Alan Watts

[Mudhammam]

Ha ha, Platonic shit. I appreciate this post, Cato. I don't think I could agree more with everything you said here, or stated it better. I also think panpsychism is totally wrong, but I have read essays on it that I can appreciate, if only because the person is thinking outside the box and is able to make it sound plausible. There's a lot we don't know about mind's relationship to matter, I would say, and science often benefits from ideas that initially seem totally outrageous. I'm not trying to sound like I'm a Watts "fan," because I don't consider myself one by any means, but I do tend to think important insights can go ignored when we simply disregard something as woo because it feels counterintuitive or sounds strange---that's not to single you out, but I mean in general; I think it was Sam Harris who said, to paraphrase, that the scientific community unfairly minimizes the value of exploring certain mystical experiences because the language is vague, but these ideas ARE often difficult to capture in cut and dry terms.