Questions from the audience.
Conversations with David Verdesi on attention, spirituality, relationship, transformation, human potential and the practical questions of living.
Recorded during an earlier chapter of David’s work. The language reflects the period in which these conversations took place.
· 58 min
David asks participants to define spirituality for themselves, plainly and without poetic language, and examines how esoteric practice can become a pursuit of power.
Key topics: Defining Spirituality · Esoteric Practice · Discernment · Relationship
Explore What Does Spirituality Even Mean?· 55 min
David questions the idea that spiritual practice means staying neutral, and asks participants to identify who or what rules over them and which values they are unwilling to criticise.
Key topics: Commitment · Values · Everyday Life · Spiritual Path
Explore Know Your Master· 99 min
Beginning with reported personality changes after heart transplants, David discusses identity, integrating fragmented parts of the self, and the difficulty of helping others without causing harm.
Key topics: Identity · Integration · Repetition · Helping Others
Explore Spirituality Is Not About Transcendence, but About Repair· 78 min
A session that moves from a question about health and breathing practice to aggression, boundaries and love, and the risk that spiritual practice becomes a way of escaping life.
Key topics: Breathwork · Aggression & Boundaries · Escapism · Love
Explore What Breath, Struggle and Love Teach Us About Transformation· 84 min
David discusses free will and purpose, inherited desires, the wish to be special, and the place of love and relationship in facing fear and the unknown.
Key topics: Free Will · Purpose · Humility · Love · Relationships
Explore What Does “Love Is the Answer” Really Mean?· 81 min
Starting from whether waking early is better, David examines where such beliefs come from and what they are meant to control, then turns to suffering, humble action and the place of tools in practice.
Key topics: Belief Systems · Suffering · Meditation · Tools and Means
Explore The Early Bird Myth: When Belief Becomes a Cage· 45 min
Recorded by phone during a power outage in Bali, and ending when the battery ran out, this session discusses doubt, discernment and the risk of mistaking self-hypnosis for spiritual understanding.
Key topics: Doubt · Discernment · Meditation · Cultural Perspectives
Explore The Importance of Doubt· 107 min
The group discusses procrastination, the examined life and spiritual escapism, before turning to mortality, free will, faith and the fear of living imperfectly.
Key topics: Procrastination · The Examined Life · Mortality · Faith
Explore Working Through Procrastination and Imperfection· 70 min
David distinguishes the search for power from spiritual practice, discusses the teacher–student relationship and rigorous training, and returns to health, wealth and relationships as the foundation of the work.
Key topics: Power · Teacher & Student · Spiritual Practice · Horizontal & Vertical Drives
Explore The Misconception of Superhuman Abilities· 94 min
David describes three horizontal drives—health, wealth and relationships—and a vertical drive toward transcendence, and discusses psychedelics, the fantasy of control and the place of relationships.
Key topics: Horizontal & Vertical Drives · Psychedelics · Control · Relationships
Explore Is There Such a Thing as Too Spiritual?Originally recorded as part of the Superhuman Experience Q&A series.