Ken Wilber - Life Footnotes, Volume II: Treya's Story

We are very excited to announce that the second volume of the Ken Wilber Life Footnotes collection is available today. In these intimate discussions, Ken talks about his time with his wife Treya Killam Wilber, revealing a vulnerability and a depth of heart unlike anything you have ever seen before.

"It takes grace, yes—and grit!"–Treya Killam Wilber

In 1983, Ken Wilber met the love of his life. Her name was Terry Killam, or Treya as she later called herself. She was beautiful, intelligent, deeply conscious, and more full of life and vitality than anyone Ken had ever met. She had a wonderfully playful sense of humor, was passionate about nature, art, service, psychology, and spirituality, and radiated warmth and kindness from her very core.

"It was love at first touch." There was a powerful and undeniable sense of familiarity that both Ken and Treya felt when they met. She was the woman Ken had been waiting for his entire life, and before long they were married.

Just ten days after their wedding, before they really had a chance to begin their life together, Treya was diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer. For the next five years, Treya and Ken did everything they possibly could to recover from this devastating illness, including a full arsenal of orthodox and alternative treatments, before Treya's life came to an untimely end in 1989.

This is their story. It's a story of incredible suffering, of radical liberation, and of an ever-present love that transcends time and space itself—a love that reaches so far beyond life and death, both seem like very small things in comparison. It is one of the greatest love stories ever told, and once you've heard it, you will never be the same again.

Bonus video: A four-minute video clip of Treya talking about her illness and what it taught her, which you can watch above.

Bonus video #2: Ken’s two-and-a-half-hour public reading of his favorite passages from Grace and Grit.

Life Footnotes, Volume I: The Early Years