Spectrum of Spirit is Everywhere

Edit-expanded 2026-06-25:

WE LIVE IN A LAP OF IMMENSE INTELLIGENCE AFLOAT IN A CURRENT OF CARE AND PROFOUND VALUE

". . .the deep sciences of interior domains, disclosed by direct experiential evidence and data, evoked by repeatable injunctions, and open to confirmation or rejection by a community of the adequate--those deep sciences are the core of the great wisdom traditions and the core of the Great Chain, and those deep sciences of spiritual interiors are precisely the genuine knowledge that religion, holding its head high, can bring to the integrative table." & "You cannot judge higher consciousness without developing it in yourself," asserts Ken Wilber in his book titled: The Marriage of Sense and Soul - in my opinion one of the world's most trusted Truth-Flame holders.
Both analytical rigor and spiritual maturity are needed to traverse the higher stages of spiritual development before one can model what spiritual and intellectual life ought to be about. . .Those of us who resonate with his work, know that the Integral Vision is a gift of Grace moved by the divine Will and Compassion he feels for Humanity.
I KNOW the Compassion Wilber feels for Humanity is genuine: Read and feel the subtlety of meaning's significance couched within the following passage from, The Marriage of Sense and Soul - Integrating Science and Religion, and see what I mean.

"And perhaps, political freedom joined with spiritual freedom, time joined with the timeless, space joined with infinity, we will have come finally to rest, finally to peace, finally to a home that structures care into the Kosmos and compassion into the world, that touches each and every soul with grace and goodwill, and lights each being with a glory that never fades or falters. And we are called, you and I, by the voice of the Good, and the voice of the True, and the voice of the Beautiful, called exactly in those terms, to witness the liberation of all sentient beings without exception.
And on that distant, silent, lost horizon, gentle as fog, quiet as tears, the voice continues to call."

When asked: "I wonder what you call yourself," he replied: Well, I'm a philosoper, and I am a mystic, so that could cover Buddhist, Taoist, Christian mystic, and sort of all of those - and I'm a psychologist, particularly a developmental psychologist."

Wilber's writing on the 'Secret Evolutionary Impulse' in his book titled: A Brief History of Everything is not only brilliant but inspiring - that promoting his work in Spirit Speaks, feels like a great honor.
The following excerpt is from section titled: SPIRIT-IN-ACTION

KW: "As Michael Murphy says, evolution meanders more than it progresses. But over the long haul, evolution has a broad telos, a broad direction, which is particularly obvious with increasing differentiation--an atom to an amoeba to an ape! But all of those scientific descriptions can generally be summarized as: the basic drive of evolution is to increase depth. This is the self-transcending drive of the Kosmos--to go beyond what went before, and yet include what went before, and thus increase the depth.

Q: Now you also tie this in with consciousness. Because you add, "the greater the depth of a holon, the greater its degree of consciousness."

KW: Yes. Consciousness and depth are synonymous. All holons have some degree of depth, however minor, because there is no bottom. And with evolution, depth becomes greater and greater--consciousness becomes greater and greater. However much depth atoms have, molecules have more. And cells have more depth than molecules. And plants have more than cells. And primates more than plants.
There is a spectrum of depth, a spectrum of consciousness. And evolution unfolds that spectrum. Consciousness unfolds more and more, realizes itself more and more, comes into manifestation more and more. Spirit, consciousness, depth--so many words for the same thing.

Q: Since depth is everywhere, consciousness is everywhere.

KW: Consciousness is simply what depth looks like from the inside, from within. So yes, depth is everywhere, consciousness is everywhere, Spirit is everywhere. And as depth increases, consciousness increasingly awakens, Spirit increasingly unfolds. To say that evolution produces greater depth is simply to say that it unfolds greater consciousness.

Q: You use "unfolds and enfolds."

KW: Spirit is unfolding itself in each new transcendence, which it also enfolds into its own being at the new stage. Transcends and includes, brings forth and embraces, creates and loves, Eros and Agape, unfolds and enfolds--different ways of saying the same thing. So we can summarize all this very simply: because evolution goes beyond what went before, but because it must embrace what went before, then its very nature is to transcend and include, and thus it has an inherent directionality, a secret impulse, toward increasing depth, increasing intrincis value, increasing consciousness. In order for evolution to move at all, it must move in those directions--there's no place else for it to go!

Q: The general point being. . .?

KW: Well, several. For one, because the universe has direction, we ourselves have direction. There is meaning in the movement, intrinsic value in the embrace. As Emerson put it, we live in a lap of immense intelligence, which by any other name is Spirit. There is a theme inscribed on the original face of the Kosmos. There is a pattern written on the wall of Nothingness. There is a meaning in its every gesture, a grace in its every glance.
We--and all beings as such--are drenched in this meaning, afloat in a current of care and profound Value, ultimate significance, intrinsic awareness. We are part and parcel of this immense intelligence, this Spirit-in-action, this God-in-the-making. We don't have to think of God as some mythic figure outside of the displlay, running the show. Nor must we picture it as some merely immanent Goddess, lost in the forms of her own production.
Evolution is both God and Goddess, transcendence and immanence. It is immanent in the process itself, woven into the very fabric of the Kosmos; but it everywhere transcends its own productions, and brings forth anew in every moment.

Q: Transcends and includes.

KW: Indeed. And we are invited, I believe, to awaken as this process. The very Spirit in us is invited to become self-conscious, or even, as some would say, superconscious. Depth increases from subconscious to self-conscious to super-conscious, on the way to its own shocking recognition, utterly one with the radiant All, and we awaken as that oneness.
What do you think? Is that crazy? Are the mystics and sages insane? Because they all tell viariations on this same story, don't they? The story of awakening one morning and discovering that you are one with the All, in a timeless and eternal and infinite fashion.
Yes, maybe they are crazy, these divine fools. Maybe they are mumbling idiots in the face of the Abyss. Maybe they need a nice understanding therapist. Yes, I'm sure that would help. But then, I wonder. Maybe the evolutionary sequence really is from matter to body to mind to soul to spirit, each transcending and including, each with a greater depth and greater consciousness and wider embrace. And in the highest reaches of evolution, maybe, just maybe, an individual's consciousness does indeed touch infinity--a total embrace of the entire Kosmos--a Kosmic consciousness that is Spirit awakened to its own true nature.

It's at least plausible. And tell me: is that story, sung by the mystics and sages the world over, is any crazier than the scientific materialism story, which is that the enitre sequence is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and furry, signifying absolutely nothing? Listen very carefully: just which of those two stories actually sounds totally insane?

I'll tell you what I think. I think the sages are the growing tip of the secret impulse of evolution. I think they are the leading edge of the self-transcending drive that always goes beyond what went before. I think they embody the very drive of the Kosmos toward greater depth and expanding consciousness. I think they are riding the dge of a lght beam racing toward a rendezvous with God.
And I think they point to the same depth in you, and in me, and in all of us. I think they are plugged into the All, and the Kosmos sings through their voices, and Spirit shines through their eyes. And I think they disclose the face of tomorrow, they open us to the heart of our own destiny, which is also already right now in the timelessness of this very moment, and in that stratling recognition the voice of the sage becomes your own voice, the eyes of the sage become your eyes, you speak with the tongues of the angels and are alight with the fire of a realization that never dawns nor ceases, you recognize your own face in the mirror of the Kosmos itself: your identity is indded the All, and you are no longer of that stream, you are that stream, with the All unfolding not around you but in you. That stars no longer shine out there, but in here. Spernovas come into being within your heart, and the sun shines inside your awareness. Because you transcend all, you enbrace all. There is no final Whole here, only and endless process, and you are the opening or the clearing or the pure Emptiness in which the entire process unfolds--ceaselessly, miracuolusly, everlastingly, lightly.
The whole game is undone, this nightmare of evolution, and you are exactly where you were prior to the beginning of the whole show. With a sudden shock of the utterly obvious, you recognize your own Original Face, the face you had prior to the Big Bang, the face of utter Emptiness that smiles as all creation and sings as the entire Kosmos--and it is all undone in that primal glance, and all that is left is the smile, and the reflection of the moon on a quiet pond, late on a crystal clear night."

* Ken Wilber usues the term 'Kosmos' because in esoteric terms Kosmos includes the inner realms not just the material universe.