🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation: 00:00 🧠 *Meditation can lead to profound transformations, challenging fundamental beliefs about oneself and reality.* 01:10 🧘 *Intense meditative experiences can bring about a profound shift in perception, revealing a reality devoid of problems or dissatisfaction.* 04:23 🧠 *Research involving advanced meditators in brain scanners aims to understand changes in consciousness and brain activity during meditation.* 07:15 🧘 *Meditation research seeks to explore deeper aspects beyond attention and emotion regulation, delving into profound insights and transformations.* 08:29 🔄 *Meditation and psychedelics both offer pathways to profound transformations, though meditation aims for more specific insights into the mind's processes.* 10:19 🎯 *Contemporary science's initial focus on meditation was on attention and emotion regulation, overlooking its deeper transformative potential.* 12:40 🌀 *The frontier of meditation research now involves exploring the profound insights and transformations experienced by advanced practitioners, akin to a "deep end."* 16:45 🧠 *Meditation can lead to insights not only in content and states of consciousness but also in understanding the processes of the mind itself, offering meta-level insights.* 20:00 🌟 *Enlightenment, while a complex and multifaceted concept, is seen as a phenomenon by some, with meditation potentially offering a path toward it, though the exact nature remains subjective and multifaceted.* 20:57 🧠 *Enlightenment is viewed as our true nature, a shared layer among all living beings, according to the Zen tradition.* 22:32 🌟 *Enlightenment is not an instant state but a progression, with stages like stream entry leading to arahantship in Buddhism.* 23:43 🧪 *Research on advanced meditators suggests unique brain activity during moments of cessation of consciousness, indicating a profound transformation.* 25:42 🔄 *During cessation experiences, the brain undergoes desynchronization, revealing the deconstruction of the mind's habitual processing.* 31:48 🧩 *Meditation involves disentangling the mind's habitual model of reality, leading to a breakdown of the assumption of consciousness.* 36:46 🧠 *The concept of self is seen as a construct, supported by scientific evidence of its variability and susceptibility to alteration.* 40:28 💡 *Enlightenment experiences involve recognizing the limitations of one's model of reality, leading to a profound transformation in perception.* 42:28 🔄 *Predictive modeling in the mind: Similar to how a robot adjusts its model based on prediction errors, the human mind revises its understanding of reality when faced with unexpected outcomes.* 43:37 🤯 *Enlightenment as exposing the mind to prediction error: The process of Enlightenment involves voluntarily subjecting the mind to significant prediction errors, leading to foundational shifts in understanding reality and the self.* 45:06 🧘♂️ *Deconstructing the concept of self: Key aspect of Enlightenment experiences involves recognizing the absence of a fixed self, leading to a fundamental shift in understanding the nature of consciousness.* 47:59 🌐 *Different paths to Enlightenment: Various meditation traditions offer different approaches to reaching Enlightenment, but they share the common goal of deconstructing the mind's abstractions and recognizing the underlying nature of consciousness.* 49:35 ⚖️ *Scientific perspective on meditation: Integrating scientific understanding with meditative practices can provide a unified framework for discussing Enlightenment experiences, free from dogma or cultural bias.* 59:00 🕊️ *Intensity and earnestness in meditation: Deep meditative experiences often require a profound sense of authenticity and intensity in practice, leading to transformative insights and shifts in perspective.* 01:03:49 🧠 *This transformative experience was grounded and ordinary, but resulted in the disappearance of confusion and issues, leaving a sense of peace and clarity.* 01:05:13 💭 *A significant threshold was crossed during the experience, marking a distinct before and after in perception and reality.* 01:13:21 🌱 *Recognizing the inherent satisfaction in the present moment can reduce the habitual craving for external stimuli, leading to a lighter, more flow-filled experience of reality.* 01:21:30 🧠 *Meditation can lead to profound shifts in consciousness, characterized by slowed thoughts and heightened awareness of mental processes.* 01:24:01 🧘♂️ *Meditation experiences can vary from moments of deep boredom to profound realizations, often accompanied by vivid imagery and sensations.* 01:25:53 🌟 *Meditation can bring about a sense of reassurance and tranquility, alleviating latent anxieties and instilling a feeling of well-being.* 01:26:20 🔄 *After profound meditation experiences, individuals may return to feeling ordinary but with a subtle shift in perspective, akin to a change in camera angle in a video game.* 01:27:20 🧪 *Research on meditation and altered states of consciousness requires a balance between objective neuroscientific measures and subjective experiences.* 01:29:09 🔬 *There are distinctions between neurod (shifts in consciousness) and neurod samapti (extended, intentional states of consciousness), with the latter being more elusive and difficult to study scientifically.* 01:31:54 📊 *Research on expert meditators who can induce extended states of consciousness reveals significant desynchronization of neural activity, suggesting unique brain processes during these states.* 01:37:03 🔍 *Objective biological data cannot conclusively prove subjective experiences, highlighting the inherent limitations in studying consciousness solely through neuroscience.* 01:41:28 🧠 *Meditation can enhance one's ability to perceive time accurately, similar to waking up from sleep, indicating a biological explanation.* 01:42:22 🧬 *Questions arise about the evolutionary purpose of extended meditative cessations, drawing parallels with hibernation in animals like bears.* 01:47:51 🧘♂️ *Investigating contemplative traditions like meditation for insights into building benevolent AI systems that are wise and compassionate is a crucial challenge of our time.* 01:48:21 🔮 *Predictive processing models offer a unified framework to understand how organisms function, including cognition, perception, and consciousness, shedding light on the significance of prediction in brain operations.* 01:53:10 💡 *Language models' ability to mimic human conversation stems from their foundation in predictive processing, raising questions about the relationship between prediction and consciousness.* 01:58:43 🧠 *The subjective depth of human experience, such as ineffable moments in meditation, poses a challenge for AI models primarily based on prediction and language generation.* 01:59:34 📚 *Integrating scientific understanding with subjective experience, such as through predictive processing and ancient contemplative texts, can bridge the gap between objective and subjective perspectives in discussing phenomena like meditation and human transformation.* 02:01:40 🧠 *Subjective experience and objective data play crucial roles in decision-making, highlighting the importance of trust and personal judgment.* 02:04:13 🎯 *Objectivity is an ideal, but all perceptions are ultimately filtered through conscious experience, leading to varied interpretations and biases.* 02:05:41 🧠 *False insights can be elicited in individuals through manipulations in their inferential processes, impacting beliefs and perceptions of truth.* 02:07:20 🤔 *Understanding involves recognizing patterns and making inferences about reality, influenced by confidence and previous learning.* 02:10:47 🛠️ *Fundamental aspects of human experience, such as agency and body ownership, can be manipulated by altering the data processed by the brain.* 02:19:29 🔄 *The mind and body have a bidirectional relationship, where changes in subjective experiences can manifest physically, emphasizing their interconnectedness.* 02:19:44 🧘 *Deep relaxation of the conscious mind corresponds to relaxation of core habits in the body, highlighting the interconnectedness of mental and physical states.* 02:20:54 🧠 *The practice of noticing bodily tension when distracted during meditation reveals the Mind-Body Connection and can lead to transformative experiences.* 02:22:41 💊 *Placebo effects demonstrate the influence of mind on body, affecting biological processes and perception, emphasizing the importance of accounting for them in research.* 02:23:36 👁️🗨️ *Sensory integration phenomena like synesthesia and the McGurk effect illustrate how the brain combines sensory information to construct perceptions, showcasing its inferential processes.* 02:25:52 🔮 *Creating illusions through psychophysics demonstrates understanding of consciousness and sensory processing, providing insights into the workings of the human mind.* Made with HARPA AI
This is one of the best, if not the best chanel on RU-vid, period. This amount of research and down to earth honesty combined is almost impossible to find.
@@jacobsvetich8735 eh I don’t know about that, I suppose its more that I’ve listened for 30min and they have only talked about meditation something im not all that interested in when trying to answer the video title.
Your channel has become quite the wonder 🤙🏼 So Amazing the info you continually bring forth and evolve not only your channel but listeners as well! Thank You
Hi Joseph, you should think about separating the podcasts to a separate channel, i.e. "WIL podcast", you can still upload 10-15min clips from the podcasts to the main channel... 2hr videos are bound to have less views and the algorithm doesn't like it like that, it may damage the placement of your usual content.
Or you can simply listen to this guy talk for less than 15 minutes. Once you realize he's talking about how satisfying the experience was for him & has nothing concrete to say about anything at all, that's more than generous.
Sounds like a psychedelic trip. It's been 3 years since I tried DMT, can't find a plug anywhere in my area. Back then, We used one of those vaporizers with the big bags. The first time I didn't do enough and I just seen shapes and colours. But the second time I managed to get another hit in before I got the light headed. I remember floating above the country side flying and then all of a sudden I zoomed down into a deer and went right inside of it and I was the veins and the blood and flowing through this deers body. It was very strange lol
The hallucinations you get from DMT looks as real as what you perceive to be real, it's so beautiful and almost unbelievable because I didn't know it was humanly possible to experience something like that.
Hey Joseph, just wanted to leave this here: I enjoyed this episode more than the one with the Rachel Wilson. She made some dubious claims and presented them as facts. Ruben, on the other hand, was clear and honest about his meditation practice. I found it very relatable, unlike the Delson Armstrong's talk, which sounded like nonsense to me. Appreciate you exploring a range of different opinions.
I've been watching videos about pragmatic meditation featuring people like Daniel M Ingram, etc, for over 10 years, and this is by far, hands down, the most interesting video on the subject I've watched, according to current-me.
You , sparked and kindled my deep interest in biology . You , are the reason why my passion in biology and chemistry is just expanding . Thank you , so much 💚💙💛
When the Deli Lama was asked if he meditated he answered " Yes of course" When asked how long per day he said "8 hours that is enough sleep for anyone."
Meditation is incredibly interesting because it opens the human ability to create religion (Buddhist philosophy) without relying on an ancient text or generational indoctrination. Two independent humans can create the same exact religion of Buddhist philosophy solely by meditating and writing down their enlightenments. Now that’s incredible
From a controls systems perspective, I feel that meditation changes the feedback loop of the brain to equal 1 therefore allowing the brain to interpret actual reality rather than our delusions or perceptions of reality
@@SamSung-jn5fiyou are entirely correct. I agree and would like to highlight that the focus is on the way meditation changes the way the brain processes information in which two individuals that have reached awakening through the same style of meditation would be able to write the same belief system because their brains have the same thought process. It is even said that knowledge/education is not a prerequisite to reach the awakened state. I forget the details but I want to say there’s a Chinese monk that studied his whole life just for a “barbarian” with no education to progress further towards becoming an awakened Buddha or something I can’t recall exactly
@Dillbeet Without proper coaching or guidance when meditating/expanding awareness, you get Portlanders that poopoo tradition/"ancient texts" and navel gaze in an LSD stooper while pressing Smoke shop purchased colored crystals to their head proclaiming they are the ascended and initiated.
I just finished reading Doug Kraft's new book, which brings a lot of science into Buddhism (particularly, the Primary Affective Emotions) and then you come out with this! Perfect.
I’ve had this experience a few times before and I loved it and wished it never ended but reality is everything ends , everything in life is temporary .
Only 79 thousand out of like what 8 billion people in the world watched this , those who watched this completely, congratulations, you have an excellent attention span .
Ross Jeffries talked about this Meditation is the key for everything. Hes been meditating for years and he said he used that knowledge he gained to teach men to get women they want. Hes method works he used NLP and meditation and language model type. That's pretty accurate. Personalized for everyone. Even Jeff said there's no such thing as self. It's all programming.
Joseph, take a look at the Hesychastic Eastern Christian Orthodox Tradition - honestly, the mystical aspects of Eastern Orthodox practice are pretty much about silencing the mind, connecting to a deeper Truth, and many other aspects you touched on this interview.
2:20:33 I really loved the information on how when we become detracted in meditation, that there will likely be tension in the body somewhere... fascinating. Thank you for this interview. It is wonderful. 🙏
Yes, that's a perfect example when you talk of the spouse cheating, and it being devastating. I had a nervous breakdown shortly after that happened to me, because i had a perfect image of my spouse. I appreciate you sharing this information.
1:55:36 that is called being an NPC and these people exist. They do have a body, they do have a brain, but they simply live on autopilot, there is nobody in the cockpit. They are simply following the masses down the stream.
I've been listening to this video for about 50 min now and I'm no closer to understand the points of the guest or what he works with or the research he is working on, than when I started. Some of the terms he uses aren't explained or are explained poorly. The guest is very long winded in his explanations, is very slow to get to the point and kinda waffles around the point before kinda getting to it. I'm getting the distinct impression that he's more used to talking to people who already know what he's talking about, than bringing the concepts to a fresh audience who may not know much or anything on the topic. I really wish he would first bring in simple explanations and then get more progressively complicated. As it stands it's just one information dump and overload after another. The only saving grace is pretty much the host trying to guide the guest to make his points more concise and understandable. The topic itself is interesting, however the guest should've practised simple explaining and explaining new concepts before the making of this video.
@@Frutticattygirl no need for negativity just trying to help you out. “Some of the terms he uses aren’t explained or are explained poorly” I got confused by this statement. There’s no need to have your ego dictate your reaction to come from a place of negativity. We all have areas of weakness, that’s just being human champ. Enjoy your life! Edit- I also drew the opposite conclusion to your last point haha. I wished the host would ask more precise questions in response to what the guest was saying! Funny how we all watch the same thing and come away with different opinions.
Claims like 'we know the brain is able to lose consciousness' aren't really verifiable, are they? It seems to me consciousness and memory are tightly bound up in immediate experience, and it's an open question whether consciousness ever 'turns off', or if it's just memory that does so.
I like that your getting into this podcast space but I think I fyou can have an abridged version or video essay in your regular format.... It would be very helpful to your main audience and feel more inclusive
You mentioned enlightenment is actually a "thing" to achieve. Do you recommend a specifc path? I already do mindfulness meditation and did have one extraordinary experience that felt like an impossibly lucid dream where I was going through different places. This happened when I was particularly stressed and decided to "meditate until I was ok", it was a total of 4 hours.
Enlightenment is the goal of buddhism, with the "noble eightfold path" being all the practices and behaviours geared towards achieving enlightenment. It can take a lifetime though.
i like how you are balancing the deep mystical aspects of mediation with the science. it makes it easier for me to bring my experiences to my friends/family to understand why i chose this path in life
There's potentially an evolutionary/biological aspect to meditation and it could be a method of hibernation. Insane! Edit: Joseph I get that visual effect from sounds during meditation too! Weird stuff, not sure if it counts as synthesia tho
I have experienced enlightenment on LSD. My mind has been permanently altered ever since. There are many positives but also many negatives associated with the change. Everything has its time. I feel like enlightenment has not yet reached its time. My experiences were a blessing but they are also a burden. My position is that I wouldn't have fit into society anyway, therefore I don't regret having taken the leap. At least this way I have some understanding about why the world is as it is.
Funnily enough, I know that experience of every sense being sharper, but I mostly get that totally at random while driving. Really have no clue why haha. It's not permanent, just like a few seconds to minutes everything being just so much clearer.
Unless you die to your old self, you will be a slave to it, stuck in the past, the conditioned mind. The meditation discussed in this video is about realizing the end of all sense of neediness and lack, and thus ultimate freedom and power in the eternal present moment. If you want to be smarter, more handsome, or taller, you must learn to stop needing these desires to be fulfilled before you feel complete and content. Then, you will be happy exactly as you are, and seek change only from a place of joy and wholeness.
@@jeredmckenna see this is what im talking about, I dont care about 'ego death' meditation because I dont accept that "my old nature needs to die or ill be a slave to it" or that "desire is suffering" or any of that. I dont feel that I NEED to be smarter or more handsome but I want it, for the same reason I dont NEED a job, but I recognise it'll make my life easier and more enjoyable than living off the land and the kindness of strangers. I dont NEED my shirts to be whiter than white, but I think they look better, get what im saying? If youre saying "dont seek things because you think it'll make you happy" alright, but im sick of meditation only ever offering "ego death" and "a feeling of calm". until there's a meditation that puts me in limitless NZT levels of super smarts or turns me into henry cavil, im over it.
There definitely is a self though, even when completely deconstructed. Your self is the collection of entities that make up your organism. It's like looking for your phone; with your phone's flashlight. Youre never going to "find" the self. If he coined the term meta-insight, then i can coin the term meta-enlightened.
If there wasn't a self to tether too, people who gain enlightenment would end up like the main victim in "The Jaunt". They'd see life as infinity and go insane. I know because I've been there and back.
Exactly how is it being viewed as logical to say that the self doesn't exist or isn't real if it can change and be broken down? That is a logical impossibility. If something doesn't exist then changing it is impossible. What exactly are you changing? That's like saying that if your limbs can be hacked off or your body perforated then your body must not be real. This guy is saying that the self is a "construction" and that somehow makes it not real. Ok, so if the self is a mere construct, then who or what is responsible for constructing it? If you say the body, then it is a physical part of human physiology and thus, necessarily real. But if you say "the mind", then whose mind? If you say neural connections and "perceived associations", then whose neural connections and who is "perceiving" these associations? This line of reasoning is circular and ultimately self-refuting. If the self doesn't exist then there is no possibility of it being constructed by anything because there wouldn't be anything to construct. And if the self is constructed and has the capability of "perceiving" things, then it must necessarily be real, as in actually existing and having having a physical or natural influence, or else it wouldn't be able to "perceive" anything due to its own non-existence.
"ooh I'm a meat robot with programmed biases" I struggle to see the value in any of this denial of self, or personally get any results from meditation that everyone talks about. Oh well for me.
@@lysergicheadcase If results aren't confirmed to be genuine and the path to the results isn't well laid out and easily followed, why invest time and effort into something that might actually be 'cope'.
@@whenpigsfly8178 If you look up "meditation results" you can find scientific studies confirming results, with many more underway. The path is well and clearly laid out by countless practitioners and experts. You haven't done any homework at all. I haven't watched THIS video, but it sounds like it might suck.
@@whenpigsfly8178and that's why no one can give you a path. You must develop an interest to walk your own path which means that no one else has ever walked it before. As long as you wait for someone to give you a path you will keep waiting until you begin to see beyond your current horizon and a new understanding dawns.
I like the way you talk. I experience both meditation and psychedelics can create a desynchronization in my normal brain patterns. I have had many moments of union with my environment in a trans-sensory way, both sober and with plants/psychedelics. Some beings that exist on this planet are out of this world. I feel part of and out of this world. Much love to all ❤🙏🏼
I have learnt to switch in and out of what sounds like an enlightened meditative state, not quite so naturally so post covid, but it does work well still. Took me three months, as a guess.
The real truth about almost everything is almost always hidden, suppressed or twisted intentionally to have exclusive access and advantage over others. One must learn to read between the lines and see what might be missing or what is inserted that’s unfitting. Like the line in the bible says when Moses told his people, based on the narrative, that they should not add or take away from the words they have been commanded. That’s how the truth gets diluted, by adding or taking away.
Half an hour into the conversation, and no calories or protein, only hypotheses and guesses. Can we hear this guy one more time when all his hypotheses are proven and condensed in 20 min, not 148min?
I tried to listen to this guy for more than an hour. Before that, I had an idea that meditation could be useful, but after hearing him I think it is not. Can not see the clearness of mind or structure in what he is saying, can not extract anything useful out of this speech, sorry, just my point of view.
Resting is vital for the body. Meditation is a kind of resting, therefore the more stressed you are the more useful meditation is for you. And everyone is stressed because our brains developed to understand that being alive is constantly threatened by factors outside of our control. We developed coping mechanisms that run so deep and work so well that we don't recognise them as coping mechanisms anymore but they still drain our energy and require us to rest. Hence meditation as the ultimate coping mechanism to the existential threat that comes with being a consciousness capable of self awareness.
@@Mackcolak-xf5bk no, sleeping and napping don't fulfill the same purpose. They overlap though which is why I believe that in the beginning a nap is equally valuable and definitely more valuable than stressing yourself in an attempt to meditate. If you can't bring yourself to meditate I would recommend to either take a walk or a nap, depending on your energy levels. If you've done this often enough it is likely that you'll change towards a meditative state naturally. Meditation is found in that infinitely small space between being awake and asleep. It's not trance, then you've begun falling asleep. It's like balancing yourself on a chair, trying to find that perfect equilibrium where it becomes almost effortless. If you try too hard you'll fall over, if you try to little you'll fall over. Equally with meditation if you try too hard you'll be stressed if you try not enough you'll fall asleep. By that's advanced practice. Most benefits can be reaped by taking a walk or a nap depending on your circumstances. Keep doing those two and you'll likely become more aware of the meditative state in between, the same way you learn to hear different sounds in a foreign language better the more often you listen to them.
