Aug 2018–present • A presentation of my research into self-transcendence, told through a collection of text, images and video.
17 Apr 2021 • What to do when you realize things aren’t the way they ought to be.
23 Jan 2021 • A meditation on my place in the universe
06 Nov 2019 • Evan Thompson’s response to “neuro-nihilism”.
23 Sep 2019 • One of Michel Foucault’s late interests provides a rich framework for understanding self-transformation and meaning-making.
11 Sep 2019 • Trying to understand a whole as simply a sum of its parts hasn’t worked out well in nutrition or many other fields of science.
29 Nov 2018 • In response to Zapffe’s famous essay, ‘The Last Messiah’, I offer two perspectives which confront the darkest parts of consciousness while still affirming the possibility of a life well-lived.
03 Nov 2013 • A meditation on the concept of wabi-sabi and it’s connection to questions of mortality and meaning.
This book covers similar ground to Metzinger’s, highlighting the many ways that our sense of reality is a highly developed illusion of the brain. I particularly liked the chapter where Frith uses a Bayesian perspective to discuss how our brains constantly filter new information in light of our prior experiences and beliefs. In addition, Frith emphasizes the importance of comparing our (highly fallible) mental models against those of other people in order to not be fooled by ourselves.
‘Ego tunnel’ is Metzinger’s term for the narrow, highly filtered subjective experience that individuals mistake for the stable and true ultimate reality. The book is an interesting discussion of how modern neuroscience is finding the ‘neural correlates’ for any number of subjective states of experience. Much like modern discussions of free will, the explanation of highly personal experiences (such as dreams) as involuntary physical process further calls into question the traditional Western idea of the self.
Pollan has written a deep and important book. He does an excellent job telling the history of psychedelics, giving an overview of the science of consciousness they are being used to study, and most importantly, giving an inside look at the experience of using them.
I discovered Strawson’s work through his writing on free will. This collection of essays covers that topic as well as others, all with a dry wit that I enjoyed. The essay that some readers seem to have had the hardest time with was the one I most enjoyed, where he argues that it’s philosophically simpler to assume all matter has some form of consciousness, since we know for certain that we are a form of matter with consciousness.
This book came highly recommended by Nassim Taleb. The main thrust is this: our unconscious mind plays a larger role in our lives than we suspect and is often at odds with our conscious thoughts. Wilson recommends ways of bringing the conscious and unconscious into greater alignment.
This collection of three essays is one of the best places to start with the writing of Seneca as well as the Stoic tradition. The classic themes are all here: avoid wasting your time on superficial endeavors, seek after wisdom and moral clarity, protect your happiness from the unpredictable turns of chance.
A very strange book, but one that has become a cult classic since its publication in 1976. Jaynes’ theory is that up until several thousand years ago, humans did not possess a form of self-consciousness that we would recognize as our own. Instead, they heard the ‘voice of the gods’ in their heads and felt compelled to obey their commandments.
An incredibly moving story about Paul’s diagnosis of cancer and his struggle to confront the meaning of his life and the prospect of his death.
Frankl tells the harrowing story of his time in a concentration camp and his discovery of how one can still retain a sense of the beauty and meaning of life even in the face of this experience.