The Room of Lives

The Room of Lives

by Neel (Abhranil Das)

Science Personal Journals

61 · Dr SQUID · Life & Psychology

‘1985, first year, second semester: Professor Ed Diener walks into the lecture hall and asks, “what do people want in life?” “Love, sex, money, happiness, a new boat, rock and roll, drugs”, the chalkboard fills up. He circles “happiness” and says, “I believe that all the other wants are about this one. I am studying the nature of happiness, and here’s my research.” I learned something life-changing in his class. He’d found two variables that mattered most in the pursuit of happiness: the quality of your relationship with others, and with yourself. SQUID is such a simple but powerful concept that improves quality of life so quickly. So it has become the focus of my life to put on a costume and teach it full-time in the streets, instead of being a traditional professor.' For years, Dr Mel Ganus, doctorate in education with a focus on applied psychology, has put on street shows in a squid costume to teach kids how to not get triggered by situations, and has co-authored a book about it with Dr Philip Zimbardo who conducted the famous Stanford Prison Experiment. Dr Mel starts by asking who I am, why I’m here, where am I going and what do I want. Then she shares her life story and her experience of attention deficit disorder and neurodivergence, about how she was introduced to positive psychology, and the origins of her lifelong work on Quality of Life Experiments. We end with talking about psychedelic mushrooms and the connectedness of mycelium.

60 · Navy SEAL · Mental Health, Eye-Tracking & the Self

‘I have really suffered mentally, and from mysterious chronic illnesses, which I believe are all an illness of the interface between body and mind: the nervous system. ‘As a kid, I had panic moments of fixating on my death, and would actually kick, punch and scream. On ketamine, my self disappeared, and I was left puzzled: what is awareness without a vantage point that it’s emanating from?’ Former Navy SEAL Chris Irwin was the first subject of my eye-tracking experiments at the new Psychedelics Research and Therapy Center at UT Austin. He has created the Rare Sense podcast and blog that shares his mental health journey. We talk about mysterious chronic illnesses, then I explain my eye-tracking experiments, and we discuss EMDR therapy. We then talk about our fears of death, and the self disappearing with psychedelics or spiritual practice. Video version of this on Chris's podcast.

59.2 · Israeli Military Reporter · Travel and its Lessons

'India was an intense and diverse chaos. I learned to say no to people in a way I never thought I would. But I also had the best time with the locals than any other country. As a Jew, we have the first monotheistic religion. Your polytheistic perspective is so different. In Judaism we read interpretations of religion a lot. But India is the birthplace of direct yoga and meditation. 'I once told a friend that I would feel lonely while traveling. He said, there’s being alone and experiencing your true self because you are not compromising. Then there’s loneliness, when your constant high expectations of experiences and socialization are not met. Being alone is the default, and if you learn to be comfortable with it, anything else is extra.' Idan Yarom shares his experiences of backpacking through southeast Asia, including India, and the life lessons on communication, perspective, challenges and loneliness that these journeys have taught him.

59.1 · Israeli Military Reporter

'In Israel, you are summoned to the military at 17. They have psychological tests to see if you’re mentally sound to hold a gun. Some people try to fake mental problems to avoid the military, so the system is very skeptical even when you do have real mental issues. I got into the Israel Defense Forces spokesperson unit that reports military news. I’ll say we try our best to tell the truth. I would travel solo to random bases and interview people, and sometimes got the craziest stories with just a couple of questions.' After that I worked at the Tel Aviv Institute on national security. This last decade was one of the safest for Israeli security. Since 2019 we had about 5 elections, and Palestine was not a central topic in any of them. But there is a big difference in our perspectives. In Palestine they observe the Nakba day like a catastrophe or Holocaust, which in Israel is our independence day, the happiest day of the nation. Both sides have legitimacy, and we need to find a way to make it okay, but I don’t see a solution right now.' Idan Yarom shares his experience as a military reporter in the Israeli Defense Forces and working at the Tel Aviv Institute on national security, then provides a recent history of Israel and Palestine. Related: episode 7.2 · Life and Resistance in Palestine

58.4 · Hot Takes on Reality · Shape-shifting Universe

In science we make observations and extrapolate to natural laws that we believe are eternal. But what if the algorithm of the universe is constantly changing? Link to my music: Causal Diamond

58.3 · Hot Takes on Reality · Oil & Water

At a recent camping trip, I share how I have traversed from the world of scientific reason and objective truths, to spiritual, unprovable, even paranormal truths. I would love to bridge these worlds, but it seems like they have intrinsic properties that make them want to stay separate, like oil and water.

58.2 · Hot Takes on Reality · No Alternatives

Humans tend to think of life as unfolding in one of multiple possibilities. But the radical idea here is, there is only one possibility: what’s really happening. Alternative possibilities and probabilities are an imagination that trap us.

58.1 · Hot Takes on Reality · No Physical Limits

‘The world may appear to be limited by physical laws. But if it is what dreams are made of, it is unlimited, indestructible and endless.’

57 · Anthropologist · Science, Religion, Magic

'As a teen, I met a friend every year in a park at midnight on Christmas eve. One time as we were walking, there was a flash of light, and I went away somewhere. It felt like outer space, I didn’t have a body and could not move, and time stopped existing. Then I came back. My friend and I looked at each other, and knew we had both experienced the same thing. We started running, and a torrential rain began pouring down. 'There was tension at home, and school was constant fear. I felt repressed, and wanted intense experiences to break out of my shell. I hitchhiked across the country, worked for a traveling carnival and odd jobs, and was homeless. When you are vulnerable, the system stops protecting you. Looking back, I would have done it more gently and avoid some of the trauma, and be more normal and stable today. 'I kept having supernatural experiences, and I’m still not sure how to include it in my academic work. I once went into shavasana and lost consciousness again. It took me on a journey where I was a wanderer working in various spiritual communities. The universe felt connected to me and spoke to me, but it was sometimes scary to be absorbed in the divine. Most of the time there’s enough interference that my spirit is not in sync with the flow of existence. Magical coincidence is sort of like the extent to which they match up.' Dr Brent Crosson is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, where he teaches a course called Science, Magic and Religion. He is the author of Experiments with Power, about the clash of politics with the spiritual practice of Obeah in Trinidad, which won the 2021 Clifford Geertz Prize for the best book in the anthropology of religion. Brent’s interests lie in African and Caribbean religions, the intersection of science and religion, and the colonial regulation of religion. We start with two stories on coincidence, about a motorcycle and an alligator. Then Brent tells me his life story, supernatural experiences, vagabond life, and studying Hinduism in India and the Caribbean. We talk about the connection between science, magic and spiritual practices, and I ask him, ‘what are your religious views, and what do you think will happen to you after you die?’ Intro music: Whale Song by Brent Crosson.

56 · Pastor · Haitian Voodoo, Science & Coincidence

‘Here in the US, money can do a lot of things that a relationship with God can, so people rely less on that relationship. In Haiti, there's less ambiguity about the effect of magic and prayer. When I was six, my grandfather brought my dead aunt back to life. This one US magician was showing his tricks to the Haiti kids, but they were not impressed, because they have seen more in real life.’ Othniel, my uber driver to a conference, is from Bahamas of Haitian parents. We talk about religion, satanism and witchcraft in Haiti. I ask if he has any spiritual gifts, and if he believes in meaning and purpose to life. It turns out that he is a pastor, and we talk about science and its dogmas, and the coincidences that brought us to this conversation.

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