tamwafle

It seems like you find extreme experiences - physical or psychedelic to some degree - to be more important somehow than quiet and sober moments. I am a practicing Buddhist and nature lover - especially backpacking and canoeing - who believes strongly in the importance of quiet observation of experience, reflection, and thoughtfulness.

With that background, I’m actually very put off by the philosophy behind your “investigations.” It seems like you approach life as an accumulation of experiences, notably experiences that can’t be attained by average people with kids, jobs, health issues etc. Is this not just like the accumulation of any other commodity?

Do you see any downsides to treating experiences as commodities to accumulate? I also note the exoticism of the experiences - Latvian “shamans,” ayahuasca - do you notice a specifically western, imperialistic approach to what you’re doing (“the globe has been explored already, but I can still explore and commodify [for sale in a book, at that] my exotic, cosmonautical experiences!”)?

To be blunt, this all seems like the product of an ADHD culture that fetishizes the accumulation of exotic and thrilling experiences. I am much more impressed by someone who can enjoy sitting quietly, or a good book and friends, or who brings mindfulness and this “wedge” to his interpersonal relationships.

Clearly you find extreme experiences as providing more meaningful versions of those contrasts, perhaps because it takes greater external stimuli for you to notice them.

1. Do you feel any push towards cultivating the ability to experience those feelings without the need for more extreme external stimuli? E.g. cultivating a sense of meaning in ordinary life that can equal the sense of meaningfulness manufactured by MDMA?
2. Regardless of how you personally feel about the above, do you understand how pushing for more and more extreme external stimuli can be destructive? For example, you are contributing to the commercialization of a spiritual native experience - the ingestion of ayahuasca - to sell books. Would you feel any personal responsibility for the commodification of this spiritual native ritual when western tourists who have read your book turn the ritual into just another festival drug experience?
3. Do you understand or think about the possible philosophical destructiveness of your approach? I notice from your twitter that you have posted multiple times about your book reaching the #1 spot on bestselling anthropology books. It seems like the drive to be Number One, to have the MOST intensive experiences, to cultivate the "Wedge" to the FURTHEST of its potential, is a very pernicious undercurrent of our society. The bravado and competition it creates leads to people like Trump always having to have the largest crowd. It fuels the drive for maximal exploitation of natural resources, maximal growth, etc. Can't we just chill out and stop chasing things to their extremes?

I recently attended a screening of the Banff Film Festival, a series of short documentaries about outdoor sports. I was struck and dismayed that nearly every one of the shorts were about extreme mountaineers etc. who had to be the FIRST to do x or y outdoor feat. No one was simply enjoying nature as it was - it was all about personal achievement and overcoming adversity. Don't you feel like we should, I don't know, get over ourselves?

Thanks for your responses.

Check out The Art of the Commonplace by Wendell Berry and A Place in Space by Gary Snyder. Both collections of essays by great poets/environmentalists.