Mind Hacking Happiness Volume II: Increasing Happiness and Finding Non-Dual Enlightenment

Rounding out my month on happiness reading brings us to this week’s book of the week, Mind Hacking Happiness Volume II: Increasing Happiness and Finding Non-Dual Enlightenment by Sean Webb.

Volume 2 of Mind Hacking Happiness expands on the concept of meditation as a way to find happiness. If you remember from last week, he laid out several options to unload your brain from the negative aspects of {self} that everyone tends to cling to as part of what makes you, you, with meditation being first on the list.

So, volume 2 digs into more of the scientific backing of the positive aspects of meditation. There is the obvious like measurable decrease in levels of stress, enhanced calm, feelings of peace. But then he veers off the expected into quantum physics. I am not joking about that one. But I also believe him. I am not by any metric mocking the connection between meditation and quantum physics, largely due to how well he built the bridge between the two concepts.

And I have been fascinated by quantum physics ever since Michael Crichton wrote Timeline back in 2003. Like…. if I could live my life over, I would force myself to be good at math, so I could spend more time exploring quantum physics fascinated.

And what all of this leads to is that every living cell in every living organism has its own consciousness. And that without consciousness, quantum physics would not exist, since consciousness is a key element in quantum physics. And we know for a fact that quantum physics is real. So how does all this tie into happiness and meditation?

Well, to get to the core of happiness, where you are one with the universe…woo woo meaning intended…means acknowledging the life in all things. That’s the Non-Dual Enlightenment portion of the title. Non-Dual means there is no difference between you and the person next to you, at a deep fundamental level. Its kind of…so seriously, reading this book, I was reminded heavily of Valentine Michael Smith from Stranger in a Strange Land. And the temple greeting he instills in all his followers: “Thou Art God.” And the belief that God just wants you to be happy….at this point, I genuinely believe Heinlein may have experienced enlightenment himself. Like, everything about Stranger, jives with what Webb is writing in Mind Hacking Happiness Volume II.

But whereas people rebel against the concept of personal responsibility as outlined in Heinlein’s works, Webb doesn’t make you guess at the meaning. He says point blank you are responsible for your{self} and all the thoughts you think. Here’s how that breaks down. He literally spells it out for you and breaks that knowledge down into small, bite sized pieces.

He further breaks down happiness into two types of happiness: Hedonic and Eudaemonic. Let’s look at each of these.

Hedonic happiness is “the sensory experience of enjoying specific things.” Eating food you love, enjoying artwork, drinking your favorite drink. These are examples of hedonic happiness, because the happiness is fleeting. It doesn’t stick around and keep on making you happy. The temporary joy you feel at buying a new car is replaced when the first payment is due. This is shallow happiness. Still a good thing to experience, but by definition is temporary in nature.

Eudaemonic happiness is a deeper level of happiness. It is “the more profound feeling of well-being that is experienced at our core, and which is independent of any one specific event.” The’s the human flourishing and literally translates as “good in spirit.” This is the happiness you feel daily when you have released the bullshit ideas of {self} your ego has demanded you pay attention to, and just allow yourself to feel connected with existence and be at peace with such. Sounds delightful…now how do I get there?

If you guessed meditation, you are correct; however, there are steps you can take in conjunction with meditation to help speed the process along. Positive thinking is one. Give your fellow man a break. Instead of assuming someone cuts you off while driving because they are inherently a jerk, offer them a wish that their day gets better and choose not to be bothered by it. Remember: your mind tells you what to think. Your mind tells you to be annoyed when someone cuts you off. Tell your mind to shut up, this is nothing worth getting upset about, and ignore it.

Consciously choose what you’re paying attention to. Focus on things like health and family, and choose to ignore things like politics, celebrity gossip, evening news. The things that make your blood boil are the things that are draining your happiness. Why give them any attention?

By making these choices in conjunction with meditation, you open yourself up to enlightenment, and thus to true happiness.

He does spend a rather lengthy chapter describing his own enlightenment experience, which just actually reinforced for me my belief that Stranger in a Strange Land was Heinlein’s’ telling of his own enlightenment experience, but I won’t go into that here because it’s not my story to tell.

In addition to telling his own enlightenment experience, he provides some insight into how to avoid the “false prophets” of enlightenment, like how can you tell if someone is the real deal, or just spouting things they’ve heard others who HAVE walked the enlightenment path say? Webb quotes the Buddha on this one: “Buddha said that to be enlightened is to be completely free of the three root poisons of greed, hatred, and delusion.”

So, if someone is charging you for enlightenment….and I don’t mean buying a book and reading about it, I mean like $50 per session to discuss the process charging…the profit motive means they are likely not a prophet. If they are soliciting donations to pay for their next private jet…. The profit motive means they are not a prophet. All the prophets in recorded history…from Jesus, to Buddha, to Dogen, to Muhammed, were humble men who didn’t seek out great wealth. So, consider that a sign.

Hatred…if they are preaching hatred of others for any reason, they are not a prophet. Mohammed and Jesus don’t preach hatred…. but some of their followers use those teachings to drum up hatred of others in their followers. Non-dual enlightenment means to hate your fellow man is to hate yourself. So, preaching of hatred for any reason means the person has not truly found enlightenment.

Delusion…is there any greater delusion than grandeur? If the person you are looking to for spiritual guidance is high on the smell of their own farts…they are definitely not enlightened.

Now, there are several different ways to achieve this ultimate enlightenment, with meditation leading the charge. It was through meditation that Webb had his own experience. But he also provides the following:

Physical Meditations and Physical Duress. This can be through dancing, which he cites the Sufis and Dhikr (zicker), aka The Whirling Dervishes. For a more feminine twist on this, not mentioned in the book but popped into my head immediately, are Zar rituals in Egypt. He kind of touches on them, calling them “religious tribal dances of unique religions found in Africa.” Which is accurate, but I’ve always referred to them as Zar, from my time as a dancer…. Long, long time ago. Physical exertion in the form of yoga. Like, I’ve done hot yoga, I always loved how I felt afterwards but basically hated every minute of being in the studio itself; however, there was definitely a hard core group of students who I could see were getting a lot more out of it than I was, and Webb explains physiologically what’s going on here, so that was cool. I might try that again. Plus, Yoga is good for you, so double win. And Native American Sweat Lodges can get you to enlightenment too.

Chanting and prayer are a means to this end. Prayer used to be the chance to listen for God’s voice while meditating, and in monasteries the world over it still is. It’s only in fairly recent times that prayer has become about asking for the winning lottery numbers while waiting for church services to be over.

Fasting. The calorie deficit in fasting leaves the mind sort of a tabula rasa. Fasting is a rough go for me, I probably won’t be trying this one…although, the hot yoga studio I went to always said not to eat for two hours before class. I think that was so you didn’t throw up in class, but I can see where it would also serve a dual function.

Despair. Not recommended by basically anyone, but deep despair over some challenge life has thrown at you has caused some people to experience enlightenment.

And finally, near death experiences. Also not recommended because as Webb says, there’s no guarantee that yours is a round trip ticket. It could just end in death.

And finally, he references Dr. Rick Strassman work on psychedelics, whose book I read last December, as a fast track to enlightenment. However, as he has also pointed out several ways to reach that point without drugs, they are not actually needed. But historically, they were likely a part of ritual to reach that state. So…that’s between you and Uncle Sam at this point. Webb has provided multiple legal paths to open your mind, if you feel you need the psychedelic boost to get there, just don’t get caught. I mean…you’ll have lots of time to meditate in prison, but it’s probably not the most relaxing environment to do so in.

And as a final way to help yourself out, he includes care and feeding of the pineal gland. Now, he does include the caveat that we have not definitively proven the pineal gland is where DMT is naturally manufactured in the human brain. It’s hypothesized due to this is where it is manufactured in rats. But there’s no legal or ethical way to test this theory on humans, so it has yet to be confirmed. However, shouldn’t we all be doing everything we can to be healthy anyway? And while we don’t know for sure DMT is manufactured there, we DO know that melatonin is manufactured there…. that stuff that helps you get a good night’s sleep. And don’t we all feel better when we’re well rested?

The best thing you can do for your pineal gland is don’t drink water that’s been treated with fluoride. If you live in a jurisdiction that treats water with fluoride, get a reverse osmosis water filter to funnel that out. They started adding fluoride to the drinking water to help the children, specifically their teeth. Except fluoride only really helps kids’ teeth when directly applied to the enamel while the kid is between like 7 and 12 years old. So, the minimal contact when consuming in drinking water does nothing except fuck up the pineal gland. I read that and did a quick check and lucky for me, Truckee Meadows Water Authority does NOT add fluoride to our drinking water. So that made me happy, one less thing I have to worry about.

But I did read that and had to wonder if between the added fluoride and the laws against psychedelics, if there is some pressing reason our government doesn’t want us seeing God?

This book was originally reviewed on YouTube on August 20, 2023, but is now available on Rumble and PodBean.