#8 Oshan Jarow - Towards a General Theory of Spirituality

Welcome back to The Trip Report Podcast, a production of Beckley Waves, a psychedelic venture studio.

Today, we are speaking with Oshan Jarow.

Oshan is a writer, podcaster, and a fellow at Vox Media’s Future Perfect, a division focused on covering the crucially important issues that are often under-reported.

In this role, Oshan writes about the intersection of economics and the contemplative sciences–this includes things like psychedelics, meditation, and as we get into some depth, the emerging science of the mind. 

I’ve been following Oshan’s work for a few years, but a recent essay in Vox titled “The psychedelic renaissance is at risk of missing the bigger picture” prompted me to invite him on The Trip Report Podcast.

At the time of its publication, I noted that it is one of the best summaries of the dynamics at play in the psychedelic space that I have ever seen.

But it is Oshan’s essay, titled “A General Theory of Spirituality” that got me excited to speak with him. As we discuss, there is a bit of a scientific revolution afoot at the intersection of modern neuroscience and the spiritual and contemplative traditions of the past.

This is the first in what I believe will be a series of episodes with writers, scientists, and meditators that will explore this rich field at the intersection of spiritual insight, psychedelic states and the emerging model of the brain and mind: the predictive processing framework.

Also, in this episode, we discuss:

* The connection between a society’s economic incentives and the effect on individuals’ subjective experience and well-being;

* The potential of psychedelics for spiritual practice and the betterment of the well;

* The concept of entropy and functional integration of neural pathways and the effect of psychedelics on these parameters; and

* The free energy principle, predictive processing, and a General Theory of Spirituality.

And without further ado, I bring you my conversation with Oshan Jarow.

Listen to the episode on Substack, Spotify, Google or Apple.

Credits:

* Hosted by Zach Haigney 

* Produced by Zach Haigney, Erin Greenhouse, and Katelin Jabbari

* Find us at thetripreport.com

* Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube

* Theme music by MANCHO Sounds, Mixed and Mastered by Rollin Weary