Post-skepticism

A brief philosophical bio:

• 0-16: Baptized as a Eastern Orthodox Christian, but unthinkingly lived out a kind of “moral therapeutic deism.”

• 17: Became skeptical and atheistic, similar to the views of Richard Dawkins.

• 17-18: In university, I studied philosophy and cultural anthropology and soon found atheism to be untenable. I became agnostic, which eventually shifted to “ignosticism.”

• 17-22: While a student, I engaged in anarchist and anticapitalist political philosophy, was introduced to Stoicism—which became a placeholder for my ethics—and discovered the work of Ken Wilber and his Integral theory, which put me on a “transperspectival” journey.

• 23-28: In my post-university years, I went through a phase reacting to the early years of “woke” culture (then referred to as SJWs), and was attracted to political philosophies on the dissident right.

• 29-32: “The Guide Years.” A "demonic encounter" occurred following years of depressive states, which finally led me to seek out guides. I worked with Andrew Taggart, who became my philosophical counselor and showed me what philosophy truly is. I also worked with Jordan B. Peterson before he became culture war famous; he became my therapist, and through Jungian dream analysis with him, I was encouraged to get married.

• 33: I became “God-open” again (consciously) and occasionally attended an Eastern Orthodox Church, but my attendance was spotty, and I cultivated the thought that God wanted me to operate outside the Church.

• 34: I started writing online, first about the culture war from a meta-stance, which eventually led to the transperspectival explorations of The Stoa, born at the beginning of the COVID moment, along with my spiritual crisis.

• 35-39: I was introduced to and informed by various Integral-adjacent philosophies, such as “Game B” and “metamodernism,” which discussed things such as the “metacrisis” and eventually morphed into an online scene known as the “Liminal Web.”

A few months before turning 40, I find myself philosophically confused once more, which is annoying, because such confusion leads to languishing. But after writing all of this out, it's no wonder—I do not think it’s healthy for a person to jump around this much philosophically.

A part of me feels post-philosophical, wanting to preoccupy my attention with practical, normal things. Another part sees the unmet potential of a “practical philosophy” and feels I have a place to serve there. I am also called to become religious, but privately, and discover who my “spiritual father” is. Finally, for some reason, I feel drawn to the topic of “entities,” exploring them in The Entity Pill series as if they are real. I launched this series back in April, with this description:

“Entities,” or “discarnate entities,” is a phrase used in shamanic and psychedelic circles to describe beings that exist outside our minds and bodies, which not only interact with us but can do us harm. Demons are the most popular phrase used in Western consciousness for the harming entities, but similar terms exist across traditions, such as jinn, dybbuk, wekufe, yōkai, and yaoguai.

The fascinating thing about this series is that it touches the heart of philosophy: metaphysics. One’s metaphysics is revealed—and becomes revealing—when earnestly exploring this topic. If entities are indeed real, possessing an ontological sovereignty, and interact with us in unseen ways, then this blows up the epistemic guardrails that a skeptical worldview provides.

I highlighted the word “skeptical” at the beginning of my philosophical bio because this series has made me realize that skepticism, particularly in its modern Dawkins-inspired form, is central, if not foundational, to my intellectual opening when I was 17 years old. I was unexamined then, into normal teenage boy things, before this opening. 

The thing is, what lies at the foundation isn’t robust, well-thought-out argumentation for skepticism, but rather the vibe of skepticism and the motivation that initially attracted me to it. The vibe: Dawkins' older-uncle essence, with British-flavored moral certainty and the intellectual conviction that anything not evidenced by science is superstitious nonsense. The motivation: being socially detached from others, including my family and “normal” people, and differentiating myself from them.

Although I no longer feel the same motivation, I realize I still carry the vibe of skepticism deep within, without any fresh or convincing arguments to support it, beyond the parroted ideas I memorized at 17. These include things like falsifiability, Occam's Razor, the ability to spot logical fallacies, and, of course, the requirement for extraordinary evidence—the cornerstone of skepticism, as the renowned scientific communicator Carl Sagan famously advocated.

 “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” - Carl Sagan

However, forming a worldview around the skeptical negation of other worldviews tends to be dispiriting—or at least it is for me. Yes, I’ll do my part to ensure fantastical claims and Flying Spaghetti Monsters don’t become memetic contagions. Still, I feel called to step away from the Sagan standard and explore what lives on the other side of existing evidence.

A part of me is troubled by my lingering skepticism, bordering on anger and resentment, with the emerging sense that it’s holding me back from something more sacred. However, while it persists, I’ll work with it, and perhaps move beyond it. I referred to The Entity Pill series as adopting a “post-skepticism” stance—a phrase I’m surprised isn’t more widely used. I’ll be understanding it as follows:

Use the good of skepticism, but recognize its limitations, and don’t allow those limitations to limit you.

This will be the last call to apply to The Entity Pill: Part 2 series, starting next week, and concluding on Halloween.

Scheduled sessions:

• Feeding Your Demons w/ Lama Tsultrim Allione. September 4th @ 12 pm ET.

• Intersubjective Entities w/ Evan McMullen. September 11th @ 12 pm ET.

• Entities of Schizophrenia w/ Jerry Marzinsky. September 14th @ 12 pm ET.

• Entity Dream Encounters w/ Patrick McNamara. September 18th @ 12 pm ET.

• Egregores w/ Mark Stavish. September 25th @ 12 pm ET.

• The Invisible Others w/ T.M. Luhrmann. October 8th @ 12 PM ET.

• More to come …

This series will be an act of “private philosophy,” and you’ll need to apply to attend. Applications are open to Less Foolish members and can be found behind the paywall below.