Ep. 9 - Awakening from the Meaning Crisis - Insight

New videos released every Friday.

Podcast Links:

Books in the Video:

• Robert Forman – The Problem of Pure Consciousness: Mysticism and Philosophy
• Aldous Huxley – The Perennial Philosophy
• William Miller and Janet C’de Baca – Quantum Change: When Epiphanies and Sudden Insights Transform Ordinary Lives
• Michael Polanyi – Knowing and Being
• Michael Polanyi – The Tacit Dimension
• Sebastian Watzl – Structuring Mind: The Nature of Attention and how it Shapes Consciousness
• Wayne Wu - Attention

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

[amanofnoreputation]

We can only hope these blow up as well as the Peterson lectures.

[robbydyer]

This man just scientifically described my spiritual reality.

[baroquecat]

Thanks so much for all the great professors who share their lectures online with people who don’t want to drown in student loan or didn’t have the chance to go to university <3

[matthewcote]

Powerful work. This year, I am watching one episode per week. I am only on week 9 and I have already decided to re-enroll in university. Finishing my degree in Theatre but going to double Major in Philosophy, and hoping to one day make connections between the Performing Arts, the Shamanistic Traditions, and Western Philosophy. Wish me luck, y'all

[Meejateacher]

Bravo sir! As someone who has had a psychedelic revelatory experience, and has been on a lifelong quest for meaning ever since, your clarity of expression in these talks is resonating right through me. Inspirational.

[Wamagirii]

Dear John. Greetings from Nairobi, Kenya. Thank you for your lectures. I am learning so so much as I have been on the path of searching for meaning in my life esp now that my two children have left the nest. Namaste

[momentary]

I’m watching these in order, and so far, I think what makes John most deserved of making his living as a professor is his ability to sew ideas across lectures, weaving back and forth between concepts without ever compromising his arch of 30+ lecturers.

[erichroffler]

Contemplating your t-o/ F-G model in the early morning hours, i had one of the strongest awakenings of my life. 5–10 minutes pure non-duality nothingness & fullness. I saw that i am everything and life will go on forever (pure conciousness can‘t die). There was no fear of death or any fear at all. Thanks man, your teaching is a blessing!

[adm]

The best explanation and description of mindfulness that I've ever come across. Thanks again.

[ThePathOfEudaimonia]

This was such an insightful lecture. This series is blowing my mind. I can feel both anxiety and exhiliration.

Thank you, John!

[deepusastiya]

Mr. Vervaeke, I am a computer engineer from India. I am also deeply interested in psychology and philosophy. This series is inestimably insightful for me. I am very grateful for your efforts. It is really helping me understand a lot. I have been practicing meditation for last six years and this is the first time that I get an scientific explanation for mindfulness.

Thank You very much and keep up the good work.

[jakehoban]

Just astonishingly rich and deep. I've been practising Buddhism for five years but never appreciated all the ways it works as much as I do after watching these last two episodes.

[davidFbeckham]

Thank you so much for doing this John :) I am a former student of yours who has been missing your teaching! All the best

[rtizzi]

These lectures deserve to be a framework for a social protocol to replace the void of outdated religious paradigms.

[gridcoregilry]

John, this is such an incredible series. Thank you sooo much. The depth you provide, all perfectly explained with so much passion. Simply incredible. This gets better and better. Love from Germany

[Nameeejz]

This one gave me words for something I didn't know I'd been exploring :) thank you

[tracywilliamsliterature]

This series is AMAZING. Priceless. Thank god I found you, Mr Vervaeke.

[Heraclit]

This is the best christmas present I ever got. Thank you, John, you are a mindblowing lecturer!

[ThePathOfEudaimonia]

This is one of my favourite lessons yet.

Interestingly enough, as a person without any training in and little experience of meditation, I experienced this at-oneness whilst having a deeply profound psychedelic experience in which I was flowing between the perspective of the Universe, my consciousness, and the "world" of natural laws and (sub)atomic particles, led by my breathing. In and out.

It was a wonderful experience I still bring with me after all those years, though it can be hard to "remember" that kind of being.

The most effective (non-psychedelic) way to remember that state is by getting into a flow of intense physical exercise.

[davemathews]

Wow! We live in an optimized state of flowing relationship between meditation and contemplation. @JohnVervaeke lays out the most powerfully explanatory and insightful description of mindfulness that I have ever encountered. Brilliant work!