Dedicated to liberation in all its forms, Deconstructing Yourself is passionate about fearlessly investigating, attempting, and questioning all things to do with awakening, meditation, mindfulness, brain hacking, consciousness, neurofeedback, and more.Your host Michael W. Taft interviews some of the most interesting thinkers, authors, and teachers around, as well as other offerings. In this hard-hitting, radical, and fun podcast we look at secular post-, non-, un- Buddhism, Vajrayana, nondual Hindu Tantra, philosophy, the neuroscience of the sense of self, neurofeedback and the consciousness hacking movement, aspects of artificial intelligence, entheogens, and much more.If you’re looking for fresh directions, free from dogma and conformism, think of the Deconstructing Yourself podcast as the radical cafe where you can hear from the most interesting luminaries either from the outside edges of dharma, or a fresh take from more traditional teachers. If you’re interested in more, check out the Deconstructing Yourself website at https://deconstructingyourself.com.
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episode 23: Lucid Dreaming, Meditation, and Consciousness, with Evan Thompson
In this episode, philosopher, author, and meditator, Evan Thompson speaks with host Michael Taft. Topics include: the meaning of awakening; lucid dreaming and noticing the construction of the waking state; the 3-fold structure of Awareness, Contents of Awareness, and then Identification with Contents; The cosmopolitanism of Buddhism, and the myth of Buddhist exceptionalism; consciousness hacking and psychedelics; and much more.
Evan Thompson, PhD, works on the nature of the mind, the self, and human experience. His work combines cognitive science, philosophy of mind, phenomenology, and cross-cultural philosophy, especially in Asian traditions. His most recent book, Waking, Dreaming, Being, examines the self and consciousness in neuroscience, meditation, and philosophy.
Show Notes
1:50 - Evan’s personal practice and retreat in Nelson, British Columbia.
4:55 - Central metaphor of awakening from sleep-wake cycle. Fractal nature of awakening.
8:50 - Phenomenal sense of insight into waking up, false awakening.
11:40 - Is waking up a recurring process as in the ordinary sleep-wake cycle?
15:10 - Awakening as metaphorical concept and not a state. Ethics, values tied to awakening.
17:15 - Embodied nature of consciousness and awakening.
19:55 - Extended consciousness involving brain, body and environment vs panpsychism.
23:35 - Meditation is not first person science, more similar to dance and martial arts.
28:25 - Basic structure of Waking, Dreaming, Being based on Upanishads.
29:05 - Unpacking the Upanishadic structure in the context of meditation.
33:45 - Lucid dreaming for cultivating awareness rather than dream control.
37:45 - Connection between framing of dream and waking states.
38:50 - Consciousness versus contents of consciousness. Sense of self while awake, dreaming.
43:25 - Neuroscience of self and memory while dreaming.
45:30 - Neuroscience of self and memory while awake.
46:20 - Brain as active while asleep as awake, but in different local and network ways.
48:00 - Sleep needed for memory consolidation, learning and self regulation.
49:35 - Meditation not only limited to brain but an activity practiced in a social context.
53:05 - Meditation embodied in a wider context that may be missed in brain only fMRI scans.
55:40 - Wings needed for flight but flight is not in the wings, brain needed for meditation …
56:55 - Meditation reduced to neuroscience correlates may be too reductionist.
58:05 - Neuroscience being used to “prove” Buddhism. Fetishizing Buddhism.
1:00:35 - Buddhism is a religion despite claims to the contrary, a lot of Buddhist exceptionalism.
1:03:00 - Critique of Buddhist exceptionalism in new book. Cosmopolitan Buddhism preferred.
1:05:35 - Evan’s book in progress Why I am not a Buddhist.
1:07:05 - Hopeful signs in greater sensitivity to environment, equality.
1:10:05 - Unbalanced approach to psychedelics. Consciousness hacking as fear of death.
1:13:20 - Outro
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