I just finished one of the best books
I've ever read which is waking up by
self-proclaimed atheist sam harris who
has found spirituality while still being
atheists stay tuned as we discuss this
book what's up everybody this is Chris
from the rewired soul where we talk
about the problem but focus on the
solution and in this video I'm going to
be reviewing this book waking up by Sam
Harris I read a ton of books and with
these books I read it's how I make a lot
of these videos I try to share this
information with you to help you out
with your mental and emotional
well-being so make sure you check out
the description if you're interested in
this book there will be a link and if
you buy the book with that link it helps
support the channel I get a little dough
off of it but also there will also be a
link to my full reading list but anyways
this book was absolutely amazing well my
best friend has been telling me like you
gotta check out ok I will check out Sam
Harris and I'm so glad that she made me
check them out because this is literally
one of the best books I've ever read in
my life I love it and one of the reasons
why is because I often explain to people
and I tell them I'm like I'm spiritual
but I'm not religious and Sam Harris
even touches on this in his book he says
when you tell people that you often get
disturbing looks from both sides right
from religious people as well as
atheists but there is a reason why one
of the things that Sam Harris starts
this book off with he talks about how
the English language or even modern
times has kind of altered what
spirituality actually means chances are
if you're watching this you might have
immediately equated spirituality to a
religion right there's a lot of people
who didn't even click on this video
because when they heard hear the word
spirituality they immediately think of
religion and that's not the case
something that sam harris talks about in
his book is that spirit actually comes
from the latin word breath that's it and
spirituality all spirituality is
is an inward investigation of the mind
as well as its consciousness and through
that we begin to find freedom and more
truths about you know our perception of
what reality is so this is what people
who meditate have been doing for years
is this kind of inward kind of a
diagnosis of the human condition and of
the mind so many of us are running on
this autopilot and we don't even
understand that we're we're running off
of these core beliefs that have been
implanted in us by you know our parents
or society and a lot of things based on
our happiness or because of these things
and when we meditate and we slow down
and we do this inward reflection we
start to find the truths about things
for example oh wait I'm not ugly I just
have this false idea of what I think a
guy my age and my type should look like
you see what I mean oh wait I don't need
all this money I just think I need this
money so I can buy things to impress
people
so spirituality is really diving in to
ourselves and seeing what's going on so
one of the one of my favorite quotes
from this book and yes like if any of
you have been watching my channel I do
audiobooks so when I say read I'm
actually listening but here's one of my
favorite quotes right here thinking is
indispensable to us
it is essential for belief formation
planning explicit learning moral
reasoning and many other capacities that
make us human thinking is the basis of
every social relationship and cultural
institution we have it is also the
foundation of science but our habitual
identification with thought that is our
failure to recognize thoughts as
thoughts as appearances in consciousness
is a primary source of human suffering
it also gives rise to the illusion that
a separate self is living inside one's
head all right so that was towards the
beginning of the book and this is
something that I talked about in another
video which I will link in the info card
above but we identify too closely with
our thoughts and that leads to suffering
we have this idea one of the biggest
myths
now we have is that there is some kind
of internal self sitting in our head
there is there is this king there's this
CEO this is there is this operator and
we are in charge of all of our own
thoughts and what Sam Harris says like
in this part of the book he says go
ahead and stop pause this book for 60
seconds and do nothing but focus on your
breath do not think for 60 seconds right
and a lot of people especially novice
meditators you're gonna see the thoughts
just start popping up popping up popping
up and that's completely normal so in
actuality we're not in control of our
own thoughts and what meditation does is
helps us just start sitting back and
watching these thoughts so throughout
this book sam harris he talks about his
experience his first experience was
actually when he did MDMA and that's
when he first had a spiritual experience
and he's like whoa i really want to
start checking out the inner workings of
the mind and what he came to realize is
that he didn't need psychedelics to do
this one of my other favorite quotes in
this book that I'm gonna do another more
in-depth video on is that he says
something along the lines that
psychedelics are like a missile without
a guidance system so when you do
psychedelics you might have a spiritual
experience and some kind of awakening
and a little bit of a might man but
there are people who have quote-unquote
bad trips and all psychedelics are doing
they're tapping into parts of the brain
that are already there that's all that
these drugs are doing so when people
talk to me because some of you know that
I'm in recovery when people talk to me
about how they want to do these certain
things to find their spirituality like
it's a very slippery slope for addicts
and alcoholics right so I try to teach
them that anything that a drug produces
you can find through meditation any
experience that somebody's had with
psychedelics you will find identical
experience is with people who have
meditated okay but anyways I absolutely
love this book and because it's all
about spirituality with without religion
for any of you addicts and recovery out
there one of the main reasons one of the
main
reasons that people do not get involved
with 12-step programs is because they
have a hard time differentiating the
difference between spirituality and
religion right like I was telling my
clients today after I finish this book I
said if it was up to me this book would
be required for everybody to read when
they came into treatment I honestly
believe that anybody who is trying to
get sober or even if you're in early
recovery and they're struggling with
things I honestly think that you have to
read this book like if an atheist can
find spirituality and still be an
atheist then it's something that you
should definitely check into but even
somebody out there like you who is not
in recovery or you don't have an
addiction you just struggle with anxiety
or depression or other emotional issues
or traumatic past any of these things
right spirituality is something that can
help you out because like I said all it
is is an inward investigation and Sam
Harris is a very very very good job of
talking about the pros and cons he talks
about the different situations in which
you should start meditating or if you
have certain forms of mental illness
like schizophrenia it may be best to
talk to your psychiatrist first or
psychologist first like he he does a
very good job of talking about like the
honest pros and cons even points out
some different gurus and people who have
done the wrong things when it comes to
gaining a spiritual following he's just
extremely honest and extremely
transparent I love that in a book
because you know the author isn't trying
to push any type of agenda I feel by the
time of by the time I ended this book
that Sam Harris legitimately all he
wants to do is help people understand
this and realize that this is something
that is available to anybody and
everybody the last boat from this book
that I will share with you that
hopefully sells you on picking this book
up and checking out is this quote right
here and he says confusion and suffering
may be our birthright but wisdom and
half
enos are available and that is so true
so I highly recommend that you check
this book out again it's waking up by
Sam Harris there is a link down in the
description below as well as another
link to my entire reading list which is
over at the rewired soul comm so feel
free to check it out but anyways if you
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next time
