Latest / Think Twice Show / The Philosophy of Consciousness ft Bel Cobain
Transcript
- 0:01Loneliness is becoming an epidemic, and that raises an
- 0:05important question about everyone's consciousness.
- 0:08But first, what actually is consciousness, put simply, is
- 0:13our awareness of ourselves and our place in the world.
- 0:17And that awareness shapes all of our experiences and how
- 0:20connected we feel to our environment and other people
- 0:24around us. So loneliness isn't just about
- 0:27feeling alone, it's about feeling disconnected.
- 0:30Even when we're surrounded by millions of people.
- 0:34Humans are wired for connection. You can see in a simple
- 0:37conversation we start to mirror each other.
- 0:40Our body language, alliance and even our timing begins to match.
- 0:44We fall into a rhythm. We're on the same wavelength.
- 0:48And interestingly, that idea isn't new.
- 0:51Across Eastern philosophy there's a long standing belief
- 0:54that we're not separate individuals, we exist in
- 0:57relation to one another and the universe.
- 1:01So maybe that wavelength idea isn't just a metaphor.
- 1:04Today we're joined by Belle Cobain, A musician who explores
- 1:08these ideas for the music. So the question isn't just why
- 1:12do we feel lonely, but are we out of sync?
- 1:31Welcome to Think Twice. My name is Benz.
- 1:34My name's Santa. And today we have the wonderful,
- 1:37brilliant Belle Cobain with us today.
- 1:40Welcome to the show. Hello.
- 1:42I've got you short of your bag on your lap.
- 1:43Are you not comfortable? Have I not made you at home?
- 1:47Sound like. Protective.
- 1:50Today it is the philosophy of consciousness.
- 1:53And the first question is, if you believe your thoughts are
- 1:56unique, are you destined for loneliness?
- 1:59What do you think that? I think you are.
- 2:01I think you are. I think ultimately if you see
- 2:03your sort of consciousness and your thoughts and your ideas as
- 2:05individual, you're going to isolate yourself from from
- 2:08others interconnectedness in your in your community.
- 2:11So I think you're starting the process that could end up at
- 2:14loneliness. I don't think it's for absolute
- 2:16sure. I think you can see yourself as
- 2:17an individual and be absolutely fine and be connected, but I
- 2:21think that is the start of problems.
- 2:24What were you? I don't think any of us are
- 2:26destined for loneliness. I think the result of our
- 2:30journey always leads us back together.
- 2:33And I do similarly feel like our thoughts are unique, but I also
- 2:38like on a spiritual one, really, really believe that there's like
- 2:42waves of like ideas that like run through US and depending on
- 2:47your own frequency, you can tap into different ones.
- 2:52OK. So yeah, we do like we are able
- 2:54to have it interconnected experience, but through a unique
- 2:59self. So you see these like waves that
- 3:01you were discussing, for example, do do other people
- 3:04experience these waves as well? Is that what you're saying?
- 3:06Well, they're just everyone can access them.
- 3:09OK, so these waves are happening and everyone can access them in
- 3:13their own unique way. Yeah, we're not everyone at one
- 3:16given time. Yeah, yeah, Yeah.
- 3:17I hear what you're trying to say.
- 3:18Yeah. I don't think you are destined
- 3:22for loneliness. I think loneliness is the
- 3:24absence of connection, right. So how do you like sort of get
- 3:28connection? There's like, I think there's
- 3:30two waves. You can like articulate how you
- 3:33feel about something and someone else might feel that same way
- 3:36and then you connect over there. Or like emotionally, you feel a
- 3:41particular way about something and someone else feels
- 3:43emotionally the same way about that same thing.
- 3:46And then you can connect over those things or it can be both.
- 3:49So. What aren't you describing?
- 3:51Like non unique thoughts. Then you're describing a thought
- 3:53that you might have that someone else also has and you connect
- 3:57over the fact that you have that shared experience or shared
- 4:00thought, right? Yeah, if you let me finish one
- 4:02place, it would have been nice. 5 minutes.
- 4:09But I'm saying I said loneliness is the absence of connection.
- 4:12And we would say if you're able to articulate those thoughts and
- 4:15someone else has those thoughts, you can connect over that.
- 4:18But what I'm basically saying is people can connect emotionally
- 4:21even if they have different thoughts, even if those thoughts
- 4:24are unique to you. You're not always able to
- 4:27explain how you feel, but you can connect with something else.
- 4:31Like trauma literally lives in your body.
- 4:33So you're able to connect with people because you feel
- 4:36something about something and they feel something about that
- 4:39same thing, although their thoughts aren't actually there
- 4:42yet. Like you, you connect with pets,
- 4:45you connect with dogs, people connect with these and they
- 4:47don't feel lonely once they have their pets and their animals and
- 4:50the rest. And the reason why they do that
- 4:51is because they feel something towards this animal.
- 4:54There's people, they're children.
- 4:56You feel some thoughts. You can't understand their
- 4:58thoughts. They can't understand you have
- 5:00unique thoughts. Thoughts are different and they
- 5:02can't even articulate that. But you can feel something
- 5:04towards these other people and other things.
- 5:06And that's how I feel. You kind of connect which would
- 5:08then generate connection and you wouldn't have loneliness if that
- 5:12makes. Sense yeah, I agree.
- 5:13I agree. I certainly agree.
- 5:14I think maybe when I looked at the question, I felt like
- 5:16thoughts, feelings, emotions, like consciousness in like the
- 5:20lived experience of being a human being.
- 5:22I sort of bundled it all together.
- 5:23And I guess if you feel like your lived experience more on a
- 5:27more generic level is unique, I think that does start to lead to
- 5:33isolation and a lack of collection.
- 5:35And, and it might not be like, oh, the moment you think that
- 5:37your shared experience, your, your lived experience is unique,
- 5:40Bang, you're lonely. It's not quite like that.
- 5:43But I think I think it's you start to miss out on
- 5:46opportunities to connect to people because you think that no
- 5:50one can understand the unique, like lived experience, right?
- 5:54I think though you you touched on sort of phenomena outside of
- 5:58yourself that you can tap into. Right.
- 6:00It's a humility, isn't it? Like, do you think you're,
- 6:05you're such a profound genius genius Or like, do you think
- 6:10wow, like your, your existence is so hard to believe?
- 6:14Yeah. There's so much crazier shit
- 6:16going on. Yeah, yeah, nice.
- 6:18I mean, let's try and go a bit deeper here now and I'm sure
- 6:21Benz will Take Me Out of this if he if he doesn't feel like it's
- 6:23working. What I want to ask you guys and
- 6:28explore is this idea of our lived experience, right, which
- 6:32we might call consciousness, How does that actually arise?
- 6:36I don't think we have a great understanding in society, but
- 6:39also scientifically of how consciousness even arises as
- 6:43part of our lived experience. But I kind of want to ask you
- 6:46guys, OK, you've got a mind, you've got a body.
- 6:49What is actually generating your actual consciousness?
- 6:53Like what do you guys feel like is generating your
- 6:55consciousness? There's a guy called Nagle who
- 6:58defined consciousness as something is conscious.
- 7:01If there is something, it is alike to be that thing, right?
- 7:05If there is something. It is like to be that thing.
- 7:10So we are humans. There's something it's like to
- 7:12be a human, right? Well, I wake up in the morning
- 7:15and I'm like, oh, this is what it's like to be Sam.
- 7:17And I can imagine that for Benz and Bell, there are aspects of
- 7:21that that I experienced that you experienced.
- 7:24But if we you, you spoke about dogs, dogs seem to be conscious,
- 7:28right? There's probably something it's
- 7:30like to be a dog. We don't know for sure, but
- 7:33there's probably something it's like to be a dog.
- 7:34The camera in front of us, there's nothing it's like to be
- 7:37a camera. So we can that is not conscious,
- 7:40right? And if we explore this idea of,
- 7:43of consciousness, I kind of want to sort of ask you guys, where
- 7:46do you think consciousness comes from?
- 7:48Does it come from your mind? Does it come from something
- 7:50outside of your mind? Does it come from your body?
- 7:53Like what do you guys think is actually generating this
- 7:56consciousness? I don't know if it's as simple
- 7:59as like it's like to be a human or it's like to be a dog.
- 8:02But like when I'm meditating or when I'm accessing my most the
- 8:09bottom of my ocean, the bit where it's like nothing's
- 8:11moving, everything's silent, everything's quiet.
- 8:16I'm realising that my consciousness is simply like my
- 8:21ability to exist. Do you feel like your
- 8:24consciousness is connected to your physical body?
- 8:26Then it's on some level, no, no. No, I think of course it is
- 8:32inside of my body, but I think it's outside of it.
- 8:35I think it's in other things. I think consciousness really is
- 8:38like something way before I am a human, or way before something
- 8:43is a dog or a plant, or like it's something very ancient.
- 8:51That's all interesting. Where do you think consciousness
- 8:52comes from? I'm clearly not a spiritual as
- 8:55well, I just think we're advanced beings, right?
- 9:00That over periods of time we've learnt to understand ourselves
- 9:03biologically. So I I generally go with the
- 9:06concept that consciousness comes from the human body.
- 9:09The mind though, do you believe that there was a you outside of
- 9:13your mind? In in what sense?
- 9:15Well, just because you said that we're advanced beings and like,
- 9:19it's our ability to understand ourselves which sets us apart in
- 9:23terms of like having a consciousness.
- 9:26Do you? Do you feel like you are your
- 9:29thoughts? Then no, I don't thought that
- 9:31I'm sogging my thoughts. Then did your consciousness
- 9:35exist before you understood yourself through like your
- 9:39thoughts? That's a good question.
- 9:40I don't think it did exist. I actually don't know the
- 9:43consequences of what that means for like my other philosophical
- 9:47takes. You're.
- 9:49Trying to stay consistent. Yeah.
- 9:51But I don't think it existed before I understood it, if that
- 9:55makes sense. But I believe you.
- 9:58You believe it existed before you understood it.
- 10:01Yeah. All right.
- 10:03Because I believe my consciousness has essentially
- 10:06developed from my awareness of my surroundings and my ability
- 10:10to navigate my surroundings. And I don't think your
- 10:14consciousness has stayed the same from the beginning to
- 10:18today, for example. All right.
- 10:19It's developed and changed. And as a result of that, I think
- 10:24there has to be an inception of it.
- 10:26And I feel that inception was the moment that you became aware
- 10:29and then it's developed and changed over periods of time to
- 10:32get to the point it is today, and it should develop and change
- 10:34again. Maybe the difference between us
- 10:37is that you believe like you are meeting yourself or you believe
- 10:41you are You were like you're growing into your consciousness,
- 10:45right? I believe my consciousness
- 10:47always existed and I'm I'm trying to meet her.
- 10:50I'm trying to meet her. I just think our consciousness
- 10:52is so old. It's important that I believe
- 10:54it's old as well. Otherwise capitalism and stuff
- 10:58can like feel like you can buy your way into being a more
- 11:01evolved being. Fair, fair.
- 11:03Let's move to, I guess, more modern phenomena, right?
- 11:06I see myself as a S Londoner, so I have this idea of what it's
- 11:10like to be a S Londoner and that allows me to connect to other
- 11:14people from South London on a maybe a deeper level than I
- 11:18might be able to connect to someone who's not from South
- 11:20London. So I wonder if you guys feel
- 11:22like that transcends to the level of consciousness or it's
- 11:27just sort of a surface level thing that we use to connect to
- 11:30people. Is it like a deeper thing where
- 11:33South London is embedded in my actual consciousness?
- 11:36Or is it that I've just got some like reference points talking
- 11:41hardest when that comes on, everyone in this house just goes
- 11:43crazy. Or is it a deeper thing?
- 11:45Like what? How do you guys see that sort of
- 11:47social phenomena? Does the fact that I'm from
- 11:49South London literally change my consciousness?
- 11:52I think it does. OK, I.
- 11:53Think it does if we understand that, but you might not agree
- 11:57with this actually to be fair. But like the material shapes are
- 12:01experienced and if the material shapes are experienced, our
- 12:04consciousness developed from that.
- 12:05And if you were raised in a particular environment, how you
- 12:10then impact the world and how you see the world is affected.
- 12:14And so I think it has to affect your consciousness.
- 12:17It's working. It's working like a true
- 12:19Marxist. I love that I.
- 12:22Love that I said I don't know what it does for my other stuff.
- 12:26But is your consciousness the same as your awareness then in
- 12:30that framework? Well, you said you wanted the
- 12:35definition for consciousness, right?
- 12:36So I went and got it OK. And it's the state of being
- 12:39aware of and responsive to 1's surroundings.
- 12:42And another definition is a person's awareness or perception
- 12:46of something. And that's how I understand
- 12:48consciousness as. Well, the difference between
- 12:49awareness and consciousness is your ability to respond.
- 12:53Yes, I would. Yeah.
- 12:54Yeah, it is. Yeah.
- 12:55Yeah. And I think, I think that
- 12:56self-awareness, yeah, you are aware of yourself is I think
- 13:01that's an important part of of what I would imagine
- 13:03consciousness is. And obviously going back to the
- 13:05other, the previous definition that that Nagle gave, his
- 13:08definition is almost a test for consciousness.
- 13:10Like, how do you know when something is conscious or you
- 13:13yourself are conscious? You have a defined experience
- 13:16that other people can identify, right?
- 13:18A rock cannot have consciousness because there's nothing it's
- 13:21like to be a rock. There's no rock experience that
- 13:24anyone could understand as far as we currently know, right?
- 13:27I don't know though. Like it's.
- 13:30Like a Toy Story. No, but this is for sure you
- 13:33can't interview or observe like what the rock is experiencing
- 13:38for sure. Maybe this is simply because I
- 13:41practise meditation. I believe that there are so many
- 13:44similarities. There are so many spaces that we
- 13:47meet inanimate objects or like things that aren't necessarily
- 13:51have a heartbeat. Like it's still growing and
- 13:53changing and responding to the earth around it.
- 13:57Like this one rock being beaten down by the sand and the sea
- 14:01everyday. Like eventually it moulds and
- 14:03changes. This is the same rock that you
- 14:05live in, live on, suspended within like space.
- 14:11How could you really say that this rock has no consciousness
- 14:15if we're living on it and through it and with it?
- 14:17So you would say that the rock has consciousness?
- 14:19I would, I would. Was that any thought?
- 14:22Did you just come up with that? One, no, I believe.
- 14:25I believe things that like inanimate have a deeper
- 14:29consciousness. I do.
- 14:31I guess, I guess I do like where you're going, if I'm honest,
- 14:34because as much as I don't think the, I don't think the rock's
- 14:37conscious. But when you, when you listen to
- 14:41neuroscientists talk about consciousness and they talk
- 14:45about experiments they do on the brain to try to identify what
- 14:48consciousness scientifically looks like, they struggle.
- 14:52They really struggle to be like, this is what consciousness is in
- 14:54the brain. This is the material proof that
- 14:58we have consciousness. They obviously can track what
- 15:01the brain does. They can say, OK, the prefrontal
- 15:03cortex has is consuming more energy when this person does
- 15:06this or they experience this or these neurons fire and
- 15:10communicate between the left and right side of the brain, but
- 15:13they can't. These are like shadows and
- 15:15traces of consciousness. It's not like, oh, this is the
- 15:18thing that proves that that actually creates consciousness
- 15:20in the brain. So I guess 2 two things arise
- 15:24from that. Like when I hear neuroscientists
- 15:25speak, the first thing is that we don't understand
- 15:28consciousness. So it could be that the rock is
- 15:29conscious because we don't fully understand our unconsciousness
- 15:33and we can't prove it. But before science, we actually
- 15:36had like sciences, studying the magic of the consciousness.
- 15:40Like science is always one step behind.
- 15:43I mean, look at astrology like people did.
- 15:46People do believe that rocks have consciousness and that's
- 15:49why they're interacting with each other.
- 15:51There are stories like old deep stories of like how Venus has
- 15:56this deep connection with like Mars.
- 15:59That's why you're like this and that's why your sinister with
- 16:03that person is going to be like that consciousness is the flame
- 16:07that we're studying. And I think as we get closer, we
- 16:10get a little bit like, oh, I see how the flame was made like, but
- 16:15maybe we've got 2 clothes. It's still like undefined.
- 16:18It's still undefined. It's still magic.
- 16:20Yeah, it always has been. I mean that that was the second
- 16:22point I was going to make, is that maybe consciousness is not
- 16:25a material phenomena. It's not something that arises
- 16:28because our brain has the physical properties that it
- 16:31does. Maybe it's a deeper thing that
- 16:34science can never explain, right?
- 16:36Is a is a is a more spiritual thing that I think you're
- 16:40pointing to that scientists will never be able to prove in a lab.
- 16:44Is is is is deeper than that? And I, and I think you've sort
- 16:47of alluded to that point before. I think you mentioned like when
- 16:51you're dreaming, it's hard to think that it's just this dream
- 16:56that's happening and they can explain this away to me.
- 16:58Just from physical phenomenon. Physical.
- 17:00Phenomenon like there's nothing else happening here and to your
- 17:03point if which we don't truly understand consciousness, things
- 17:07like dreams and things like Deja vu and lots of weird things that
- 17:12happen in your life can't be simply just explained away by
- 17:15this thing lighting up in. Your because your dreams are
- 17:17your subconscious that brings consciousness.
- 17:21You have the things you're aware of and then you have the things
- 17:24that you haven't even fucking surfaced.
- 17:26Yeah, you haven't even brought them up yet.
- 17:28But your body's dealing with your trauma is dealing with it.
- 17:30That's all in the consciousness. I don't even know how that the
- 17:34definition even applies to the expansiveness that consciousness
- 17:38could could be. Yeah, Yeah, you're right.
- 17:41All right. And I think our definitions are
- 17:43sort of somewhat limited by what we can prove scientifically.
- 17:46By what we understand. Yeah, yeah, anyway.
- 17:49On to the next segment. Does modern city life bring
- 17:57people together or does it isolate them?
- 18:00I think modern life isolates people.
- 18:02I think primarily through the theft of our free time and
- 18:06leisure time. We just can't connect to people
- 18:10because we're always busy. By the time we're done being
- 18:13busy, we're tired and we have to start the next day over again.
- 18:19And I think a lot of people experience that.
- 18:21But I do also think within that, there's plenty of opportunity to
- 18:25to to connect. It's just that capitalism has a
- 18:27way of robbing us on that time. I think it absolute size.
- 18:33It's sad. You know, I was in the gym the
- 18:35other day and I saw this like thing come up on the board and
- 18:37it was like one in four people in my borough have like surveyed
- 18:42that they feel lonely at some point.
- 18:44So I just feel like so obscene amount of people that not only
- 18:48just feel it, but are like, noting it down to someone who's
- 18:51come down and be like, do you feel lonely?
- 18:53And they're like, yeah, yeah, I actually do feel lonely.
- 18:57There's a lot of people when we're living like walls away
- 19:01from each other, yeah. Agreed.
- 19:04What do you think, Linds? Yeah, I think it isolates for
- 19:06like multiple reasons. I actually think, I think phones
- 19:10have a big, a big part of this like Gen Z obviously are the
- 19:14most anxious generation that has ever been and and that's and
- 19:19that's linked to avoidance behaviour.
- 19:21So I, I, I do actually think it's somewhat, I don't want to
- 19:24say it's their fault because it's, it's not like an
- 19:26individual's fault, but it's a systemic fault that obviously
- 19:30you develop avoidance behaviour and socialise and feels like
- 19:33quite comfortable phones feel easy.
- 19:36And then you choose the phone and you socialise less and
- 19:39anxiety increases and then you avoid it even more and it
- 19:42becomes a loop. And what ends up happening as
- 19:45well? People start working from home,
- 19:47people go to gym. The gyms are now 24 hours.
- 19:50So there's not a time that like confines people to a certain
- 19:52space at a particular time. Have you seen the mirrors that
- 19:55people can buy now and like do a gym class in a mirror and it's
- 20:00got like an AI with it where like there's a personal trait
- 20:04like it just like completely eliminates any social.
- 20:08So like, people are forced into spending time together.
- 20:11So the only time you really spend time with people is if you
- 20:17go out of your way to do it. And as you've mentioned before,
- 20:20capitalism and modern big cities basically take that time away.
- 20:24So you have to be really active about it.
- 20:26And then you're a little bit avoidant as well.
- 20:29At the same time, you're a little bit anxious about a
- 20:31social event. Next thing you don't meet people
- 20:34and you're not forced. I sort of looked at the
- 20:35comparison. So if we look at Village, you're
- 20:38like forced go to the same shop constantly or you're forced to
- 20:42go to the same gym that everyone goes to, and you're forced to go
- 20:45to the same club that people go to.
- 20:47And it generally just has to bring people together as a
- 20:50result. And I think that's the big
- 20:52difference between a big city, because those other problems are
- 20:55still there in a smaller place, right?
- 20:57But in a smaller place, you're like forced to spend time with
- 21:00people. It's complicated.
- 21:01I always see this analogy as like when you have a baby and
- 21:05you're nursing the baby on the boob and there's going to be
- 21:07this point where you have to like take it off.
- 21:09Like you've got to like feed yourself, live your own life.
- 21:13And there's this, like, you know, this horrible moment where
- 21:17the child is, like, crying at the monk, but it's for the best
- 21:22of the child. Of course, there's also this
- 21:24essence of, like, pacification. And we're looking at a
- 21:28generation. But, yeah, we are anxious and we
- 21:30are, like, isolated. But there's also a lot going on
- 21:34and no outlet for it. So of course we want to pacify
- 21:38ourselves with these phones and like little dopamine hits.
- 21:41And it would be great if we could take away the phone and go
- 21:44back to clubs and connect and like actually be pushed into
- 21:48reality. The truth is there's so much
- 21:50going on. I don't really blame people for
- 21:53pacifying for being on the boob at this point.
- 21:55Like, you know what I mean? We need a bit of love.
- 21:58We need to be tapped into like softer, softer things.
- 22:04Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, I agree. I agree.
- 22:06I think to sort of connect what you both said there, I think
- 22:10obviously there's, there's, there's systemic things that
- 22:13happen to people to force them into an individual life, right
- 22:18and and separate people from their neighbours, their
- 22:20communities and their and, and, and social groups.
- 22:24But there's also a, a sort of even higher level of culture,
- 22:28right? There's a culture in the West
- 22:32that is hyper individual and there's many sort of things that
- 22:37happened historically that have led us to the point that we're
- 22:40in right now of hyper, hyper individualism.
- 22:43And one of those factors is obviously neoliberalism.
- 22:46The way that politics and economics have been sort of
- 22:49dictated to us to see ourselves as individuals that operate
- 22:54within a system rather than a collective of people that all
- 22:58interact with the system in, in, in, in many different ways,
- 23:01right? And obviously we can trace that
- 23:04back to Maggie Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, But even before that,
- 23:09right, if you go all the way back and look at like the, the,
- 23:12the, the start of Western philosophy, like what it is to
- 23:16be an individual in Europe, this is underpinned by the idea of
- 23:21the individual rational self, right?
- 23:23So to connect this to the segment one about consciousness,
- 23:27Western philosophy is always seen individuals as individuals
- 23:31who are conscious and have their own consciousness, right?
- 23:34So Western philosophy has always rejected what you're saying in
- 23:39segment 1, Bell. It's always rejected this idea
- 23:41that we are, we have interconnected consciousness.
- 23:46It's always been about the individual's physical body and
- 23:49the physical mind that generates consciousness.
- 23:51This idea of dualism, right? Dualism is that you've got a
- 23:55mind, you've got a body, and they both interact to, to, to
- 23:58create consciousness. This goes back to Rene
- 24:00Descartes, who is I think 17th century philosopher.
- 24:04He came up with this sort of dualism of self.
- 24:07And I can trace a lion all the way from Rene Descartes to 2026.
- 24:12And there's a reason why we've ended up in this sort of hyper
- 24:14individual culture that that we're in.
- 24:17And it makes people choose individualism, right?
- 24:20On a deeper level, like on a subconscious level, we pick like
- 24:23the mirror with the gym because we think art is convenient.
- 24:26But really, like there's a there's, there's deeper things
- 24:29going on in, in our subconscious.
- 24:31Absolutely. That our brains won't even allow
- 24:34us to explore. Yeah, yeah.
- 24:37Just for simple survival reasons.
- 24:40I think it's so mad what you said.
- 24:42Like I've been thinking a lot about that duality of of the
- 24:46mind and the body. It doesn't bring everything
- 24:49together and look at the way that we are connected with the
- 24:53world and it's so in our disjointedness.
- 24:57Yeah, yeah. And on top of that, like as much
- 24:59as dualism kind of makes sense, right?
- 25:01Kind of makes sense that the mind creates consciousness and
- 25:05the body is a separate entity to the the soul or the mind or
- 25:09whatever. It doesn't make sense.
- 25:11But like we still haven't even really proven that if, if we're,
- 25:14if we're getting into it, we've not.
- 25:15I don't think we've proven that on a scientific level.
- 25:18So it's a great idea, but like it might just be wrong, right?
- 25:23And it might be that we are connected to the universe on a
- 25:26more spiritual level. And I think that idea has lasted
- 25:30in antiquity. If we go back and we think about
- 25:33a philosophical framework like Buddhism, the Buddhist would
- 25:37connect you to the universe. You have this idea of karma and
- 25:40the idea that you could be reincarnated as something else
- 25:43in another life. This is like the the Western
- 25:46mind could not fathom that. But these ideas like really
- 25:50reject the like the intensity of pleasure and pain and really
- 25:57take you in the middle where is like capitalism and the
- 26:00structure that we're under now is really bound to like pleasure
- 26:04as the individual or pain as the individual.
- 26:07I was thinking about the logistics of like buying some
- 26:10land the other day and I was like, it's going to be lit off
- 26:13grid. Fuck the government.
- 26:16But the truth is like now that I'm in this land, I've got to
- 26:20deal with people personally, my neighbours.
- 26:22I can't just be like, oh, she's well, annoying, not connected.
- 26:25I've got to like deal with the unpleasant parts of creating my
- 26:31own ecosystem, having to look at myself, actually having to do
- 26:35the work. Whereas when you're plugged into
- 26:37capitalism in individual, in an individual world, you can cut
- 26:42off the bits you don't like. You can exist without that
- 26:46annoying person down the road. Just isolate yourself in like
- 26:49your little haven and you don't have to experience the
- 26:54consciousness of the universe. Yeah, and just pay for those
- 26:58things to be abstracted and just maximal convenience.
- 27:02Yeah. Which is crazy.
- 27:04Which is crazy. OK.
- 27:07On to the final segment. A system called Pluribus allows
- 27:14you to merge your consciousness with a shared human field.
- 27:18Those who join feel no loneliness, no misunderstanding,
- 27:22and a deep spiritual oneness. Most importantly, it makes
- 27:25society better and happier. It significantly reduces harm.
- 27:30Some even see it as a duty to the community.
- 27:33While connected to your thoughts, memories and inner
- 27:36patterns become interwoven with others.
- 27:39Joining is voluntary. You can leave at any time and
- 27:43return to being fully sovereign, your body unchanged, your mind
- 27:47clear and your autonomy intact. But if you do leave, you will
- 27:51also cause unknown, irreversible harm to someone that is
- 27:56participating. Do you join?
- 28:00Absolutely, I've already joined. If you haven't joined, joined.
- 28:06This is the Pandora's box of spirituality.
- 28:09Like when I first ever had a full awakening, I was like,
- 28:14like, we're open. Like I see it all and yes, I'm
- 28:19connected to everything and yes, I feed it all.
- 28:21And yes, you know, it's for the better of Earth.
- 28:26I can opt out and it will, it will be devastating for the
- 28:33earth. I think when people are out of
- 28:35touch, like I said, disjointed from the earth, it is, it's
- 28:40bleak. It it is the beginning of war.
- 28:44It's the beginning of the war on people, on the earth, on the
- 28:47water, like on the air. I think, yeah, I've already
- 28:53joined. Fair, fair.
- 28:55I, I, I struggled with this, this dilemma a little bit
- 28:58because I can't divorce the the system called Pluribus in the
- 29:03dilemma from Pluribus, the actual TV show.
- 29:06And there's something unnerving about the TV show.
- 29:08It's like. I've never watched.
- 29:10That Yeah, I think you would love it, honestly, probably love
- 29:13it. The show is about, is it a
- 29:15virus? Can we call it a?
- 29:16Virus. Virus.
- 29:17Yeah, you can call it a virus. Yeah, it's it's a virus that
- 29:20takes over humanity, and all human beings other than 12
- 29:25people become part of the Pluribus, which is basically a
- 29:30neural network of interconnected minds.
- 29:34They have access to everyone else's consciousness.
- 29:37OK, and they have all access to all knowledge of all human
- 29:41beings ever that that live. And it basically makes every
- 29:44individual in the Puribus almost like a all knowing, all
- 29:49sentient, all powerful individual.
- 29:52But there's something unnerving about them because they cannot
- 29:55express any individuality whatsoever.
- 29:58They they basically have one personality for like billions of
- 30:02people. So there's something unnerving
- 30:03about those those people that are tapped into Puribus.
- 30:06But it sounds great. It sounds great.
- 30:10No suffering. No.
- 30:11Like society. So much better as well.
- 30:15If only I could plug in and plug up without hurting anyone, that
- 30:18would be great. Yeah.
- 30:20Why would you plug out then? If you didn't like just in case,
- 30:23just. You know, that's why I did that
- 30:26little bit. If you get out of it, you're
- 30:29gonna have to hurt someone. So it's not as easy as you could
- 30:31just go in and out. Yeah, yeah, I want to plug in.
- 30:35I want to join, but I think when you watch ATV show you, you
- 30:38understand my reservation. There's just something a bit
- 30:41weird about about them. But maybe that's just my
- 30:45conditioning. Maybe I need to shed that it'd.
- 30:48Be. Nice.
- 30:50What do you think, Ben? What?
- 30:52Do you think I think, what do you think I think you know, I'd
- 30:58struggle to join. You're not plugging.
- 31:00I'm not plugging in. I've watched from my father.
- 31:03I'd be late to the party. I'd definitely be late to the
- 31:06party. If everyone's like this thing is
- 31:07sick, like and people you trust they are sick, then I'll
- 31:10eventually go, but I'd be late to the party.
- 31:12I, I really struggle to give up freedoms as a person.
- 31:18I really value everybody's uniqueness and other people's
- 31:22uniqueness and the differences in humans.
- 31:24Like I love that about the human experience and to then join
- 31:29something that basically kind of removes that, I can't be for it.
- 31:33But you said freedom and I find it interesting because it's
- 31:37like, do you believe your freedom is like being out and
- 31:42being creative and be who you are, like free to do what?
- 31:46Or is your freedom not to be connected to people, to your
- 31:49tribe? You're free to be at one with,
- 31:53you know, humanity, but even deeper God, like deeper like the
- 31:58reason that we are here, Like what is your what is your
- 32:01freedom? Freedom.
- 32:02Freedom to do what? Well, I really like the
- 32:04illusional choice. Like the idea that you get to
- 32:08choose things and how you choose this thing shapes how you might
- 32:13choose the next thing. I really enjoyed.
- 32:14Is that the? Excitement.
- 32:16I do love that. Yeah.
- 32:16You know, that's the headless thingy.
- 32:21Like, I really love that about the human experience.
- 32:24Like I love the idea of the risk of choosing something that might
- 32:27be right, might be wrong, and like having to balance the
- 32:30scales in your head before you make a decision and it might go
- 32:32wrong. I love the Leo or a Virgo.
- 32:35I've never, I'm in Scorpio, so like all of those things
- 32:41together. I just, I do get Virgo a lot
- 32:43though. Loki, I really enjoy that part
- 32:45of life and to give that part up is like even when I run this
- 32:48show, like we don't know if it's going to be a success or more.
- 32:52I kind of like that. I kind of like the fact that
- 32:55like wherever it is or not is kind of down to some of the
- 32:57decisions that we make, like how we behave and stuff like that.
- 33:00And I enjoy that part of life. So to, to, to throw that away,
- 33:04I'm not sure. But like, if everyone else goes,
- 33:06like I'll be a follower, I'll be late for the party.
- 33:09I'll be there with you eventually.
- 33:10I recently a lot of what you're saying, but I'll be real.
- 33:13But to Bill's point, maybe that is our conditioner, right?
- 33:16Maybe that's what we are. We have been conditioned to see
- 33:19life in that way and we have been disconnected with some
- 33:24higher calling to be connected to God, like you say, Bill, and
- 33:29not necessarily in a religious sense on a more like spiritual,
- 33:32on a more spiritual basis, what we're doing is kind of a
- 33:35distraction from that higher purpose.
- 33:37And if we plugged into Pluribus, we would no longer think that
- 33:40that was the right way to live like, right.
- 33:43And that's completely possible. And I'm open to that.
- 33:45I'm open to that. I'm just thinking of a film I
- 33:49have watched, which is the Matrix.
- 33:51And like how they're like, there's like this part where you
- 33:54realise they're like actually like just humans plugged into
- 33:58like this really disgusting world and their, their
- 34:02uniqueness, their dopamine from their choices is what's fuelling
- 34:07something way bigger. And like it's almost being
- 34:10harvested from us. These like rushes of dopamine
- 34:13are being harvested from us to fuels a different type of
- 34:17consciousness as a as a parallel to the pluribus pluribus 1.
- 34:24But again, I guess it's the question of like, is your
- 34:27freedom your choices and what is it free?
- 34:30What is it giving you freedom to do?
- 34:32Or are you plugged into the truth and that is your freedom?
- 34:38When you say plugged into the truth unless.
- 34:39The truth. When I say the truth, I mean
- 34:42into the interconnected the essence of.
- 34:46The universe, the spirit of. God the.
- 34:48Spirit of God, Yeah. I don't know.
- 34:50I'm scared to say that, Yeah. Yeah, I, I do.
- 34:57I do. I do feel that.
- 34:58I think when we were recording, me and Burns were recording
- 35:01together and I was talking about the human spirit.
- 35:05I think you're talking about something slightly different,
- 35:08but that idea of our human spirit being harvested by other
- 35:11people or some other system. I, I, I feel that on a deeper
- 35:15level, genuinely, I've I've. Had a good thing when you said.
- 35:19That to be honest, I haven't really fleshed out that idea in
- 35:21my head properly, so I might not be able to like fully articulate
- 35:25it. But I, I do think that there is
- 35:27a class of people on this planet that that maybe sees us as
- 35:33having some sort of indomitable human spirit that is the real
- 35:37source of the of the spice of life, the Spirit of God, Right.
- 35:42And they want that thing that that's all that life is to them
- 35:46is how much of that spirit can I harvest?
- 35:48But yeah, it's interesting that you say that.
- 35:50You say that as I'm like trying to come to that.
- 35:54Idea. Anyway, thank you for having us.
- 35:56That was really enjoyable. I'll see you soon.
- 35:58See you next week.