Ep. 18 - Awakening from the Meaning Crisis - Plotinus and Neoplatonism

New videos released every Friday.

Podcast Links:

Books in the Video:

• April DeConick – The Gnostic New Age: How a Countercultural Spirituality Revolutionized Religion from Antiquity to Today
• Chris Hedges – I Don’t Believe in Atheists: The Dangerous Rise of the Secular Fundamentalist
• Chris Hedges – American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America
• Hans Jonas – The Gnostic Religion: The Message of the Alien God and the Beginnings of Christianity
• Eric Perl – PLOTINUS Ennead V.1: On the Three Primary Levels of Reality
• Eric Perl – Thinking Being: Introduction to Metaphysics in the Classical Tradition
• Paul Tillich – The Courage to Be

Eighteenth episode of Dr. John Vervaeke's Awakening from the Meaning Crisis.

[johnvervaeke]

I would like to post my source of my claim about Harris. This is not the place to enter into an interpretation debate. From The End of Faith: “If history is any guide, we will not be sure about where the offending warheads are or what their state of readiness is, and so we will be unable to rely on targeted, conventional weapons to destroy them. In such a situation, the only thing likely to ensure our survival may be a nuclear first strike of our own. Needless to say, this would be an unthinkable crime—as it would kill tens of millions of innocent civilians in a single day—but it may be the only course of action available to us, given what Islamists believe. “

[kristofkovacs]

Everyone gangsta until they fail to engage in participatory knowing

[Dav]

Watching this series feels like witnessing the construction of a cathedral of wisdom, built from cornerstone ideas quarried from the entire history of human thought, wrought into their most useful form by a combination of reason and intuition, and then built up, brick by brick, into a grand new structure, all at the hands of a skilled craftsman working with both vision and purpose.

(I know that probably sounds unbearably pretentious, but I've just really been enjoying this series!)

[marcc]

So if I’m understanding correctly, Plotinus was the one who created the Hyrule Triforce, Link is actually me IRL, and Dr JV is the one at the beginning of the game handing me the metaphorical sword of knowledge for overcoming the challenges and existential meaning crisis I’m going to face in my life? It all makes sense now.

Still 30 hours to go. Can’t wait to see what else this adventure has in store. Thank you Dr V.

[jakestansel]

How you weave together history, philosophy and cognitive science is fascinating. I’ve experienced a cascade of insights into my own cognition I would not have found anywhere else.

The value of this series is immense.

[antonyliberopoulos]

" What makes something real, is how one it is; how integrated it is ". Thank you!

[dwifred]

This serious has been really fundamental in my relationship to education. Professor Vervaeke creatively blends so many elements to bring together a tremendous amount of much needed information. Thank you for this Professor Vervaeke!

[kindenebeker]

You Can Only Be It. Holy Shit. Here I am understanding my whole life and why I have arrived at guiding contemporary wilderness rites of passage and coaching. Thank you again John, so much.

[byaringan]

Your ending reminded me of the C S Lewis quote, 'I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else'. Another great wonderful video professor. Looking forward to Saint Augustine.

[nicholibaldron]

Book List:
2:43 - The Gnostic Religion by Jonas
9:57 - The Gnostic New Age by DeConick
34:43 - The Courage To Be by Tillich
39:25 - American Fascists by Hedges
39:38 - I don't Believe in Atheists by Hedges
45:18 - Plotinus by Perl
47:21 - Thinking Being by Perl


Thank you John for another great Friday video.

[adamblock]

Wow. I watched your conversations with Bernardo Kastrup and Curt Jaimungal on his theories of everything YouTube channel. Then I found your channel. This was an amazing lecture. Thank you so much for making it available. You’re an electric professor. 🙏🙏🙏

[timyoung]

Every time I listen to these, its a cascade of crescendoing consciousness. A flurry of thoughts that sustains for like 4-6 days. So many new and old ideas, so well put together, but so focused on each individual word. Makes me think a lot.


I'll mourn the day this series ends, but weep with joy.

[jahlcaldwell]

This series just keep on giving. I am now experiencing the irony of being addicted to watching this series. I am ostensibly using his videos as another source to enhance my understanding of how to pursue transcendence effectively but I simultaneously desire to watch the next episode instead of doing any actual practice. I sell it to myself as needing to lie fallow and build up nutrients in order to effectively engage. Nice trick. I think I’m full of shit though and just like playing with his ideas.

[elenastubo]

Fantastic. You are putting together so many “dead ends” I found in my personal search. Thank you for making your lectures available to us all… I look forward to the end of this series and more… it is gratifying when my insticts materialise. Elena

[Jacobhussain]

I believe the importance of enacted ritual that Vervaeke describes, explains the emergence of popular team sports in the 21st century, both in the form of participation and spectatorship. Being part of a team which has a common goal has many of the key features of enacted ritual, explaining the prevalent sense of meaning that individuals associate with sport

[trinitycare]

Thank you very much for your time and dedication.

[bretta]

Lol I like when he mentions “L.A. Paul, ” because it sounds like somebody’s nickname. Maybe a hustler type who hangs out in pool halls. Like “who’s that guy over there with the sunglasses and leather jacket?”

“Oh, that’s L.A. Paul…he is quite the character!”

[nateTheNomad]

So happy to have finally turned over this mysterious John Vervaeke rock. After recurrent references to this series in associated realms and finally some truly remarkable discussions with Jordan Hall, it was clear you are not just "another one". Truly you are a transcendent epicenter of your own. I see you, sir, and what you are doing for the planet in these historic times nothing less than a merciful gift of love to the bleeding heart of humanity which threatens to swallow us alive.
Subscribed!

[marionlyons]

This is my 4th watch through. It ‘clicked’ about how the gnostics ‘seeing the gods as our prison guards’ led to Nietzsche. I know there’s a lot in-between but the click was super vivid on Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil

[deeinfiinty]

I can’t stop watching this series. Beautiful, intelligent and elevating. ❤