John Vervaeke: Altered States of Consciousness and the Cultivation of Wisdom

[@rolleriii]

This is seriously one of the best lectures that I have heard on altered states of consciousness. Exceptionally lucid argument that ties together respectable broad range of research around the matter and gives real insight into the cognitive dynamics of altered states. I think with this conceptual vocabulary we can deeply appreciate what is going on in ASC's without mystifying or over-valuating them.

[@MrDjunknown1]

The hero’s journey is the path less travelled ..:

[@mcnallyaar]

I suspect he does not wish to be one, but Dr. Vervaeke is one of my heroes.

[@johnvervaeke]

That is very kind of you to say.

[@catfox2018]

YEEEESSSSSS!!!! Finally, some deep understanding of what’s happening in modern societies.

[@nickshelbourne4426]

Hello Professor Vervaeke, Many thanks for the lecture - clear explanations in simple English are only possible from someone with a complete grasp of the subject matter. I have to say that I think I am almost as excited as you about the things you are saying. Really exciting to get a tour through the Cog Sci - the ancient wisdom is finding modern proof! Please keep uploading your content! Thanks Nick

[@Amaterasu_990]

Thank you John Vervaeke. I'll be gluttonising everything else you have uploaded, or care to upload!

[@nevermorre]

Great speech!Thank you for the upload.

[@rohinipatel5840]

this is amazing.

[@richardsantomauro6947]

Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess: Characterized so frequently as a tactical player on the basis of his opening, his focus here is on mating, and correcting the propensity for relevance realization blunders a novice may have, like developing an intuition to value weights over game objective. There are many queen sacrifice examples used to direct this untrained intuition toward the 9 dot solution. As it is in life, we must always remain aware that mating is the primary objective.

[@GingerDrums]

Very sharp writing with a delicious pun at its conclusion. Well done mate

[@FuncraftVideos]

a really interesting talk! It cover's many more topics than just altered states of consciousness, but they are needed to understand the altered states. Would be great if you uploaded more content.

[@meowzord]

RE: more content - He's posts his entire class lectures under his "Buddhism and Cognitive Science" channel

[@apester2]

Magnificent.

[@davidlakhter]

16:35 that insight manifestation being a result of flow state is rlly interesting 22:25 I wonder how this relates to IQ - if wisdom is a corollary of IQ 28:49 that assuming of new identities is interesting 52:40 aha so Nietzsche saw religion as a framework and integrative way of experiencing higher consciousness. but with the rejection by people who saw these religious frameworks as propositional statements, there is no experience of that consciousness.

[@GingerDrums]

As for wisdom and IQ: if you have the most powerful engine in your car, does it mean you will get to a destination faster? If the map you follow is wrong, you might get there after a less powerful car with a better map. Further, you could go in the wrong direction much faster

[@jamesrossdreher]

So strange that just a few days earlier I had created a playlist titled "wisdom" for this exact type of talk

[@ggstylz]

Awesome as always. I believe these challenges will need to be undertaken on an individual level from now on. Unfortunately the horse has bolted community wise and deep down, most of us would like to see it come back.

[@groundedtruth1358]

Ah ha! Where's Waldo Peterson? Front row!

[@MrBlackMarvel]

:D

[@j.h252]

Well John, you are an other giant who does not act like one, like your friend JBP. Must be Toronto air ; ) Saw other videos of you and yesterday also, you both debating. Was the best debate I've ever seen: deep, funny and at the edge! Thanks for all you do John!

[@raresmircea]

I personally think that they're very different, although i've seen them together agreeing on various propositions. They appear to support each-other's general stances, but i suspect that in private honesty they each have their criticism. Jordan is immersed in different subjects (myth, religion, ideology, swjs), has a very peculiar personal approach, he uses manipulation techniques to win his public, while John is more interested in the mind proper (not going so much into its religious mythological dimensions), he's more influenced by a daoist perspective than a monotheistic perspective, he doesn't teach his audience how to ”be better” by invoking stories (like Pinocchio or Noah for example) but by going into scientific concepts and relations, he's more technical. You cannot tell which one is better but i personally cannot listen to Jordan's type of exotic thinking anymore, i’ve become sick of it, while being in constant awe towards John's style of connecting different aspects of the human being through different disciplines. They're both extraordinarily intelligent indeed, but Jordan manages to be very ignorant nonetheless (see his personal brand of Truth, the fact that we’re living in the era of the 'Earthlings' documentary but he nonetheless boosts meat eating, and not just any meat but the most pollutant and having the greatest carbon footprint of them all, he doesn't cease to offer excuses to things which don't need excusing like capitalism or donald trump, he's probably the principal catalyst for mindless internet aggressivity by the way he's introduced ”great threats” again in the public sphere, etc). Jordan is clever, well read, but not wise.

[@oskaretc]

@@raresmircea Exactly. JBP is lacking sorely in that essential quality, wisdom. For a guy who talks so much about the dangers of ideologies, he seems strangely oblivious to his own.

[@dalibofurnell]

"Did meditating make us human" - wow !

[@libraryofthemind]

Epic.

[@TwinAquarius484]

Basically the hippes were actually right

[@GingerDrums]

The hippies had no defence against bullshit.

[@aniqose6641]

What conference was this lecture given at?

[@RedBunnyFromMars]

UofT holds these yearly conferences about medicine, neuroscience, psychology, and cogsci called Mind Matters, I think this was part of that.

[@Rotek10000]

What conference is it?

[@ian3334444]

Does the diversity of diet lead to small altered states of consciousness? I'm not talking about eating diets that completely lack basic nutrients; I'm talking more about eating unique foods with unique vitamins in them. An example of what I'm trying to get at is this; has the introduction of new foods, such as a banana, lead to increased mental performance of the average citizen as a result of certain chemicals in the banana allowing us to change our perspectives on the world? How would it be approached to see if eating a diverse diet leads to different levels of activity in the mind? It seems like it would be tough to quantify or even get accurate data because of the number of variables?

[@potowogreedo]

A very simple start to answering your question may be found in the interaction of ADHD and levels of protein in the diet. A rationalisation could come from evo psych; how agent-utility is derived from altering perceptual mapping and attention weightings depending on resource availability. 'Nutrition' falls under a particular paradigm of science, it may be better to think of substances (in a widely inclusive sense) as behavioural attractors for a body in an environment. 'Mental performance' can also be misleading, as performance is conceptually limited to measurement constraints. The 'no free lunch' rule might apply; greater performance in one presumably beneficial area may rule out even simple recognition of another area. Basically I think it's clearly true that diet alters states of consciousness, but I think we should be careful with idealising diet arrangements relative to some performance metric. I take the view that states of consciousness only exist as 'altered'; isolating variables to do empirical deduction in this area can be fools errand, depending on the level of resolution you're working with. It might be fruitful -excuse the pun- to see how diet affects a specific task; such as a participant-based study controlling large food groups/particular vitamins and seeing how they affect reported and observed results (MRI?) on a meditation course. Though dietary changes are extremely difficult to enact personally and perhaps even evo biologically, as above.

[@RepairRenovateRenew]

This is a big topic in regards to psilosybin mushrooms - look up the stoned ape theory.

[@solarnaut]

17:00 FLOW !

[@tiagovasc]

27:00

[@tonym6566]

30:00