Бумерит: Книга, которая тебя освободит

by Ken Wilber, Кен Уилбер, Ольга Турухина (пер. с англ.)

«Бумерит» не слишком отличается от любого другого художественного текста длиной в 350 страниц. Если говорить в общем, не раскрывая всех карт, это роман о молодом человеке двадцати лет, который изучает искусственный интеллект в МИТе. Он одержим вполне распространённой в кругу ИИ-специалистов идеей о том, что приблизительно через 30 лет интеллект машин достигнет уровня человеческого интеллекта. Поэтому он убеждён, что в его собственной жизни он получит возможность полностью загрузить своё сознание в кремниевый кибергород, послав прощальный поцелуй миру мерзкой плоти.

В процессе исследования этого вопроса ему начинает казаться, что, если он действительно хочет понять, как будет выглядеть эволюция сознания в кремниевом мире будущего, он должен изучить эволюцию и развитие сознания в углеродном мире, то есть на примере людей, благодаря чему у него, возможно, появятся какие-то догадки. Это решение, в конце концов, приводит его в Интегральный центр в Кембридже, который очевидным образом списан с Интегрального института, но с несколькими постмодернистскими уловками, в которых отчасти состоит юмор книги — и, конечно же, я не могу рассказать вам, в чём они заключаются!

По мере того как углубляется его понимание развития человеческого сознания, его захватывает идея о том, что кремниевое сознание также будет расти и эволюционировать — в сущности, в своей эволюции оно может пройти весь спектр сознания и достичь самого Духа. Так им овладевает — полностью овладевает — вопрос: кто первым в массовом порядке откроет Бога — Углерод или Кремний?

Очевидно, это всё, что я могу сообщить вам, не раскрывая всей истории. Могу добавить лишь одно: роман задуман как критика бумерита или плюрализма, заражённого нарциссизмом. Поэтому основное требование при его написании заключалось в том, чтобы сам он был примером всего, что критикует, представляя собой самосознающую пародию на объекты собственной критики — ведь именно этим является бумерит. Посему эта книга объявлена «великим постмодернистским романом» (которым её уже успели окрестить некоторые критики) — следуя доброй постмодернистской традиции, она кусает собственный хвост.

Подробную критикую бумерита, которую прорабатывает роман, разумеется, можно понять, лишь прочитав его. Могу лишь сказать, что это продолжительное и серьёзное критическое исследование бумерита, заразившего собою постмодернизм, почти все плюралистические течения, духовность нью-эйджа, притязания на новую парадигму, трансперсональную психологию, транзитную астрологию и даже истории о похищении инопланетянами — всё, что влияет на двадцатилетнего юношу, родители которого являют собой «клинический» пример всего вышеперечисленного.

— Кен Уилбер

Genres: Fiction, Philosophy, Spirituality, Psychology, Ebooks, Literature, Human Development

349 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Kenneth Earl Wilber II is an American philosopher and writer on transpersonal psychology and his own integral theory, a systematic philosophy which suggests the synthesis of all human knowledge and experience.

Reviews

[mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author, Ken Wilber, born in 1949, was a predominant and preeminent philosopher at the time of this book’s publication, seventeen years ago (himself of the boomer generation); and now attempting a comeback. This novel, he now states, was maybe the stupidest idea he’d ever had and may well have been the beginning of his fall from dominance. However, society’s current embrace of deep thinkers [Jordan Peterson, Sam Harris, Scott Adams, Robert Wright, and the rest of the Intellectual Dark Web (IDW)], coupled with the new media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube), as well as the popularity of iTune’s podcasts, as well new methods of payment procurement (Patreon), all probably induced Wilber to slide out of his deathbed and reenter the arena. And, also why I remembered, with his mention of the book, that I had this book tucked away in my garage and that maybe it was worth a reread. The verdict? It’s definitely worth reading, or if you haven’t read it, or are familial with Wilber? … in fact – the novel is amazing! Precisely because of the passage of time, current affairs, and Wilber’s brilliant mind. That said, the novel reveals: Ken Wilber is obsessed with sex, himself, and his brilliance. He was, and is, both very, very right and very wrong – which perfectly fits his “theory of everything”. Which, by the way, was the title of his preceding non-fiction book and which he touts throughout the novel as being—the reading of—one of four practices that can help save the world from destruction. The other three being: physical exercise (running, weightlifting, yoga, etc.), mental exercise (meditation), emotional exercise (awareness, acknowledgment, and expression of one’s feelings), and spiritual practice (by which he means Tantric sex, mostly). He calls this Integral Transformative Practice. [I might call it just another coping mechanism, or another form of escape, i.e addiction.]

Let me back up, first to the novel’s structure and then to Wilber’s foundational theory which he calls “Spiral Dynamics”, or Full Spectrum Consciousness, or the “ever-present spirit”, or God, or “one with everything”. [Who’s ego? By the way, his theory of everything purports to transcend (and include) both personality and ego.]

The novel is written in the style of “the great postmodern novel”, which Wilber intentionally mocks (p. 324-6). It’s beautiful! Very David Foster Wallace-ish (whom he early on gives a shout-out to. Wallace was still alive and going strong at the time.). And Wilber’s mockery doesn’t stop there. He “deconstructs” all of modern society and yes, the now very current divided mess we find ourselves in—from third-wave feminism and the MeToo movement, Black Lives Matter and social justice warriors, to political partisan polarization, education, the media, all religions, terrorism, you name it—he destroys it all. All that spared is his philosophy, Artificial Intelligence, and a few previous mystical thinkers/writers. He even nails (to the cross?) what he calls “narcissistic Buddhism” (p. 424). He has utter contempt for all of the Boomer’s New Age movement, Postmodernism, egalitarian, pluralistic, anti-hierarchal, neo this and neo that. It’s all symptomatic of BOOMERITIS – the Me Generation’s falling in love with itself, i.e. pathological egoism.

If I take the six elements of a story, which are: title, plot, characterization, style, setting, and theme (big ideas) – I’d have to give this book two stars at best. The title is perfect, there is barely a plot, the characters are all unlikable, the style is postmodern, the setting does not exist, and the ‘big ideas’ are HUGE! And so – should you read this book? Definitely!

The big idea—Wilber’s big idea—is worth serious thought. In other words: Who are we? Why are we here? What does it all mean? I agree with much of his analysis, it is spot on. But, I disagree with his reasoning and his solutions. He is not my guru. [I don’t have one.]

Wilber posits that all of us (humans) incorporate all ‘levels’ of life and evolution, past, present, and future; and are destined to become one with all that is, i.e. the universe/cosmos, even the non-living/life, i.e. we ARE God. … If only we get educated! via his ‘integrallife’ idea/concept/theory/belief. Wilber posits a stage (hierarchal) development of consciousness (= God) that begins with the beginning, and then returns to that which from whence it began, “but and so” continues to expand infinitely. … Which reminds me of the Cheyenne’s (plains Indians of North America) creation myth. That “myth” [maybe it’s true?] is that we “the people” were pure spirit/energy in the beginning but being merely stardust got lonely. And so created physical bodies to inhabit the earth so as we could experience touch [sex?] and relieve our loneliness. [Sounds good to me.]

So Wilber, high on whatever? Loneliness, isolation, hurt, random mutation, extreme openness, dissociation, drugs (Ecstasy?), genius? Comes up with a theory/idea—a stage development of consciousness—where we (humans) evolved and evolve from the simple to the complex to the infinite, i.e. God. His stages he color-codes to correspond to human development from birth to death. Yet seems to want to live forever via the infinite universe? So we begin, via Wilber’s philosophy, with a simple construct/interaction with the physical world we’ve been born into, millions of years ago, “at square one”, as we always have and will always be no matter the time/place/age we come into being. At this point, he follows the consensus of human development. But, he then asserts that biological, individual, and conscious evolution follow the same hierarchy. In other words from non-existence to God, i.e. “ever-present’ being-ness. [Wilber wants never to die, expire. Just like many (most) self-conscious creatures. For that matter, conscious or not, all creatures strive to carry on—that’s the nature of evolution.] Duh … .

So Wilber posits that the physical world is one of division and hierarchy, or us versus them, a struggle toward dominance. [I agree.] Here is how he puts it (color coded): purple to red to blue to orange to green. Purple is very simple and primitive, or basic, like a child’s beginning awareness. The world is good or bad—basic needs satisfied or not. It’s magic! Voodoo—good spirits and bad spirits. Then the world/individual (red) evolves into a predator/prey relationship, one of kill or be killed, eat or be eaten, one of force and skills. Then the world/individual (blue) evolves into one of meaning—stories to explain—myths, one of saints and sinners—one of belief, of God. Then the world/individual (orange) evolves into one of winners and losers. A world of reason and science, a rational world, where “truth” becomes the dominate determinate of who wins and loses. And then, the world/individual (green) evolves into one of interpretation—where all that is, is only a matter of perspective—a relative world of individual experience and feelings wherein the individual (Me/I) am the center of all that is, but with the idea that we (everyone) is equal … which is inherently contradictory. Thus the mess we’re in.

And so, Wilber to the rescue? Sheesh. He looks now, in fact, that he came back from the dead. Is he right? Beats me? I don’t think so, but then, who am I? I may be stuck in the “Green Meme”, unenlightened, and so am not aware of anything other than my own self righteousness? … I could probably use some of that tantric sex, the everlasting pussy. Just saying … [By the way, done that and it didn’t save me. Then again, maybe it did.]

I highly recommend reading this book, and then? Write your own theory of everything.

Sunday, March 31, 2019

[Lacey Louwagie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've never read a novel that sucked so bad that still made me think so much. This book seems to think it can get away with being pointless because it cleverly pokes fun at itself for being the "perfect post-modern novel", which is described within the book itself. Well, this tome may fit the definition of post-modern, but it *barely* fits the definition of novel. I suppose if you searched hard you could find a plot and some character development, but essentially the entire novel is just a bunch of young adults attending seminars, with the bulk of the dialogue being the lectures they attend, verbatim. Once in a while the characters sit around and talk about the lectures just to change things up a bit. Oh, and the viewpoint character has a sexual fantasy every few pages, which aren't even explicit enough to keep things interesting.

So, I read this book because I'd read that a character in it was based on Stuart Davis. Actually, there's a character in the book who IS Stuart Davis. But his story arc didn't give me the kind of juicy insight into him that I'd wanted; he was just another dude who went to the lectures and talked about them, and once in a while he sang a song or two. And I gave this book three stars purely for the ideas contained therein; I haven't been able to stop thinking about or talking about the concept of "evolutionary states of consciousness". But even though I've never read any of Ken Wilbur's nonfiction, I imagine that might be the way to go. This novel would have been a whole lot more engaging if it hadn't pretended to be a novel in the first place.

[(0v0) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Goes down like the sawdust into which is should be pulped.

Makes _Sophie's World_ look like a a real art of fiction.

I so wanted this to be digestible, so I can give it to people who have to be tricked into thinking. And that's what the book's meant to be: candy-coated Integral, for people who won't even suffer the engaging and crisp dialogues of _A Brief History of Everything_. But even with a graphic sexual fantasy every minute, there ain't no candy here.

Which disappoints me. I read before bed, and for two months this one put me down in under three pages. Word is its genius author learned to write philosophical discourses by hand-transcribing Alan Wallace. Accordingly, his fiction writing's inspired by the decades-old memory of watching Porky's on VHS.

I wish he had worked with a Harlequin Romance author or spy novelist on this, so that the story isn't so turgid that it even puts off hose of us who are committed, dammit. Because the ideas are quite wonderful, so much so that they only need the lightest of narratives to carry them forward. Personally, I wanted to stay with this for the opportunity of reading what KW really thinks of post 9/11 politics, a treasure which he's noted lives at the end of the book. But it wasn't enough. I found his Integral Politics commentary online and returned this crippled pony to the PL.

For now, I stick to recommending Brief History, though maybe Integral Vision, out August 07, is even more accessible.

[Magdelanye · Rating 3 out of 5]

From time to time, it might be tempting for the serious theoretician or philosopher whose readers are restricted by the narrow parameters of a specialist field, to dream of connecting with a wider audience through fiction.

“fiction,something sculpted to its expressive purpose” Boomeritis p284

Indeed, fiction is often regarded as a handy way to disseminate exotic or ponderous ideas by humanizing them, placed in a context that brings them to life. So we have a growing trend to fiction more or less loosely draped around certain constructs or sets of circumstances parallel to known facts, with all the variants open to interpretation. Often the writer is presented as protagonist, with some kind of age differential or some other small twist with a huge effect. Levels of complexity can be added by giving the character the same name. This format allows the actual writer to freely express any point of view without claiming it.

This kind of play can be highly entertaining or extremely frustrating, depending not only on the writers sensitivity and skill, but even more on the readers knowledge base and character, especially including patience, tolerance for ambiguity, and sense of humour. When successful, this can result in a delightful interplay that charms the reader into that willing suspension of disbelief so often required for some of the more preposterous propositions to float. The characters are alive and speak to our own burning issues, even if they happen to be a talking gorilla or a bear or a mouse. The ideas that first seemed strange gradually cohere and our initial disorientation vanishes as a new vocabulary and geometry are established. The reader emerges from such an experience transformed and quite possibly convinced of the seed premise of the actual author who, like a god, created a new ground for being.

Ken Wilber's Boomeritis is no such fun. The genuine appeal of Spiral Dynamics is overwhelmed by this presentation which reads more like a full out attack from within the ranks, on the generation that nurtured the ground from which these ideas were encouraged to grow. I found myself wondering what particular bunch of sour grapes led Mr. Wilber to dump so harshly on the already decimated and much maligned generation of Boomers to which we both belong.

This is a good place to insert a little sexual fantasy, just to relieve the tension
here. How about KW swinging from a chandelier?
-I don't know. What would he be wearing?

“So you really push their buttons on purpose?”
“Yes but only because they have buttons to push”
Boomeritis p249


Playing devils advocate,deliberately ruffling feathers to manipulate a response, provoking sacred cows, is a tricky tactic. It is not wise to trash potential allies,nor to patronize those who may not yet have attained a certain level of sophistication. KW's heavy-handed, mean-spirited treatment, rather than deepening our understanding of his work, alienates and irritates in equal measure. Worse, I feel my engagement with Spiral Dynamics has been tainted and unbalanced by his defamatory analysis of what's keeping the world stuck from progressing to the next level of consciousness.

“I want a world that works for everyone. A world where everyone
is treated fairly, compassionately. A world that includes everyone.” p287

The fictional KW attributes this conviction to his fictional mom, but that's what I want too. At heart, this man can't be representing the enemy. This book is a SATIRE for heavens sake. I tell myself to ease up, KW is only kidding around, 'framing his discontent', trolling for reactions and a crack at winning the prize for the great postmodern novel.

The novel itself,to be truly postmodern,would have to criticize postmodernism. But
in order to do that, the novel would have to exemplify everything it criticized.
That would be the real trick, to write a novel that embodied everything that it attacked. P324

Of the “at least 7 essential items reflecting 7 of the most basic tenets of postmodernism” Boomeritis: the novel nails them all and then the some, “earning extra points for exemplifying Boomeritis.”p326

But wait. Wilber FABRICATEDED 'Boomeritis'. In coining the term, KW does not exemplify but rather PATHOLOGIZES an entire generation. Boomeritis:the disease is merely the same old syndrome of trashing the previous generation to squelch its power and influence. It's a lose/lose situation.

*Okay OKAY! Time for another sexual fantasy!
!Wait a minute,you're a woman.
*And so....?
!Statistics prove that women don't have sexual fantasies as often as men.
*Oh, really?

Fallacies have a way of entrenching themselves,overturning common sense. The contradictions in Boomeritis:the novel reveal the profound uneasiness that split Boomers along extreme lines. For all of those who tuned in, turned on, and dropped out, there were many who backed off, shut down, and turned in their former fellow travelers to the police for cash reward. Some, sensing a different kind of opportunity, rushed to get in line for the positions of power vacated by the drop outs. Ironically, it was the more timid and reactionary minds, those who did NOT 'go with the flow', who took over while the 'love revolution' played itself out and the best minds of our century succumbed to their ideological fantasies.

Our generations fantasy was that love was all you need to put an end to war and remake the world. But love alone was not enough in the climate of hostility that met our jubilant discoveries.

Where love is not, illness flourishes p329

Even the most high-minded ethics began to decay under the strain of carrying them. The media distorted our message. As much as we revelled in sex, drugs, and rock and roll, our mantra was peace, love and good vibes; and our alarm over what we saw happening around us was what fueled our efforts.


To be fair, KW begins with a round of applause and some words of faint praise for the achievements,
if not the vision and the courage required to confront authority that was so much of our generations urgent mandate.

The Boomers moved beyond traditionalism...and...scientific modernism and pioneered
a postmodern, pluralistic...understanding....spearheaded civil rights,ecological concerns,
feminism, and multi-cultural diversity.... p35

Where did these notions come from? And just what annoys the great philosopher so that he is driven to devote so much of his formidable energy to setting up a bogeyman out of the shadow side of our idealism?

KW waffles a bit in his description. Is Boomeritis a disease or a nightmare?
His accusations of “the democracy of the sick” include “shallow impulses” and preconventional, narcissistic and egocentric thinking (p149) “every bit as pernicious as the ills of modernity it so ruthlessly condemned, making the Boomers the most odious generation in American history.”(p150) In particular,he maintains that “boomeristis...ends up terribly distorting and even crippling their otherwise important contributions (p169) with their Pathological pluralism” (p241), assuming that this leads straight to cultural relativism, which, he insists, has blindsided people's ability to reason. Furthermore, he makes the ridiculous claim, at odds with with his whole theory of Spiral Dynamics, that Boomers are “trapped in flatland” because their contempt for hierarchy prevents them from moving on to the next level of development and incidentally blocking everyone else from moving right along.

All this double-think is making me sleepy. I seem to have lost my appetite so I skip dinner and settle for a cup of tea. Soon I am fast asleep. Abruptly I am woken by a restraining hand. Two shadowy figures hustle me outside, giving me no chance to resist.
The big black car speeds us through the silent streets and there is a sense of unreality that seems to muffle my fear. I have almost fallen back to sleep when abruptly, for the first time, I am blindfolded. The car stops and I sense I am being led across a vast space to a smaller,enclosed room, an elevator, I deduce. All this time I am treated gently but firmly and not a word has been spoken. Now the blindfold is removed and I can see I am being invited to use the facilities. I am left alone. Locked in.


“Boomeritis is just another version of flatland....the silly belief that there are no levels of consciousness, no higher or lower, no spiral of development-just drab and dreary flatland. p332

Well gee....!As I recall the allure of marijuana and other psychedelics was precisely this: that by simply smoking some fragrant leaves or dissolving a tiny square of blotting paper under the tongue one could thereby unlock “the doors of perception” to radically alter consciousness. There was a reason we called it, “getting high”.



Development is not a linear ladder but a fluid and a flowing affair (p22)

It does not follow that growth “intrinsically involves value ranking”. The adult is not better than the child and certainly no wiser for losing sight of the enchanted world of childhood,when everything is possible. KW almost gets this, “consciousness as a series of unfolding stages. “ (p20)”You don't lave earlier stages behind, you integrate them.” (p434)

Where does the body end and the music begin? (p8)

Flatland was the world we were born into. Still in shock, our parents rushed to normalize their lives after the brutal horrors of their century so far. They created a fantasyland bubble, and tried to furnish it with everything they felt that they had been deprived of, for their children.
We were not grateful. We felt imprisoned, not protected. We were appalled at the hypocrisy, the suffering and the exploitation behind the cheery facade. Our job was to awaken the hypnotized masses to the very real dangers of the military-industrial complex,the threats to the environment, and the stupidity of war.

Just where did we acquire these notions ?
What the fuck is 'natural capitalism' ? P296
Where did the love go?

KW chooses to explore none of these questions. He seems trapped by the notion of a Boomer elite, a conspiracy “to viciously destroy all values other than it's own.” ( p149) He does claim, surprisingly, that, in the spiral of development, that what he identifies as the Green Stage, (that's us!) is in fact, the highest level of what he calls first-tier consciousness. If we could only get over ourselves,KW muses, we'd be ready for the leap to second tier. No matter that all other stages of development took their millennium to gestate and develop their base. No matter that Green Consciousness has been around for less than a century and has scarcely been articulated. KW seems to scold us for not developing our potential faster, along the same lines as his theories indicate, and it infuriates him, it seems, that those Boomers are stubbornly resisting that great leap to 2nd tier, integral consciousness.

Integral: to integrate,to bring together, to join
unity-in-diversity, shared commonalities along with mutual recognition of our wonderful differences....p15

Can a truly integral culture exist in today's climate of identity politics,culture wars...conflicting paradigms, deconstructive postmodernism, nihilism,pluralistic relativism and the politics of self.? Can an integral vision even be recognized, let alone accepted, in such an atmosphere? p16

But what if KW is wrong here and we have already made the leap to 2nd level consciousness? We already possess “an increased capacity to be more inclusive, more embracing, more caring and less marginalizing” (p 372)Rather than berate us for stalling the jump, realize we have already jumped. We are not on top of the heap but at the bottom of the higher levels, groping our way.

There seems no reason not to indulge. Bathwater to the perfect temperature has been already drawn. Music calms the room. Time, already elongated, slows and seems to stop, until, TA DA a fanfare accompanies the opening of the door and I am wrapped in plush towels and led to another room where I am given a choice of gowns. When I am finally led from there, I feel prepared for anything, except, it seems, another blindfolding. This time I am led to another room of considerable size before the blindfold is removed. The room is almost empty save for a dazzlement of light. I can make out at the farthest end a curious pedestal. A sublime march is playing as I drift towards it. I am not entirely surprised to see, seated in splendour, Ken Wilber. He is wearing a multi-coloured robe of some brilliant material, with a huge stone set in a jewelled pyramid. He beckons me to come closer, and closer, so I do. Am I about to get under neath the myth of this man? What is underneath his robe?


Facts are not discovered, they are invented and then imposed on others. (p281)

(p253) timeless enlightenment continues forever

It was disappointing. Under the beautiful shimmering colours of his robe was a fully buttoned business suit.”And out of that infinite Emptiness the entire World explodes and I am flooded with an ecstasy so unbearably intense I splinter into a million souls dispersed in cosmic winds, I arise as an infinity of translucent stars adorning the sheltering sky....”(p452)

Nothing for it but to reach out, and rip off that stuffy suit, and lo! The naked mystic is revealed.

Care to take a walk on the wild side? (p435)

[Illimar Kaasiku · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommend this book for everyone who wants to understand our postmodern green culture better and more thoroughly. It is a pretty big mess out there I must admit and agree with Ken Wilber.

According to Wilber every worldview has its own shadows, pathologies and extremes. For example preconventional red can be infected with power and physical violence; traditional mythic blue absorbed in sexism and racism; orange scientific rationality overshadowed by anthropocentrism and speciesism; and the same way can green postmodern relativistic pluralism be infected with boomeritis.

Wilber explains: “The evidence strongly suggests that Boomers went through childhood, adolescence, and early adult development—from beige to purple to red to blue to orange to green—and there, at green, they settled in for the next thirty years. The Boomers were the first major generation in history to reach green—and thus the first to also be open to pathological green, to the mean green meme, to pluralism infected with narcissism—flatland inhabited by a big ego—by any other name, boomeritis.”

But boomeritis doesn’t apply only to Boomers. Wilber writes: “There were also many Xers and Ys—or Busters and Blasters, Slackers and Echoes, Nexters and Millennials, pick your favorite terms—the two major waves of Boomer children, united by that fact [infected with boomeritis]. I ran the ages through my head: Boomers are those born roughly 1940–1960; Xers, 1960–1980; and Ys, 1980–2000, give or take a few years.”

Wilber writes in his book that if we can heal and overcome boomeritis, which is one of the main obstacles in moving to the next level of consciousness a.k.a. integral, we can have a truly liberating social revolution in our near future. Wilber explains, I quote: “Right now there is only 2% of the population at second tier [integral]. If that 2% goes to 5%, we will start to see some profound shifts in the culture. If that 2% goes to 10%—that is, if 10% of the population reaches integral consciousness—we will see a major cultural revolution, comparable at least to that of the sixties.”

The aim of this book is very simple: it points out the boomeritis in the culture and in your mind. If you feel uncomfortable reading it then you are infected. Stay with this confusion for a while. Eventually it will dissolve and 'will set you free' - helps you to take the quantum leap into the hyperspace of integral consciousness - as Wilber promised.

[Willa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book makes you cringe... it gives a great felt sense of what it means to be postmodern. I want to read it again when I get a chance, but still often think back of it. In fact, it was the book that opened my eyes to the huge problems of Postmodernity that we are now up against, and how pervasive the thinking is - we're all much more entrenched in narcissism, egalitarianism, political correctness and all the rest, than we think (who, me??).
The only thing I hate about it is the silly overtly sexual interludes - I wish he had left them out. I guess it's to make a point about postmodernity, but I don't really want to go through that kind of stuff, sorry!
Anyway it couldn't really spoil the book - it did cost it one star in my view.

[Rae Phoenix · Rating 1 out of 5]

white dude takes acid once and shits out a cringey postmodern “novel”

[Reed Fagan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually don't think the sub-title - "A Novel That Will Set You Free!" - is that far-off. While the book won't lay out the specific path of transformation for you, it will alert you that a path is there. That path is realizing that a spectrum of consciousness exists and growth means moving to higher levels of consciousness, essentially going from being ego- to ethno- to world- to cosmocentric in your values.

I was led here by listening to and reading Fr. Richard Rohr who seems to be a proponent of Spiral Dynamics - which this book thoroughly investigates - and the ideas of Ken Wilber.

I'll say this is a fairly "heady" read: lots of college-level jargon and long lectures on Spiral Dynamics w/i the text. This is in novel format but the "plot" is the main character - named Ken Wilber and representing the author's self in a postmodern kind of way - attending an academic conference, hence the lectures. Even for an idea-guy like myself this demands a lot of concentration to get through. The sex helps - lol. Young Ken Wilber has brief explicit fantasies every few pages. They seem gratuitous but their presence and their purpose gets explained later. A wise character reminds us that the cravings we feel are frequently not truly for the thing per se but for something touched on through it (very much a C.S. Lewis "signposts" kind of concept). If I had to state what that "thing" was, based on my interpretation of this work I'd use the words "connection" or "unity". For as the protagonist Ken Wilber learns, at the highest levels of consciousness one finally realizes their connectedness to all else which dissolves all conflict and discord. At humans' best they live with that sacred bond always in mind.

Finally, I'll mention a tack author Wilber takes in this book that makes it slightly more interesting albeit true I can't speak to how accurate/informed his writing on the matter is. His protagonist is a computer science student and originally gets intrigued by the conference he attends because he thinks AI ("the Bots" or "the AIs") will, like humans, have to develop through the entire spiral of consciousness. And because of this development, humanity and AI will actually be partners in self-discovery and realization in the end. Definitely gets you thinking.

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not an easy book to read, but one that makes you think a lot.

This work of "fiction" is really Ken Wilber's Integral philosophy about human consciousness. Boomeritis is a level of consciousness that reflects pluralism, anti-hierarchy, egalitarian, and narcissism. This is NOT an integral philosphy.

He presents the ideas in a the form of fiction - a young AI grad student is attending a lecture series entitled "Boomeritis" presented by the Integral Center. Boomeritis represents a large majority of people, and because people who have Boomeritis believe that all views are equally valid, that none are really better than the other, then no one can really tell me what to do!

Wilber's Intergral philosophy is about mulitple levels of consciousness, including 3 tiers, and Boomeritis is stuck in level 1, and level 2 and 3 reflects a more integrated and holistic view.

I really liked the style of the book - there were the series of "lectures", and snippets of conversations at lunch or dinner where the lectures were discussed. It had a way of breaking up the intensity, and allowing some of the ideas to sink in a bit. I'm with the other reviewers, however, who didn't like the frequent dialogues with the naked girlfriend - that got really old, and I just ended up skipping those parts.

I think it's a good overview to Wilber's philosophy.

[Rachel Avery · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd rate it higher, but as is usual when a writer tries to use a fictional narrative to support a abstract philosophizing, the story itself is contrived and clunky (though the way the narrator's sexual fantasies reflect the development of the philosophical theme is interesting and really funny). He said a lot of things here that had bothered me for a long time though (mostly about why I have such a problem dealing with the hippie ethos) that I hadn't quite been able to articulate, which was satisfying on a smug, personal level, and there is a lot of interesting discussion of the serious troubles caused by pluralism, the ethics of "tolerance", and moral relativism while still giving credit where credit is due, and without falling into the regressive traps most other critics of lefty social and political theory are haven't avoided. Check out his other books for more detailed discussion of integral theory, which is, for all it's flaws, an interesting and worthwhile project.

[Suhrob · Rating 3 out of 5]

The 'novel' is 1 star, the lecture is 4. The writing overall is pretty weak (even embarassing in the non-lecture parts) and very repetitive both in structure and content.

The material of the lectures is quite interesting. Sadly 14 years later all the critiques stay still current, perhaps even more urgent: the current election cycle, social justice warriors and the pc culture, immigration question etc...

Still there are some worrisome ideological features in the book, but overall its heart (and thank god) its brain is in the right place.

A minor quibble: naming things is really important and I think Boomeritis is not a helpful name. Wilber does give his reasons (naming diseases after famous "sufferers"), but this choice by far overshadows the more important point that it is not confined to its namesakers. Who in their right mind wants to read about the problems of boomers in 21. century?

[Paula · Rating 1 out of 5]

Short: Don't bother.
Long: This book was a significant turning point in my former infatuation with Wilber, in no small part because it was just so BAD. There was much discussion of the book as "meta-writing," a critique of postmodernist "mean green meme" relativists supposedly using their own pop-culture tools of literary construction, blah blah blah. However, it really doesn't matter to me what the intentions of the author were if the work is so miserable I don't want to finish it. If every copy if this book in the world disappeared, that might be a bad thing, because then Wilber might be tempted to write another one. Want to learn about Integral Theory? Go read "A Theory of Everything." Stay away from this mind-blowingly bad book.

[Brandon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Tedious! Intentionally so, I'm pretty sure, as a sort of joke on post-modernism. Still, hard to get through, and I found the weird sexual fantasy intrusions incredibly annoying and pointless... but there are some fascinating ideas in it. However, if you're interested in finding out what Wilber's thought is, which you should, because he has some amazing things to say, skip this one and read some of his non-fiction books. You'll get the info without the insipid plot.

[Aaron Overfield · Rating 2 out of 5]

Being such a Wilber fan that I would consider myself a Wilberian, I have to admit this book was a huge disappointment. I would love to see him try more fiction and incorporate his philosophies into stories, but this one truly fell flat and seemed lifeless. Ken Wilber inspired me to write fiction the way I do and I can only hope to read some fiction from him that reflects what I know he's capable of creating.

[Rick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank the Good Lord that Wilber doesn't write fiction too often! Yikes. I can understand his attempt to capture his "Theory of Everything" in an easy-to-read story, but this was pretty painful.
Character Development: F.
Plot: D.
Laying out his theory for the masses: A. Unfortunately, it's just not worth it.

[Maxim Nosov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Захватывающее приключение-введение в интегральный подход, эволюцию сознания и поджидающие его (сознание) ловушки на пути к освобождению и дальнейшему росту. В условиях постсоветской действительности в ближайшие -дцать лет эта книга, как выдержанное вино, год от года будет становиться только актуальнее.

[Marco · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book shows me in the clearest way I can imagine how a person can be good at one thing and suck horribly at something similar to it.

This is one of the worst books I've ever read. Cringe fest through and through. Ken Wilber cannot write a novel. Holy shit this was bad.

2 stars because I like the guy

[Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ken Wilber is a brilliant philosopher who filled this book with TONS of consciousness expanding ideas but EFF is it one hell of a clunky read. Its 100% worth the work though. Its one of those books that really doesn't pay off until its over.

[Davis Kingsley · Rating 1 out of 5]

Perhaps the worst-written book that I have ever read. Almost the entire book consists of lecturers explaining the author's philosophy in repetitive detail, interspersed with sexual fantasies that add nothing to the narrative. The philosophy is interesting, but this presentation is absurd.

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE FAMED "NEW AGE"/INTEGRAL THINKER PRESENTS HIS IDEAS IN A FICTIONAL FORMAT

Okay, let's first of all admit that, as novels go, this one is not a "classic." The plot line is thin, the story rambles, and Wilber frequently inserts sex language and scenes that have no real relation to the narrative. But the format of a novel (whose protagonists attend lectures, discuss philosophy, etc.) gives Wilber much room to expound his own ideas, about some subjects not really covered in his nonfiction books.

A lecturer states, "The Baby Boom generation... has, like any generation, its strengths and weaknesses. Its strengths include an extraordinary vitality, creativity, and idealism, plus a willingness to experiment with new ideas beyond traditional values... Boomer weaknesses... include an unusual dose of self-absorption and narcissism, so much so that most people, Boomers included, simply nod their heads in acknowledgement when the phrase 'the Me generation' is mentioned." (Pg. 17-18)

The narrator (named "Ken Wilber") observes, "What Hazelton was calling 'Boomeritis' is not confined to Boomers, any more than Lou Gehrig's disease is confined to Lou Gehrig. Anybody can get it; it's simply named after its most famous victim." (Pg. 38-39)

Another says, "for green the downside is that it does indeed become a huge supermagnet for narcissism---I do my thing, you do your thing, emphasis on ME and MINE. And that is the disastrous side of the Boomer equation... that part that has caused almost as much damage as the high part has caused good. And we are still reeling from the absolute nightmares and cultural catastrophes of the shadow side of the Woodstock Nation." (Pg. 35) Later, the book states, "Boomers...got stuck at green... And since pluralism---'I do my thing, you do your thing'---is a supermagnet for narcissism, it became the home of boomeritis---high pluralism mixed with low narcissism." (Pg. 125)

Still another argues, "Deconstruction never really took hold anywhere but in America. It never caught on in Britain, certainly not in Germany, Japan or Nigeria. No, it took off in the one country where an epidemic of boomeritis had already prepared the ground. As no less than Jacques Derrida himself exclaimed... 'American IS Deconstruction!'" (Pg. 201)

Yet another says, "How would something like an integral feminism work? ... it would recognize that both men and women have different values at each of the stages of development... As it is now, the green-meme feminist looks as history... and, since she cannot find her green values anywhere in history, she assumes that these wonderful values were being OPPRESSED, instead of realizing that they simply had not yet emerged. But once she mistakenly assumes that these values have been oppressed, then she must do two things: assume males are oppressive swine, and assume females are brainwashed sheep. And off we go with the two deeply mistaken cornerstones of boomeritis feminism---the pigification of men, and the sheepification of women." (Pg. 229)

One of the more interesting passages to me, is this: "The core of New Age spirituality... is the belief, 'You create your own reality.' ... To its credit, the New Age movement is attempting to get in touch with an all-pervading spiritual and creative source... the final New Age product is part mixture of good cognitive psychology, and part emotional narcissism and prerational magic, and part what seems to be a rather complete misunderstanding of the mystical traditions...

"The typical New Age notion is that you want good things to happen to you, so think good thoughts; and because you create your own reality, those thoughts will come true. Conversely, if you are sick, it's because you have been bad. The mystical notion, on the other hand, is that your deepest Self transcends BOTH good and bad, so by accepting ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING that happens to you---by equally embracing both good and bad with equanimity---you can transcend the ego altogether. The idea is... to gently rise above both." (Pg. 334-336)

If you like Wilber's nonfiction, you'll probably like this book (although you may find yourself "skipping around" in it). But if you're just looking for a brisk, fast-paced novel, you'll probably hate it.

[Gnuehc Ecnerwal · Rating 1 out of 5]

(1) False information on the back cover of the book, claiming that the author earned his degree from MIT in Computer Science and Artificial Life.
(2) This book was written by a 22-year-old college drop-out who considered himself a philosopher.

If those are not warning signs enough to deter you, and you still insist on reading this book, as I did from cover to cover, you will be utterly disappointed like me when you are done.

What a total waste of time is this repetitive drivel of a novel! Like so many writers who desperately wanted to push their half-baked metaphysics, Ken Wilber takes the form of a novel. What a convenient way to blur the line between his real beliefs and fiction, leaving room for potential back pedaling if these beliefs were scrutinized.

His so-called Integral Philosophy that is the medicine for Boomeritis, is nothing but a repackaged version of Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirits. A philosophy that encompasses all human thoughts, social development, historical events, including criticism of phenomenology, as being necessary elements that can lead humanity towards a higher consciousness and ultimately to the Spirit. Such a cunningly crafted philosophy is basically safe from any criticism or refutation. Coincidentally, Hegel and Wilber are both deeply influenced by Buddhist philosophy. It is no surprise that they both thought that it gave them the unique, exotic insights that gave them an advantage over their contemporaries in the western culture.

The novel contains basically no plot points, one-dimensional characters, and ZERO enjoyment. It contains pages and pages of tired and unimaginative dissertation of his metaphysics, disguised as a university-level lecture series that reveal the problems on the world caused by Boomeritis. The purpose of these lecture was to slyly discredit certain recent social, academic and intellectual trends (all of which posed a challenge to the remedy that he would be proposing at the end of the book, which I will refrain from disclosing here.) It is not hard to see why any analytical methods (despite their imperfections) that dealt with hard evidence must be discredited and demonized in order for his metaphysics to stand.

Don't waste your time on this book, it's just another 'westerner who discovered Buddhism' and suddenly becomes a guru. The amount of hubris and narcissism, ironically, is strong and nauseating.

[Scot · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though at sometimes pretentious, and clearly an attempt by Ken Wilber to share his psychology in the format of "fiction," this was an excellent read. Personally, I have been struggling with coming to terms with the left's behavior these days matching many they abhor on the right and a lack of awareness that this attitude keeps us in a neverending duality of good/evil, right/wrong, liberal/conservative, etc. etc. and I think Wilber's analysis 15 years ago was spot on as it relates to that.

I was also fascinated by his presentation of the evolution of society from the beginning to animism to war-like to religious to science to what began in the 60's. Whether his conclusions of the possibility to evolve beyond where we are now and move to the next stage of society or not remains to be seen as it seems we have gone even further backwards since he wrote this.

Regardless, it is excellent analysis and presented in a pseudo-PoMo way that makes fun of itself just enough that you have to not take it seriously.

Despite some reviews hating on the main character, I found him interesting and endearing and a good foil. I also loved the musical references from the late 90's and early 2000's so much that I made a YouTube playlist that you can find here - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...

Recommended for anyone that feels stuck in the middle at this moment in time, is interested in the wave of psychology that combines new thinking with ancient spirituality, or that thinks baby boomers are the cause of some of the biggest problems we are facing in society and want to get an interesting take on that.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...

[Jennifer Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a weird book, I don’t even know how to review it 😅 My impression during the majority of the book was that it really wasn’t much of a “novel,” it was just a way of presenting integral theory in the context of the characters being at a seminar about that information. So for the majority of the book, I kind of wished Wilber would drop the weird charade and just present the information like he does in his other books. Then about halfway through I noticed the “about the author” page declaring that Ken Wilber wrote this book at 23, and I was all at once very impressed and very confused. The timelines weren’t adding up. I finally realized this wasn’t the actual Ken Wilber but the character Ken Wilber (yes, that is the main character’s name 🤣), and now I start realizing how the whole charade is basically a parody on the very concept of Boomeritis. Once that clicked for me, the book went from weird to… possibly… genius? Still trying to decide. Either way, it did help me better grasp the levels of consciousness, and the concept of flatland and Boomeritis. And I found the ending where young Ken meets present Ken particularly intriguing. It was weird, but it did help me conceptualize the VERY abstract concepts of third tier consciousness. So… mission accomplished, I guess?

[Evan Kostelka · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel takes place within a series of lectures describing the spiral dynamic philosophy in great detail while describing the boomeritis worldview, which is pluralism infected with narcissism.
As someone new to spiral dynamics, this novel was an accessible introduction to the philosophy. Much of the novel focuses on the failings of the leading edge of culture, the mean green meme. I felt the last seminar, which was the integral worldview, was lacking in specifics compared to the other seminars. I am interested to learn more about this philosophy after reading the book.

[Emmanuel Garcia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enlightening, engage, erudite. =)

Jumps from post modern philosophy to computer science to philosophy of mind. An engaging exposition of transpersonal psychology and modern human development theories that introduces it in the context of the Boomers TM.

[Paul Brooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you prefer a novel, there is not really a better way to learn integral theory in that format. Brilliant.

[Philip Meckley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Long. Probably interesting stuff in here somewhere, if you can get past the lecturing.

[Vani · Rating 1 out of 5]

Too hard to get through.

[Giovanni Bianco · Rating 3 out of 5]

Como o próprio tradutor da obra para o português comenta: "Este é um romance pós-moderno. Ele conta as aventuras e desventuras de um jovem e ingênuo estudante de ciência da computação que, entre fantasias sexuais, busca um significado para a fragmentada situação contemporânea da humanidade. Passeando com desenvoltura pelo intrincado mundo do pós-modernismo, Ken Wilber nos conduz com erudição, maestria e bom humor a um epílogo ao mesmo tempo surpreendente e iluminador."

Neste romance magistral (do ponto de vista de uma obra pós-moderna, com todo seu despojamento arrogante e crítico às formas tradicionais de literatura) Wilber veste a pele daqueles a quem mais critica: os Boomers, a geração Eu. Usando este estilo, conta uma história que apresenta os problemas e alternativas à pós-modernidade desconstrutivista, narcisista e egocêntrica da geração Woodstock. O próprio título do livro, a la auto-ajuda New Age da pior qualidade, é uma ironia flagrante. Portanto, não é apenas o conteúdo do romance (altamente teórico para um romance) que expõe Boomerite, mas também a própria estrutura do livro e o estilo de escrita.

Como se escreve um romance pós-moderno? Você terá a oportunidade de constatar que o autor seguiu rigorosamente uma ”receita“ de sete itens que, em sua opinião, resumem a essência do pós-modernismo:

I – Apresentando o pós-modernismo, fundamentalmente, uma postura crítica, o romance,para ser de fato pós-moderno, tem de criticar o pós-modernismo. A fim de fazê-lo, deve exemplificar tudo o que critica.

II – Como para o pós-modernismo, por definição, não existe diferença entre fato e ficção,o romance deve apresentar alguns personagens factuais e outros puramente imaginários. E não se preocupe em identificar quem é quem.

III – Está implícita no pós-modernismo a convicção de que todos os homens brancos são notórios criminosos e idiotas: assim, certifique-se de que cada personagem masculino branco apresente algum tipo de comportamento Questionável oculto – bater na esposa, dormir com uma aluna, ser acusado de estupro ou assassinato, essas coisas.

IV – Uma vez que o pós-modernismo trata basicamente de teoria – e omite quaisquer pessoas reais, lugares reais, arte real, vida real – o romance deve ser essencialmente de e sobre teoria.

V – Todos os personagens têm de ser planos e bidimensionais. Não unidimensionais, mas também não tridimensionais, o que está perfeitamente de acordo com a crença pós-moderna de que não existe nenhuma profundidade, apenas superfícies.

VI – O pós-modernismo desconstrutivista é,principalmente,uma atitude negativa de crítica distorcida,não uma Contribuição positiva;conseqüentemente, a arte pós-moderna,quando consegue ser vagamente positiva, normalmente. O faz incluindo – roubando – elementos de expressões artísticas passadas (já que não consegue pensar sobre qualquer coisa nova por si mesma). Portanto, o romance deve incluir todos os tipos de “imitações baratas” requentadas do passado.

VII – Finalmente,se conseguir incluir todos estes itens,então.para manter o requisito da auto-reflexividade. Descubra um jeito de ressaltar no próprio romance que ele representa a grande façanha pós-moderna. Exagere na arrogância, marcando pontos extras.


É uma leitura agradável, embora possa ser bastante técnica para quem não conhece alguns postulados básicos das teorioas discutidas (especialmente a psicologia de desenvolvimento). O livro é ilário a seu modo - e ainda consegue manter a seriedade para a discussão de questões realmente importantes para nossa época. Seus argumentos, reunidos de forma tão poderosa, representam um crítica feroz a Boomerite e, até onde posso ver, insuperável em sua profundidade e quantidade de dimensões analisadas.

[Aaron Varela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now that I have completed a second read of this novel perhaps 5-6 Years after my original effort I have to say Wilber is a genius. Anyone who could take everything he is promoting getting beyond, the green meme level of conscious development and not only show the hindrance it has brought to our advancement but also exemplify it by being it, ridiculing it and personifying it in his own writing making himself not out of reach of judgement for being that which he ventures to overcome. No one is innocent of development because we all go through the course if development leaving everyone susceptible to the pathologies of the day at any level of development. He has created the perfect postmodern work of literature that is everything the mean green meme personifies and still providing us with the road he has taken to depart from the wasteland of of the green meme and continue our own personal journey to God. I encourage a reading of the recommended writings provided in the book which is the basis of my critic.