Essentia Foundation
Presentation by author and science journalist John Horgan during Essentia Foundation’s 2020 online work conference.
John Horgan is a science journalist and Director of the Center for Science Writings at Stevens Institute of Technology. He writes an online column for Scientific American and produces the ‘Mind-Body Problems’ podcast for Meaningoflife.tv. His books include ‘The End of Science,’ a bestseller, and ‘Pay Attention: Sex, Death, and Science,’ a fictionalized, stream-of-consciousness memoir released in December of 2020.
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Start off from the premise that every human being is in a deep trance, those who have been through the education system are culturally indoctrinated they belong to a cult. Look at the indigenous tribes on the earth who do not suffer from the same delusions as Occidental Man.
How does one even define mental illness it implies there is a base state of what it is like to be normal, what is normal as opposed to what is real.
The goal is to awaken from the trance you have been put in and see life for the illusion that it is. Illusion does not mean it does not exist, it means you can never know reality using your sensory modalities. Gnosis is a spiritual experience that materialistic science cannot ever measure.
Great discussion. I don't think that a solution to the mind-body problem itself is bad. Rather it's whether the solution(s) we choose to implement is not only effective but also if it increases our freedom and presents opportunities for further questions and exploration. Indeed this is an ancient and deep question and so the solution will be rather complex and sophisticated. I call to mind the difference between Carl Marx's simplistic, ideological and ultimately devastating solution to economic equality and contrast it to the economic equilibrium solution created by John Nash, the latter being of a wholly higher order.
Wonderful content! Thank you so much!