My best recent talk.

I received a lot of feedback that my talk at the Embodied Movement Summit entitled "Mindful movement as the confluence of perspectival and participatory cognition" was the best talk that they have heard me give. Thanks so much to Rafe Kelley for all that he did to put the conference together and for acting as interlocutor for my talk.

[@late_fee]

I think this video should be added to the 'Awakening from the meaning crisis...' playlist as Episode 0: Overview. I'm around 30 videos into the series and this talk really solidified some concepts. Thanks so much. Profoundly appreciative of your time, energy, and wisdom.

[@Juhziz]

1:00 Topics of the talk: Movement and mindfulness and how their work together afford transcendence. 4:30 Mindfulness, Embodiment and 4E Cognitive Science. 5:50 Key Idea of embodiment and Embodied cognition. 11:45 Old standards of cognition, difference of modern view. Enaction of cognition. 15:54 Recap. Encoupling of mind, body and the world. Movement is central to mind and cognition. 19:55 Modes of knowing. Propositional Knowing. (what is truth) 21:52 Procedural knowing. (how to do) 23:00 Perspectival knowing. (what it's like to be there, optimal grip on reality). Enacted/embedded on a perspective. 26:03 Participatory knowing. (Being an agent on the arena.) Affordance, belonging to environment. 29:58 Full pyramid of knowing. (recap) Inverted order of knowing. 32:38 Mindfulness as metaperspectival awareness. 35:08 Mindfulness as education in appreciating insight. 41:04 Dangers of participatory knowing. Reciprocal narrowing of cognition. 44:49 Reciprocal opening and love. What love actually is? Participatory movement and metanoia. 47:09 Self-conscious agency and meaning in life. What MATTERS for you? 49:48 Belonging. Agape. 51:50 Flow Phenomenon. At-one-ment. Existential insight. 56:28 QUESTIONS PART: 1:00:20 How to answer to meaning crisis? 1:01:41 What are the affordances? 1:04:41 How to live in a society where so much stuff is bad/wrong? (having/being mode) 1:11:14 Being in the world but not of the world. 1:14:44 What approach is better, Top-down or bottom-up? 1:18:43 What is the role of intuition/introspection during the flow? (intuition and bias) 1:26:02 Extended (networked) cognition.

[@sonofclay]

Nice. Thank you.

[@diegorojas9692]

Thank you

[@marcoscueva637]

Thanks

[@pierre9408]

Thank youuu! Very helpful

[@mcnallyaar]

Thanks for your effort!

[@benthornhill7903]

John is the best contemporary phenomenologist I have found on youtube.

[@thevulgarhegelian4676]

FIRE, ELECTRIFYING. So rich. Thank you

[@tracywilliamsliterature]

My life has been so profoundly and magnificently improved by the work and practices of John Vervaeke that I find every one of his talks fortifying and brilliant... but this talk was indeed especially good... Thank you for showing me how to find meaning in my life... "continuity of practice is more important than quantity..."

[@tracywilliamsliterature]

@@menotme89 yes of course. I have CPTSD from childhood and adult trauma. When I found Vervaeke's Awakening from the Meaning Crisis I was close to suicide. I could not sit still or sleep. I forced myself to sit and meditate with his lesson 1 back in March or April. The fear I suffered while sitting still was overwhelming but somehow I felt able to sit the next day and the next day and have done ever since... I can sleep now, I have a way of dealing with flashbacks by the techniques outlined throughout the course and I actually look forward to meditation instead of that awful low level relentless fear I had before... back in March or April I had no internet so I audio recorded some lessons so that I could use them ... now I have internet and have joined the Awakening from the Meaning Crisis discord group where others meditate together online. It is still relatively early days but the comparison between my general attitude and emotional state in March and now are very different. Hope this account suffices. I reckon part of my positive response to JV in particular derives from the vast array of traditions from which he creates these meditations. Best wishes...

[@tracywilliamsliterature]

Also... the moving meditations and chanting in particular have been good for me... a specialist in CPTSD has found that trauma sufferers respond well to moving meditations because sitting still can be so painful ... my favourite so far is lesson 13, seated Chi Kung... at first chanting made me cry... now I cry much less... Best wishes

[@vademecor]

Speaking of Flow... John was on freaking fire here. Amazing.

[@kyliestedmangomes2716]

This was stunningly clear and concise John, thank you!

[@chrisdungca6048]

It feels like I've arrived early to a beautiful party.

[@mcnallyaar]

This is great. What a succinct explainer on some of his most salient ideas.

[@IngridHurwitz]

I'm a total groupie, he is the best. Totally agree, life-changing. Has transformed my work completely. I find the lucidity and structure of the thinking absolutely wondrous.

[@visitthebravenewnormaldotc5436]

This was wonderful thank you both ❤️

[@jasonmitchell5219]

A brilliant video on the core ideas undergirding current cognitive science. To have it explicated by a theorist and practicioner in this manner is invaluable to anyone interested in this. Thanks.

[@tonyingariarungah7314]

After Watching it again and again. John Really pulled a Rock & Roll "Compact" Performance on bringing us up to speed on the meaning crisis, 4 E Cognitive science, Mindfulness and Insight. 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏🙌🙌🙏👍. Well done... I feel Baptized after watching this hehehe... (Pun intended).

[@phrankenstein-wrongthinker1994]

The tumblers are starting fall in place, finally. 20 minutes in and for the first time, I've been watching JV and all the great minds he's conversed with for over 3 years, I've understood everything said. Maybe the longest stretch of time on these videos I didn't have to pause, ponder, grab pencil and paper for sketchs and/or google. Now that I've set myself up for utter confusion for the remainder I digress. (seriously, this is cool stuff)

[@4angayoga]

Wow! Keep up the great , meaningful and needed discussion. Thank you :)

[@timberfinn3131]

This is amazing... thank you...

[@mynameisAMRA]

Dr. Vervaeke, would you please offer voices with Vervaeke as a podcast? I’m trying to seriously cut back on my youtube usage, but don’t want to miss your conversations. In any case, thank you.

[@benjaminlquinlan8702]

Imagine being disciplined enough to only use KZbin to watch specific content. Perhaps make a new channel or account and only sub to John?

[@mynameisAMRA]

@@benjaminlquinlan8702Thanks for the suggestion, but yeah... as you indicate yourself: impossible. I keep picturing the algorithm like the sentinels in the matrix....

[@benjaminlquinlan8702]

Never forget... We think we use our phones... But alas we are being used. It's very much like dark magic.. we are the product of this free service.

[@Felix-pp4zf]

KZbin still provides an RSS feed. So, you can subscribe to the channel's feed (there are very light RSS clients without fluff) and then download the video when you get an RSS notification. There is a fantastic tool called youtube-dl that makes downloading videos straightforward. You can also convert these videos to MP3 if you prefer plain audio for your phone. You can do all of that without opening youtube.

[@GingerDrums]

Hey, might I humbly suggest a KZbin Suggestions blocker for your browser? Its amazing and free! I have one for Firefox called "KZbin Recommendations Blocker" and it works perfectly. I found myself becoming hooked on the algorithm lately at that really does the trick. I can still search for specific things but don't get the machine learning tricking me into spending my time watching videos of muscular cats growing dental floss on unicycles.

[@simbabwe2907]

Random Book recommendation :From Aristotle to Darwin and Back Again: A Journey in Final Causality, Species and Evolution by Etienne Gilson. I have always get the feeling with John that he treats Aristoteles as the lesser Platon. Like he doesnt appreciate Aristoteles the same way he loves Platon. And i think it´s unfortunate because even Cicero called Aristoteles" A river of flowing gold" compared to Platons "River of flowing silver " Just like the father of every spirtual person in the west is Platon. So is the father of every scientific minded person in the west Aristoteles.

[@maxsterling8203]

Jheez this better be accepted in full as 100% science fact because I dig it man

[@deepaklobo1992]

"My best recent talk. " - I can tell from the thumbnail itself that this will be good :)

[@sonofclay]

The practice of philosophy tends to instill honest self-appraisal. In other words, dang, this is in fact his best talk recently. Go John Vervaeke

[@Jaylloh]

As comprehensively in depth and insightful as this is, I believe the goal for the ability of these revolutions to solve the meaning crises is limited in the same way as the rest of philosophy and ultimately not possible. I don't see how the understanding and participation at all levels of knowing that you define are self sustaining in providing motivation of there pursuit without there basis in a higher purpose. Here it is similar to the sense of lacking embodiment, to borrow in your use of the concept.

[@mpcc2022]

Hegel and Nietzsche salute you.

[@Bnelen]

I've barely read about psychology, but did read something by Robert W. White just recently. Having read so little I felt surprised by how much overlap there was between this talk and his book.

[@antkcuck]

Ilya prigogine won the nobel prize in chemistry for his work on dissapative structures I love your comparison of a paramecium and a tornado The paramecium seeks the conditions for its continued survival

[@merlepatterson]

The hands brought together at the stream were humanity's first "Cup". The drinking cup was an instrument created in order to keep the hands dry and to carry water away from the stream.

[@GrimGriz]

25:09 - Optimal Grip/Participatory Knowing 28:33 - affordance of graspability 29:59 - shadow knowledge

[@iwtbf48]

In the beginning of the talk I couldn't stop thinking about how our "virtual entities" like 'money in capitalism' , is doing these adaptive self replicating moves, which is an old thought, right both for me and collectively. I decided to jot it down here because I don't know where to put it yet. I see it simply as an expression of our mass embodiment and our relationships to ourselves, nature, each other, and society. Calling something a virtual entity becomes a strange abstraction when looking at it from an embedded cognition perspective, and it kind of gives the agency to that entity/that meme rather than to the individuals/system reproducing it. I have this imagination that this type of shift towards EC, and creating a language for it, is super important in order to move our agency into our own life, also as big groups in movement. I am very much desiring to be able to talk about and move with group/society as intelligent swarming that can be conscious and constructive rather than just reactive. Lots of old thoughts trying to find a way still.

[@alkisbarbas]

Nice, keep them running. I appreviate the link you make to virtual entities than have power over us! Makes me think about the movement of victimizing myself to money from a new perspective. so Thanks for the "aha" moment :)

[@celesteschacht8996]

Does anyone know the music at the beginning???? Who is it? It is sooooooooo soothing!

[@conansbestchannel4205]

I prefer to say "create you own culture" which is what Terrence McKenna advocates. And if you create a better culture people will follow...although they shouldn't...because they should create their own culture aswell. It's paradoxical but works for me.

[@NotIT777]

Really need to have a talk with ken wheeler!

[@hamedmoradi5291]

This talk is a tour de force, the very embodiment of an excellent hormany between four kinds of knowing -- propositional, procedural, perspectival and participatory.

[@leedufour]

Thanks Rafe and John .

[@johnvervaeke]

Thanks Lee.

[@cwolfin1]

Thank you John and Rafe. Rafe how can I get involved with your online community? What is the appropriate channel? Many thanks from Cornwall, UK. Charlie

[@johnvervaeke]

I will let Rafe know you are interested in contacting him.

[@cwolfin1]

@@johnvervaeke thanks much appreciated.

[@phiswe]

I was listening to a lecture on Daoism and the concept of De before this. It seems some of what's said here also relates to the Daoist notion of 'De', which, simply put, is the intrinsic character or virtue of something. Virtue not in a moral sense but in the sense of a tool or any living thing fulfilling its promise and doing what it's made for. Of course, the 'De' of something can extend beyond the object's characteristics and functionality (for example, readymade's where a found object, when put into a different context, becomes an art piece).

[@12mankina]

Hi Philip, could you point me in the direction of where i can hear this talk on Daoism, many thanks

[@phiswe]

@@12mankina It's this one: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rYilmqmYr52Gf7c

[@celesteschacht8996]

I mean the music from the meaning crisis videos!

[@stridedeck]

The problem here is the mixing up of descriptive words and the mechanical words. It is from mechanical which we understand temporary until another mechanism is uncovered. Descriptive words are like the software programs of a computer. Mechanical words are the machine codes for running the computer. We want to increase the mechanical abilities of the computer: making it operate faster, hold more memories, have more functions, etc.! Descriptive word is the bacteria paramecium adaptive seeking for survival: searching for food. Mechanical word is the bacteria drawn to chemical that fuels the bacteria. Descriptive is: knowing consciousness by being conscious. Mechanical is: the vibrations from sensory inputs automatically stimulates neurons and different vibrations (from the environment outside the neurons) will stimulate different neurons; the stimulated neurons will have been physically changed (temporary or long-term depending on number of times being stimulated: creating memory); difference of speed between incoming inputs and stimulated neurons is the feedback loop if the system got it right or wrong (more or less optimal grip). I could continue into the mechanism for consciousness, but I wish not to bore the reader any further.

[@benthornhill7903]

Is the salient difference between mindfulness and phenomenology that the former is participatory and the latter, perspectival? How might the two disciplines complement each other?

[@jefflanahan8812]

Someone please fill me in on one thing. I have heard you mention in several different videos, including this one, "communities" of people engaging in a ecology of practices, and so forth. Are there physical communities being brought into existence where people are living a certain type of lifestyle (for example the Amish)? Or are you just using "community" in the sense of like, people who share a set of ideas gathering to discuss them?

[@pierre9408]

Hey John! Do you still consider it as your best talk ? ;) (Interested to see how your thoughts evolved)

[@luke11.28apologetics]

John, what do you think about the TV show the Twilight Zone?

[@johnvervaeke]

I love it.

[@luke11.28apologetics]

@@johnvervaeke I figured so. Your lectures on cognitive science have added an exciting new depth to it as well. Have to give credit to Kevin Thompson from beyond the fundamentals for introducing cognitive science into a Bible believing christian worldview because if he didn't I would've never known about your work. Kudos Sir.

[@luke11.28apologetics]

@@johnvervaeke One more thing I watched your Dia logos video about parabolic knowing and I have absolute respect towards you because of how you were still able to have a meaningful discussion from a non-theist perspective with two theists. As well as your very humble presentation of the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ in the meaning crisis. Something very lacking in our lives today. Look forward to reading your book "Zombies in Western Culture" keep up the good work Dr. Vervaeke.

[@OliverDamian]

It should always take a while to get you to transcendence. [Boom]

[@kipling1957]

You see what you aim at-Jordan Peterson.

[@anonymousaustralianhistory2081]

Amazing

[@RickDelmonico]

Look at everyting and judge for yourself what is meaningful.

[@fukkyouthatswhy]

8:33 cognition is the ability to adaptively seek the conditions that are needed for existence in the world i dont know if this is out of context but what about suicide and something like bugchasing (people actively chase HIV + people to infect them)

[@RickDelmonico]

Theta frequency.