The Great Updraft

Science does not truly question the idea of self. Even though neuroscience itself would say that the self is simply a result of brain activity and isn’t actually a thing, neuroscientists themselves do not live out this wisdom. Also, science confuses accumulation of knowledge with wisdom. This is a snippet from my Wednesday 1/4 episode, The Hidden Dogma in Scientific Thinking. Episode category: htt...

Science does not pay attention to epistemology and philosophy - it focuses exclusively on calculation and application. It is also highly skeptical, but rarely of itself. This is a snippet from my Wednesday 1/4 episode, The Hidden Dogma in Scientific Thinking. Episode category: https://player.captivate.fm/collection/41de4d4f-0232-4c5d-bb84-436add43f6f9 Explore my 200-episode podcast library: https:...

A key and mostly overlooked issue is that science is an echo chamber. Much of science operates through repetition, imitation, and inherited frameworks rather than original insight - and this underlies scientific training too. This is a snippet from my Wednesday 1/4 episode, The Hidden Dogma in Scientific Thinking. Episode category: https://player.captivate.fm/collection/41de4d4f-0232-4c5d-bb84-436...

Scientific practice contains certain philosophical assumptions. These are treated as facts and then passed on. And they are unexamined. That is, they are dogma. In episode 1 of my April series on the philosophy of science, we uncover these hidden assumptions and help you free your mind from scientism. My philosophy episodes: https://player.captivate.fm/collection/41de4d4f-0232-4c5d-bb84-436add43f6...

To engage in spiritual learning, you must believe you don't know your true nature, and then go out and try to find it. Yet, nobody can truly tell you what it is. It is a discovery you must make. This is a snippet from my Wednesday 25/3 episode, What Spiritual Teaching Can't Do. Related episodes: all March episodes! Newsletter & books: https://deep-psychology.com/my-links Explore my 200-episode...

Spiritual teaching itself is built on an illusion. Furthermore, there are several hidden reasons why spiritual teachers teach - and they are not all pretty! This is a snippet from my Wednesday 25/3 episode, What Spiritual Teaching Can't Do. Related episodes: all March episodes! Newsletter & books:  https://deep-psychology.com/my-links Explore my 200-episode archive by category:  https://deep-p...

The core flaw in spiritual teaching are the assumptions underlying it. Here is the top hidden assumption. This is a snippet from my Wednesday 25/3 episode, What Spiritual Teaching Can't Do. Related episodes: all March episodesNewsletter & books: https://deep-psychology.com/my-links

There is a fundamental limit to spiritual teaching: it cannot give you recognition of your true nature, and your true nature cannot be conceptualised. This goes to the heart of spirituality. Furthermore, to teach, the teacher must defile their own true nature. Related episodes: all March episodes! Newsletter & books: https://deep-psychology.com/my-links

The true meditative path is one that is grounded right here, right now. To continue on the path is to be fully here in all situations, and to never turn away from This. The extent to which you do that is the extent to which you are truly walking the path home. This episode is a snippet from my Wednesday 18/3 episode, Why Meditators Stall on the Path. My newsletter & books: https://deep-psychol...

Meditators often perpetually want to get somewhere else. In fact, this is one of the core markers of the human experience: there is always a subtle turning away from the present. This inevitably comes into meditation itself: meditators are not there to be there, but to be elsewhere. This episode is a snippet from my Wednesday 22/3 episode, Why Meditators Stall on the Path.

I have hundreds of episodes, so I wanted to help you navigate them. Here are the 4 most fundamental episodes: What Is The Meaning of Life? (Ep 180, Feb 2026) Your Psychology=Your Life (Episode 85, Dec 2024) We All Live In Our Own World (Episode 64, July 2024) The Grand, Universal Human Illusion (Ep 83, Nov 2024) Everything else comes from there. My podcast categories: My podcast categories: https:...

Meditators often have wildly unrealistic expectations regarding what meditation is, what its effects are, and where it eventually leads us. This is especially prevalent among newcomers, who have often been marketed on the idea that a little meditation will immediately render you calm, peaceful and wise. This is a snippet from my Wednesday 18/3 episode, Why Meditators Stall On The Path. Books &...

From my practice and experience, three simple reasons explain why meditators stall on the path and fail to reach the deep insight taught in various guises by all spiritual traditions.

Nowadays, I tend to use the word recognition to describe awakening: here's why. Books & Newsletter: https://deep-psychology.com

Enlightenment is our default word for spiritual awakening or deep spiritual insight. While it may serve and inspire certain students to engage in spiritual work, I also believe it is problematic and that better options exist. This is a short snippet from my episode on 11th March, Is Enlightenment the Right Word?

Despite problems, the word enlightenment does capture two real aspects of awakening: transformation and insight. This is a short snippet from my episode Is Enlightenment The Right Word? on Wednesday 11/3.

We use the word enlightenment all the time in spirituality. But it might actually be one of the most misleading words in the entire field. It suggests a climactic transformation, a final state, something rare and special. Yet the lived experience of awakening is usually quieter, slower, and far more ordinary.

Perhaps 1% or fewer practitioners reach late-stage meditation, where awakening has permanently altered one’s perception. Late stage says: “There is no centre for awakening to happen to.”This is a snippet from my episode from Wednesday 11/3, The Three Stages of Meditation.

Mid-stage practitioners constitute perhaps 5–10% of meditators. This is the stage where awakening begins to stabilise. A core feature of this stage is that thoughts lose their unquestioned authority. They are still present, but they are no longer automatically taken as reality. Thoughts are seen as appearances rather than truths: as thoughts, nothing more, nothing less. This is a snippet from my e...

At the early stage, meditation is something you do. It is an activity during the day, set apart from life, distinct from the rest. Awakening is imagined as a future event: a breakthrough, a shift, a permanent state waiting at the end of sufficient effort. This is a snippet from my episode on Wednesday 4th March, The Three Stages of Meditation & Spiritual Insight.

We tend to see meditation as a single spiritual practice experienced equally by all. It seems meditators sit, practice their technique, attend retreats and accumulate hours. What’s missing is the developmental dimension of meditation. This practice unfolds in recognisable developmental stages. These are not rigid categories, but shifts in identity, perception and relationship to experience. What c...

Meaning, meaningnless and ameaningful are three different words. Meaning and meaninglessness imply one another. Questioning the meaning of life is not a symptom of meaninglessness. We are obsessed with meaning, and yet life could be ameaningful.

The question "What Is The Meaning of Life?" is fraught with difficulties and blindspots. It's so tempting to overcomplicate it, to oversimplify it, or to blindly rely on others to tell you the answer. This is an extract from my latest episode "What Is The Meaning Of Life?"

Why are you here? How does personal meaning work? What questions can we ask to get to the core of our personal meaning structure? This is a snippet from my episode "What Is The Meaning Of Life?" from 25th Feb.

What is the meaning of life? When we get down to it, why are we here as individuals? Why does life itself exist? What is all this for? I round off this month's theme of deep questions with the mother of all existential questions.