The emergence of wholes from parts exudes an aroma of mystery, of elusive but profound truths.
The emergence of wholes from parts exudes an aroma of mystery, of elusive but profound truths.
New Additions
How I Made Friends With Reality
Emily Levine
How I Made Friends With Reality
2018
With her signature wit and wisdom, Emily Levine meets her ultimate challenge as a comedian/philosopher: she makes dying funny. In this personal talk, she takes us on her journey to make friends with reality—and peace with death. Life is an enormous gift, Levine says: You enrich it as best you can, and then you give it back.
Workshop
Added 4 days ago
1
Thusness
Alan Watts
Thusness
Seminar
Added 6 weeks ago
02:48:48 22,232 17
Clarity of Mind
Alan Watts
Clarity of Mind
1973
Delivered at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Lecture
Added 7 weeks ago
44:08 4,304 10
Connections, Episode 2: Death in the Morning
James Burke
Connections, Episode 2: Death in the Morning
1978
How did a test of gold's purity revolutionize the world 2500 years ago and lead to the atomic bomb? Standardizing precious metal in coins stimulated trade from Greece to Persia, causing the construction of a huge commercial center and library at Alexandria. This wealth of nautical knowledge aided navigators 14 centuries later. Mariners discovered that the compass's magnetized needle did not point directly north. Investigations into the nature of magnetism led to the discovery of electricity, radar and to the atomic bomb.
Television Episode
Added 7 weeks ago
49:21 7,004
Connections, Episode 1: The Trigger Effect
James Burke
Connections, Episode 1: The Trigger Effect
1978
Both the beginning and the end of the story are here. The end is our present dependence on complex technological networks illustrated by the NYC power blackouts. Life came almost to a standstill: support systems are taken for granted failed. How did we become so helpless? The technology originated with the plow and agriculture. Each invention demands its own follow-up: once started, it is hard to stop. This segment ends in Kuwait, where society has leaped from ancient Egypt to the technology of today in 30 years.
Television Episode
Added 8 weeks ago
49:30 6,064 4
Acceleration of Knowledge
Robert Anton Wilson
Acceleration of Knowledge
1986
Lecture
Added 11 weeks ago
01:16:16 12,881 5
Plan, Plant, Planet
Terence McKenna
Plan, Plant, Planet
1989
McKenna urges us to look at plants more deeply and find within their biological organization a model for sustainable modern civilization. Published in Whole Earth Review, issue 64.
Article
Added 15 weeks ago
3,540 5
The Global Brain
Peter Russell
The Global Brain
1983
Peter Russell's award-winning video explores the idea that the Earth is an integrated, self-regulating living organism, and asks what function humanity might have for this planetary being. It suggests that we stand on the threshold of a major leap in evolution, as significant as the emergence of life itself, and the essence of this leap is inner spiritual evolution. Moreover, Russell maintains that it is only through such a shift in consciousness that we will be able to manage successfully the global crises now facing us.
Video
Added 15 weeks ago
35:14 4,121 11
Glimpsing the Global Brain
Francis Heylighen & David Sloan Wilson
Glimpsing the Global Brain
2021
Complex systems theorist Heylighen and evolutionary biologist Wilson discuss a possible phase transition of humanity in which the members of our species become neurons in a planetary brain.
Discussion
Added 15 weeks ago
01:19:03 10,973 14
Future of Art
Terence McKenna
Future of Art
1998
Workshop
Added 18 weeks ago
01:25:20 9,328 10
The World-Wide Web as a Super-Brain: From Metaphor to Model
Francis Heylighen & Johan Bollen
The World-Wide Web as a Super-Brain: From Metaphor to Model
1996
If society is viewed as a super-organism, communication networks play the role of its brain. This metaphor is developed into a model for the design of a more intelligent global network. The World Wide Web, through its distributed hypermedia architecture, functions as an “associative memory”, which may “learn” by the strengthening of frequently used links. Software agents, exploring the Web through spreading activation, function as problem-solving “thoughts”. Users are integrated into this “super-brain” through direct machine interfaces and the reciprocal exchange of knowledge between individual and Web. (Published in Cybernetics and Systems ’96, p. 917–922.)
Article
Added 18 weeks ago
5,170 10
On Second-Order Observation and Genuine Pretending: Coming to Terms with Society
Hans-Georg Moeller
On Second-Order Observation and Genuine Pretending: Coming to Terms with Society
2017
This paper discusses the meaning of the concept of ‘second-order observation’ used by Niklas Luhmann (1927–1998). Luhmann identifies second-order observation as a defining characteristic of modern world society. According to Luhmann, all social systems construct a social reality on the basis of the observation of observations. Rating agencies in the economy or the peer-review process in the academic system are examples of social mechanisms manifesting second-order observation. Social media also represent organized second-order observation. The paper suggests that in a society based on second-order observation, ‘genuine pretending’ is an adequate mode of existence. This notion is derived from the Daoist text Zhuangzi. It indicates a disassociation from social roles which allows their performers to exercise these roles with ease and, at the same time, maintain a state of sanity. (Published in Thesis Eleven 2017, Vol. 143(I) 28–43.)
Article
Added 18 weeks ago
7,144 6
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The Symbolic and the Real
Alan Watts
The Symbolic and the Real
Lecture
45:11 5,224 4 130
Tao Te Ching
Lao Tzu
Tao Te Ching
506 B.C.E.
Written more than two thousand years ago, the Tao Te Ching is one of the true classics of spiritual literature. It is a guide to cultivating a life of peace, serenity, and compassion. Through aphorisms and parable, it leads readers toward the Tao, or the “Way”: harmony with the life force of the universe. (This version was translated/interpreted by Stephen Mitchell in 1988.)
Classic Literature
6,523 1 81
Do You Do It Or Does It Do You?
Alan Watts
Do You Do It Or Does It Do You?
Alan explores the meaning of personal free will in the context of core tenets in Eastern mythology: how is it possible to control anything when preexisting conditions outside of our influence determine our present situation? It is a realization of the hidden unity behind our apparent diversity and a relinquishing of obsessive control that enables us to unlock a pathway leading out of the conundrum and towards a celebration and reverence of life.
Seminar
02:37:23 19,089 24 22
Mr. X
Carl Sagan
Mr. X
1969
Written under the pseudonym Mr. X to avoid the heavy social stigma associated with marijuana consumption at the time, Carl Sagan documented his personal experiences with cannabis in this essay in order to dispel common misconceptions about the drug. It was later published in the 1971 book Marihuana Reconsidered by Lester Grinspoon. Sagan enjoyed cannabis on a regular basis for the rest of his life, but never spoke of it publicly.
Essay
2,946 7 18
Arcology: The City In The Image Of Man
Paolo Soleri
Arcology: The City In The Image Of Man
1969
Visionary architect Paolo Soleri challenges us to think of cities as biological entities, and introduces us to a philosophy for a new kind of urban living: the arcology, a city-sized organism designed to exist in harmony with nature. Split into two sections, the book first explains the moral and economic necessity for humanity’s transition to arcological urban landscapes, and proposes that the general purpose of life is aesthetogenesis: the universe progressively complexifying and interconnecting, consciously reshaping itself into compassionate structures. In the second section, Soleri showcases 30 potential arcologies (including one space habitat) through the use of incredibly detailed diagrams, and explains how each was carefully designed to integrate itself economically and ecologically into the world.
Book
42,122 15 15
The Joker
Alan Watts
The Joker
One of Alan’s most popular seminars, and for good reason—in The Joker, listeners will find out why every society needs fools in order to remind itself not to take life so damn seriously.
Seminar
03:08:18 20,436 14 13
The Tao of Philosophy 1: Slices of Wisdom
Alan Watts
The Tao of Philosophy 1: Slices of Wisdom
Highlights from the "The Love of Wisdom" radio series by Alan Watts
Lecture
25:33 3,395 2 12
Spectrum of Love
Alan Watts
Spectrum of Love
1969
Lecture
26:54 3,576 3 12
Out Of Your Mind 02: The Nature of Consciousness (Part 2)
Alan Watts
Out Of Your Mind 02: The Nature of Consciousness (Part 2)
1969
Seminar
01:03:55 8,270 16 11
Be Here Now
Ram Dass
Be Here Now
1971
This book is a classic text on Hindu spirituality that bloomed open like a lotus flower in the wake of the hippie movement. The seed for this book was planted in the mind of Harvard psychiatrist turned Indian mystic, Ram Dass, and was written—with the blessings of his guru Neem Karoli Baba—for a Western audience who were, for the most part, materially rich but spiritually poor. Be Here Now offers its readers and followers a drug-free alternative for attaining higher states of consciousness, while its simple message to live in the present encourages the pursuit and cultivation of inner peace.
Book
27,972 22 11
Game Theory of Ethics
Alan Watts
Game Theory of Ethics
Is playing the game of life is worth the effort required? Alan turns the question upside-down and investigatates the alternative, allowing us to appreciate the gamble with fate every being takes upon birth.
Lecture
56:03 6,518 14 10
Individual and the World
Alan Watts
Individual and the World
This seminar covers a variety of topics, from the illusion of our separation from the environment and the futility of trying to be genuine, all the way to the discipline required to handle mystical experiences in order to bring something back from them to share with the rest of the world. The presentation ends with his endorsement of insanity, saying a healthy amount of craziness in old age is necessary to prepare for a joyous death.
Lecture
03:21:12 24,344 15 10