Miguel Conner, Snack Sized Meditations |528|

Miguel Conner looks beyond Gnosticism for inspirational meditations.

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Clip The King of Staten Island: I like your tattoos. What are those numbers on your arm? Oh, that’s a, the date. My dad died. He was a fireman died in a fire 17 years ago. Oh my God. I’m so sorry. It’s fine. Knock, knock. Who’s there now. Your dad

[00:00:15] Miguel Conner: Whatever happened in 2020, we should be very grateful to the powers that be because they have just opened the veils and showed us so much about the world and ourselves we were tested.

That was a clip from Pete Davidson and Novi. The king of Staten island followed by a brief clip from today’s guest, Miguel Connor.

Let me let Miguel finish that thought.

[00:00:40] Miguel Conner: We’re not here to be good. We’re here to be ourselves. I mean, we don’t know who we are yet. We’re all going to try to solve the world. And we end up, as you were saying, falling into some Colt or some political party, because we don’t know who we are and we’ve got to find out what is our purpose?

What a crazy thought. Hey. I mean, what if that’s what this is all about? What if that’s what the whole plan demic. Great reset. Is all about. Is forcing us into a deep dive, a deep spiritual dive. Kind of like the way that Pete does in this movie of putting on the jacket and becoming a firefighter. Just like his dad.

[00:01:23] Miguel Conner: People email me and they say, well, what are some Gnostic practices? And I said, well, only, you know, you got to find out who you are, what works for you. And you’ve got to create a life, a system, a gospel, and a myth that brings out your inner light. I can’t help you. Nobody can help you.

[00:02:30] Alex Tsakiris: Nobody can help you. Oh, my. But in true Miguel Connor fashion. Maybe he also means that everyone can help you. We can all help each other. At least that’s one of the things I took out of this interview with a true. Master of deep spirituality. And a great podcast or to boot. I hope you stick around for this interview with Miguel Connor and check out his new book . And also, thanks. You know, I’ve put a call out. To get people to share the show more and tell other people about the show, if you like the show. And if you like a particular episode and people have really responded. And I certainly appreciate that. So I will say again, If you like it, give it to people that, you know, will like it too. Here’s my interview with Miguel Connor.

[00:02:39] Alex Tsakiris: Welcome to skeptical where we explore contracts. You’ll science and spirituality with leading researchers, thinkers and their critics.

I’m your host, Alex Tsakiris. And today we welcome Miguel Connor back to skipped go. Miguel has a new book, 10 snackable, meditations, nice little travel companion kind of thing. And we’re going to talk about it. And we’re also going to of course, talk about Miguel in general, in his work. He’s the creator and host of just the extraordinary Ayaan byte Gnostic radio, which if you’ve listened to this show, you know, has been kind of an ongoing inspiration to me for years and years and years.

It just keeps getting better. Every time I listen to there’s no downgrade in the quality of those unbelievable openings or the guests that he has on. And the one of the kind of interviews that really can only be done by someone who has really mastered their field. And for Miguel, of course, that field is modern day Gnosticism kind of popularized Gnosticism, but with a research oriented kind of bent to it along with, I would say alternative spirituality in general.

So Miguel it’s absolutely always terrific to reconnect with you. Thanks so much for joining me,

[00:04:02] Miguel Conner: always glad to be here. My friend, it’s always a, it’s always a blessed and here we are, and things are just getting crazier. What are you going to do?

[00:04:13] Alex Tsakiris: I was gonna, I was going to hold off on saying that because I want to talk about the book first, but you just brought it up.

Miguel, man, I T I got to do a little temperature check on you. Cause I’ve heard a couple of your shows and you some more, I don’t know, lit up engaged kind of politically, although we were just talking about politically than I’ve ever heard. Y’all like give that guy a magma hat and I know that’s not your, I know that’s not your thing, but, uh, they, it’s kind of beyond, is it beyond interesting times for you because you’ve always been kind of a subtle play it down interesting times. Is it, is it gotten past that for you?

[00:04:52] Miguel Conner: I would say so. , yeah, definitely. I mean, this happened before 2020. It probably happened, , Late 2018. , I was always doing a soundbite, like kind of part-time and then I do a reruns. If I got you. I remember you mentioning, you know, my feet has reruns. I said, yeah, I’m just doing two a two a month.

And then two reruns. Cause I had this big arches of shows before iTunes and YouTube and the golden age of podcasting. So once I went full time in 2019, I said, well, now this is, you know, as I say, shit got serious, I’m doing this. Full-time I’m getting more subscribers. So now it’s time to really put my ass on the line.

So my interest started getting more passionate or more, uh, uh, surgical towards. Not just talking about the ancient Gnostics and a cultism and mysticism, but how it can work socially today. And of course, that of course meant taking aim at the rulers of this age or at a crumbling society. And obviously with 2020, with all that happened, it just got put on steroids.

I felt, uh, people need to hear more and I need to, uh, get more out of my system. What’s the gospel of Thomas famous saying, if you bring out what is within you, it will save you. If you do not bring out what, what is within you, it will destroy you. And I think that’s in a situation that most people are today.

We have to pivot and we have to search and we have to look at other spaces. I think a recent this last year or two has just shown us that everything is, , everything’s in flux and everything’s a sham. And here we are, it’s time to move to those deeper space.

[00:06:41] Alex Tsakiris: I get that, but what’s most powerful about what you’re saying is the voice that’s coming through you and byte Gnosticism, all those things that you set of looking at this broader historical landscape in this spiritual landscape, which brings us to your book.

So contrast that pivot that with 10 snackable meditations and what you’ve tried to do there, because in a way it is that balancing that you’ve always been about.

[00:07:11] Miguel Conner: Yeah. I mean, It’s , how do I put this, uh, the book, I mean, sometimes when you’re searching for your voice or you’re bringing it out from within, it’s supposed to come from a deeper place.

I mean, you hear that from entrepreneurs and others, something came over me and I just decided to go for it. And maybe it wasn’t a. The success you wanted or everything, but there are doors and pathways that open. What did Joseph Campbell famously say? A follow your bliss and doors will open. I always made the mistake of thinking.

Bliss was some sort of hedonistic thing. Like, oh, I’m just going to have fun. But I think he was really talking about the context of who you are, what your purpose is, how it aligns with your deeper self and what you can do to make a difference. So I’m like with 10, this goes into my introduction.

Something told me you need to put some wood in the fire. You need to a. Try to speak to, uh, the situations that are happening today and make this ancient Gnosticism more relevant would tend snackable meditations. It was kind of the same. Uh, I had bought this sort of new e-commerce platform and I was testing it.

And uh, I said, I need something to test it. So I’m just going to, in some of my groups, we kind of share meditation practices and tools for everyday coping, especially these days. And I said, well, I’m going to just do this, uh, as an experiment. So I started writing, uh, this book and suddenly it started growing and I created the cover.

And before I even knew it, I was like, oh crap. I am publishing a book in like a month. Yeah. In a month, uh, process. I was like, uh, published the book and now it just came out in Kendall. It’s in print version. The audio version is coming out from, uh, an audible and apple probably in the next week. So it’s one of those, uh, the spirit took me and I just went for it and I have no idea where it’s going, what it’s going to do, but it’s something that I knew it would be helpful.

I want it to be helpful because we do live in more fragmented times where people are under a huge amount of anxiety and stress, and the old ways might not be working. I mean, I’m sure you can relate to how people are, where it’s a, oh my God. I had a stressful day. I’m going to wait till I get home and have a drink or watch TV, or I’m going to wait till I go to church on Sunday or, or the mosque on Friday or my witch’s circle, whatever, or my yoga class, my weekly yoga class.

But those ways, those old ways don’t work. I think we need to, we need a set of spiritual, psychological wellness, toolboxes at our disposition at all times of the day. It’s not good enough. Uh, you had bad news at work or you’re overwhelmed because of the Twitter feed and you’re gonna wait. It’s like, no, how am I going to get these meditations?

And these, these tools that, that can work for me in an instant, because we are being bombarded by media and misinformation and propaganda, and the old ways are falling apart from the workplace to societal circles, to our very culture. So I thought this would be helpful. And it’s something I learned from alcoholics anonymous.

They always. They always said, it’s not enough to go to meetings, have a toolbox of the spiritual tricks or tricks or hacks, if you would, that’ll get you. There’s an old saying in alcoholics anonymous, that goes, uh, what does it take for an alcoholic to relapse a broken shoelace? And it’s so true. And we all have that.

It could be something like you’re coping and the car doesn’t start, or some piece, some shitty email from a client comes in or, or your spouse has having a bad day and just rubs you wrong. Of course we can, the kids break something and suddenly you are off your game. And we live in a culture where this you are off your game is more and more prevalent.

I mean, as I’m sure you’ve heard people like Jordan Peterson and others talking about these are the best times, less poverty, less war, and all that. We’ve lifted all these people up from poverty in the 1920 century. And I’m saying, yeah, I agree. Suicide depression and anxiety, domestic violence. It’s out of control.

And in 2020, which most people or the media overlooks, it’s just getting worse. So this is sort of my contribution that has helped me. It’s from hallow traditions, various traditions pick the meditation that works for you. And hopefully I will add some more as they go because, um, I think we need these more than ever Alex.

[00:12:03] Alex Tsakiris: Awesome. And let’s highlight two words, snackable and meditation. So one of these might not be what people would expect on medic. When they hear the term meditation, they expect a long arduous sit with that firm with that, from back in that bamboo slap, if you don’t do it. And it’s the opposite of that. And it’s snackable, here’s one live life as if everything is rigged in your favor.

Oh, I love that. Yeah. That’s so that’s a meditation from the book people I just gave one away. You can still get them, but you have to have the book in your pocket so you can pull it out and remember, but tell us, tell us about that. I love

[00:12:47] Miguel Conner: that one. It was that’s from, uh, from Rumi. And of course the SU FISM is a form of Islamic Gnosticism.

And some of these are, you might say how to reorient your brain, your attitude, and all that as quickly as possible. So you don’t just get swept away by the days, uh, stress and flows and all the things that are going on today. So a sort of attitude change can really make a difference. Uh, and sometimes it can really help you or at least create a buffer until you hopefully we’ll find the more serious stuff.

Again, you should have a good meditation practice that is more formal. It takes, you know, half an hour to an hour. But to get there. You can’t just go into the, I guess you could go into the work, your work’s a closet or bathroom and meditate for a half an hour, I guess you’d kind of could, if you were desperate, but, uh, these sort of, uh, you might, again, sanity hacks as I call them can really help out.

I mean, and that just that change of attitude can make a big difference. I mean, there’s, again, I go back to alcoholics anonymous. There’s a saying, uh, when things are falling apart, that means they’re really coming together. And as silly as a steward smally, as they might sound from Saturday night live, uh, it is true because having a vision and seeing the bigger picture and how opportunity can appear when things seem to be closing down in certain ways can be really important.

Whether it’s in the macro of your everyday or your larger picture of your career, we all have the ability to navigate and find opportunity and fulfill our petition.

[00:14:30] Alex Tsakiris: Yeah, that’s great. You know, one of the things I appreciated about the book and the meditations, where you included this huge body of inspirational work, that most people completely overlook, and that’s kind of from the entrepreneurial business, self-development kind of arena and there’s some great ones.

Here’s one from your book. It doesn’t matter what kind of day you’re having. The fact that you’re having another day is enough to be grateful for now. That’s one, we’ve all heard different versions of it. I love that one, but tell people where that came from. Cause I think it’s.

[00:15:05] Miguel Conner: Yeah, that is that the one? I think that’s the one from Brad Lee. Isn’t it? Is that the one? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and this is to it and he has this, a spiritual exercise and this guy is a sales guru. He lives in Vegas and all that, but he does have that sensibility of using, like you said, self-help, uh, mysticism to sort of, uh, manage stress. And he came up with his hack and he said, uh, imagine you wake up in the morning and somebody offers you let’s say a million dollars.

And you’re like, okay, that’s great. And he says, how would your day go if somebody plopped a million dollars into your account or a big bag of money and most people’s. I’m going to have a great day instant, you know, the possibilities of open the potential is open the mind. You’re you feel freer and lighter.

You’re going to go through and you’re going to call people like we’re going to do this and go on vacation and invest. And, uh, you’re just going to be happier. And then in his exercise, he says, well, imagine if that person said, all right, you can have a million dollars today, but the catch is you don’t get to wake up tomorrow.

This is it. You’re one day with a million dollars. And he, then he asked, well, what would you choose? And most people would say, screw that. I don’t want a million dollars. I want to wake up tomorrow. I want the rest of my life to continue. And then he asked in a very. Uh, rhetorical way. Well, in that case, does that mean what’s more valuable you waking up in the morning or a million dollars and it kinda makes you think is like, no, me waking up in the morning is more valuable than a million dollars than a billion dollars and a trillion dollars.

And he proposes the question. Well, why don’t you act like you’re waking up to the world is the most valuable thing in the world and that simple. Uh, meditation in the morning can be a huge adjustment to your attitude, to your energy and, uh, even to what you accomplished that day. So these sort of little tricks and reorientations of the mind, these little programming hacks, uh, can make a difference.

Again, they’re not totally transformational. The book tries to give a, I give links and a bigger quotes and talk about these traditions. If you so decide to choose, to take them to help you out on your road. And I try to kept it as varied as possible because everybody’s different. I assume everybody has a different spiritual, psychological makeup.

So I have a, I have Christian Muslim, new age or Colt, uh, all these very traditions so that a person can find what works for them.

[00:17:53] Alex Tsakiris: Hey, you just, you just hit on one of my hot buttons. I’m going to go skeptic, go on you. You walked right into it. You walked right into it.

Miguel, if you wouldn’t have it, if you wouldn’t have walked right into it, I would have pulled you right here. Okay. There’s another one, Lord. I offered this sacrifice to you for, and then for the person, God had one. Here’s another one. God had one son on earth without sin, but no one without suffering. So yeah, no, no. I hate buying it. I mean, no, here’s my point. Diversity is overrated like, I just had this thing the other day and I don’t know if I, who, who I offended on in this one, but it’s like, no, I don’t respect your beliefs. No. Make me respect your beliefs.

Convince me to respect your beliefs in the court of public opinion. I mean, I’m not going to go, you know, barricade your house or throw fire bombs at you. But no, I, if you were a Mormon, if you’re a Scientologist, if you’re a Mooney, I just interviewed great guy. I love the guy 30 years of money. Uh, no, no, no, no.

I don’t respect your beliefs. If you’re Christian, I was going to say fundamentalist, Christian, but that’s just passing it off. No, I don’t necessarily respect your beliefs. And as a matter of fact, this quote that you’ve given. In a lot of ways. So it might connect with some people. And that’s what I hear you saying kind of smorgasbord style.

So let me turn this into a question from a Ayaan bite Gnostic toughness, because there’s certain toughness to the Gnostics and willing to face the fight, the challenge head on. I don’t want to hear that. Uh, uh, there’s well, one son on earth without sin. Wait a minute. Ah, how did, how do you know that that’s, that is, that is different than all the other quotes in a way that I think we need to at least be explicit if somebody buys into that.

Fine. But no, I don’t, I don’t, I don’t know that that God had one son on earth without sin. I don’t know that.

[00:19:57] Miguel Conner: Yeah. I mean, uh, in a way. Between us and your audience. It is a bit sneaky because Augustine is a former Gnostic. He was a Gnostic, but he found he couldn’t, uh, it didn’t give him the structure that he wanted.

In other words, he couldn’t, uh, it couldn’t help him keep his Dick in his pants. So he went from Gnosticism to, uh, uh, Catholicism or Orthodox and he found the structure there, but he, even to the day he died, uh, he was accused of mixing in Neoplatonic and Gnostic ideas into his form of Christianity. And I find a lot of his writings, really beautiful and inspirational.

I just think he was, uh, he was searching as far as the suffering goes. I mean, it is true. Uh, Suffering is a definitely for everybody. And by suffering, I mean, in Buddhism, what do you call it? You call it suffering. Buddha said Duca, which is like a wheel that’s always sort of loose when you’re pulling the card.

It’s very much like Morpheus says in the matrix, you know, there’s something wrong with the world. You don’t know what it is. It’s like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad. I think that’s what the Buddha was. We all know there’s something wrong. I think 20, 21 and 2020 is stress that, and we don’t know what to do.

We’re really uncomfortable in our skin and our minds. So that’s what he was referring to as, uh, as suffering. And, uh, um, obviously everybody suffers because life brings you what life brings you. So, um, I don’t know why I got into that tangent about

[00:21:29] Alex Tsakiris: that. Wasn’t that wasn’t a tangent. I was pulling you into the deep waters and as usual you swim, you swim with no problem to the side of the pool.

And no matter where I pull you, but I’ll follow up on that. I love the business quote. One of the most and, uh, Tim Grimes, who is a fantastic, I love Tim. And he was on the show recently to talk about his book, the joy of not thinking, which is very nondual and very in keeping with this conversation we’re having.

But he turned me onto the fact that Napoleon hill, of course, one of the most famous foundational business writers of all time authored think and grow rich, which became the kind of seminal book that everyone’s built off of scam. Complete scam artist and they go back and they retrace his history. And he’s a scoundrel from the beginning, all the stuff he’s doing, he’s trying to do this business scam and, you know, leaving, abandoning this child in this state and moving to another, just the, and like when we move into the spiritual realm, we find that are the people who are trying to co-op spirituality and we find the same thing.

You know, the David Koresh is the example I’ve been using lately. Of course, the branch Davidian Waco thing. It’s a little bit past maybe what some people remember, but I just stumbled across this little factoid. That one, one of the ways that David Koresh really. Kind of hoodwinked all these good, honest Christians was he had this incredible photographic memory and had virtually memorize the Bible so he could spew out scripture, just boom, boom, boom.

Off the top of his head. So what he also like to do is fuck 12 year old and 13 year old girls. So combine those what’s that. So combine those two interests and what he had was he would go to these people that he would learn to his little compound as this kind of great, you know, commune and stuff like that.

And he’d say, look, I’ll tell you what I’ve talked to the man. And Jesus has told me I need to have a thousand wives and I need to really kind of start this whole new thing. And you know what? I’m checking out your daughter over there. I think she’d be, I think she’d be right in one of Jesus. flock here, right from the beginning, she gotta be one of my wives and he had many, many of these very young teenage girl wives, you know, and that makes a different spin on Waco.

And, you know, we all hear Omar crammed. No, it wasn’t such a great place and they probably didn’t handle it well. But the point, the point is the Sage on the stage. It’s like a conversation we had before. And what I think an bite is about and what you are about is spiritual disintermediation. You don’t need David Koresh to tell you about your spiritual experience to reinterpret it.

And we don’t need Christianity to do that. And we don’t need their book that people can memorize memorize and no matter who it is, and we don’t need, you know, a OSHA up in Oregon in, in his call. So. W we don’t need any of those guys, uh, is that, nah, it’s not OSHA. What is it? It’s OSHA, OSHA rushees. So th th th you know, do we have to be, where do we draw that line?

You know? So E how do you do that? How do you balance the 10 snackable meditations, smorgasbord, find what you like, write your own gospel, create your own myth, which is so beautiful with don’t be a chump. I mean, be, be looking out for people who are going to try and co-op your spiritual experience. And I think that’s also very much in keeping with what we’re talking about with what’s going on in the last couple of years.

[00:25:39] Miguel Conner: Yeah, I think that’s well said, Alex. Uh, I always tell people that we are all points of light. Trying to, uh, on a journey, passing each other by inspiring each other. And that’s the attitude. It should be. You shouldn’t have any sort of, guru or anything like that. At the end of the day, it’s your salvation, your unique journey, and you are there to inspire others and then move on in your journey just as others should inspire you.

And you know, the passing ships in the night, I think that’s the, that’s definitely the best attitude to have, create your own narrative to life. Don’t let others write those because if we’re in a stage where reality is going to disappoint us, sorry, but every single human being out there is going to disappoint us.

And what can be weaponized will be weaponized or is already weaponized. If the Roman empire had a complete lockdown on everything, same with today with the American empire in the CIA. I’ve gone through that journey. I’m a writer who I love Gabriela Garcia, Marquez, you know, the famous communist that was banned from coming into the United States on the CIA payroll, Frank , Zappa.

Remember Mr. I’m going to fight tipper gore for free speech. And we were us gen X were like, all right. Yeah, we got to defend. Military intelligence and you go off, I mean, you can pipe stagger us was probably a spy for some government. I mean, it’s, this is the world we live in. What can be weaponized has already been weaponized.

So you need to know this and accept us and find your own inner light, because that’s just the, it’s just the way it is. What’s the saying, if it can be destroyed by the truth and it deserves to be destroyed by the truth, but that doesn’t change the game of your awakening. Your awakening is still the most important thing that you will have your self knowledge and who these people and gurus and what they corrupt and destroy really has nothing to do with it.

And you can move on again. What 10 snackable meditation, the move on to the next slide and get inspired and move on. Uh, w even the Buddhist say, if you see the Buddha on the road, kill him, I always say same with Jesus. Same with your heroes. Same with your parents. And, you know, a metaphoric, you know, I’m not saying literally, but , it’s your road, man.

[00:28:13] Alex Tsakiris: Uh, oh, just so inspirationally said. And, uh, you know, the parents thing to me is like the way that I hear you saying that is like, if you, I was just having this conversation with my friend, Mark Palmer and his podcast. , my family thinks I’m crazy. And we were talking about just how, how difficult this path is, any path that is a spiritual path that is truly this trying to tap into the inner part.

And when you walk into the forest and you have the divine and it comes through the trees and you never thought you’d experienced it, and you experience love, like you’ve never had before. And then you come home and mom and dad say, oh, no son, oh no, honey. That’s not what we believe. We don’t believe that.

And then you go, oh, we, we don’t believe that mom and dad, mom and dad are good people. And I know they’re good people and grandma and grandpa are good people. They all believe that. That’s not that my experience is not good. Not that’s the Buddha that you’re talking about that needs to be, we need to step over that Buddha and get to the other side, which may be brings me to the, the final, uh, quote that I was going to tee up to people from 10 snackable.

Meditation’s another fun time, phenomenal meditation. This is not a battle of good versus evil. This is a battle of you versus lack of. That’s what you were saying. I think so talk about that as we finish. Yeah.

[00:29:48] Miguel Conner: That’s James true. This is book best apocalypse ever. How we should, whatever happened in 2020, we should be very grateful to the powers that be because they have just opened the veils and showed us so much about the world and ourselves we were tested.

So I, I certainly agree with that point and it is true because. We are here. What did, that’s what Carl Young said. And it’s a book too. We’re not here to be good. We’re here to be ourselves. I mean, we don’t know who we are yet. We’re all going to try to solve the world. And we end up, as you were saying, falling into some Colt or some political party, because we don’t know who we are and we’ve got to find out what is our purpose?

Who are we? And there’s so many layers of programming and bullshit that we have to go through when that happens is I tell people, once you start waking up. What did Anthony de Mello said, spirituality is waking up and Clark Emory the famous Buddhist scholar said the awakening of an individual is a cosmic event.

Once you find out who you are, then the answers will come in a very silent, automatic way. You’ll find like me doing 10 snackable meditations, or a on it just, it comes to you and you go with it and it’s beyond your it going construct itself. I mean, you’re talking about parents and I know I can blame my parents, but my programming certainly did a lot of damage to my kids.

I remember a union guy saying, uh, the parent’s job is to break the souls of our children and I’d be like, oh, that’s crazy. But it is true. Like. I always thought school was, there was something wrong with this, like a splinter and them hit my mind driving me crazy. And, but I thought, well, I got to send my kids to school and I did, but then you start realizing, wait a second.

School is just like a prison and there’s memes on the internet, right? The bus, the cafeteria, the, the wa the architecture, and you go, holy shit. Schools are prisons. It’s a place to dehumanize our children and programming and stop their potential. It’s nothing like the Waldorf schools or anything like that.

And with my first marriage, I send my kids to school, but in this marriage was like, they are completely homeschooled. And they’re obviously mentally, academically, all that they’re far ahead. Kids that go to school, at least here in Illinois, I can’t judge anywhere else. So, uh, yeah. Find out who you are. That is the great rebellion.

Finding out who you are is what they, whoever they are, don’t want you to find out. And that’s what you find out, your purpose, your peace and all that. So that’s the journey. I certainly advise to people instead of trying to go out and change the world or assimilate to some system or religion or anything like that, as you can see, Alex, I’d be the worst guru in the world.

I would never make it not good at it because people email me and they say, well, what are some Gnostic practices? And I said, well, only, you know, you got to find out who you are, what works for you. And you’ve got to create a life, a system, a gospel, and a myth that brings out your inner light. I can’t help you.

Nobody can help you.

[00:33:10] Alex Tsakiris: Well, it’s funny that you say that you’d be a terrible, good root cause. I’ve never talked to you about this, but I’m sure you get pulled into being a guru all the time. I can only imagine. So how do you, how do you balance that? I guess would be one question.

[00:33:27] Miguel Conner: Uh, well, like anything, uh, I don’t take myself too seriously because I know most of what I am is a construct 99% of who I am has been programmed.

My my hand gestures to my accent to, you know, why do I like the bears? If I was the Chicago bears it wouldn’t, I be more authentic if I like the team from like San Diego or the packer, you know what I mean? So I tried to just realize not to take myself too seriously or reality in itself. So, uh, that’s really the end of course, there is the inner there’s that inner fire where I want everybody to find their own bliss from Joseph Campbell to find their own road and that passion to help those who suffer keeps me humble in a lot of ways, because there’s no time to sit on your laurels or, uh, get a big head about things. I mean, we gotta be moving fast.

[00:34:23] Alex Tsakiris: Great. So Miguel, you’ve already mentioned on the book, it’s coming out an audible. What else do we want to say about this book? 10 snackable meditations. I do think people will really enjoy it. You can get a very good sense. You can go look inside and see if it’s for you.

It’s really something that you need to have on your Kindle if you keep your Kindle with, or your phone or in your pocket, because it can be that kind of touchstone. Bring me back to a good space kind of thing. What else do we want to tell people about it?

[00:34:51] Miguel Conner: Well, yeah. And if you get the paper back, just put it in your back pocket to use it.

I think we’ve covered a lot of it. Uh, Scott, if you want to expand on it, if it’s got quotes, it’s got links to YouTube videos with bigger exercises. It’s from traditions from thousands of years ago, from Tibetan monks to new age guys, to sales people, like we just talked about the Brad Leah. So it’s a good, it’s a nice, good hodgepodge.

Do have the wisdom of the ages when it comes down to it, nothing new under the sun. That’s what all these masters are saying. Just wake up. Don’t sweat the small temporal stuff, because it’s all just temporal. And at the end of the day, you’re going to be fine. If you don’t lose sight of who you really are, which is just an eternal being, you are an eternal being that somehow forgot and out thinks you are in this temporal world or even.

And the skeptical way somebody convince you you’re a biological robot and now it’s just a universe of nihilism and mechanism. That’s, uh, that’s pretty painful and you don’t have to be in pain.

[00:36:02] Alex Tsakiris: Nice. Okay. And I say that Miguel, cause, uh, I want to pivot a little bit

Thanks again to Miguel Connor for joining me today on skeptical as I was just referencing, you know, there is a second half to this interview. It was just so different than the first half that I felt like I needed to release it. As a second episode, which I will do in a few weeks, but for now I thought we would just focus in on this great, great interview in this book that he did. And I would tee up one question from this one.

Which one of Miguel’s meditations did you like best, did you most relate to. Let me know any way you find me. I have a bunch of new ways to kind of find me on the skeptical websites of go there, more ways to connect more ways to do things that become part of, I guess, a community of skeptical listeners. So do check that out. If that sounds interesting to you, I’ve got a lot more to come. Until next time, take care. And bye for now.  [box]