Yogi Hendlin (Part 2) - Shifting Individual & Corporate Values: Acknowledging Our Sensitivity & Interconnectedness in an Age of Corporate Malfeasance & Forever Chemicals

Ep. 129 (Part 2 of 2) | Environmental philosopher, public health scientist, and corporate malfeasance researcher Dr. Yogi Hendlin is dedicated to understanding, communicating, and addressing the psychological, social, political, and economic barriers that keep us from treading a solid path toward sustainability. One of the areas Yogi is extremely knowledgeable about is the dynamics and drivers of corporate decision making. An underlying belief that the planet is indestructible makes it okay to prioritize profit above global health, or companies may find themselves in a double bind where they would actually prefer to be more strictly regulated but that would mean corporate suicide unless their entire industry was regulated. Interestingly, Yogi has found that learned helplessness operates at all levels of power in inverse relation to actual power and responsibility, citing how some of the most powerful people in the world are saying, “What can I do?” when Indigenous groups with very few resources find ways to thrive in a sustainable way.

Yogi points out that changing the world is not an event but a process—and delves into how we can make real changes to get off the destructive path we are on, overshooting the limits of our biosphere on every metric. We can create circuit breakers for our habitual, counterproductive routines, we can cultivate skillful communication that allows our defense mechanisms to drop away, we can recognize our fundamental need for community and connection, and we can use spiritual practice and psychedelics to help us regain a sense of wonder and reverence for life. Yogi believes that decolonization and creating ecologies of discourse that reward honesty, vulnerability, admitting mistakes, and asking for help is the way forward. This is an earnest, thought provoking, heartfelt, and inspiring discussion of the way things are, the barriers to change, and hope for the future. Recorded January 11, 2024.

“All human beings have a fundamental capacity for change and growth, evolution and divinity.”

Topics & Time Stamps – Part 2

• Decolonizing the psychedelic renaissance: protecting the sacraments & cultural traditions that have been part of psychedelic use for millenia (00:45)
• Psychoplastogens and the theory that one can engineer a psychedelic trip to fit a 1-hr therapy session (02:21)
• Ensuring low abuse liability for all our experiences: community and connection are the best way to do this (05:19)
• The skillful use of psychedelics: including them as part of a larger spiritual practice and the trap of thinking the psychedelic is doing “it” (08:25)
• Future holiness: psychedelics can help pull us toward the future we know in our hearts is possible; but there are many spiritual paths to help us evolve (11:29)
• The Buddhist parable of looking for water (14:14)
• Changing the world is much more than just an event (15:45) 
• Our systems are all based on efficiency of the wrong kind—we need to learn how our actions affect others (17:12)
• What are Yogi’s spiritual practices? Vipassana, Buddhist meditation/Taoism, Indigenous practices & ceremonies & more (21:27)
• A lot of people who are challenging dominant narratives feel lonely (25:45)
• Stepping up compassion and learning how to be a better communicator & disarm defense mechanisms in others (29:58)
• Allowing individuals as well as corporations to “save face” (33:11)
• Creating ecologies of discourse: rewarding honesty, vulnerability, and admitting mistakes (33:50)
• The value of systems theory and the need for multifaceted responses to get out of our dysfunctional matrix (36:16)
• “I’m going to always root for solutions that work for everybody, because I understand that the moment we start the us/them demonization thing, we’ve already lost the battle.” (38:33)

Resources & References – Part 2

• Joanna Moncrieff & Mark Horowitz, Depression is probably not caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain – new study (The Conversation)
• Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
• Roger Walsh, Higher Wisdom: Eminent Elders Explore the Continuing Impact of Psychedelics*
• Arundhati Roy, “Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day I can hear her breathing.”
• Mitákuye Oyás’iŋ (All Are Related)
• Neil Gaiman, American Gods*
• Philip Shepherd, Radical Wholeness: The Embodied Present and the Ordinary Grace of Being*
• Starhawk, The Fifth Sacred Thing*
• Yogi Hendlin’s website: https://www.yogihendlin.com/,
• Yogi Hendlin, Assistant Professor, Erasmus School of Philosophy; Core Faculty, Dynamics of Inclusive Prosperity Initiative, Erasmus University, Rotterdam; Research Associate, Environmental Health Initiative, University of California, San Francisco
• Yogi Hendlin, editor-in-chief, Biosemiotics

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Yogi Hale Hendlin is a professor in environmental philosophy and public health at Erasmus University Rotterdam and the University of California, San Francisco. Editor-in-Chief of the journal Biosemiotics, Yogi’s work explores the various ways in which industrialization has supercharged the illusion of separation and control as viable solutions, and instead harkens to the various ways traditional peoples have developed cultural practices from ecologies conducive to integral communities.

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Podcast produced by Vanessa Santos and Show Notes by Heidi Mitchell