#321: Carter Phipps

Phipps is executive director of EnlightenNext, a magazine devoted to spirituality, culture, and the integral movement, founded by Andrew Cohen (in virtually every issue you can read Cohen talk to the unhinged, garbled, postmodernism-on-speed-mixed-with-religion proponent Ken Wilber). The magazine is still being carried by all major bookstores and outlets. RupertSheldrake likes it. That should tell you something. One Roshi Bernard Glassman thinks “EnlightenNext is a must read for anyone interested in the conscious evolution of the planet.” Indeed. From this, the magazine’s publisher (Robert Heinzman) concludes “so as you can see, many of the world’s leading thinkers agree: ‘What Is Enlightenment?’ magazine is … one of the most important publications of our time,” which assumes that Wilber and Sheldrake are important thinkers and thus qualifies Heinzman as a serious loon.

Carter Phipps is one of those people who don’t quite understand evolution, is kinda fascinated with it anyways, and thinks it has something to do with Buddhism or Ramtha. This contribution of his to some pseudo-scientific seminar talk gives you the idea:

“Evolution Changes Everything: How the Discovery of Progress Is Transforming the Spiritual Path

… Once upon a time, there was only the cycle of birth, life, and death. Then God created Darwin, whose theory of evolution transformed a static wheel of existence into a great arc of change, with bacteria, beast, biosphere and even human consciousness caught up in the currents of an evolutionary universe [yes, there are some weird category mistakes there]. This still radical revelation poses a fundamental challenge to some of our most cherished spiritual beliefs. In this teleseminar, Carter Phipps will upend traditional concepts of enlightenment and spiritual awakening, showing how the latest insights in science, philosophy, and spirituality are destined to transform our relationship to life, God, and … well, everything!”

Look, he has absolutely no idea. The hilariously idiotic bullshittery of these claims didn’t prevent them from being copied and pasted as facts by award-winning (well, Templeton award-winning) journalist Douglas Todd. Tells you something about the status of science journalism.

Diagnosis: Moronic, completely delusional clown. Still, he seems to carry some influence.