Join us for a Candlelight Chat with bestselling author Annaka Harris, on the most dazzling mystery of all (plus, here's an excerpt from Annaka's new series)
I have been following Annaka Harris for sometime, and a "Quiet Life" friend told me about the upcoming event. I was inspired to join "Quiet Life" and will definitely be joining this event. I have been researching all the same "players" and their theories regarding consciousness, and I am writing my second book around accessing universal consciousness, and John Wheeler's participatory universe. I would like to ask Annaka about Donald Hoffman's thoughts in particular, along with Stuart Hameroff's perspectives. Both consider consciousness as fundamental, and I am become persuaded by this viewpoint. I just watched two short Youtubes and I would like to share them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysPalgGO4bw and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1l7dh81RcI I look forward to being able to join your program on Sunday.
So glad you are joining, Linda - and fascinating that you were on this train already. Listening to Annaka's book was the first time I'd encountered these ideas.
Hi Susan, I am looking forward to this. Part of my background, besides writing a book, etc.: I am co-founder of Otis Spunkmeyer, Inc. (cookies, etc.) in case you have heard of it.
Like Annaka, I have been studying consciousness, from a mathematical, theoretical physics and neuroscience viewpoint for sometime, and it was so wonderful to discover "Lights On". There is so much I'd like to compare notes on--Donald Hoffman and Stuart Hameroff for sure. Here is some food for thought before the event:
"The Quantum and the Lotus", Matthieu Ricard and Trinh Xuan Thuan. paperback, page 190. "The fact that some people insist on considering consciousness from a 'third person' perspective is not surprising . . .This is the attitude of someone who would like to learn how to swim without ever getting wet."
In the very beginning of "Lights On", Annaka describes her experience of resting in the grass while contemplating the sky. I often have the same experience, as the ground rushes toward me while I descend through the atmosphere in an airplane. I experience Anaximander's apeiron--that which you see beneath your feet, is only the same sky you see above your head.
Apeiron. Consciousness:
I believe people (especially now) are looking for a "grounding", or seeking an attachment to a belief (connect, idea?) that is at once (superpositionally?) local/non-local, micro/macro (Planck)?), individual/universal. Unifying. Socially, politically, spiritually and logically. The time is right. I want to make a difference.
Consciousness units instead of conscious agents. (I agree). So much to ruminate on, and I will be there tomorrow. Hopefully I will be able to figure out how to log-in.
Fascinating, been looking forward to this one, read these few times feel I have to ponder a lot about this... Can we be conscious, have a felt experience without a spirit, soul, heart? How does consciousness recognize an emotional experience, giving it meaning without a soul's heartbeat.
Suppose I have more questions, thoughts than answers but if two beings our conscious and one is having a felt experience and other is not than why is that? Feel the soul, spirit play apart in all this
the, visceral depths create the felt experience awaking consciousness into being?... Then there the whole unconscious realm...
Because my work is to make and create practical AI that shows how it does the "magic" trick, I am constantly thinking about consciousness. I have been thinking about this from two greatly opposing angles 1) WHY would this world give adult men who openly gawk at womens boobs billions of dollars to create AGI ? and 2) from a spirtual perspective that is more grounded in nature.
Reading through the description of Annala Harris's Lights on (which I will listen to), I found an instant parallel to the practice of Tikkun Olam. According to a Jewish story, the beings were in a vessel that could not contain their light at the beginning of time, and the vessels broke. It is our "job" or "calling" to heal the world by finding all these shards of light in ourselves and others and putting them all back together. The connection with others is what it feels like to be me. It is this that I feel is my subjective experience (one I try to be explicit about when doing my work with data and human-centered AI), that is healing or becoming whole. To heal is not to be cured but to become whole - this is what the connection is about.
I have been slowly working my way through David Bentley Hart's "All things are full of Gods" which explores this question and seems to point (as much as I can understand) that God's consciousness is the ground of all being and our sense of consciousness is an emanation of God's. Fascinating and powerful. I look forward to the conversation!
The fundamental nature of consciousness in the universe is fascinating and important to many physicists of the last century. And to ancient Vedic science for millennia. Thank you, Susan for sharing Annaka's work here and for the Chat. I can't be there but look forward to the recording.
Hi there Ellen! Susan will send out an email with login instructions twice before candlelight chats. She hasn’t sent this one out yet. I think the instructions are very clear but I’d you have questions please let me know.
Annaka's book is brilliant, and I hope to deepen my understanding from this exploration. I indeed agree the consciousness is foundational, essential and emergent.
Consciousness has been one of my special interests for decades. Of course, the hard problem was part of my thinking until I decided that if consciousness is fundamental, there need not be a hard problem.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin said, "Matter is spirit moving slowly enough to be seen." We know that energy is fast matter as well (e=mc2). I do not believe in a dualistic but a monistic world, but I do not believe that consciousness emerges from matter.
If consciousness emerges from matter—if, for example, matter is complex enough—it is not fundamental. If consciousness is fundamental, it exists in all matter, and no hard problem exists.
I will be in Canada on May 4th and cannot participate. I will, of course, watch the recording.
I have heard of the problem of consciousness, though Annaka's way of explaining it is so much more lucid and helpful. Buddhists talk about "sentient beings," meaning humans, animals, others (plants, inanimate objects) who possess awareness and experience life. Seems like 'sentience' and 'consciousness' are different ways of talking about the same thing. Either way, they foster a sense of connectedness in this world, a good start for compassion.
I have been following Annaka Harris for sometime, and a "Quiet Life" friend told me about the upcoming event. I was inspired to join "Quiet Life" and will definitely be joining this event. I have been researching all the same "players" and their theories regarding consciousness, and I am writing my second book around accessing universal consciousness, and John Wheeler's participatory universe. I would like to ask Annaka about Donald Hoffman's thoughts in particular, along with Stuart Hameroff's perspectives. Both consider consciousness as fundamental, and I am become persuaded by this viewpoint. I just watched two short Youtubes and I would like to share them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysPalgGO4bw and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1l7dh81RcI I look forward to being able to join your program on Sunday.
So glad you are joining, Linda - and fascinating that you were on this train already. Listening to Annaka's book was the first time I'd encountered these ideas.
Hi Susan, I am looking forward to this. Part of my background, besides writing a book, etc.: I am co-founder of Otis Spunkmeyer, Inc. (cookies, etc.) in case you have heard of it.
Like Annaka, I have been studying consciousness, from a mathematical, theoretical physics and neuroscience viewpoint for sometime, and it was so wonderful to discover "Lights On". There is so much I'd like to compare notes on--Donald Hoffman and Stuart Hameroff for sure. Here is some food for thought before the event:
"The Quantum and the Lotus", Matthieu Ricard and Trinh Xuan Thuan. paperback, page 190. "The fact that some people insist on considering consciousness from a 'third person' perspective is not surprising . . .This is the attitude of someone who would like to learn how to swim without ever getting wet."
In the very beginning of "Lights On", Annaka describes her experience of resting in the grass while contemplating the sky. I often have the same experience, as the ground rushes toward me while I descend through the atmosphere in an airplane. I experience Anaximander's apeiron--that which you see beneath your feet, is only the same sky you see above your head.
Apeiron. Consciousness:
I believe people (especially now) are looking for a "grounding", or seeking an attachment to a belief (connect, idea?) that is at once (superpositionally?) local/non-local, micro/macro (Planck)?), individual/universal. Unifying. Socially, politically, spiritually and logically. The time is right. I want to make a difference.
Consciousness units instead of conscious agents. (I agree). So much to ruminate on, and I will be there tomorrow. Hopefully I will be able to figure out how to log-in.
Linda
Fascinating, been looking forward to this one, read these few times feel I have to ponder a lot about this... Can we be conscious, have a felt experience without a spirit, soul, heart? How does consciousness recognize an emotional experience, giving it meaning without a soul's heartbeat.
Suppose I have more questions, thoughts than answers but if two beings our conscious and one is having a felt experience and other is not than why is that? Feel the soul, spirit play apart in all this
the, visceral depths create the felt experience awaking consciousness into being?... Then there the whole unconscious realm...
Because my work is to make and create practical AI that shows how it does the "magic" trick, I am constantly thinking about consciousness. I have been thinking about this from two greatly opposing angles 1) WHY would this world give adult men who openly gawk at womens boobs billions of dollars to create AGI ? and 2) from a spirtual perspective that is more grounded in nature.
Reading through the description of Annala Harris's Lights on (which I will listen to), I found an instant parallel to the practice of Tikkun Olam. According to a Jewish story, the beings were in a vessel that could not contain their light at the beginning of time, and the vessels broke. It is our "job" or "calling" to heal the world by finding all these shards of light in ourselves and others and putting them all back together. The connection with others is what it feels like to be me. It is this that I feel is my subjective experience (one I try to be explicit about when doing my work with data and human-centered AI), that is healing or becoming whole. To heal is not to be cured but to become whole - this is what the connection is about.
I have been slowly working my way through David Bentley Hart's "All things are full of Gods" which explores this question and seems to point (as much as I can understand) that God's consciousness is the ground of all being and our sense of consciousness is an emanation of God's. Fascinating and powerful. I look forward to the conversation!
The fundamental nature of consciousness in the universe is fascinating and important to many physicists of the last century. And to ancient Vedic science for millennia. Thank you, Susan for sharing Annaka's work here and for the Chat. I can't be there but look forward to the recording.
I am relatively new here. How to I join a Candlelight Chat? Thank you.
Hi there Ellen! Susan will send out an email with login instructions twice before candlelight chats. She hasn’t sent this one out yet. I think the instructions are very clear but I’d you have questions please let me know.
Thank you. As it turns out I wasn’t available but I see the video is posted.
Thank you!
Extremely interesting!
Annaka's book is brilliant, and I hope to deepen my understanding from this exploration. I indeed agree the consciousness is foundational, essential and emergent.
Consciousness has been one of my special interests for decades. Of course, the hard problem was part of my thinking until I decided that if consciousness is fundamental, there need not be a hard problem.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin said, "Matter is spirit moving slowly enough to be seen." We know that energy is fast matter as well (e=mc2). I do not believe in a dualistic but a monistic world, but I do not believe that consciousness emerges from matter.
If consciousness emerges from matter—if, for example, matter is complex enough—it is not fundamental. If consciousness is fundamental, it exists in all matter, and no hard problem exists.
I will be in Canada on May 4th and cannot participate. I will, of course, watch the recording.
I have heard of the problem of consciousness, though Annaka's way of explaining it is so much more lucid and helpful. Buddhists talk about "sentient beings," meaning humans, animals, others (plants, inanimate objects) who possess awareness and experience life. Seems like 'sentience' and 'consciousness' are different ways of talking about the same thing. Either way, they foster a sense of connectedness in this world, a good start for compassion.