“Until we can talk about spirituality in rational terms—acknowledging the validity of self-transcendence—our world will remain shattered by dogmatism.”
—Sam Harris
Chapter 1: “Spirituality”
Many people identify as “spiritual but not religious,” with the word spiritual denoting a belief in the extraordinary states of consciousness achievable through meditation, psychedelics, or other means. While averse to religion, many of them feel that science and secular culture overlook this “source of psychological well-being that does not depend upon merely gratifying one’s desires.” Author Sam Harris is one such person. He wrote this book to offer “a rational approach to spirituality.” Drawing from Eastern religious and spiritual traditions—which are focused more on introspection than worship—his approach aims to achieve not only self-transcendence but also “a state of well-being that is imperturbable—or if perturbed, easily regained.”
Chapter 2: “The Mystery of Consciousness”
People whose left and right cerebral hemispheres are severed behave as though each hemisphere has a mind of its own—raising the question of what happens to a person’s sense of self when their brain is split. While we might assume their subjectivity collapses to one hemisphere, Harris suggests that consciousness is “divisible” and “more fundamental than any apparent self.” He further argues that although “human minds are a product of human brains,” the link between brain activity and consciousness cannot fully explain subjective experience. That certain arrangements of atoms produce “an experience of being that very collection of atoms” is, according to him, a mystery that science might never dispel but that spirituality can help us understand.
Chapter 3: “The Riddle of the Self”
Most of us feel like “the subject of experience in each present moment.” Harris argues that this “self”—not our personhood but the sense of being a center of consciousness that is distinct from and inhabits a physical body—is an illusion, one that arises from our “habitual identification with thought,” which he identifies as “a primary source of human suffering.” He says that by learning to observe our thoughts without identifying with them, we can experience consciousness absent a sense of self. Our first sign of progress will be noticing just how distracted we are. But as our concentration improves, we’ll start to see thoughts as “mere appearances arising in a wider field of consciousness.”
Chapter 4: “Meditation”
According to Harris, meditation is not about achieving a certain state of mind but about recognizing “that which is common to all states of experience, both pleasant and unpleasant.” There are two traditional paths to spiritual awakening: the path of gradual ascent and the path of sudden realization. The former emphasizes consistent practice, disciplined attention, and incremental growth, aiming to foster changes in a person’s perception and behavior over time. The latter considers the possibility of spontaneous and transformative realizations that may be triggered by intense meditation or unexpected life events. Harris encourages us to “take[] the goal as the path,” by which he means to practice self-transcendence while being receptive to both gradual and sudden insights. To help us get started, he suggests we try inverting consciousness upon itself by looking “for that which is looking” and then noticing “what happens to the apparent divide between subject and object.”
Chapter 5: “Gurus, Death, Drugs, and Other Puzzles”
Those of us who participate in spiritual life may encounter gurus, reports of near-death experiences, or the use of psychedelics. Gurus are spiritual teachers—some of whom are wise and respectable mentors, while others are deceitful or harmful actors. When under one’s tutelage, we should be vigilant against deception while making “certain allowances for cultural differences.” Near-death experiences are profound personal experiences that can accompany a brush with death. They’re often invoked as proof that consciousness is independent of the brain—but Harris tells us they’re only ever had by people who, despite claims to the contrary, don’t suffer a complete loss of brain activity. Lastly, psychedelics are psychoactive substances (such as psilocybin or LSD) that may be indispensable for those of us who are skeptical about profound changes in consciousness. However, the fact that they can induce not only positive but also negative experiences suggests that once we’re convinced that freedom from the self is possible, we’d be wise to find safer ways to practice it.
Conclusion
Religion is widely thought to be the only means of facilitating and making sense of self-transcendence. As a result, most of us either make a religion of spiritual life or have no spiritual life at all. Harris notes that such altered states of consciousness are “empirical facts” and can be experienced under a wide range of conditions. He believes the meanings that religions provide are “false and divisive” and that if we instead view these experiences “in universal and secular terms,” we can live a spiritual life without deluding ourselves.