Jason Silva is a wild and passionate philosopher, futurist, speaker, and TV host. He has a lot of interesting things to say. In the below video he freestyles his way through talking about humanity as gods and worms, Tolstoy, the Infinite, consciousness, transfiguration, existential panic, meditation, self-inquiry, breathing, being born again, the Light, out-of-body experience, our inner divinity, grace, ecstasy, the self, the Self, piercing the veil, and Tillich.

Transcript:
human beings are in quite a predicament
we have the mental capacity to ponder
the infinite yet we find ourselves
housed in heart pumping breath gasping
decaying bodies we are simultaneously
gods and worms the philosopher Tolstoy
used to say that human beings need to
find a way of bridging the finite which
is us with the infinite which is that
ineffable cosmo is a universe that is
beyond our capacity to comprehend
something so vast that we can hardly
model it in our consciousness and we’ve
come up with ways of assimilating
ourselves with the infinite right we’ve
come up with complex mathematics with
equations right we’ve created space
telescopes that main line space and time
through the optic nerve but what do we
do with that right how are we to make
sense of transfigurating experiences
in which we disappear and become one
with everything right Tim Duty says that
in these moments we recontextualize the
self as a marvelous conduit in a
timeless whole from which molecules and
meanings flow from neurons to nebula and
back again and it is in this dramatic
recontextualization that some people
experience temporary panic you know
it’s like it’s like we’re having a dose
that is stronger than what we
can release into but if you can slowly
through meditation and self-inquiry and
breathing learn to breathe through the
turbulence learn to deal with the crisis
the supreme ordeal as you pass through
the birth canal you might my friends be
born into something quite new and
exhilarating you might emerge on the
other side of that black hole and step
into the light people talk about it as
an out-of-body experience people talk
about it as the moment in which they
tasted or they engender the divinity
within themselves
it is possible my friends it can be
staged right religious ecstasy
intellectual neurostorms these
experiences that mark us that tattoo
themselves in our psyche
and leave us with feelings of grace and
ecstasy and gratitude are what life is
all about we are all heroes on a journey
looking for that we’re looking for
anihilation of self with a small s so
that we can re-emerge with a sense of self
with a capital s connected with it all
and I’m not saying that I’m there I’ve
dealt with my share of anxiety
turbulence fear and even panic but there
have been moments where I pierced
against and through the veil and the
curtain parts and what had never been
seen is devoured by the eyes and in
these moments the universe winks my
friends and I know that all is good and
I know that all is good as Paul Tillich
used to say you don’t conquer the
anxiety about dying you meet it with
courage

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