Podcast Summary
Exploring existential questions and personal growth through the Waking Up Course: The Waking Up Course offers a space to delve into deep, existential questions and live an examined life, promoting personal growth and understanding.
The Waking Up Course is an endeavor by its creator to build a shared space for exploring deep, existential questions about the human mind, consciousness, ethics, and the good life. This journey is as much for the creator as it is for the participants. The course is an attempt to refocus on these core interests after being sidetracked by more topical issues, such as politics and controversies. By setting aside these distractions, the Waking Up Course aims to provide a platform for living an examined life and delving into profound questions that can lead to personal growth and understanding.
Exploring Controversial Topics with Dissatisfaction: Despite dissatisfaction, the speaker tackles complex issues with diverse experiences and perspectives, aiming to contribute meaningfully to larger conversations.
The speaker has found himself delving into topics that he never intended to explore, but feels socially necessary to address, despite their controversial and often tedious nature. These topics include the role of religious belief in perpetuating ignorance and conflict, the merits of various religious doctrines, and the potential dangers of certain beliefs. While the speaker acknowledges the importance of these discussions, he expresses a sense of dissatisfaction with the fact that they consume a significant portion of his intellectual energy. Despite not considering himself an expert in any one area, the speaker is attempting to create something unique with the "waking up" course. He recognizes that he may not be the best scientist, philosopher, meditator, or religious scholar, but he believes that his diverse experiences and perspectives make him uniquely qualified to tackle these complex issues. The speaker's ultimate goal is to contribute to the larger conversation in a meaningful way, despite the challenges and monotony that come with addressing these contentious topics.
Deep understanding of science, philosophy, and meditation: Rare individual has deep knowledge and experience in science, philosophy, and meditation, producing a valuable meditation course
The intersection of deep knowledge in science, philosophy, and meditation is a rare and unique combination. The speaker, who has extensive experience in all three areas, acknowledges that there are very few individuals who possess a similar level of understanding and experience. The "Waking Up" course, which the speaker is working on, is a meditation course that includes guided meditations. The speaker finds guided meditations to be particularly helpful, even for experienced meditators, as they provide a necessary reminder to stay focused. The speaker's background and interests, along with the opportunities they have had to pursue these questions, make them uniquely qualified to produce this course. The rarity of individuals who have a deep understanding of science, philosophy, and meditation highlights the significance and value of the "Waking Up" course.
Exploring the depths of meditation and philosophy with the 'Waking Up' app: The 'Waking Up' app offers a mix of guided meditations and philosophical lessons, available for free for the first five sessions, but requiring a subscription for full access.
The "Waking Up" app offers a combination of guided meditations and short talks on various topics, which the creator calls "lessons." These lessons range from meditation-related concepts to philosophical interventions, often inspired by scientific findings or thought-provoking quotes. The app is an ongoing project for the creator, who plans to add more content based on his personal practice and research in philosophy and science. While some content may overlap with the podcast, most of it will be exclusive to the app. The app is free to download for the first five guided meditations and three lessons, but access to the rest of the course requires a subscription. The creator has kept his promise to podcast supporters by providing them with the app for free, but developing and maintaining the app has proven to be more complex than anticipated, leading to the involvement of outside investors and a team of full-time developers.
Waking Up App Access Changes: As of Sept 18th, 2022, new users can only access the Waking Up Chorus through a subscription, while existing supporters get lifetime access for free.
As of September 18th, 2022, the pay what you can model is no longer an option for accessing the Waking Up app. If you supported the podcast before this date through samharris.org or Patreon, you will receive lifetime access to the app for free. However, for new users, the only way to access the Waking Up Chorus will be by subscribing. The podcast team encourages existing users to spread the word about the app and leave positive reviews to help with its growth. The development and maintenance of the app have been a significant investment, and the team is seeking user feedback through the contact form on wakingup.com. If you're interested in meditation and philosophical discussions with Sam Harris, check out wakingup.com for more information. Many thanks to all the listeners for their support.