Reddit reviews A Brief History of Everything

Well, I'm here later rather than sooner. I'll look to see if I have anything to add.

I don't like Andrew Cohen at all, nor Genpo Roshi, nor Marc Gafni, and these are some of the people Wilber associates with. I won't apologize for that, and have no idea why he does.

However, I've read about 5 of his numerous works completely (and read parts of at least 5 others), as well as his opus Sex, Ecology, and Spirituality. He shortened that for A Brief History of Everything, which is sufficient. These, and/or other books by Wilber are available at many public libraries.

Some argue that the "Integral" programs are expensive. Yes, they are. I've never spent any money on them. They don't attract me. I think one can study something, say Buddhism, without becoming monastic or getting a PhD in it.

Integral explained in a nutshell:

I've found that the Integral direction balances Buddhism very well. Although it is hard to describe simply, there are 4 quadrants to consider for life: inner self (I), relationships (we), science (it), and culture (its). Buddhism is excellent on the inner self, the I. However, it's not so helpful in the other quadrants, particularly relationships.

And, if we are really deficient in one of these areas, we really can't progress in the others. If I can't get along with authority, I'll never listen to wise teachers. That relationship issue could limit my ability to learn to meditate. Or, if I were to believe some fundamentalist perspective that my culture espouses (say a Jehova's Witness), I may not pursue modern medicine for proper health. This is limiting.

If one is interested, reading A Brief History of Everything (linked above) is helpful, but an even better place to start is One Taste. The Simple Feeling of Being is worthwhile. The CD set Kosmic Consciousness is quite good. Stay away from Integral Spirituality as well as Integral Psychology. I thought they were not well edited or put together.

If it is of interest, read it. If not, don't.

Thanks for the link!

Edit: formatting

A Brief History of Everything is something that really opened my eyes

Until I think of a work of fiction. Try this book by Ken Wilbur...

Brief History of Everything

Edit: and for what it's worth, Camus and Hesse are great, but whether they are on the top 10 list of authors who will help you beat depression is probably open for debate. Though I could imagine an intense discussion with each of them about it!

It sounds to me like psychedelics have catalyzed a stage of development for you that many people reach that way, and others reach in different ways. I came to a similar transition (and I'm still in it) without psychedelics, and then embraced psychedelics from that place.

This stage I think you're entering is called many things by many people -- Kohlberg's "post-conventional stage of moral development" being the most popular term in developmental psychology, but not the most helpful. It sounds pretty bland, but the transition into this stage is anything but boring. It's often experienced by individuals as a struggle, crisis, or catastrophe.

My own transition has been a mix of all three, and has taken (so far) about four or five years. I suspect I'm on the exit ramp headed toward a new kind of equilibrium, but I don't feel stabilized here yet, for what it's worth. I've struggled with nihilism, thoughts of suicide, several career changes, loss of community and common ground with old friends, and dissolution of many closely-held beliefs. It's rewarding, though, discovering more of my own truth at each milestone of the journey. Despite the whirlwind of torturous emotions, I wouldn't trade it for anything.

What most defines this new stage is the ability to define the purpose of life in one's own terms without consulting the conventions or norms of society (and that's going to sound to most people like, "oh hey, that's me! I fucking hate the conventions and norms! I must already be at this stage." Don't kid yourself -- being cynical about the mainstream media doesn't mean you know how to abandon moral conventions, and anyway, I wouldn't recommend doing so without being completely forced into it by your own conscience). The reason this transition comes with such emotional turbulence is that many of us derive our psychosocial stability from those same conventions we're questioning. It feels like standing on the branch you're sawing off. A lot of people back down from the challenge, not daring to upend their stable lives, relationships, or resources.

There's another, more subtle way to cheat yourself out of this evolution: it's possible to experience all these upsets and struggles without actually transitioning to a post-conventional frame of reference or completing the stage transition -- you can simply hop from one set of norms into another. If, for instance, you go from being a traditional neoliberal capitalist with ambitions of success and financial security, to suffering an existential crisis, and then find yourself suddenly caring only about the Earth and committing to live in a hippie commune, then you may simply adopt hippie conventions and an environmentalist ethos without searching your own soul first. If you do so, beware; your developmental urge to be free is still lurking beneath the surface, and you'll eventually have to quit playing the conventional game and tend to your own issues of free will, integration, and self-expression.

Carl Jung wrote wonderfully on this topic, often calling it "the psychic ordeal," or simply, "individuation," and I highly recommend reading up on it -- though his writing is a bit dense and perplexing, it's rewarding. Some other authors have taken deep approaches to this quandary, too, and turned out some very helpful guides. My favorites have been Ken Wilber (A Brief History of Everything is a profound framework for understanding the development of your own psyche), Terence McKenna (whom you're probably well acquainted with, if you're into the psychedelic side of this journey), and unexpectedly, Jordan Peterson (who often rubs me the wrong way, but his Maps of Meaning lecture series is excellent for both scholarship and personal philosophy). Each of these guys has an incomplete map of the territory, and their map is still far, far away from any other person's experience on the journey, but having a few maps is comforting as fuck, and sometimes important to help you orient yourself.

Lastly, even though this journey is completely individual, it helps to know other people who are somewhere on the path, taking a similar journey or looking back at it from a new place. The times I've spent talking even briefly to others in the struggle -- whether they were older or younger, more or less experienced than me, more or less intelligent, or more or less informed -- has been comforting and stabilizing. I've been wholeheartedly surprised and delighted by the depth of wisdom that a 21-year-old will share when confronting nihilism and disillusionment.

If you'd like to connect and compare notes on the journey, or just want to shoot the shit, PM me. I'm not a trained expert, but I've got empathy for your struggle, and could always use a good conversation with a fellow skeptic of convention. Good luck to you, fellow traveler.

I noticed most of these posts are about fiction. I feel like all the books I read change my life, but the biggest ones that changed the way I look at the world have been:

Pop Science books by Steven Johnson (Emergence, Everything Bad is Good For You, Where Good Ideas Come From) and Malcolm Gladwell (Blink, Tipping Point, Outliers). These books changed all of my preconceived notions, and gave me a drive to search for intelligent outside perspectives. Emergence was especially influential. I approach Emergence in an almost religious way, you can see "God" or whatever you would call it, in Emergent intelligent behavior, a more science-friendly conception of God, I feel the same way when I watch Koyaanisqaatsi.

A Brief History of Everything by Ken Wilber. Most people either like Ken Wilber or hate him. To me, he gives a good model of looking at religion, spirituality, science, society, myth, and the way different people think similar to Joseph Campbell. If you ever wonder why religious people think a certain way, and scientific people and postmodern philosophers think a different way, this is the book.

The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein. I didn't even finish this book because I got to depressed. It may be pretty biased, but it is really one of the best geopolitical books out there. I learned everything I needed to know about foreign policy and the economic conflict going on around the world.

EDIT: Another great one is The Book by Alan Watts

"Everything that exists is made of something smaller" - This reminds me of the holon philosophy (https://www.amazon.com/Brief-History-Everything-Ken-Wilber/dp/1570627401) - a holon is both itself a whole while at the same time being a part of a larger whole, so that reality becomes a series of nested holons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integral_theory_(Ken_Wilber)