Is Vipassana Dangerous or an Antidote to Tech?
02/19/24 • 47 min
Vipassana is an intensive, 10-day form of meditation often likened to taking a heroic dose of a psychedelic trip, in terms of the profound realisations an individual can reach. And just like with hallucinogenic drugs, those with a predisposition to mental health issues, or who are at a vulnerable point in their life, can experience adverse effects – as the podcast Untold: The Retreat has found. Frank and Jenny talk to three people who completed a 10-day retreat and had very different experiences. Our lead interviewee is neuroscientist, AI engineer and 'extremophile' Dr Jack Allocca, who has found himself completely reassessing his life.
LINKS
Jack Allocca in Jenny Valentish’s book Everything Harder Than Everything Else.
Jenny’s Australian Financial Review article about Jack Allocca speaking to mastermind groups.
Jack Allocca on Instagram including a poignant post he made post-Vipassana retreat.
Untold: The Retreat podcast.
Vipassana subreddit.
Further reading #1: Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari. #2 Life 3.0 by Max Tegmark. #3: A romantic rebellion against the tech era (The Guardian).
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Vipassana is an intensive, 10-day form of meditation often likened to taking a heroic dose of a psychedelic trip, in terms of the profound realisations an individual can reach. And just like with hallucinogenic drugs, those with a predisposition to mental health issues, or who are at a vulnerable point in their life, can experience adverse effects – as the podcast Untold: The Retreat has found. Frank and Jenny talk to three people who completed a 10-day retreat and had very different experiences. Our lead interviewee is neuroscientist, AI engineer and 'extremophile' Dr Jack Allocca, who has found himself completely reassessing his life.
LINKS
Jack Allocca in Jenny Valentish’s book Everything Harder Than Everything Else.
Jenny’s Australian Financial Review article about Jack Allocca speaking to mastermind groups.
Jack Allocca on Instagram including a poignant post he made post-Vipassana retreat.
Untold: The Retreat podcast.
Vipassana subreddit.
Further reading #1: Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari. #2 Life 3.0 by Max Tegmark. #3: A romantic rebellion against the tech era (The Guardian).
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Previous Episode
The Fetish of Muscle Worship
Have you ever had your head scissored? Have you been piggybacked, by a muscular woman in a bikini? Fireman-carried across a five-star hotel room? Choked gently to sleep? If not, you can. Muscle worship sites are full of bodybuilding, tough-as-fuck women who are ready to arm-wrestle you into humiliation for a price.
Kortney Olson is larger-than-life in every way. A hoot, a scream, a boss – in fact, a motherfucking CEO – and a bodybuilder who’s smashed watermelons between her thighs on television shows such as Jimmy Kimmel Live. That she hasn’t yet become President of the United States of America pains her. Even so, she’s like a superhero. In fact, the creator of Marvel Comics, Stan Lee, dubbed her ‘the woman with the world’s deadliest thighs’. Even Arnold Schwarzenegger snapchatted about her: ‘Now, that woman is definitely fit.’
Kortney is Frank and Jenny’s guest this week, talking about her hectic high school years, her former meth addiction, and her pathway into muscle fetish – including some really close that we shouldn’t laugh at, but with her permission, we will.
LINKS
Kortney’s fitness apparel Grrrl
Kortney’s Insta
Kortney’s coaching programs
Kortney crushing watermelons
This episode’s source material, Everything Harder Than Everyone Else, audio book via Audible
Photo credit for Kortney cover art: Olga Filatova
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Next Episode
Energy Healing, Manifesting and the Placebo Effect
Is calling yourself 'Mother God' a legit way to promote healing around the world or a chronic case of spiritual narcissism? Is reading The Secret a neat way of visualising your goals or as entitled as Veruca Salt demanding a Oompa Loompa? Do energy healers really have special powers or is it the power of the placebo effect?
This episode, Frank and Jenny probe Jenny’s scepticism of energy healing and manifesting abundance. (Actually don’t say ‘probe’, that will bring up buried memories of the alien implant the Zeta Reticulans put in her pelvic bowl.) They’re aided by licensed psychotherapist Joe Nucci, who you may know from his no-bullshit social media videos, aimed at arming you with knowledge to navigate mental health (mis)information.
LINKS
Joe Nucci on Insta and his website.
Jenny’s blog New Age Guinea Pig.
An interesting paper, Extraterrestrial Pregnancies and Nasal Implants by Marika Moisseef.
Lo Carmen’s rad new podcast, Death Is Not The End.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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