Binding contrast into paradox, Alan takes us on a journey through the psychology of mystical experience in relation to life and death, followed by a jaunt through the power of nothingness.In this episode of Being in the Way, Mark Watts opens the door to the vault, introducing two rare recordings from his father, Alan Watts. The first lecture, entitled Psychology of Mystical Experience, stems from March 5th, 1972 at San Jose State exploring the paradox of life and death. Recorded on Alan's infamous houseboat in Sausalito, the second talk, Nothingness, highlights the inseparable oneness of contrasts, like form and formlessness.Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/alanThis series is made in partnership with the Alan Watts Organization. Discover the official Alan Watts archive at alanwatts.org"Nothing is what brings something into focus." – Alan WattsSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This time on the Being in the Way podcast, Alan Watts explores the concepts of identity and consciousness, looking at the role we play in the greater 'Cosmic Drama'. Before the talk from Alan, we invite you to listen to an insightful conversation between Mark Watts and his guest, Cory Allen, about getting in touch with the core ideas of Alan Watts’ teachings.Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/alanThis series is made in partnership with the Alan Watts Organization. Discover the official Alan Watts archive at alanwatts.orgCory Allen is an author, mindfulness teacher, and music producer. He uses his podcast The Astral Hustle to ask leading experts in mindfulness, neuroscience, music, and philosophy to share their wisdom. Check out his book titled Now Is the Way and his online meditation course called Release into Now. “All sentient beings are God in disguise.” - Alan WattsSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ram Dass joins Alan for a look at the tools that the Bhagavad Gita offers us to face life's challenges head-on.Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/alanThis series is made in partnership with the Alan Watts Organization. Discover the official Alan Watts archive at alanwatts.orgSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Alan Watts explores the 'veil of thoughts' in money, civilization & progress; before shifting gears to the 'divine madness' of marriage & falling in love.Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/alanThis series is made in partnership with the Alan Watts Organization. Discover the official Alan Watts archive at alanwatts.org“If you say that getting the money is the most important thing, you will spend your life completely wasting your time. You’ll be doing things you don’t like doing in order to go on living; that is, to go on doing things you don’t like doing—which is stupid. Better to have a short life that is full of what you like doing, than a long life spent in a miserable way.” – Alan WattsSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Illuminating the truth of the relationship between awareness and self, Alan Watts naturally opens us to the inevitable ecstasy of surrender.Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/alanThis series is made in partnership with the Alan Watts Organization. Discover the official Alan Watts archive at alanwatts.org"There are states of consciousness in which you can listen to sound and realize that is the whole point of being alive, just to go with this particular energy manifestation that is happening right at this moment—to be it. The whole world is the energy playing, doing all this, like a kaleidoscope jazzing." – Alan WattsSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this intimate session, Alan Watts shares distinctive philosophical vantage points outlining humankind's relationship to nature.Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/alanWelcoming listeners into a seminar session from SMU in 1965, Mark introduces the pivotal Alan Watts lecture, 'Man and Nature,' which he describes as one of his father's most engaging talks, positively focused on ecology and our relationship with the natural world and ecosphere.This series is made in partnership with the Alan Watts Organization. Discover the official Alan Watts archive at alanwatts.orgToday's talk comes from the Tao of Philosophy from Mark's specially curated Alan Watts Essential Lectures CollectionSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Can you get mysticism in a bottle? Alan Watts explores the drug question, in this psychedelically infused episode of Being in the Way.Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/alanIn this talk at San Jose State during the counterculture bloom and LSD peak of the mid-1960s, Alan shares a nuanced and well-rounded approach to the psychedelic experience, sharing personal antidotes of his first two LSD trips, as well as outlining the benefits and pitfalls of taking drugs on both cultural and spiritual levels.This series is made in partnership with the Alan Watts Organization. Discover the official Alan Watts archive at alanwatts.orgSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In 'On Being God,' Alan shares on therapy, religion, mystical experiences, & Jesus, before playing the hilarious and light-shedding role of a clinical patient who realizes they're God.Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/alanFollowing in the fashion of the last episode (Zen Bones), Mark Watts introduces another big-hall presentation from Alan Watts which creatively and colorfully explores western therapy and religion in relationship to the eastern mystical or altered state experience. This talk, aptly titled, 'On Being God,' was recorded in 1971 in New York City at a conference for western therapy and eastern religion, and features a unique experiment in which Alan positions himself as a clinical patient who believes themself to be God, giving way to lively, hilarious, and enlightening responses to a stream of audience questions.This series is made in partnership with the Alan Watts Organization. Discover the official Alan Watts archive at alanwatts.orgSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Alan Watts illuminates the nuances of Zen and the Unspeakable World in this dynamic 'Zen Bones' talk adorned with Buddhist chanting, chimes, and gongs.Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/alanMark Watts introduces a classic talk entitled, 'Zen Bones,' a remarkable public lecture that Alan gave in 1967 at the Avalon Ballroom (usually the scene of wild rock concerts) for a 'Zen-efit' put on by the San Fransisco Zen Center to raise money to purchase Tassajara – a remote Zen center in the mountains of Big Sur. Diverting this week from the 'small-audience' seminar and workshop recordings of our first few podcasts, this episode marks Alan's first 'big hall' recording on Being in the Way, fittingly opened by the dynamic resonance of chanting Buddhist monks, chimes, and gongs.This series is made in partnership with the Alan Watts Organization. Discover the official Alan Watts archive at alanwatts.orgSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Uncovering how we arise mutually with all things, Alan Watts examines our place in the universe and how very natural it is to be human.Today's podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/alanContinuing the last episode's dharma talk on Taoism, relativity, and the connections between you and not-you; Mark introduces part two of his father's classic talk, Being in the Way – a fundamental lecture by Alan explaining mutual arising within the context of a human-populated, yet ever-changing universe.This series is made in partnership with the Alan Watts Organization. Discover the official Alan Watts archive at alanwatts.org"You can be untaught. In other words, your mind can be wiped clean, and you can experience yourself as a whirlpool of energy in a stream which is the Tao, which is the total course of nature, the energy field of the whole cosmos." – Alan WattsSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.