Elevating Consciousness

Dor Konforty is a neuroscientist, entrepreneur, investor, and awakening teacher dedicated to distilling the first principles of the dharma and bringing them to every aspect of human life. He spent most of his twenties conducting interdisciplinary brain research in academic settings, and his thirties as an entrepreneur and CEO in the decentralization space—applying his neuroscience background to envision more collaborative, non-zero-sum human networks.  In parallel, he has devoted thousands of hours to meditation practice as well as growth and relational modalities, training closely with pragmatic dharma teachers such as Culadasa, Daniel Ingram, and Delson Armstrong, and personal development coaches like Joe Hudson and Kim Barta.  He is the founder of The Awakening Fund, a venture that invests in technologies aimed at making meditation unnecessary. Dor is also the author of The Heart Illuminated, a spiritual successor to Culadasa’s The Mind Illuminated. Drawing on over fifteen years of multidisciplinary experience, the book lays out a clear and systematic path towards awakening through a completely modern lens. In this episode, we explore Dor’s book The Heart Illuminated, his time studying with pragmatic dharma teachers—Culadasa, Daniel Ingram, Delson Armstrong, and Dan Brown—and dive into topics such as integrating emptiness with fullness, investing in awakening technologies that aim to make meditation unnecessary, aligning artificial intelligence with dharma, and navigating the complexities and controversies that can arise in relationships with spiritual teachers. 🔗[Links & resources] 🔗 * Dor’s personal site [https://megananda.org/] * The Heart Illuminated by Dor Konforty [https://megananda.org/book/] * Dor’s investment venture, The Awakening Fund [https://theawakeningfund.com/] * Follow Dor on Twitter/X [https://x.com/dorkonforty] * The Mind Illuminated by Culadasa [https://www.amazon.com/Mind-Illuminated-Meditation-Integrating-Mindfulness/dp/1781808201] * Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha by Daniel Ingram [https://www.mctb.org/] * Delson Armstrong [https://www.delsonarmstrong.com/] * Dan Brown [https://www.drdanielpbrown.com/] 📝[Show Notes] 📝 0:00 - Introduction  3:43 - Dor's journey into meditation  7:09 - The unique contribution of “The Mind Illuminated” 10:04 - Working closely with Culadasa and inspiration for writing “The Heart Illuminated”  21:49 - The iterative writing process and gathering feedback from community  24:58 - Understanding the multiplicity of the mind (sub minds, parts, agents, modules, and coordinators)   31:32 - Integrating awakening (emptiness) with healing (fullness)  39:22 - Is awakening about creating a better life? 47:00 - Meeting Daniel Ingram and doing a 23-day Fire Kasina retreat under his guidance  55:30 - The Power of dark retreats and sensory deprivation  57:40 - Friendship with Delson Armstrong 1:01:20 - Sutra, Tantra, metasystemicity, and stages of development  1:12:16 - The contributions of Dan Brown and Dustin Diperna  1:16:43 - Investing in awakening technologies and making meditation unnecessary  1:26:02 - Aligning artificial intelligence with Dharma  1:36:18 - Navigating the Culadasa controversy  *Subscribe to the Insighter Substack to get in-depth articles on the theory and practice of human transformation through a post-conventional lens [https://artemzen.substack.com/] *Add me on Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/APREZENCE]

Daniel Thorson is a former monastic, podcaster, writer, and coach. He spent five years as a resident at the Monastic Academy and has accumulated two years of silent retreat experience.  Daniel is also a certified Aletheia Coach and Circling facilitator, whose work weaves together embodied inquiry, attachment-based healing, philosophical exploration, and relational presence.  For many years, Daniel hosted the Emerge podcast, a pioneering platform that helped catalyze emergent dialogues and shape what many now call the liminal web. He currently writes The Intimate Mirror on Substack, a publication exploring meaning, transformation, intimacy, and the search for religion in the age of Artificial Intelligence.  In this episode we speak about Daniel’s extensive experience living and training at a Monastery, turning break downs into break throughs, developing a better relationship with conceptuality and rationality, Secure attachment with reality, leaving Buddhism, creating a Dharma capable of addressing the meta-crisis and many other resonant threads on personal and collective transformation. 🔗[Links & resources] 🔗 * Daniel’s personal site & coaching services [https://www.dthorson.com/] * Subscribe to Daniel’s Substack [https://intimatemirror.substack.com/] * Follow Daniel on Twitter/X [https://x.com/dthorson] * The Upper Middle Path & Tech Bro Buddhism by Daniel Thorson [https://intimatemirror.substack.com/p/the-upper-middle-path-and-tech-bro] * Daniel Thorson speaking about Secure Attachment to Reality on the Meta-Game podcast [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/consensus-buddhism-pragmatic-dharma-and-the-next/id211752923?i=1000704955396] * Daniel speaking about consensus Buddhism and pragmatic dharma on the Buddhist Geeks podcast [https://www.buddhistgeeks.org/p/consensus-buddhism-pragmatic-dharma] * Monastic Academy (MAPLE) [https://www.monasticacademy.org/] * Transformational Connection [https://www.transformationalconnection.com/] * Aletheia Coach training [https://integralunfoldment.com/] * Daniel P. Brown [https://www.drdanielpbrown.com/] * David Elliott - Repairing Attachment | Elevating Consciousness podcast [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74cbPyHuOXM] 📝[Show Notes] 📝 0:00 - Introduction  5:06 - Daniel’s experience living as a monk  13:32 - Going through a psychological breakdown  17:29 - Discovering attachment work and the ideal parenting protocol  21:56 - Developing a better relationship with conceptuality and rationality  25:25 - Emotional attunement, relational practices, and the importance of safe containers 34:15 - Secure attachment with reality  38:54 - Trusting the intelligence of every experience  40:30 - Is the fundamental nature of reality love? 44:35 - What is missing from Buddhism? 52:10 - Towards a Translineage spirituality  55:50 - Is there anything afforded by identifying as Buddhist or Christian? 1:06:05 - From emptiness/deconstructing to soulmaking/skillfully playing with identity  1:09:29 - A dharma capable of addressing the meta-crisis 1:11:36 - Daniel’s current meditation practice  1:14:20 - Integrating ethics with eros and clarifying desire  1:17:36 - Reflecting on the Human Transformation in a Time of Meta-Crisis conference at Harvard  1:22:17 - The liberation of creative agency *Subscribe to the Insighter Substack to get in-depth articles on the theory and practice of human transformation through a post-conventional lens [https://artemzen.substack.com/] *Add me on Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/APREZENCE]

Hyrum Lewis is a professor, author, and political theorist. He currently teaches history at Brigham Young University–Idaho, where he leads the American Foundations Team.  Lewis’s research focuses on the history of ideology and the intersection of political and intellectual culture. He has written extensively on the evolution of American conservatism, historical pedagogy, and cultural conflict in the American West.  He is the author of several books, including his most recent, The Myth of the Left and Right, co-authored with his brother Verlan Lewis. In it, they argue that the traditional left-right political spectrum is a misleading and oversimplified framework for understanding contemporary American politics.  In this episode, we speak about why tribalism precedes philosophy, how what left and right means is always changing, what Jonathan Haidt got wrong, pathways towards more generative political conversations, and the relationship between religion and politics. 🔗[Links & resources] 🔗 * The Myth of Left and Right by Hyrum Lewis and Verlan Lewis [https://www.amazon.com/Myth-Left-Right-Verlan-Lewis/dp/0197680623] * The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt [https://www.amazon.com/Righteous-Mind-Divided-Politics-Religion/dp/0307455777] * Keith Stanovich [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Stanovich] * John Stuart Mill [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stuart_Mill] * The Scout Mindset by Julia Galef [https://www.amazon.com/Scout-Mindset-Perils-Defensive-Thinking/dp/0735217556] * The Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley [https://www.amazon.com/Rational-Optimist-Prosperity-Evolves-P-s/dp/0061452068] 📝[Show Notes] 📝 0:00 - Introduction  3:18 - The intuition that the political spectrum is broken  5:26 - The Essentialist Theory of Ideology vs The Social Theory of Ideology  8:38 - Why tribalism precedes philosophy  12:01 - Caricatures of the left and the right  14:25 - How what left and right means is always changing  17:44 - We choose our politicians before our policies  21:31 - How to better use terms left and right or liberal and conservative  27:03 - Voting on one issue without anchoring  32:05 - How do we move beyond left & right with a two-party system? 39:25 - What Jonathan Haidt and Moral Foundations Theory got wrong   44:45 - Questioning the links between psychological traits and political positions 49:17 - Pathways towards more generative political conversations  53:51 - Why we need to increase our tolerance for disagreement   59:16 - Developing a Scout Mindset  1:02:08 - What is the relationship between religion and politics  1:06:55 - The destructive ideology of Progressivism *Subscribe to the Insighter Substack to get in-depth articles on the theory and practice of human transformation through a post-conventional lens [https://artemzen.substack.com/] *Add me on Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/APREZENCE]

Jordan Hall is a tech entrepreneur, philosopher, and meta-systemic thinker who, over a year ago, announced that he had converted to Christianity.  This conversation was recorded live during Limicon, a digital conference for those in the liminal, metamodern, and game B spaces.  In it, we explored Jordan’s early experiences with religion and spirituality, what ultimately drew him to Christianity, and what Christianity might afford that Eastern traditions do not.  We touched on discerning divine calling from the egoic mind, confronting fundamentalist forms of Christianity, and the shift from propositional to participatory forms of knowing. We also examined the role religion may play in ameliorating some of the negative trends in society and the meta-crisis at large. 🔗[Links & resources] 🔗 * Subscribe to Jordan’s Substack [https://deepcode.substack.com/] * Follow Jordan on Twitter [https://x.com/jgreenhall] * Subscribe to Jordan’s YouTube channel [https://www.youtube.com/@JordanGreenhall] * Read The Religious Case Against Belief by James Carse [https://www.amazon.com/Religious-Case-Against-Belief/dp/0143115448] * Watch Jordan Peterson in conversation with John Vervaeke and Jordan Hall [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOIzDA99xAg] * Watch Jordan Hall in conversation with Jonathan Pageau and John Vervaeke [https://youtu.be/Vp_08T0Ucik?si=TrmJCMHICvwvKJES] * Learn more about Black Mountain, North Carolina [https://www.exploreasheville.com/places-to-go/black-mountain] 📝[Show Notes] 📝 0:00 - Introduction  3:07 - Jordan’s journey into religion & spirituality  16:39 - Entrepreneurship as a path to cultivating instincts and intuitions  20:40 - Landing in Black Mountain and finding Christianity  26:26 - Extensively studying Christianity and discovering a new level of humility  34:04 - What does Christianity afford that Eastern religions don’t? 44:26 - The Meta-Crisis is a crisis of religion  54:05 - The Impact of Religious Traditions on Family  58:28 - Healing our religious trauma and deepening our capacity to love  1:04:05 - Differentiating intuition (divine calling vs egoic mind)  1:18:16 - Confronting fundamentalist forms of Christianity and finding a church that aligns  1:29:01 - Divine sensemaking  *Subscribe to the Insighter Substack to get in-depth articles on the theory and practice of human transformation through a post-conventional lens [https://artemzen.substack.com/] *Add me on Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/APREZENCE]

Seth Zuiho Segall is a Zen Buddhist priest, clinical psychologist, and writer.  He has served on the clinical faculty of the Yale University School of Medicine for nearly three decades. He is also a science writer for the Mindfulness Research Monthly, a contributing editor for Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, and a review editor for The Humanistic Psychologist. Seth has been engaged with meditation and Buddhism for almost thirty years and is ordained in the White Plum lineage. He currently leads Pamsula Zen of Westchester and guest teaches at the New York Insight Meditation Center. He is also the author of several books, including “Buddhism and Human Flourishing” and his latest, “The House We Live In”. He writes consistently on his blog, The Existential Buddhist, covering a range of Buddhist topics from a naturalized, pragmatic, eudaimonic, and cosmopolitan perspective. In this episode, we explore Seth’s unique journey into Buddhism as well as his pragmatic and naturalistic understanding of it, the relationship between virtue, wisdom and pluralism, the foundations of flourishing, navigating political polarization, ethical ideals and the myth of the perfect person, better ways of thinking about enlightenment and why Seth became a Zen priest. 🔗[Links & resources] 🔗 * Seth’s personal site [https://www.sethzuihosegall.com/] * Seth’s blog [https://www.existentialbuddhist.com/] * Seth’s latest book “The House We Live In” [https://www.amazon.com/House-We-Live-Virtue-Pluralism/dp/1800503466] * Jon Kabat-Zinn [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Kabat-Zinn] * Secular Buddhist Network [https://secularbuddhistnetwork.org/] * The Avoidant Dharma by Daniel Thorson [https://intimatemirror.substack.com/p/the-avoidant-dharma] * Stephen Batchelor [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Batchelor_(author)] * Larry Rosenberg [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Rosenberg] * Andrew Cohen [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Cohen_(spiritual_teacher)] * Paradox of Tolerance [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance#:~:text=The%20paradox%20of%20tolerance%20is,the%20very%20principle%20of%20tolerance] * Mastering The Core Teachings of the Buddha by Daniel Ingram [https://www.mctb.org/] * Already Free by Bruce Tift [https://www.amazon.com/Already-Free-Buddhism-Psychotherapy-Liberation/dp/1622034112] 📝[Show Notes] 📝 0:00 - Introduction  2:10 - Unpacking a naturalistic, pragmatic, eudaimonic, and cosmopolitan Buddhism  7:57 - Naturalistic vs. Secular Buddhism 12:07 - Agnosticism & Beliefs  13:30 - Exploring Judaism and finding Buddhism  20:20 - Further questioning Secularization and modernization of Buddhism  29:18 - There is no one Buddhism; There are many Buddhisms  33:36 - Virtue, wisdom, and pluralism  36:17 - Has humanity become less violent over time? 38:26 - The foundations of flourishing  42:22 - Disagreements on values and vulnerability  45:31 - Facing the dragon at your own pace  48:52 - Navigating political polarization & engaged Buddhism  53:53 - Ethical ideals and the myth of the perfect person  57:33 - The paradox of tolerance & cancel culture  1:03:48 - Better ways of thinking about enlightenment  1:12:15 - Why become a Zen priest  1:17:26 - Engaging with a religious tradition before you critique it *Subscribe to the Insighter Substack to get in-depth articles on the theory and practice of human transformation through a post-conventional lens [https://artemzen.substack.com/] *Add me on Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/APREZENCE]