Looking Back on the Wyatt Earp Episode, Frank Visser (original) (raw)

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Integral World: Exploring Theories of Everything

An independent forum for a critical discussion of the integral philosophy of Ken Wilber

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The Wild West

Wilber Report

Frank Visser

"Having just read Jeff Meyerhoff’s rebuttal to Wyatt Erpy on Integral World, “INTELLECTUAL TRAGEDY”, I’m quite surprised, frankly. The dunderheaded Neanderthal Meyerhoff, as I was lead to expect by Erpy, turns out to be quite reasonable, cogent, pithy, and well balanced in his presentation.

In fact, I’d have to say, if I’d never heard of either of them before, and “simply” read the entire Erpy blog series and this one response by Meyerhoff, I’d mistake Meyerhoff for the world famous philosopher, and Wilber for the unbalanced critic."
– Colmar3000.blogspot.com, July 12, 2006.

In June 2006 Ken Wilber embarrassed himself in front of the world by abusing and insulting those of his critics who did not "understand" his work, and invited those who "did" to come to his integral "sanctuary". His main complaint was the low level of the criticism he had received so far, especially from Integral World authors.

Well, even if that were true, make sure you get better critics then, I would say. Start playing the game by the rules. Behave yourself. Enter the academic arena. Start debates with people who really matter in the fields of science and philosophy, instead of either preaching to the converted, or abusing those who don't seem to "get it". It was an attack on reason and free enquiry, basically, which was applauded by the closest of his followers.

Obviously, this alerted some cult-watchers to reflect on what on earth is currently going on in the integral scene. Here's a listing of most of the relevant blog postings and articles, including my three personal replies to Ken Wilber. Compiled for future historians, Wilberologists – and psychiatrists!

NOTE: In case the website www.kenwilber.com will be taken offline in the future, I have archived Wilber's blog posts on Integral World (IW). Wilber's posts have also been archived on the Internet Archive (IA) Way Back Machine. Below I have provided both links.

NOTE added 5/31/24: The www.kenwilber.com website seems to have been taken offline permanently, it is currently redirected to www.findingradicalwholeness.com - the title of Wilber's new book. (For some reason Norton classifies it as dangerous website related to phishing, most probably due to a misconfiguration of the domain redirect).

NOTE added 10/08/24: The www.kenwilber.com website now shows a very rudimentary display of Wilber's books and offers "Ken" as available for consulting work, such as speaking engagements, group meetings large and small, keynote presentations and so on).

IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER

  1. Ken Wilber, What We Are, That We See, Part I: Response to Some Recent Criticism in a Wild West Fashion, www.kenwilber.com, June 8, 2006 (IW, IA).
  2. Ken Wilber, What We Are, That We See, Part II: What Is the Real Meaning of This?, www.kenwilber.com, June 11, 2006 (IW, IA).
  3. Ken Wilber, The Unbearable Lightness of Wyatt Earpy, Follow-Up #1, June 11, 2006 (IW, IA).
  4. Ken Wilber, On the Nature of Shadow Projections in Forums, Follow-Up #2, june 13, 2006 (IW, IA).
  5. Frank Visser, Games Pandits Play, A Reply to Ken Wilber's Raging Rant, June 14, 2006.
  6. Ken Wilber, The Shadow Series. Part 1: How to Spot the Shadow, June 15, 2006 (IW, IA).
  7. Ken Wilber, The Shadow Series. Part 2: Integrating the Shadow, June 18, 2006 (IW, IA).
  8. Ken Wilber, What Would Wyatt Do?, Follow-Up #3, June 22, 2006 (IW, IA).
  9. Ken Wilber, The Shadow Series. Part 3: A Working Synthesis of Transactional Analysis and Gestalt Therapy, June 23, 2006 (IW, IA).
  10. Frank Visser, Not So Fast, Cowboy, A Plea For Some Dispassion, June 25, 2006.
  11. Ken Wilber, Take the Visser Site as Alternatives to KW, But Never as the Views of KW, www.kenwilber.com, June 27, 2006 (IW, IA).
  12. Frank Visser, For The Record, Final Comments to Wilber's Recent Blog Postings, July 3, 2006.

Ken Wilber's blog postings:

Follow Up Postings

The Shadow Series

My Responses to Wilber

Other Blog Commentaries (A-Z)

Longer Reflections (A-Z)

Early Warning Signs