John Vervaeke
is creating solutions to the Meaning CrisisSelect a membership level
Priority access to John during live Q&As
Limited (47 remaining)
$2
per month
Got questions for John? You get priority access when asking questions during monthly live Q&As.
Early Access to Videos
$10
per month
Get access to each video in our 50-part series a day ahead of public release (Thursdays). Plus, everything in below tiers.
About John Vervaeke
The Meaning Crisis is at the root of modern crises of mental health, the response to environmental collapse, and the political system. We are drowning in bullshit--literally "meaninglessness". We feel disconnected from ourselves, each other, the world, and a viable future.
I grew up in a fundamentalist Christian home. When I was fifteen, I read books that introduced me to Jungian, Hindu, and Buddhist philosophy. These shattered my commitment to Christianity because they introduced me to alternate world views. But they merely opened my mind without satisfying my heart because they didn't give me a course of education and development. I felt lost for years--fallen down a chasm between the world I had left and the world I had not yet entered. I went to university hoping to find a solution to this deep crisis of meaning I was experiencing. When I encountered Socrates, I suddenly found my life purpose in pursuing wisdom as a response to the meaning crisis.
Let's figure out what we can do about the Meaning Crisis together.
I am doing scientific research through the Consciousness & Wisdom Studies Lab that dives into the Meaning Crisis and looks at solutions to mitigate it. But the best research is impotent if it is not made available to those who need it most.
I've taught these ideas to over 8,000 students at the University of Toronto and it has changed their lives, according to their course feedback. With the support of current and former students—I'm not very good with technology—I've recently begun broader public outreach with YouTube videos.
I am currently in the middle of a fifty-part YouTube series released weekly on Friday afternoons. I will be holding monthly live Q&As where you can ask questions on a variety of topics, with priority access to Patreon supporters.
Your support will assist in doing the research and sharing it outside the lab, which is so crucial to resolving this crisis for millions. Choose a support level immediately, as a number of them are limited. Even a dollar helps.
-------
What is the Meaning Crisis?
Deeper than social media problems, political problems, even economic problems. They're deeply historical, cultural problems. Getting out of this problem is tremendously hard and requires transformation in our cognition, culture, and communities.
How can we find a solution?
We have to reach even more deeply into the past to salvage the resources we can for such an amazing challenge. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, Jesus of Nazareth, Siddhartha Gautama the Buddha. Also modern figures like Jung, Nietzsche, Heidegger. Current work being done by psychologists, cognitive scientists, philosophers, neuroscientists.
My video series covers a lot. Shamanism and altered states of consciousness including mystical experiences and psychedelic experiences. Existentialism. Nihilism. Artificial Intelligence. What does our evolutionary past tell us about how to wrestle with this?
There are no easy answers. We have to be clear about the problem and clear about what potential solution might look like.
So we can—together—awaken from the meaning crisis.
I grew up in a fundamentalist Christian home. When I was fifteen, I read books that introduced me to Jungian, Hindu, and Buddhist philosophy. These shattered my commitment to Christianity because they introduced me to alternate world views. But they merely opened my mind without satisfying my heart because they didn't give me a course of education and development. I felt lost for years--fallen down a chasm between the world I had left and the world I had not yet entered. I went to university hoping to find a solution to this deep crisis of meaning I was experiencing. When I encountered Socrates, I suddenly found my life purpose in pursuing wisdom as a response to the meaning crisis.
Let's figure out what we can do about the Meaning Crisis together.
I am doing scientific research through the Consciousness & Wisdom Studies Lab that dives into the Meaning Crisis and looks at solutions to mitigate it. But the best research is impotent if it is not made available to those who need it most.
I've taught these ideas to over 8,000 students at the University of Toronto and it has changed their lives, according to their course feedback. With the support of current and former students—I'm not very good with technology—I've recently begun broader public outreach with YouTube videos.
I am currently in the middle of a fifty-part YouTube series released weekly on Friday afternoons. I will be holding monthly live Q&As where you can ask questions on a variety of topics, with priority access to Patreon supporters.
Your support will assist in doing the research and sharing it outside the lab, which is so crucial to resolving this crisis for millions. Choose a support level immediately, as a number of them are limited. Even a dollar helps.
-------
What is the Meaning Crisis?
Deeper than social media problems, political problems, even economic problems. They're deeply historical, cultural problems. Getting out of this problem is tremendously hard and requires transformation in our cognition, culture, and communities.
How can we find a solution?
We have to reach even more deeply into the past to salvage the resources we can for such an amazing challenge. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, Jesus of Nazareth, Siddhartha Gautama the Buddha. Also modern figures like Jung, Nietzsche, Heidegger. Current work being done by psychologists, cognitive scientists, philosophers, neuroscientists.
My video series covers a lot. Shamanism and altered states of consciousness including mystical experiences and psychedelic experiences. Existentialism. Nihilism. Artificial Intelligence. What does our evolutionary past tell us about how to wrestle with this?
There are no easy answers. We have to be clear about the problem and clear about what potential solution might look like.
So we can—together—awaken from the meaning crisis.
How it works
Get started in 2 minutes
Choose a membership
Sign up
Add a payment method
Get benefits