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Jesus, Buddha, ... Ken Wilber??
15 January 2007
Visited zaadz.com today. Its a social network geared towards enlightenment, in general. Their index page has a section "Most Loved Teachers" in which the most popularly added "teachers" (could be anyone) appear.
The biggest names in the link-cloud are predictable. Jesus... Buddha... and Ken Wilber. record scratch. Who?
So I'm a dabbler in enlightenment practitioners... and yet I've never heard of Ken Wilber. I instantly check out his entry on Wikipedia and find a lengthy group of articles surrounding him and his philosophy.
How on earth has this person not only become notable under my radar, but how is he as big as Jesus and Buddha? Did this happen overnight as I slept Sunday? Is the Second Coming upon us, alas? But then I do a little digging on the 'about us' section of Zaadz. Why, this website features 'interviews' by Ken Wilber! And finally I read:
We’re proud to have a strong relationship with Ken and his crew at [Integral Institute] and are developing our strategic partnership to leverage our social networking tools and community to expand the reach and impact of [Wilber's] 'Integral theory'.So, not surprisingly, the two are joined at the hip. But I wonder why Ken Wilber has an inflated status on Zaadz? Obviously, he had a hand in its creation. The above quote is an open message that the website exists to perpetuate his ideas. Is it that the website has taken measures to rig his popularity? I'm not sure.
I also should say I haven't made myself familiar with his theories. But the whole thing strikes me as being a cult production. Kinda like the movie "What The Bleep Do We Know?". This guy saves me the time of giving the breakdown of that.
This is a pitfall in any philo/spiritual movement. I call it 'group identification', where a bunch of people believe something, it begins to pick up steam, they create some sort of 'cult production' to present their ideas to the world-at-large, but its full of cracks of bias. I'm not saying this is the case with Zaadz, but I won't be surprised if the same pattern emerges.
Comments
~C4Chaos says...
LOL, on the second coming.
first of, thanks giving Zaadz a shout out. as for your observation: "But I wonder why Ken Wilber has an inflated status on Zaadz? Obviously, he had a hand in its creation."
first let me talk about Ken Wilber. i've been following his works for more than 10 years now. but he started writing since the early seventies. if you want a summary of his works this WIE article sums it up real well: http://www.wie.org/j33/philosopher-of-everything.asp
as for the Zaadz connection, it just so happened that one of the early members of Zaadz are students of Wilber (or people reading Wilber) in one way or the other. in short, Ken Wilber has influenced a lot of members in Zaadz, including me, and a lot of the people working at Zaadz. but Ken doesn't have "a hand in the creation" of Zaadz. Zaadz is completely independent of Wilber and his Integral Institute. people like the work of Wilber because of what it stands for: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integral_thought" rel="nofollow">integral thought</a>. Wilber's ideas stand on their own. so check it out his ideas. and also check out Zaadz. you'll find that there's more to it than Wilber's integral :)
~C (for Chaos)
Posted at 11:10 p.m. on January 15, 2007
Yeago says...
Interesting and thank you for the links and response.
It is an interesting system and that article provided a helpful introduction. I will be looking for examples of his idea of 4 quadrants.
I was careful not to speak too loosely. Its easy to dismiss unfamiliar ideas/idealists.
Posted at 12:55 a.m. on January 16, 2007
Jerry says...
Zaadz is a site for cults, semi-cults, and multi-level marketing "new age" services designed to suck money out of people. Many of the themes are tied together. Much of it is a mishmosh of religions that are updated and packaged to gullible people who have no life. People who come in with problems will quickly be found and circled with promises of so much love and enlightenment that it can make you ill. This integral you speak of is like so many other semi-cults which are ways of selling books and courses that will never end. You will also find Scientology, conspiracy theories, and other bizzare ideas that continuously pop up and mesh together, like Law of Attraction, guru worship, mind control, and bizzare sects that are into bizzare sexual behaviors. Underneath the whole sham of preying on people with problems, must be the thing that machine work; money.
Posted at 5:31 a.m. on December 29, 2007
Jerry says...
that should read "that MAKES the machine work"
There is also Adi Da, 2012 Mayan Calender end of world theory, and groupthink.
Posted at 5:37 a.m. on December 29, 2007