woo

I’m not saying material life isn’t a thing. I drink H20 and shit entropy like the rest of the species. I’m saying it’s a lot weirder than we’ve dreamt of in any of these peer-reviewed philosophies. Physics is great. I love satellites and semiconductor chips. But we are, um, aware it’s incomplete, and we can’t begin to describe more if we don’t even... See more

Woo from people who take phenomenology, cognitive science, machine learning, and epistemology seriously of course will hit different. It's vastly more capable of self-articulation, development, testing, and consistency-checks. It's the good stuff.

The realm of the esoteric, properly understood, is the dimension of depth. It is to analytical, rational consciousness what dreaming is to waking consciousness. The realm of the esoteric is the realm of ideas in all their living intensity, which can only be fully encountered not in concepts, but in living symbols.

To be an esotericist, then, is to ... See more

So, while we don’t have any scientifically valid theory about what such “energy” could be—all traditional explanations of it make no sense to the modern understanding of physiology—we can bring a certain empirical sensibility to our experiences anyway. We can become spiritual pragmatists. We can accept “energy” and its various traditional maps in a... See more

The hippie world & the science world can be reconciled, here's how to do it: 1. Take a break from arguing over mechanism/metaphysical assumptions (HIPPIE: It works because of mystical energy! RATIONALIST: There's no such thing!) 2. Empirically test whether there are *effects* Unfortunately: • Hippies are attached to fancy mystical explanations (r... See more