“Nothing’s changed, but yet, on some level, everything has changed, and I feel like I’m in a spaceship where at any moment, the leak or the breach in the wall can be catastrophic. It’s a very bizarre feeling, which I know everyone is sharing to one or another degree.” — Sam Harris
Sam Harris (@SamHarrisOrg) is a neuroscientist, philosopher, and author of five New York Times bestsellers. His work covers a wide range of topics—neuroscience, moral philosophy, religion, meditation practice, human violence, rationality—but generally focuses on how a growing understanding of ourselves and the world is changing our sense of how we should live. His books include The End of Faith, Letter to a Christian Nation, The Moral Landscape, Free Will, Lying, Waking Up, and Islam and the Future of Tolerance (with Maajid Nawaz).
Sam hosts the popular Making Sense podcast and is also the creator of the Waking Up app, which offers a modern, rational approach to the practice of meditation. Sam has practiced meditation for over 30 years and has studied with many Tibetan, Indian, Burmese, and Western meditation teachers, both in the United States and abroad. He holds a degree in philosophy from Stanford University and a PhD in neuroscience from UCLA.
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SCROLL BELOW FOR LINKS AND SHOW NOTES…
Want to hear Sam’s previous appearance on the show? Check out this episode in which Sam discusses guided meditation, the optic blind spot, the distinction between meditation and psychedelics as tools, Sam’s post-MDMA perspective of spirituality, and much more.
SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE
- Connect with Sam Harris:
Website | Waking Up (App) | Making Sense (Podcast) | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube
- Sam’s first, second, and third appearances on this podcast.
- Books by Sam Harris
- SXSW Conference & Festivals
- Is the Protestant Work Ethic Real? (#360) | Freakonomics
- “I Think We Have to Take Peyote and Speak to the Pangolin” | Twitter
- The Amygdala in 5 Minutes | Big Think
- How to Meditate | Sam Harris
- Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) | CDC
- Apple iPad
- The Work of Byron Katie
- How to Debunk COVID-19 Conspiracy Theories | The Verge
- What You Need to Know About Climate Change (#95) | Making Sense Podcast
- Electric Cars, Solar Panels, and Clean Energy Storage | Tesla
- Psychedelic Science (#177) | Making Sense Podcast
- A DMT Trip ‘Feels Like Dying’ — and Scientists Now Agree | BBC Three
- Time Is Speeding Up — Terence McKenna | After Skool
- What Do Scientists and Philosophers Say About LSD? Here’s 4 Great Minds on Acid | Big Think
- Sam’s Mushroom Trip | Sam Harris
- 2-Minute Neuroscience: Serotonin | Neuroscientifically Challenged
- MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy | MAPS
- Zendo Project
- Burning Man
- Triscuit
- Heat Stroke (Hyperthermia) | Harvard Health
- What Do We Know About the Risks of Psychedelics? | Michael Pollan
- Psychedelics — Microdosing, Mind-Enhancing Methods, and More (#377) | The Tim Ferriss Show
- Is Ecstasy An Empathogen? Determinants of Drug Preference in Humans | MAPS
- Frontiers | Ego-Dissolution and Psychedelics: Validation of the Ego-Dissolution Inventory (EDI) | Human Neuroscience
- My Hellishly Bad Acid Trip, and What I Learned in the Aftermath | Vice
- Spirit Rock
- Messiah Complex | Wikipedia
- What an Ayahuasca Retreat Showed Me About My Life | Vox
- Drug Scheduling | DEA
- Official Site Of The Grateful Dead
- 9 Reasons Why Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Is The Perfect Martial Art | Evolve Daily
- The Dark Web | Investopedia
- Some Thoughts on Coronaviruses and Seatbelts | The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss
- Flexport.org
- Operation Masks
- The Ready State
- September 11 Attacks: Facts, Background & Impact | History
- Did Ayn Rand Receive Social Security Benefits? | Snopes
- Coronavirus Is Causing a Huge PPE Shortage in the US | Time
- Elon Musk Says He Sent Ventilators to California Hospitals, They Say They Got Something Else Instead | CNN
- Drugs and the Meaning of Life (#1) | Making Sense Podcast
SHOW NOTES
- Note from the editor: Timestamps will be added shortly.
- In the midst of a pandemic, is the time nigh for meditation, psychedelics, pangolins, musings on nuclear annihilation, and other dangerous ideas? Let’s see if Sam’s commitment to making the worst episode of the Tim Ferriss Show ever aired pays off.
- Three things Sam has learned about fear.
- A situation in which Sam was experiencing acute anxiety or fear and used mindfulness as an intervention.
- How long does it take to clean and reassemble the gun of mindfulness?
- What has Sam changed his mind about recently?
- Is there anything Sam has been particularly surprised or excited to learn about in the past year?
- Where can curious listeners find out more about Sam’s recent mushroom trip? Where can twisted listeners find out more about crocodile rape?
- Did Sam notice any persistent changes to his perception or behavior after the immediate effects of the mushrooms wore off? How does it compare to other psychedelic experiences he’s endured?
- Navigating time and in-between spaces on different psychedelics — in different increments — and returning to planet Earth and its delicious Triscuits.
- Can psychedelics kill you? Why does Sam prefer to err on the side of more over less when it comes to taking them?
- Is MDMA a psychedelic? What constitutes I? Another consequence to consider when underdosing without a sitter.
- In his youth, Sam’s LSD experiences were free from the famous “bad trips” everyone warned him about — until they weren’t.
- What we hope to see in the future for the use of psychedelics and empathogens as therapy.
- The Messiah complex in novice users of psychedelics: You’re not Jesus. You’re not even Woody Allen. And against all instincts telling you otherwise, your grandma, nephew, and Sunday school teacher probably don’t need to do ayahuasca. Here are some great reasons to hold off on being a psychedelic evangelist after only trying these powerful compounds once or twice.
- Is self-quarantining an ideal time for an introductory experience with psychedelics? Well…
- Honestly, you couldn’t be blamed for wanting to do crazy amounts of drugs of every variety right now. These are trying times that make all of us question everything we know.
- What methods of relief would Sam recommend to people who are scared and suffering right now? What’s the best thing we can each do to make things easier for all of us?
- Worthwhile nonprofits and the most important four-word sentence you can be asking in abundance right now.
- Why it’s worth remembering how disruptive this emergency really is and why the stress you’re feeling is not a character flaw, but something everyone on the planet is enduring at some level right now.
- Stray bullets and silver linings.
- Parting thoughts.