Welcome back to the blogosphere Ken, looking forward to some groovy diagrams in the new books :-P .

Dear Friends,

At 8:30 PM on Tuesday, December 5, 2006, while Becca and I were watching a movie, I had a grand mal seizure that was quite severe. Although these are common with CFIDS/REDD/ME, it has only happened once to me before, as far as I can tell. A really major grand mal seizure can kill you. Although this one didn't do that, it came damn close, and was in any event severe enough to precipitate ten more equally severe seizures-one after another after another. By the time they got me to the ER and stabilized-about 12 hours later-not only had I suffered around a dozen grand mal seizures in a row, I had essentially flat-lined three times and had the electric paddles applied to my chest three times-overall, a pretty gruesome ordeal.

Every one of the eight physicians (each specialists) who worked on me, told me afterwards that they honestly did not think I would pull through. The good news is that I got several nights of really terrific sleep-actually...

David Lane, a sociology professor and former-Wilber-fan-turned-critic around 1996, was one of the first strong critics of Wilber's treatment of biology and other fields of science. From that original series of essays:

"What makes Wilber's remarks on evolution so egregious is not that he is more or less a closet creationist with Buddhist leanings, but that he so maligns and misrepresents the current state of evolutionary biology, suggesting that he is somehow on top of what is currently going on in the field. And Wilber does it by exaggeration, by false statements, and by rhetoric license."

As is well known, Wilber often complains about being misrepresented by his critics. The opposite question therefore becomes relevant: to what extent does Wilber misrepresent the positions he has criticized himself? Evolutionary biology is a case in point.

I have republished Lane's 1996 essay on Integral World, together with a response from Tom Floyd, and David Lane decided to write a fresh response to Floyd, which has been posted as well now. From this response:

"So I completely disagree with you when you claim that I am suggesting that we "totally" discount Wilber as regards evolution, or any subject for that matter. No, I am simply pointing out a fundamental mistake he has made and that it should be corrected. There is no reason to see this as "adversial" just as I shouldn't see your critique of what I have written as "adversial." You have done me a service and I see no reason why Wilber isn't better served by critics pointing out his varying weaknesses. "

Let the debate continue...

As some of you may have heard, Aja Pink Davis was born on December 9th, 2006, at 2:50 PM. Our most ecstatic congratulations and deepest love to the ever-expanding Davis clan: Stuart, Marci, Ara, and Aja!