Awakening from the Meaning Crisis

New videos released every Friday.

Upcoming lecture series by Dr. John Vervaeke.

We are in the midst of a mental health crisis. There are increases in anxiety disorders, depression, despair, and suicide rates are going up in North America, parts of Europe, and other parts of the world. This mental health crisis is itself due to and engaged with crises in the environment and the political system, those in turn are enmeshed within a deeper cultural historical crisis that I call "The Meaning Crisis". It's more and more pervasive throughout our lives. And there's a sense of drowning in this old ocean of bullshit. And we have to understand, why is this the case? And what can we do about it?

Today, there is an increase of people feeling very disconnected from themselves, from each other from the world from a viable and foreseeable future. Let's discuss this, let's work on it together, let's rationally reflect on it. Getting out of this problem is going to be tremendously difficult. It's going to require significant transformations in our cognition, our culture, our communities. And in order to move forward in such a difficult manner, we have to reach more deeply into our past to salvage the resources we can for such an amazing challenge. I'll be talking about a lot of people who have spoken in ways that will provide us the resources we need. We'll talk about ancient figures like Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, Jesus of Nazareth, Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, but we'll also talk about modern pivotal figures. We'll talk about people like Carl Jung, we'll talk about Nietzsche. We'll talk about Heidegger.

I want to bring all of this together in a coherent and clear fashion, so that together we can discover how to awaken from The Meaning Crisis.

[AlpineRaven]

I just want to sincerely express my deepest gratitude for making this series available for free and for everyone. It’s a priceless gift. Thank you so much!

[hazardousjazzgasm]

Professor Vervaeke was a substitute teacher of mine many years ago at York University for a class called Philosophy of Psychology, and his mix of cognitive sci and psych and philosophy was more than just unique, it was immensely insightful. Looking forward to more classes of his that showcase his talent of combining so many fields into one cohesive whole

[philmessina]

I learned so much about the world and about myself through this series last year.

Now, it's time to do revisit the entire series again, to strengthen my grasp of the material.

I love this series! I often share it with anyone, who even remotely might be interested.

[tttony]

I can't get enough of Vervaeke. When he uploads a new video, it becomes at the front of my salience landscape, and that ain't bullshit!

[tyleryoast]

Halfway through and this has made such a positive impact on my life. I felt as if the world became more vivid to me as I listened to my strife reflected in fine detail over so many different contexts. This has reoriented me to a feeling of self-growth I haven't felt in years. I took my Psych degree program back up because of this

THANK YOU JOHN VERVAEKE!

[jamesadams]

thank you for acknowledging and speaking about the current problems, this in itself will help to heal and pogress the human world. Your resolve to try to find problems is to be commended. remain joyful and loving while on your journey

[billy]

Thank you John Vervaeke for this podcast and this channel

[blakeobeans]

The beautiful thing about this course is that it has become a cultural conversation that continues on this channel. Brilliant.

[kevinburns]

I just got turned onto this series after listening to you on Theories of Everything with Bernardo Kastrup, and then Jordan Peterson. I am blown away by how well thought out it is. Perfect flow and order throughout. Every time a line of inquiry came to mind, it was addressed immediately. Uncanny. I don’t think I have seen ideas presented this well before.

[sheilas]

Great choice for music overlay Erik Satie - Gymnopédie 1 was the only song that soothed my first-born. Perhaps it soothed me and baby felt that as well. Amazing power music has and im so excited for this series after hearing your amazing discussion with Jordan. I am on a journey to navigate through the integration of mental health resources, supports and education that helps families and isnt steeped in ideology. Starting small with my own community but hoping to figure a path. Thank you for sharing this with us, esp people like me who have worked in fields unrelated to philosophy, psychology and want to integrate it within ourselves and our circles. This "meaning" feels like the most important thing and ive been paralyzed with how to move forward when everything i encounter is so fragmented.

[Slowmo-sapiens]

Discover you and this series trough JBP podcast, 25 episodes in i can already say this is wonderful material. Thank you for sharing it

[em-dyhn]

Thank goodness this material is available online now!

[sbroomell]

I was directed here by a woman I met at the Symbolic World Summit 2 weeks ago. I loved hearing you on both JBP and the Symbolic World podcasts and the most recent discussion over your AI video essay. Let’s see how my computer programming son and I take in your series and Matthieu Pageau’s The Language of Creation. I feel like I’ve found a whole new world of possibility and I’m so thankful to be more connected to real living people who are working these things out thanks to the summit. Glad to finally begin this series.

[Gambi_]

Came here from your recent JBP podcast, really thrilled to start with this series

[BL-trug]

Watched this early am. It's brightened my day.

[rockerbob]

I’m fascinated. As a guy with severe ADHD and social anxiety I’m intrigued. Hate every medication they’ve tried to put me on. But in my youth mushrooms and LSD help tremendously. However I was always embarrassed to admit it to “authority figures” in my life. Having data that is quantifiable and qualitative would be fantastic.

[dosto-evsky]

found your channel through JBP post on seems like another one of those YouTube channel people can soak in good content....thank you Sir.

[marektomaszewski]

Go John ! I was waiting, patiently subscribed. Ever since i saw the beatiful discussion with JB Peterson I knew you are not going to leave us with just enough content to prove you are worth a lot of attention and go away.

Go rigour and curiosity
Go confidence and humility
Go courage and honesty

[ejw]

Sounds like a life's work, a passion project, pushing out one's adventure and relating and sharing it with the whole. This insight then rationalizing approach tends to work on something like the meaning crisis. Work means applicability for at least 80% of a random sample brought into a studio of 25-70 year olds. The quarter-life and back-life awakening have their own textures...he hooked me...

[privatenb]

Thank you John. I'll be following along.