My guest is Sam Harris, Ph.D. Sam earned his bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Stanford University and his doctorate (Ph.D.) in neuroscience from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He is the author of multiple best-selling books and is a world-renowned public-facing intellectual on meditation, consciousness, free will, psychedelics and neuroscience. He is also the creator of Waking Up and the host of the Making Sense podcast. In this episode, we discuss meditation as a route to understanding “the self” and experiencing consciousness, not just changing one’s conscious state. Sam describes several meditation techniques and their benefits, including how meditation fundamentally changes our worldview and how it can be merged seamlessly into daily life. It can help us overcome universal challenges such as distractibility and persistent internal dialogue (“chatter”) to allow for deep contentment and pervasive shifts in our awareness, all while acknowledging the more immediate stress-lowering and memory-improving effects of meditation. We also discuss the therapeutic use of psychedelics and the mechanistic similarities between the benefits of a psychedelic journey and long-term meditation practices. And we discuss the rationale behind Sam’s recent decision to close his social media (Twitter) account. This episode should interest anyone wanting to learn more about the higher-order functions of the brain, the brain-body connection, consciousness and, of course, meditation and why and how to meditate for maximum benefit. Thank you to our sponsors AG1 (Athletic Greens): https://athleticgreens.com/huberman Levels: https://levels.link/huberman WHOOP: https://join.whoop.com/huberman Eight Sleep: https://eightsleep.com/huberman InsideTracker: https://www.insidetracker.com/huberman Supplements from Momentous https://www.livemomentous.com/huberman Huberman Lab Special Offer for Waking Up https://www.wakingup.com/huberman Huberman Lab Premium https://hubermanlab.com/premium Social & Website Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hubermanlab Twitter: https://twitter.com/hubermanlab Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hubermanlab TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@hubermanlab LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-huberman Website: https://hubermanlab.com Newsletter: https://hubermanlab.com/neural-network Dr. Sam Harris Waking Up app: https://www.wakingup.com/huberman Making Sense podcast: https://www.samharris.org/podcasts Website: https://www.samharris.org Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/samharrisorg YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@samharrisorg Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Samharrisorg Books Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion: https://amzn.to/3Z51pIb Making Sense: Conversations on Consciousness, Morality, and the Future of Humanity: https://amzn.to/3CgbIQ3 Timestamps 00:00:00 Dr. Sam Harris 00:04:36 Levels, WHOOP, Eight Sleep, Momentous 00:08:54 Sense of Self & Meditation, Dualism of Self 00:18:07 Sense of Self in Brain & Body 00:25:28 Consciousness vs. Contents, Meditation 00:28:25 Interrupting Sense of Self & Attentional Focus, Visual Saccade 00:33:30 Observer & Actor, Default Mode Network & Meditation, Blind Spot 00:40:48 AG1 (Athletic Greens) 00:41:57 Mediation & Paths to Understanding Consciousness, Non-Dualistic Experience 00:57:32 Sense of Self throughout Evolution 01:07:40 Sense of Self from Human Development, Language 01:18:42 InsideTracker 01:19:46 Internal Dialogue, Distractibility & Mindfulness 01:26:27 Time Perception & Mindfulness, Vipassana Meditation, Resistance & Pain 01:37:13 Consciousness & Sense of Control, Free Will 01:43:14 Authoring Thoughts: Storytelling & Ideas, Free Will 01:52:11 Meditation & the Paradoxical Search for Self 02:06:44 Meditation & Concentration Practice 02:11:58 Mindfulness, “Skylike Mind” & Thoughts 02:15:11 States of Self & Context, Dualistic Experiences 02:32:39 Distraction & Identification of Thoughts, Meditation & “Flow” States 02:42:58 Eyes-Open Meditations, Sense of Self, Visual Cues & Social Interactions 02:54:59 Paths to Meditation, Mindfulness Meditation Step-Functions 03:05:58 Psychedelics, MDMA & Experiences in Consciousness, Religion 03:21:11 Meditation, Psychedelic Journeys & Inner Truths 03:29:48 Psilocybin, Ego-Dissolution & Thought Expansion 03:40:09 Process vs. Achievement of Goals, Fulfillment in Present 03:54:29 Leaving Twitter; Conflict, Life Interruption & Politics 04:06:14 Social Media, Attentional Disruption & Deep Work 04:15:39 Meditation & Sense of Self 04:19:02 Sam Harris & Waking Up App, Zero-Cost Support, YouTube Feedback, Spotify & Apple Reviews, Sponsors, Momentous, Social Media, Neural Network Newsletter Disclaimer: https://hubermanlab.com/disclaimer