The Science of Mysticism | John Vervaeke on a Participatory & Intelligible Ontology | Round 1

​‪@johnvervaeke‬ is using the latest findings from cognitive science and psychology to integrate science and spirituality to alleviate the ongoing Meaning Crisis.

Watch the rest of this convo:
Part 2:    • The Science of Mysticism with Zevi Slavin ...  
Part 3:    • Cognitive Science and Mysticism with John ...  
Part 4:    • Cognitive Science and Mysticism w/ Zevi Sl...  

Dr. Vervaeke is an award-winning lecturer at the University of Toronto in the departments of psychology, cognitive science and Buddhist psychology, and the creator of Awakening from the Meaning Crisis series, in which he distils years of research and thinking from the cutting edge of cognitive science, psychology, history, philosophy and religion, all geared towards understanding and showing the way out from our current Meaning Crisis, through the cultivation of meaning, wisdom and self-transcendence, which John proposes are intimately tied-up with one another.

John searches for a solution to this crisis by reaching deeply into the past to salvage the wisdom of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, Plotinus, Jesus, and the Buddha, just to name a few, and modern figures like Jung, Nietzsche, Heidegger. Combining the best of the past with the best work being done currently by contemporary psychologists, cognitive scientists, philosophers, neuroscientists.

In the series John goes deep into topics like shamanism, altered states of consciousness, mystical and psychedelic experiences. Existentialism. Nihilism. Artificial Intelligence. Neuroenlightenment. Just to give you a little taste.

The series ultimately projects the audacious, promethean goal of “systematically creating psycho-technologies that transform consciousness, cognition, character and culture in a way that religions have [in the past],” which we’ll need “if we're going to address the current meaning crisis.”

Oh, and as a by-product he proposes what may just amount to a comprehensive psychological theory of enlightenment. But John provides no easy answers, instead he helps us get clear about the problem and clear about what a potential solution might look like. So we together, can awaken from the meaning crisis.

Check out his Series:    • Awakening from the Meaning Crisis  
And his Channel:    / johnvervaeke  
And Part 2 of this Conversation:    • The Science of Mysticism with Zevi Slavin ...  
And Part 3:    • Cognitive Science and Mysticism with John ...  

0:00:00 Background to the Dialogue
0:03:46 Conversation Begins
0:05:18 Experiencing Spinoza
0:12:53 The Perennialists
0:15:49 The Problem with PCE’s
0:21:41 An Ontology of Intelligibility
0:28:21 A Tentative Unity of Metaphysic and Epistemology
0:30:38 Participatory Ontology
0:36:48 The Absolute and the Conventional
0:41:12 Where’s the Love? Agape and Logos
0:46:11 The Ethic of Mysticism, Beyond Good and Evil
0:49:34 Ontonormitivity and the Real
0:54:38 Knowing and Being | Psycho-Ontological
0:58:59 The Soul and Extent of Cognition
1:07:34 Not just stories but science
1:10:07 What even are notes?
1:11:23 Who are you?
1:12:50 What is Wisdom?
1:14:24 John’s Religious background
1:21:45 Imparting Religiosity without Trauma
1:29:40 What are the Practices?
1:39:50 After Socrates
1:42:52 What about the Mystics?
1:51:11 Death n’ Rebirth and Serious Play
2:03:08 The Death of Ritual
2:05:27 Is all Autodidactism bad?
2:07:45 For Next Convo

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