If things are getting too woo-woo for you, then try these YouTubes’?

A Scientific Explanation For God? | Answers With Joe | YouTube 12:14

Science and spirituality: Jeff Lieberman at TEDxCambridge 2011 | YouTube 14:24

Inside us lies divine happiness, the same happiness we are looking for in the world. If we think about the joy we derive from different activities, we will realize that we experience happiness not in the activities, but within ourselves. -Swami Muktananda | Meditate

The Idealist View of Reality – Professor Keith Ward | YouTube 54:25

Umwelt is the name for our sensory window into the world around us. Each species has its own Umwelt, or range of sensory perception, but nobody really sees the world as it actually is. If you are curious about how perception works, here are some insightful YouTubes’:

TEDxAlamo – David Eagleman, PhD – 10/29/09  | YouTube 16:51

Your brain hallucinates your conscious reality | Anil Seth | YouTube 17:00

The ultimate 15 min. guide to being human.

How To Reprogram Your Mind | Dr. Bruce Lipton | YouTube 15:12

A fun YouTube compilation on perception including an introduction into the nature of our quantum mechanical universe.

All we see & seem is but a dream within a dream | Adapted from The Illusion of Reality | YouTube 7:01

The Ten Oxherding Pictures are a Zen Buddhist illustration of the path to enlightenment…which is the eighth picture. Pictures nine and ten were added later, to represent the path of the Bodhisattva; skilled in the art of staying in-body after enlightenment.

These eight pictures depict the shift in identity between one’s egoic self (the Person), and one’s true Self (initially represented as the Ox). The first picture represents a true spiritual seeker, which isn’t that common. The second picture shows the seeker finding evidence in the world (like psychic phenomena), which is common among seekers. The third represents a big step; an awakening, or temporary enlightenment experience (glimpsing the Ox), usually involving a guru (not that common among seekers). Four represents the destabilization of the egoic self when one’s own identity is now questioned.

Destabilization is exhausting, so it settles down relatively quickly. But the egoic self (your personal identity) is a difficult thing to surrender, so it continues to lead in picture five. Picture six represents the egoic self finally surrendering to the higher Self as a primary identity. Eventually, the egoic self is fully understood to be a tool rather than an identity, and that dichotomy dissolves, shown in picture seven. Then one is ready to transcend physical existence, represented by picture eight.