Why Can't We Find Meaning Anymore? John Vervaeke

- VIDEO NOTES

John Vervaeke, Ph.D. is an award-winning professor of psychology, cognitive science, and Buddhist psychology at the University of Toronto.

- LINKS

- TIMESTAMPS

0:00 What is the “meaning crisis”?
5:23 Relationship between wisdom and belonging
8:15 the removal of narrative from society
12:32 video games
15:40 How did we get to this point?
19:56 Is maths/science the language of the universe?
35:06 The science of meaning and agency
41:08 Does religion do meaning best?
46:45 Is the afterlife why religion provides meaning?
1:02:52 Does death make a mockery of meaning?
1:16:08 Finding meaning with psychedelics
1:23:00 Should we fear death?
1:31:11 Outro

- SPECIAL THANKS

As always, I would like to direct extra gratitude to my top-tier patrons:

John Early
Dmitry C.
Mouthy Buddha
Solaf

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Alex O'Connor
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[gnarlow]

I watched the Peter Hitchens video just before this one and the contrast between each guest’s reaction to Alex challenging them is striking.

[BooksAndThingsUK]

I appreciate Alex’s willingness and ability to translate what his guests say into something that can be related to be the average person.

[badreddine.elfejer]

Vervaeke has the magical wit to just connect so many things !

[Gruso]

John is incredible in the philosophical sphere. This is an awesome guest for Alex

[akiblue]

Knowledge is about "what" (evidence) and wisdom about "how" (relevance)
I love that definition.

[MrOhirtenfelder]

We are undoubtedly here for long form conversations! This is brilliant.

[nicholaswheatley]

I would love to see a follow up interview-discussion. I believe vervaeke's work and intuitions can really challenge Alex's views in interesting ways.

[RobotProctor]

1:05:30 "it doesnt need to persist for [the intrinsic value of that existence] to go on". Dang. That struck a chord with me.

[Kyky]

I like Christopher Hitchens' party analogy to death:

“It will happen to all of us, that at some point you get tapped on the shoulder and told, not just that the party’s over, but slightly worse: the party’s going on — but you have to leave. And it’s going on without you. That’s the reflection that I think most upsets people about their demise. All right, then, because it might make us feel better, let’s pretend the opposite. Instead, you’ll get tapped on the shoulder and told, Great news: this party’s going on forever — and you can’t leave. You’ve got to stay; the boss says so. And he also insists that you have a good time.”

I see, why there is a sentiment against immortality there, but I also understand, that death is the ultimate fear of missing out, because it will make you miss out on everything. People are fearful of missing out an actual party, so it is natural, that they are also fearful of missing out the party we call life, so in that sense I don't find fearing death, and not just only dying fearful.

Also I think - as I have no statistics, but only anecdotal "evidence" - that those who are more accepting their own death are older at average than those who are fearful of it, making so than at a young age you want to live forever, and at an older age, you realize, that while it was good, that much of living is enough.

[japexican]

The way alex switches from debate mode to interviewer/host commentator is extraordinary,

Night and day from the Ben Shapiro debate

God bless and thank you for all your years of hard work to provide knowledge and insight to your followers

[rtizzi]

The synchronicity of John's hand causing a blurry face while discussing interactional patterns that become self deceptive and "cloud" the agent-arena relationship 1:15:45, while likely unintentional, was beautiful 😊

[KennethSaul]

Amazing epispode Alex! This really pushed the limits of my pseudo-intellectual brain's ability to comprehend, but it was great!

[Dialogos]

I love hearing from John Vervaeke!!! This should be great!

[Nonster]

John seemed to genuinely be having the time of his life in this conversation. Great episode and guest.

[manchester]

I love vervaeke and grateful that you really pinned him down on why and what the desire for an after life in essence really is. This a really important question for both religious and non-religious. It’s one of the most important human questions!

[nurhandrio]

Alex, nice to see Vervaeke here. Then the natural next guess seems to be BERNARDO KASTRUP--I really want to see you engaging him in the channel. Vervaeke and Kastrup had a 2-part dialogue on Theories of Everything with Curt Jaimungal, which was amazingly good session.

[plyboard]

A fascinating interview Alex! I think the data John pointed to on people of faith having greater mental health benefits has been shown very persuasively. (see Tyler VanderWheele’s USA Today article ‘Religion May Be a Miracle Drug’) But I must say I find the hypothesis that it’s the ‘mystical’ experience that’s driving this very hard to believe.

From my own experience as part of a Christian community, it has been other things that seem to be in operation - community support amidst suffering or hardship or joy, a mission- sense of calling towards a work that is worth sacrificing personal comfort for, truth/wisdom- a sense that what we do is true, not in an illusory way but has real weight, Hope in an afterlife and Service- getting out and helping others in practical ways brings that sense of joy and meaning.

[kevinreed]

Haven’t had to a chance to watch/listen to this yet, but YES. John Vervaeke is wonderful; glad you both were able to speak!

[tehdii]

I love this guest. The way of formulating this complex problem in this way is very convincing and delicious. You sir was able to eruditely convey the problem of thinking about meaning in our post-something-I-dont-know world in your speech :) If we can have another video with him it would be glorious :)

[SLAM]

Great set of questions and considerations from Alex, best interview with John I have come across, managed to extract a lot of information