I normally enjoy your articles in general, but this topic matter and style is why I switched to a paid subscription. Thank you for the excellent presentation of material and synthesis into something greater.
"Do you think 'Enlightenment' experiences are real? (Realizations that permanently change the mind's operation)" - yes, because that's exactly what I use for my hypno-coaching:
You don't need to lose all sense of self to make realization-breakthroughs, which can completely change how you think about certain things. I use it to break phobias and anxiety, just by asking the right questions.
For sure such things can be powerful, and I must admit I feel a little uneasy at the idea of Daniel permanently losing his sense of self. It may result in him feeling happier, but the word "lobotomy" comes to mind!
Perhaps that's an unfair comparison, but losing part of your mind in order to feel happier...? Can't say I'm comfortable with it. You'll own nothing, lose your sense of self, and be happy?
Put like that it brings to mind these recent bouts regarding longevity in disregard of actual health. Then again, one "peak" of Buddhism is in the form of the living buddha.
Satisfied? Sort of, with there being no needs to satiate.
Happy? I'd argue happiness is built upon the existence of the self.
Very insightful post! I have embarked on this path of awakening for the past months and I keep getting under layers of concepts and conditioning that I didn’t realize where there. Very worthwhile journey. For anyone interested in this topic, I highly recommend the teacher: Angelo Dilullo, his youtube channel and his book: “Awake, its your turn.”
Great post! Wish you expanded more on non-dual awareness because it's not clear from the text what it is and how to practice it. Please do more content on this topic. Really love how you structure your content and give Buddhist practices scientific explanations
Fantastic post. I've wanted to dive deeper into meditation but it's always something I've thought of as less than scientific or lacking evidence of real benefits. This post encouraged me to do more research before dismissing it.
Recognizing that our sense of self is only one of many possible states is a helpful healthy lens. That it is a simulation that is changeable. Yet Pathologizing the Default Mode Network (responsible for a lot of creative insight, empathy) or the healthy Sense of Self (responsible for biographical intuition, emotional navigation, goal alignement,..) can be dangerous & lead to intense self-estrangement and disorientation.
Further, training our mind to constantly deconstruct mental phenomenon can lead us to distrusting our implicit memory. not seeing the forest for the trees. Being disoriented in the pixels of our perception.
Mental Constructs are not the problem, they help us navigate through life. Problems arise when they become stiff and dogmatic.
P.S.: Great Post! Would be interesting to see an video about it!
The predictive model is similar to a lot of the idea of Jordan Petersons Maps of Meaning. Experience life through a nest of hierarchical values that, as long they align, we experience that we are behaving in the correct manner. These psychological/physiological models also being instinctual manifestations that occur cross culturally and appearing the the myths and legends throughout human culture. That was a very simplied explanation tbf and I probably butchered parts of it
I feel that just from reading this post I'm more aware of how my mind works and feel like I'm a lot more present than usual. I will be trying shrooms next week and I think I want to split my time between meditation, listening to, and playing music. Wish me luck! :)
After an intense trip on LSD I saw these parts of the mind shutting off and back on slowly. It was impossible at some point to say ‘ I feel like this’’. The concept of ‘I’ was literally broken and it was just not available for me to elucidate. This triggered a massive change in my life and now I am fully engaged with meditation. Life was good but that experience made it to my top five days of my life. And interestingly , meditating on the imagery (memories or sounds) during the trip seems to facilitate further depth in meditation. It’s been a fantastic ride, and I sometimes ate too busy and not meditate for a week or two but it’s easy to get back to it and more importantly my attention to the present moment is heightened. I will always avoid speaking of psychedelics experiences as i don’t think that preaching on taking substances is safe (your own experiences are different of others!) but meditation truly is worth exploring and is the number one recommendation against cravings and dissatisfaction.
If you read this far and still struggle to meditate, maybe you are missing the theory. I recommend Waking Up app as it also includes conversations of these topics and theory behind meditation neuroscience consciousness etc.
Your take on this is interesting enough to read through it all. This despite it being, for me, mostly affirmation of already held knowledge and beliefs; except I don't see dissatisfaction as something bad.
Reduction of prediction error is the core mechanic also in Artificial Neural Networks. Which is likely why so many get the uncanny valley feeling from this latest wave of chat bots.
Looking forwards to seeing what more you dig up!
On an anecdotal note.
I had this experience of "enlightenment" over the course of a couple of years of depression. Probably not quite the level described in the article but enough to lack any recollection of a "self" or its conscious actions. Yet at the very least it was enough to learn to compartmentalize and delegate different "regions" at different levels of consciousness.
I normally enjoy your articles in general, but this topic matter and style is why I switched to a paid subscription. Thank you for the excellent presentation of material and synthesis into something greater.
"Do you think 'Enlightenment' experiences are real? (Realizations that permanently change the mind's operation)" - yes, because that's exactly what I use for my hypno-coaching:
https://alancarronline.com
You don't need to lose all sense of self to make realization-breakthroughs, which can completely change how you think about certain things. I use it to break phobias and anxiety, just by asking the right questions.
For sure such things can be powerful, and I must admit I feel a little uneasy at the idea of Daniel permanently losing his sense of self. It may result in him feeling happier, but the word "lobotomy" comes to mind!
Perhaps that's an unfair comparison, but losing part of your mind in order to feel happier...? Can't say I'm comfortable with it. You'll own nothing, lose your sense of self, and be happy?
Let's not?
Put like that it brings to mind these recent bouts regarding longevity in disregard of actual health. Then again, one "peak" of Buddhism is in the form of the living buddha.
Satisfied? Sort of, with there being no needs to satiate.
Happy? I'd argue happiness is built upon the existence of the self.
I think we also need a grounding in comparisons. For example happy... compared to what?
True. Makes sense since even the building blocks of our experience, all our senses, are relativistic in at least one fashion.
I guess another example could be how the perpetually satiated, such as "the 1%", so easily develop highly esoteric fetishes and goals.
Very insightful post! I have embarked on this path of awakening for the past months and I keep getting under layers of concepts and conditioning that I didn’t realize where there. Very worthwhile journey. For anyone interested in this topic, I highly recommend the teacher: Angelo Dilullo, his youtube channel and his book: “Awake, its your turn.”
Cheers!
Great post! Wish you expanded more on non-dual awareness because it's not clear from the text what it is and how to practice it. Please do more content on this topic. Really love how you structure your content and give Buddhist practices scientific explanations
Deeply satisfied with this post. Please, more on this subject! 😄
Fantastic post. I've wanted to dive deeper into meditation but it's always something I've thought of as less than scientific or lacking evidence of real benefits. This post encouraged me to do more research before dismissing it.
I found the definitions of Buddhist terminology in this post confusing and recommend this instead: https://neuroticgradientdescent.blogspot.com/2020/01/mistranslating-buddha.html
oh my God Joseph
please know the impact you have in peoples lives
i know that your ego is lowered with so much meditation but you inspired me
Recognizing that our sense of self is only one of many possible states is a helpful healthy lens. That it is a simulation that is changeable. Yet Pathologizing the Default Mode Network (responsible for a lot of creative insight, empathy) or the healthy Sense of Self (responsible for biographical intuition, emotional navigation, goal alignement,..) can be dangerous & lead to intense self-estrangement and disorientation.
Further, training our mind to constantly deconstruct mental phenomenon can lead us to distrusting our implicit memory. not seeing the forest for the trees. Being disoriented in the pixels of our perception.
Mental Constructs are not the problem, they help us navigate through life. Problems arise when they become stiff and dogmatic.
P.S.: Great Post! Would be interesting to see an video about it!
The predictive model is similar to a lot of the idea of Jordan Petersons Maps of Meaning. Experience life through a nest of hierarchical values that, as long they align, we experience that we are behaving in the correct manner. These psychological/physiological models also being instinctual manifestations that occur cross culturally and appearing the the myths and legends throughout human culture. That was a very simplied explanation tbf and I probably butchered parts of it
I feel that just from reading this post I'm more aware of how my mind works and feel like I'm a lot more present than usual. I will be trying shrooms next week and I think I want to split my time between meditation, listening to, and playing music. Wish me luck! :)
Very good post , keep digging at this, I will also try to go this route as much my free time allows , and that is not much.
Also want to know how it is going for you ?
After an intense trip on LSD I saw these parts of the mind shutting off and back on slowly. It was impossible at some point to say ‘ I feel like this’’. The concept of ‘I’ was literally broken and it was just not available for me to elucidate. This triggered a massive change in my life and now I am fully engaged with meditation. Life was good but that experience made it to my top five days of my life. And interestingly , meditating on the imagery (memories or sounds) during the trip seems to facilitate further depth in meditation. It’s been a fantastic ride, and I sometimes ate too busy and not meditate for a week or two but it’s easy to get back to it and more importantly my attention to the present moment is heightened. I will always avoid speaking of psychedelics experiences as i don’t think that preaching on taking substances is safe (your own experiences are different of others!) but meditation truly is worth exploring and is the number one recommendation against cravings and dissatisfaction.
If you read this far and still struggle to meditate, maybe you are missing the theory. I recommend Waking Up app as it also includes conversations of these topics and theory behind meditation neuroscience consciousness etc.
All the best
Your take on this is interesting enough to read through it all. This despite it being, for me, mostly affirmation of already held knowledge and beliefs; except I don't see dissatisfaction as something bad.
Reduction of prediction error is the core mechanic also in Artificial Neural Networks. Which is likely why so many get the uncanny valley feeling from this latest wave of chat bots.
Looking forwards to seeing what more you dig up!
On an anecdotal note.
I had this experience of "enlightenment" over the course of a couple of years of depression. Probably not quite the level described in the article but enough to lack any recollection of a "self" or its conscious actions. Yet at the very least it was enough to learn to compartmentalize and delegate different "regions" at different levels of consciousness.
So enlightened is just how we call dumb people?
people with low IQ enjoy all the thing you call "enlightened".