Building a Science of Consciousness

Guided Meditation: Absorption Into Platonic Objects

Oct 18, 2023

This podcast episode explores the phenomenology of absorption into Platonic objects through guided meditation. It emphasizes perspective and the sense of knowing and existence of these objects. The podcast also touches upon the geometry of attention and its effects on one's valence and sense of ease. It explores different types of spaces and analyzes the paradoxical shapes experienced during meditation.

31:22

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Quick takeaways

Attuning to the difference between rendering a Platonic object from a specific point of view and the sense of knowing and existence of that object that arises as we do so.

Exploring how the geometry of attention affects valence and sense of ease for the cultivation of Qualia Mastery.

Deep dives

Exploring Platonic Objects

This meditation guides you to experience and consider various platonic objects. It emphasizes two perspectives: your specific viewpoint on a platonic object and the hypothesized object itself. Starting with a point, it encourages you to explore different ways of perceiving a point and ponder its existence outside space and time. You then move on to experiencing lines, planes, 3D volumes, and moments of spacetime. The meditation further progresses to concrete platonic objects like equilateral triangles, squares, pentagons, and hexagons. Each shape invites you to explore how you perceive and know it, including its sensations, resonances, and manifestations in your experience. The meditation concludes by contemplating 3D objects such as tetrahedrons, cubes, octahedrons, icosahedrons, and dodecahedrons, as well as abstract notions of space and emptiness without points or space itself.

Introduction

4min

Meditation on Platonic Objects

12min

Exploring Platonic Objects and Empty Space

10min

Exploring Different Types of Spaces

2min

Exploring the Effect of Rendering on the Mind and Analyzing Paradoxical Shapes

3min

This meditation explores the phenomenology of absorption into Platonic objects. We delve into what it feels like to imagine, embody, and generate the sense of knowing of classic geometric and mathematical constructs.

One of the main takeaways from this meditation is that we can attune to the difference between (1) how we render a particular instance of a Platonic object and (2) the sense of knowing and existence of that object that arises as we do so.

That is, (1) emphasizes the specific point of view from which a Platonic object (say, a cube) can be apprehended. Each point of view gives rise to, in a way, a completely different experience (cf. Borges’ Funes the Memorious). Namely, the experience of rendering such an object from that particular point of view, with all of the sensory and qualitative features that come along with it. In contrast (2) points to that which remains the same across all of these points of view. Namely, the ways in which holding these objects in one’s attention keeps aspects of our experience invariant (such as the intuitions and resonances that come with each particular Platonic object).

In addition, we also explore how the geometry of attention affects one’s valence and sense of ease, with the goal of naturalizing “Sacred Geometry” for the cultivation of Qualia Mastery.

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