Adventures in Awareness

Amir Giles
  • 4.9 (11)
  • SPIRITUALITY

Conversations and meditations on self, the nature of reality, & consciousness. With meditators, philosophers, mystics and scientists we examine non-duality, exploration of mind and the phenomena of altered states, traits and beyond. adventuresinawareness.substack.com

  1. Facts don't change minds, friendships do

    4D AGO

    Facts don't change minds, friendships do

    To join future events, newsletter and access ad-free event recordings go to:https://adventuresinawareness.comDr Sarah Stein Lubrano https://www.sarahsteinlubrano.com/https://sarahsteinlubrano.substack.com/https://www.instagram.com/sarahsteinlubrano Sarah has a background in feminist, mutual aid, and other local organising as well as teaching in prisons. She holds a PhD from the University of Oxford and a Master’s degree from the University of Cambridge. Her thinking often reaches the public through the Sense and Solidarity Initiative and the Future Narratives Lab. She was previously the Head of Content at The School of Life and wrote obituaries. She regularly appears on public radio and a variety of podcasts. Her first book is, Don’t Talk About Politics: Changing 21st Century Minds is out now with Bloomsbury. Your contributions support future content, and are greatly appreciated: - https://adventuresinawareness.com/membership - One-off PayPal donations: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/adventuresin Follow the Adventure:- Subscribe to us on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@adventuresinawareness - Twitter: https://x.com/AdvInAwareness - iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/adventures-in-awareness/id1535917754 - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2jiebSpdVu9YbpLOtWlKYU - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/adventuresinawareness Banner art by https://www.instagram.com/jadewade /0:00:00 Sarah PhD & academic background 0:03:30 Identity and politic views 0:04:00 why facts don’t change minds 0:08:30 friendships change minds 0:09:40 experiences change minds 0:11:00 the problem of social isolation 0:15:20 enemies of social infrastructure 0:17:00 towards a healthy democracy 0:18:00 the contradiction of liberalism = individuality 0:22:00 shared activity reduces prejudice 0:25:44 technology & women’s rights 0:31:00 developing new language for new rights 0:32:00 how we rationalise being forced 0:39:00 predictive processing & politics 0:44:00 Isolation restrict our ability to think 0:47:00 the internet increases isolation 0:49:00 shared goals is fundamental to shared reasoning 0:53:00 democracy must involve thinking in action 0:55:00 dangers of social isolation This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit adventuresinawareness.substack.com

    58 min
  2. Life's Journey in Norse Mythology with Andreas Kornevall

    JAN 12

    Life's Journey in Norse Mythology with Andreas Kornevall

    The Serpent, the Eagle, the Labyrinth and the Dragon I get story-teller Andreas Kornevall to draw out how the images of Norse Mythology can guide the big moments of our lives, from depression to transcendence and beyond. I love how he breathes fresh life into familiar stories, integrating their wisdom with contemporary life, Buddhist dharma and nondual understanding. Northern European mythology is rich with symbolism and wisdom to navigate the journeys of life; the journey of soul represented by the serpent, confronting life’s shadows, upheavals, challenges and wounds, and the spirit journey, represented by the eagle, in which we find transcendence, and their eventual integration. Andreas Kornevall is a Swedish author, storyteller and ecologist whose work brings Norse myth, folklore and landscape-based storytelling into contemporary life. He has told stories for BBC radio, collaborated with organisations including the Sussex Archaeological Society and the National Trust to “re-story” local places, and has lectured on myth and Norse traditions across UK learning settings. He directs the Earth Restoration Service charity and is the author of Waking the Dragons: Norse Myth, Runes and Magic.https://www.kornevall.com/Eagle, Serpent, Spirit, Soul: Life’s journey in Norse mythology0:00:00 The Serpent & Eagle Journeys 0:12:00 The Dragon: Symbol of balance and integration0:18:30 The Labyrinth: Navigating life’s initiations0:20:00 Wounding0:28:00 Learning from grief, depression, & love 0:36:00 You are never lost in the labyrinth 0:40:00 Power of symbols0:42:00 Meditation, shadow & integration 0:46:00 The mythic images constantly re-enliven0:50:00 Why religions change0:58:00 Buddhism, Nonduality & Norse myth1:06:00 Course in Norse mythology1:19:24 Labyrinth vs Maze1:20:00 Departing prayer This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit adventuresinawareness.substack.com

    1h 21m
  3. Dr Shamil Chandaria: The body as a full path to awakening

    12/17/2025

    Dr Shamil Chandaria: The body as a full path to awakening

    Dr Shamil Chandaria is a senior research fellow at the centre for Eudaimonia and Human Flourishing, University of Oxford. He is also a research fellow at the Institute of Philosophy, London University, where he focuses on philosophical issues in neuroscience and well-being; a research fellow at Imperial College in the neuroscience of psychedelics; and a bye-fellow at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge University. He has multi-disciplinary research interests spanning computational neuroscience, machine learning & artificial intelligence, and the philosophy and science of human well-being. He is currently working on computational theories of consciousness and meditation. Shamil has been a meditator for 38 years and has contemplative training in early Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism, Advaita Vedanta and Kashmir Shivaism.To join future events, newsletter and access ad-free event recordings go to:https://adventuresinawareness.comYour contributions support future content, and are greatly appreciated:- https://adventuresinawareness.com/membership- One-off PayPal donations: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/adventuresin Follow the Adventure:- Subscribe to us on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@adventuresinawareness- Twitter: https://x.com/AdvInAwareness- iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/adventures-in-awareness/id1535917754 - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2jiebSpdVu9YbpLOtWlKYU - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/adventuresinawarenessBanner art by https://www.instagram.com/jadewade/ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit adventuresinawareness.substack.com

    1h 3m
  4. How to discover new minds - Michael Levin

    12/14/2025

    How to discover new minds - Michael Levin

    To join future events, newsletter and access ad-free event recordings go to:https://adventuresinawareness.comYour contributions support future content, and are greatly appreciated:- https://adventuresinawareness.com/membership- One-off PayPal donations: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/adventuresin Follow the Adventure:- Subscribe to us on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@adventuresinawareness- Twitter: https://x.com/AdvInAwareness- iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/adventures-in-awareness/id1535917754 - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2jiebSpdVu9YbpLOtWlKYU - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/adventuresinawarenessBanner art by https://www.instagram.com/jadewade/ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit adventuresinawareness.substack.com

    1h 10m
  5. Blind spots of higher states & navigating pain | Andrew Holecek part 2

    09/01/2025

    Blind spots of higher states & navigating pain | Andrew Holecek part 2

    Workshop with Andrew Holecek 4th Sep: https://dandelion.events/e/w0dr9 Full discussion here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcUOXFASQm4 To join future events, newsletter and access ad-free event recordings go to:https://adventuresinawareness.com Your contributions support future content, and are greatly appreciated:- https://adventuresinawareness.com/membership- One-off PayPal donations: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/adventuresin Follow the Adventure:- Subscribe to us on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@adventuresinawareness- Twitter: https://x.com/AdvInAwareness- iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/adventures-in-awareness/id1535917754 - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2jiebSpdVu9YbpLOtWlKYU - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/adventuresinawarenessBanner art by https://www.instagram.com/jadewade/ 0:00:00 Blindspots of highers states Jhanas | cessation 0:10:00 Enlightenment is expansion 0:14:00 Questioning awakening 0:15:00 the goal posts are always moving 0:18:00 How to stay open and focus0:26:00 abiding in the light 0:31:00 dealing with pain 0:39:00 suffering = pain + resistance 0:49:00 total equanimity in pain 0:50:00 plans for workshop on luminous awareness 0:55:00 idealism vs emptiness 1:07:00 one vs none 1:10:00 cessation vs idealismaduality vs nonduality Jay Garfield vs Bernardo Kastrup This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit adventuresinawareness.substack.com

    1h 18m
  6. Andrew Holecek: 3-year meditation retreat, therapy, shadow and reality

    08/30/2025

    Andrew Holecek: 3-year meditation retreat, therapy, shadow and reality

    Workshop with Andrew Holecek 4th Sep: https://dandelion.events/e/w0dr9To join future events, newsletter and access ad-free event recordings go to:https://adventuresinawareness.comYour contributions support future content, and are greatly appreciated:- https://adventuresinawareness.com/membership- One-off PayPal donations: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/adventuresin Follow the Adventure:- Subscribe to us on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@adventuresinawareness- Twitter: https://x.com/AdvInAwareness- iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/adventures-in-awareness/id1535917754 - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2jiebSpdVu9YbpLOtWlKYU - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/adventuresinawarenessBanner art by https://www.instagram.com/jadewade/00:00 Intro6:40 Schools of Tibetan Buddhism10:00 Buddhism as a description of reality10:40 3 Turnings of the wheels in Buddhism14:00 Pixilated nature of reality = reduce suffering17:40 Andrew’s path into Tibetan Buddhism23:20 The value of understanding before realisation31:00 Three Year Retreat35:00 Lucid dreaming and sleeping38:40 Are the best teachers in the east? 46:00 Blindspots in the east48:00 What is the goal of life? Waking / Play55:00 Path of freedom vs Path of fullness56:00 Limitation of radical nonduality 58:00 Transcend and include59:00 You both need therapy1:01:00 Scandals and abuse in spirituality This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit adventuresinawareness.substack.com

    1h 9m
  7. Ruben Laukkonen: Meditation and the cessation of consciousness

    07/05/2025

    Ruben Laukkonen: Meditation and the cessation of consciousness

    A conversation with Dr  Ruben Laukkonen—cognitive scientist, neuroscientist and meditator —exploring the cutting edge of contemplative science and the mysterious experience of consciousness coming to a complete stop - cessation. - https://rubenlaukkonen.com/To join future events, newsletter and access ad-free event recordings go to:https://adventuresinawareness.com/Ruben completed an award-winning PhD on the cognitive science of insight at The University of Queensland in 2019, followed by post-doctoral research at the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam on the computational neuroscience of meditation. Ruben is now a Senior Lecturer at Southern Cross University where his lab uncovers empirically grounded and experientially authentic models of meditation, insight, psychedelics, and consciousness. Using a combination of methods including neuroimaging, machine learning, and phenomenology, his team is investigating some of the rarest states of consciousness available to human beings- https://adventuresinawareness.com/membership- One-off PayPal donations: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/adventuresin- https://adventuresinawareness.com- Subscribe to us on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@adventuresinawareness- Twitter: https://x.com/AdvInAwareness- iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/adventures-in-awareness/id1535917754- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2jiebSpdVu9YbpLOtWlKYU- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/adventuresinawareness00:00:00 Introduction00:04:54 What Makes Meditative Cessation Unique?Defines how intentional cessation differs from sleep, anesthesia, or trauma.00:10:52 From Mindfulness to Advanced States: A New Wave of ResearchIntroduces a shift in meditation science toward rare and transformative states.00:21:08 EEG Findings: What Happens in the Brain During Cessation?Reveals broad changes in brain activity linked to deep meditative absorption.00:41:09 Computational Reset: - reduce grasping by resetting deep mental patterns.00:44:08 Have You Personally Experienced Cessation?00:45:55 How Science Informs Meditation (and Vice Versa)00:47:04 Predictive Processing and the Present Moment00:48:33 Understanding the Four Selves in Meditation00:49:39 Science vs. Philosophy: Are They Really Separate?00:51:00 Why All Maps Are Just Maps00:52:23 Meditation, Science, and the Mystery of Insight00:54:08 Did Science or Meditation Come First?00:55:46 Balancing a PhD with Deep Practice00:57:28 Is Awareness Just Another Dependent Arising?01:02:08 Did Ramana Maharshi Experience Cessation?01:04:02 Grasping at Awareness: A New Kind of Samsara01:06:44 Emptiness, Insight, and the Path that Keeps Unfolding01:08:17 Is the Goal of Buddhism Reducing Suffering or Knowing Reality?01:10:46 Wisdom and Compassion as Two Wings of the Path01:13:36 Could We Ever Measure Clinging in the Brain?01:17:02 Using Brain Flexibility to Detect Reduced Clinging01:18:50 Can Meditators Adapt to Reality Shifts Faster?01:21:45 Does Meditation Increase Mental Model Stability?01:22:04 Does Cessation Challenge Idealist Philosophy?01:24:46 Why I No Longer Start From Consciousness01:26:08 Consciousness: A Useful Concept or an Assumption?01:28:32 Cessation Undermines the Idealist View?01:30:12 Just Before Cessation01:32:00 Investigating the Nature of Awareness Itself01:34:00 Not Everyone Needs Cessation – And Why That Matters01:36:59 Reuben’s View: Emptiness Over Idealism01:38:38 On Being Misrepresented by “Metaconsciousness” Critics01:41:03 The Subtle Dualism of “Everything is Consciousness”01:44:14 Open Audience Q&A Begins01:45:05 What Meditation Practice Leads to Cessation?01:47:15 Why Integrity and Sincerity Matter More Than Method01:51:03 Upcoming Conference Appearances (Europe 2025)01:53:04 What Is Cessation Really? And What Is Emptiness?01:57:11 Emptiness as the Lack of Essence in All ThingsVideo editing by https://www.willbourchier.com/Banner art by https://www.instagram.com/jadewade/ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit adventuresinawareness.substack.com

    1h 60m
  8. Christof Koch | Bernardo Kastrup: neuroscience & ultimate reality

    06/26/2025

    Christof Koch | Bernardo Kastrup: neuroscience & ultimate reality

    Christof Koch was the president and chief scientist of the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle known for his interdisciplinary approach, combining insights from neuroscience, physics, and philosophy to tackle the complex problem of consciousness, published in over 350 scientific papers, significantly shaped modern understanding of the neural correlates of consciousness and visual perception.In collaboration with Francis Crick, Cristof initiated the modern search for the neuronal correlates of consciousness. In collaboration with Giulio Tononi, he co-developed the Integrated Information Theory of consciousness.To join future discussions live, watch ad-free recordings and extended Q&As, find us at: https://www.adventuresinawareness.com/events/Your contributions support future content, and are greatly appreciated:https://adventuresinawareness.com/membershipOne-off PayPal donations: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/adventuresin 0:00 Intros0:08 Bernardo’s appreciation of Christof’s work: how neuroscience is critical to understanding mind12:40 Christo’s appreciation of Bernardo’s work:the mechanisms of the boundaries of consciousness 17:00 the metaphysics of Integrated Information Theory (IIT)21:00 IIT might be most direct modelling of true states of nature24:50 IIT and Free Will26:40 how IIT models the noumenon and AI consciousness 30:00 the cerebellum doesn’t contribute to consciousness32:50 IIT and meta-consciousness34:50 dreams are not meta-conscious38:40 IIT and scale and speed of the system (galaxies and atoms)42:30 IIT and defining the boundary of a system45:00 IIT, dissociation and the origin of life50:20 consciousness in the sun and mind meld55:30 Internal family systems therapy & the daimon58:30 clarifying definition of free will1:08:00 why IIT assumes consciousness 1:11:30 what is information in IIT (it’s not shannon information - its meaning, aristotelan ‘in form’)1:15:30 what is integration? (it means its not reducible. You can’t break it into parts without losing something)1:20:30 mind at large integrated? (no, because of speed of light and expansion)1:23:00 why is integration in space but not time? how do parts of the system know which system they are part of1:37:10 how IIT accounts for mind at large - the dance of dissociation and reintegration: actively enforced dissociation and non-actively dissociation. Mind at large is fragmented, and markov blankets are considered1:43:30 Mind at large is not conscious in the way we are1:50:00 everything is conscious vs everything is consciousness1:51:50 IIT disagrees with computational functionalism; that consciousness is just a function and any mechanism that can do that function must be conscious. IIT starts with consciousness instead of with function. 1:56:00 Christof’s psychedelic experience and change in perspective2:01:40 the similarity between the universe and the brain2:08:25 is death re-association? the parallels between chemistry and emotion2:13:30 is mind at large expanding like the universe? (questioning the big bang)2:17:50 do psychedelics increase or decrease connectivity 2:22:30 neural correlates of consciousness or meta-consciousness (implications of blindsight)2:28:50 IIT and the block universe2:38:30 Life and meaning can be mapped by Markov blankets, cancer, enlightenment, reincarnation 2:48:00 becoming another - thought experimentFollow the Adventure:- https://adventuresinawareness.com/- Subscribe to us on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@adventuresinawareness- Twitter: https://x.com/AdvInAwareness- iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/adventures-in-awareness/id1535917754- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/adventuresinawarenessBanner art by https://www.instagram.com/jadewade/ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit adventuresinawareness.substack.com

    2h 57m
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4.9
out of 5
11 Ratings

About

Conversations and meditations on self, the nature of reality, & consciousness. With meditators, philosophers, mystics and scientists we examine non-duality, exploration of mind and the phenomena of altered states, traits and beyond. adventuresinawareness.substack.com

Information

  • Creator
    Amir Giles
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2026
  • Episodes
    24
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Amir Giles
  • Show Website
    Adventures in Awareness

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