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RealEyesRealizeRealLies's avatar

When was the last time you listened to Alan Watts?

Asked by RealEyesRealizeRealLies (30951points) May 4th, 2014
11 responses
“Great Question” (2points)

I don’t agree with everything this guy says. But I love hearing him talk about the things I’m interested in.

As an alternative to scientific research, Alan Watts presents his views on The Nature of Consciousness. Keep in mind that Alan, as a Buddhist teaching the Tao, when he speaks of Jesus, God, the Maker, etc… that he is speaking metaphorically, to illustrate similar principles of The Word.

An hour long presentation with a beautiful screensaver.

Do you ever listen to Alan Watts, or others? Who are your favorite non scientific teachers? I would say Timothy Leary and Terrence McKenna, but they are both scientists, with much research to present.

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Answers

Berserker's avatar

Not since wolves stole me from my human parents.

Dan_Lyons's avatar

@Symbeline haha I saw that answer on your q about forest…oho
@RealEyesRealizeRealLies is the one who gave that answer hahaha

Sorry, I was distracted.

It’s funny you should ask this. I just met a woman who turned me onto Alan Watts Am I Free Or Just A Puppet. Just last week i watched it.

Turns out Leary was a bit of a prick, from what Ken Kesey had to say about him in Electric Kool Aid Acid Test

Berserker's avatar

ohohohoho

Espiritus_Corvus's avatar

A couple of years ago. I had all his Sausalito lectures on disk for nostalgia purposes because I’d sat in on a few back in the day and, in the interim, my life had become so conventional. He had a piece of land up in Marin County, just across the Golden Gate bridge from San Francisco. He had a credited lecture course, Comparative Religions or something, for a few semesters up there for UC Berkeley, but everyone was welcome. He had guests such as Joseph Campbell, Jean Erdman, and Joan Hallifax. I remember Campbell and Watts were funny as hell together. They made a great comedy team. Watts had a helluva sense of humor all by himself, and it comes out every once in awhile in this lecture series.

RealEyesRealizeRealLies's avatar

And now we come full circle. Thanks for the tip on Joseph Campbell @Espiritus_Corvus. It lead me to find this series appropriate for @Symbeline‘s question yesterday…

Alan Watts- On Joseph Campbell- Return to the Forest

I’ll be listening to this all day, after @Dan_Lyons link above. Funny how things never change. The stuff he speaks of in the 70’s is exactly what we suffer today. Got to love Alan’s voice man.

Espiritus_Corvus's avatar

A mesmerizing voice, an incredible mind. He had Richard Alpert up there once and the place was suddenly packed with cute little hippie girls. Everyone had a copy of Be Here Now on their dorm room bookshelf, right next to the Whole Earth Catalogue. Unbeknownst to all of us, though, poor Alan was secretly drinking himself to death. Very sad. I wonder what heights he’d have taken us if he hadn’t been anesthetized by his own hand.

RealEyesRealizeRealLies's avatar

Perhaps Alan took us as high as he, himself, could, before melting his wings in the sun.

Espiritus_Corvus's avatar

An excellent metaphor.

Strauss's avatar

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies Thanks for the link. I sometimes catch his lectures on KGNU if I happen to be running errands on Tuesday mornings. I will definitely be visiting your link. For anyone interested, here is a link to the “official” Alan Watts website.

Paradox25's avatar

I had never heard of him before viewing some of that video, and then reading a bit about him after watching it. The entity (or should I say whose words) I hold in the highest regards is someone named Silver Birch, an alleged higher spiritual entity who communicated through the lesser known trance medium Maurice Barbanell.

Silver Birch’s teachings are similar to the philosophy of Alan Watts, including those pertaining to happiness, altruism, empathy, the nature of consciousness, reductionist science, ‘God’, religion, etc. It’s all about being more spiritual, but less religious.

Generally I’m more interested in research concerning spiritual matters over philosophy, but I do hold the philosophies in highest regards that appear to match the research of the likes of Robert Monroe, Arthur Findlay, Sir Conan Doyle, Dr. Robert Crookall and the like.

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