#433: Sam Harris on Psychedelics, How to Cope During a Pandemic, Taming Anxiety, and More

Podcast Notes Key Takeaways Fear is a necessary part of our tool kit for evolutionary and personal reasonsThe goal of meditation isn’t to get rid of fear altogether, the goal is to stop feeling fear when it isn’t being usefulMindfulness is a good intervention tool to combat stress and anxiety“Mindfulness is really the method by which you can let go of it because you notice the thoughts…once you let the thoughts go and are willing to feel the raw sensation of anxiety, the sensations lose their psychological importance” – Sam HarrisEither you can do something about the problem or you can’t, but in either case, stressing out about it won’t helpIf you can do something to solve the problem, do itIf you can’t, then why suffer twice?What is the most powerful feature of psychedelics?“The thing about psychedelics is it can give you…an experience of states of consciousness for which there is no possibility of skepticism” – Sam Harris“For psychedelics like psilocybin, mushrooms, and LSD, you’re nowhere near a lethal dose of the compound” – Sam HarrisWith the exception of MDMA and ibogaine, be careful with thoseTim’s advice for people looking to experiment with psychedelics:Be aware of the legality of the drug and the laws you may be breakingBefore you recommend other people to try psychedelics, get a few experiences under your belt including one that’s not purely positive“There is no rebooting of this economy with a contagion like this raging and people falling sick” – Sam Harris“The truth is we could resolve this in something like a month if we had our act together. Literally, we could lockdown for a month and this would burn itself out.”eval(ez_write_tag([[250,250],'podcastnotes_org-medrectangle-3','ezslot_5',122,'0','0']));eval(ez_write_tag([[250,250],'podcastnotes_org-medrectangle-3','ezslot_6',122,'0','1']));

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Sam Harris — Psychedelics, Meditation, and The Bigger Picture | Brought to you by FreshBooks and "5-Bullet Friday"

"Nothing's changed but yet, on some level, everything has changed, and I feel like I'm in a spaceship where at any moment, the leak or the breach in the wall can be catastrophic. It's a very bizarre feeling, which I know everyone is sharing to one or another degree." — Sam Harris

Sam Harris (@SamHarrisOrg) is a neuroscientist, philosopher, and author of five New York Times bestsellers. His work covers a wide range of topics—neuroscience, moral philosophy, religion, meditation practice, human violence, rationality—but generally focuses on how a growing understanding of ourselves and the world is changing our sense of how we should live. His books include The End of Faith, Letter to a Christian Nation, The Moral Landscape, Free Will, Lying, Waking Up, and Islam and the Future of Tolerance (with Maajid Nawaz).

Sam hosts the popular Making Sense podcast and is also the creator of the Waking Up app, which offers a modern, rational approach to the practice of meditation. Sam has practiced meditation for over 30 years and has studied with many Tibetan, Indian, Burmese, and Western meditation teachers, both in the United States and abroad. He holds a degree in philosophy from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in neuroscience from UCLA.

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