# Quote — Ken Wilber, A Brief History of Everything

> Are the mystics and sages insane? Because they all tell variations on the same story, don't they? The story of awakening one morning and discovering 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 mystics and sages the world over, any crazier than the scientific materialism story, which is that the entire sequence is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying absolutely nothing? Listen very carefully: just which of those two stories actually sounds totally insane?

- Author: [Ken Wilber](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ken-wilber.md)
- Book: [A Brief History of Everything](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ken-wilber/a-brief-history-of-everything.md)
- Page: 42
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ken_Wilber#A_Brief_History_of_Everything_(1996)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/ken-wilber/a-brief-history-of-everything/are-the-mystics

## More from this book

> Studies on testosterone … all point to a simple conclusion. I don't mean to be crude, but it appears that testosterone basically has two, and only two, major drives: fuck it or kill it.And males are saddled with this biological nightmare almost from day one, a nightmare women can barely imagine (except when they are given testosterone injections for medical purposes, which drives them nuts. As one woman put it, "I can't stop thinking about sex. Please, can't you make this stop?").

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ken-wilber/a-brief-history-of-everything/studies-on-testosterone.md)

> Gaia's main problems are not industrialization, ozone depletion, overpopulation, or resource depletion. Gaia's main problem is the lack of mutual understanding and mutual agreement in the noosphere about how to proceed with those problems. We cannot rein in industry if we cannot reach mutual understanding and mutual agreement based on a worldcentric moral perspective concerning the global commons. And we reach the worldcentric moral perspective through a difficult and laborious process of interior growth and transcendence.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ken-wilber/a-brief-history-of-everything/gaias-main-problems.md)

> Spirit slumbers in nature, awakens in mind, and finally recognizes itself as Spirit in the transpersonal domains.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ken-wilber/a-brief-history-of-everything/spirit-slumbers-in-nature.md)