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Up from Eden, New Edition: A Transpersonal View of Human Evolution
by Ken Wilber
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Quest Books (1996-04-25)
ISBN: 0835607313
EAN: 9780835607315
Dewy Decimal #: 128
Paperback: 400 pages
SKU: N2403
Condition: Very Good
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
Wilber traces humanity's cultural and spiritual evolution. New Foreword by the author.
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Customer Reviews
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An Inspired Classic !!
Rating  (5)
Date: 2008-11-04
Combining contemplative inspiration with the work of Erich Neumann, and a good dose of advanced psychoanalysis (Particurally Norman Brown), Wilber delivers to mankind in a single volume answers to most cutting edge questions of life - Who are we? Why are we here? How did we get here? Why are things the way they are? Where are we going?
This is an altogether brilliant synthesis of the concepts from the non-dual schools (Plotinus, Aurobindo, Rig Veda, etc), with the more recent discoveries from emergent evolution, and the evolution of consciousness (Neumann's / The Origins and History of Consciousness).
The story is all at once fascinating and compelling, as Wilber takes us on a detailed tour of mankind's journey from pre-self awareness, to self-awareness, and the concomiant implications for Spirit, as it strives to fully manifest itself through the awakening soul of mankind.
Without question, one of the greatest, and most significant books ever written.
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Ken Wilber - Genius
Rating (5)
Date: 2007-01-04
Up From Eden is a brilliant account of the evolution of human consciousness. It is scholarly yet easy to read and understand.
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Painfully Inspiring
Rating (5)
Date: 2006-02-19
4 out of 4 customers found this reveiw helpful
The sensitive enough reader may come away form this book with a lot more than a coherent and vivid look back at the evolution of human consciousness, based solely on the amassed evidence of anthropology. That alone might be enough, but for myself, I got something more; a strange and deeply haunting sadness.
It is so painfully clear how much and long and arduously mankind has aspired to discover who he/she is. How many billions an billions and billions of human beings lived and struggled and aspired, got confused, hoped, failed and died to get us to where we are now today . . . and still seemingly so very far away from what has always been with us, pushing us and drawing us onward, even unto this very moment?
This book also clearly demonstrates the complete reversal of the traditional and historical interpretations of the advent of "original sin" and "samsara" laying to rest an improper "romantic" view forever.
We did not arise out of some paradisiacal Eden, nor suddenly "move too much" and find ourselves lost in smasara. Rather, the evidence is clear, there was no such place, and nor does our salvation or liberation lie in our collective past. Mankind, as the result of evolution, AWOKE in consciousness to a world of sin, error, imperfection and suffering; a world which existed as such long before he realized it. And in that moment he/she/we were actually, for the very first time REALIZING Spirit; a Spirit creation "fell" from long, long ago . . .
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The Painful History of Mankind- and a way Beyond...
Rating (5)
Date: 2002-07-13
20 out of 20 customers found this reveiw helpful
After the success of his initial works (The Spectrum of Consciousness and No Boundary), Ken Wilber gave his "spectrum" model a serious reappraisal and found it woefully lacking. It seemed that he had made a mistake that he goes on to chide others for in his later books- he confused prerational myths with transcendental truths, and confused the spiritual fall with the scientific fall. He makes up for his previous errors with "Up From Eden: A Transpersonal View of Human Evolution".In UFE, Wilber covers the historical development of consciousness, from the animalistic/uroboric level to the typhonic, and then to the development of the Solar ego, the disassociation of the mind from the body, and the development of the rational mind. But he takes it a step further as well, discussing the development of transrational consciousness throughout history, and discussing the differences between magical fetishism and psychic Nirmanakaya and between mythic religion and subtle archetype. Drawing upon Freud, Jung, Campbell, and a ream of Anthropoligical and Archaeological data, Wilber paints us a fascinating picture of society, it's history, and it's discontents. Lastly, he finishes the book by discussing his ideas for a politics of the transrational, in a fascinating chapter titled "Republicans, Democrats, and Mystics". As far as Wilber's older books go, this is one not to be missed. Although some concepts are better elucidated in Wilber's later "Sex, Ecology, Spirituality", nowhere does he draw on more anthropological support for his theories than in "Up From Eden".
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A history of transcendence...cool!
Rating (5)
Date: 2002-03-22
7 out of 8 customers found this reveiw helpful
What a great book. It's the human evolution of consciousness. Ken has shown in his other books how we progress through several, well defined, stages of congnitive growth. In this book he discusses the same stages but with the period in history that they are associated with. He also keeps track of the highest achievers of each period.
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