#Sean Esbjörn-Hargens

[transhumanitynet]

113 - Sean Esbjörn-Hargens on Exostudies: Philosophical Explorations...

My graduate advisor Sean Esbjörn-Hargens is one of the most consistently inspiring and refreshingly different thinkers I’ve ever met. In our first Future Fossils conversation, we discussed his work to apply a profoundly “meta” and pluralistic philosophy to the everyday work of organizational development and social impact. In this discussion, we turn over the rock and examine his decades of inquiry into some of the world’s most puzzling and confounding phenomena – namely, those surrounding the UFO and its aura of science-challenging incursions into mundane reality.

Might “Exostudies” be the locus of a transformation in how we understand reality? This is not your normal New Age conversation about aliens, but a rigorous look into the persistent weirdness and problematic implications of one of humankind’s greatest mysteries. As Phil Dick famously said, “Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.” If UFOs are here to stay – with all of their attendant provocations to our oversimple categories (self and other, artificial and natural, hallucination and perception, physical and immaterial) – then we are overdue for a new definition of “reality.” In preparation for his Exostudies online course this fall, we look at how to make sense of the stubbornly ineffable – an evolutionary call to take up higher-dimensional logic and more nuanced understandings of What Is…

http://www.exostudies.org/

“When you go into the UFO field, at least with an open heart and mind, you come across some really crazy shit. It is a freakshow. There are so many bizarre claims being made by standup citizens who are quite believable in what they are saying, even though what they’re saying just does not map onto our general view of reality.”

“The truth is stranger than science fiction. Not just fiction, but science fiction.”

“The phenomenon is subjective and objective; it’s subjective and objective simultaneously; and it’s neither. So I think what it’s asking us is to re-examine the relationship between mind and matter, and how do we relate to subject and object, and how has our current scientific methodology failed us horribly in having a more sophisticated answer or framing or understanding of how these two aspects are related.”

“There are really good, legitimate photographs, and trace evidence, and all kinds of physical evidence for UFO craft and other otherworldly realities…and yet, there are so many fakes. And how do you sift through all that? You almost can’t.”

“We’re entering into an augmented and virtual space that’s going to be ontologically fragmented, and highly pluralistic, and solipsistic. So how do we navigate that culturally? I don’t know, but I think we’re largely unprepared.”

“We’re not that far from discovering some form of mini-life elsewhere. And as soon as that happens, then the floodgates are going to open in considering the implications of that.”

“So many UFO or ET enthusiasts often want to put everything in one box, like ‘they’re all bad,’ ‘they’re all good,’ ‘they’re all future versions of ourselves.’ I think it’s much messier than that.”

“I think one of the core strategies is hermeneutic generosity. A sense of critical thinking, but from a place of generosity, where we stay open. Postmodernism has been so jaded – the hermeneutics of suspicion – I think when we approach these phenomena, we need a different orientation.”

“To really bring any kind of justice to this inquiry, we need to draw on the best thinking from as many kinds of disciplines as we can – because the phenomenon is that big, and that mysterious, and that paradoxical. So anything short of a meta, integrative approach – and even that – is going to fail.”

Mentioned:

Diana Slattery, John Mack, Avi Loeb, Ken Wilber, Jeff Kripal, Whitley Strieber, Arthur Brock, George Knapp, John C. Wright, Olaf Stapledon, Stuart Davis, Jeff Salzman, Richard Doyle, Carl Jung, Terence McKenna, William Irwin Thompson, DW Pasulka, Eric Wargo, Jacques Vallee

Sean’s appearance on the Daily Evolver Podcast:

https://www.dailyevolver.com/2019/02/taking-aliens-seriously/

If you liked this episode, check out Episodes 60 & Episode 91:

https://shows.pippa.io/futurefossils/episodes/60

https://shows.pippa.io/futurefossils/episodes/91

113 – Sean Esbjörn-Hargens on Exostudies: Philosophical Explorations… was originally published on transhumanity.net

[tradingmaps]

Sean Esbjörn-Hargens: ecological thinking as a “widening of identity” and “creative expansion” (2010). Redesign and screen print by Volumes Volumes.

[transhumanitynet]

A Unifying Meta-Theory of UFOs & The Weird with Sean Esbjörn-Hargens (150)

A Unifying Meta-Theory of UFOs & The Weird with Sean Esbjörn-Hargens (150)

For Episode 150 we welcome back Sean Esbjörn-Hargens, one of the most formidable and daring intellects I know, and the author of a new paper integrating over 650 books on UFOs and the paranormal, from over 150 disciplines, to trace the outline of a unifying meta-theory of the weird. In this episode, we discuss how Sean reconciles ten different hypotheses for the UFO phenomenon with his “mutual…

[transhumanitynet]

A Unifying Meta-Theory of UFOs & The Weird with Sean Esbjörn-Hargens (150)

For Episode 150 we welcome back Sean Esbjörn-Hargens, one of the most formidable and daring intellects I know, and the author of a new paper integrating over 650 books on UFOs and the paranormal, from over 150 disciplines, to trace the outline of a unifying meta-theory of the weird. In this episode, we discuss how Sean reconciles ten different hypotheses for the UFO phenomenon with his “mutual enactment hypothesis,” an updated ontology based on reconstructive post-modernism and Indigenous ways of knowing. I tell the story of the most powerful and transformative experiences of my life, as a case study in high weirdness. We talk about the distinctions between the real, the Real, the hypo-real, and the hyper-real, and offer examples from film, literature, and comparative religion.

Do you have incredulous friends? Show them the extraordinary website Sean made with Tom Curren, WhatsUpWithUFOs.com

Read Sean’s paper, “Our Wild Kosmos!: An Exo Studies Exploration of the Ontological Status of Non-Human Intelligences”

Read its precursor, “An Ontology of Climate Change: Integral Pluralism and the Enactment of Multiple Objects”

Read Sean’s latest newsletter on recent UFO disclosures

Learn more about and enroll in Sean’s course on Exo Studies

If you believe in the value of this show and want to see it thrive, support Future Fossils on Patreon. Patrons gain access to over twenty secret episodes, unreleased music, our book club, and whatever else spills out of my overactive imagination.

Dig deeper with the Future Fossils episodes we reference in this conversation, including:

37 – Michaelangelo aka Void Denizen (Excavating the Future with “Paisley-ontology”)

60 – Sean Esbjörn-Hargens Goes Meta on Everything: Integral Ecology & Impact

71 – JF Martel (On Sequels & Simulacra, Blade Runner 2049 & Stranger Things 2)

91 – An Oral History of The End of “Reality”

99 – Erik Davis on How to Navigate High Weirdness

113 – Sean Esbjörn-Hargens on Exostudies: Philosophical Explorations of the UFO Phenomenon

117 – Eric Wargo on Time Loops: Precognition, Retrocausation, and the Unconscious

126 – Phil Ford & JF Martel on Weird Studies & Plural Realities

132 – Erik Davis on Perturbations in the Reality Field

149 – Cultural Somatics & Ritual as Justice with Tada Hozumi, Dare Sohei, and Naomi Most

And stay tuned for my three-part conversation with Stuart Davis about (most of) my UFO experiences on his awesome Aliens & Artists Podcast!

Music in this episode:

“Delta Pavonis” by Michael Garfield

“Olympus Mons” by Michael Garfield

“Your Heart Comes Back Online” by Michael Garfield

“Out There” by Skytree

https://www.patreon.com/posts/unifying-meta-of-40493515

A Unifying Meta-Theory of UFOs & The Weird with Sean Esbjörn-Hargens (150) was originally published on transhumanity.net

[transhumanitynet]

113 - Sean Esbjörn-Hargens on Exostudies: Philosophical Explorations...

113 – Sean Esbjörn-Hargens on Exostudies: Philosophical Explorations…

My graduate advisor Sean Esbjörn-Hargens is one of the most consistently inspiring and refreshingly different thinkers I’ve ever met. In our first Future Fossils conversation, we discussed his work to apply a profoundly “meta” and pluralistic philosophy to the everyday work of organizational development and social impact. In this discussion, we turn over the rock and examine his decades of…

[transhumanitynet]

133 - Brian Swimme on Telling A New Story of Our Universe

This week’s guest is mathematician and cosmologist Brian Swimme, faculty at CIIS’ Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness Program and author of several books, including The Universe is a Green Dragon: A Cosmic Creation Story (which we discuss in this episode). Brian is a major voice in the conversation about the new myths required for us in an age of planetary culture, an articulate and approachable thinker whose warmth and generosity — virtues equal to his intellectual achievement — really shine through in this conversation.

Brian at CIIS Brian at the Center for Humans and Nature

Brian’s documentary, Journey of the Universe

Brian’s Coursera class

“A lot of scientists will say, ‘I don’t have a metaphysics. I just deal with facts.’ But it’s not the case…”

“Locating ourselves in time I think is the fundamental scientific or spiritual challenge.”

“The Earth is closer to a living organism than it is a collection of objects.”

“One of the fundamental errors of the modern period is RUINING this idea of Singularity…it’s thinking of ourselves as the intelligent species in a world that is basically a collection of objects. And then we imagine that we with our clever minds are creating technology…rather than joining a process.”

“It could be that the future of science depends on the question of the within, the inner world…”

We Discuss:

Locating ourselves in time…

The Universe is a Green Dragon: A Cosmic Creation Story

Zak Stein (Episode 97)

What We Learn From Mass Extinctions

We Are Something The Planet Is Doing Thomas Berry

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (although V.I. Vernadsky coined the term “noosphere”)

James P. Carse

Ernst Haeckel

Sean Esbjörn-Hargens (Episodes 60 + 113)

Dr. Blue (Episode 124)

Theme Music: “God Detector” by Evan “Skytree” Snyder (feat. Michael Garfield)

https://skytree.bandcamp.com/track/god-detector-ft-michael-garfield

Additional Music: “Valles Marineris” by Michael Garfield

https://michaelgarfield.bandcamp.com/album/martian-arts-ep

Support this show on Patreon to join the book club and for secret episodes:

https://patreon.com/michaelgarfield

133 – Brian Swimme on Telling A New Story of Our Universe was originally published on transhumanity.net

[transhumanitynet]

Episode 102 - Bill Pfeiffer on Continuity, Belonging, Ecstasy Among the Native People of the North

This week we sit with Bill Pfeiffer – deep ecologist, shamanic guide, and spiritual coach – whose life carried him from nuclear protests on the US East Coast to citizen diplomacy to Russia, where he first encountered Siberian shamans and became immersed, over decades and dozens of visits, in their traditions of ecstasy and communion, with realms and intelligences deeper than the world of identity and politics. A friend of Joanna Macy’s, founder of the Sacred Earth Network, and leader of hundreds of spiritual ecology workshops, Bill has dedicated his life to being a bridge between Native American & Siberian cultures, between alienated humans and the wisdom of the Earth, between heart and mind, future and past.

About Bill: https://billpfeiffer.org/bio

About the Sacred Earth Network: http://www.sacredearthnetwork.net

Read Bill’s Book, Wild Earth, Wild Soul: https://billpfeiffer.org/core-programs/core-program-wild-earth-wild-soul-intro/book/

In this episode, we discuss:

Reconnecting to nature, to the body

How political activism for nuclear disarmament changed his whole life and perspective

“I began to feel like I could make a difference…like you can make a difference…in how things play out here on Planet Earth.”

How Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs was appropriated from the Blackfoot tipi, and what we lost in the translation

“We’re all indigenous to land if we go back far enough in our ancestry, and we have a blueprint of a balanced existence.”

“Mystical experience is a birthright, if we’re open to it, or grace is there for us.”

Book: The American Replacement of Nature by William Irwin Thompson

How can we differentiate healthy and unhealthy solutions to our human need for belonging?

“There’s a lot of people who are spiritually inclined, and I’m like…I’m sorry, man, you gotta vote. It doesn’t mean you have to go crazy, it means you have to PAY ATTENTION.”

His journey from citizen diplomacy to Siberian shamanism, through connecting Siberians to Native Americans

What he learned about being human from the Siberians

Book: The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

“To reclaim our power is to reclaim ourselves as cosmic beings, not just beings. It’s that big.”

“It’s not that I didn’t get rejected or that people weren’t angry with me at times, or copped an attitude because of what I was doing. But largely, I have felt embraced by both of those cultures as being a bridge, of serving a bridge-building function. I feel like I know how to love people, and how to receive love, and that is the currency that gets the job done.”

Episode 60 with Sean Esbjörn Hargens

Episode 65 with John David Ebert

The possible revival of a circumpolar shamanic tradition in the latter 21st Century after global warming

“I was an amateur futurist and then I just gave up, because there were far too many possibilities, and I was wasting my time getting afraid of imagining.”

What did he learn from the Siberians that were not lessons living in the Native American legacy he encountered?

“The relative success that me and my cohorts have had with native people is all about listening and respect. If that’s cliche, I want more of it.”

The ongoing resurrection of Native American ecstatic traditions

Book: Stealing Fire by Steven Kotler & Jamie Wheal

Joanna Macy

How to co-opt ecstasy for money, and how not to

One of Michael’s craziest sober experiences ever

Conscious sexuality

And more…

Subscribe to Future Fossils on any podcasting platform:

https://shows.pippa.io/futurefossils

Join our (very active, awesome) Facebook Discussion Group:

https://facebook.com/groups/futurefossils

Episode 102 – Bill Pfeiffer on Continuity, Belonging, Ecstasy Among the Native People of the North was originally published on transhumanity.net