Dr. Sam Harris: Using Meditation to Focus, View Consciousness & Expand Your Mind
Dr. Huberman welcomes Sam Harris, Ph.D., a renowned intellectual on meditation, consciousness, and neuroscience. They discuss meditation techniques, its impact on worldview and daily life, therapeutic use of psychedelics, and Sam’s decision to leave social media. This episode explores brain functions, consciousness, and maximizing the benefits of meditation.
Key Takeaways
High level takeaways from the episode.
Note: because this episode is more conversational, we strongly recommend watching it.
Source
We recommend using this distillation as a supplemental resource to the source material.
Full Notes
Meditation, Consciousness, and Free Will
- Meditation can change conscious experience and allow a person to view consciousness itself
- Understanding the process of consciousness can profoundly shift the way one engages with the world and oneself
- The Waking Up app, developed by Sam Harris, offers meditation practices and tools
- No specific region in the brain has been identified that can entirely account for our perception of self
Perception and Time Perception
- Perception is elastic in the brain, and the frame rate by which we process conscious experience can expand and contract depending on our state of mind
- Understanding how conscious we are about our state of mind can impact our perception of time
Psychedelics
- Discussed therapeutic applications for the treatment of depression and PTSD
- Explored Sam Harris’s experiences with psychedelics and their relation to expanding one’s consciousness
Social Media and Mental Health
- Sam Harris recently closed down his Twitter account voluntarily
- Discussed his rationale for doing so and the impact on his mental health
Sense of Self and Neuroscience
- Neuroscience 101: We wake up every morning and remember who we are
- Sense of self is a complex concept with multiple meanings
- Target of meditation and deconstruction by practice and philosophy
- Some argue self is an illusion, others argue it’s a construct
- Not every use of the term self is illegitimate
- Illusory sense of self
- People feel like they’re a subject inside their body, often in the head
- Most people don’t feel identical to their bodies
- Common sense dualism: the idea that the mind and body are separate entities
- Meditation and the sense of self
- Two levels of interest in meditation:
- Straightforward, remedial, non-paradoxical: stress reduction, increased focus, etc.
- Deeper claim: looking for the “I” and discovering it doesn’t exist, leading to psychological freedom
- Meditation can be seen as a perceptual exercise, focusing on interoceptive events
- Two levels of interest in meditation:
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The brain and the sense of self
- The brain is connected to the body through the nervous system
- There’s something special about the real estate in the head
- Lesions in certain brain areas can dramatically change personality and self-perception
- The sense of self may oscillate below the surface of the body, closer to organ systems and within the head
- Certain events can bring the sense of self closer to the surface, making the whole body feel like “me”
Philosophical Thought Experiment: Brain in a VAT
- Certain events can bring the sense of self closer to the surface, making the whole body feel like “me”
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We are essentially a brain in a VAT (our skull)
- Procedural memory (e.g., riding a bike) is different from semantic or episodic memory
- Some aspects of ourselves are only accessible when we physically enact them
Consciousness and Its Contents
- Consciousness: the fact that there’s something that it’s like to be us
- Qualitative character of consciousness changes with different states of arousal, neurological deficits, or drugs
- Meditation is about recognizing what consciousness is always like, regardless of its contents
Psychedelics and Meditation
- Psychedelics change the contents of consciousness, while meditation helps recognize the nature of consciousness itself
- Both can be valuable and have therapeutic potential
Visual Saccades and Suppression of Vision
- Visual saccades: rapid eye movements that occur about three times per second
- Efferent copy of motor movement suppresses vision during saccades to prevent the visual scene from appearing to lurch around
- Similar suppression of the sense of self occurs when attention is absorbed in an object or activity
Flow Experiences and Losing the Sense of Self
- Peak experiences often involve a brief period of unity between the self and the experience
- Continual interruption of these experiences by internal dialogue and narration
Default Mode Network and Self-Referential Tasks
- Default mode network: midline structures in the brain that increase activity when the brain is idling between tasks
- Activity in these structures diminishes when a person is engaged in a task
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Tasks that upregulate activity in the default mode network tend to be self-referential
Challenging Beliefs and the Default Mode Network -
Challenging personal beliefs, like political or religious beliefs, upregulates activity in the default mode network
- Meditation and psychedelics suppress activity in these regions, which are associated with self-talk, mind wandering, and self-representation
- Default mode network is somewhat autobiographical and accesses memory systems
Hypnosis and the Default Mode Network
- David Spiegel, associate chair of psychiatry, and his father founded hypnosis as a valid clinical practice in psychiatry
- Hypnosis involves heightened attention with deep relaxation and is known to dramatically suppress the default mode network
The Illusion of Antagonistic Circuitry
- The default mode network seems to fight for our attention unless we give ourselves a visual target or an auditory target
- Meditation reduces activity in the default mode network, even though it often involves paying attention to a perceptual target
The Optic Blind Spot and Selflessness
- The optic blind spot is a consequence of the optic nerve transiting through the retina
- The blind spot can be demonstrated through a simple experiment with a piece of paper and two marks
- The insight into selflessness and the nonduality of subject and object is as close to ordinary consciousness as the insight into the optic blind spot
- The data for this insight is right on the surface, almost too close to notice
Ocular Dominance and Visual Perception
- Ocular dominance can be established early in life through activities like swimming, bow hunting, or playing billiards
- This dominance can create a permanent asymmetry in the flow of visual information from the eye to the brain
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Reversing this dominance requires intentionally covering up the dominant eye for a period of time
Bistable Percepts and Meditation -
Bistable percepts: visual illusions where perception alternates between two interpretations
- Examples: vase-face diagram, Dalmatian dots
- Once you see the hidden image, it’s hard to unsee it
- Meditation can help recognize the unity of experience
- Initially, it may feel like you’re on the riverbank, watching the flow of consciousness
- Eventually, you realize you are the river, and there’s no separation between you and your experience
- This understanding can be achieved through meditation
Extreme States and the Unity of Experience
- Extreme states of ecstasy or fear can reveal the unity of the observer and the actor
- These states are rare for non-meditators
- This unity may reveal something fundamental about the algorithm of our nervous system
- Different species have different sensory experiences (e.g., mantis shrimp, pit vipers)
- Understanding these different experiences can be informative
Questions about the Design of the Nervous System
- Why would the system be designed to hide the unity of experience?
- Neither of us were consulted during the design phase, but it’s an interesting question to explore
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More tractable question: How does development play a role in this process?
- Understanding the development of the nervous system and perception may provide insights into the unity of experience and meditation
Developmental Wiring and the Self
- Understanding the development of the nervous system and perception may provide insights into the unity of experience and meditation
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Neural circuits in childhood stem from initial demands of internal vs. external states
- Child feels anxious due to discomfort (e.g., hunger, cold, diaper change)
- Vocalizes discomfort, external source relieves it
- Fundamental rule: when uncomfortable, externalize discomfort for relief by an outside player
- Circuitry repurposed for adult romantic attachments
- Most non-practiced meditators live without awareness of actor and observer
- Deliberate intervention needed to understand and resolve the gap in the algorithm
Evolution and Development
- Evolution doesn’t prioritize human flourishing and well-being
- Focuses on reproduction and survival
- Human traits like tribalism, xenophobia, and other flaws were advantageous for ancestors
- Humans have evolved to do more than just survive
- Language, culture, and cognitive/emotional hardware allow for mathematics, music, and democracy
- Evolution is blind to human potential and achievements
- Mother Nature doesn’t prioritize human survival; 99% of species die off
Individual Development
- Humans are born as flexible, learning creatures
- Long period of immaturity allows for greater adaptability and learning
- Language and culture play a significant role in development
- Early development involves recognizing others and self
- Orient to human faces, detect good and bad moral actors
- Language use helps develop self-awareness and self-concept
- Narcissistic structure in early childhood
- Attention from others creates a sense of self-importance
- Realization of being the center of attention
Losing Sense of Self in Media Consumption
- Absorption in television and film allows for loss of self-consciousness
- Brain perceives it as a social circumstance without personal implication
- Close examination of facial expressions and emotions without social pressure
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Contrast with early childhood development
- Child is not invisible, constantly observed and attended to
Internal Chatter and External Stimuli
- Child is not invisible, constantly observed and attended to
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Language as an ongoing backdrop
- Varies in structure and volume for different people
- Some people have more structured internal dialogue, others have less
- Importance of recognizing the internal dialogue
- Can be valuable in understanding one’s own thought processes
- Can lead to better self-awareness and understanding of the mind
Meditation and Mindfulness
- Concentration practice in meditation
- Cultivating mindfulness, or careful attention to the contents of consciousness
- Goal is to notice thoughts as thoughts, not being lost in them
- The 30-second experiment
- Most people cannot pay attention to something for 30 seconds without being lost in thought
- Even those who think they can are often mistaken
- Meditation retreats
- Participants spend hours in silence, focusing on breath, sensations, and thoughts
- Progress is often marked by realizing how distractible one is
- Goal is to see the relationship between thoughts, self, and other perceptions
Time Perception
- Neuroscience can somewhat explain time perception, but not completely
- Circuits and mechanics are not yet fully understood
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Time perception is an important aspect of understanding the mind and consciousness
Time Perception and Meditation -
Time perception can vary based on distance and speed of objects
- Example: Sitting on a train, objects close by seem to move faster than those in the distance
- Visual system and time perception are interconnected
- Hawks have twice the degree of acuity, but still experience distance-associated shifts in time perception
- Multiple streams of time perception and cones of attention
- Meditation may help align frame rates for different streams of attention
Mindfulness and Attention
- Mindfulness practice can increase the frame rate of perceiving time
- Example: After a three-month silent meditation retreat, participants can make finer-grained discriminations in sensory channels
- Classic mindfulness practice (Vipassana meditation) involves paying scrupulous attention to sensory experiences
- Breaks down experiences into microscopic sensory moments
- Helps to differentiate between being lost in thought and being mindful
Pain and Emotional States
- Paying attention to pain or negative emotions can change the experience of them
- Resistance to feeling pain or emotions can cause suffering
- Focusing on the sensations can lead to relief and equanimity
- Mindfulness can help separate sensations from self-concept and meaning
Dualistic vs. Non-Dualistic Meditation
- Dualistic meditation involves a sense of self directing attention
- Can reinforce the sense of self and subject-object duality
- Non-dualistic meditation recognizes that there is no place from which to aim attention
- Subject-object duality is not present
- Can lead to a bistable percept, where the sense of self and duality can be easily switched
Controlled vs. Uncontrolled Thought
- Controlled thought involves deliberately thinking in complete sentences and structuring thoughts
- Example: Stanford physician and engineer who practices controlled thinking
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Uncontrolled thought recognizes that thoughts simply arise and the sense of control is an illusion
- Connects to the topic of free will
- Thoughts can be unpredictable and arise from various categories or experiences
The Mystery of Thoughts and Free Will
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Thoughts and decisions can be influenced by various factors
- Languages, famous people, memories, and experiences
- Neurological factors, such as visual, semantic, or episodic memory
- Thoughts and decisions are fundamentally mysterious
- We don’t have full control over what comes to mind
- Even with reasons for decisions, there’s still a mystery as to why we chose one over the other
Neurological Explanations for Thoughts and Decisions
- Evolutionary explanation: Directed attention and action are metabolically demanding
- Inefficient to be in constant deliberate action with access to all relevant information
- Ideas spring to the surface at the last possible moment to offset metabolic requirements
- Developmental explanation: Brain is initially crudely wired, with progressive pruning and strengthening of connections
- Fine random wiring maintained in some systems, leading to background spontaneous activity
- Noise in the system may or may not have a purpose
The Illusion of Command Over Thoughts
- Engaging in speech or action can give the illusion of more command over thoughts
- Following linguistic patterns and having a script for certain topics
- Phenomenologically different from waiting for the next thought to come
- Free will is still an illusion, even with seemingly deliberate decisions
The Role of Noise in Neural Systems
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Background spontaneous activity present in various species, including humans
- Most neural activity is “hash,” or noise, rather than specific signal
- Debate over whether noise is truly noise or serves a purpose
Spontaneous Thoughts and Meditation
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Spontaneous thoughts arise from background brain activity
- Deliberate thoughts and actions are metabolically expensive
- Evolution has led to a balance between spontaneous thoughts and deliberate actions
- Meditation can reveal that the gap between actor and observer was never there
- Profound experience for those who practice meditation
- Contradiction: illusion of thoughts being from us vs. illusion of the gap between actor and observer
- Sense of self is the feeling of being the locus of attention and agency
- Thoughts are often attributed to authorial intent
Free Will and the Illusion of Self
- Free will and the illusion of self are opposite sides of a coin
- Both relate to the feeling of being the author of thoughts and actions
- Volitional actions are different from involuntary ones
- Distinction matters in various contexts, such as legal situations
The Missing Tourist Analogy
- Story of a tourist who unknowingly joins a search party looking for herself
- Realizes she is the object of the search, but not in the way the search party expected
- Similar to the meditative journey of looking for the self and not finding it
- The self is thought to be the center of problems and unhappiness
- Meditation is seen as a remedy to realize the self isn’t where or as we thought it was
The Surface of Meditation
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The thing being looked for in meditation is right on the surface
- There is no one looking, no center of experience
- The sense of being the one who is looking is actually what it’s like to be thinking and not knowing that you’re thinking
- Continual looking for the mind and the center of experience can be an orienting practice in meditation
Meditation and Conscious Experience
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Meditation is not about adding a practice to your life, but ceasing to do something
- It’s about recognizing what consciousness is like when not distracted by thoughts
- Thoughts are not the enemy in meditation
- They are spontaneous appearances in consciousness that can be observed
- Mindfulness is the practice of paying careful attention to whatever arises on its own
- Can start with a single object like the breath as an anchor
- Can open up to sounds, sensations, moods, emotions, and thoughts
- Goal is to be more equanimous with changes
- Not grasping at what’s pleasant or interesting
- Not pushing away what’s unpleasant or boring
- Developing a sky-like mind that allows everything to appear without clinging or reacting
Language and Perception in Meditation
- Everything in biology is a process, not a noun
- Perception is an arc of processes that exist on different timescales
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Effective meditation practice involves discarding noun and adjective modes of language
- Focus on the fleeting nature of perception without focusing on any specific event or object
- Recognize the limitations of language in describing the workings of the brain and conscious experience
Exploring Mindfulness and Perception
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Mindfulness as a verb to describe the process of paying attention to the mechanics of perception
- Dualistic and nondualistic ways of experiencing the world
- Dualistically, everything is a process
- Reification of noun talk can be misleading
- Self as a process or verb, rather than a fixed state
- Different states of self based on context (e.g., customer, student, parent, spouse)
- Changes in context can cause psychological changes and shifts in states of consciousness
- Some people can consciously manipulate these states of self to achieve desired outcomes
Personal Anecdote: Misunderstanding Context
- Author’s experience of misunderstanding context in a restaurant
- Mistook a woman for a hostess, leading to increased confidence and engagement
- Woman returned to give him her phone number, an unexpected outcome
- Recognizing and playing with these mechanisms can lead to desired outcomes
- No invocation of free will, but conscious decision-making can influence states of self
Graduate School Experience and Shifting Self States
- Author’s experience of being an older graduate student and feeling a sense of urgency
- Took an 11-year leave of absence from Stanford before returning to complete degree
- 9/11 event led to writing first and second books, delaying PhD progress
- Simultaneously becoming a “cautionary tale” in grad school and a semi-famous writer
- Experiencing opposite self states in different contexts
- Meeting with advisor, feeling like a failure
- Meeting with advisor’s boss, feeling like a successful author
- Shifting self states based on context and environment
Developing Mastery and Virtuosity
- Recognizing and understanding the shifts in self states can lead to personal growth and development
- Becoming an intelligent curator of conscious states and capacities by noticing changes in oneself
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Balancing different aspects of life and self states to achieve desired outcomes and personal growth
Psychological Integrity and Context-Dependent Rule Sets -
People have different versions of themselves when talking to different people (e.g., mom, best friend, stranger)
- Goal is to have a level of psychological integrity that is not influenced by these different contexts
- Prefrontal cortex establishes context-dependent rule sets (e.g., Stroop task)
- Coherent sense of self can encompass different functional roles and toggle between them as needed
Distraction and Identification with Thought
- Distraction can be internally generated (e.g., thoughts pulling attention away) or externally generated (e.g., impulsively focusing on the wrong things)
- The feeling of self is bound up in the sense of being the thinker, the one attending, and the one vulnerable to experience
- Distraction is one component of this issue; the other aspect is identification with thought
Meditation as a Starting Point
- Meditation is often recommended as a starting point for developing psychological integrity
- Initially, people may close their eyes and practice sitting meditation
- Ultimately, meditation is about recognizing the intrinsic character of consciousness in each moment
- Goal is to erase the boundary between formal practice and the rest of life
Breaking the Spell of Thought
- The practice of meditation involves transitioning from being lost in thought to waking up and breaking the spell of thought
- Breaking identification with thought is similar to waking up from a dream
- When you see the mind as larger than a single thought, you gain a degree of freedom that was previously unthinkable
Meditation and Flow Activities
- People often claim that activities like running, skiing, or playing guitar are their meditation
- However, these activities alone will not teach the practice of meditation
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Once you know how to meditate, it can be compatible with any ordinary activity
Meditation and Self-Awareness -
Meditation is a training to get used to, can be done formally or informally
- Can be experienced during various activities, such as sports or conversations
- Formal practice can be done with eyes open or closed
- Losing the sense of self can be vivid with eyes open due to visual cues
Social Situations and Sense of Self
- Sense of self is often anchored by visual cues, especially in social situations
- Perception of self through the eyes of others shapes our behavior and reactions
- Four-arrow model of relationships: me to you, you to me, and two arrows representing our perceptions of each other’s thoughts about us
Meditation and Losing the Sense of Self
- Goal is to get off the “ride” of self-consciousness and simply pay attention to the other person
- Losing the sense of self allows for greater relationship and comfort in the presence of others
- Meditation can be practiced during conversations, helping to notice when we contract or react to others
Situational Awareness vs. Self-Awareness
- Both are necessary, but in emergencies or motivated situations, self-awareness should be dialed down for greater effectiveness
- Fear and threat detection act as flags, but should not persist in the same way once the emergency is dealt with
- Broadening the gaze can help with problem-solving and experiencing life more fully
Meditation Practice and Progress
- Meditation can be practiced for a few minutes each day or with an app
- Progress may be nonlinear, with step functions and varying levels of improvement
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Dissolving the myth of the self through meditation can lead to a deeper understanding of life and self-awareness
Dissolving the Myth and Meditation Progress -
The myth: people are living in a state of unhappiness and meditation can dissolve it
- Two doorways into meditation:
- Suffering and unhappiness
- Intellectual interest in understanding the mind
- Step functions in meditation progress:
- Dualistic mindfulness: noticing the difference between being distracted by thought and being on the object of attention
- Nondualistic mindfulness: being aware of all possible objects of attention, including thoughts
- Benefits of mindfulness:
- Compatible with all possible experiences
- Not artificially contracting attention to one object
- Allows for noticing the connection between thoughts and emotions, leading to psychological freedom
Anger and Mindfulness
- Being lost in thought about anger fuels the physiology of anger
- Noticing thought as thought dissipates anger quickly
- Mindfulness allows for the choice of how long to be angry and whether it’s useful
- Without mindfulness, one is a hostage to negative states of mind and can only divert attention to something else
Meditation Practice Over Time
- Meditation can be threaded through daily life activities, such as jiu jitsu, writing, and spending time with loved ones
- Continual practice allows for increased awareness and control over thoughts and emotions
- Dualistic and nondualistic mindfulness can be applied to various aspects of life for improved mental well-being
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