I realy welcome this, but I have some specific comments and recommendations/requests if you're inclined.
I think what you are describing is very valuable, and I think you are one of the likely very credible and legible authors/investigators.
From my perspective, with a lot of limited experimentation in spirituality and psychedelics; and I sure others (Burning Man first-timers etc) who are getting started; I an they will want something beyond Pollan and SF Zen Center to really explore with. So congrats and thanks.
Some thoughts:
* I am sure I am like many people who refuses to pay for Substack-type subscriptions. (Obv many do pay, so this you may choose to ignore, but I think there is strong evidence that solo newsletters are not great for writers or readers. eg
Specifically, I don't want to read you for 70 USD a year. Or anyone. It's not just I don't want to read one author as mainline drip - this has never been thing in recorded literary history, and I think shouldn't be and wont' last; IMO content quality always collapses when people have to serve large audiences solo on a repetitive basis - it's that even slight diversity is hugely rewarding and edifying and refreshing.
So, yes, I would pay to read you and even just a few few more people, regular guests of yours, co-creators - plus some tidbits of news - for 250 USD a year. Yah. Magazine, please. Content-wise, and production-wise, everyone wins IMO, on both sides. So, please do consider joining with some other voices.
I am convinced more than 50% of the paying reading public is sitting here waiting for this, while blogspot/blogger > wordpress/wordpress.com > medium > substack >> mini-epochs rise and fall.
* You say you aren't building a community. But why? I think some of the greatest value for the reader is here, even if you don't want to do more stuff. The old blog sites used to have discourse comment sections that were designed for community. Substack has invested immensely in such tools (tho shit IMO). BoingBoing, once a massive threaded community site has shifted its community of 25K ppl to ... Substack in fact.
Podcasts are inherently community-ish, and Spotify is facilitating aspects of that with audience tools better than Substack.
I genuinely want to hear about other people's experiences and connections and certainly about events and happenings in a suitable form and forum. If you want a related example of how what is broadly a broadcast space has community features, a great example is Drugs Science site. David Nutt has no time or interest to kind of groom Erowid-type babblings - which I imagine you might be afraid of leaning into? - but there's a huge interest in structured engagement in his (and thus your) work, and genuinely good revenue here.
I'd easily pay 500-1000 USD per year to be part of a semi-active community construct, with invitations to live events online or otherwise, discounts to cool shit, early booking for important stuff like Aya ceremonies, book launches, concerts. I and others pay that much a year - and much more - for related experiences, and if your 'club' was nothing more than a curated 'Amex membership benefits' experiences for this stuff, it would be wildly valuable for everyone. Your power of reliable curation is vast, and this goes so far beyond just writing.
I think you are missing both huge audience and revenue potential here, for negigible management overhead; and if you wanted to do active event stuff I and others would probably want to help with that besides.
* This is less practical and more personal, so just a heads up: I really want there to be a better distinction in this space between researcher, author, commentator, practitioner, ideologue, influencer, bizperson etc. Nutt: researcher = yes; Pollan: author = yes; you: commentator/pracitioner = yes, etc. Harris. Levin. Et al. And of course people can be many more types than listed, and more at once.
But people are messing this up badly, and it leads to horrible results. Huberman: researcher/influencer = fuck that noise. Nick Cammarata: practitioner/influencer = fuck that creepy noise. Jhourney shit: practitioners/bizpersons = kill with fire.
I'm sure you don't agree with the specific - I don't expect you to - but maybe you can take the point that this a very sensitive area and people I think want stuff they can believe in a rely on, and above all leaders who can be interrogated about their own practices and incentives and flaws here. I don't think there's a version of this that grows properly in the research or journalistic moulds, so this is not about objectivity per se - the limits of Nutt/Pollan IMO - but conversely, these are still highly precise practices and profound subjects.
Just my notes on something very welcome and profound. Thanks.
Hey John! Your thoughts are very much appreciated, thanks for sharing all this. There's a lot I agree with here.
I could have been more specific when I said "I'm not building a community." At the moment, I'm not particularly interested in, say, moderating the equivalent of a Discord and keeping up community conversations, doing a monthly book club, weekly AMA's, etc etc. If there's enough demand for this kind of thing, I could certainly change my mind. Especially because Substack seems to be making it trivially easy, to your point.
However, I am *very interested* in bringing other voices into this particular project as soon as the funding allows. I've got a list of writers I'd love to commission, and I'd really like to bring an editor in. And facilitating conversations between people in this realm is another thing I already love doing, and can imagine many ways it might get folded into this project. Whether that means events, livestreams/podcasts with community participation, who knows. I guess I'm saying that I'm thinking of this as 'solo substack while I have to, micro-magazine when I can,' if that makes sense.
Anyway, your comment is a useful signal, good to know. Hope all is well with you.
I'm an enormous fan of your writing, Oshan, and find myself thinking of points you've made on a daily basis. So excited for this newsletter and for your upcoming podcast series!
Thank you, Annie! This is really nice to hear because it runs both ways — I've *really* enjoyed your writing on the extended mind & it's various implications.
Hey Oshan, I'm considering upgrading to a paid subscription. Hopefully, whatever answers you give to my questions might persuade others.
Before I do upgrade, though, could you give something of an overview of what specific forms of contemplative practice and - not sure what to call it - metaphysics, philosophy, vision, viewpoints - you tend to see as most important
I'm in the middle of looking for high quality research providing at least some quantification regarding the increasing openness to explore contemplative experience over the past 50 years. I have studied in Christian contemplative, Sufi, Zen Buddhist, Vedantic, Tibetan Buddhist and other traditions, though I have been primarily rooted in the integral yoga of Sri Aurobindo for about 50 years.
My wife and I wrote a book on yogic psychology and I shifted from music (pianist/composer) to psychology to gain some expertise in talking and writing about these trends. You can see more in a (very rough) draft on our home page: www.RememberToBe.Life
I read your about page and several posts, but still am wondering about how you see the larger picture (just so you don't work too hard at this, I am inclined already to upgrade to paid but wanted to check first)
My short answer would just be to recommend you remain a free subscriber for the time being, see how the pieces that come out feel, and if it’s the kind of thing you want to support, or the paywalled material feels particularly interesting, you can always upgrade to paid later on.
In response to your actual question, I’m not sure that I consider some contemplative practices or traditions more important than others. I personally have the most exposure to varieties of Buddhism and Hinduism, and tend to use them as my reference points in writing. I’m particularly interested in the meeting points between contemplative neuroscience and nondual traditions (or, more specifically, the generative conflicts/tensions between them). In terms of how I see the larger picture, I’m still working on that. That’ll be part of what this newsletter works out! (Though I like philosopher Eric Schwitzgebel’s way of putting it: The world is unthinkably weird, and whatever explanation you think makes sense of it all, probably does not).
As a side note, I have a real soft spot for Aurobindo. I’ve spent a fair bit of time in Puducherry, and have stayed at Auroville a number of times (I had my eighth birthday there).
Wonderful. I only last week discovered the brilliant writings of Louis Komjathy on contemplative practice and contemplative science (he has written what may be the standard contemplative practice/science text). If you don't know him, I strongly recommend finding time to look at it (a long book but I think highly worthwhile)
I discovered him after hearing from Devdip Ganguly, who is using Louis' text as a core book in his course on contemplative studies.
What an amazing time we're living in (and how amazing for you to celebrate your 8th birthday in Auroville!
I will definitely continue reading (and enjoying!) your posts and we'll see what happens.
I realy welcome this, but I have some specific comments and recommendations/requests if you're inclined.
I think what you are describing is very valuable, and I think you are one of the likely very credible and legible authors/investigators.
From my perspective, with a lot of limited experimentation in spirituality and psychedelics; and I sure others (Burning Man first-timers etc) who are getting started; I an they will want something beyond Pollan and SF Zen Center to really explore with. So congrats and thanks.
Some thoughts:
* I am sure I am like many people who refuses to pay for Substack-type subscriptions. (Obv many do pay, so this you may choose to ignore, but I think there is strong evidence that solo newsletters are not great for writers or readers. eg
https://mulatimes.com/article/unbundling-and-rebundling-of-the-journalist-creator-economy
Specifically, I don't want to read you for 70 USD a year. Or anyone. It's not just I don't want to read one author as mainline drip - this has never been thing in recorded literary history, and I think shouldn't be and wont' last; IMO content quality always collapses when people have to serve large audiences solo on a repetitive basis - it's that even slight diversity is hugely rewarding and edifying and refreshing.
So, yes, I would pay to read you and even just a few few more people, regular guests of yours, co-creators - plus some tidbits of news - for 250 USD a year. Yah. Magazine, please. Content-wise, and production-wise, everyone wins IMO, on both sides. So, please do consider joining with some other voices.
I am convinced more than 50% of the paying reading public is sitting here waiting for this, while blogspot/blogger > wordpress/wordpress.com > medium > substack >> mini-epochs rise and fall.
* You say you aren't building a community. But why? I think some of the greatest value for the reader is here, even if you don't want to do more stuff. The old blog sites used to have discourse comment sections that were designed for community. Substack has invested immensely in such tools (tho shit IMO). BoingBoing, once a massive threaded community site has shifted its community of 25K ppl to ... Substack in fact.
Podcasts are inherently community-ish, and Spotify is facilitating aspects of that with audience tools better than Substack.
I genuinely want to hear about other people's experiences and connections and certainly about events and happenings in a suitable form and forum. If you want a related example of how what is broadly a broadcast space has community features, a great example is Drugs Science site. David Nutt has no time or interest to kind of groom Erowid-type babblings - which I imagine you might be afraid of leaning into? - but there's a huge interest in structured engagement in his (and thus your) work, and genuinely good revenue here.
I'd easily pay 500-1000 USD per year to be part of a semi-active community construct, with invitations to live events online or otherwise, discounts to cool shit, early booking for important stuff like Aya ceremonies, book launches, concerts. I and others pay that much a year - and much more - for related experiences, and if your 'club' was nothing more than a curated 'Amex membership benefits' experiences for this stuff, it would be wildly valuable for everyone. Your power of reliable curation is vast, and this goes so far beyond just writing.
I think you are missing both huge audience and revenue potential here, for negigible management overhead; and if you wanted to do active event stuff I and others would probably want to help with that besides.
* This is less practical and more personal, so just a heads up: I really want there to be a better distinction in this space between researcher, author, commentator, practitioner, ideologue, influencer, bizperson etc. Nutt: researcher = yes; Pollan: author = yes; you: commentator/pracitioner = yes, etc. Harris. Levin. Et al. And of course people can be many more types than listed, and more at once.
But people are messing this up badly, and it leads to horrible results. Huberman: researcher/influencer = fuck that noise. Nick Cammarata: practitioner/influencer = fuck that creepy noise. Jhourney shit: practitioners/bizpersons = kill with fire.
I'm sure you don't agree with the specific - I don't expect you to - but maybe you can take the point that this a very sensitive area and people I think want stuff they can believe in a rely on, and above all leaders who can be interrogated about their own practices and incentives and flaws here. I don't think there's a version of this that grows properly in the research or journalistic moulds, so this is not about objectivity per se - the limits of Nutt/Pollan IMO - but conversely, these are still highly precise practices and profound subjects.
Just my notes on something very welcome and profound. Thanks.
Hey John! Your thoughts are very much appreciated, thanks for sharing all this. There's a lot I agree with here.
I could have been more specific when I said "I'm not building a community." At the moment, I'm not particularly interested in, say, moderating the equivalent of a Discord and keeping up community conversations, doing a monthly book club, weekly AMA's, etc etc. If there's enough demand for this kind of thing, I could certainly change my mind. Especially because Substack seems to be making it trivially easy, to your point.
However, I am *very interested* in bringing other voices into this particular project as soon as the funding allows. I've got a list of writers I'd love to commission, and I'd really like to bring an editor in. And facilitating conversations between people in this realm is another thing I already love doing, and can imagine many ways it might get folded into this project. Whether that means events, livestreams/podcasts with community participation, who knows. I guess I'm saying that I'm thinking of this as 'solo substack while I have to, micro-magazine when I can,' if that makes sense.
Anyway, your comment is a useful signal, good to know. Hope all is well with you.
I'm an enormous fan of your writing, Oshan, and find myself thinking of points you've made on a daily basis. So excited for this newsletter and for your upcoming podcast series!
Thank you, Annie! This is really nice to hear because it runs both ways — I've *really* enjoyed your writing on the extended mind & it's various implications.
So nice to hear! Thank you!
🦾🔮🪷
All of it resonates! Big fan!
Hey Oshan, I'm considering upgrading to a paid subscription. Hopefully, whatever answers you give to my questions might persuade others.
Before I do upgrade, though, could you give something of an overview of what specific forms of contemplative practice and - not sure what to call it - metaphysics, philosophy, vision, viewpoints - you tend to see as most important
I'm in the middle of looking for high quality research providing at least some quantification regarding the increasing openness to explore contemplative experience over the past 50 years. I have studied in Christian contemplative, Sufi, Zen Buddhist, Vedantic, Tibetan Buddhist and other traditions, though I have been primarily rooted in the integral yoga of Sri Aurobindo for about 50 years.
My wife and I wrote a book on yogic psychology and I shifted from music (pianist/composer) to psychology to gain some expertise in talking and writing about these trends. You can see more in a (very rough) draft on our home page: www.RememberToBe.Life
I read your about page and several posts, but still am wondering about how you see the larger picture (just so you don't work too hard at this, I am inclined already to upgrade to paid but wanted to check first)
Hi Don, thanks for asking about this.
My short answer would just be to recommend you remain a free subscriber for the time being, see how the pieces that come out feel, and if it’s the kind of thing you want to support, or the paywalled material feels particularly interesting, you can always upgrade to paid later on.
In response to your actual question, I’m not sure that I consider some contemplative practices or traditions more important than others. I personally have the most exposure to varieties of Buddhism and Hinduism, and tend to use them as my reference points in writing. I’m particularly interested in the meeting points between contemplative neuroscience and nondual traditions (or, more specifically, the generative conflicts/tensions between them). In terms of how I see the larger picture, I’m still working on that. That’ll be part of what this newsletter works out! (Though I like philosopher Eric Schwitzgebel’s way of putting it: The world is unthinkably weird, and whatever explanation you think makes sense of it all, probably does not).
As a side note, I have a real soft spot for Aurobindo. I’ve spent a fair bit of time in Puducherry, and have stayed at Auroville a number of times (I had my eighth birthday there).
Wonderful. I only last week discovered the brilliant writings of Louis Komjathy on contemplative practice and contemplative science (he has written what may be the standard contemplative practice/science text). If you don't know him, I strongly recommend finding time to look at it (a long book but I think highly worthwhile)
I discovered him after hearing from Devdip Ganguly, who is using Louis' text as a core book in his course on contemplative studies.
What an amazing time we're living in (and how amazing for you to celebrate your 8th birthday in Auroville!
I will definitely continue reading (and enjoying!) your posts and we'll see what happens.