Ep. 36 – Seeing through The Net

In this new, technological age, Alan Watts explains how seeing reality via only one perspective can lead to a fragmented view of the world; instead, he encourages listeners to adopt both the analytical and the organic.

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In this episode, Alan Watts dives into:

• Living in an age of technology in a culture obsessed with rational control
• How someone can easily be obstructed by their own cautiousness
• The problem of human ecology and how one should best relate to their environment
• Considering what our idea of heaven is and what desires we truly want
• The western model of the universe (intellectual, architectural, mechanical)
• Reductive thinking: seeing the world through a net and making everything into a comprehensible, geometrical unit
• The fundamental difference between a mechanism and an organism
• How understanding the world through only conscious attention can lead to seeing everything as parts rather than the whole picture
• Combining the academic, analytical mind with the organic, ‘gooey’ mind

“Go to the science of medicine. You get a specialist who really understands the function of the gall bladder. He studied gall bladders ad infinitum, and he really thinks he knows all about it. But, whenever he looks at a human being, he sees them in terms of the gall bladder.” – Alan Watts

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