Holographic resonances & the phenomenology of life-changing insight
'Authentic resonating' with Aspasia Karageorge & Daniel Garner
Philosopher Daniel Garner, psychologist Aspasia Karageorge . . . and me!
You are invited to explore a beautiful rabbit hole.
I can’t think of a more honest way to put this - because there is a LOT here. At the same time, I know that my life over the last few years, beginning with a strong spike during the pandemic when we all went inside ourselves, has been profoundly nourished by finding the RIGHT rabbit holes (for me) to go down.
For example, like many people, my world changed when I encountered John Vervaeke’s 50-part lecture series, Awakening from the Meaning Crisis. It was a LOT to take in, but also addictive in the most delightful way. Day after day, while washing dishes, folding laundry or driving, I was awakening new regions of my inner world.
Yes, it’s true that we are drowning in “content” now, but if we treat the situation like going fishing rather than trying to swallow the whole ocean, sometimes a gorgeous life-expanding pathway will encounter our hook - and rather than us reeling it in, it pulls us down into the depths of mysteries we never knew could be illuminated so brightly, shifting our sense of what is possible.
That metaphor might be a little over the top to describe my experience of being in conversation with psychologist Aspasia Karageorge and philosopher Daniel Garner over the last half-year - but only a little bit!
The central theme of our 7 different conversations to date (and we now have a standing monthly meeting on our calendars) has been profoundly generative:
What is authentic resonance?
There is no single “answer'“ to this question - but that’s already a clue to the multitude of questions embedded inside this question:
What does it take for us as unique individuals in unique circumstances to find a way of participation which requires the minimum of effort, thus leaving available the maximum possibility for coming into union with everything we touch?
This might be shortened to say “how do we find flow?” - yet that frame is too narrow.
Also, how is flow obstructed?
What is the role of the body?
How does flow arise from the dynamic interactions of thought, emotion, sensation and interpersonal encounter?
What’s the difference between a “good day” and a “bad day”?
How do our worldviews, our relationships to metaphysics (even if we never think about it), and the rhythms imposed on us top-down by mainstream culture fit into this equation?
. . . and what would it mean to build a new culture designed FOR authentic resonance?
As you can see, this truly is a rabbit hole.
Yet, if you’re willing to dive in, I believe what you’ll find in these depths is profoundly relevant for all of us in this day and age, this “time between worlds.”
Furthermore, while the wide range of topics covered and the way we zoom in and out might feel like a wild ride, what’s beautiful is that the “ride” itself very much embodies and exemplifies the mysterious and dynamically unfolding center of what we have been orbiting together.
That is, you DON’T have to digest every word!
Yet, if you are seeking more union and direct collaboration with the already-existing energies of the universe (rather than continuing to scrape and struggle to “make it” in a dying capitalist paradigm), I think you might just love this shared unfolding inquiry.
With this post, I’m sharing the two most recent “trialogues” - from a month ago and earlier this week. If you feel inspired to get the full “origin story”, check out my previous post about authentic resonance with links to all of the other conversations:
Both videos below are posted on Aspasia’s YouTube channel. If you click through you will see more detailed captions and extensive time-stamping of what we covered.
Last month:
How the heck does the universe work?!
Most of us don’t know and might not even think about it - but the default framing for most of humanity these days is that we live in a kind of “block universe,” a massive space where infinite billiard balls bump into each other to make everything happen.
Yet, more and more thinkers of all kinds are now pointing towards a kind of holographic universe where every point exists everywhere - and, strangely enough, this view might just resonate more clearly in the felt experience of our everyday lives.
This week:
Jumping off from an incredible lecture by poet/philosopher Jan Zwicky on “the experience of meaning”, we riffed on the inner game of learning, how we move from not-knowing to knowing. What if “meaning itself is a non-verbal phenomenon,” as Zwicky says, rather than just the result of a series of precise calculations?
If insights take place more like the gestalt shift described in Rainer Maria Rilke’s poem, Archaic Torso of Apollo, where the encounter with a work of art inspires the beholder to henceforth live a different kind of life, how might we reconsider the collective learning that humanity cannot afford not to engage in at this crucial juncture in our species history?
How might a deeper understanding of the “experience of meaning” help to better orient us in our interactions with the rapidly accelerating computational gymnastics of artificial intelligence?
Indeed, this trialogue will continue to unfold in the months ahead and, I suspect will give birth to other things besides a series of YouTube videos!
I want to warmly invite you into the discussion.
(Aspasia made this handy playlist with all the videos in one place)
Please listen, leave comments on the videos and get in touch if you feel that this inquiry is alive in you too!
Want to access authentic resonance in your embodied experience of daily life?
Check out my live offerings:
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I absolutely love these conversations. Thank you for recording and sharing them!