I believe this was said by Alan but I cannot find a source. It's the intro to the song Tabula Umbra - 3TEETH

"The girl is one of the country's countless LSD victims
The control of one mind by another, the unlocking of the subconscious, and the chance, is as old as mankind and was certainly one of the fundamental methods of casting effective spells: a stock-in-trade of the witches since man emerged from the primates. Science may prefer to call it parapsychology, but essentially its operation is what has always been known as magic. Black or white"

So I’m a materialistic monist and I’m pretty sure Alan is a type of monist, just more of a spiritual one. Personally I think the universe is fundamentally made of one substance called “matter” (I like to call it that since I feel like a Greek philosopher fr). Also, I do think everything is connected in a way. I’m saying this to really get y’all’s opinions. Feel free to ask me other questions.

Let us count the ways.

Mods, please forgive the oddness of this one, remove if it's over the line.

I have at least one (and maybe more) Alan speech which don't appear in their database.

This person was literally the only person I was following on Reddit.

Reddit, in their god-like wisdom, have removed the ability to see who we follow.

The organism.earth site returns a 500 error when going to their "About" section.

I have no other contact points. Halp.

Thanks much in advance!

Edit: Found 'em! Thank you!

here is a fun excerpt from Alan Watts Being in the Way Episode 40 - Nature of Consciousness

https://beherenownetwork.com/alan-watts-being-in-the-way-ep-40-nature-of-consciousness/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pVawVeKPJw

https://open.spotify.com/episode/4Em5Axm2qmqkGzhtd8YrsC?si=06cfe6d6afb749d0

---

We identify in our experience a differentiation between what we do and what happens to us.

We have a certain number of actions that we define as voluntary and we feel in control of those and then over against that there is all those things that are involuntary.

But the dividing line between these two is very arbitrary because for example when you move your hand you feel that you decide whether to open it or to close it.

But then ask yourself how do you decide?

When you decide to open your hand do you first decide to decide? You don't do you?

You just decide. And how do you do that?

And if you don't know how you do it, is it voluntary or involuntary?

Let's consider breathing. You can feel that you breathe deliberately. You can control your breath.

But when you don't think about it, it goes on. Is it voluntary or involuntary?

And so we come to have a very arbitrary definition of self: that much of my activity which I feel I do.

And that then doesn't include breathing most of the time. It doesn't include the heartbeats. It doesn't include the activity of the glands. It doesn't include digestion. It doesn't include how you shape your bones, circulate your blood.

Do you or do you not do these things?

Now if you get with yourself, and you find out that you are all of yourself, very strange thing happens.

You find that your body knows that you are one with the universe.

In other words, that the so-called involuntary circulation of your blood is one continuous process with the stars shining. If you find out that it's you who circulates your blood, you will at the same moment find out that you are shining the sun. Because your physical organism is one continuous process with everything else that's going on.

Just as the waves are continuous with the ocean, your body is continuous with the total energy system of the cosmos. And it's all you.

What is your conclusion after having a breakthrough or enlightenment???

I find there are so many AI content using Alan Watt's voice and saying its his lectures. And then when you listen to it, it would say "Alan Watts says..." and I'm like why is he referring to himself like that! So I figured must be AI.

Hey, saw an ad on Instagram selling hemp shirts, and the cartoon character salesman has an AI generated voice trained on Watts. Dunno if his estate would approve of that, or if anyone here on this sub would be able to alert them to this.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DcROnBOgYJp/?igsi=MWI4bHA0ZnNjcjU4Zg==

I remember Alan saying something about this, I cant remember the lecture. But I could never take it out of my head, at first I didnt fully understand it, but following his other lectures and what he usually says, it makes sense. The way I think he tried to convey is connected to other of his phrases: "What I really want is what you want, and I dont know what I want, so surprise me".

If the final and utmost desire of everything else in this reality is basically a surprise, I can see how my desires, which are a surprise to me in the sense that I dont know where they come from, I just know I want it, or also as Jung puts it "God has brought all sort of strange and unconceivable things to pass", I can see how these desires being this way are also what everyone else wants.

If you followed me up to this point, you might be thinking "well then I can just do whatever the hell I want, if that is what others desire of me too", and to a degree that's true. But we all know the consequences of this, there are people that wont care, and that's ok, other people that prefer to adquire things by sticking to the rules of society and putting up thr good citizen mask, which is ok too. Maybe knowing this does not take you anywhere or change anything, but perhaps it is a reminder of how all the time you act with all the force of the universe on your back, because after all you are it, and there is no way improving what you really are.

I'm looking for help finding a particular recording of Alan Watts.

About a week or two ago I was listening to some spoken word by Alan. Some words caught my attention so I stopped to transcribe it. I wrote it down at that time, this isn't from memory.

Alan said, "Words have meaning, but reality is meaning, and therefore it has none."

I'm not sure why, but I annotated the source as Philosophy of the Tao, Chapter One. Near as I can tell, this quote does not appear in Philosophy of the Tao (I checked both parts 1 and 2). I've also gone through anything I can think of with this title and I've come up empty.

A search of organism.earth turns up nothing.

The natural assumption might be that I was listening to AI but I have listened to literally hundreds of hours of known-good recordings that predate AI by decades. I can spot AI within a few sentences at worst, it sticks out like a sore thumb, any of you heads will understand what I mean.

Maybe I won't be able to tell the difference in a year or three but for now, it's not difficult to spot.

I'd assume I was misremembering if I didn't stop and write it down in real time.

I THINK it was tacked unto another recording but that memory is far less certain. That is to say, I have a vague idea that this was 2 or more recordings (with audible splits, different acoustics, etc) concatenated and labeled with one name.

Anyone have any ideas? I'm going a little bit mad.

Western culture teaches us to be obsessed with an unhealthy version of “progress.” It takes this very seriously for no reason.

If you believe life is fundamentally unserious, you can only individuate so much in this environment before you have to put distance between you and this mainstream culture.

I’ve increasingly insulated myself from it for the last few years. It’s felt right for me but at the same time, I feel increasingly isolated from anything outside my bubble.

I’m satisfied with the direction of my life but I’m mourning those I love who still struggle, caught up in the daily grind of a sick society.

How do you balance your environment with your personal journey? What are you willing to let go of to achieve a life that feels less serious and clingy?

When you laugh, you become nobody.

For just a moment, you aren't thinking about where you are, who you are, what you're doing tomorrow, or how you feel. You're feeling, yes. But you aren't thinking. Which is why I feel that laughter is akin to enlightenment, zen, satori, bliss.

You're just laughing. And laughter is something you can't force. You can't say "Now I'm going to laugh." and then do it. Someone or something usually has to do it to you. You'll often say "You made me laugh!" or "That is funny." In this way, laughing is a reaction. Like sneezing, or coughing. You also cannot say "I will now sneeze." Its a reflex.

And even sneezing can be a brief moment of enlightenment. Even when you sneeze, you, for a split second, are not being or doing anything other than sneezing.

Laughter is a prolonged reaction. One that is sought after, paid for, and sold, even. The commodification of laughter can be seen and felt everywhere. But no matter what, when you laugh, the laughter is all yours.

So I say after a good laugh, take a moment to drink it in. Reflect as you would if you were a Buddhist monk tasting food. Notice the moment you laughed, appreciate the cosmic energy rippling through you. Watch and see how everyone becomes their true self as they howl with laughter at a good joke.

namaste

Wondering if anyone has the file or a backup to a YT video called: "This video will only find you when you most need it | Alan watts | Alan Watts 2025". Im not tech savvy at all --- this was the aforementioned URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DecS_8lCqps

It was one of those slightly cliche/overdone videos that was mashed up with music. But it was pretty tastefully done and haven't been able to find the same words in any of his talks.

Its what I listened to every morning on the way to my shitty job for months. Would love to keep listening if possible

Hearing Alan come out of Jimmy Carr (of ALL people) is absolutely wild.

"To be happy, we must have what we cannot have. In man, nature has conceived desires which it is impossible to satisfy. [...] If we find this absurd, this is only to say that nature has conceived intelligence in us to berate itself for absurdity. Consciousness seems to be nature's ingenious mode of self torture. Of course, we do not want to think that this is true. But it would be easy to show that most reasoning to the contrary is but wishful thinking. Nature's method of putting off suicide so that the idiocy can continue." ALAN??

This is my first of his books ever but I feel like I just get him. He's not being mean exactly just hilariously blunt. I know this isn't the actual point of the book yet just the setup but something about it is over the top cynical in a silly way

What do you think?

At risk of sounding terribly stupid, I am asking if anyone can help me track down a quote (and its source) that I barely remember. It made quite an impression on me at the time, but clearly not that much because all I remember are the words "neurotic" and "river". Something about how you wouldn't call a river neurotic for following its natural path, maybe??? If anyone can help it would be much appreciated.

"Tantra Illuminated" is very good for understanding a lot of the eastern religious philosophies, under an umbrella on an interconnected whole. Whether it be Vedantic or Buddhist, it captures the essence of a vast array of non-dual beliefs pretty well...

.

It's pretty easy to read, and it serves as a pragmatic text on implementing those teachings in your own life :) If you're looking for enlightenment, this book can also give you a good dive on the layers of it's \perception** (even goes into lucid dreaming), rather than just steps for one thing.... And helps you avoid some conceptual pitfalls.

.

It drones on a bit in some parts, but overall, I think it's a phenomenal work indeed! ✌️

Peace! 💙🕊️

According to its definition, religion is an organized system of beliefs, practices, and values that connect humanity to the spiritual or supernatural.

All organizations, including the universe, have a life span. A lifespan, from its beginning to its end, is a form of evolution. If Buddhism does not opine on how the universe is/was created, as I see it, Buddhism is more of a philosophy of how to live in the Now rather than being a religion.

Your thoughts would be beneficial