The Spiritual Naturalist Society is for folks exploring spirituality beyond supernaturalism. Here I'm joined by Daniel Strain and Alex Cheruk to discuss the origins and goals of this awesome organization.

0:00 Introduction

1:35 What is Spiritual Naturalism?

17:22 The Role of Community

22:29 Daniel and Alex's Stories

44:09 What is the Spiritual Naturalist Society?

53:15 Can Christianity Naturalize?

59:15 How to Get Involved

1:02:50 Conclusion

Learn more about about The Spiritual Naturalist Society here:

https://www.snsociety.org/

Developmental researcher Dr. Cheryl Armon discusses her work on the way different philosophical conceptions of the good life relate to psychological development.

0:00 Introduction

1:38 The Complexification of Value

8:03 The 5 Philosophical Orientations:

13:07 Hedonism: Classical

22:24 Hedonism: Social

29:54 Perfectionism: Functionalist

41:22 Perfectionism: Unitarianist

52:35 Perfectionism: Progressivist

1:06:49 Are Some Orientations More Common among Higher Levels of Development?

1:11:23 What Are the Next Steps for this Line of Research?

1:15:52 Conclusion

Nish Dubashia walks through his new book, A Brief History of God: From Nature Spirits to Cosmic Consciousness, the newest offering from Sky Meadow Press.

After laying out his framework for religion as a story of the self's aspiration to reunite with Spirit, Nish goes through the major stages of religion's evolution, from humanity's tribal origins to the rise of polytheism in early agricultural civilizations to the Axial Age transformation of transcendence to the modern shift to materialism and the postmodern emphasis on pluralistic harmony. We then explore post-postmodern forms of religiosity as an integral perspective before Nish's concluding speculations on the future of spirituality.

0:00 Introduction

1:12 A Brief History of 'A Brief History of God'

6:11 Religion's Archetypal Story: The Dance of Self and Spirit

11:25 Stage 1. The Beginning of Spiritual Awareness

16:11 Stage 2. The Rise of Individualism

25:27 Stage 3. Tradition and the Search for Order

34:08 Stage 4. Science and the Quest for Truth

41:59 Stage 5. The Path to Harmony

53:17 Stage 6. Bridging Perspectives

1:00:53 Stage 7. Holistic Spirituality

1:09:41 The Future of Spirituality

Link for the book: https://www.amazon.com/Brief-History-God-Spirits-Consciousness/dp/B0FH28Q63K/

Dr. Theo Linda Dawson, founder of Lectica, Inc., discusses the launch of MindLog, an unprecedented developmental tracking tool that charts the hierarchical complexification of skill capacities using high-precision Lectical scoring. She explains what it does and how it works before we dive into its two major applications for educators and for adult learners.

0:00 Introduction

1:05 What is MindLog?

5:51 Operationalizing Cognitive-Developmental Theory

MindLog for Educators

14:23 Motivating Students for Growth

20:13 Teaching Informed by Classroom Developmental Data

30:52 How to Get Involved

MindLog for Adults

33:44 A Tool for Tracking Your Development

37:16 Opportunity (and Pitfalls) for Coaching Integration

42:11 "What Level You At, Bro?" Dangers of Identifying with Your Score

46:04 Developing Our Relationship to Development

50:02 Tracking Development in Different Skills

54:14 Misuse Cases

57:31 How the Data is Used

1:03:10 Prospects of Revolutionizing Our Understanding of the Mind

1:06:33 The Time Has Come

1:09:57 Course Offerings: FOLA, LAP-1, ViP

MindLog will be launching in beta in June for those interested to get a glimpse of this cutting-edge technology.

You can find more about MindLog, as well as the courses mentioned, at Lectica.org

Educator and philosopher Brad Kershner joins me to discuss the crisis facing our civilizational frameworks and educational institutions, with considerations of what the path out of this cul-de-sac looks like and how we get there.

0:00 Introduction

3:54 Designing a World for Value

13:58 A Trans-Partisan Issue

20:03 The Modern Breakdown of Value

32:19 The Failure of the Postmodern Response

38:38 Metamodernism and/or Perennialism

48:01 The Multi-Dimensional Nature of Value Alignment

52:15 An Evolutionary Story

1:00:04 Epistemic Humility and an Embodied Taste for Wisdom

1:14:38 The Value of Attention

Check out Brad's recent lectures on his YT channel @bradkershner52 ​

How do we do the most good? Answers popular in the Rationality and effective altruism spaces can be helpful in some ways, but could also be radically misframing the issue in others. Here Anna Riedl joins me to discuss more of what she means by an "autopoiethics" approach to the topic, which takes seriously the implications of complex systems science for understanding "doing the right thing" in context.

0:00 Introduction

1:51 Autopoiethics

5:34 On "Doing the Right Thing" at Different Scales

11:01 Metamodern Ethics beyond the "View from Nowhere"

17:01 The Normative Primacy of Self-Maintenance

20:55 The Relation of Self to Others

28:56 Autopoiethics and Intersubjectivity: The Other in the Self

34:58 Does Complexity Have Intrinsic Value?

40:17 Complexify Self to Complexify Other

47:21 Your Starbucks Receipt and Schindler's List

51:20 Moral Foundations Theory and Opponent Processing

58:36 Ethics and Relevance Realization

1:05:42 Bottom Up or Top Down? A Counter-Argument from Emergent Causality

1:17:29 Summing Up

1:23:47 Conclusion

Boaz Feldman joins me to talk about an important conference he's helped to organize at Harvard. The Education for Flourishing Conference, AKA Human Transformation in a Time of Metacrisis, is happening at the Harvard Graduate School of Education on Friday, May 2nd, followed the next day by the Unconference featuring workshops, panels, and opportunities for further connection.

0:00 Introduction

1:21 Boaz's Background

3:26 Overview of the Conference and Unconference

8:21 The Liminal Coming to the Center: Realizing Metamodern Paradigm Change

15:08 Setup to a Second Renaissance

18:54 Itinerary and Speakers

25:03 Brendan's Offering for the Unconference

28:51 Is This for You?

36:31 From Thinking to Doing

Link to conference info: https://news.lifeitself.org/p/education-for-flourishing-conference

I'm joined by professor Gary Cziko, author of Without Miracles: Universal Selection Theory and the Second Darwinian Revolution, to discuss the universal learning process driving adaptive complexification across cosmic scales. We get into the issue of "puzzles of fit" and how they've tended to be accounted for, the scope and power of selectionist theories for understanding evolution and knowledge generation, and relationships of the theory to a number of important topics, including how we make meaning in life.

0:00 Introduction

2:22 Puzzles of Fit and Universal Selection Theory

8:55 A Metatheory for Meaningful Knowledge Generation

16:23 The Universe Learning, & Learning How It Learns

23:02 Transcending Constraints of Knowledge Structures

31:22 History of the Theory

40:31 Adjusting Experience for Meaning

47:17 Piaget and Universal Selection Theory

55:52 Hegel?

57:08 The Miracle 'Without Miracles'

59:44 The Existential Basis of Purpose

1:06:27 Conclusion

Oliver Griebel joins me to discuss the topic of the anthology he edited on the metaphysical relationship between the one and the many.

Evolutionary spirituality writer Tim Freke joins me for a live Limicon event to discuss his take on the new form of spirituality emerging in metamodern culture. We explore a few topics together, then open the conversation up for Q&A from the rest of the attendees. Evolution, consciousness, death, mysticism--it's a good ride!