The Tyranny of the Intentional Object: Universal Addictions, Meaning Abuse, and Denied Self-Insights

In this episode, we explore the difference between happiness and meaning, and why so many people believe that meaning is better than happiness. We discuss the concept of "the tyranny of the intentional object", which refers to the tendency for the mind to believe that what it wants is semantically meaningful experiences. In reality, what we want under the surface is to avoid negative valence and achieve sustainable positive valence states of consciousness. We explain how evolution has "hooked us" on particular sources of pleasure in such a way that this is not introspectively accessible to us, and how this often results in us failing to recognize our own addictive tendencies. We also provide our current thoughts on the nature of meaning, explaining that it is made of "felt-senses" that have particular properties, such as high levels of intention, coherence of attention field lines, and a high potential to affect valence. We caution against meaning abuse, and advise listeners to take advantage of opportunities for high levels of meaning, but not to rely on them and think they are universal.