Sam Harris basically breaks down the secret to life (again)

Both of these men are legends.

Knowing nothing about the context of this or the original discussion, JP popping up was literally a jump scare.

This really changed my perspective on the “prisoner of my thoughts” fallacy. I’m now going to treat myself like I’d treat a friend. Enlightening

I respect the two for still willing to engage in important subjects despite their disagreements in certain topics

Marcus Aurelius Antonius - "Treat the next thought with care so that nothing irrational creeps in" Seneca - “What progress, you ask, have I made? I have begun to be a friend to myself.”" This kind of insight existed thousands of years ago... it just got replaced...

The dry delivery of the gum drops line had me giggle out loud a bit.😂

to control experience, sweet point

I've been following Sam since 2014, and the notion of non-identification with thought is something I heard before early on. It took me a while to understand it, and in one of my meditation sessions I had a glimpse of that tiny space between my consciousness and thoughts that are arising. It's a profound experience, but it's not a perennial experience.

I have to be honest. I used be really into this mindset that you could come to a good pace in your life just but fixing your mind and how you process things but all the biggest changes in my well-being and daily mood were the result of real changes in my external environment and life. Getting over a medical problem I thought would be permanent and spending more time with friends who love me as opposed to being socially isolated. I’m not saying having a better mindset and learning to have a healthier relationship to your thought and conscious experience can’t be invaluable, just that you really shouldn’t neglect other parts of your life to feel better let alone think others can either. Please love yourself and everyone else :)

The thing that Sam Harris talks about around 8:30 : You would sound insane if your thougths were on a loudspeaker. You can actually read Ulysses and Finnegans Wake. Joyce used this as a novel novel technique called stream of consciousness. That is exactly what they are talking about...

In my early formative years (16-25), I took a fair amount of hallucinogens. LSD, Mushrooms, Mesc, X (MDMA). No preconceived notions. No expectations except to have fun. What it did was change my perspective on life. The breaking of the Ego. The third eye. Understanding thoughts and emotions intellectually. If you can strip everyday life away for a short period of time and not be burdened by it, and with an open mind, there is a lot of self discovery to be had. You can do it without the hallucinogens, but that's a long term endeavor and not as much fun.

As Peterson suggests, I don't think recursive self-referential thoughts are accounted for by different brain regions "communicating" with each other to ultimately move a behavior towards a goal. "Well, here I am." "What did I have for lunch again?" "I like this song." I think recursive thinking functions to either bootstrap or help corroborate a perspectival or social sense of self. Whether or not that function also helps bring about behavior that reaches a goal might be only incidental.

Hat to crack up a bit when JP popped up suddenly lol Good share though, TY

It sounds as Sam is focusing here on the distinction between observation of the input vs. processing the input. But then he goes deeper one layer, he distinguishes input from observation of the input, then certain levels of observation... one being purely capturing the sensation (almost as if you could look at your hand but only chose to recognize base sensation of the colour and shape without giving it a meaning of any kind), then the next one is assigning the meaning of the sensation without extrapolating the purpose and context of the sensation. So he is breaking it down temporally. He is trying to observe himself and all the processes happening in his head, searching for the root if intent, out of anything contextualized. In fact, any recognition of context would push him out of the observing state, and he would have to observe what caused him to contextualize.

It's my parent self telling my child self to get a drink. Sometimes there is a push pull over decision-making. The subconscious= childhood experiences, past Consciousness-parent self, adult, present moment. The war within, the self doubt insecurities, and shame dialog in the mind is merely programed from childhood external influences. Those we attached to as our identity before having the cognitive ability to question.

Many similar insights were also written in ancient buddhist / hindu philosophies from around 2000 BC and even before. along with other ancient wisdoms from greece, india, china etc. Ancient problems of mind had ancient soloutions. It is good that the benifit of meditation is finally being realised in the mainstream again, after being supressed for a long time during the era of british-empire / colonialism

Really needed this reminder. Reminds me a lot of the principles talked about in The Power of Now

Since I was a kid, probably 1 or two weeks of age, I used to ask my parents: ``mom and dad, when you say ``I have to think about myself`` ... who is ``I``? Who is talking? Who is the ``owner of the self``?``

Where can we find the full version of this?

Sam Harris: 'If every thought that we had was externalized on a loudspeaker , every normal person would sound insane'.