The Spectrum of Consciousness by Ken Wilber (1973).
I’ve read an awfully lot by Ken Wilber, and it wasn’t easy to pick a favorite,
so I went with his first book (Spectrum) rather than his magnum opus, the very large tome Sex, Ecology & Sprituality.
Given that Wilber is nothing if not comprehensive, SES might have gotten the nod,
but in Spectrum I encountered for the first time someone who had read just about
everything that I would every want to read (and still haven’t) and who then
makes some sense of it all. Although Wilber has refined and revised
his perspectives , you get a sense of his youthful exuberance in
writing this book. Wilber reports that he was a (typical?) Duke undergrad when
he was struck by a “what’s the meaning of all this?” moment and went off in
search of answers. While earning an ABD in biochemistry he ranged over thought from
East and West to make some sense of it all, and this book represents his first
draft. It’s really quite amazing, and it’s kept me following his work for about
three decades now.
