Episode 014 Sam Harris

Summary

• Sam Harris is a writer, neuroscientist, and philosopher
• He has authored several New York Times bestsellers, including The End of Faith
• He has a PhD in neuroscience and is collaborating on an FMRI study with a friend at USC
• He is mostly a writer, but still has a toe in the water of doing research
• He is interested in understanding and interpreting the work of neuroscientists to change our thinking about the nature of human subjectivity
• He is currently studying belief and disbelief and uncertainty in the brain
• He is looking at how religious belief is similar to other beliefs, and how different kinds of beliefs require different kinds of processing in the brain
• Sam Harris has studied the brain to understand how beliefs are accepted or rejected.
• He is currently conducting a study to observe how beliefs can be changed in real time.
• Traditional lie detectors are not valid science and are not reliable.
• Technology is better at detecting lies than humans, and this effect is only going to get stronger.
• Sam Harris has written about gun control, the conflict between religion and science, and his criticism of Islam.
• He believes that the word "religion" is not a useful word and does not accurately describe the range of preoccupations it covers.
• There is almost nothing in common between the religions of Islam and Jainism, except that they both rely on faith to make claims about the nature of reality.
• Jains are truly nonviolent, and it is unlikely they would ever become suicide bombers or form a death cult.
• It is difficult to parse the issue of Islam due to white guilt and a commitment to pluralism and multiculturalism.
• Sam Harris has been falsely accused of calling for a nuclear first strike on the Muslim world.
• Malala Yousafzai is an absolute hero and her popularity in Pakistan went down when she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
• Criticism of Islam is not bigotry against Muslims as people, but rather a criticism of the doctrine of Islam and its consequences on behavior and thinking.
• Dion Herste Alli is a Somali woman who emigrated to Holland to flee a forced marriage and became a member of the Dutch Parliament
• She fought for the rights of Muslim women living in Holland who were living with men who had imported practices of female genital mutilation and other forms of coercion
• She has since lived in perpetual flight from theocrats who want to kill her and under the perpetual shadow of criticism from liberals who attack her as a bigot
• She was recently invited and then disinvited by Brandeis University
• Liberal institutions are getting bullied by theocrats under the guise of political correctness and multiculturalism
• Sam Harris argues that we have already forfeited our free speech on this topic voluntarily and that we have been successfully bullied into selfcensorship
• He believes that we have a crazy double standard where we have politicians saying no, this has nothing to do with Islam, yet they are beefing up security on their embassies and closing embassies
• He believes that we need to articulate an alternative to talking about spiritual experience in 1st Century or 7th Century terms
• Sam Harris recommends Vipassana meditation as the best technique for novices to start with, as it does not require any belief in Buddhism or its doctrine.
• Mindfulness is the quality of mind that allows one to pay attention to sights, sounds, sensations, and thoughts without being lost in thought or grasping at what is pleasant and pushing away what is unpleasant.
• Meditation is initially difficult as we are so deeply conditioned to be lost in thought, but it is possible to break this spell and begin to notice thoughts as objects of consciousness.
• Sam Harris recommends guided meditations for novices to help cut through the chatter in the mind.
• Sam Harris also discusses the potential therapeutic value of psychedelics when used responsibly.
• Sam Harris believes that a life without drugs is neither foreseeable nor desirable.
• He believes that his daughter should experience a psychedelic like psilocybin or LSD at least once in her adult life.
• He has a healthy respect for what can go wrong on psychedelics and the potential legal ramifications.
• He believes psychedelics are indispensable for many people and that they can unveil an inner landscape worth exploring.
• He believes that psychedelics are guaranteed to work in some way and can lead to radical transformations in experience.
• He has not tried DMT or ayahuasca, but Tim Ferriss has tried DMT and plans to experience ayahuasca.
• Sam Harris discusses his experience with psychedelics and the effects of set and setting on the experience
• He notes that he has had both positive and negative experiences, and that the door to negative experiences can be left ajar
• He believes that the positive effects of psychedelics can last for weeks and months, but the negative effects can also last for the same amount of time
• He believes that the most important insight from psychedelics is the understanding of the illusion of the self, and that this can be achieved through meditation
• He believes that freedom from the self can be experienced in ordinary waking consciousness, and does not require altered states of consciousness
• Tim Ferriss and Sam Harris had a conversation about Sam's material.
• Tim encouraged everyone to read Sam's material, listen to debates, and watch debates.
• Tim suggested two articles to check out: "Drugs and the Meaning of Life" and "The Riddle of the Gun".
• Tim and Sam agreed to hang out more and have a round two conversation.
• They also agreed to grab a glass of wine in the near future.