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#286 The Paradox of Psychedelics
Making Sense with Sam Harris
Go to Podcast Page
#286 The Paradox of Psychedelics
Making Sense with Sam Harris
Go to Podcast Page
Sam Harris
·
15 Clips
·
Jun 28, 2022
#286 The Paradox of Psychedelics
Making Sense with Sam Harris
0 Clips
·
Jun 28, 2022
Top Moments
Taking a sufficient dose of psilocybin or LSD, provided you have a generally positive experience, makes it absolutely clear that you have been living in a kind of prison. And once the drug wears off and you're returned to that prison, you can't quite convince yourself that it's good to live
there.
Psychedelics Make It Clear That the Mind Is a Prison
If you have a truly liberating experience on psychedelics, it is difficult not to view a conventional sense of self as a form of mental
illness.
Psychedelics Make It Clear That the Mind Is a Prison
Each time you do something, pleasant or unpleasant, that is one last time you will do it. And there will come a time when you'll have done something the final time, and you will rarely know when that
is.
A Meditation Lesson from Sam: There Comes a Last Time for Everything
The great strength of psychedelics is that, at a sufficient dosage, they are guaranteed to produce a profound effect. No one has ever taken 5 grams of mushrooms or 300 micrograms of LSD and been bored. That has literally never
happened.
Unlike Meditation, Psychedelics Are Guaranteed to Produce a Profound Effect
I'd like you to take a moment to think about all the things in this life that you will experience for the last time. Of course, there will come a day when you will die, and then everything will have been done for the last time. But long before you die, you will cease to have certain experiences—experiences that you surely take for granted
now.
A Meditation Lesson from Sam: There Comes a Last Time for Everything
Your mind is the most rambling, chaotic, needling, insulting, insufferable person you will ever meet. It's like having some maniac walk through the front door of your house and follow you from room to room and refuse to stop
talking.
Meditation Helps You Recognize Thoughts as Mere Appearances in Consciousness
The reasons why people practice meditation and take psychedelics are often the same. They both expose the mechanics of our psychological suffering, and they both suggest that the remedy for it lies in experiencing ourselves in the world beyond our usual
concepts.
Unlike Meditation, Psychedelics Are Guaranteed to Produce a Profound Effect
For many people, learning to meditate without having first taken psychedelics is a little bit like learning to play a musical instrument when you've never heard
music.
Learning to Meditate Without Having Taken Psychedelics Is Limiting
The point of meditation isn't to collect more transitory spiritual experiences; the point is to recognize that even the most ordinary state of mind is free of self. And it is free of self already; it isn't made free by the practice of
meditation.
Psychedelics Helped Sam Harris Realize the Power of Meditation
I really don't think I would have recognized the power of meditation without having taken psychedelics, without first knowing that there was much more to the mind than I was tending to
experience.
Psychedelics Helped Sam Harris Realize the Power of Meditation
Meditation is a skill that opens doors that you might not otherwise know exist. And to say that you should do this because it reduces stress or confers any other ancillary benefit is really to miss the
point.
Meditation Is Beneficial Whether or Not It Reduces Stress
You are always meditating on something. Your attention is always bound up in something. We largely become what we pay attention to. We are building our minds in each moment. We're building habits and desire and worries and expectations and prejudices and
insights.
Mindfulness Helps You Direct Your Attention More Effectively
Real relief comes when we recognize thoughts for what they are: mere appearances in consciousness, images, bits of language. The fact that a thought has arisen does not give it a necessary claim upon your life. It need not have any implications, psychological or
otherwise.
Meditation Helps You Recognize Thoughts as Mere Appearances in Consciousness
We spend our lives seeking, and the goal of our search is poorly defined. We get inducted into a search by our culture, by the expectations that others place on us and which we learn to place on ourselves. And we learn that there are things we want out of life, largely because others want
them.
We Spend Our Lives Seeking; Meditation Breaks the Spell
The freedom that you find in meditation is not a change in experience really; it's the recognition of the context of experience itself. You simply need to drop back and recognize the condition in which everything is already appearing—thoughts and intentions and moods and emotions, sensations, perceptions. Everything is simply appearing. As a matter of experience, there is no you apart from this
flow.
After Learning to Meditate, You Discover Mindfulness Requires No Effort
Psychedelics work by producing extreme changes in the content of consciousness, whereas the true purpose of meditation is to recognize the freedom that is inherent to consciousness itself—whatever its
contents.
Psychedelics Helped Sam Harris Realize the Power of Meditation
Once you know how to meditate, you discover that real mindfulness is free of effort. It, too, simply appears, like anything else. The clouds part all on their own. And you just notice the next thing you
notice.
After Learning to Meditate, You Discover Mindfulness Requires No Effort
Everything that appears is simply appearing in consciousness as a modification of it. As a matter of experience, awareness is not in your head—and it can't be aimed from your head toward other objects of perception or sensation or emotion or thought. Everything is simply appearing in its own place, all by
itself.
As a Matter of Experience, Awareness Isn't in Your Head
Intros & Ads
Sam Harris Intro
Clips
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Psychedelics Make It Clear That the Mind Is a Prison
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2
Unlike Meditation, Psychedelics Are Guaranteed to Produce a Profound Effect
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3
Learning to Meditate Without Having Taken Psychedelics Is Limiting
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4
Psychedelics Helped Sam Harris Realize the Power of Meditation
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5
A Meditation Lesson from Sam: There Comes a Last Time for Everything
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6
Meditation Changes the Brain — But So Does Everything You Do
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7
Meditation Is Beneficial Whether or Not It Reduces Stress
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8
Mindfulness Helps You Direct Your Attention More Effectively
2
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9
Meditation Helps You Recognize Thoughts as Mere Appearances in Consciousness
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10
We Spend Our Lives Seeking; Meditation Breaks the Spell
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11
After Learning to Meditate, You Discover Mindfulness Requires No Effort
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12
As a Matter of Experience, Awareness Isn't in Your Head
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13
When You Become Distracted While Meditating, Simply 'Begin Again'
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14
Sam Harris Outro
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Transcripts
View Full Episode Transcript
Clips
Sam Harris Intro
Psychedelics Make It Clear That the Mind Is a Prison
Unlike Meditation, Psychedelics Are Guaranteed to Produce a Profound Effect
Learning to Meditate Without Having Taken Psychedelics Is Limiting
Psychedelics Helped Sam Harris Realize the Power of Meditation
A Meditation Lesson from Sam: There Comes a Last Time for Everything
Meditation Changes the Brain — But So Does Everything You Do
Meditation Is Beneficial Whether or Not It Reduces Stress
Mindfulness Helps You Direct Your Attention More Effectively
Meditation Helps You Recognize Thoughts as Mere Appearances in Consciousness
We Spend Our Lives Seeking; Meditation Breaks the Spell
After Learning to Meditate, You Discover Mindfulness Requires No Effort
As a Matter of Experience, Awareness Isn't in Your Head
When You Become Distracted While Meditating, Simply 'Begin Again'
Sam Harris Outro
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