Ken Wilber's Creative Process

Looking at Ken’s creative output, it is clear that he has had a tremendously prolific career, releasing a new book almost every year since The Spectrum of Consciousness was published in 1977 (with the exception of a couple short periods in the late eighties and early nineties, which will be covered in a later volume of the Footnotes collection.) After he completes a manuscript, a new book idea usually comes to him almost immediately, dropping into his consciousness all at once and arriving as a single fully-formed vision in his mind. His primary task is then to unpack these ideas over the course of several months, a process that he has often described as being almost unbearably painful to his nervous system—just one of many reasons he has taken such good care of his health over the years!

But where do all the ideas come from? Even Ken is not altogether sure, though he does have lots to say about the practice it requires to communicate with the degree of clarity, elegance, and artistry that we have all come to know and love about his work. (He mentions Alan Watts as a particular influence on his own writing style, and would spend long periods of time painstakingly transcribing Watts’ work by hand as a way to develop and practice his own style.) Whatever the source of Ken’s apparent hypergraphia, we are all deeply grateful for his the seemingly endless eruption of creativity that has been so characteristic of his work over these many decades.

Excerpted from Volume I of the Ken Wilber Life Footnotes collection:

[ilzitek]

You are an old and experienced soul with a lot of wisdom, intelligence, sharpness of insight and perspective on your human experience and the journey back home - from sense of separation to complete unity with God. Your mind is strong and perceptive. Vulnerability and sufferings keep you humble and grounded in your body. Your wisdom comes from the passion to make sense of this reality - from your soul through the filter of your mind to connect to your precious body to open up your heart to love...

[harmonyvegan]

Definitely one of the greatest minds of our time :)

[nexusoflife]

Ken Wilber is a beautiful human being.

[donagh]

What writers books did he copy? I couldn't hear it clearly.