618. Thom Krystofiak

Buddha at the Gas Pump

Rick Archer

Religion & Spirituality, Philosophy, Spirituality, Society & Culture

4.7 • 695 Ratings

🗓️ 6 October 2021

⏱️ 110 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Thom Krystofiak holds a B.A. from Harvard (magna cum laude) and an M.A. from Cambridge University, where he was a Knox Fellow. A trained teacher of Transcendental Meditation, he joined an intentional community in Fairfield, Iowa in 1983, where he and his wife continue to live. There he encountered a cornucopia of spiritual seekers. A rigorous and thoroughgoing skeptic surrounded by ready believers, he has developed unique perspectives on the eternal yet ever-new contest of doubt versus belief. Website: krystofiak.com Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group. Summary and Transcript of this interview. Interview recorded October 2, 2021. YouTube Video Chapters: 00:00:00 - Introducing Buddha at the Gas Pump 00:04:49 - Extraordinary Beliefs and Skepticism 00:09:04 - Nurturing Skepticism and Exploring Extraordinary Beliefs 00:13:31 - Dangerous Beliefs and their Implications 00:17:42 - Strange Beliefs and the Link to Spirituality 00:21:57 - The Spectrum of Belief 00:26:25 - Perceiving the Unseen 00:30:36 - The Complementarity of Science and Spirituality 00:35:00 - Spiritual Experiences and Remarkable Coincidences 00:38:57 - Exploring Extraordinary Beliefs 00:43:39 - Encouragement of the Irrational 00:47:56 - The Allure of Hidden Knowledge 00:51:58 - The Manipulation of Beliefs by Powerful Industries 00:56:20 - Bucking science and climate denial 01:00:02 - Einstein's View on God 01:03:53 - The Nature of Consciousness and Embodied State 01:08:30 - Recognizing the Essential Nature 01:13:13 - The Profoundness of Self-Realization 01:17:14 - The Nature of Consciousness 01:21:16 - The Value of Skepticism and Certainty 01:25:32 - Anecdotes of Out-of-Body Experiences during Surgery 01:29:26 - Unexplained Phenomena at Dinner 01:33:12 - The Connection between Fascination with the Paranormal and Social Issues 01:37:26 - The Seductive Power of Claims About Truth 01:41:22 - Peer-Reviewed Science vs. Scientist Claims 01:45:16 - The Importance of Scientific Consensus 01:49:42 - The Consensus of Spiritual Experiences 01:54:04 - The Motivation and Benefits of Spiritual Practices 01:58:03 - The Cognition of Deeper Mechanics of Nature 02:01:48 - Yogic Flying and Levitation 02:05:53 - The Positive Reception of the Book

Transcript

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0:00.0	The Welcome to Buddha at the Gas Pump.
0:28.8	My name is Rick Archer.
0:30.8	Buddha at the Gas Pump is an ongoing series of conversations with spiritually awakening people
0:36.5	and conversations about topics related to spirituality
0:41.3	and science. We've done about 617 of these now, so if this is new to you and you'd like to
0:49.2	check out previous ones, please go to batgap.com and look under the past interviews menu. This program is made
0:57.1	possible through the support of appreciative listeners and viewers. So if you appreciate it and would
1:02.9	like to help support it, there's a PayPal button on every page of the website, and there's also a page
1:08.6	with other ways to donate if you don't feel like using PayPal.
1:13.5	My guest today is an old friend, Tom Christofiak. He lives here in Fairfield, Iowa, as I do.
1:21.4	And I've always found Tom to be an interesting person. I'll just address you directly, Tom.
1:28.4	You know, although I've known you for years, we've never really had a chance to talk at great length.
1:32.7	We've run into each other at birthday parties, maybe once or twice, and started talking,
1:37.7	and then all of a sudden it was cake time.
1:39.8	We're playing pickleball, and you can't really talk much during that.
1:43.4	So this will be the longest conversation we've ever had, and I'm really looking forward to it.
1:48.7	Tom wrote a book called Tempted to Believe the seductive power of claims about the truth.
1:56.0	The truth is in quotes.
1:57.7	I listened to the entire book, and I would have listened to it a second time,
2:02.4	but I ran out of time. It took 14 hours to listen to it the first time. A very impressive
2:07.2	book. I could never have written anything like it. Tom holds a BA from Harvard, Magnicum Laude,
2:13.4	an MA from Cambridge University, where he was a Knox fellow, so I guess that's how he learned
	...

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