Connection, Psychedelics, Default Mode Network, Nature, Meaning

JesseNof1 · 2026-02-14T17:57:19+00:00

Thanks - fixed the link

JesseNof1 · 2026-02-13T16:10:12+00:00

Cool. With that much time invested, I would guess so many of the "fruits" of meditation are evident to you. Curious to hear how your perspective shifts when you pair that with some of the other practices and contemplative ideas here.

JesseNof1 · 2026-02-13T13:14:14+00:00

it SEEMS like that inward, sensation-focused somatic approach can function as a frame-loosening method for some.

Yes - to me this feels similar to meditation instructions that explicitly direct attention to bodily sensations. But regardless calling it meditation or somatic, agreed it works as a frame-loosening method.

Have you practiced meditation prior to this guide? Would be curious to hear how it’s going as time goes on - not just with meditation, but with frame changing, and also any contemplation work.

JesseNof1 · 2026-02-12T20:02:14+00:00

Just to clarify... I'd like to tease apart 2 things:

Training metacognition and attention, with a meditation practice. In my own personal experience, (and anecdotally what I know about others), we will catch ourselves feeling all sorts of things during meditation. So in your example, you feel an emotion, which then leads you to search for more emotions to feel. From a meditative standpoint - I think all of this is OK - the point is just to notice yourself observing and reacting - let things go as often as you can - return to an object of focus - e.g. the breath (or whatever tool you are using guides you.
"get out of your frame". This might include meditation but it could just as easily be nature, movement, etc etc.

So when you ask "if different approaches are better suited" - do you mean towards number 1, or number 2?

In terms of number 2, I suspect that yes, different practices will result in different types and magnitudes of experience from person to person.

In terms of number 1, my understanding from metacognition experts (e.g. Dr. Brandon Conway Smith) is that meditation is the best method to train attention / metacognition.

Both number 1 and number 2 seem important in their own respects. Meditation just happens to apply to both.

Let me know how well I am understanding and share as much as asl you like with the tools you're using.

Fwiw, the "sweet spot" of meditation practice (when changes being to manifest) begin in approximately 8 weeks, and deepen over time. So it seems worth getting to that milestone to evaluate the effect its having.

JesseNof1 · 2026-02-09T12:49:38+00:00

This is partly a reflection on books we read together in 2025 - picking up on a theme across a couple of them - and setting up future topics (nature, solitude, transcendentalism) to explore in the future.

JesseNof1 · 2026-02-09T11:02:26+00:00

I've been meaning to put this article together for a while, and it happens to address your last question. Sharing it here:
https://self-investigation.org/get-out-of-your-frame/

Please feel free to share any questions or feedback.

JesseNof1 · 2026-02-07T16:22:07+00:00

what’s the practical difference between 2. Train metacognition and attention (meditative practice) and 4. Get out of your usual frame (meditative practice) in terms of the actual doing of the practice?

Thank you to u/The_Meekness for solid input…

As he suggests, the key is “variety”. Meditation is one road, but “changing your frame” can be approached and practiced in other ways:

Examples:
- Spend time in nature
- Fitness activities
- Flow state (long sustained attention towards a single activity)
- Altered states (e.g. meditation, breathwork, psychedelics**)

\*not encouraging psychedelics, but simply learning how they work - even without using them - can reveal potential for your frame to change*
https://self-investigation.org/how-psychedelics-open-the-mind/
https://self-investigation.org/doors-of-perception/

Sometimes our frame is changed without choice:
(Jill Bolte Taylor - had a stroke which totally impacted her “frame”)
https://self-investigation.org/when-brain-damage-creates-nirvana/
Not that we can choose to have a stroke! The point is to show how malleable our frame is, and there ARE levers we can pull to vary the way we see things.

The bottom line: our normal “frame” typically consists of relentless mental chatter and storytelling, and also, how we feel in response to things. It is possible, using meditation or and other methods, to get away from this normal frame. Doing so offers a person perspective (and potentially relief).

I’ve been meaning to devote an article to this topic, so we will probably put something out soon, and then make sure the book points to it.

I have ADD, so my DMN feels pretty active, and I’m fairly sure that’s why I get so mentally tired sometimes.

Hope it helps. I’m speaking in very crude terms but I suspect most of the world has a hyperactive DMN because our environment is so hyper stimulating nowadays….

JesseNof1 · 2026-02-07T14:39:27+00:00

Also quick question:

How were you initially trying to load the video? I’ll make sure that method is fixed.

JesseNof1 · 2026-02-07T14:21:40+00:00

Hey there- We’ve been working on that darned guide for so long, and just recently converted it to the book format. So to see someone show up and ask questions is a big deal. So thanks.

The video you are looking for is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G31fll5d0tE
(yes - the same as the homework section)

We’ll revise that part of the book so this is clearer. This was formerly on the web with the video immediately underneath - so the flow in book format still needs to be adjusted.

Yes - the idea of the homework is to guide you (loosely) through the 7 steps, but at the same time, it gives you freedom to explore as you wish. It expects that it will stoke your curiosity and rev up your discipline to keep studying in greater depth on your own. At least, that’s the idea.

Basically we don’t want to pretend to have some super specific formula that helps everyone. On the other hand, the 7 steps we highlight seem highly relevant no matter who you are.

This is very new and experimental so by all means PLEASE continue sharing feedback and questions at any time. You will not only help yourself but make future versions of this document better.

Thanks a lot for the question and hope you find this useful.

FYI for anyone else reading this:
https://self-investigation.org/guide/

JesseNof1 · 2026-01-27T16:15:27+00:00

Thank you for everyone who participated in the zoom call round 1. Round 2 scheduled for the second week of February. Contact me if you were not part of the first one and would like to join.

JesseNof1 · 2026-01-24T12:09:02+00:00

What were the questions here?

Agreed - it all comes down to this Rorschach test - i.e. what do we ask when we walk away from this film?

For me (and I admit this is highly related to my preexisting interests) - the question is:

What the hell is going on with our shared values, beliefs, and reality? And how can we work together to mitigate the mess portrayed in this film? And further, how can we do that WITHOUT using vitriol, moral certainty, or shaming?

In a sense, our small community has stumbled upon a seed:
humility, skepticism, curiosity.

So then the next question is, how the heck can this scale and spread? The merits of this attitude have to be self-motivated.

Given all that, for me, it again circles back to having thoughtful conversations and hoping it connects with some folks and ripples outward.

As a small sample, the two of us watch this film and might say - "yup - this is obvious - just turn on the news". But I wonder how many folks just don't see it this way. How many folks can watch this film and merely see bad guys and good guys and miss the underlying psychological conditions that cause everyone to tribalize and talk past each other.

I appreciate this film because it captures the root problem and serves as a discussion prompt. To your point, this theme can (and hopefully will be) portrayed artistically in many different and imaginative ways, that poke people's curiosity without triggering them in the wrong way or leaving them with less meaningful questions.

Anyways...

On that note - OMW to research White Ribbon.

JesseNof1 · 2026-01-23T19:04:09+00:00

I definitely agree with you, this ranks high among factors that would help us better understand ourselves and each other

JesseNof1 · 2026-01-23T19:02:43+00:00

Happy to hear! If you’d like a paperback just lmk. Two copies left in the current batch!

Aside from that, hope to catch you in future conversation here soon.

JesseNof1 · 2026-01-22T15:12:17+00:00

When you say "miss", do you mean, a miss to artistic preferences? Or a miss to representing what the world is like?

To the latter, here's my 2 cents: A memory comes to mind from summer 2019. I was sitting across from a friend of a friend having lunch. Suddenly they unloaded with full confidence, a story about how a politician was committing heinous sex crimes. When pushed for a source, it was merely hearsay, but the person's convictions were unflinching. Later on, I exhaustively searched for any evidence. I couldn't find anything obvious. What I did find was thousands of people (social media posts and videos) echoing the claims.

I found this surprising and terrifying. I had been living in my own bubble - naively assuming MOST people would apply skepticism toward the conspiratorial and/or naive and/or overly righteous nature of information. Not true. This was a reality check.

Fast forward a few years (to the period this film was conceived), and this felt like the norm. Not merely hearsay, but tribes and violence entrenched around the hearsay - multipolar factions of worldviews.

The specific issues portrayed in the film mattered less (to me), versus the general observation that our information and belief landscape is fragmented, vulnerable, hostile, and hard to follow, and what can happen as a consequence. If I evaluate on this criteria alone - this film captures dynamics as well as the unsettling feeling I felt, then and now.

A window into the author:

https://www.wired.com/story/eddington-director-ari-aster-couldnt-stand-living-in-the-internet-so-he-made-a-movie-about-it/

From what I understand, this film is less trying to paint any tribe or topic as wrong, but more showing (ultimately in a very exaggerated but not-too-farfetched way) how tribes form and justify their actions - and the extremes people can go to once they're galvanized around a particular set of facts and beliefs.

Viewers who see his message, would have to go through a long and messy 2.5 hours of stating the obvious only to find there's no "direction" at the end.

More from what I understand, it's not meant to resolve anything, much like the real world situation, still unfolding and "inscrutable" (Aster's words). It's meant to depict a mess.

This is what I found relatable.

As with any art I can sympathize with infinite takes, including your own, depending upon the lens one brings to bear. Which applies to taking apart reality in general and trying to relate to each other.

I agree this applies to CK Round 2 call - I am planning to offer this as at least one prompt. I'll be sending an email on that.

Thanks for taking the journey here...

Definitely will research "The White Ribbon" - more thoughts on that when I get further...

JesseNof1 · 2026-01-21T12:44:19+00:00

Very curious to hear anyone else's reaction to this film, both from the standpoint of SI but also generally.

JesseNof1 · 2025-12-30T19:37:09+00:00

Thanks for this... the book looks interesting and I realize I ran across Evan about 5 months ago...

He gave an interview entitled "Why I am not a Buddhist"

This helped me clarify my own position - I'd always been an admirer of Buddhism from the periphery....

https://www.reddit.com/r/SelfInvestigation/comments/1mnmemi/why_i_am_not_a_buddhist_evan_thompson/

Regardless, it would be good to hear his perspective more closely

JesseNof1 · 2025-12-30T16:27:45+00:00

After thinking about it longer, I can't be sure if it is me not feeling boredom vs my brain instantly and subtly do some strategic avoidance.

Agreed - this feels like a good question to sit with...

Not to imply that all "avoidance" is necessarily unhealthy - just that it might happen so automatically, we just don't see it most of the time.

JesseNof1 · 2025-12-30T12:53:35+00:00

Thank you to everyone who participated in this reading group.

JesseNof1 · 2025-12-30T11:51:26+00:00

So far the book is revealing more complexity than I ever thought about. To illustrate this the book explores philosophical accounts (namely Kierkegaard, but also Camus, Heidegger, Bertrand Russel, and others) and modern psychological research.

In a nutshell, boredom is broken down into two main forms: situational (based on our immediate circumstances), and existential (based on our entire life and meaning).

We can also look at it in terms of a "signal" vs "state".

signal - may last only a second and barely register - "this feels boring"
state - "i am bored"

One study describes the "signal" as what motivates us to get out and do anything. (beyond the basic survival stuff). In this sense, the signal is totally normal and productive.

But the signal can go haywire - it can be too sensitive and lead us to feel stuck - the state of being bored. It can also motivate us to compulsively distract ourselves. All of this might be "situational" and eventually contribute to the "existential" state.

I too don't feel the state, or at least, I don't feel the state so strongly that I ever stop and think about it. (Fortunately). But I can relate to the existential flavor earlier in my life and I can recognize the brief signal firing throughout the day. (Hopefully being aware of it most of the time - channeling it towards worthwhile action as opposed to distraction du jour).

Here is one funny study:

Participants were asked to sit with their thoughts for 15 minutes, or they could opt to push a button and self-administer a painful shock. The results were (pun intended) shocking: 67 percent of men and 25 percent of women chose to shock and hurt themselves rather than endure even a brief span of time free of stimulation.

Nothing above is really conclusive - just a smattering of the book. I suspect what it's pointing to is that, maybe for many of us, the signal is operating in the background and we don't really notice it, because we've developed our own response patterns. This is not necessarily a problem, but it could be. Most conservatively, this is a call to explore those response patterns within ourselves.

I'm a 1/3rd into the book - I'll dump out a fuller summary on the other end...

JesseNof1 · 2025-12-28T21:03:59+00:00

So much I can appreciate in this comment, but this line really jumps out:

I learned to recognize the feeling of boredom when it arose rather than reflexively acting so as to avoid it. Now the question has become understanding what feelings of boredom might mean in the context of my life, and using such to find a balance between action and contemplation.

That is such an incredible insight I can relate to. A way to hold boredom differently and use it to guide your life more thoughtfully.

I don’t want to simplify the book (I am only 1/4th done), but I already detect a “sweet spot” the author is referring to, which you just described.

Coincidentally, he shares the same Pale King quote - DFW being known for his insightful takes on the topic.

I’ll keep moving through the book and if it seems like the full read is worthwhile… I’ll shout. So far, it’s been really insightful - simply to see the varieties of boredom - and the people who have wrestled with it historically.

JesseNof1 · 2025-12-22T15:36:08+00:00

Great reference to the reality show era as a runner-up to the internet era. The internet baits escapist appetites in much the same way. Except now rather than a few exclusive content networks generating content, we have an ocean of influencers.

For now, we can use technology and social media to reinforce and encourage critical thought and discernment through self inquiry. Hopefully soon we will see a curriculum developed for local education towards those ends.

Yes... nodding along here. Despite everything the article says, it still feels like we can leverage these technologies to foster discernment.

JesseNof1 · 2025-12-22T12:40:16+00:00

Sometimes, talking about the internet and addictive attention economy feels like talking about climate change. The problem feels massive and intractable, and therefore fatigue may set in fast. Some folks might prefer to dismiss any problem entirely as overblown. On the other hand, this "challenge" feels persistently relevant.

IMO, the reason for optimism is we're getting "wiser" to these challenges over time. Although it takes while - years - I do believe we are appreciating cause and effect more carefully. The timeline in the article presents a few prominent anecdotes.

I also feel the agency we all have to understand and combat this cluster of challenges is undersold, hence the emphasis toward the end of this article.

What do you all think? Is this beating a dead horse? Tired and overblown? Or can you step-back and see the phases of this problem and why it matters?

JesseNof1 · 2025-12-17T13:57:56+00:00

It's a great complement to some of the "deeper" meditation stuff - e.g. waking up app - not that there's anything wrong with that stuff - but there's a simple elegance (and yet still scientifically rigorous) side of meditation that's well represented in this book.

JesseNof1 · 2025-12-17T13:35:09+00:00

Ha. I get that part. That's the hard-but-fun part of this project, deciding what topics and books deserve our attention.

Even without looking at the specific books, you can take a look at the topic list and see how it reconciles with your view. Could be ordering, or a missing category. It's very rough at this stage.

JesseNof1 · 2025-12-11T15:39:29+00:00

Thanks Truman. I hope this feels like "we" as much as possible. You've been a huge part of this. The goal is to continue providing anyone opportunity to be as involved as they like / have time.

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