Distinguishes between development and maintenance, of different practices.

Check it out.

Integral Spirituality is going to be one of the new books released by Ken Wilber, in early 2006.

From the IN site:

This 118-page essay is not to be confused with the 350-page book Integral Spirituality: A Startling New Role for Religion in the Modern and Postmodern World (to be published by Integral Books/Shambhala in the summer of 2006). This book will also be pre-posted in its entirety at www.IntegralSpiritualCenter.org in January, 2006

I would like to start the analysis of this draft - and then later the book by analyzing the truth claims of the draft (at least to start). 

In the first place, the fundamental thesis that I am positing that Integral Spirituality is - more so than any previous work of Wilber's - at its base, a philosophical work of  a rich, detailed, and inclusive EPISTEMOLOGY - both inividual and collective.

(Here is also the Wikipedia page on epistemology.)

As such, quite separate from substantive and ontological claims by Wilber, this work can be judged on the merits of the epistemological claims.

This multi-part analysis is going to follow the following structure.

Part I:  Brief historical analysis of the development of Wilber's thought.
Part II:  Historical predecessors - some analysis of previous work, that has similar analytic trends and thoughts as Wilber's.
Part III:  You down with the IMP?  Yeah you know me! (and us)
Part IV:  An exercise in Figure Drawing - Quadrants, Cubes, and Octahedrons
Part V:   The Claim of One Direction Complexity- Lines and Levels
Part VI:  Shifting Sands:  Expanding Outward into Science, Psychology, and Spirit.
Part VII:  Further Shifting Sands - or Wilber recapitulates Habermas


That's the plan.  Let me know if there are any thoughts on this. 

THIS appears again, out of nothing, out of everything.

Heart shining, transparent, through all that I see, inside and out.  This pulse of life, pulse of God, beats in the face in the mirror, in the sky that I view out the window, in the cars driving by.

And innocence is restored. 

As is wont, I am swept away by these glimpses.  This I, that small self, is just another wave of this pulse of the Heart, and the Divine, as real as a puppet.

And every moment, the pulse is here.

And in every glance, eyes widen with recognition. 

In every breath, shines out the joy of the Universe.

Saw this article about Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales thinking of establishing a reputation system, and again, made me think about using some of the established  reputation and review systems to rate various practices.

Here's a couple of examples -

1. Question:  What is the mechanism, right NOW, to rate the I-WET weekend, or any of the Integral Universities weekly seminars?

2. David Deida - I've read his books, and met the man, having picked him up at the airport once (many years ago), and he was a great guy.  But, where would you go to find ratings of David Deida's seminars, and their experiences?

A friend of mine went to a three day workship of Deida's a few years ago, and in his opinion, he pretty much covered what he covered in the books, and not much more. 

And that makes some sense, actually.  Various PARTICULAR psychosexual and partner situations, are just that - particular and invididualized.  It would seem to me the most help one could get from Deida-type work, is working with a counselor trained in some of the Deida "techniques", for lack of a better word.

I don't mean this to detract from Deida, as he was a great guy in my experience.  But again, what is the best way to apply his insights to individuals and groups - and is the way he is applying those insights the best?  Open reviews by those with good reputations (to prevent gaming of the system) would help quite a lot, wouldn't you agree?