Resumo de Integralism

INTEGRALISM

In his earlier work Ken Wilber has been a staunch defender of the perennial philosophy (PP). He never committed himself to any schools or authors, but used it as starting point. Although in his debut The Spectrum of Consciousness he referred to the PP, it wasn't until he discovered Huston Smiths summary or the traditional outlook (Forgotten Truth) that his model took shape. Smith outlined four levels of being and knowing? body, mind, soul, spirit ? found in all religions. Wilber used this scheme to flesh out a detailed model of human development, both personal and transpersonal, both individual and socio-cultural (wilber-2). Wilber also subscribed to some notion of involution: the logical condition for evolution. In his first book he explicitly calles the PP nonspeculative and based on experience ? important to note.
In his recent writing, most notably in the interview On the Nature of a Post-Metaphysical Spirituality (2001), wilber looks back on this period and rejects most of the PP because of it's speculative, metaphysical and mythical nature. We need to reinterpret the mystical experiences of the past in a modern/postmodern framework, and leave behind the mythic contexts it arose in, he contends. No metaphysical outlook on life can survive the modern/postmodern survival pressure. He mentions the difference between the mythic belief in Christ as savior and the mystical experience of Christ-consciousness. In his opinion, only the latter is an example of deep science.
In the interview, originally published in a german transpersonal magazine, Wilber explicitly refers to the work of Jurgen Habermas, much admired by him, who promotes a post-mythical, rational-worldcentric wordview. Wilber agrees with much of Habermas' analysis of the New Age as a closed, mythic worldview, and seems to put the PP in that same category.
To contrast his new view favorably (wilber-5) with the one he held before Wilber highlights some aspects of the PP:

the perennial philosophy is mythical
the perennial philosophy is metaphysical/speculative
we need a post-rational, mystical reinterpretation of the PP.
This can be questioned. Perennialism has a universalizing tendency that sets it apart from mythic belief systems (which are allways etnocentric in nature). Perennialism tries to conquer the human tendency to overestimate the value of one's own culture and religion, by encouraging comparative study of religions. The result can be a set of beliefs shared by all great religions, without priviliging any one of them.
How the PP can universalize mythic belief system can be illustrated as follows. A typical mythic believer in the afterlife will say: only true believers, members of my particular sect, go to heaven. It is an etnocentric belief, often full of superstitions, such as rites, customs, dogmas, particular to a certain religion. The PP would counter this belief by saying that all beings possessing mind go to heaven (heaven being the mind-world!). Regardless of the content of one's belief system, it is the state of miind and character built up in a lifetime that determines one's fate after death. This makes the belief in life after death at once more reasonable and rational. It has even been the subject of careful scientific (though clarivoyant) research.

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