#30 - The Wizard of Awe Goes to Burning Man | Jason Silva

Of Timelessness, Flow States, Psychedelics & Death

The ancient Greeks had two words for time: Chronos (consensus time or mechanized time) and Kairos (archetypal time or dream time). Jason Silva, the host of Brain Games and the award winning creator of Shots of Awe has spent his life capturing and sharing the timeless. From his adolescent anxiety about transience to his sensational viral videos, Jason has always had an eye for collecting and souvenirs that he has lived.

Jason and I met in that Mecca of Kairos, Black Rock City, a year ago and I am honored to share our rich musings with you today. On the podcast we discuss Burning Man as a timeless heterotopia. We go deep into Flow States, for which timelessness is key. We discuss psychedelics and whether Jason himself uses them. Finally, fittingly, we end with a conversation about death and impermanence.

May death tremble to take you.

Jason Silva: https://www.thisisjasonsilva.com/
Shots of Awe: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClYb9NpXnRemxYoWbcYANsA
Brain Games: https://www.nationalgeographic.org/education/channel/brain-games/

Mentioned in the Podcast
Ernest Becker “The Denial of Death” : https://www.amazon.com/Denial-Death-Ernest-Becker/dp/0684832402
Erik Davis previously on Life is a Festival: https://www.eamonarmstrong.com/lifeisafestival/erik-davis
Stealing Fire: https://www.amazon.com/Stealing-Fire-Maverick-Scientists-Revolutionizing/dp/0062429663
Brain Pickings: https://www.brainpickings.org/
Martin Buber “I and Thou” : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_and_Thou
Mr. X by Carl Sagan (Marihuana Reconsidered 1971): http://marijuana-uses.com/mr-x/
David Pierce “The Hedonistic Imperative” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Pearce_(philosopher)
Allan Harrington “The Immortalist” https://www.amazon.com/Immortalist-Alan-Harrington/dp/0890871353

Time Stamps

7: Kairos & Cronus: Silva’s youth and trying to capture time and his anxious relationship to transience.
15: A home run podcast for Jason is to allow ourselves to find new reflections and counterintuitive ways of seeing ourselves
18: Heterotopia and why Burning Man is so full of beautiful synchronicities
22: What took Jason so long to get to Burning Man
30: How did Burning Man change Jason
38: Flow State, a state of conscious where you feel your best and you perform your best.
45: “I-Thou” relationships & “I-It” relationships
49: Jason Silva as celebrity philosopher and the commoditizing of art
58: What psychedelics has Jason Silva used?
1:17: Experiencing love without fear of loss
1:27: I invite Jason to do Ayahuasca
1:33: Raging against the dying of the light: How Jason understands death