Waking Up

About the book

Book author: Sam Harris

Sam is a scientifically minded philosopher (neuroscience PhD) critical of religion, and so the subtitle is “Searching for Spirituality without Religion”. This is important context. The book covers religion, spirituality, consciousness and meditation. What is religion? What is spirituality? How is the consciousness and the brain affected by meditation? What is a spiritual “wake up” and how do you do it?

Sam’s lifelong quest is figuring this out. It started after him having an enlightening experience with MDMA in his 20s. Sam turned curious - is it possible to experience this altered state of consciousness without ingesting “enhancing substances”? He then studied consciousness for years, both academically and anecdotally with Hindu and Buddhist meditation gurus in India and Nepal respectively.

The book then goes through what he has learned in his life. Now, topics like spirituality are always muddy, for several reasons, and my sceptic filter activates… but Sam is honest in pointing out that we have no clue what consciousness is or why and how it arises. At least we can agree that it at least has to do with the brain.

The book talks about different levels and modes of consciousness. The analogy he gives, which I like, is akin to water. What makes water liquid? A single molecule of water cannot be defined as “liquid”, but if you keep adding more water molecules, it will gradually turn into whatever we define liquid. In that sense, where is the line for consciousness? Is an insect conscious? How about a gorilla? If you are asleep?

He shows you that whatever consciousness is, is quite modular. For example, after a lobotomy, each brain half seems to function independently as in the “split brain” experiment. Further, different areas of the brain like language, or memory, can be physically removed but the individual retains its sense of “I”. For example, a person without a memory center might still be able to coherently tell you that they do not know who they are, in language, so they remember how to speak, but how can that be possible without memory? Strangeness ensues.

On the inside, systems are working in tandem at the same time that you are not conscious of. You grab your cup of tea without thinking about the cup or planning how. And you wouldn’t know if one of these systems were not working, as it would not be in your field of experience from the start.

Sam talks about the Theory of Mind (TOM) and how some people define consciousness as awareness of self (i.e you recognize yourself in a mirror). But even this theory has limitations, because, maybe a gorilla just doesn’t care about itself in the mirror – it wants to look for food somewhere. Can you say its not conscious then?

Overarching these threads Sam shows you how they relate to the practice of meditation. I find some points and paragraphs hard to understand. More so when Sam talks much about “the self” and “the I”, “the ego” and the “duality of mind”. But in reality, these takeaways are the important nuggets from this book. I have left those for the next section.

Reflection and takeaways

I found a lot of the facts in this book profound. I was even more enamoured with the meditation bits and Sam’s anecdotal experiences. Consciousness is certainly strange.

It should not be a secret to anyone that there is a war fought for our attention. Smartphones, social media, news – it all has one quality to be as addictive as possible. Your addiction means more attention, and more attention means more ad views. Your ad views mean profit. The data collection by companies is constant. Hundreds of thousands of engineers and psychologists with PhD’s fight you the second you unlock your phone to make their “thing” that app you use. Sometimes I notice myself stuck in this attention-stolen space and think less than usual - there is a lack of awareness. But, to stop scrolling, all it takes is half a second of awareness of what you are doing. The liberation is instant.

Sam talks much about mindfulness meditation - a practice that trains the awareness filter. Its not restricted only to what you do, but also of your thoughts and emotions. Note: I am far from an expert but occasional practicer. Sam goes into great depth that you can take it further. I can’t verify his claims, because I’m dumb and confused here (as with most things), but what he speaks about certainly sounds worthy of time and focus. I found his take on spirituality to resonate much more with me than other takes. I’m always wary of gurus and teachers, because more often than not they are just nuts, not enlightened. Sam brings up several stories of such encounters, adding that skepticism is healthy.

I want to end with a thought: time spent on the mind or learning about the mind is never wasted time, because it’s through your mind/brain you experience everything in the end.

Why did I pick it

A friend recommended it to me.

Verdict

4.²⁵⁄₅. I’m happy I read it. I’m a little motivated to try his Waking Up app.