Metaphysics and Mystery - Session 5.1 What (And Where) is Consciousness
Metaphysics and Mystery with Charles Eisenstein
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27-Jul-2023
This session starts with a request to define some key terms such as “metaphysics” and “spirituality.” I am reluctant – partly because, as I say, the intellectual strategy of starting with definitions and reasoning up from there is bears a mortal flaw: the eventual conclusions are smuggled into the definitions, giving the former the appearance of logical inevitability. Following that is an historical deconstruction of “spirituality” leading to a reunion of matter and spirit. Then we turn to the topic of consciousness. After evading a request to define it, we speak of how to expand consciousness beyond that of the separate self. Consciousness, I propose, expands through relationship, a dissolving of boundaries. There are many paths to this dissolution; the one that I mention here is the path of empathy, embodied in my favorite question, “What is it like to be you?” That will be the theme of the invitation and additional video below.
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Session 5.3: Follow-up – Where is Consciousness?
In this extra video I explore the idea, associated with Bernardo Kastrup, that we are whirlpools in the stream of universal consciousness; that the brain, rather than producing consciousness, tunes into it like a radio. A “whirlpool” doesn’t quite ... -
Metaphysics and Mystery - Session 6.1...
This session might be called “applied metaphysics,” because it is probably the most practical of the entire course. Here I offer my thoughts on the process of transitioning into another reality. It isn’t just about some kind of technique. Because reality is a relationship, for it to change, you h...
