Just finished this podcast with Peterson on the Duncan Trussell Family Hour (recorded in January). Don't let the intro fool you, it's actually a pretty good show, and the host has some surprisingly insightful things to say, despite some stoner New Agey-ness.
http://www.duncantrussell.com/episodes/2017/1/15/jordan-b-peterson-1
After getting through the standard Peterson stuff, they get into psychedelics and religious experience, and Peterson shares some of his personal mystical experiences. Peterson even mentions Strassman's DMT research and the very strange finding that all of the subjects reported OBEs where they encountered alien beings - and reported them not as hallucinations, but as actual experiences. Trussell gently chides Petersen for always falling back on "scientific" explanations, which leads in some interesting directions.
Great discussion on self-authoring, too, and how 'heaven and hell' are basically coded into our neurobiology and thus our approaches to life. I noticed that one of Peterson's gifts is coming up with clear, concise definitions for concepts that are usually hard to define. E.g., "Order is where you are when the things that you're doing are working the way you want them to. Chaos is all those places and times where what you do produces something other than what you were predicting and desiring." Knowledge protects! Related quotes: "Untruth produces more suffering than truth." "Good is whatever takes you the farthest possible away from evil."
On predicting the future:
And he brings that down to earth by saying the first step to get there is simple things, like making your bed, cleaning your room, shouldering all the little responsibilities you have that are immediately in front of you. Then you become stronger.
http://www.duncantrussell.com/episodes/2017/1/15/jordan-b-peterson-1
After getting through the standard Peterson stuff, they get into psychedelics and religious experience, and Peterson shares some of his personal mystical experiences. Peterson even mentions Strassman's DMT research and the very strange finding that all of the subjects reported OBEs where they encountered alien beings - and reported them not as hallucinations, but as actual experiences. Trussell gently chides Petersen for always falling back on "scientific" explanations, which leads in some interesting directions.
Great discussion on self-authoring, too, and how 'heaven and hell' are basically coded into our neurobiology and thus our approaches to life. I noticed that one of Peterson's gifts is coming up with clear, concise definitions for concepts that are usually hard to define. E.g., "Order is where you are when the things that you're doing are working the way you want them to. Chaos is all those places and times where what you do produces something other than what you were predicting and desiring." Knowledge protects! Related quotes: "Untruth produces more suffering than truth." "Good is whatever takes you the farthest possible away from evil."
On predicting the future:
"I realized about 10 years [after worrying about WWIII] that I couldn't worry any more about the future because it's so indeterminate that I became convinced that no matter what I was worried about what was likely to happen, that was unlikely the thing that was going to happen. ... In times of radical uncertainty it's necessary that the hero be born, because the hero isn't the person who deals with something specific - the hero is the person who deals with uncertainty itself, and that's the great dragon of chaos. So I would say that what's necessary is for the individual to become prepared for everything and anything. And the way that you do that is by developing your character.... It's incumbent on you to take on the role of the supporter of the world, the pillar of the world."
And he brings that down to earth by saying the first step to get there is simple things, like making your bed, cleaning your room, shouldering all the little responsibilities you have that are immediately in front of you. Then you become stronger.