EP006: The Beginnings of a Red Pill — Meditation as a Tool to Break Systemic Indoctrination

A basic realization that comes from any somewhat serious meditation practice is that your mind is naturally multifaceted, wonderful, flawed, and idiosyncratic. Another insight quickly follows that all other humans have equally non-binary, wonderful, flawed, and idiosyncratic minds.

 

Meditation has the natural side-effect of enabling the possibility of peaceful opposing beliefs, and shrinking the divide between ‘us’ and ‘them.’

 

Last episode, we discussed the competitive, one-sided, optimized-for-profit nature of the tech industry and the tools it produced to perpetuate its own wealth.

 

Knowing that meditation has garnered a substantial following in tech, today’s discussion dives into the possibility that this practice of mindfulness will lead to direct moral and ethical conflict with current tech tools and systemic objectives.

 

Steve Mescon joins the show as our first repeat guest and shares his own mind-hacking practices and the results he’s had trying to bypass a lifetime of meditation through the use of tools, wearables, devices, training mechanisms and ‘supplements.’

 

Key Takeaways

 

[:09] Tony welcomes listeners and opens up the conversation with a simple question: what is the use of your left hemisphere (the one that interprets and analyses information) if you have no conscious access to the right side of your brain, i.e. the part that perceives reality directly.

 

Gaining control [5:26] Over the past five years and with the help of Tony’s coaching, Ron has gotten better at controlling his own mind. And although he still loses control over his emotions, he used to spend sleepless nights spinning around in his own mind.

 

Basic Zen practices are like mind hacks, without seeking enlightenment you can still learn to identify your thoughts and gain control.

 

How not to spin at night [8:01] Ron shares his own practices for getting to sleep, from a basic recognition of what his mind is doing to what he calls zen hacks for when the issue is more prickly. It doesn’t always work though and a high-stress environment like startups and personal issues can mess up the process.

 

Steve’s hacks [11:37] Being heavily ADHD, meditation is very hard for Steve; even paying attention to the breath is hard for him! So he chose to use tools, wearables, devices, training mechanisms, and supplements. What Steve does is to optimize the whole spectrum from health to emotional well-being to fulfillment.

 

Creating a reference point [14:50] Steve has been working on building a reference point for many things, but being in the right brain is one of them, just so that he can pinpoint and identify when it happens and foster those moments. He also touches on how surrounding yourself with people whom you can learn from either behaviorally or conceptually can lead to improvements.

 

[17:15] Tony explains that a lot of stress reduction and self-soothing happens on the right side of the brain, which people in tech — who tend to be very analytical — are just not used to. On top of that, technology is generating its wealth from the artificial heightening of our emotions, and it’s increasing the problem.

 

The result is misery and conflict [19:03] Facebook’s intent was initially to pick up hot girls, but regardless of intent, a lot of companies evolve into the monsters we know through a series of conscious business decisions.

 

We posit that because of tech’s profound impact on the masses, the principle of responsibility has to kick in for them at some point.

 

[21:04] If tech is the actor responsible for putting apps into everyone’s hands that effectively target the emotional brain, another part of this issue lies in our meritocratic educational systems which are targeted at optimizing the rational brain and minimizing the importance of the emotional one.

 

While the moral and ethical thing to do for those companies would be to draw a line in the sand, Tony asks how the Facebooks and Twitters are supposed to regulate against their self-interest.

 

The artificial limits of guided meditation [24:33] When guided, you are never taught to fully rely on yourself. It may make you feel better but you aren’t gaining any kind of facility or skill over your own mind.

 

Steve is learning to play piano; he explains how app learning differs from real-time learning and the limits it imposes.

 

A love-hate relationship [26:19] Tony, Ron, and Steve all agree that they feel worse after using social media.

 

How do you retrain your bird? [28:20] Ron talks about his thoughts of declaring twitter bankruptcy because his feed has become boring despite his efforts to retrain the algorithms.

 

Digital and analog [30:17] The binary right-or-wrong left brain is akin to a digital process, all ones and zeroes, and because of its rigid structure can only ever lead to a narrowing point of view, a kind of intellectual dead-end. The analog mind, or the right brain, acknowledges all possibilities but is inherently chaotic and requires tempering.

 

The indoctrinating narrative [35:03] The economic system works for its own benefit and promotes a narrative of what it means to be successful.

 

The scarcity fallacy [36:34] Starting 10 000 years ago when humans developed agriculture to better manage food shortages, the systems we’ve built for ourselves have been based on scarcity. In order to promote its own survival, our modern economic system runs on the premise that success, status, power, happiness, fulfillment and security are scarce and only achievable through money.

 

However the very people who have achieved the money aspect of this pursuit find themselves looking for more, notably through meditation, which by its very nature contradicts the scarcity premise.

 

Steve offers a caveat: people could meditate in service of their obligations to the system — i.e. in order to gain clarity and focus to solve the problems the system demands of them, furthering their own indoctrination — or in service to themselves, effectively trying to break the system’s indoctrination and gaining a measure of agency and self-fulfillment outside of the system’s constraints.

 

This begs the question: will meditation lead to emancipation from the system regardless of the initial motivation to begin a practice?

 

The beginnings of a red pill [39:12] Koans are mind puzzles, the first few hundred of which are designed to show you that your mind is making this sh*t up as it goes.

 

Tony offers the first Koan he was given: From where you sit, how do you stop the sound of the temple bell?

 

Meditation mechanics [42:00] The meditation and mindfulness space is full of esoteric terms, sometimes weaponized to make you feel confused and inadequate: Stand in your power! What does that even mean? Be present!

 

Tony offers the following thought experiment: Do you remember the first time you tasted an orange? What about the second? What was different in the two experiences? Although the first experience can vary from one individual to the next, the second time is always tainted by thoughts and opinions of the prior experience. 

 

Ron lends his body and mind! [45:00] We do it to Ron, a guided sensory awareness scan… Does being tired have a color?

 

β, θ, A [49:34] Neurobiologically, when one meditates, Beta brain waves go down and Theta and Alpha-1 brain waves come up!

 

Hey, Meat bag! [51:25] The very basic realization of what your body is and how it operates at a biological level — a sac of cells, germs, and fluids trying to make it through existence — with all of its inherent flaws, small evils, and kindnesses, inevitably gives rise to compassion and empathy. As well as enabling the possibility of shared beliefs, and shrinking the divide between ‘us’ and ‘them.’

 

Let’s crush this meditation, bro! [53:30] Some ‘Type A’ personalities will think there is a right and a wrong way to meditate and will attack it with fervor instead of building the right meditation muscle of gently catching yourself thinking and coming back to what you were directing your attention to, training your focus.

 

Steve’s organic debts [57:33] Going down the path of being in your body more comes with a certain amount of reckoning… the natural cost of having been absent and paid little to no attention to your body: untreated injuries, general neglect, what you’ve been eating.

 

Not actually peeing yourself [1:00:10] Steve has been working on his empathy:

ever tried to imagine what it’s like to be a dog and to get so excited about something that you lose bodily function? Steve has, and now Ron does too…

 

The inevitable ceiling of guided meditation [1:01:52] Guided meditation apps are a good starting point and it’s an easy way in, but there is no struggle or any way to push yourself further, so they all lead to a plateau.

 

Sitting and struggling with your own mind is a real challenge.

 

Steve and Ron try to stop the bell [1:03:23] Tony won’t share the answer.

 

Hard work is not appealing but achievement is [1:06:55] Part of the solution to our current societal problems may be to inject new ways for individuals to be empowered and have agency over the experience they’re having with technology. Ron, Steve, and Tony noodle around the idea of building a kind of Peloton for meditation.

 

Farming empathy [1:13:44] All of this points in the direction of building technology that fosters actual human connection and reciprocity. Ron shares his experience watching Twitch streams with his daughter and Steve talks about Mukbangs, as a way to connect and build empathy.

 

Thanks for tuning in.

 

More about your hosts

Podcast: tonywongpodcast.com

Agile Coaching: Agiletony.com

Executive Coaching: Agiletony.com/mental-and-emotional-agility

Twitter: Twitter.com/agile_tony

LinkedIn: Linkedin.com/in/tonywongdigitalonion

Youtube: Youtube.com/channel/UCJyT0C_nrzAZ9GhmOXaSRRw

 

Co-host Ron Williams on LinkedIn: Linkedin.com/in/ronwilliams

 

More about our guest

Steve Mescon on LinkedIn

Steve Mescon on Twitter