Semiotics of Spirituality | What Zen Masters Know that We Don’t

In his masterpiece Sex Ecology and Spirituality, Ken Wilber applies the work of Ferdinand de Saussure in Semiotics to the question of spiritual experiences’ validity. By looking at the Signifier and Signified of Saussure’s linguistic Sign as well as the referent in the context of spiritual experience Integral philosopher Ken Wilber arrives at an interesting hypothesis in Sex Ecology and Spirituality: that spiritual experiences are at a higher level of development than the general public; the difficulties in studying spiritual experience are comparable to the difficulties of a blind community studying colour. This brings in Wilber’s pre/trans fallacy - the distinction between prerational development and postrational development.
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⌛ Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
0:38 Summary of Semiotics
5:32 The Referent of Great Price
10:22 Spiritual Evolution
13:55 Conclusion
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#Semiotics #thelivingphilosophy #spirituality #kenwilber #integral

[@TheLivingPhilosophy]

Want to support the channel? Now you can! 💸 Patreon: patreon.com/thelivingphilosophy ☕️ ko-fi.com/thelivingphilosophy ⌛ Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction 0:38 Summary of Semiotics 5:32 The Referent of Great Price 10:22 Spiritual Evolution 13:55 Conclusion

[@RedRosa]

I honestly don't think I've ever heard the concepts explained so well! Thank you!!!

[@TheLivingPhilosophy]

Wow Lawrence that's high praise thank you very much!!

[@lau-guerreiro]

Exactly. Very few other explanations bring the referent into it so clearly.

[@audiopainter68]

Ever heard of the quote “music can express what words alone can’t”? Well now it’s “music can signify what words alone can’t” I now have the vocabulary to describe that music has an ability to make me feel things that I couldn’t feel if someone just explained it to me in words. But it only works if the song very well expresses the intended emotion. I only thought of this as soon as I finished this video.

[@Jay_Hendrix]

Man this *perfectly* articulates my frustrations trying to describe spiritual experience to people married to rationality.

[@jeffk3746]

I’ve had a DMT breakthrough and a Satori experience and the only word to describe both is ‘ineffable’ - moving beyond ego is just something that has to be experienced, it can’t really be described with words of the ego.

[@sempressfi]

Agreed. I can describe what I saw (like how I saw mandala patterns on all living things in the room - my skin, my cats and dogs, my plants - which was beautiful) and to some degree what I felt but I know that unless others have felt it, it won't do it justice.

[@MartB1979]

Great channel! Wonderful to see a good mix of Eastern and Western philosophical thought.

[@TheLivingPhilosophy]

Thanks Martin!

[@mati-hein]

Wow. Sorry for commenting so much on your videos, but this one was something special. Since learning about Wittgenstein, I learned the importance of language and how it shapes of our reality, or our interpretation of it. This video expands on that and teaches me about the danger of being surrounded with people that think like us and uses the same with the same words for the same things, and also the danger of trying to interpret other people's words and works with our own meanings of them. Reality is an illusion because we interpret it through our own lens, our own definitions, and words are the way we represent reality to us and others, so we should be careful with the words we use and getting stuck in a semiotic trap. Great video.

[@philjohn2649]

My word, I’m so glad I’ve stumbled across your videos. They are brilliant especially for an autodidact like me in the world of philosophy. Thanks!

[@TheLivingPhilosophy]

Awesome phil! Team audodidact that's really what this channel is for me as well

[@WheelMarks]

Your videos are amazing, I really appreciate them! Please keep it up and thank you

[@TheLivingPhilosophy]

Ah thank you so much Michael I really appreciate the support

[@artpoet9915]

Really liking your channel my dude! Your ability to weave explanations and information is very easily digestible even if the concepts you tackle are not

[@TheLivingPhilosophy]

Thanks Art! I couldn't ask for higher praise than that!

[@stevensmith5873]

very well done. this is material that I have been familiar with for some time, but have never been able to put it together quite so clearly. I have liked and subscribed. thanks for the great work that you are doing

[@TheLivingPhilosophy]

Thanks steven!

[@artpoet9915]

"That which cannot be named, cannot be tamed/ The horse you ride is not the horse inside your mind" art.

[@CirqueTheDream]

I'm a new fan. Not only was this a great synthesis of ideas; it was useful and true to the aim of the channel: a living Philosophy. Well done! You mentioned the "nightmare" of relativism. But I am a relativist. I don't see any nightmares. I'd love to watch an episode exploring that topic.

[@TheLivingPhilosophy]

Thanks a million John! Yeah this is definitely one of those topics that strikes close to the heart of the channel thanks for watching and for the support! And as for relativism that would be a solid part of my diagnosis as well. I feel like the nightmare and horror is a sort of boogeyman when really relativism isn't such a scary thing. People seem to conflate it with chaos and the death of values but it hasn't mean this in the field of the natural sciences with physics so why should it mean that in the mental sciences? Would love to hear more about your relativism though as it's not often you hear someone describe themselves as one and curious as to what that would mean to you

[@Motorlizard]

Wonderful video and very well explained! Keep it up!

[@TheLivingPhilosophy]

Thanks for watching Bill!

[@IMissTomPetty]

Important topic that requires patience and resolve; to practice these principles increases social cohesion and wisdom.

[@felixgenereux388]

I just recently found your account and am hooked. Awesome video once again

[@TheLivingPhilosophy]

Haha that's great! I mean as long as it doesn't ensnare you so much that it begins to erode your performance in other areas of your life then that's great news!

[@GOTHAM21]

Well played. Clever arrangement. Thank you.

[@TheLivingPhilosophy]

Thanks William!

[@andreikliop2938]

Very interesting video!

[@davidslattery6750]

Great stuff as usual! Looking forward to the next two videos.

[@TheLivingPhilosophy]

Thanks David! It might actually be turning into 4 since I may have to lay separate groundwork for Kuhn and Piaget. Watch this space!

[@davidslattery6750]

@@TheLivingPhilosophy Thats fantastic! Im very grateful for your efforts in making these topics accessible, im not trained how to read philosophy and it can be most discouraging at times if one hasnt the requisite education in this field.

[@TheLivingPhilosophy]

@@davidslattery6750 By god but I know what you mean David! Philosophy has had a long time to build up a mountain of thoughts insights trends and schools and it's hard to know where to start and where to dig and when to stop! it's both delightful and frustrating! I'm glad to hear I'm doing my bit to help some people to get a little cosier with some of the arcs of the field's history

[@billyscenic5610]

Great video as always.

[@TheLivingPhilosophy]

Thanks Billy!

[@projectmalus]

It's interesting to look at how birds might do it, and since humans imitate and birds are highly visible, it's possible they have influenced how humans created culture. This is important since the referent is the ecosystem physically for birds and humans, but humans have this ability to transform the ecosystem by having a degree of separation from it. Humans also have an 'ecosystem' mentally as a referent, and so where for birds the referent is the sounds they make describing their surroundings plus the physical location is like a culture in context, responding to the moment with efficiency, the human has a choice. The culture of birds hangs in the air the way it hangs in one's thoughts. The tree the birds are in, is the neural network, and each bird's call is a node of information, the same as a thought for a person. The choice made is usually from a power dynamic of lost power seeking more. I think this is because of the emphasis on culture rather than self-improvement, because large groups are inefficient in the manner of enabling personal power and this establishes the initial power loss by each person. One way this might take place is the control of physical engagement for each person, what they ingest or inhale, how much they move around, deciding one aspect of personal power. Perhaps the ideas presented in large group settings like nations are not the cause of failure for civilizations, it's the inefficiency of larger groups that changes the ecosystem to one that provides more of a contrived gain, like agriculture. A group entity is appointed, to be that person to try and balance the power dynamic. The physical exterior ecosystem is dominated by machine noise, pavement, whatever gives more power to humans over nature, and this is the controllable part that influences each person. The same ideas work in smaller groups because of this efficiency of semiotics, but also the engagement is improved mentally from an improved physicality. Easier is not always (or ever?) better.

[@amanofnoreputation2164]

The ego plays a role in the realization of the religious experience, but it is only first half of the process; the matter of socialization which precedes individuation proper.

[@HiMotionAndDesign]

Great video! Put words to something I’ve struggled to formulate! Would love more videos on Wilber - read his «brief history of everything», and there’s so much interesting stuff there. Not much covered on KZbin - and you sound like a guy who can do the job! Thanks for what you do!

[@TheLivingPhilosophy]

Thanks for the support Henrik! Brief History was my first intro to Wilber (well a friend introduced me to him many years ago but the recommendation lay dormant on the edge of my radar and came alive when I saw Brief History in a second hand bookshop and wow amazing). I'm planning on seeing through the series so there's a least a little more Wilber on the way I am also amazed at the paucity of integral on youtube it's a mysterious omission for sure! As well I think he will be coming up a lot or at least his integrating mindset as I move into postmodernism and trying to aid our culture's digestion of that field of work

[@HiMotionAndDesign]

@@TheLivingPhilosophy Looking forward to it! I was just reading Jules Evans book (The Art of Losing Control), which is about ecstatic experiences, and the ways modern man has access to these experiences. And it also discusses how our modern society is perhaps one of the few societies throughout history that frowns upon or does not try to cultivate fertile ground for religious/ecstatic experiences. It was an interesting read, and an interesting point - made me think of Wilber and how he discusses modernity and the lack of transcendence.

[@HiMotionAndDesign]

@@TheLivingPhilosophy Yes, he's got a lot of articles on Medium. Also some collaborations with Rebel Wisdom. Worth checking out! Looking forward to more of your stuff!

[@TheLivingPhilosophy]

@@HiMotionAndDesign Ah it must be Rebel Wisdom that would make sense I love their work amazing!

[@mindsetsquareltd]

A wise woman once asked me what my vision of God was. I spent a good ten minutes talking about the Christian Jesus wrapped up with philosophy and sprinkled with a dash of Buddhism and a spoonful of Celtic earthiness. I was sure I impressed her. She laughed at me! Why are you laughing? I asked. "Forget all that, Christina," she said. "Just remember, there is a God and it's not you, that's all you need to know." 15 years later that conversation still haunts me. Today I can see that it was just my crazy arrogance to try to define and explain God within my rules. Can you see how presumptuous that is? It's like an amoeba trying to explain the cosmos! There's so much that feels correct in the "Tao that can't be named". Thank you for adding that in! It's so obvious that when that level of power is named the essence of "God" gets lost in the dogma and the rules. Eventually some idiot gets hyper focused on some minute detail of the rules and next thing you know, there's a holy war brewing. These days my way to know God is to feel that power in my life. If I slow down and pay attention outside myself I see hints everywhere. It's there in the big things like the vastness of the ocean or in the little hints that pop up to show me that the world has stuff to teach me. Other people bring it to me as well. My friends teach me about the power when they demonstrate their helpful manner. Even those who annoy me help me learn what I need to work on so I can understand more. My fella, W.B. Yeats, said, "The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper." That thought is helpful. I love the idea that all is slowly, ever so slowly, revealed as I wake up and keep my mind open. When I marry that to the idea that I'll probably never have a definite answer about what God is, I can breathe. I experience that power in a splintered, felt, and hard to define way, but nobody gets hurt and I get pushed to help others and to understand myself so all is well. My small brain is not able to comprehend a bigger level of all knowledge, truth, and meaning, so I keep that simpler. I just know there is something here that is so much greater than me. As for what colour is green? I say don't just take someone else's viewpoint. Lay in a field and smell the grass. Then gather moss in one arm and seaweed in another. Smell it, hold it close to your skin and feel everything about it, then you'll understand green. Still don't understand? No worries...just know it exists and it's not you. The search for God is like Christmas morning guessing games. We are all trying to figure out what's in the package. I say an apple, someone else says a computer, and a few of us think that our parents forgot to buy anything. I am tickled with the idea of aliens being the force showing up across minds during psychotropic events, how interesting us that? You know there's supposedly a bit of alien intervention happening at the Dr Joe Dispensa's events where some people are experiencing contact with otherworldly figures during extended meditation? More will be revealed I guess. Thanks again for deep thoughts.

[@kevinsherman5018]

Wonderful explanation. I found the difference between monks and priests illuminating much like the difference between the Arhat and the Bodhisattva of the Earth. (For context: I'm a Nichiren Buddhist practicing with the SGI).

[@TheLivingPhilosophy]

Ah fascinating Kevin I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[@veloopity]

well put!

[@TheLivingPhilosophy]

Much appreciated veloopity!

[@danielmuresan6779]

I can't believe my eyes! You really made a video about Ken Wilber!

[@TheLivingPhilosophy]

Haha! A fellow fan I take it?

[@danielmuresan6779]

@@TheLivingPhilosophy I've heard about him and his achievements and genius. I've also read his critiques. The 2 points against him were the lack of scientific rigourosity and the frivol movement of his New Age-y community. In my mind he is controversial and little it is debated about him out there so I can make a final decision about him. Any take on his work and persona is welcomed :)

[@TheLivingPhilosophy]

@@danielmuresan6779 Apologies for the delayed reply this one got by my radar. Yeah he's a bit of a divisive character and I'd be divided about him myself. I love the audacity of his thought but the one area I know particularly well - Jung- I felt like he got pretty damn wrong. I guess with the audacity of trying to synthesise so many fields you can't be so sensitive to the nuance so I am happy to give some a long leash when it comes to the rigour. I was toying with the idea of doing a living philosophy of ken wilber because his own life is interesting enough as well so maybe at some point after this series I will get around to that

[@danieljohndombek]

cf. "The Country of the Blind" H.G. Wells (1904)

[@PhilosophyToons]

Love the connection to the Dao De Ching

[@TheLivingPhilosophy]

Thanks friend! You can never talk about the Tao too much (ironically enough)

[@seanwooten6410]

My father-in-law (Dr. Chan) was a philosophy of religion professor who one day gave his students an essay test on Taoism. One of his students, a slacker, returned the blue book with nothing written in it. He explained that the Tao cannot be explained thus he couldn't write anything. Dr. Chan gave him a 0 for his test grade and when the student complained, he responded "I gave you a Tao for a Tao."

[@almacarpenter4272]

Investigation and Inquisitiveness are the best.

[@ai_serf]

I've been dreaming of a rigorous critique of nonduality. Semiotics seems an obvious place to start

[@michael63307]

Great video! Very clear and concise, but packs a whallop.

[@TheLivingPhilosophy]

Thank you!

[@jerryj.2346]

J. Krishnamurti lectures against listening to the mountain climber. You must go climb the mountain. Thanks for naming these concepts. Ive noticed that once the concepts are named the dots in my mind.

[@OneConsciousnessWithAaron]

Thank you for doing this. Just seeing it now. At least it’s being articulated. Let me know if you have experiences and referents that you have no one to talk to about:)

[@TheLivingPhilosophy]

Haha thanks Aaron I shall indeed! Thanks for watching and as ever fornthe kind words

[@sbonventure]

Thank-you for clarifying the reason why it’s impossible to define things like “enlightenment”, “selflessness” and so many other eastern religious concepts. I guess the only thing I would wonder about is origin of the “fluidity” referred to here. Perhaps if the origin of that fluidity, in part or in whole, is derived from the referent, than indeed relativism is more seriously implicated by the theory, to one degree or another. I’m not sure why the phobia regarding relativism is so persistent. Such a horror. Just because something can’t be capital T true doesn’t entail chaos. Rather it might bring a long overdue calming to many of humanity’s most divisive issues.

[@lasmluclasm3781]

Bark and Bach, in Australia most say Bark for Bach. That's my profound insight for today..

[@TheLivingPhilosophy]

Hahaha I can't unhear that in my head now

[@peterlynley]

Do you have any links for that interfaith dialogue that took place in Thailand that you mention here. I would like to find out more about it. Another great video BTW.

[@TheLivingPhilosophy]

As far as I know that was also in de Mello's Awareness or maybe it was in one of Richard Rohr's books. I'll see if I can track down the reference because it's something I'd like to dive deeper into myself

[@defenderofwisdom]

Good two episodes. I think one of the reasons why we get mentally caught up between the signifier, the sign and the signified is largely because a thing cannot itself exist within us as part of our consciousness and reveal itself to us qua being, as opposed to as it is, qua signification of impressions. In order to have that kind of clarity of knowing, our brain would have to be the universe, or like one, which contains things-in-themselves similar to how our mind contains the sign.

[@TheLivingPhilosophy]

If I'm understanding you correctly then you're saying that the very nature of separation that is inherent in consciousness makes language necessarily means language is cut off from "reality" or direct reference. If this is the case then I agree and I think that the end state you talk about would be inherently silent as a state of dissolved union

[@defenderofwisdom]

@@TheLivingPhilosophy I think you do ken my meaning, though I wonder if that end state would be silence, or all sound. Or are these things distinct? As white is the absence of any colour, but when expressed through light, is all colour unified. Which is fun to say, since I did not intend to arrive there, nor did I even understand what you meant when you said it, but this *would* describe a 'dissolved union.'

[@TheLivingPhilosophy]

@@defenderofwisdom Aha! what a wonderful way of putting it. You are quite right it would be all sound and of course by extension all silence but what I love about the perspective of its being all sound is that it runs totally contrary to the modern image of the universe's endpoint as a cold dead entropic end point. The white light and colour analogy is also interesting and adds a very different spin to the whole thing. I guess we could think of some higher order synthesis that is creates a paradoxical symphony of simultaneous silence and sound but obviously that is far far beyond my ability to conceptualise. Yeah when I think of the dissolved union it's the collapse of the separateness of consciousness into a pure being which is not separate and is totally dissolved in non-separated awareness

[@defenderofwisdom]

@@TheLivingPhilosophy I wish I had something more to say besides that I loved your response and love your videos :)

[@TheLivingPhilosophy]

@@defenderofwisdom Haha well those words are music to my ears so I can't ask for more than some kind words and some good chat!

[@amanofnoreputation2164]

Priest: average God fan Monk: average God enjoyer.

[@SiccazHD]

11:48 that is such an insane moment lol

[@TheLivingPhilosophy]

I know right! Absolutely wild!

[@AdolfStalin]

Didn't Saussure take from C.S. Peirce?

[@TheLivingPhilosophy]

Hmm no it was a convergent arrival as far as I can tell. Saussure never published and neither as far as i know did Peirce (certainly not something to be known so well that it for translated and made its way across the Atlantic; Peirce was a polymath living in penury basically)

[@AdolfStalin]

Alright, I just suspected funny business is all

[@TheLivingPhilosophy]

@@AdolfStalin Haha no not to my knowledge anyway. Be interesting if there was though it does seem uncanny that they would come to such similar systems of thought at the same time

[@amanofnoreputation2164]

Jewish anima signifier: Overman Referent: Bodhi (as in bodhisattva)

[@defenderofwisdom]

I have come up with a new word today... Tell me what signification you can draw from it... Grammatically it may fail, but it is a direct response to the notion of sophrosyne at least used by. Heraclisyne denotes the unified rule of self by both reason and passion.

[@TheLivingPhilosophy]

This is related to Plato's chariot right? With the balancing of the mind body and spirit? Very interesting and important idea and in the context of this video you can think of the contrast of mind and spirit as being the ideas of the tension between reductionist rationality and spiritual transrationality

[@defenderofwisdom]

@@TheLivingPhilosophy Perhaps so! Or perhaps you give me far too much credit, as shortly thereafter I was reading A.C Grayling, and so I had extra materials to rely on to devise a concept that you praise I think beyond its merit. Still: thanks :)

[@amanofnoreputation2164]

Peterson is like the blind man in this story asking Jung what God is. God explains that God is experienced through the Self and the Self through the shadow. Peterson sees this and assumes that individuation is an upward assent of continually reinforcing the ego and morality when it is the exact opposite. As a result he he confuses the superego for God. To "go down" means to divest oneself of the moral constraints and presuppositions of conscious life and thereby expose oneself to the unconditioned structure of the subjective factor that is the unconscious. This is why extreme cases engender a depressive experience called "the nigredo" paralleling the death of God and the aimlessness in society.

[@MrBenbenky]

if the woo is only accessible to some people and can only be experienced directly and this experience cannot be expressed in human language, why human societies are apparently governed by words spoken by those people in which they covey the meaning of the woo? Moreover the message is known explicitly as the word of the woo.

[@TheLivingPhilosophy]

Well see it is expressable in human language to the same extent that orange and happiness are it's just that it takes experience of the sign for that language to be sensible. So without this experience the woo goes in but it becomes warped like a child's understanding of for example politics or astronomy

[@guzzopinc1646]

IF a tree falls in a forest but the word for sound doesn't exist... does it make any sound? LOL

[@TheLivingPhilosophy]

Well the signifier is obviously arbitrary but if the sign as a whole didn't exist...then maybe not? 😱

[@lyndoneh]

A very 'tasty' presentation indeed!

[@TheLivingPhilosophy]

Hahaha thanks Harry!

[@satnamo]

Emptiness is das truth because das truth is empty. Empty this boat so that it will go faster because it is lighter. Nirvana is like ordinary experience At 2 cms above the ground.

[@ryanoconnor8160]

This is THE JaM!!!!!!

[@TheLivingPhilosophy]

Haha thanks Ryan!! That's warmed me little heart!

[@mralexander99]

......"T" is silent when saying "Tao" as in "Dao"....🧚🏼‍♂️

[@TheLivingPhilosophy]

Goddamit someone corrected me about that on an earlier video and I was really embarrassed and I've only gone and done it again 🙈 thanks for the reminder!

[@mralexander99]

@@TheLivingPhilosophy no worries you're command of the subject matter is pristine and your presentation is stellar...it is no big deal...but since that is a "key" word and idea...I had to say something.

[@TheLivingPhilosophy]

Haha no indeed I'm really glad you did say and I ever lapse again I expect one final reminder before you give me up as a lost cause. I'm bewitched by the written word

[@OneConsciousnessWithAaron]

Couple of new thoughts. What do you do for something for which the sign signifier ands signified are the same thing. A mystics viewpoint or question. And secondly, a sages advice “Definitely don’t kill yourself…unless you want to know the answer to the last and ultimate question, “do I really exist”” Of course this is a psychological death, but you can’t be sure till you do it.

[@TheLivingPhilosophy]

Unless I'm very mistaken it's not possible for the signifier and signified to be the same Aaron. What came to your mind when you were thinking of that?

[@OneConsciousnessWithAaron]

@@TheLivingPhilosophy it’s a thought experiment I conducted on consciousness. Does consciousness look to higher levels of consciousness or development and seek to achieve or perhaps it is better to consider that higher consciousness is experiencing and expressing itself through you…? In the later case sign, signifier ands signified applies. Hence the rest of the comment above, a mystic viewpoint or questioning and, as you’ve said, suicide being the only philosophical question…the meaning and purpose of that question is “Do I truly exist”, if so, the only way to prove it is to die and see if I still exist.

[@OneConsciousnessWithAaron]

@@TheLivingPhilosophy I’m just saying. If it is true what the sages, saints mystics etc say, then what would that mean? Consider, as a game, the thought experiment of looking down from higher consciousness rather than looking up, having ands remembering rather than gaining or attaining. I am suggesting that this is precisely what a mystic does and does experience.

[@TheLivingPhilosophy]

@@OneConsciousnessWithAaron That's a fasciating thought Aaron. I can see what you mean when I look at it from a Jungian angle. I guess where semiotics is concerned it doesn't really work though. The signifier is the material manifestation so that's the word consciousness or the written word consciousness. The signified would be the concept and the referent the reality so perhaps you mean that with the mystical consciousness the signified (the concept of consciousness) and the referent (consciousness as it is in reality) might be the same thing? Like the concept draws us towards the reality

[@OneConsciousnessWithAaron]

@@TheLivingPhilosophy yes. Just conclude by inserting this. The concept draws us towards the ‘realization that you are’ the reality. The concept (signified) is a manifestation of the reality (referent), as is the material manifestation (signifier). It requires the leap that the physical is an idea as well; meaning the physical is a manifestation of reality as is the concept of consciousness. Well at least if this thought experiment of what it would mean to be a mystic is to work, it would have to work like that. Regardless, seems quite clear to me that you get what I’m signifying:) thanks for indulging me and teaching me semiotics

[@amanofnoreputation2164]

Peterson is a priest who condemns the spiritual referent of the monk , that being God, because it is too chaotic and "immoral."

[@horace577]

Yeah . . DMT . . phew!!! very strange stuff.

[@TheLivingPhilosophy]

Haha whatcha mean by the phew?

[@horace577]

@@TheLivingPhilosophy Having read so much about it, curiosity got the better of me, and I tried one of the ( fairly simple ) extractions from plant roots on the internet. And, yes they are right. It's a very peculiar chemical. . . at times I gripped the table edge in a sea of indescribably complex moving patterns and structures, my "sensible" mind thinking "remember to breath". . there's only ten minutes to go . . it is short acting at least . . extremely potent psychedelic . . the Wikipedia article seems about the best for anyone not familiar with it. . . something I had been wanting to try for many years . . The Internet provided that opportunity . I love technology . . except mobile phones.

[@TheLivingPhilosophy]

@@horace577 Haha! You made it yourself!? That's brilliant. It's been on the edge of my awareness a long time. A friend of mine took it and went full psychotic for months afterwards so I know there's a power in it and it's been on the edge of my life now for a year inviting me but I'm waiting for I don't know what. I've taken a lot of plant medicines but the 10 minutes of eternity is still daunting so I guess waiting for the right time. Set and setting. Someday soon though

[@horace577]

@@TheLivingPhilosophy yes it's a bit off the topic of the video, but google or duckduckgo will reveal all . . good luck

[@alexandriacorral7494]

Haha dmt is one helluva reality

[@TheLivingPhilosophy]

You can say that again!

[@valmont3701]

I like your channel, and I find a great number of your videos really interesting. But I respectfully disagree with your view on this subject. Unfortunately, I cannot clearly expose my views in one message (English is not my native language). I will only say this : the fact that consuming chemical substances can allow a person to discover a more profound reality, very similar to the experience of deep meditative state, is a strong indication that the process is physical, and not a metaphysical perception of the universe only allowed to sages. The impossibility to explain the experience, while I appreciate your analogy with the blind man, is extremely convenient. John Adams said : " mystery is made a convenient cover for absurdity." I don't thing a more "profound" experience, or one of another kind, is useless, but I don't like when It's covered in gibberish nonsense, or pretentious statements. It's not above science, above the physical world, above the conscious mind : It's just an experience of another kind. Anyway, keep your enthusiasm, I'll continue to follow you with interest.

[@TheLivingPhilosophy]

Ah that's a good response I appreciate it. I was trying to put it forward as a hypothesis because I am also sceptical of the grand claims. The Piaget and Kuhn episodes will bolster this claim in a bit more cladding but I think your question won't be answered by those but I do have a topic in mind exploring reductionism that I think we should be a good spur to further this conversation.

[@jeffreyforeman5031]

great