John Vervaeke joins Bruce Alderman and Layman Pascal to explore possible points of contact and confluence between their respective approaches to religion and spirituality.
Topics include:
Part 1: Integral Postmetaphysical Spirituality
Part 2: The Two Worlds, The Syntax of Being, and the Practice of Grief
Part 3: Grieving the Death of God [COMING SOON!]
Part 4: Affective Nihilism and the Culture of Make-Believe [COMING SOON!]
Part 1: Integral Postmetaphysical Spirituality
For this inaugural episode, we feel into some of the commonalities and differences between Integral Postmetaphysical Spirituality and Integral Life Practice, and John’s “religion that is not a religion” and his work around developing an ecology of practices suitable for addressing the meaning crisis. We touch on a number of related themes:
- the creative deployment of mythic or literary figures, from Cthulhu and zombies, to the Centaur, the Minotaur, and the khora
- the importance of wrestling with existential and epistemological limit conditions
- the role of ambiguity in higher forms of rationality
- the relation of non-theism to classical theism and atheism
- the history of integrative practices
- the ‘traps’ in conventional practice that can thwart balanced development
- …and much more.
Part 2: The Two Worlds, The Syntax of Being, and the Practice of Grief
For the second episode, we discuss the distinction between absolute and relative in traditional and modern metaphysics, the Two Worlds mythology, and the Ascender and Descender paths, and we consider some historical and contemporary approaches to reconceiving their relations. In the second half of the dialogue, we turn towards the emotional or ‘felt’ dimensions of a fundamental shift in perspectives, including David Michael Levin’s notions of ‘crying for a vision’ and gelassenheit as the resolution of dualism; and we begin to touch on the importance for a Religion that is Not a Religion of ‘moving into the lack’ and fully grieving the death of God.
John Vervaeke is a professor of psychology at Toronto University and creator of the popular YouTube series “Awakening from the Meaning Crisis.”
“Awakening from the Meaning Crisis” Playlist
Voices with Vervaeke: Metamodern Wisdom about Religion with Layman Pascal
Vervaeke and Hall Begin to Design the Religion That is Not a Religion
The John Vervaeke Study Group
Join John Vervaeke and Nomali Perera for a LIVE study group session on May 5th. Click here to learn more!
About John Vervaeke
John Vervaeke is an award-winning lecturer at the University of Toronto in Psychology, Cognitive Science and Buddhist Psychology. His academic interests include wisdom, mindfulness, meditation, relevance realization, general intelligence, and rationality. He is the author of Awakening from the Meaning Crisis Youtube series and co-author of Zombies in Western Culture: A 21st Century Crisis. He has been engaging in Dialogos, alongside Jordan Hall and Guy Sengstock, and other conversations on Youtube.
About Bruce Alderman
Bruce Alderman, MA, is an affiliate faculty at John F. Kennedy University in the Consciousness and Transformative Studies and Holistic Counseling Psychology departments. After years of moderating several integral discussion forums of his own, including Integral Postmetaphysical Spirituality and Integral Scholarship and Practice, he is venturing into production of integral video content himself.
About Layman Pascal
Layman Pascal was incarnated on a remote island in the Pacific Northwest. He used to be a meditation teacher, yoga instructor & public speaker — but he's feeling much better now.