A response to Conrad Goehausen's criticism of developmental models of higher consciousness. I argue here that development can and historically has created non-dual forms of life. (Posted 7/26/2006. 10 K words).

Holons Within, Holons Without

A response to "A Response of Wilber to his Critics", in which it is shown that the four quadrant modelcannot simultaneously represent quadrants as containing holons (A Theory of Everything) and quadrants as within holons (which Mark Edwards refers to as A Theory for Anything)(Posted 7/12/2006. 4.5 K words).

Holarchic Sense and Holarchic Nonsense

A further discussion of inocnsistencies in Wilber's definition of the social (Posted 7/12/2006. 5.5 K words).

An IMP Runs Amok. The Promise and Problems of Wilber's Integral Methodological Pluralism

Ken Wilber's new Integral Methodological Pluralism divides each of his four quadrants into an inside and outside perspective, each of which is supposed to represent a distinct approach to knowledge. I find some serious inconsistencies in his definitions of these perspectives, and propose an alternate scheme based on my one scale model. (Posted 4/11/2006. 14.7 K words).

The Intersubjective Meditator. A Critical Look at Ken Wilber's Integral Spirituality

Ken Wilber's new book, Integral Spirituality, to be published in August, 2006, claims that meditation cannot access the intersubjective, and thus needs to be supplemented with other types of knowledge. I challenge this view and other aspects of his integral spirituality. (Posted 3/9/2006. 18.5 K words).

Contextualizing Ken. A Review of Jeff Meyerhoff's Bald Ambition

Jeff Meyerhoff has recently written an entire book critically appraising all the major aspects of Ken Wilber's integral theory. This largely favorable review discusses the major issues. (First posted online Sept. 2004; Posted here 3/9/2006. 14 K words).

The Pros and Cons of Pronouns. My View of My View of Edwards' View of Wilber's View of Views

Ken Wilber has proposed an Integral Mathematics in which first, second and third person perspectives all come into play. Mark Edwards has catalogued dozens of different permutations of these perspectives, each of which, he argues, should be viewed through the "lens" of the four-quadrants. In this article, I criticize this work, and show how perspectives are handled in the one-scale model. (Posted 7/18/2003. 11 K words).

Wilber's Eight-Fold Way. How Many Sides Does a Holon Have?

Ken Wilber has recently added an inside/outside distinction to his original four-fold nature of holons. Further complexities arise when we take into account vertical and horizontal dynamics, and developmental streams. It seems that every holon has dozens or even hundreds of dimensions or aspects. Is there any way to simplify this picture? This article argues that in the one-scale model, all the various dimensions of holons can be understood as interactions between individual and social holons. These interactions, viewed from different perspectives, give rise to apparently different aspects (Posted 5/6/2003. 14.5 K words).

Small World, Big Cosmos. The Role of Scale-free and other Networks in Hierarchical Organization.

A network can be defined as a group of holons that interact more strongly with each other than with other holons. Several kinds of networks have been identified, with scale-free being the most complex and interesting. This article discusses some of the properties of networks, and the implications of these discoveries for our understanding of hierarchy. (Posted 4/21/2003. 10.5 K words).

God is not in the Quad. A Summary of my Challenge to Wilber.

This article brings together all my major arguments against various aspects of the four-quadrant model. (Posted 7/12/2002. 13.5 K words).

The Dimensions of Experience. A History of Consciousness

This article is Chapter 1 of a book-in-progress. The book presents a panpsychist view of existence, the central theme of which is that consciousness develops through stages, each of which is characterized by experience of self and world in a certain number of dimensions. (Posted 5/10/2002. 15 K words).

The Stage-Skipping Problem. How Did Our Ancestors Realize Higher States of Consciousness?

By the evidence of numerous reports, higher, spiritual states of consciousness have been realized by certain individuals for at least the past several thousand years. But Ken Wilber's four-quadrant model posits that people of earlier eras were at a lower stage of consciousness than people today are. How did our ancestors reach states beyond the highest state most people today experience without skipping certain intervening stages, in apparent violation of the laws of development? (Posted 2/20/2002. 11 K words).

Why it Matters. Further Monologue with Ken Wilber

In many previous articles, I have argued that Wilber's four-quadrant model has many flaws. Here I consider some of the implications of these flaws, that is, how they affect the model's ability to understand certain relationships, as well as its potential for guiding future research. The two models of holarchy are compared with respect to the insights they provide into several critical issues.(Posted 12/01/2001. 23K words).

Over the Rainbow. Civilizations, Spiral Dynamics and the Emergence of a Global Holon

The events of Sept. 11 have focussed attention of what Samuel Huntington calls the clash of civilizations. Spiral Dynamics offers an evolutionary view of these civilizations, consistent with holarchical models of existence. Here I apply some general principles of holarchical organization to address some questions concerning the future evolution of civilizations. (Posted 9/29/2001. 15K words).

Is God in the Garbage? A Critical Appraisal of Adi Da's Philosophy

Adi Da, aka Bubba Free John or Franklin Jones, attracted a large following of spiritual seekers in the 1970s, many of whom believed his claim to be the most evolved or realized person in history. His organization largely fell apart, however, following allegations of corruption and abuse by former disciples. Was he a genius or a madman, or both? This article considers some of the claims found in his large body of written works. (Posted 8/23/2001. 11K words).

Different Views. Intersubjectivity, Interobjectivity and the Collapse of the Four-Quadrant Model

The first half of this article is a response to Intersubjective Musings, recently posted on the Shambhala website by Sean Hargens (www.shambhala.com). I contend that Hargens's claims for intersubjectivity, which are closely allied with Ken Wilber's, are too sweeping, and do not take into account the very different way that lower organisms experience themselves and their environment. The second half of the article goes to the root of the problem, the inconsistent way in which Wilber's four-quadrant model has been constructed. (Posted 5/4/2001. 11K words).

Footprints in the Sand. Can we Identify Brain Correlates of Higher Consciousness?

This article begins with a brief review of the book Why God Won't Go Away, by Andrew Newberg and Eugene d'Aquili, and goes on to discuss the problems in identifying physiological changes in the brain associated with higher states of consciousness.(Posted 4/24/2001. 9K words).

Lateral Differences. Final Remarks to Gerry Goddard

This article concludes the dialogue I have had with Gerry Goddard, which began with the article Quadrants Translated, Quadrants Transcended, linked below. (Posted 3/07/2001. 7K words).

Up and In, Down and Out. The Relationship of Interior and Exterior in the Holarchy

This article continues the critique of the Wilber model I began in my online book Worlds within Worlds and pursued further in other online papers linked at this site. This paper presents six independent arguments for the notion that interior properties of holons are higher than exterior properties. (Posted 3/02/2001. 10K words).

Nothing Special. Further Dialogue with Gerry Goddard

Gerry Goddard replied to my article Quadrants Translated, Quadrants Transcended with a very long and detailed critique of not only the issues on which we differ, but on my one-scale model of holarchy in general. This is a response to that response. Goddard's response can be found in the Reading Room section of The World of Ken Wilber website.(Posted 2/22/2001. 11K words).

Who's Conscious? Agency/Communion and Access to Interior Experience in the Holarchy

Do societies have consciousness in the same sense that we do? This paper addresses this issue, after first considering at some length the relationships of individual holons to social holons.(Posted 2/19/2001. 19K words).

Excelsior

How do we decide which holons are higher in the holarchy than others? Several criteria exist, but they're applicable only to holons that have a whole-part relationship. While most holons fit this description, an important exception is presented by today's societies, in particular those of the West and indigenous ones. Can these very different kinds of societies be meaningfuly compared or ranked? This paper concludes that they can. (Posted 2/8/2001. 13K words).

All Four One and One For All

This is a critical comparision of the one-scale model of holarchy featured in my online book Worlds within Worlds and the four-quadrant model developed by Ken Wilber. Weaknesses in both models are analyzed, though the central point of the article is that the problems with the four-quadrant model are much more severe. (Posted 1/26/2001. 13K words).

Quadrants Translated, Quadrants Transcended

This is a a reply to the article "Holonic Logic and the Dialectics of Consciousness: Unpacking Ken Wilber's Four Quadrant Model", by Gerry Goddard, who has proposed a major revision of the Wilber four-quadrant model. Goddard argues that Wilber fails to make distinctions between our immediate experience of holons, and the holons themselves, and also between individuals and societies, as one pair or dyad, and agency vs. communion, as another. I argue that these problems can be handled by the one-scale model. Goddard's article is available in the Reading Room section of The World of Ken Wilber website. (Posted 1/21/2001. 8K words).

The Spectrum of Holons

This is a a reply to the article "Holons, Heaps and Artifacts", by Fred Kofman, and provides a further discussion of holons and holarchy. The focus is on the distinctions between individual and social holons, and between them and other forms of existence that seem not to be true holons. Kofman's article is available in the Reading Room section of The World of Ken Wilber website. (Posted 1/12/2001. 9K words).

A One-Scale Model of Holarchy and its Implications for Four Strand Theories of Knowledge Acquisition

This is a response to an online paper by Mark Edwards, who argues that Ken Wilber's theory of knowledge acquisition should include a fourth, interpretive strand. Edwards' argument is based on a four-scale holarchy. I discuss the implications of applying it to the unified, one-scale model presented in my online book Worlds within Worlds . Edwards' article is available in the Reading Room section of The World of Ken Wilber website. (Posted Sept.2000. 7K words)

A One-scale Model of Holarchical Existence

This paper provides a briefer description of the hierarchical paradigm detailed in my online book Worlds within Worlds , including the arguments for a one-scale model in which Wilber's individual vs. social and interior vs. exterior distinctions are incorporated without additional scales or axes (Posted July 2000. 14K words).

Darwinism Evolving

This paper describes a broader evolutionary theory in which both Darwinian and so-called cultural evolutionary processes occur on multiple levels of the holarchy. Most of this material is also found in Chapters 7 and 9 of my online book Worlds within Worlds (Posted July 2000. 11K words).

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