Snapshot · Matt and Shane's Secret Podcast
Baruch Spinoza identified God, substance, and nature as three names for the same thing — a conception Einstein endorsed when asked if he believed in God, saying 'I believe in Spinoza's God.'
Where this was said
At 28:43 · chapter starts 26:20
A digression into philosophy becomes one of the episode's richest stretches. Milo describes reading Spinoza's first chapter and understanding nothing intellectually, but experiencing a full-body vibration — a phenomenon that also hit him reading the Tao Te Ching. Both books 'chose him,' and he spent his university years trying to reconcile Spinoza's Euclidean proof-of-God with Lao Tzu's instruction to stop trying to prove anything. Spinoza calls God, substance, and nature three names for the same thing — a view Einstein publicly endorsed. Milo frames this as the 'neurotic Jewish version of Taoism,' a way to be rigorously rational and still arrive at peace. Matt connects it to his reading of Alasdair MacIntyre: that modern culture collapsed Aristotelian virtue ethics into rule-following, and the '60s reaction collapsed it further into rule-rejection, leaving everyone still miserable. He adds his belief, backed by unspecified research, that people with genuine transcendental beliefs live about seven years longer on average.
Spinoza called God, substance, and nature three names for the same thing, and proved it with Euclidean geometry. Einstein endorsed it publicly. Milo Reed found in Spinoza a bridge between rational inquiry and the oceanic Taoist peace of Lao Tzu — two books that made his body vibrate before his mind could understand them.
A meditation retreat insight: forgiveness is simply choosing to no longer suffer the things you cannot change — it is giving up hope of changing the past.
Haile Selassie's 1966 state visit to Jamaica legitimized Rastafarianism in the eyes of Jamaicans, including Rita Marley, and directly sparked its fusion with reggae music.
Dreadlocks have been associated with Rastafarianism since at least the 1940s, far predating their popularization in Western culture during the reggae boom of the 1970s.
Sam Harris noted that some of the best meditation instruction dates back 2,500 years to the Buddha in India around 500 BC — long predating any smartphone distraction.
A stat surfaced on the show suggesting the average Mormon is worth $1.7 million, far above the average Catholic, attributed to Mormon nepotism and tithing practices.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints reportedly holds around $100 billion in assets, making it the richest single church in the world.
The best-case scenario your ego can visualize is only the starting point for what the higher mind or divine can create — suggesting intentional limitation in ego-based manifestation.
Dolores Cannon's books contain thousands of transcripts from deep hypnotherapy sessions in which subjects from around the world independently describe the same experience of forgetting who they are in order to remember.
Kirk claims 70% of all global Christian mission work originates from Americans, who make up only 5% of the world's population.
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