News on Ken Wilber's Health

From Ken Wilber himself:

So, how am I doing now? Essentially, really well. Once I regained consciousness (i.e., gross-body consciousness), things seemed to improve quickly and dramatically. I am now over the aspiration pneumonia, and, most important of all, it looks like my kidneys have not suffered any serious permanent damage. This is really good news. I used to joke that the only major reason for having kids was for organ donors; since I don't have any kids, I really would have gotten stuck on four hours of dialysis several times a week, not to mention all the peripheral damage. The one lingering problem is that I have one hell of a lisp. I'm told that it will continue to significantly improve; the tongue is so highly vascular that it has a high degree of healing capacity. But for the next month or two, if you talk to me, you'll see what I mean by "one hell of a lisp." I was thinking about having a t-shirt made that said: "I Had Twelve Grand Mal Seizures and All I Have to Show for It is This Stupid Lisp."

(The first day that I had regained consciousness, and before I knew that I would regain any speech capacity at all, I knew that the staff at Integral Naked and I-I would of course be primarily concerned for my health as a friend, but that they also couldn't help but be worried sick that this might mean the end of Integral Naked, because I could no longer talk, and because Integral Naked is our primary source of income, the end of I-I as well. So I spent the better part of that day trying to think of some way to handle that situation and thus mitigate their worry as much as possible, and finally hit upon what seems to be a really terrific idea. I leaned over and whispered to Colin, "I figured out how to save Integral Naked-let the staff know." He lit up when I wrote the idea down, and agreed it would work. Basically, the idea-a version of which we still intend on doing while my mouth continues to heal-is that I will ask each of our Integral Naked guests to pick one of their best friends and interview them for IN, and then we would carry that-in a sense, a guest host and a guest guest. This could bring us over a year's worth of absolutely fascinating dialogues by and with some of the coolest people around. All of us still just love this idea-which happened under the oddest of circumstances, because I was still strapped down in bed on my back; I didn't have to get up to urinate or defecate because the catheters coming out of my body automatically handled that; I didn't have a tongue, but more what looks like a golf ball; and worst of all, I'm in this horrid little pastel room. Anyway, despite whatever fortitude with which I may have handled the thought of not being able to speak again, I can't tell you how relieved I am to slowly have speech returning. This stupid little lisp is the sweetest sound I've ever heard.)

Read the whole post for the details of what happened, the time he spent in the hospital, and an update on what is happening with Integral Institute (including a new and unnamed CEO).

Tags: Ken Wilber, Integral Institute, CFIDS, REDD, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, health update