Sam Harris Is WRONG about Truth and LSD - EXPLAINED

#samharris #samharrisLSD

[Merlijn]

This comes across as if you have no idea what you are talking about, Yaron, judging from the oversimplifications you are making here, which are staggering. It's typically Objectivist bias to see Plato and Kant everywhere. Meditation, and LSD for that matter, is not about doing away with the senses to find truth. Meditation is a form of introspection, of taking the meta-level in your own experience of living, and observe the workings of consciousness and the senses. Rather than doing away with the senses, it makes you more aware of them. To me, meditation is a great source of knowledge, especially on your own psycho-epistemology and the experience of consciousness (through the senses!) in general. It looks like you are ridiculing it, and that's not adding to your credibility as a serious thinker. By the way, the world of psychedelics is another hugely interesting field with lots to learn from about the nature of mind. True, a lot of it is bogus, but that doesn't disqualify it altogether. Rather than dismissing it, it would be more interesting to look at the effects and explain them from a rational point of view. I dare you to read a few books on psychedelics or even to take a trip yourself and then talk about it. Now that certainly would elevate your stature as a thinker!

[redcommander]

Hasn’t Sam Harris said that while drugs can be beneficial in helping you think in different ways, they can’t be used to gain information about reality?

[hominidae.]

Yaron, have you ever tried any psychedelic?
Be careful: psychedelics may enhance your ability to re-evaluate deeply your own ideas and beliefs and to explore different perspectives. And what comes out of that might be really overwhelming.

[FraterOculus]

In his letters, Jung called it the Bolshevik dream -- the idea that spiritual experience can be granted at the push of a button, since, the Marxist believes, this further proves that religion is the opiate of the masses, that we exist in a dialectical world of material causes and effects, and that there is no underlying formal nature to man or morality: man is tabula rasa, and can be formed by the state into the New Soviet Man, in accordance with empiricist doctrine of the time; and thus, the law is what we say it is; there is no natural law. As Trotsky says: "Man will make it his purpose to master his own feelings, to raise his instincts to the heights of consciousness, to make them transparent, to extend the wires of his will into hidden recesses, and thereby to raise himself to a new plane..."

[thedialectic]

This is garbage from Yaron, based on his dogmatic views and a bunch of conjecture, as opposed to actual research and evidence of what happens with psychedelics. You can easily tell he has no experience in this field, so it’s intellectually irresponsible to bloviate about it behind the guise of objectivism.

[Cordellium]

Neither meditation nor LSD are required to realize the lack of a self nor the ineptitude of the concept of free will.

That said, seeing you and Sam talking together would be fascinating. Thanks for the video Yaron.

[whiteowl]

Thanks for bringing up Kant. I've been wanting to read Kant, Hegel, and more to get a feel where modern arguments originate.

[ssoonnyymm]

the pythagorean cult of ancient greece believed that you'd reach the transcendent 'other' reality somehow through the continued practice of complex mathematics. The psychedelic method of reaching 'reality' merely substitutes chemistry for mathematics, but the methodology is essentially the same. but the psychedelics are lauded as tools of cognition in today's culture specifically because they temporarily eviscerate your ability to reason, which pleases the 'kantians'. but the experience can be interpreted as either a personal excursion to the "other realm", or a state of increased susceptibility to revelation, both of which please the platonists.

[meowmix]

A very intellectual will of applying reductionism to something that we have almost no understanding of. Something tells me you haven't tried any psychedelics. You wouldn't use the words "it's just" anymore.

[majavmg]

Brother, if you believe something to be true and you profess this to the world, does that mean you just want power and you’re lying? C’mon. That’s absurd. People who think they know the truth aren’t necessarily lying. They’re just deluded or wrong, something that couldn’t possibly be more inevitable.

[drew]

i don’t think Sam is claiming to have the absolute “truth” from LSD… there’s nothing inherently wrong with using or not using any drug. you’re now gatekeeping reality by telling people what’s real/truth… that’s your (subjective) interpretation. and this vid is an oversimplified interpretation of one aspect of/statement from Sam.

[avonflex]

my summary of objectivism :
all human beings operate on a hierarchy of values, and the order of hierarchy should be derived rationally based on the principle of "what makes human life better " .

[davidstart]

My drugs are nicotine (via cigars) and alcohol (via vodka, whiskey, scotch, tequilla, and beer, mostly.) I don't approve of myself. I don't approve of anyone who does even more mind altering drugs.

[ivandate]

I never think Sam Harris is serious about LSD.

[nigeltustin]

What would an objectivist say about these view numbers tho?

[bob-sswx]

Yaron, it's about time somebody took on Sam Harris and really laid it out.

[adammobile]

Unfortunately, Yaron doesn't understand meditation at all. Super oversimplification.

[gagebailey]

When I did Lsd all it did was make me hyper analyze my life. Like why I chose certain things and how that cut me off what I would say is good for me. It just helped me realize i was fucking up, and actualize my goals. I do agree that drugs can be bad, you cannot deny the cultural influence psychedelics have had western barbarians and vikings

[bingbong]

They discovered an alternated brain state. So profound 👏

[alejandrob.]

hello Yaron, I like Sam but I do not agree with him at 100%, but it's always good to listen different opinions of smart people, even the weird ones