The Vertical Dimension and Altered States

Can we decolonize reality itself?

Rushkoff is joined by Jeffrey Kripal, Associate Dean and Professor at Rice University, to discuss his book The Superhumanities: Historical Precedents, Moral Objections, New Realities Kripal argues that by stripping away the impossible parts of our history - visions, precognition, and altered states - we have essentially lobotomized the humanities, leaving us with a depressing, purely political version of ourselves.

Together, they explore:

• The Secular Flatland: Moving beyond a strictly materialist worldview that reduces human beings to data points.
• The Vertical Dimension: Why extraordinary experiences are more common than we admit and how they serve as a first-person way of knowing the world.
• The Marketing Problem: Why the humanities should embrace the "Superhuman" to reclaim their transformative, ecstatic power.
• Reality Hacking: How literature and art function as non-specific amplifiers for consciousness.

It’s time to put the weird back on the table and acknowledge that the human experience is far more fantastic than our current systems allow.

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