceptional peak experience or state; (4) a special attitude [towards people and nature]. My point is that all of these use cases have their place (and I think they all have some basis in actual reality), however, we simply MUST specify which one we mean, otherwise any discussion will very quickly start slide into nowhere. In all my life I have never heard people waste more words than in such discussions.
These 4 important values are briefly described below, each of which I hope will be given due attention:
1. If you consider any line of development - cognitive, or affective/emotional, or needs line, or value line - people usually do not think of the lower or middle levels of these lines as spiritual, but they describe the higher and highest levels as such. The word "transpersonal" ("transpersonal"), for example, has been adapted to be used in this sense: the spiritual is not usually thought of as pre-rational or pre-personal, nor as rational or personal, but is thought of as highly trans-rational and trans-personal - these are the highest levels for any of the lines. (Following Maslow's terminology, we often use the phrase "third order" as a very general term to describe these perspectives on the development of transpersonal stage structures).
2. Sometimes people talk about something like "spiritual intelligence", which is not only available at the highest levels of any of the lineages, but which has own line of development, going deep into [the individual’s] past. James Fowler (English) Russian is one example of researchers of this line. "Spiritual" in this understanding is not that which refers to the highest, transpersonal and transrational levels of the various lines (which is the first meaning), but that which has its own first, second and third order (or stage structures), and these stages go down to the very base (to Fowler's stage 0, for example). The spiritual lineage also has its own prepersonal, personal and transpersonal levels/stages. This is one of the reasons why you should use these meanings very clearly, because if you combine the second meaning with the first, it turns out that only the highest levels of the spiritual line are spiritual. This, of course, causes enormous confusion. (AQAL's position is that both usages - in fact, all four - are correct; you just need to be clear about which one you are using at a given moment, otherwise you will become completely confused).
3. Sometimes people talk about spirituality in the sense religious or spiritual experiences, meditative experiences or peak experiences (which may or may not unfold in stages). Virtually the entire body of shamanic traditions falls under this category (see Roger Walsh, "The Spirit of Shamanism"). William James, Daniel P. Brown, Evelyn Underhill (English) Russian and Daniel Goleman (English) Russian are also examples of researchers of spirituality as experiences of certain states (the transition to which is often achieved through training). The experience of states is another important meaning, and is recorded, of course, on the horizontal axis of the Wilber-Combs grid.
4. Sometimes "spiritual" is simply meant special treatment, which may take place for any stages and in any state: perhaps love, or compassion, or wisdom (that is, this type[fifth element of AQAL]). This is a very common usage and, interestingly, it usually boils down to one of the previous three, because there are stages of love, compassion and wisdom (a fact missed by almost all green wave writers [i.e. postmodernists]). But still, just in case, we always indicate it separately.
I will not go further into these 4 meanings. They are discussed in detail in the book “Integral Psychology”. Let me just say that my point is that all 4 are legitimate meanings of the word “spiritual”, but people often mix them up in their discussions and it ends up being...well, even more of a jumble.
see also

Notes

Bibliography
- Wilbur K. Introduction to Integral Theory and Practice (Wilber, Ken. “Introduction to Integral Theory and Practice: IOS Basic and the AQAL Map” // AQAL Journal. - Vol 1, N 1, 2006.)
- Wilbur K. A short history of everything. - M.: AST, 2006. ISBN 5-17-036016-9
- Wilbur K. Eye of the Spirit. - M.: AST, 2002. ISBN 5-17-014321-4
- Alexey Whit Levels of consciousness. New integral cartography of human consciousness (2010)
- Wilber, Ken. Sex, Ecology, Spirituality: The Spirit of Evolution, 1st ed. 1995, 2nd rev. ed. 2001: ISBN 1-57062-744-4
- Wilber, Ken. Theory of Everything: An Integral Vision for Business, Politics, Science and Spirituality, 2000, paperback ed.: ISBN 1-57062-855-6
- Wilber, Ken. The Marriage of Sense and Soul: Integrating Science and Religion, 1998, reprint ed. 1999: ISBN 0-7679-0343-9
- Wilber, Ken. Eye to Eye: The Quest for the New Paradigm, 1983, 3rd rev. ed. 2001: ISBN 1-57062-741-X
- Wilber, Ken. A Sociable God: A Brief Introduction to a Transcendental Sociology, 1983, new ed. 2005 subtitle Toward a New Understanding of Religion, ISBN 1-59030-224-9
Links
- Official Ken Wilber Website
- (English)
- Integral Naked - paid site: "Behind the Scenes with the Most Provocative Thinkers in Today's World" (English)
- “Mentalities in Action: The Challenge to Sustainable Development” (report by a large consulting company Avastone Consulting, dedicated to the problems of integral sustainable development; 2008) (Russian) (English)
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

See what “Integral approach” is in other dictionaries:
Maykov Vladimir Valeryanovich

Integral Approach by Ken Wilber

annotation

A biography of the famous American thinker Ken Wilber is given, including a description of his main printed works.

Wilber's main ideas are conveyed, such as the mandala of human cognition, consisting of four quadrants; levels, states, lines of development; integrated operating system.

It is emphasized that the integral approach seeks to find the grain of truth in each of the approaches - from empiricism to constructivism, from relativism to aestheticism.

The Institute of Integral Psychology, founded by Wilber together with leading transpersonal psychologists and other specialists, is described.

The practice of integral life proposed by Wilber is characterized.

The modern version of the “perennial philosophy” put forward by Ken Wilber consists of an attempt to coordinate the integration of almost all fields of knowledge: physics and biology, systems theory and chaos theory, art, poetry and aesthetics, all significant schools and areas of anthropology, psychology and psychotherapy, great spiritual and religious traditions of East and West.

Wilber is today considered one of the most influential representatives of transpersonal psychology, which arose about 30 years ago, and the founder of the integral approach.

He was born on January 30, 1949 in the family of a military pilot. He studied at Duke University and the University of Nebraska, majoring in biochemistry and biophysics, in which he earned a master's degree.

While still at university, he wrote his first book, The Spectrum of Consciousness (1973), published in 1977. This book contains many of the characteristics of his more mature works. It presents for the first time his “integral approach”, according to which various schools of philosophy, psychology, anthropology, psychotherapy, both academic and spiritual (or transpersonal), are understood not as competitive, mutually exclusive disciplines, but as approaches that are valid only in certain parts of the full “spectrum of consciousness.” At the same time, he became one of the founders and editor-in-chief of the journal Revision (1978 - 1982), which played an important role in the discussion of the new scientific paradigm and in the development of transpersonal psychology.

In 1979-1984. Wilber published books and essays in which he formulated integral models of individual development (1980, 1981); Cultural and Social Evolution (1983); epistemology and philosophy of science (1982, 1983); sociology (1983) and various problems of psychopathology and psychotherapy. (1986).

In his later books, Wilber continues to develop his central idea that the deepest goal of human evolution, and of all life and even of the whole world, is the realization of the Spirit, understood as a non-dual experience. However, on this basis one should not count him among the ranks of objective idealists, whom Wilber himself deeply criticizes. As this book shows, the meaning of this statement goes much deeper.
Having published 23 books to date in 25 languages, Wilber is the most translated American thinker today. His fame is evidenced by the presence of over millions of links to his works on the Internet, as well as an eight-volume collection of works published in the USA. The recognition of his merits is also evidenced by the awarding of him in 1993, together with Stanislav Grof, with an honorary prize from the Association of Transpersonal Psychology for his outstanding contribution to its development.

With his authorial debut, The Spectrum of Consciousness (1977), Wilber gained a reputation as an original thinker seeking to integrate psychological schools and approaches of East and West. An abridged version of this book was published under the title No Limits (1979). According to Wilbur himself, this is the “romantic” period of his work, which he calls “Wilber-I”.

His most significant books of the next, “evolutionary” period: “Wilber-II” - “Project Atman” (1980, Russian edition in preparation) and “Up from Eden” (1981) - cover the fields of developmental psychology and cultural history. In The Atman Project (1980), he integrates various theories of individual development, both Eastern and Western, into a unified view tracing human development from infant to adult and then the stages and laws of spiritual development.

In Up from Eden, he uses the individual development model as a conceptual framework for culturally mapping the evolution of human cognition and consciousness. In 1984 – 1986 Wilber publishes a series of articles from the “system-evolutionary” period, which he calls “Wilber III.”

In 1995, after a long silence caused by the illness and death of his wife, Wilbur released the 800-page volume Gender, Ecology, Spirituality. The Spirit of Evolution, which, according to his plan, is the first volume of the Cosmos trilogy and the first work of the “integral” period, Wilbur IV. The evolution of man - his brain, consciousness, society and culture - is analyzed from early hominids to the present and correlated with such phenomena as the evolution of gender relations, man's relationship with the earth, technology, philosophy, religion and many others.

Wilber criticizes here not only Western culture, but also the countercultural movement, including the New Age, transpersonal psychology and the "perennial philosophy", understood romantically and simplistically. A popular version of these ideas is outlined in A Brief History of Everything (1996).

« Eye of the Spirit"(1997) - a panoramic presentation of the integral approach and integral criticism.

« The wedding of meaning and soul: the integration of science and religion"(1998) - reflection on the consistent unification of scientific and religious experience.

« One taste"(1999) - a personal diary describing his internal laboratory, practices and the origins of his ideas.

« Integral Psychology"(1999) – an integral approach in psychology.

« The Theory of Everything: An Integral Vision for Business, Politics, Science and Spirituality"(2000) – the practice of an integral approach to life as a whole.

In essence, Wilber's integral approach represents a metacriticism of the main trends of modern intellectual thought, which at first cannot but be alarming. Moreover, this project was carried out by a lone thinker, who for many years did not participate in active academic life with its conferences, almost annual monographs, student courses and dependence on university authorities.

Wilber had the good fortune to remain a thinker unbiased by the dominant culture, while at the same time (as his work demonstrates) excellently versed in its basic intellectual approaches.

In its critical part, the integral approach is a constant battle with “Flatland” (from the English flat - flat; land - earth) - any flattened worlds and private worldviews that have lost perspective and are not aware of their place in the real mandala of human knowledge.

This mandala, according to Wilber, consists of four sectors (quadrants), formed by dividing the image of the Cosmos-world onto a plane by two perpendicular straight lines, with axes in the directions: individual-collective and internal-external. The sectors represent four fundamental worlds, irreducible to each other in subject matter, methods of cognition, criteria of truth and language.

These are the worlds: of the subject (introspection, phenomenology); object (classical scientific method and science); intersubjectivity (cultural theory) and interobjectivity (sociology, systems theory).

Wilber considers four pronouns that express fundamental positions in the human world.

I- everything that happens in me, my inner life .

WE- everything related to relationships, our community, language.

THEY- those for whom “we” become an object, something external.

IT- relating no longer to people, but to the external inanimate world.

So, Wilber identifies four fundamental positions, in his terminology, four fundamental worlds.

World " I“- the introspective world, the inner world connected with my life, this is the world of the spirit, the world of introspection, this is our inner life, our spiritual experience.

World " WE» – the world of relationships, the world of communication, the world of understanding, the world of interpretation; Among the disciplines that explain it, the brightest is phenomenology.

World " THEY“- the world that is studied by sociology, social sciences, and systems theory.

World " IT“- the world of objective science, which studies nature, relatively speaking, the inanimate, for modern science is structured in such a way that it studies the living as inanimate.

At the origins of European science, an operation arose that the authors call the “Cartesian boomerang” or the fee that we pay for scientific knowledge of living objects. This is also true for psychology. These worlds are not invented by us; they have historically developed in the course of the development of various areas of human knowledge, expressing four fundamental relationships or positions common to all languages and cultures.

How does this approach work for the author? Let us take, for example, such a key concept for knowledge as the criterion of reliability or truth. In the world of the subject, truth is understood as truth, sincerity, directness, and a degree of trust; in the object world, truth is a proportional or representative type of truth; in the world of interobjectivity, truth is consistency and structural-functional correspondence. Finally, in the world of intersubjectivity, truth is justice, cultural conformity, rightness.

None of these types of truth can replace or abolish all other types. In the same way, the languages of the four sectors are mutually irreducible and autonomous, each of which is completely true only in its own world. Even Descartes and Kant argued the impossibility of scientific psychology on the model of the natural sciences and noted the irreducibility of the languages of description of subject and object. However, the development of psychology occurred, in essence, along the line of reducing the subject to the object.

“...Whenever,” writes Wilber, “when we try to deny any of these stable spheres, we, sooner or later, end up simply sneaking them into our philosophy in a hidden or unrecognized form. Empiricists use interpretation in the very act of denying its importance. Extreme constructivists and relativists use universal truth to universally deny its existence. Extreme aestheticians use beauty alone to proclaim moral virtue - etc., etc. To deny any of these areas means to fall into your own trap and end up with severe internal contradictions.”

(“Eye of the Spirit,” Introduction).

Along with the ancient Taoists, Nagarjuna, Kant and other researchers of ultimate experience from various spheres of knowledge and activity, Wilber is trying to go to the end in all sectors of the Cosmos-world and, with utmost effort, reveal the universal source of antinomies and paradoxes of knowledge in order to clear the way for the knowing spirit.

If “...any system of thought,” he writes, from philosophy and sociology to psychology and religion, “attempts to ignore or deny any of the four criteria of validity, then these ignored truths eventually reappear in the system as a serious internal contradiction.” "Eye of the Spirit", Introduction.

The integral approach, on the contrary, seeks to find the grain of truth in each of the approaches - from empiricism to constructivism, from relativism to aestheticism. Depriving them of their claims to the role of the only existing truth, he, at the same time, frees them from their inherent contradictions and finds each of them its place in a true multi-colored community.

When working with a specific field, Wilber first finds that level of abstraction where different, usually conflicting, approaches come to agreement, and identifies what he calls a “guiding generalization” or “solid conclusion.” In this way he considers all areas of human knowledge and in each case builds a series of “healthy and reliable orienting generalizations”, without disputing their truth at this stage.

Then, in a second step, Wilber arranges these truths into a chain of overlapping conclusions and asks what coherent system of knowledge could accommodate the greatest number of these truths? Such a system is presented for the first time, according to the author, in his work “Gender, Ecology, Spirituality.” Instead of discussing the truth of this or that field of knowledge, Wilber assumes that each approach contains its own truth, and then tries to combine these approaches.
The third stage is the development of a new type of critical theory. Once a comprehensive scheme has been obtained that includes the largest number of guiding generalizations, it can be used to criticize narrower approaches.

It is not surprising that such claims to a universal metacriticism of “everything and everything” have provoked discussions and a barrage of criticism from a variety of quarters. Some of the criticism is presented in the recently published book Ken Wilber in Dialogue (1998). Responses to the first wave of criticism are included in The Eye of the Spirit.

The second wave is represented by such influential philosophers as Jürgen Habermans and Hans-Willi Weiss. However, it cannot be said that critics brought down the integral approach: they only helped to clarify and strengthen Wilber’s position.

Wilber's program of integral studies is oriented toward a "whole-level, all-sector" view of human consciousness and behavior, encompassing not just all sectors, but all the different levels and dimensions within each of those sectors—the entire spectrum of levels in the intentional, cultural, and social aspects of human beings. Therefore, the basis of integral philosophy, as the author thinks about it, is, first of all, the activity of coordinating, explaining and conceptually generalizing all the various forms of knowledge and being.

Even if integral philosophy itself does not give rise to higher forms, it fully recognizes them and encourages philosophizing to open up to practices and forms of contemplation. Moreover, integral philosophy, due to its versatility, can become a powerful critical theory (critical of all less comprehensive approaches) in philosophy, psychology, religion, social theory and politics.

The publication of the ideas of the integral approach caused a great resonance in the USA and Europe. About a year and a half ago, Wilbur, along with Michael Murphy (founder of the Esalen Institute), Roger Walsh, Frances Vaughn (famous transpersonal psychologists), Samuel Bergolz (Wilber's publisher, director of Shambhala Publishing House), Tony Schwartz (author and sociologist) and Jack Crittenden (Wilber's co-editor for Revision magazine) founded the Institute of Integral Psychology, which now has 400 members.

For a holistic understanding of man, the Institute has created departments of integral psychology, spirituality, politics, medicine, ecology, integral education, diplomacy and business, which include an impressive list of researchers. The ambitions of the founders of the institute are high, but their tasks are also large-scale. They intend to develop integral practices, which, in particular, will allow not only to change medical practice, but also to organize it in a new way and even change the system of its financing. It will be possible to comprehend the experience gained through transpersonal practices in psychology, study it in medicine, find an explanation in various spiritual traditions, which, in turn, can be considered within the framework of integral research.
In his latest interviews, Wilber, while acknowledging the enormous role of the original project of transpersonal psychology in studying the entire spectrum of human consciousness, dissociated himself from this direction. There is nothing unexpected here, given the author’s general desire to provide a general theory and methodology of knowledge.

His main argument is that the schools of transpersonal psychology do not fully understand the integral approach, and sometimes even deny it. By turning inward, they fall out of the broad dialogue with all other cognitive disciplines.

Ken Wilber's integral project is associated, first of all, with the search for reliable knowledge on the path to unifying all human experience. The method of unification is the key to everything, for we are separated and live in a dual world.

There is a fatal boundary between the Self and the non-Self; everything new comes from there, on the other side. This is called depth, this is called the unknown, in philosophical literature this is called the Other. In the twentieth century, a whole philosophy of the Other arose. From there, from the Other, happiness and threat, madness and creativity come to us, enter our world and somehow gradually become ours.

In the language of transpersonal psychology, we call this kind of experience the experience of unusual states of consciousness and say that the novelty of the world is associated with unusual states of consciousness.

The space of integration is the space that belongs to us, our self-identity, our “I”. It is here that the function of integrating everything new is carried out, and how we relate to the new, how we master and assimilate it, and make it ours, depends on what our lived space is like.

Basically between I and not I there lies a line, sometimes a fatal line, that marks all the problems of humanity. At the heart of all these problems is, in essence, the conflict between the known and the unknown, the good and the bad. Everywhere we find duality, the binary logic of dividing the world.

We live in a divided, split world, and therefore the process of growth and development is always fundamentally connected with the process of unification. (Unification or integration is an incomplete, but correct Russian analogue of the English term). By learning, we unite with the unknown, with what was on the other side. We make it ours, we express it in our language, we enrich the language, we communicate with other people using this language, integrating our experience into a larger community. The development of community, knowledge, culture, art is a universal process of integration.

Whenever we go beyond experience, we encounter antinomies. Antinomies are inherent in reason; they mark its boundaries. This result of Western philosophy is expressed in the Critique of Pure Reason. No matter how subsequent generations of philosophers criticize Kantian analytics, its essential core is immutable. The development of Western culture and Western spirituality has confirmed the provisions of Kant's set theory and Gödel's theorem: in order to justify something, we must go beyond its limits, and only from the point of view of the next level can we justify the previous or nested level. In other words, science is not scientifically valid. In order to ground and define science, we must go beyond science. In order to justify religion, we must go beyond religion, etc.

Strictly speaking, the entire pathos of Wilber's approach is nothing more than a continuation of this analytical line.

There is the path of Stanislav Grof - the experience of studying perception through going beyond its limits and achieving unusual states of consciousness. Wilber's strategy in this direction follows the analytic tradition: Wilber wants to stay at the heart of Nagarjuna's tetralemma and develops a comprehensive picture of the world through the idea of four quadrants in which we all - each of us - find ourselves. As already mentioned, these four sectors can be associated with the four fundamental worlds, expressed in our language.
What else is important here besides sectors? First of all, levels– levels of development of any system, any organism. In relation to humans, these levels are associated with three fundamental dimensions: body, mind and spirit. In all systems, the most primary systems, which somehow map a person and his world, we will find these three levels.

In modern developmental psychology, up to fifteen different levels are distinguished. There is an idea of all kinds of preverbal, mythical levels (the level of centaurs in transpersonal psychology), subtle levels, and so on, up to the highest levels described in world culture.
The next element of Wilber's map is state. The fundamental difference between states and levels is that states come and go, but levels remain. Having reached a certain level of development (intellectual, moral, etc.), we remain there forever.

A very important element of Wilber's method is related to lines development. The idea of developmental lines entered European psychology, probably starting with the work of Martin Gardner on multiple intelligences. In modern integral psychology, it is believed that there is not one single, as J. Piaget believed, line of development associated with cognitive abilities, but about 10-15 relatively independent lines of development.

One of them is associated with cognitive abilities, the other with emotional ones, the third with musical ones, the fourth with motor skills, the fifth with language skills, etc. That is, there are completely different abilities, each with its own patterns of development.

For example, a person can be an outstanding scientist and at the same time a moral monster, a mid-level politician, an excellent athlete, and be quite poor at expressing his thoughts and mastering the language. In principle, you can create a graphic map of the level of development of various abilities; Wilber calls this: “draw an integral psychogram.”

Each of us has emotional intelligence, which plays perhaps a more important role in our lives than mathematical abilities. Emotions - this is a very accurate assessment of the situation, an integral coverage of the situation and a reaction to it. The emotional component, sometimes inexpressible in words, is, one might say, the juice of life. Emotional development has its own laws; if a person did not receive emotional development at an early age, if he was dried up, or he dried himself up, it will not be easy for him to make up for this in later life.

There is a musical intelligence that can be developed. Developed musical intelligence, good hearing, and a sense of rhythm then manifest themselves in the musicality of a person’s communication, in the musicality of his thoughts, in the musicality of his ideas. No wonder Einstein loved to play the violin. Heidegger once said that a person’s genius always manifests itself not in what he is considered a generally recognized authority on, but in his hobbies. All real geniuses, Heidegger claims, always show genius in their hobbies, like Einstein. This early observation of Heidegger is now called the multiple intelligences, or integral psychogram, according to Ken Wilber.

Thus, Wilber demonstrated that failure to distinguish between multiple lines of development is fraught with serious reductionism and all kinds of errors in understanding man.

The tragedy of the exploration of man and the world over the centuries, according to Wilber, was a constant sin, which he called flattening or flatland. This refers to the constant transfer of experience from one sector to another. For example, the desire to understand the world of the soul according to the model of how we understand the world of physics, although these subjects are completely different. The external world is one thing, and the internal world is another. Accordingly, methods of cognition, laws, verifiability, and the sciences themselves, types of scientific knowledge, are different.

This was not given enough attention, and, in fact, all the crises of knowledge that occurred in the twentieth century were associated with clarification of the subject of knowledge.

Wilber calls the essence of the integral approach an integral operating system, like Windows or Mac OS. Essentially, what is Windows? It is a shell, an environment in which various programs can run. What is Ken Wilber's Integrated Operating System? This is also a shell, this is an understanding environment where different people with their own values, their level of development, their own views can communicate and understand each other. A researcher with knowledge of an integrated operating system can study this interaction.

Wilber very clearly expressed the idea that our vision of the world depends on what level of development we are at, on who we are, because our world is born with us every moment, and each of us has our own world. Why do we have such different views of the world? Because we have different experiences, because we have different histories. How can we achieve understanding? We need to know ourselves and see how we relate to each other in something that unites everything.

In fact, Wilber’s integral approach is nothing more than an attempt to find another general, all-encompassing model, a certain space in which we can think, where all people and all sciences can interact.

This is not only a theoretical but also a highly practical approach. In 2005, I took Ken Wilber’s seminar on Integral Life Practice, and every day we did very, very specific practices on integral work with dreams, on integral psychotherapy. We worked correctly with weights in order to turn on the body, we communicated, we engaged in visionary and meditative practices, we did Wilber's integral kata every day (an hour and a half practice developing all sectors, levels, lines, types and states).

Wilber developed his integral development practice based on the idea that a person develops best if he develops holistically or integrally, because this corresponds to the structure of man. For example, an athlete trains by exercising his flexibility, strength, speed and achieves good results, but if at the same time he practices meditation, learns to relax, collect himself, it turns out that he shows better results. If a scientist runs and works with shadows, does yoga, and does breathing practices, then he becomes smoother, more adequate in communication and thinking, and accordingly, his scientific results improve.

Since everything that I perceive is related to my level of development, I need to understand at what level of development of each of my intellects - emotional, cognitive, political and motor I am; after all, this is the stage from which certain horizons, certain prospects open up to me. It is also important how I experience the process of transition from one level to another, and how long it takes.

Next, I must understand that I can enter into various states, for consciousness is plastic, it can take any form, and anything can become the subject of my consciousness. Experiences or states, as Wilber calls them, are fundamentally different from levels. I can experience a state of spirituality, higher spirituality, being at the primitive communal level of development, being a native of some tribe. But the experience is not a guarantee that I live at this level. In order for it to become a fact of my life, I must go through an evolutionary series of development. Therefore, I can experience a higher state, but then I will continue to live at my level.

If we move from theory to practice, it should be noted that in order to develop holistically, we must engage in integral or holistic practice.

There are four basic practices:

- practice related to energy and body;

- practice of shadow work (this means removing obstacles, not being a puppet, being free and neutralizing the wind that blows from past traumas);

- practice associated with the ability to work with sophisticated intellectual concepts;

— and practice associated with the limitless, that is, with the spirit, spiritual practice, access to a state of complete freedom.
There can be an infinite number of types of spiritual practice, we find them in different spiritual traditions, they can be invented by us, our acquaintances, friends. Everything that helps you grow and develop is spiritual practice. In its simplest form, it occurs through secular forms of meditation: I sit in za-zen, say, meditate, or do Vipassana, or simply contemplate nature. This form of meditation in the open air or in nature is also a very powerful spiritual practice, completely natural, absolutely not formalized, but in its very essence spiritual, because the essence of spirituality is contact with the limitless. On what paths, through what rituals it is carried out, does not matter much.

Shadow work is no less important. According to Wilber, this is the main task of psychotherapy. We are all puppets of our unconscious, puppets of those problems and conflicts that once happened to us, but without awareness were repressed into the subconscious and now guide our actions. Each of us does not see the shadow that he casts, and therefore our task is to turn back and meet our shadow, talk to it, become this shadow. Then we will see the light and will no longer be hostages to such situations.

Traumas of birth, poor upbringing, insufficient education, childhood grievances and conflicts. Each of us has this stamp on us that distorts our present; we are cut off from our past, we are forced to defend ourselves from it in order to act more or less effectively in the present. We need to fence ourselves off, to protect ourselves from past situations where we experienced humiliation, confusion or fear.

Our life and our development are a constant cutting off of the past and the construction of protective bastions. But with this kind of protection and fencing, we lose a lot of energy. This is how psychological defense works: we throw away part of ourselves in order to maintain a viable core of integration.
When this core has become strong enough to balance, resist and defend against all aggressive influences, when we have become mature enough and can already stand up for ourselves, that is, when we have become individuals, we can begin the reverse work. We ourselves can start this work; it no longer depends on society. We can begin to take care of ourselves, we can meet our own shadow, and the practice of shadow work is one of the most important in Ken Wilber's integral approach.
These are the four main practices, and this is the panorama of Wilber's integral movement.
In Russia (the contrast helps to understand what Wilber did) there are many different kinds of seminars, practices and centers called integral or integrative, this word is popular. But in reality, this is most often a hodgepodge, a kind of soup set called “Russian integral psychotherapy.” Why is it just a hodgepodge? Because the main thing is missing here: the principle of integration, understanding of what is being integrated into what and how.
The amazing intuition and methodological genius of Ken Wilber lies precisely in the fact that he very clearly showed what the principle of integration is and what should lie at the basis of integration or unification. I think this is due, first of all, to the fact that Wilber received his first inspiration from Sri Aurobindo, from his integral yoga, and this is a spiritual school, and then went through a series of many spiritual influences.
Wilber, in essence, is a man who has embarked on the difficult path of conversation with scientists, philosophers, humanists, practitioners of all fields, each of whom lives “in his own swamp” and sees nothing beyond this world. Wilber addressed them all at once in order to help, unite, teach them how to communicate, to explain: “No, the world is much bigger, and the one you consider your enemy is actually your best helper. You are all doing one great thing."
In every place, in every region, people do not see each other. To see, to give a common space of vision - this is the main task of Ken Wilber. Only when we have a common vision space can we use an integral approach. And so everything Wilber writes is a means for people to get out of their individual cells. Only when the whole is seen can the work of your own healing begin. And the rest is methods. This is the essence of the integral approach.

Literature
1. Wilber K. No borders: Eastern and Western paths of personal growth. – M., 1998.
2. Wilber K. Project Atman: a transpersonal view of human development. – M., 1999.
3. Walsh R. Essential Spirituality, J. Willey, 1999.
4. Wilber K. The Spectrum of Consciousness. Wheaton: Quest, 1977.
5. Wilber K. Up From Eden. A Transpersonal View of Human Evolution. – Boston: Shambhala, 1986.
6. Wilber K. A Sociable God. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1982.
7. Wilber K. Eye to Eye. New York: Doubleday/Anchor, 1983.
8. Wilber K., Engler J., Brown D. Transformations of Consciousness. Conventional and Contemplative Perspectives on Development. Boston: Shambhala, 1986.
9. Wilber K., Dick A., Bruce E. (eds.) Spiritual Choices. N.Y.: Paragon Houseb, 1987.
10. Wilber K., Wilber T. K. Grace and Grit. – Boston: Shambhala, 1991.
11. Wilber K. Sex, Ecology, Spirituality. Boston & London: Shambhala, 1995.
12. Wilber K. A Brief History of Everything. Boston: Shambhala, 1996.
13. Wilber K. The Eye of Spirit: An Integrated Vision for a World Gone Slightly Mad. – Boston: Shambhala, 1997.
14. Wilber K. The Marriage of Sense and Soul: Integrating Science and Religion. – Boston: Shambhala, 1998.
15. Maikov V.V., Kozlov V.V. Transpersonal psychology: origins, history, current state. M., 2004.
16. Wilber K., Patten T., Leonard A., Morelli M. Integral Life Practice. Boston & London, Integral books, 2008
17. Wilber K. Integral Life Practice Starter Kit. Boston & London, Shambhala, 2005
MAYKOV Vladimir Valeryanovich– Ph.D. in Philosophy, Senior Researcher Institute of Philosophy of the USSR Academy of Sciences from 1990 to the present.

President of the Association of Transpersonal Psychology and Psychotherapy.

Chief editor of the book series “Texts of transpersonal psychology” (over 60 books published).

Conducted about 300 seminars on transpersonal psychology and psychotherapy, gave reports and seminars at a number of international conferences.

Certified facilitator of holotropic breathing (certificate of Stanislav and Christina Grof) and process-oriented psychotherapy; certified therapist of the European Association of Psychotherapy, the European Transpersonal Association (EUROTAS), as well as the World Council for Psychotherapy.

My purpose is twofold: first, to offer an introduction to the study of Ken Wilber's integral philosophy within a formally articulated and subsequently published text; and, secondly, not to get lost in dry scientific formulations, but to convey a certain living presence, which precisely characterizes the most important feature of integral philosophy, which strives to transcend limited discourses and practices in order to come to a greater integrity of consciousness and being — in science, culture and society, self-expression and art.

Ken Wilber is an American thinker, born in 1949, the author of more than two dozen books written in the genre of serious theoretical research (the evolution of humanity and the Cosmos, spirituality and religion, developmental psychology, consciousness studies, transpersonal psychology and sociology, philosophy of science, epistemology and transdisciplinarity etc.), as well as popular introductions — accessible excursions into one’s own rich heritage. All of his books, the first of which, “The Spectrum of Consciousness,” was written in 1973 at the age of 23–24, are still actively selling. Wilber's works have been translated into more than twenty-five languages, making him one of the most translated American authors — if not the most translated — writing books on academic subjects.

Wilber's legacy is enormous; over the past forty years, his work has undergone a consistent evolution four to five times, with each stage characterized by a fundamental revision and expansion of the previous paradigm. This was done under the influence of the resulting qualitative criticism and his own extensive cross- and meta-paradigmatic research into “anomalies” (in the sense of the terminology proposed by the famous philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn, whose concepts Wilber refers to very often). Today there are eight volumes of Wilbur's collected works, as well as a number of books not yet included in the new volumes (which, undoubtedly, will be published later). In addition, articles and books are published annually, one way or another considering his legacy in such disciplines as philosophy, psychology, spirituality, art (painting, cinema and theater), etc. Every two or three years an international conference on integral theory is held , which brings together researchers and practitioners from around the world.

When starting to study Wilber's philosophical legacy, it is necessary, if possible, to be prepared for the fact that your own understanding of his works will also undergo changes (in the direction of increasing complexity of the resulting view and worldview). In this sense, it has been repeatedly noted that Wilber’s works propose a “psychoactive” (that is, actively transforming consciousness) mental system of coordinates. It gradually exposes the mind that clings to smaller and narrower practices and perspectives, opening up to it horizons of ever greater integrity. Experience shows that if there is insufficient preparedness and openness, such disclosure can cause an extremely aggressive reaction, often expressed in the form of toxic criticism and unfounded attacks. ad hominem- attacks on the personality of the author (mirrored by the latter in those places of his works that are reserved for the consideration of various criticisms), as well as attacks on researchers of integral theory and practice.

Of course, the critics themselves seem to be confident in their rightness and the righteousness of their irritation and have their own view of Wilber’s work, but two important points need to be noted here. Firstly, in many cases, critics — especially those published on the Internet — do not demonstrate in practice any adequate knowledge of the material in question (the corpus of Wilber’s works and the variety of concepts and perspectives he touches on), which does not prevent them from trying to deconstruct what Wilber created with a cavalry charge ( created as a result of three to four decades of painstaking intellectual work, filled with tens of thousands of hours of not only intellectual reading, but also meditative and contemplative practice). They are trying to do this without offering in return something equivalent in scale, quality and significance in terms of the goals set by the integral project. Other critics have spent literally years trying to prove that Wilbur's work ridiculous and not worthy of attention(performing that type of communicative action that the great German thinker Jurgen Habermas, who greatly influenced Wilber, called “performative contradiction”: they pay too much attention to what is “not worthy of attention” and “fundamentally wrong”). This is one evidence of insufficient self-reflection and self-criticism on the part of the critics themselves.

Secondly, in my opinion, it is much more interesting and practical to use such a rich heritage not to prove one’s own rightness to oneself (such a common form of satisfying one’s ego), but to revise and transform one’s own consciousness and its attitudes through respectful, subtle hermeneutic empathy into the holistic a system of synthetic thought proposed by such an undeniably powerful intellectual as Wilbur. For me personally, gradually becoming acquainted with Wilber's works served as a good litmus test for my own ego: at what points I demonstrate stubborn disagreement and are not ready to even consider hypothetical the possibility that this or that view proposed by Wilber, sometimes contrary to my personal “common sense,” may have (and, as a rule, it does) have a serious basis.

As you may have realized by now, the integral philosophy of Ken Wilber, like that of any other great thinker, cannot be conveyed in its entirety in a single speech. Moreover, there are entire educational courses devoted to a gradually deeper immersion in his philosophy. I consider the stereotypical approach to the presentation of Wilber's integral philosophy by listing the components of his integral model to be unsatisfactory, since it often lacks some kind of living spark, instead of which there is only abstract “talking” about “meta-maps” — such speaking eludes the incredible transformative potential that which is contained in the metasystem of coordinates developed by Wilber and developed by the newly emerging galaxy of integral researchers.

This metasystem coordinates various theories and practices, and itself integral paradigm is defined by Wilber not as theorizing (even with the prefix “meta”: metatheorizing), but as a set practitioner on the involvement of mental, spiritual, social and objective reality. Anything less than the practical use of these dimensions is not integral.

The integral paradigm is defined by Wilber not as theorizing, but as a set of practices

In fact, despite the importance of popularizing complex ideas for society, in my opinion, in the case of Wilber (and many other great thinkers), such popularization can sometimes deprive the listener or reader of something very valuable - namely: a sense of urgency personally get to know his brilliant and original thought, which does not just touch on dry and abstract theoretical issues, issues of categorization and classification of reality and various disciplines. No, Wilber’s integral vision is forged in the painful crucible of searching for answers to the ultimate questions of existence, the existence of each of us, they affect not just the sphere of pure reason, but the sphere of practical reason and the ability to judge — the space of our life world as such; In terms of their scale and existential significance, the questions he raises and the solutions he proposes are comparable to the questions and solutions that existentialists and spiritual thinkers of the present and past struggled with.

I have deliberately, until now, avoided any specific dive into one or another of the main concepts expounded by Wilber (and any of them can be discussed for hours), trying to offer a tangential meta-perspective on the entire “container” of his system as a whole. My experience shows that it is much better and more interesting to reveal some fundamental aspects of the integral approach in a live dialogue (for example, through questions and answers and mutual resonance). In general, criticism of exclusive monologue and a call for active dialogism are sewn into the fabric of integral philosophy. In this sense, she criticizes excessive enthusiasm for abstract theorizing, which is often characterized by dissociation from the body, spirit and sociocultural realities.

However, before we move into a more dialogical mode of questions and answers, I will still respect the proposed genre and format of an academic presentation and use it in an attempt to intrigue you. It may be enough to intrigue some of you, enough respect to allow you to temporarily (and sometimes for quite a long time) step aside from your preconceptions and preconceptions and immerse yourself in the study of the incredibly intense and living legacy of Ken Wilber. The ability for such decentration from one’s personal attitudes is a sign of the maturity of a post-conventional personality (and the exercise of decentration leads to an increase and strengthening of this maturity).

I have a glimmer of hope that, perhaps, after this speech in the study of Wilber’s works, you will not draw unnecessarily hasty and sudden conclusions (and this is one of the most important aspects of the methodology for studying his works). For me and many readers, there is a palpable presence in Wilber’s writings of a certain erotic force — what Wilber called by the Greek term “Eros.” According to Wilber, Eros, as a spontaneous desire for transcendence and novelty, permeates the entire Cosmos. Cosmos with a capital “C” is a Pythagorean term that Wilber borrows to denote all-unity everything in general, the entire totality of the world, the universe. We are talking not just about a physical and dead universe of entropy, but about a living universe of spontaneous self-organization of “order out of chaos”, which over billions of years unfolds through huge tectonic layers of ever-increasing complexity of matter-consciousness. By the power of its self-organization, the Cosmos unfolded from the prescience of quarks and atoms to the irritability of cells and sensory systems of organisms, reaching in its development (which is the entwining of previous levels of complexity of self-organization of spirit and matter) to a feeling and thinking person who has learned to turn his awareness not just to the sensorimotor world of objects , but into oneself, thereby, as a result of meditative contemplation, having found in the heart of one’s inner experience the Spirit itself — an omnipresent and enduring presence, an indescribable and unsolved mystery of being, eluding any formalization, for it is what formalizes, as well as contemplates . How can one not recall the words of Vasily Vasilyevich Nalimov: “The world is a Mystery — we are given only to deepen it.”

It is with the Spirit that Wilber's narrative begins and with the Spirit that it ends. All of Wilber’s works, without exception, are devoted to the rehabilitation of spiritual and transpersonal dimensions as an empirically established space of human development potentials in an age of disillusioned cynicism. We are talking about the universal legitimization of the diversity of transpersonal discourses and practices that have emerged with cross-cultural persistence in the disciplines of religions, mysticism and esotericism throughout the world throughout human history - legitimization in the face of modern and post-modern personality, science and culture. As well as the legitimization of modernity and postmodernity (the diversity of modern and postmodern movements) in the face of pre-modern religions and spiritualities.

All of Wilber’s works, without exception, are devoted to the rehabilitation of spiritual and transpersonal dimensions as an empirically established space of human development potentials in an age of disillusioned cynicism

Wilber argues that we are on the verge of a transition from a world of contradictory opposites, manifested in the irreconcilable confrontation of disciplines, spheres of values, perspectives, to a world of integration, gradually finding a place and context for all existing worldviews, approaches and practices for engaging reality — from religion to science, technology, culture and art. This transition will take a long time and painfully, however, judging by data from studies of the psychology of adult development, for the first time in the history of mankind, a significant part of the planet's population (about 5%) is approaching what can be called the integral stages of the development of consciousness (stages at which there is a refusal from seeing everything through the prism of fragmentation, dualistic games and confrontations, instead of which the contours of an integral vision of colossal integrity and continuity of all processes occurring in the Cosmos - the human and universal Cosmos are gradually outlined).

Wilber's creativity and research thought developed through a sequence of stages, during which he, sometimes radically, revised the main provisions of his theoretical coordinate system and significantly expanded it. Wilber himself and the researchers of his work identify four to five general stages, conventionally called “Wilber-1”, “Wilber-2”, “Wilber-3”, “Wilber-4” and “Wilber-5”.

"Wilbur 1" (1973–1979)- Wilber’s so-called “romantic phase”. The presence of a spectrum of consciousness is postulated, including the level of the mask, the ego, the whole organism, transpersonal levels and unity consciousness. The basic rationale is that different psychological and esoteric schools and methods do not necessarily contradict each other, but rather are simply aimed at different levels of the spectrum of consciousness (psychological counseling works with integration of the mask/shadow level; psychoanalysis integrates the ego; bioenergetic, humanistic and existential psychology are aimed at to the level of the whole organism; transpersonal psychology works with transpersonal, or transpersonal, ranges of the spectrum; Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism, Advaita Vedanta, esoteric branches of Christianity, Islam and Judaism are engaged in the development of consciousness of non-dual unity). The romantic phase is called because Wilber at this stage adhered to the views of retro-romanticism - the idea that man (as well as humanity) initially had access to the consciousness of unity, but later for some reason he loses it when more imperfect and limited levels are added to it , distorting its true nature. In the process of psychospiritual development, it was necessary to gradually remove these extra levels (through disidentification from them) in order to return to the original non-dual state of unity consciousness.

"Wilbur 2" (1980–1982)- phase of “development for good”. As Wilber continued his research, he encountered a wealth of evidence that contradicted his original romantic position. First of all, we are talking about information accumulated by various areas of developmental psychology and anthropology. Rejecting the idea that man was originally in a state of unity, and then was “expelled from paradise” and now needs to “return to goodness” and “paradise lost” (typical motifs of retro-romanticism), Wilber proposed a model of progressive human development from prepersonal to personal and transpersonal levels of consciousness (from prepersonal to personal and transpersonal). In his opinion, such a model much more accurately and correctly reflected the actually occurring and very complex processes of human growth and development, numerous information about which had been accumulated in the relevant disciplines of human science. The main idea of this phase can be expressed in the maxim proposed by Jack Engler, an American transpersonal psychologist and researcher of the stages of contemplative development within the Theravada tradition: “Before being nothing, you need to become someone.” Full transpersonal and transrational development, or spiritual transcendence, occurs after the formation, differentiation and integration of a healthy personality who owns rational methods of cognition.

Wilbur 3 (1983–1987)- transitional phase in which Wilber develops his concept of personality development and expands it to include the theory of multiple intelligences, or multiple lines of development. The main idea is that a person’s personality, or self, develops, not linearly ascending along a single “ladder of development,” but unfolding through numerous lines of development, or intellects (one can distinguish lines of development of cognitive intelligence, lines of development of self, emotional intelligence , lines of moral development, interpersonal intelligence, spiritual intelligence, etc.). Each line, or “stream,” of development unfolds stage by stage relatively independently of the others. For example, a person may be well developed in terms of cognitive intelligence (cognitive line), but poorly developed in the emotional sphere.

"Wilbur 4" (1995 - 2001)- the actual stage of integral philosophy, at which the characteristic formulation of the AQAL [“aqual”] model is introduced. AQAL stands for “all quadrants, all levels” — “all quadrants, all levels” — or, more fully, “all quadrants, all levels, all lines, all types, all states” — “all quadrants, all levels, all lines, all types, all states.” Wilber set himself the goal of proposing a world philosophy that would unite the various disciplines of human activity in a consistent synthesis. AQAL could otherwise be called biopsycho-sociocultural approach, which requires taking into account the dynamics of development of stages and states not only in the psychological dimension, but also in the external objective organism, in intersubjective culture and interobjective social systems. His idea was to create a comprehensive frame of reference, which, in his opinion, allows us to arrive at a more integral and non-reductionist integration of science, spirituality, art, culture and society.

"Wilbur-5" (2001–present)- the current phase, which critics conventionally call the phase of “integral post-metaphysics” and “integral methodological pluralism.” According to Wilber himself, it is still premature to talk about differentiation of a separate stage of “Wilber-5”, since all the main prerequisites for post-metaphysics and integral pluralism are found in works that conventionally correspond to the “Wilber-4” period. However, it is still clear that in his works there is a complication of the narrative and an appeal to a higher level of cognitive complexity. Even greater emphasis is placed on the tetraconstruction of reality (that is, the joint evolution of all four quadrants, or dimensions of our existence), the inseparability of epistemology and ontology, the rethinking of metaphysics through the prism of post-metaphysics, which is expressed, in particular, in the criticism of the “myth of the given” (expressed in including in the form of a reflection paradigm, according to which a person in his cognition reflects reality as it is, whereas it is now known that any act of cognition is also an act of engaging and co-constructing this reality).

It makes sense to touch upon the issues of integral post-metaphysics and integral methodological pluralism using the example of the issue of the relationship between science and religion. In 2006, Oxford University Press published The Oxford handbook of religion and science, which included a chapter, “Towards a Comprehensive Integration of Science and Religion: A Post-Metaphysical Approach,” written by Sean Esbjorn-Hargens co-authored with Ken Wilber. This text can serve as reference material for those wishing to gain a deeper understanding of the issue.

This chapter begins with the authors declaring their belief that an integral approach can help to understand the various definitions and understandings of “science” and “religion” and recognize the importance and partial truth of the claims made by each side in this important area of human activity and knowledge. Next, the authors offer an introduction to the most well-known integral approach today—integral theory, or the integral model, proposed by Wilber. The integral model is considered from the point of view of its post-disciplinarity is that it can be successfully used in the context disciplinary approaches (as an example, the authors talk about the integration of various schools of psychology into a single integral psychology), multidisciplinarity(for example, the study of environmental problems from the perspective of multiple disciplines), interdisciplinarity(for example, the application of political science methods to psychological research) and transdisciplinarity(for example, ensuring the interaction of multiple disciplines and their methodologies through a neutral frame of reference).

This post-metaphysical approach is important for many reasons. First of all, any system (scientific or religious) that does not agree with modern Kantian and post-modern Heideggerian thought is unable to maintain any intellectual respectability (whether you agree with these schools of thought or not, one way or another they need to be dealt with). This means that any attempt to integrate science and religion must be, in some sense, post-metaphysical. Secondly, just as Einsteinian physics, when applied to objects moving below the speed of light, collapses into Newtonian physics, so integral post-metaphysics is able to include all pre-modern, modern and post-modern religious and scientific approaches and systems without postulate pre-existing ontological structures. (pp. 527–528)

The authors emphasize that the integral theory is based on the post-Kantian post-metaphysical position that any levels of reality identified in philosophical or religious metaphysical constructions (for example, the concept of levels of being in the “eternal philosophy”) should today be considered as something inseparable from the perceiver, who reveals and co-constructs them consciousness, and not something that exists in itself as a given fact that the researcher simply discovers. And, as a consequence, consciousness itself is studied not by metaphysical speculative reasoning, but by an empirical and phenomenological method, as a result of which a number of limitations of metaphysics are overcome (associated with the speculative nature of constructions, in many cases not indicating the methodology for obtaining and verifying data).

From the point of view of the integral approach, no method can reveal the whole of reality in its entirety, but each of the methods can provide some partial truth

Integral methodological pluralism is a collection of practices and prescriptions (injunctions), based on the idea that “everyone has their own partial truth.” Each practice, or prescription, can relate to both the scientific side of research and the religious side, revealing its own unique aspect of reality. The authors emphasize that, from the point of view of the integral approach, no one method can reveal all of reality in its entirety, but each of the methods can provide some partial truth and some useful perspective, or way of looking at it.

In revealing and incorporating particular truths from all perspectives, integral theory and IMP are based on three principles: the principle non-exceptions[English] non-exclusion] (recognition of statements about the truth of certain phenomena that have passed the test of authenticity within the framework of their own paradigms in the relevant disciplines); principle grasping[English] enfoldment] (some sets of practices are more inclusive, holistic, holistic and comprehensive than others); and principle engaging[English] enactment] (different types of research will reveal their own unique types of phenomena, and what is revealed will largely depend on the individual psychological constitution, social background and epistemological attitudes of the study).

The systematic application of the integral approach, as the authors emphasize, allows one to gain a panoramic vision that embraces knowledge of the past and present of humanity, a variety of disciplines (from physics, chemistry and hermeneutics to meditation and esotericism, neurobiology, phenomenology, psychology, systems theory, etc.). Within the framework of IMP, there is eight zones, or eight “methodological families”, with the help of which you can study any phenomenon, including religious experience:
- phenomenology(study of direct internal experience);
- structuralism(the study of formal, or systematized, patterns of direct internal experience);
- autopoiesis theory(research of behavioral self-regulation processes);
- empiricism(study of objectively observed behavioral manifestations);
- theory of social autopoiesis(study of the dynamics of self-regulation of social systems);
- systems theory(study of the processes of functional adaptation of parts of a social system to an observable whole);
- hermeneutics(the study of intersubjective fields of meaning and understanding from within culture) and
- ethnomethodology(study of formal patterns of mutual understanding from outside culture).
The main statement is that any person at any moment in time is immersed in all these dimensions (the existence and material of which is revealed by appropriate methods of research). The combined application of eight types of methodologies in research is called “integral methodological pluralism.”

Science and religion can and should be considered as “two sides of the same coin”, which can be integrated using an integral approach

Further in the article, the authors describe their ideas about what the integral approach can provide for the emergence of “integral science” and “integral religion”, and then for their synthesis. According to the authors, a comprehensive scientific study of religion within the framework of the integral approach will necessarily include, at a minimum, the integration of the psychology of religion, phenomenology of religion, neurotheology, cognitive-scientific approaches to religion, hermeneutics of religion, anthropology of religion, social autopoiesis and sociology of religion. In conclusion, they emphasize that science and religion can and should be seen as “two sides of the same coin” that can be integrated using an integral approach.

Literature

Esbjörn-Hargens S., Wilber K. Towards a comprehensive integration of science and religion: A post-metaphysical approach // The Oxford handbook of science and religion. - Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. Pp. 523 - 546.

Bibliography of Ken Wilber's works

Wilbur-1 (“Romantic period”) - 1973–1979

The Spectrum of Consciousness. - Quest Books, 1977.

No Boundary: Eastern and Western Approaches to Personal Growth. - Shambhala, 1979. In Russian: Wilbur K. No borders: Eastern and Western paths to personal growth. - M.: AST, 2004. (There is an alternative translation entitled “Boundless” on the Internet in the public domain.)

Wilber-2 (“Development for the good”; pre-/over- delusion) - 1980 – 1982

The Atman Project: A Transpersonal View of Human Development. - The Theosophical Publishing House, 1980. In Russian: Wilbur K. The Atman Project: A Transpersonal View of Human Development. - M.: AST, 2004.

Up from Eden: A Transpersonal View of Human Evolution. - Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1981.

The Holographic Paradigm and Other Paradoxes: Exploring the Leading Edge of Science (ed. Ken Wilber). - Shambhala, 1982.

Wilber-3 (Many development lines) - 1983 - 1987

A Sociable God: A Brief Introduction to a Transcendental Sociology. - Shambhala, 1983.

Eye to Eye: The Quest for the New Paradigm. - Doubleday Books, 1984. In Russian: Wilbur K. Eyes of knowledge: flesh, mind, contemplation. - M.: RIPOL-Classic, 2016.)

Quantum Questions: Mystical Writings of the World's Great Physicists (ed. Ken Wilber). - Shambhala, 1984.

Transformations of Consciousness: Conventional and Contemplative Perspectives on Development (ed. Ken Wilber, Daniel Brown, Jack Engler). - Shambhala, 1986.

Spiritual Choices: The Problem of Recognizing Authentic Paths to Inner Transformation (ed. Ken Wilber, Dick Anthony, Bruce Ecker). - Paragon House Publishers, 1987.

Grace and Grit: Spirituality and Healing in the Life of Treya Killam Wilber. - Shambhala, 1991. - In Russian: Wilbur K. Grace and Resilience: Spirituality and Healing in the Life and Death of Treya Killam Wilber. - M.: Open World, 2008. (Reprint - M.: Postum, 2013.)

Wilber-4 (“all quadrants and levels”) - 1995 – 2001

Sex, Ecology, Spirituality: The Spirit of Evolution. - Shambhala 1995.

A Brief History of Everything. - Shambhala, 1996. - In Russian: Wilbur K. A short history of everything. - M.: Postum, 2015.

The Eye of Spirit: An Integral Vision for a World Gone Slightly Mad. - Shambhala, 1997. In Russian: Wilbur K. Eye of the Spirit: An Integral Vision for a Slightly Crazy World. - M.: AST, 2002.

The Essential Ken Wilber: An Introductory Reader. - Shambhala, 1998.

The Marriage of Sense and Soul: Integrating Science and Religion. -Random House, 1998

One Taste: The Journals of Ken Wilber. -Shambhala, 1999. In Russian: Wilbur K. One Taste: The Ken Wilber Diaries. - M.: AST, 2004.

Integral Psychology: Consciousness, Spirit, Psychology, Therapy. -Shambhala, 2000. In Russian: Wilbur K. Integral psychology: Consciousness, Spirit, Psychology, Therapy. - M.: K. Kravchuk Publishing House, 2004.

A Theory of Everything: An Integral Vision for Business, Politics, Science and Spirituality. -Shambhala, 2000. In Russian: Wilbur K. The Theory of Everything: An Integral Approach to Business, Politics, Science, and Spirituality. - M.: Postum, 2013.

Wilber-5 (integral post-metaphysics, integral methodological pluralism) - 2001 - present. V.

Boomeritis: A Novel That Will Set You Free. - Shambhala, 2002. In Russian: Wilbur K. Boomerit: The book that will set you free. - Electronic edition. - M.: Orientalia, AIpraktik, November 2013.

Integral Spirituality: A Startling New Role for Religion in the Modern and Postmodern World. - Shambhala, 2006. - In Russian: Wilbur K. Integral spirituality: The new role of religion in the modern and post-modern world. - Electronic edition. - M.: Orientalia, AIpraktik, November 2013.

The Integral Vision: A Very Short Introduction to the Revolutionary Integral Approach to Life, God, the Universe, and Everything. - Shambhala, 2007. - In Russian: Wilbur K. The Integral Vision: A Brief Introduction to the Revolutionary Integral Approach to Life, God, the Universe and Everything. - M.: Open World, 2009. (The “Ipraktik” project plans to reissue it in the form of an e-book.)

Since 2014, the release of new long-awaited works by Ken Wilber in English is planned, including the second volume of the “Cosmos” trilogy (the first volume was the book “Sex, ecology, spirituality”) and the work “The Fourth Turning”. The book “Integral Meditation” has also been published; Russian translation is being prepared.

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