Ozzfest Gospel
In 2001 I went to see Ozzfest when it rolled into Atlanta. No, I’m not a metalhead; I had free tickets because a friend of mine was dating a roadie who worked for the band Slipknot. So I got to go see bands like Black Sabbath, Marilyn Manson, Papa Roach, Linkin Park, Mudvayne, and numerous others, and also got to hang out backstage with some of the musicians.
It was bonecrunchingly loud. I wore ear plugs most of the day and it still made my ears hurt. But there the kids were, sweating in their mosh pits and dancing on the edge of ritualized violence. I was forty at the time, right at the cusp of midlife. Part of me wanted very much to be one of the kids rocking out to my favorite bands. But another, and ultimately bigger, part of me kept thinking about how I’d be a lot happier listing to a choir sing a mass by William Byrd (and I was still a pagan at the time).
The most memorable point in the day was when my friends and I got a chance to visit with the members of Mudvayne after their set. (more…)
The Integral Vision
The Integral Vision: A Very Short Introduction to the Revolutionary Integral Approach to Life, God, the Universe, and Everything
By Ken Wilber
Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2007
Review by Carl McColman
In Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone, young Harry encounters the Mirror of Erised, a magical object that reveals the deepest desire of a person’s heart. Harry’s mentor, Albus Dumbledore, points out that “The happiest man on earth would be able to use the Mirror of Erised like a normal mirror, that is, he would look into it and see himself exactly as he is.” But of course, for all the rest of us who have desires that are as yet out of our reach, this magical mirror relentlessly depicts what we want, but do not have — a beguiling vision that could lead to madness.
I’ve begun to suspect that if Ken Wilber were to gaze into the Mirror of Erised, he would see himself as the proud author of a mega-bestseller, a book which once and for all explains the poetic intricacies of his philosophy in a way that millions of people can understand — and accept. Integral theory would rise to the same level as existentialism or postmodernism — a philosophical movement that transcends the confines of the ivory tower to become a truly popular ideology, changing society and culture from the ground up.
I suspect that this is the secret desire of Wilber’s heart because he’s written several books over the past decade or so that purportedly present his theory in an accessible, “everyman” format. (more…)
