Wilber is concerned with the most basic questions of existence: Who are we? What are human beings? Why do we have consciousness? Is our consciousness part of a greater system? How do conceptions of God sway the big picture? What is our meaning or place in the universe? But Wilber also pays great attention to new theories of the brain, the mind, and how human beings have come to achieve self-reflective consciousness. The work of Ken Wilber centers on an attempt to bridge religion and science, and to “explain everything.” Specifically, Wilber believes that ancient systems of thought coming out of Vedic and Buddhist traditions anticipated many of the revelations of modern physics, especially quantum theory. He later published a book entitled Grace and Grit, documenting the experience with his wife. Wilber put his career aside to care for his wife, but she lost an agonizing battle with the disease in 1989. The next year, Wilber married Terry Killam, but she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer within the year. In it, Wilber built upon the ideas of many others, such as physicist David Bohm and cutting-edge brain researcher Carl Pribram. It was The Holographic Paradigm and Other Paradoxes, which proposed that the human brain, our minds, consciousness and perhaps the entire universe is a holographic in structure and nature. This first book put Wilber “on the map,” so to speak, as a leading thinker of his day. It was complex, yet the writing was lucid, engaging, and brilliant. It was an extremely comprehensive work which integrated vast areas of knowledge across a variety of fields. The Spectrum of Consciousness stunned many in the world of philosophy and literature. It was rejected by almost two dozen publishers before Quest Books took a chance on a twenty-something, self-styled, and unknown philosopher. The book was titled The Spectrum of Consciousness. Becoming an AuthorĪll the while during his college years, Wilber was working on his first book, which helped launch his career. This prompted him to transfer his studies to the University of Nebraska where he earned an undergraduate degree in biology and a master’s degree in biochemistry. His interests took a fast turn, however, when he discovered Eastern philosophies and mysticism. An intelligent student, his nickname in high school was “The Brain.” In 1967, he was accepted at Duke University in its pre-med program.
Ken Wilber was born in Oklahoma City in 1949.
He has made significant contributions to a branch of psychology called transpersonal psychology and he is a best-selling author as well. Not without his critics, Wilber has nevertheless become a powerful influence on modern thought across a wide array of fields. Ken Wilber is a leading-edge thinker, philosopher, and author whose works have been embraced both in New Age circles as well as within the realm of serious academia.