In this episode, the topic of George’s history with his meditation practice is explored in light of the contemporary and common parlance language of “intuition,” “trusting your gut,” “vibrational energy” and other such cliches. To what extent, the question is posed at first, does having an actual spiritual practice or discipline help to remedy the troubled and troubling ways in which people casually or commonly justify their choices on the basis of the former ideas? 

The conversation takes a turn to the human problem of authenticity vs. attachment, and how this ends up being a perennial issue, given how the course of likely everyone’s development puts these two aspects of our lives at odds to some degree or another. From there, George delineates what it was that brought him to meditation as a serious, daily practice, from the early childhood fantasies he entertained of learning super powers (like astral projection and levitation), to the truth of the transformation he’s been able to achieve through meditation: one that has little to do with outward manifestations of power, but everything to do with the power one can gain over one’s self by learning to attune attention inward. We then discuss some common threads shared between psychoanalytic theory and the precepts of insight / Vipassana-style meditation, in an effort to bring the two praxes into dialogue. 

To what extent can a meditation practice be an effective tool for making the unconscious conscious, and helping to dissipate our complexes and neurotic symptoms thereby? Is this a kind of “auto analysis” that can have effects that are akin to therapeutic interventions? What role does attention being paid to the body play in terms of realizing the results of this style of meditation, and why is the body such an important fact, concept, and/or signifier in its own right with respect to meditation? Want the answers? Find them inside!