75 episodes

Visionary scientist Dr. Bruce Damer is pursuing two great questions: how did life on Earth begin, and how can we give life (and ourselves) a sustainable path forward into the cosmos? Follow him on this personal podcast diary through decades of adventures to the edges of the Earth, deep into space and inward, beyond the bounds of consciousness.

Dr. Bruce Damer's Levity Zone Dr. Bruce Damer

    • Science

Visionary scientist Dr. Bruce Damer is pursuing two great questions: how did life on Earth begin, and how can we give life (and ourselves) a sustainable path forward into the cosmos? Follow him on this personal podcast diary through decades of adventures to the edges of the Earth, deep into space and inward, beyond the bounds of consciousness.

    Boundary Dissolution and Novelty

    Boundary Dissolution and Novelty

    Dr. Bruce returns for the first Levity Zone of 2021 to mark 'Terence Day' celebrating 21 years since entheo-raconteur Terence McKenna passed through the azure veil on April 3rd, 2000.

    Terence's call to dissolve the boundaries which separate us inspired this rap on how humanity might move forward with healing the trauma beneath these divisions. Since Terence's time we know these boundaries better than ever and the little inner personalities within which can sometimes drive us to be less than our better natures.

    Next, taking up where Terence left off with his notions of novelty, Dr. Bruce recounts his past two decades of work to characterize how the universe could build its complexity through a formulaic 'wiggle', and how this insight led to the 'Hot Spring Hypothesis' for the origin of life. So, join us now for this special recounting recorded from Dr. Bruce's presentation to a room in the Clubhouse app celebrating 'International Boundary Dissolution Day.'

    Credits: Dr. Bruce Damer (hosting and recording) and Aaron Thayne (editing, music layering, cover art), photo of Bruce and Terence by Galen Brandt. [released 15 April, 2021]

    • 47 min
    Pattern Break

    Pattern Break

    Dr. Bruce returns from evacuation to tell the dramatic, traumatic tale of the horrific CZU fire nearby, coming within a mile of Ancient Oaks. Climate shocks come home as giant redwoods burn bottom to top for the first time in a thousand years. A pattern break, and then another, and another will impact and transform our lives, individually and collectively as we move deeper into the century. Dr. Bruce himself is entering into his own pattern break, a month of breaking from his mostly mental life into a new state with nowhere to go, nothing to do. How often do we just... stop? While in this state he plans to test a hypothesis, that there is something deep within, and casting its tendrils far and wide in our lives: the Field. The Field is a probabilistic ninja, hurdling walls of improbability to shape our futures. Our focused attention in the Field could just possibly pull us through the coming siege of pattern breaks, forcing us to survive and thrive as the body human moves toward life and light. After this update, we then dive into Levity Salon #9: 'Is there a silver lining in an orange cloud?', featuring discussions with Salon regulars on the subject of the fires, pattern breaks, metamordernism, post-traumatic recovery and more on the Field. Credits: Dr. Bruce Damer (hosting and recording) and Aaron Thayne (Levity Salon edit). [released 30 September, 2020]

    • 55 min
    LevityZone Salon 4: Pandemics and the Human Future

    LevityZone Salon 4: Pandemics and the Human Future

    The Levity Zone after six months of life-changing events for Dr. Bruce including his move in with a new love into a new house, the Gandalf Abode at Ancient Oaks. The Zone welcomes in the new Levity Salons. These Salons are live online Zoom sessions which started late in 2019 with Dr. Bruce's Patreon community. This Salon (#4) featured the timely theme of Pandemics and the Human Future, it being recorded in March 2020 during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Bruce gives his take on the situation and then shares a lively dialogue amongst almost forty participants. Credits: Dr. Bruce Damer (hosting and recording), Allan Lundell (editing and music overlay), Aaron Thayne (final release edit) and Bodhi Setchko (music). [released 8 June, 2020]

    • 1 hr 38 min
    A Heartfelt New Years 2020!

    A Heartfelt New Years 2020!

    With the passing of Ram Dass, your Dr. Bruce speaks from his heart to prepare humanity for the decade of the 2020s, calling for a humane and sane response to coming climate shocks, giving a happy report on the publication of the Hot Spring Hypothesis for and Origin of Life article (his greatest intellectual work), and the blessing of his new home, the Gandalf Wizard's Abode. He departs 2019 in bed in a state of exhaustion, but also holding deep gratitude for our very existence and the conscious, loving awareness which humanity can attain through a Human Wellbeing Climate Moonshot. Credits: Dr. Bruce Damer (recording and editing), Sun Lundell (cover photo). [released 30 December 2019]

    • 21 min
    Dr. Bruce TRU Alum - The Boy Comes Home!

    Dr. Bruce TRU Alum - The Boy Comes Home!

    Your Dr. Bruce returns after yet another four month absence from the Levity Zone. I am thrilled to report that my life transition is going very well with this property transforming into a community with members and retreats, a dream of mine for 25 years. My Gandalf House rising on the hill is almost complete and I moved into the upstairs back on June 30th. New ventures are progressing with Mason and Carlos and I am even getting involved in a global effort called Climate Mitigation Associates which will build a network of experts to help bridge our civilization over the coming shocks from climate change. On top of this I have started a Patreon and 20 of you have already signed up! Find the link to my Patreon page, which has many tiers of benefits, in the resources for this podcast. This episode of the Levity Zone features a dinner talk I gave at Thompson Rivers University in my hometown of Kamloops in south central British Columbia, Canada back on March 29th, 2019. I was honored there as Distinguished Research Alumn by the university which I attended right out of (and during) high school in 1979-82. What I was moved to do that night was to give my most heartfelt thanks and appreciation to the people and land that really made me, a sort of love poem to my home community. Kamloops is at the center of some key early climate changes as you will hear from some of the audience questions. Thanks go out to Nancy Bepple and the staff of TRU for making this beautiful event happen, and to my surviving family members, Eric and Susan Damer and cousins Margaret and Mike Stewart-Smith and the many other friends who came and occupied two tables. It may be a truism that once in your life... the boy, or girl, must come home... and boy did I do that! I hope you enjoy this as much as I did! Credits: Thompson Rivers University faculty and staff (hosts), Dr. Bruce Damer (recording and editing), Kristof (audio cleanup), Eric Damer (cover photo). [released 31 August 2019]

    • 50 min
    Dr. Bruce springs forward!

    Dr. Bruce springs forward!

    Your Dr. Bruce returns after a four month absence from the Levity Zone. Remarkable changes have been happening in my life and I am now "springing forward" into a bright new season of starting up ventures in space, origins of life, evolutionary biology, and computing as well as constructing my Gandalf House here at Ancient Oaks. So, rejoin me now as I return for our 70th podcast with an update from my world, now more hopeful and more globally connected than ever to support an emerging positive future for humanity. Credits: Dr. Bruce Damer (recording and editing), Arlene Olynyk (cover photo). [released 19 April 2019]

    • 32 min

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