#263 — The Paradox of Death

Making Sense with Sam Harris

Waking Up with Sam Harris

Samharris, Currentevents, Politics, Ethics, Religion, Neuroscience, Science, Society & Culture, Philosophy

4.6 • 29.1K Ratings

🗓️ 18 October 2021

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris reflects on the subjective continuity of consciousness, the nature of identity, and the possibility that death isn’t the end of experience.

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Learning how to train your mind is the single greatest investment you can make in life. That’s why Sam Harris created the Waking Up app. From rational mindfulness practice to lessons on some of life’s most important topics, join Sam as he demystifies the practice of meditation and explores the theory behind it.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Making Sense Podcast.
0:09.1	This is Sam Harris.
0:11.3	Just a note to say that if you're hearing this, you are not currently on our subscriber
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0:38.8	I recently ran an opinion poll online asking people how often they think seriously about
0:54.9	death, about its inevitability, about their priorities in light of it, etc.
1:03.8	And I gave the choices many times a day, perhaps once a day, I can go days without thinking
1:10.8	about it, I can go weeks without thinking about it.
1:16.2	And I'm not sure what results I was expecting, but the distribution did surprise me.
1:22.0	Obviously this isn't a scientific sample, it was mostly a sample of the kind of people
1:26.3	who follow me on Twitter.
1:28.6	Though I think the poll did spread somewhat beyond my audience.
1:32.4	I got over 40,000 responses.
1:35.6	Anyway, the largest cohort were those who don't think about death very often.
1:42.4	32% said they can go weeks without doing so.
	...

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