INTEGRAL WORLD MAILING LIST http://www.integralworld.net Newsletter Nr. 795 Amsterdam, September 11th, 2019 KEN WILBER AND MODERN VEDIC EVOLUTIONISM - FRANK VISSER Researching the notions of involution and evolution—a key feature of Ken Wilber's worldview[1]—on academia.edu, I stumbled on the informative essay "Madame Blavatsky's Children"[2], written by Meera Nanda. It covers in 66 meticulously researched pages the interesting history of the way Western spiritual movements and authors inspired by Eastern philosophy have responded to the insights of evolutionary theory in the past 150 years, and how they all can be traced back to modern Theosophy. Meera is "an Indian writer and historian of science, who has authored several works critiquing the influence of Hindutva, postcolonialism and postmodernism on science, and the flourishing of pseudoscience and vedic science. She currently is a visiting faculty of humanities and social sciences at IISER Pune."[3] It was at once obvious to me how well Ken Wilber fits into this intellectual tradition. Ken Wilber hasn't referenced any Theosophical literature in his works, but it is interesting to remember two of his earliest books, The Spectrum of Consciousness (1977) and The Atman Project (1980), were originally published by the Theosophical Society in America in its Quest Books series (to which a reprint of Up from Eden was added at a later date as well). For sure this is an interesting field of further study, to put Wilber into historical and esoteric-ideological context. In the final chapter of Ken Wilber: Thought as Passion I have put some effort in this direction, comparing Wilber to both traditional perennialism and modern Theosophy. When I checked with Wouter Hanegraaff, a world authority in this field of esoteric history, he wasn't aware of any such studies. It would be helpful if historians of the esoteric traditions would focus their attention on Ken Wilber, as a contemporary integrator of esoteric spirituality and modern science, sharing the fate of many of his predecessors. Read more: http://www.integralworld.net/visser147.html