With over two-dozen published books translated in nearly as many languages, Ken Wilber has created what is widely considered the first truly comprehensive Integral Map of human experience. By exploring and integrating the major insights and conclusions of nearly every human knowledge domain in existence, Wilber created the revolutionary AQAL Integral Framework. In short, the Integral Approach is the coherent organization, coordination, and harmonization of all of the relevant practices, methodologies, and experiences available to human beings. Wilber states: “You can’t [realistically] honor various methods and fields, without showing how they fit together. That is how to make a genuine world philosophy.” He is the founder of the nonprofit think tank Integral Institute, co-founder of the transformational learning community Integral Life, co-founder of Source Integral exploring the nature of Integral Society, and the current chancellor of Ubiquity University.

Ken's site: kenwilber.com

Some of Ken's many books:

The Religion of Tomorrow: A Vision for the Future of the Great Traditions

Integral Buddhism: And the Future of Spirituality

Integral Meditation: Mindfulness as a Way to Grow Up, Wake Up, and Show Up in Your Life

Trump and a Post-Truth World

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.

Transcript of this interview.

Interview recorded April 28, 2018.

YouTube Video Chapters:

00:00:00 - Welcome to Buddha at the Gas Pump

00:04:54 - From Graduate School to Writing a Book

00:10:43 - The Meditation Technique and Awakening Experience

00:16:03 - The State of Witnessing during Meditation

00:21:34 - The Witness and Radical Oneness

00:27:16 - The Illusion of Waking Up

00:32:41 - Overpowering Fear from Repressed Anger

00:38:16 - The Importance of "Cleaning Up" in Spiritual Practice

00:44:00 - The Role of Spirituality in Human Development

00:49:12 - The Three Major Groups of Development Lines

00:55:03 - The Different Levels of Growing Up

01:00:52 - The stages of moral development

01:05:50 - Honoring and Including Different Perspectives

01:10:54 - Expressing Authentic Enlightenment

01:15:57 - The Recent Discovery of Growing Up Levels in Spiritual Systems

01:20:35 - Development of Cognitive and Emotional Intelligence

01:25:31 - Different lines of development

01:30:57 - The need for waking up, growing up, and cleaning up in spiritual practice

01:36:40 - The Evolution of Spiritual Pursuit

01:41:39 - The Problem of Overthinking in Philosophy

01:46:27 - The Unity of Nirvana and Samsara

01:52:06 - Differentiating Relative and Ultimate States of Consciousness

01:57:23 - Dissolving into Oneness

02:03:03 - Working with Good Maps and the Importance of Spiritual Growth

02:07:07 - Aurobindo's Influence on Integral Yoga

02:13:38 - Spirit, consciousness, and the four quadrants

02:19:31 - Describing Ultimate Reality

02:25:19 - The Problem of Describing Ultimate Reality

02:30:58 - President Trump: A Sociocultural Analysis

02:37:36 - The Stages of Growing Up

02:42:14 - Exploring Ken Wilber's Books and Resources