The Mystery of Existence | Episode 913 | Closer To Truth 

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I agree. The seeking may be the meaning.

Yes

Damn. Don’t know if I agree or disagree with this!

The trick is to be at peace, while living with uncertainty.

Unless it gives you panic attacks and terrible all consuming anxiety that makes you question existence and reality, then....I guess it's still beautiful, but it kind of sucks

These are great, but they're not new. A lot of people don't realize that. These are all excerpts from the old PBS series Closer To Truth, which started in 2000. I know they were still making it as recently as 2018 but it's not clear if they still are. Most of the ones being released on RU-vid are 10 to 15 years old. Kuhn is much older looking now than he appears currently, and David Chalmers looks like a long dirty blonde haired young rock star whereas today he has short white/grey thinning hair.

@@b.g.5869 yes but it doesn't diminish impact

Our main problem with the concept "God" is that we think, speak, or write with the "God of the Bible" in the background of our minds, but GOD is SOMETHING what we do not know: We have not the slightest idea of what 'GOD' really is! We have pictures in our minds, we have concepts in our minds, we speculate, but we do not know anything about HE/SHE/IT/God/GOD.

Subconsciously you have answered the question this documentary posses at the start.

Don't you think it's a bit presumptuous to assume that this subject matter would be the deepest questions humanity can ask?

@@esmerillia I do not see it as a big question in philosophy because I simply believe that you cannot get something out of nothing,if you are someone that except the idea that zero is a true number then you have more of a scientific mind than a philosophical one,they are a lot of things in science that seems to only make since in theory but the role of philosophy is to defend common sense, the real is what is rational!

@@esmerillia No

@@mrmetaphysics9457 you misunderstood what I said

@@esmerillia no because this question IS objectively the most fundamental question, regardless of what you think 🙂🙂🙂

Btw, I like Heidegger and the fact that he- aside from an obscure ancient Greek philosopher(whose name I can't recall) - bothered to put so much effort to deal with this question- and, in the process, helped many people realise its' importance, which cannot be overstated. It's the absolute philosophical question. The moment you ask this, you propably suspect that you can never answer it, maybe because the answer is embedded in the question to begin with- nothing should exist. Existance is irrational... and yet, here we are. People who say ''it's irrelevant'' or ''you can't ask this'' only prove how threatened they feel, because in their gut they feel that the shallowness of their ideology would be exposed by this simple question.

I have the answer

@@ImranAli-lp4cg sure you do

The answer is probably way above our pay grade, our limited ability to understand it.

Its actually the most irrelevant, yet most interesting question

Hello Sy, I have a very similar feeling of happiness and joy of knowledge thanks to English language. My mother language is Spanish, what is yours?

May be after life jannat is another. Universe 🙏

so life is a kind of prision ?

My friend your completely correct. Complete silence & peace, almost like before we were born..There is no hell or heaven, but the law of conservation..we return our atoms,etc back to the place they came from the start....Stars made every single thing that your body is made of...This is a fact.

Not according to most Eastern mystics and traditions. Of course, you can think what you like but there are feww who would agree that it is either that simple or that easy. Indeed both Buddhism and Hinduism carry warnings about such an apporach.

@mike mars Firslty, what evidence do you have to support your claim? Secondly, what's speech got to do with anything?

@Love Logic You know, without feeling identities, rational mind could not operate because it would not have notions and categories to manipulate in the first place. And if it defined something artificial, then manipulation results would not have meaning or sense. Sure we need rational during life on this plane. But I think questions 'what is sense of life' or 'why anything exists' go beyond categories of our normal life. And so we fail to answer them. We just cannot match the feeling which initiated this question with any combo of normal categories that we experienced here. And whatever rational explanation we create, it cannot answer to that feeling, leaving us unsatisfied with any explanation.

But I hope when the curtain rises, the door does not say: "Exit here the series."

@@johnbrzykcy3076 llllnllllllllnllllllllnllllllll we

yes, if people jumping off bridges onto a fast moving train for a ride is to you a normal means of travelling by train

Just someone's guess, no way to prove it.

"Because something does exist ..." The only thing you know exists, is your consciousness. At least it's like this in my case.

That was the definition of God of the medieval theologians (both Muslims and Catholics )

Before God can exist the concept of existence has to exist first, the phrase God create existence is a logical contradiction_you can create a thing that needs to there in the first place for you to be and do anything all

@@suatustel746 The man in the interview is not saying that "God created existence". He is saying that God is existence itself.

Me. But maybe because I am inferior.

Yes. He has a habit of doing that. Look at some of the older videos with other interviewees...some of the answers are utterly irrelevant.

Michio's success turned him into an intellectual 'showman'. I like him but I don't like how he presents.

Kaku is a pseudo-scientist. I never watch him or Neil deGrasse Tyson. It would be charitable to call them "science popularizers".

@@AltonMoore I mentioned Tyson as on a similar par with Kaku in my comment but then edited him out for brevity and also because I like him even more than Kaku. But you're right.

That thesis is yet at the frontier of observation.

Once something exists, nothing is impossible. It is basic mathematics. Perception or questioning that existence is irrelevant, as they are only variables in the equation of that existence. Once something exist it will continue to exist just the form can be different just as the variables in an equation can be changed even if the result will always be the same. So if we exist, the only question that we should ask ourself: is what we was before? (so we can learn from it, even if that is something we can't change) and what we wanna be in the future? (we should focus on this question as is the only one we can do something about it) ... not why we are at all.

The ever existing one, the great I AM.

I agree, Richard. It's like an always-on circuit which controls when everything else within the electrical and mechanical components of a device is on or offline. Can something truly be self-existing? Yes, if its existence is logically necessary for reality to function correctly. This makes it something necessary to always exist, never nonexistent, never needing to be brought into existence in order for it to exist, and therefore something logically natural to exist. Speaking of logic, some philospohers have come to accept that, absent of everything nonexistent which can exist prior to the existence of those things, possibility---and the logic which underlies it---must exist a priori. So, ultimately, all---including consciousness (including particles, forces, force carriers, and fields---and possibly a "Creator")---can exist only in subservient harmony with a bedrock extradimensional field of Logic.

@@williamsparks1036 nope that's not the ever existing.

💙 rightt , 😒

True.

Beingness is EVERYTHING!

theotormon, that just means you are very bad at reasoning.

@@louiscyfer6944 Cool man, good for you.

Agreed. He’s talking to the preeminent thinkers of our time, but he brings an energy and curiosity to the interviews that really seems to bring out the best in all of them.

I've done it. Many times. Donald Hoffman is on the right track, but certain variables aren't clear to him yet... I don't yet know if I should assist him with the progression. I'm so very conflicted..

@@MattSeconds i think you should

Why?

Top Shelf 10's sure bud. Sure

With the financial resources to run around too. 🙏🙏🙏🧡

These are stupid academics. I know a ton of people, including myself, smarter than these guys. They are nobodys. He doesnt interview the best intellectuals. Kuhn is also a closet atheist in disguise. Not a genuine truth seeker.

@@happierabroad troll

Hahahahahahahahahaah That cracked me right up

It is possible to start at Stanford and still arrive at Berkeley

@@howtobeatadrum Yes, but no one at Stanford would admit that.

@@1thomson haha

@@howtobeatadrum Stanford University is knowingly and deceitfully lying about physics. THE ABSOLUTE, BALANCED, EXTENSIVE, AND CLEAR MATHEMATICAL PROOF REGARDING E=MC2 AS F=MA: Gravity IS ELECTROMAGNETISM/energy, AS E=MC2 IS F=MA. The Earth (A PLANET) is a MIDDLE DISTANCE form that is in BALANCED relation to the Sun AND the speed of light (c), AS the stars AND PLANETS are POINTS in the night sky; AS E=mc2 IS F=ma !!! This NECESSARILY represents, INVOLVES, AND DESCRIBES what is possible/potential AND actual IN BALANCE, AS ELECTROMAGNETISM/energy is gravity. Very importantly, A PHOTON may be placed at the center of WHAT IS THE SUN (as A POINT, of course); AS the reduction of SPACE is offset by (or BALANCED with) the speed of light (c); AS E=mc2 is F=ma; AS ELECTROMAGNETISM/ENERGY IS GRAVITY. The stars AND PLANETS are POINTS in the night sky. The sky is blue, AND the Earth is ALSO BLUE. (OVERLAY what is THE EYE in BALANCED RELATION to/WITH what is THE EARTH.) E=MC2 IS F=ma !!! TIME DILATION ULTIMATELY proves (ON BALANCE) that ELECTROMAGNETISM/energy is gravity, AS E=mc2 is F=ma. INDEED, TIME is NECESSARILY possible/potential AND actual IN BALANCE; AS E=mc2 is F=ma; AS ELECTROMAGNETISM/energy is gravity. The stars AND PLANETS are POINTS in the night sky. SO, THE EARTH is E=mc2 AS F=ma IN BALANCE. Objects fall at the SAME RATE (neglecting air resistance, of course), AS ELECTROMAGNETISM/energy is gravity. Gravity IS ELECTROMAGNETISM/energy. It ALL CLEARLY makes perfect sense. BALANCE and completeness go hand in hand. So, get a very good LOOK at what is THE EYE. (Very importantly, outer "space" involves full inertia; AND it is fully invisible AND black.) "Mass"/ENERGY IS GRAVITY. ELECTROMAGNETISM/energy is gravity. E=MC2 IS F=ma. Gravity AND ELECTROMAGNETISM/energy are linked AND BALANCED opposites, AS E=MC2 IS F=ma; AS ELECTROMAGNETISM/energy is gravity !!! Gravity IS ELECTROMAGNETISM/energy. BALANCE and completeness go hand in hand. Consider what is the speed of light (c) as well. Carefully consider the man who IS standing on what is THE EARTH/ground. Touch AND feeling BLEND, AS ELECTROMAGNETISM/energy IS gravity. Energy has/involves GRAVITY, AND ENERGY has/involves inertia/INERTIAL RESISTANCE. The ultimate mathematical unification of physics/physical experience combines, BALANCES, AND INCLUDES opposites, AS E=MC2 IS F=ma (ON BALANCE !!!); AS ELECTROMAGNETISM/energy is gravity !!! "Mass"/ENERGY involves BALANCED inertia/INERTIAL RESISTANCE consistent with/as what is BALANCED electromagnetic/gravitational force/ENERGY, AS E=MC2 IS F=ma; AS ELECTROMAGNETISM/ENERGY IS GRAVITY. Gravitational force/ENERGY IS proportional to (or BALANCED with/as) inertia/INERTIAL RESISTANCE, AS E=MC2 IS F=ma; AS ELECTROMAGNETISM/energy is gravity. Gravity/acceleration involves BALANCED inertia/INERTIAL RESISTANCE, AS E=mc2 is F=ma IN BALANCE; AS ELECTROMAGNETISM/ENERGY IS GRAVITY !!! Therefore, objects (AND the falling men) fall at the SAME RATE (neglecting air resistance, of course); AND the rotation of WHAT IS THE MOON matches it's revolution. MOREOVER, a given PLANET (INCLUDING WHAT IS THE EARTH) sweeps out EQUAL AREAS in equal times consistent WITH/AS F=ma, E=mc2, AND what is perpetual motion; AS ELECTROMAGNETISM/energy is gravity; AS E=MC2 IS F=ma IN BALANCE !!!! Gravity IS ELECTROMAGNETISM/energy, AS E=MC2 IS F=ma. This NECESSARILY represents, INVOLVES, AND DESCRIBES what is possible/potential AND actual IN BALANCE !!! Great. By Frank DiMeglio

Yeah the trouble is... This channel has been going for years... And poor old Lawrence is no closer to truth... He never settles on a position... I’m wondering how much longer he will continue

@@bazstrutt8247 its not about finding the truth. It's about seeking it

Food Stamp Champ Seeking it forever?? A pointless, endless search for something that doesn’t exist??

@@bazstrutt8247 Would you prefer that he settles on a lie? Maybe he'll never find the Truth, but he can for sure eliminate many ideas that are not the Truth. By doing that, he will be closer to Truth (I think this was his idea behind the title as well). Maybe you're right: perhaps the hopeful idea that there are a finite amount of non-Truths and therefore within a reasonable time, one could go one-by-one through all of them and by elimination finally arrive at the Truth is ALSO an incorrect idea, because there are either (1) an infinite amount of non-Truths or (2) there are a finite number of them, but they are so many that one could never eliminate all in a reasonable amount of time. Then you have 2 choices: settle for a lie, or accept that your journey may never end. But which lie to settle for and why even settle for one? That would launch you on another journey perhaps, or you might just get tired and settle for your latest lie. Many people settle for lies because they honestly mistake them for the Truth or they just don't care. But what do you have to lose when seeking the Truth? The journey fills your soul with beauty, and keeps your mind sharp, so that it can function better when you are existentially threatened. It's better to continue seeking the Truth because you have nothing to gain from the alternative.

Man Afro But he’s not eliminating the false conclusions... He can’t decide and just keeps going round and round in circles

Actualized (YT channel) has a video about this topic.

That’s why he’s... closer, to truth.

We gotta be curious at least especially on things that are still unclear..

If you're not it means you're too immersed in the illusion wich means you are vibrating LOW

...and what they know...

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And yet stones are something

@@adamantium4797 So what?

Not saying I believe this but...Maybe that's one of the reasons why we are here. To give God or the universe the experience of wonder. Anything all knowing would lose wonder.

Yes he or she just want to wonder us that what he wants the ability of to creat or vanish some thing are not in our hands thts leads us to belive him GOD IS GREAT

Steve jobs while dying his last words WOW so wow is our answers and quistion and perpose nothing more...

💙👍 agree man same here lol

What about DEATH?

Agreed. I can't see how it could be any other way. Not only is it counter intuitive but it seems to be completely illogical. True absolute nothingness in no way shape or form could ever give rise to something. That's why the nothingness as described by quantum mechanics is full of stuff lol. There is a fundamental something that is necessary. That which has always existed and always will. That which is the 1st cause of all effects.

Great comment! But as i see it, nothingness doesn't exists as you state it, it just isn't. I don't think that the assumption of nothingness is unjustified either. Not in a sense of matter, but rather consciousness. If there is no life after death for example, i would just be that after i die, nothing at all. I think of it in a similar way to that there can be different types and sizes of infinity, then it could also maybe be different types of nothing. My nothing after i die would be smaller than the potential great nothing of a universe that never came to be, but it's still an justifiable example of nothing. Hope it makes any sense, lol.

Grattata Great response! But we can take what you call “nothing”, namely whatever definition you choose for it, and engage in a deep mental exercise; namely a process of elimination. We can keep of taking away from it more and more aspects of reality. At the end, the argument is that we are left with a Perfect Absolute Nothing - which is then an option for how Reality could be. In fact, RLK has done this very analysis 7 years ago at a lecture for a Chopra Foundation seminar. It’s a fascinating talk. Since such a “nothing” does not exist (since you and me and the world are obviously here), a primordial Something must obtain. Make sense? Lol Cheers! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-DDr2K99FzAw.html

@@grattata4364 I know this comment is a year old but I just wanted to say that your comment was exactly the same intuition that came to my mind and you helped crystallize my thoughts so thank you! I also don’t believe in nothing in the sense of space/time/matter nothing but certainly nothing as a concept is something (hehe). What did I experience before I was born? What will I experience after I die? What does a man with no eyes see? Maybe these are incoherent questions but their “nothingness” seems much more real than the absolute universal nothingness

nothing cannot exist. only something can exist. KEvron

Oh, really? And what's their conclusion?

I agree. Eastern philosophy has explored this stuff for thousands of years without the dogma of western religion doctrines.

yeah

Thanks!

Thank you, ALW.

Ty!

@Chris Wise Cogito ergo sum.

"Nothing makes sense."

@@marccas10: Indeed, the more we know, the more we realize what we don't know...so how is knowledge power?

If you project that forward maybe an advanced civilisation or A.I. would go insane as the horizon of knowledge exponentially expanded before them?

that doesn't make sense, though. if the universe can come from nothing, then why would it need a real beginning point? it has an infinite age then. what i am saying is that the universe can push that nothing wall back forever. it doesn't have to ever not exist no matter how far you travel back in a ship we can calculate the age of our universe but not the totality of existence.

Who told you that ?😀

I can see where your coming from, but try staring at a Digital Clock and think "STOP" inside your head. It won't stop. So from that we conclude that material existence != Mind/Perception. You can't find my password or hack my account using your Mind either.

@@RiemannHypothesis2 mind -> body -> action Yes a mind can hack your account, through a body

@@RiemannHypothesis2 he didn't say we as humans have special powers. The fundamental conciousness is nothing like our human form

You do realize he basically said nothing at all?! Because it can only exist that way - according to his limited view of the universe The fact that no one knows how the universe works in the first place is the clear proof that we literally cannot disprove the existence of God, alternate universes and other unknown phenomena

well his argument doesn't make any sense then because this one got here, and so why not 2 & more you can still have other dimensions though. say it's the same, well looks the same, but humans never evolved. or maybe there wasn't a world war two. maybe a different batch of humans, etc. imagine a dimension where the dinosaurs are wiped out but this does not lead to the human race. so many alterations... how is choice handled. in that case does there need to be other dimensions

There could very well be multiple universes out there but they would be so far removed and detached from this reality and space that it would not matter. The biggest point is this is it along side the other dimensions that make up our universe

A non existence cannot be identified as 'nothing'. Just thinking of non existence gives it life.

I remember as a kid thinking about matter and objects and wondered about the space between things. I thought that the in-between space was what nothing was. I think modern science has an explanation for that now (something to do with entangled virtual particles). But the nothing that this show is referring to is the concept of the absence of existence. It may just be that nothing CANNOT “exist”. It is inconsistent for nothing to be all that there is. Especially from the perspective of a conscious being’s awareness.

I really believe it is that simple. Nothing can't exist. We know there is something therefore there has always been something.

Imo the hardest questions about reality won't be answered completely by science alone.. I think at least some measure of philosophy will need to be invoked.

What if nothing comes after everything?

@@ferdinandkraft857 We currently 'assume with no evidence' that something has infinite life. If true where would it go? If false then that could be a possibility.

Imo unless their is a God... this universe will end... and be again... and has been before. Why wouldn't it have? We know it is possible for it to exist ..

What if it did arise from truly nothing? Then I guess nothing would be impossible.

The mistake in this type of a priori reasoning is the assumption that nothing and existence are related, that existence must be the product of nothing (which the a priorists consider to be impossible). Why is it not possible for existence to be self-generating? When existence emerges it leaves no space for nothing because there was nothing to obstruct its emergence.

But how can that be possible? At one time there had to be actual nothing. These questions are very mind blowing.

​@@hogg4229that is false. Nothing doesn't exist, by logic. Energy in some form has and will always exist. The human mind is to limited to fathom it

Can you imagine space? you probably won't be able to grasp that as well..

If by “imagine” you mean “having a mental picture of it”, then of course you’ll never imagine it. It’s obviously impossible because it’s not something. However, to conceive (which is not necessarily the same as “imagine”) of the concept of “nothing” (as a universal negative) is easy: it’s no - thing - at all.

If there ever was nothing, then there would always be nothing, because nothing can't do something, God is outside of His creation of everything

@@richardgangemi3143 then where did god come from?

​@@fraser_mr2009false question. It would be eternal, self existing. It didn't come from anywhere. It's clear, if you research enough in quantum physics and meta physics. Something at base reality is eternal, non created. That is the existence itself.

That's the ultimate contradiction of human existence. We are able to ask these questions but also be aware that there's a possibility we'll never know the answers or even if they are knowable at all.

Try dmt, it'll convince you, you are eternal. Your human identity isn't you

We are multidimensional beings and can travel in and out space and time upon birth or death. Through cosmic gland aka third eye

proving we dont 'all' need a 'why' ;)

Awake in bed I lie. I often wonder... "why?" I hear a distant cry. "Only humans seem to sigh." ( The mystery of "why" )

@@johnbrzykcy3076 That's beautiful, thanks for sharing.

@@Ndo01 Thanks. I've been awake since 2:30 this morning. The "poem" just popped into my head. Glad you like it. Good morning from Florida !

Simple, because there's a debate to determine if there's a creator or not, that's 'why'. No creator = just is, creator = why?. Creator assumes a motivation by an intelligence. I'm not arguing for either, simply explaining that a why may exist beyond humans if it's determined there's some type of creator or all of reality is a single entity that has a will and intent.

From all the attempts to answer this fondamental question, this "...self existing" answer feels the most accepted even though I don't claim I understand it but it is so coherent with the intuition.

It's about time. It's like he's a slow learner.

@@rh001YT I'm a "slow learner" too. I've always been that way, but now my "chemo-brain" just compounds the problem.

What do you mean finally? He says that at the end of just about every episode.

@@cosmikrelic4815 Ooops. Did I misunderstand what he said? Thanks for the clarification. I appreciate it.