Alex's questions at the end of the podcast:
Do we need to rethink some of our basic assumptions about science, given what we now know about consciousness, which may be the elephant in the room? Can we measure anything in science if we can't measure consciousness? Do all of our measurements need to be asterisked to draw attention to the fact that consciousness hasn't been factored in?
Yeah, brilliant! One of the very best Skeptiko interviews for sure.
I want to make a special comment on a moment where I disagree a bit with Russell. I think that over-emphasis of relaxation and detachment and under-emphasis of concentration and involvement is not a best way of spiritual practice (and theory). I'm certain - well, as much as agnostic like me can be "certain" about anything! - that achievement of genuine integrity is only possible if one reach the dynamic, processual balance between relaxation and concentration, detachment and involvement.
Gloryfying of relaxation - to the point of personal dissolution and merging with the Whole - is the general meta-theme of Eastern spiritual theory and practice, which strongly influenced Russell's position, as well as positions of many, if not most, spiritual seekers worldwide. However, the less known alternative is Western spiritual theory, such as Hermeticism and Thelema; the complex of West-related paths which may be described as
magick. Unlike Eastern mystique, Western magick strongly values concentration and involvement, and generally aims not at achieving ethernal blissful peace of (No-Self) Oneness, but rather on self-directed evolution toward Higher Self (or True Self), which will let one to engage in the Game of Life on a new level of freedom, complexity and diversity.
Of course, relaxation and detachment are also needed to achieve such a state - but only their combination with concentration and involvement will let one live in the point of synergy where you can engage in thinking, feeling and acting without being caught and chained by them. The point where you can control and guide your life with your free and conscious will.
That is what make magick-related path intrinsically "pro-life" - in the sense of advocating engaging in existence, not just sitting in the permanent state of do-nothing blissful rapture. Such unending "inner peace" was quite cynically described both by classic magicians like Alastair Crowley and Israel Regardie and by spiritual-philosophical-scientific polymaths like John Lilly, Timothy Leary and Robert Anton Wilson. They all insisted that the finding of the inner peace, while necessary, is just a step on the path; the next step is return to the vital and mental activity, but with the new level of clarity and freedom which will allow one to practice "meta-programming" - the self-directed transformation. Such high-level, controlled and liberated engagement in the Game of Life can give one the heights of fun which is not reachable within the Permanent Peace.
After all, we are living now, and I don't think that our birth into the Game of Life was a kind of cosmic matake and a burden on us. Like
Hjorton, with whose position I strongly empathatize, I think that the Game of Life is indeed a
Game, which we can and should live through for our fun and interest! The blissful Eternity can always wait; we will not lose it anyway; we will be back to it one way or another. Or, to be more precise, we
are there, in Eternity - permanently and forever; we just changed our perception in the way which let us forget our Eternal nature and engage in somatic, social and semiotic games of our lives. And, I suspect, it was our True Will to be so - because
the point of existence is to play, not to stay. Leaving the Ethernity for Life let us engage in diverse activities and transformations, which is the source of ever-changing fun!