My guest is Sam Harris, Ph.D. Sam earned his bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Stanford University and his doctorate (Ph.D.) in neuroscience from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He is the author of multiple best-selling books and is a world-renowned public-facing intellectual on meditation, consciousness, free will, psychedelics and neuroscience. He is also the creator of Waking Up and the host of the Making Sense podcast. In this episode, we discuss meditation as a route to understanding “the self” and experiencing consciousness, not just changing one’s conscious state. Sam describes several meditation techniques and their benefits, including how meditation fundamentally changes our worldview and how it can be merged seamlessly into daily life. It can help us overcome universal challenges such as distractibility and persistent, internal dialogue (“chatter”) to allow for deep contentment and pervasive shifts in our awareness, all while acknowledging the more immediate stress-lowering and memory-improving effects of meditation. We also discuss the therapeutic use of psychedelics and the mechanistic similarities between the benefits of a psychedelic journey and long-term meditation practices. And we discuss the rationale behind Sam’s recent decision to close his social media (Twitter) account. This episode should interest anyone wanting to learn more about the higher order functions of the brain, the brain-body connection, consciousness and, of course, meditation and why and how to meditate for maximum benefit.

#HubermanLab #SamHarris #Meditation

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Dr. Sam Harris
Waking Up app: https://www.wakingup.com/huberman
Making Sense podcast: https://www.samharris.org/podcasts
Website: https://www.samharris.org
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/samharrisorg
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Books
Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion: https://amzn.to/3Z51pIb
Making Sense: Conversations on Consciousness, Morality, and the Future of Humanity: https://amzn.to/3CgbIQ3

Timestamps
00:00:00 Dr. Sam Harris
00:04:36 Levels, WHOOP, Eight Sleep, Momentous
00:08:54 Sense of Self & Meditation, Dualism of Self
00:18:07 Sense of Self in Brain & Body
00:25:28 Consciousness vs. Contents, Meditation
00:28:25 Interrupting Sense of Self & Attentional Focus, Visual Saccade
00:33:30 Observer & Actor, Default Mode Network & Meditation, Blind Spot
00:40:48 AG1 (Athletic Greens)
00:41:57 Mediation & Paths to Understanding Consciousness, Non-Dualistic Experience
00:57:32 Sense of Self throughout Evolution
01:07:40 Sense of Self from Human Development, Language
01:18:42 InsideTracker
01:19:46 Internal Dialogue, Distractibility & Mindfulness
01:26:27 Time Perception & Mindfulness, Vipassana Meditation, Resistance & Pain
01:37:13 Consciousness & Sense of Control, Free Will
01:43:14 Authoring Thoughts: Storytelling & Ideas, Free Will
01:52:11 Meditation & the Paradoxical Search for Self
02:06:44 Meditation & Concentration Practice
02:11:58 Mindfulness, “Skylike Mind” & Thoughts
02:15:11 States of Self & Context, Dualistic Experiences
02:32:39 Distraction & Identification of Thoughts, Meditation & “Flow” States
02:42:58 Eyes-Open Meditations, Sense of Self, Visual Cues & Social Interactions
02:54:59 Paths to Meditation, Mindfulness Meditation Step-Functions
03:05:58 Psychedelics, MDMA & Experiences in Consciousness, Religion
03:21:11 Meditation, Psychedelic Journeys & Inner Truths
03:29:48 Psilocybin, Ego-Dissolution & Thought Expansion
03:40:09 Process vs. Achievement of Goals, Fulfillment in Present
03:54:29 Leaving Twitter; Conflict, Life Interruption & Politics
04:06:14 Social Media, Attentional Disruption & Deep Work
04:15:39 Meditation & Sense of Self
04:19:02 Sam Harris & Waking Up App, Zero-Cost Support, YouTube Feedback, Spotify & Apple Reviews, Sponsors, Momentous, Social Media, Neural Network Newsletter

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Title Card Photo Credit: Mike Blabac - https://www.blabacphoto.com