Thread: Zen Shit
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Unread 07-17-2014, 01:47 PM   #7 (permalink)
Mr. Blonde
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I'll try to watch these this week.

This is an audiobook I'm listening to right now: 10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works--A True Story: Dan Harris: 9780062265425: Amazon.com: Books

It is written by Dan Harris, former ABC anchor who had a "meltdown" on live news broadcasted to millions of people. His story is extremely fascinating. I just started it yesterday, but the book basically focuses on Dan trying to sift through all the pseudoscientific spiritual stuff out there (Eckhart Tolle, Deepak Chopra, etc) in order to seek the scientific mental benefits of meditation. So far his skepticism is holding up remarkably well and he's rather funny. He has clearly mastered the art of self-deprecating humor as a disarming tactic.

The part that sticks out to me the most is how honest he is with himself and the reader in the book. Openly talking about his borderline sociopathic nonchalant attitude towards death as a war correspondent and his subsequent dependency on cocaine and ecstacy, which is what lead to his on-air flip-up, is a primary theme so far.

You might be into it, the whole angle is basically him willing to give meditation a shot but not if it sounds like bullshit to him.

Psychedelics are illegal not because a loving government is concerned that you may jump out of a third story window. Psychedelics are illegal because they dissolve opinion structures and culturally laid down models of behavior and information processing.

― Terence McKenna

Last edited by Mr. Blonde; 07-17-2014 at 01:53 PM.
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