INTEGRAL WORLD MAILING LIST http://www.integralworld.net Newsletter Nr. 696 Amsterdam, January 2nd, 2018 THE CASE OF WILBER - SCOTT F. PARKER Really, every time I've heard Waking Up I seem to myself more of a writer, a better writer, than I generally consider myself: so patient do I become, so happy, so discerning. To sit two hours: the first stage of wisdom. May I say that the tone of Harris's podcast is almost the only one I can still enjoy? By contrast, Wilber's speech is arrogant, incurious, and flattering at the same time—thus it speaks directly to the contemporary soul—how harmful for me is this Wilberian tone! I call it noise. I step outside to breathe fresh air. My patience for it is gone. How did I ever tolerate such glibness? Sam Harris, Waking Up podcast All Waking Up podcasts on YouTube This podcast seems perfect to me not for what it says but for how it proceeds—carefully, logically, with self-awareness, and most importantly: curiously. “What is profound is compassionate; whatever is wise listens with tender ears”: first principle of my methodology. This philosophy is forceful. It is precise. It is dispassionate. It builds, connects, responds—it is alive. How is this achieved? Without the lie of outlandish claims, outlandish style. Finally, Harris's address treats its listener as intelligent, as if himself a philosopher—and is in this respect, too, the counterpart of Wilber, who is, whatever else he is, the most condescending philosopher in the world. (Wilber treats us as if—he says something so often—till one despairs—till one believes it.) Wilber is an elite self-advertiser. He knows that if we hear his spiel often enough it will eventually become easier for us to think through it than around it. Read more: http://www.integralworld.net/parker7.html