Making Sense with Sam Harris - Introducing Waking Up

Episode Date: September 25, 2018

In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris introduces Waking Up. More information can be found at WakingUp.com. You can support the Making Sense podcast and receive subscriber-only content at samharris.org/subscribe.

Welcome to the waking up course. The app is officially available in the iTunes store. We're releasing the iOS version first and the Android version will soon follow. And you can find more information on my website, or at the official site, which is wakingup.com. Now I am really excited about this. I want to take a few minutes to explain why I built this course, and what I'm hoping to accomplish with it. I'm attempting to build a vessel of sorts. Now, whether it's a rocket ship or a barge remains to be seen. But in creating the Waking Up course, I'm attempting to build a vehicle on which we

can all take a journey together, and you can get on board at any time. I've actually built the course as much for myself as for you, because producing it has taken me back to topics and to ways of thinking that I've been struggling to get back to for years. When I wrote my book, Waking Up, I had hoped that it would initiate a life change of sorts, where I could focus more on the questions that really interest me. Questions about the human mind and the nature of consciousness, and about what constitutes a good life, about the connection between ethics and introspection. And I wanted to get back to exploring these topics, not just conceptually, but experientially. So I'd hoped that releasing that book would allow me to return to these core interests. Needless to say, I wasn't expecting to spend my book tour for waking

up talking about jihadism and terrorism and racism. But that's largely what happened, courtesy of a certain movie star having a meltdown on television. And it took a long time to unravel all that. And then there's been American politics to worry about, and that's been distracting. So the Waking Up course is a place where I can put aside all of these far more topical concerns and just focus on what it means to live an examined life. As I've said on this podcast more than once, I think, I view most of my work thus far as a series of opportunity costs. Most of what I've written and spoken about, certainly with respect to atheism and the conflict between science and religion,

and about the problems of discussing controversial topics in public, free speech issues, more or less all of that is work that I never planned on doing. I think it's been necessary to do it, but it shouldn't be. And I'm sure I'll keep hitting these topics on my podcast because they don't seem to be going away, but these are topics where the right answers are so obvious and so painful to elaborate again and again, that if you spend a lot of time doing this, your intellectual life begins to seem like a kind of purgatory. I mean, does a belief in the literal truth of revelation perpetuate ignorance and conflict in our world? Are there good reasons to hold such a belief?

in our world? Are there good reasons to hold such a belief? Are certain religious doctrines more dangerous than others? These are punishingly boring questions to have to deal with. And yet one has to deal with them, because the obvious answers remain controversial, and even taboo. But this is not why I spent years studying philosophy and science, and it's certainly not why I spent years on silent meditation retreats. It's been important to talk about these issues, and I've done it and I'll continue to do it because I think it's socially necessary. But it seems to me that anyone could be doing this job. It really doesn't have to be me. In producing the waking up course, I'm attempting to do something that I'm especially qualified to do. I don't consider myself the best at any one thing, but you don't have to be the best at anything

to be almost uniquely qualified for something. For instance, I'm not by any stretch of the imagination the world's best scientist. As far as what I do on a day-to-day basis, I'm more of a philosopher. But I'm not the most knowledgeable philosopher in the world either. My PhD, after all, is in neuroscience, not philosophy, and there's no question that there are books and papers I should have read but haven't. I'm not the best meditator in the world. There are many people who have far more experience than I do practicing on intensive retreat. I took

some psychedelics back in the day, but there are people who are far more experienced in that area than I am. I know a fair amount about religion, but I'm not a religious scholar. I don't read any of the primary languages in which the world's scriptures were written. So this is a picture, it would seem, of just pristine mediocrity. But consider, how many scientists know as much philosophy? And how many philosophers know as much science? Well, honestly, the field narrows quite a bit. And then when I ask how many of these people have a similar degree of experience in meditation, that is, how many philosopher-scientists truly understand that introspection isn't a dead end,

how many have studied with great meditation teachers and spent a substantial amount of time on silent retreat, well, now I can begin counting these people on my fingers. Similarly, when I ask how many people with real experience in meditation, who can notice, for instance, that the sense of self is an illusion, and can speak about this honestly, not as a matter of theory, but as a fact to be observed in the present moment, how many of these people understand enough science and philosophy to be appropriately skeptical of religion? That is, how many people with a mature meditation practice understand that we have to get out of the religion business once and for all? This number is truly tiny. Now, I realize this might sound strangely

self-deprecating and grandiose at the same time. Needless to say, I don't mean to be either. I think it's just simply a fact that given my background and interests, and given the kinds of questions that have fascinated me for decades, and given the fairly unique opportunities I've had to pursue those questions, I'm not sure who else could produce this course. And that, as I said, is not true of most of the work I've been doing. So I'm very happy to be working on this. It's a relief, frankly. The Waking Up course is in part a meditation course, so obviously there are guided meditations, and I'll keep adding to those as time goes on.

And I would say that even if you're an experienced meditator, using guided meditations can be extremely helpful. This is one of the things that's unique about audio. You simply can't do this with a book. There's no alternative to having an actual voice remind you that you're supposed to be paying attention. I find guided meditations extremely helpful, and I've been meditating for over 30 years. In addition to the guided meditations,

there's also an expanding curriculum of short talks on a variety of topics. I call these talks lessons. Some explain concepts that are directly relevant to meditation, and others are more like philosophical interventions, where I have you reflect on a specific topic for a few minutes, sometimes starting with a scientific finding or a quotation that inspires a particular line of thought. Again, this is an ongoing project for me. And as I add content to the course, I'll be attempting to synthesize everything I've discovered in my own practice and in philosophy and science generally

that seems helpful for increasing our understanding of our own minds and our well-being. Of course, many of these things have been discussed by philosophers and contemplatives for thousands of years, but they can now be viewed in a 21st century scientific context, which is how we should view them. So this really is a chance for me to talk about the most important things I've ever learned. And while there might be some crossover between the podcast and the waking up course, occasionally I might answer a question on an AMA,

for instance, that might seem relevant to the app, and I'll just add that audio as a short lesson. In fact, I've already done that on the topic of free will, and sometimes I might preview one of my lessons on the podcast. But my plan is to produce short talks of around 5 to 15 minutes in length in an ongoing way exclusively for the course. So most of the content that you find on the app will only be available there. Now, you can download the app for free, and this will give you access to the first five guided meditations and three lessons. It'll also allow you to use the meditation timer if you just want to practice in silence,

but the rest of the course requires that you subscribe to get access to it. Of course, I made a promise to supporters of the podcast a while back that they would get the app for free, and I intend to honor that promise. However, there was far more involved in developing and maintaining an app than I realized. And in the meantime, I've taken on outside investors and hired a team of full-time developers. So the pay-what-you-can model simply won't work for the app going forward. simply won't work for the app going forward. So if you've been a supporter of the podcast at any level prior to September 18th, when we officially launched the Waking Up course, you'll get lifetime access to the course for free. If you ever supported the show through samharris.org or Patreon, we have your email address, and you should have already been notified

that you have access to the app. And this will be true when we release the Android version as well. So this is yet another opportunity I can take to thank all of you who supported the podcast early on. However, that sound you hear is the sound of the door closing behind you. Because for everyone else going forward, the only way to get access to the Waking Up Chorus will be to subscribe, whether you're supporting the podcast or not. And those of you who do get the Waking Up course for free, you can really help us by telling your friends about it and by reviewing it in the app store and helping to spread the word on social media. This app has been a huge investment and will continue to be. And if it can spread by word of mouth, that would be the best possible outcome. Of course, if you have problems with the app or have features you'd

like us to build, please send those to us directly at wakingup.com. There's a contact form there, and this feedback will be hugely helpful. So if you'd like to practice meditation with me and engage in philosophical and scientific considerations about the nature of mind, you can check out what I'm doing at wakingup.com. And as always, many thanks for listening.