The Religion of Tomorrow: A Vision for the Future of the Great Traditions-More Inclusive, More Comprehensive, More Complete

by Ken Wilber

A provocative examination of how the great religious traditions can remain relevant in modern times by incorporating scientific truths learned about human nature over the last century.
A single purpose lies at the heart of all the great religious traditions: awakening to the astonishing reality of the true nature of ourselves and the universe. At the same time, through centuries of cultural accretion and focus on myth and ritual as ends in themselves, this core insight has become obscured. Here Ken Wilber provides a path for reenvisioning a religion of the future that acknowledges the evolution of humanity in every realm while remaining faithful to that original spiritual vision. For the traditions to attract modern men and women, Wilber asserts, they must incorporate the extraordinary number of scientific truths learned about human nature in just the past hundred years--for example, about the mind and brain, emotions, and the growth of consciousness--that the ancients were simply unaware of and thus were unable to include in their meditative systems. Taking Buddhism as an example, Wilber demonstrates how his comprehensive Integral Approach--which is already being applied to several world religions by some of their adherents--can avert a -cultural disaster of unparalleled proportions- the utter neglect of the glorious upper reaches of human potential by the materialistic postmodern worldview. Moreover, he shows how we can apply this approach to our own spiritual practice. This, his most sweeping work since Sex, Ecology, Spirituality, is a thrilling call for wholeness, inclusiveness, and unity in the religions of tomorrow.

Genres: Spirituality, Psychology, Philosophy, Religion, Nonfiction, Buddhism, Audiobook

816 pages, Hardcover

First published June 21, 2016

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

[Ian Felton · Rating 1 out of 5]

Making thousands of vaporous assumptions while using capital letters for every other word while repeating the same amorphous concepts doesn't make for an intelligent read, or an enjoyable read.

Take the following single sentence, capitalization all Wilbur's:

"Since Reality is the union of Emptiness and Form, to discover Emptiness is to be free of any specific or isolated Form, and instead to become one with ALL Form, a radical Fullness that is the Form side of the radical Freedom of Emptiness-with infinite and finite, nirvana and samsara, Emptiness and Form, Freedom and Fullness, all nondual."

Surely this was written as a joke! I have never wanted to run a book to the used book store to sell, but that's what I want to do right now with this book. I don't want this book in my house. If there is a hell in Wilbur's religion of tomorrow, it will be a chapel with hard seats, full of head-nodding people in nice clothes, listening to a droning preacher reading page after page of this book.

[Eugene Pustoshkin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This 800-page book is a groundbreaking achievement of a supramentally-streaming mind, heart, and soul. I just finished translating it to Russian (the translation will be published in 2021), and I will never be the same again. It has been a long journey, I have spent two years translating the text, but, really, I had never felt so serene and peaceful after translating or editing any book or any text whatsoever as I felt once I translated the last words of the book. The material is very practical. There is no one who writes with such breadth and depth as Ken Wilber, while going directly to the heart matter of Integral supramentally unitive vision of the Kosmos. I am so grateful I am alive at this time in history when I could read such a text and partake in the evolutionary unfolding of humanity.

[Alan Araújo · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was great to see Wilber's ideas on integral thought to be even more developed, fine-tuned, and updated in this tome. Yes, there is a lot of repetition of key concepts, and reviews of those repetitions, but they are meant to really drive the point home. The description of the "religion of tomorrow" is in somewhat broad terms, within integral parameters, with lots of room for higher perspectives, and malleable enough to be applied to any spiritual tradition. Lots of attention on technical details. I wish there were more of Wilber's passionate, poetic paragraphs -- in particular when he describes the drives of the Kosmos and the role of the individual reader in the evolutionary process (Eros). Big fan.

[Morgan Blackledge · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is A LOT to love about Wilber.

And (not quite as much, but still) A LOT to give one pause.

It’s like they say in Med School.

50% of what you learn is wrong.

And it’s up to you to figure out which is which.

However.

The BIG problem problem with Wilber is.

There is nearly NO serious criticism of his work.

Because he’s so far outside the mainstream.

So you’re basically on your own to parse through outrageously strong truth claim after truth claim.

With no real validity test.

Or peer review.

The burden of all of that is on the reader.

Given that.

I have been reading Wilber for two decades at this point.

And I find much of his work to be indispensable.

The most frustrating part about reading Wilber.

Is basically the fact that so few other people read him.

I have heard SO MANY ARGUMENTS that would have benefited TREMENDOUSLY from a little Ken Wilber.

But (as mentioned) almost no one reads him.

And of the people that do.

A lot of them are a little bit cult like in their zeal.

So it’s hard to find a good conversation about his work.

Anyway.

This book is as close to a comprehensive single volume collection of his ideas as I’m aware of.

And it’s actually quite good.

But…

This book is SO LONG that I have to hold it to a higher standard.

It’s probably not meant to be read straight through.

As such.

It’s HIGHLY REPETITIVE.

Additionally.

Wilber bloviates a bit.

Particularly when describing enlightenment and exalted states of consciousness.

He gets a little “creative”.

I’m not saying there’s a better way of describing them.

But…

It becomes tiresome to read about the luminosity of the suchness of non-dual being. For the 30th time. Like I said. The book is repetitive. Perhaps out of necessity. But probably for lack of editing.

Finally.

Wilbur is really opinionated.

It’s part of what makes reading him kind of awesome.

That’s also what makes his work kind of indefensible.

You have to read it for what it is.

Take the good.

And throw the crazy shit in the bin.

Or at least keep it to yourself that you secretly agree 😜

4/5 🌟

Don’t let these criticisms keep you from reading Wilber.

I think everybody should.

[Cian Kenshin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just finished reading this 800 page tome. It's a treatise on consciousness, but also more generally the human condition. He makes a case for evolving the technology that we use to grow up (psychology), wake up (conciseness), and clean up (Shadow work) as an integrated process instead of disparate. He gives solid examples and frameworks for others to develop their own systems that will be more inclusive of the different aspects of reality. It's not a rejection of Science or any religion. In fact it's an integration, an inclusion of all lines of human development, a meta framework that transcends and includes them all.

A pleasant surprise was the reference to Mondo Zen/Hollow Bones Zen by Junpo Denis Kelly in the latter half of the book. This is where he recognizes emerging traditions that have had a rethink, and have been designed to be more inclusive of all aspects of human development. He also mentioned how impressed he was at how quickly these new process were at transmitting states of consciousness to new students. I certainly can vouch for that myself, from both sides of the equation!

Highly recommend!

[Ramo Boer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, just started and like I've experienced with most of Ken's books, it is like coming home!

[Malum · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like a lot of Wilber's ideas, but after reading several of his books and watching a few of his interviews, there is a trend that is starting to appear.

First of all, Wilber only seems to have one thing to say. All of his books that I have read are not only very similar, but they all use the exact same examples, the same metaphors, and the same studies (the "Nazi doctor" example is getting especially tiresome. I have heard it in every interview and read it in every book of his). This book is particularly bad about this because he repeats these things over and over, word for word. This brick would be much shorter if he just stopped needlessly repeating himself. (it's fascinating-although not quite surprising- that homophobes show an increased sexual reaction to homosexual images, but do we need to be told this three times?).

Also, for someone that talks solely about levels of human spiritual development, it's starting to feel like Wilber is lower on his scale than he seems to believe. He loves to quote other people saying how great he is, and toward the end when he started talking about how he "cracked" a bunch of Zen koans, I did a hard eye roll (that's not how Zen koans work).

So, over all, I like a lot of Ken's ideas, but I think I squeezed all the juice from the orange that is Ken Wilber and I'm starting to get seeds at this point.

[Debby Hallett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ken Wilber's work has changed my life. I started reading his books in the 1990's. I keep buying his books looking for something new to inspire me and change my life further, but am repeatedly disappointed. His books have changed my life, but I didn't see much new in this one (I read about 75% 0of it and it was much the same message as his previous works.)

I *would* like to see him publish more frequent, shorter works that would help to explain the world's events in terms of his model. I would keep buying them...

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wilber’s work remains quite dense and quite up lifting to me as a reader 20 years after originally reading his theories. This latest of his books I read has a lot of beautiful, hopeful ideology and ideas about human development. Some of the chapters about shadow imagery of beyond integral levels of understanding and being were over my head, and took a while to slog through as a reader, but I am left at the end with hopefulness about the nature of my own spiritual journey being able to realize the already present nature of my true being and that is a really positive place to leave a reader. The nature of my quibbles is also contained in the latter explanation of the book, as also included in Wilber’s theory. I am grateful for the other works sites by Wilber as well that will point my future thought into different realms that I am not as well read in as I would like. Glad to have read this one, but not sure who I would recommend it to.

[Haris Wahid · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spirituality is evolving very fast but religions also need to be open-minded and evolve.

What a crazy 30 hour audiobook ride!! A deeeeeeeep book that integrates science and spirituality and describes how a more integral religion could be developed. I had previously studied Spiral Dynamics so knew about the stages of evolution of culture - and some books about Buddhism annd non-duality. This book had so many deep insights that I know after I have taken a while to digest everything. Maybe in a couple of years or a bit longer. I will definitely return and look forward to it. To better process it <3

Integral theory is not trying to say one 'ism' or paradigm is right - it is seeing there are multiple types of intelligences - and going meta to see what the different 'lines' as he calls them share in common as they go through different stages of development.

Not for the faint hearted and for those who are skeptical about spirituality and ideas like spirituality and non-dualism. He does explain everything in a very rational and intuitive manner with a lot of research but you must be open-minded.

[Ødegård Solveig · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars and the only reason why I don't give it a full rating is because I didn't really grasp the full depths of the concepts in this book. That's totally on me. Will be re-reading when I'm further along my development journey. Recommended if you're interested in the human experience, existence, spirituality, the development of our current (and past) society etc... And want to get your head in a head in a loop.

[ManGar · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is not a criticism but a description of my experience in engaging with this book.

“The Religion of Tomorrow” is a very seductive title. I was familiar with Ken Wilber from some of his material that focused on the US foray into Iraq in 2003. I remember a characterization of the US move as founded at the Red level. It was a logical, rational discussion delivered in the context of Spiral Dynamics.

Having an interest in all things spiritual I launched into reading this book. This decision was also based on the writer's association with other writers that I respect, such as Thomas Keating and Richard Rohr.

This adventure has been a challenge because the writer has chosen a method of communication that uses a plethora of terms delivered with quotation marks, italics, dashes, yet is often delivered via endless sentences with numerous clauses that go on for entire pages.

The book itself is an epic work that encompasses a lot of material that I found difficult to digest at times. Many insightful concepts are introduced that I found engaging; yet I found myself caught up in the challenges in the format the writer used for delivery.

In my view, if I were to teach this material trying to achieve a thorough grasping by the student, I would provide: 1. A thorough glossary to all the terms that the writer takes for granted. 2. Go simply and clearly through all terms listed in Figure 4.1 "Some details from the 4 quadrants.” 3. Go simply and clearly through each term used in Figures 6.1 and "Some major developmental lines." and 6.2 "Some further developmental lines (plus meditative states). Those figures capture the gist of the book elegantly.

I first checked out this book around May of 2019. I have now finished as of October 8, 2020. I had to renew the book multiple times, of course. Did I read every word? Absolutely not. I read the first few chapters, maybe the first third of the book; then I "speed read" the next third. After that I limited myself to reading the first line of each paragraph. I did read the Conclusion.

Overall the book delivers innovative thinking about the transformative potential of mankind and how it fits into the Cosmos.

[Joseph Knecht · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the magnum opus of Ken Wilber. It probably took him his whole life to integrate all different development models, spiritual traditions and personal insights. That said, this is not an easy read.

Wilber talks about the spiritual evolution of man through growth in structures and states. Structures are permanent, states are temporary. Structures are earned, states are given for free. One evolves through the structures, and one uses the peak states to evolve faster.

Ken divides Structures into 3tiers. He calls them, GROWING UP, WAKING UP, CLEANING UP.

1st tier. Growing up is the state of development where the id and the ego evolve through the awareness of self separate from the world.

2nd tier: Waking up is the state of development where the ego dissolves into the world and becomes aware that there is a Higher Self.

3rd tier: Cleaning up is the state of development where the Higher Self becomes aware of the Supreme Mind and recognizes there was no ego, nor Self but only Mind.

The biggest value of this book is the shadow work material. Wilber describes the most common way people fall into their own shadows. They reject parts of themselves that would allow them to reach their Higher Self. He does this for all levels of development. If you are stuck in your spiritual journey, here you might find the answer you have been looking for. For me, it took about 500 pages of reading to find the answer I needed. So perseverance paid off.

Wilber also argues the need for semiotics where words can be linked to a well-defined state of description. Oftentimes he fails to describe these words himself. He uses many words, ex. Suchness, Isness, Thusness without no common definition. If you yourself have a subjective experience of these states, you understand their meaning. But if you don't, you won't understand much.

But at the end, I am grateful to Ken Wilber for creating the map of spiritual evolution. Like any map, it's not perfect, but it can show us where we are and where we are headed. I really enjoyed his summary chapters where he spoke more from the soul.

Some other quotes I really enjoyed:
-As long as you are identified with your present self, your present subject, you can’t let go of it and make room for the next higher subject, or relative self, and thus you derail your chances of reaching your Absolute Subjectivity, or Real Self and True Nature, let alone your Supreme Identity

-all the languages ever produced; every form of mathematics and logic; and so on and so on and so on. ALL of those were produced during involution and hidden in the higher unconscious, and evolution is nothing but an unfolding of those already created forms that are lying in our unconscious, or in Spirit, and awaiting their turn to emerge.

-What you most deeply are, and what I AM as well, is looking out of the eyes of each and every being in the entire world: every ant, deer, lion, Mexican, German, Canadian, Russian, Iranian, Israeli, all one and the same I AMness, one Spirit, one Self. As Erwin Schrödinger, cofounder of modern quantum mechanics, put it, “Consciousness is a singular of which the plural is unknown.”

-Consciousness is not a thing, process, event, or system, but the opening or clearing in which things, processes, events, and systems appear or arise. Consciousness, in its ultimate sense, is the empty clearing or opening in which manifestation occurs.

-The world is not physical; it is psychophysical, all the way up, all the way down—every single Right-hand event in the world has a correlative Left-hand dimension, bar none.

-For Ramana, that which is not ever-present cannot be ultimately real; the ultimately real is not something that can have a beginning in time, since that would make it strictly temporal, not timeless or eternal; and that which is not eternal is not ultimately worth seeking or desiring, since it will eventually decompose one way or another, leaving its holder deeply disappointed and unhappy.

-We forget the Whole, and grasp for parts. Only the Whole is Full (its parts are all pieces); only the Whole itself doesn’t suffer (its parts all suffer); only the Whole doesn’t die (its parts all die); only the Whole embraces all time within it (its parts exist only within time).

-with great effort, since each new and higher stage of development (structure or state) is bought only by learning new lessons that are not contained in the soul’s accumulated “wisdom” and “virtue” thus far (and included in its set point). So each stage that the self manages to attain in the new life, beyond the set-point stage, occurs by the self learning new and higher wisdoms and virtues, which are then stored in its “eternal drop” and become part of the new set point in its next life

-Ironically, by allergically avoiding and denying the ego, the ego remains embedded in consciousness, distorting both the subtle soul and subtle Awareness

-If you want to know what you were thinking yesterday, look at your body today; if you want to know what your body will look like tomorrow, look at your thinking today.”

-Old paradigms die when the believers in old paradigms die,” which I have summarized as “The knowledge quest proceeds funeral by funeral

-YOU, my friend—by every Integral thought that you have, conceive, read, write, share, hear, pass on, dream, or envision, by the very fact of your interiorly entertaining that Integral object of awareness—YOU are driving a progress that will one day bring the world to a shuddering surrender of gratitude and grace and all-caring embrace.

[Alex Giurgea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Am studiat opera lui Wilber incepand cu primele aparitii din anii '70 si pana astazi. Fiecare carte publicata a daramat si reconstruit ceea ce constituia viziunea lui asupra lumii in acel moment. Aceasta este publicata in 2017 si continua aceeasi serie de demolari si reconstructii catre o imagine cat mai detaliata asupra a fenomenelor interioare si exterioare, subiective si obiective. Cartea este dificila si foarte lunga (peste 800 de pagini) dar e plina de claritate.

[Amy · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is an awful book, especially for something that Amazon bills as a textbook.

I didn't have a problem with the author sharing his personal religious history or his use of buddhism as an example throughout the book. What I had a problem with was the fact that the topic (how religions can be more inclusive and respond to today's issues for tomorrow's survival) was not approached in anything even remotely like an academic context. This was a lot - 30+ hours worth! - of meaningless jargon strung together in fluffy, impressive-sounding, but ultimately meaningless sentences. For anyone who understands that the words are empty and the concepts themselves are twisted, The Religion of Tomorrow is worthless. There are definitely things that today's religions should try to change if they want to attract and keep members, but this book will do very little to help guide those religions and religious leaders that are interested in doing so.

Also, I did not appreciate the author's desperation-tinged repetitions that religion has to survive because it is necessary in some vague way (for morals, for social good, for culture - the exact reason changes in various places). I am not blind to the fact that Wilber is basically saying the increase in secularism is a horrible plague and that atheists are fundamentally lacking in morals, do not make for good citizens, and are bad for culture on a whole. Not only is this WRONG - countries with the highest social health ratings are, with the glaring exception of the US, the most secular countries (see more here: http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/#/...) - but it is deliberately offensive to a very specific group of readers that the author sees as an acceptable target, doesn't care about, and/or doesn't think will be reading his book. I, personally, don't think there is evidence for the existence of any gods, and don't think any belief system built on lies is necessary to any scale of well-being, so this premise - and the fact that he kept bringing it up - irritated me.

I picked up this book because it seems like most people do not share my view of religions, and I wanted to learn more about how religions could adapt to the modern world. What I got instead of a flimsy, whiny, hollow diatribe, and I that I got progressively more and more angry with. The only reason I finished out the book was because I didn't feel right about leaving a review if I hadn't finished the book. But The Religion of Tomorrow is certainly not something I will recommend; it was a waste of 30+ hours of time and 1 Audible credit.

[#DÏ4B7Ø Chinnamasta-Bhairav]

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To SEE a WORLD in a Grain of Sand,
And a HEAVEN in a Wild Flower,
Hold INFINITY in the palm of your hand
And ETERNITY in an Hour"
~ William Blake ~

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Form is Emptiness; Emptiness is form.
Form is not different than Emptiness;
Emptiness is not different than form
~ Heart Sutra ~

Like the ocean and its waves,
inseparable yet distinct

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" I and The Father are one,
I am The Truth,
The Life and The Path.”

Like a river flowing from its source,
connected and continuous

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Thy kingdom come.
Let the reign of divine
Truth, Life, and Love
be established in me,
and rule out of me all sin;
and may Thy Word
enrich the affections of all mankind

A mighty oak tree standing firm against the storm,
As sunlight scatters the shadows of night
A river nourishing the land it flows through

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[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ken Wilber is, in my opinion, the greatest philosopher of our age. In this, his heftiest tome, he applies his Integral Theory to the realm of spirituality. Wilber integrates East and West. His core argument is threefold. First he points out that Eastern spiritual and philosophical traditions emphasize spiritual technologies and practices and have therefore developed a map of spiritual practice that has continued to evolve until this very day. Second, he argues that Western spiritual practice has run into a roadblock that Eastern practice did not. This roadblock is known as the Enlightenment and has had the happy side effect of birthing Western Science and the Industrial and Digital Revolution that have brought us the technology with which I am communicating to you right now. In the west, science has pushed spiritual practice into the shadows, but it has brought us something that East has never developed. The west has developed an understanding of personal psychological development. From Sigmund Freud, to Carl Jung to Jean Piaget and beyond, the west has uncovered models to understand and techniques to facilitate psychological development, and most importantly to see where development went wrong and to reintegrate the aspects of ourselves that were left behind along the way. Thirdly, Wilber argues that this shadow work is key to spiritual development and that we are at a turning point in human history, where East and West may meet and bring about the greatest forward movement in spiritual development we have yet witnessed. Just in time, I might add, to address the greatest challenges our species has yet faced. Global challenges that will take global collaboration.
Ken Wilber's Integral Theory has arrived just in time! This book is a giant 700 page undertaking. For beginners I would recommend starting with his "Integral Vision" pocket reference, or "Integral Psychology", if you want to dive in deeper. If you do decide to tackle this monster, I recommend doing so only if you have developed a spiritual practice of your own. Logic alone will not crack the code that Wilber is speaking in. Reading this book slowly alongside a spiritual practice, however, will deepen that practice and grant you marvellous insights, if you dare to go deep. Happy journeys!

[Tim Dellas · Rating 1 out of 5]

Okay, the one stars basically is me blaming Ken Wilber that I didn't understand much of his book - because it's the authors job to make his topic understandable. Part it's also that it seems repetitive a lot over 26+ hours of audiobook, parts it seems completely esoteric and part as the good stuff was already in other books by Wilber.

I read this book because I wanted to get information about how a future religion might look like, and I was deeply disappointed. Maybe this described some kind of spiritual framework for building a new religion, but to me it was so impractical, impenetrable and far from understandable real world examples that's it's basically useless.

What I liked:
- the parts from his former books, basically the AQAL framework.
- that the book could always send me to sleep when I needed it.
- some parts that I actually understood, like the culture wars, or the thing that have no antonym or the relative and ultimate truths … no scratch that, I didn't understand that one.
- after growing up and waking up, Wilber describes an even higher level of becoming more spiritually superpowered (showing up?). I didn't understand the details of course as I'm not a god-head or supermind or whatever these ultraspirits are called, but I like the completionist style that Wilber really wants to solve the whole game. Whatever this game might be.
- that I finally managed to listen to nearly 30 hours of an audiobook and then wholeheartedly give it one star. Usually I won't finish one star books, but I thought well there must be something in this book why would it be rated so good otherwise, and well I think either people are much smarter than me or people like to pretend they're much smarter than anyone else because you'd really have to be to explain basically any topic from this book (including the obscure vocabulary Wilber uses of course).
- that I can read more useful books again.

[Steven McDonald · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't think I've ever sat with a single book for so long. I stopped and started it several times, trying to understand everything from start to finish and at times it felt so convoluted that I couldn't understand why anyone would rate it highly.

So why give it 5 stars?

A few weeks ago, someone I respect challenged me to just sit back and listen. Stop trying to understand everything and just hear it. To let go of my need to understand and to instead "just be". I decided to give it a go and just listen to the book. There were days were I thought I didn't understand anything, only to have an epiphany later in the day or sometimes even several days later. Slowly but surely, more and more of the book made sense over time. I've now "finished" listening to the book but I cannot say I understand it all, but even now more and more of it is becoming clear.

This still doesn't convey why the 5 stars though and that's okay. For me, this is probably the most thought-provoking book I've ever read, that gave me a whole new way of looking at society, "structured" religions and my perspectives on life.

I am certainly going to listen to it again, and probably pretty soon. If you have an interest in Integral Theory, an interest in how religions might survive (even if you detest religion), or you'd like a new way of witnessing yourself, I cannot recommend this highly enough.

[Paul · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have a lot of patience but this one really challenged my principles of sticking with the book. Gibberish masquerading as deep wisdom.

The author keeps commenting on scientific topics despite a complete lack of grasp of them. At one point he says that the view that evolution somehow progresses through a random mutation in a male finding a female with the same mutation is moronic. Indeed. But the only moron with this view is the author. That's not how heritability works as even a 12 year old would be able to explain.

I'll save you the time wading through this twaddle: the only intelligible thing in the whole book is that the author thinks religions should update their teaching to adapt to liberal social opinions and anyone who doesn't believe in equality of all people is simply not meditating enough. The rest is an incomprehensible stream of consciousness style Nonsense with every other Word capitalised about Wholeness, Universe, Teal and Purple Awareness levels and backward Buddhists who really need to get on with the times and accept gays.

[Jennifer Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was FANTASTIC. One of the best books I’ve ever read. I love Ken Wilber so much and wish more people were familiar with his work so we could discuss!

I bought the Audible version expecting it would likely be much too complex to absorb that way but I was pleasantly surprised at the ease of listening. It would have of course been even better to actually *read* it, but this made it possible for me to get through such a large volume of work relatively quickly. When reading Ken Wilber I have a tendency to read every sentence at least 3 times to fully comprehend which makes his already insanely long books take me even longer 😅 So I’m glad I tried the audio version!

[Jamie Zigelbaum · Rating 4 out of 5]

DNF — incredible insights of the highest calibre buried in one of the most poorly, carelessly constructed books I’ve ever read. Wilber can be a wonderful writer, but this felt more like an unedited dump of notes than a book. I struggled through and found many gems and plan to keep coming back at least until he published volume 2 of his Kosmos trilogy, but it’s a hard book to recommend. I’d love a concise edited version. It’s 5 stars for the insights and 1 star for the writing — but the insights are so good I have to give it 4 stars. It clarified much of his previous work for me.

[Thomas M. Summers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Charts a good path into the future of religion A fine addition to his vast literary output. Good to have him writing again. I have the same disease and it has very much impeded my intellectual endeavors. It has taken a toll on Ken as well. This work is a little more accessible to the average reader than some of his earlier works. I think intentionally so. Could be shorter if endnotes were smaller font and more closely spaced as is often customary.

[Cody]

"Transcend and include."

My first read through was a dizzying attempt at getting a bird's-eye view and seeing which ideas land. Going forward, as I dip in and out to target specific needs and questions, I'll be eager to put more and more of this into play, as, if nothing else, this first pass left me convinced that Wilber's lifetime of work has lead to a potentially crucial, useful manual for combatting what's ailing ourselves and our society in this moment.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have not evolved enough to fully comprehend this book but I made it through all 800 pages!

Ken has this incredible gift of integrating many schools of thought. There is so much in this tome to unpack and contemplate.

I just wish he could have written this in a more accessible way to the ordinary reader. It's more a textbook than a spiritual guidebook.

[Voldi · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most impressive books I've read. Long, repetitive and it's perfect that it is this way. The concepts presented are worth hearing again and again, as they might not be easy to really get properly at first, but are sure worth it.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely visionary!
The most advanced book on religion anywhere.
Encompasses all major religions and transforms them to the challenges and developments of the next century. Wilber finds the red line beween all the clutter and and goes far beyond the standard teachings. Ten stars at least.

[Necla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Better to read on paper!

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

More integral theory, this more closely tied to a spirituality that is based on current and perhaps future human development.

[Paul Brooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tomorrow's Bible. No joke. Hopefully a free of our grandchildren will find this book