Wishing to share her enthusiasm for this subject she presented me with a book of essays entitled Consciousness and Healing - Integral approaches to Mind-Body Medicine, Ed. M. Schlitz, T. Amorok and M. S. Micozzi, 2005, Elsevier.
She requested that I read the foreword to the book so that I could at least understand the basics of her interests. It was my first encounter with New Age pseudo-philosopher and founder of the Integral Institute, Ken Wilber, and it was also the beginning of my realization that the Age of Reason had been displaced by the bankruptcy of postmodern relativism. I was shocked at what I read:
...when it comes to deciding which approaches, methodologies, epistemologies, or ways of knowing are "correct," the answer can only be, "All of them." That is, all of the numerous practices or paradigms of human inquiry--including...hermeneutics, meditation, vision quest, phenomenology, structuralism, subtle energy research, shamanic voyaging, chaos theory...All of these modes of inquiry have an important piece of the overall puzzle of a total existence that includes, among other things, health and illness, doctors and patients, and sickness and healing.Basically, Wilber claims indiscriminately that everything is true - as long as it fits his particular view of reality; for example, Intelligent Design and Michael Behe are in; Charles Darwin and the Theory of Evolution are definitely out!
He goes on to say that
Nobody is smart enough to be wrong all the time... hundreds of thousands of decent men and women around the world are already practicing [some form of alternative medicine.] For the most part they are responsible, sincere, and concerned men and women of integrity, and they honestly believe that the practice of their chosen field is making a positive and helpful contribution to humanity. I believe them. And I hope you do too.With an unbelievable dose of hubris Wilber then states that he has formulated the mother of all ontologies. Arthur Koestler's concept of holons are diagrammed by Wilber into a four quadrant map that supposedly includes and interconnects everything hierarchically into his infallible understanding of the Kosmos.
He claims that modern medicine is lacking because it fails to embrace the potential to be found in all four of his quadrants, and by not doing so
some sort of rupture has occurred somewhere. Both practitioners and their patients can feel it, can feel this fracture in the Kosmos called "going to the doctor."I don't mean to sound trite, but really, whenever I go to the doctor I feel relief and gratitude for their help! Wilber claims his ontological system to be the essential integral framework for uniting and justifying the grab-bag of complementary and alternative medical (CAM) treatments described in the collection of essays that comprise the rest of the book. I will be turning a skeptical eye on some of these claims in future posts.
Amusingly, Wilber describes himself as being particularly in favor of subtle energy medicine; the National Institute of Health describes it as
the most controversial of CAM practices because neither the external energy fields nor their therapeutic effects have been demonstrated convincingly by any biophysical means.His enthusiasm is no doubt financially related to his marketing of a pseudo-scientific device known as the Q-link pendant that claims to recharge your 'biofield' ... and I'll be covering that absurdity in a future posting also.
My aversion to Ken Wilber is probably by now quite clear! But what disturbed me the most when reading this book was the dissonance it created when I realized that intelligent people were embracing pseudo-science, against all the evidence, because of their religious beliefs, no matter how well-meaning their intentions.
I find it astonishing that an intellectually advanced nation such as Germany actually acknowledges and thereby legitimizes the various forms of medical quackery known as CAM. However, I hope that by their official licensure of these practitioners some measure of control can be exercised over the potential excesses and dangers that CAM poses to the general public.
In the name of real science, practice real medicine so you can really help people.
Jeff Meyerhoff, Bald Ambition - a rigorous critique of Wilber's Theory of Everything
Gregory Falk, Norman Einstein: The Dis-Integration of Ken Wilber - an evaluation of Ken Wilber and the Integral Institute as a cult phenomena.
Quack Watch - a guide to Quackery, Health Fraud, and Intelligent Decisions
The Scientific Review of Alternate Medicine
The Scientific Review of Mental Health Practice
