A masterpiece.  I read the book three times and thought for a while that I held the world record - until I met another guy who said that he read it five times!  Ken said that when he wrote the book he was in an altered state which explains the power that the book has to grip the reader and reorder one's perspectives.  Truly a revolutionary work. 

Wonderful book … very insightful. It's taken me a year to get through it, and now I'm going back and taking notes. Ken has written some important words here. I text I could really sink my teeth into, SES is a wonderful respite from the normal intellectual sawdust that passes for wisdom in so many of our Western pop culture books.

great, though at times academically flawed, work. The presentation of the AQAL map alohne is worth the price.  I do take issue with his representation of postmodernism and Wilber's tendency to mistate (over generalize?) current research. Still, there's a lot here to chew on.

So your interested in the deeper reach of integral thought? This book delivers. Ken at his most rigorous and often hilarious. Every student of integral eventually comes to this tome. The only issue I had with it was its weight; holding it up late into the night strained my hands too often…The paperback edition should cure this. I recommend it highly.

Please go meditate for a several years before writing your “intellectual” reviews of this book… From your current perspective you may think you're saying something significant; however “in reality” outside of your little limited perspective academica cocoon… you are not… and you just sound silly.