Ep. 36 - Awakening from the Meaning Crisis - Religio/Perennial Problems/Reverse Eng. Enlightenment

In this episode of "Awakening from the Meaning Crisis," Dr. Vervaeke continues his exploration of sacredness and symbols, defining symbols as participatory acts that activate profound metaphors, leading to a deeper understanding of reality through re-exaptation. He proposes understanding symbols as mythos connected to ritual, which can activate religio and relevance realization. Dr. Vervaeke critiques the idea of sacredness as an inherent, essential relevance, suggesting instead that it stems from the inexhaustible aspects of reality and our processing of it. He discusses the indispensability of certain symbols and mythos for individuals while cautioning against confusing this with metaphysical necessity or supernatural origins. The episode transitions to addressing the meaning crisis by understanding the machinery of connectedness and disconnecting it from metaphysical essentialism, aiming for integration with science. Dr. Vervaeke outlines future directions, including addressing historical factors and perennial problems, with the goal of reverse-engineering enlightenment as a means to ameliorate these problems through practices and processes.