How To Develop An Interest In Truth
By Leo Gura - September 5, 2016 | 45 Comments
The 64 Most Fascinating Questions A Human Can Ask
Mayur says: Wow , certainly , all those questions and many such , l have been pondering since my childhood , very few try to go and understand that deep , feels good that certainly I am one of them
Ragnar says: Leo , are you 6.2 tall ?
Hunter 
Gianna says: I’m thinking humans who are categorized as Autistic or something along those lines and even maybe the younger generation might Have some answers to these questions one day.
tisame says: Fantastic!!! Thank you soooo much!! This video in particular articulates perfectly what I have been trying to communicate when people ask me for advice about their lives. (I’m a physicist, not a counsellor but they ask me anyway–lol!) So, I ask what their philosophy is on life, then offer the idea of how that philosophy is the foundation from which they live their lives–their paradigm. Most just ask me again later(ugh). But this video breaks it down to the practical, every day, understandable level so ‘philosophy’ isn’t an etherial concept at all! I’m texting this video link to everyone I know–lol!!! You’re awesome Leo!!
Darren Brookes says: Isn’t this all just Plato’s cave again?
Louise says: Why does is feel like I’m the one who’s depressed and low in motivation but i’m into these questions and the shallow ones who surround me and tell me I’m wrong all the time are the ones who are happy?
Ragnar says: You may find your answer in leo’s ‘ Dream Life ‘ video
Hi leo, the questions that you encourage to investigat are interesting but the world and society works on respect which you get based on your money looks education occupation character. If you dont have these in place the world wont respect you. it is an egoic world and everyone wants to be better than each other and only resoect people who are better than them. This is just human nature and i dont think there is anything wrong with that. This is also why the alpha male exists and things like bullying happen. Noone likes to get disrespected and it really hurts you so why not live upto these values, have people respect you and be happy. Trust me, respect does feel good, infact i would go on to say that respect is happiness. As you live upto these values you respect yourself increase your self esteem(ego) , feel good about yourself and have others feel good about you and this leads to you being happy.
Rosemary says: Dear Leo,
Would you recommend your reading list as a good source for answering the questions you posed?
San says: Hey Leo,
Great video, some of your questions made me think about the concept of Dao by Lao Tzu, I’d love to see you discussing about that one day!
Best!
Ben says: can someone write out the 64 questions as a reply to this comment?
Sevi says: 4 categories:
Metaphysical questions (2:46)
Epistemological questions (21:4
Questions about the self (40:40)
Questions about consciousness (46:5
Numbers show where the questions are at the video
Sevi says: Metaphysical: the structures of reality/ why the thing is the way it is/ what really is reality.
# how existence exists at all?
What is existence
what does it mean for something to exist
how existence is related to non-existence
How do objects pass from non-existence into existence and from existence to non-existence
Sevi says: # why is reality structured as it is?
Or reality has a definite structure in to order it
But why is it ordered this way and not some other way
Are there any other possible ways to reality can be ordered other than their own (4:2
If we say it’s because of laws of physics;
Why are the laws of physics structured the way they are, could the laws of physics be different or do they have to be the way that they are
Are there may be other universes where the laws of physics are totally different and then, why would be that the case
Sevi says: # which comes first: consciousness or matter
So, scientifically we tend to think of the world is being made of matter and energy; physical hard stuff: rocks, trees, rivers, people, cars; but then again from a first person’s perspective consciousness IS the primary thing. … how does this consciousness come about and what is its relationship to matter? (5:41)/ is consciousness something that comes out of matter like a higher order emergent property?(scientists seem to hold it that way but) may be matter is something that we think up or that occurs conceptually with in consciousness; so which is it? / is matter with in consciousness or this consciousness arrives out of matter? (6:15)
Sevi says: # What is matter, energy, space and time?
These 4 things are like the most primary qualities or quantities or variables in a lot of physics equations and yet if you study physics, there is no real answer to what matter, energy, time or space are (6:40)
These things are defined as some sort of question marks and we can certainly manipulate them in equations. But when it comes to like getting handle what matter is or energy, or even time and space, that’s very very tricky; so in a sense, the most fundamental building blocks of our reality are unknown.
Sevi says: # what is outside the universe? (7:16)
Is our universe infinite or finite?/ if the universe is finite, then there must be what? A boundary? It’s like a sphere? That extends out in all directions but there is a boundary? Then what’s outside that boundary? Is it what, a vacuum? Is it less than a vacuum? Is it nothingness?
What would happen if you try to go through that boundary? If the universe is infinite, how could it be infinite? How could we even understand what it means for the universe to be infinite.
And if the universe does have a boundary, is there something outside that boundary? Like other universes?
Sevi says: # what existed before the big bang? (8:11)
Scientifically we accept the big bang; a model at the origin of the universe, but so that says the universe came out of a little singularity; but WHERE DID THAT SINGULARITY COME FROM?
Saying that the universe originated from a big bang really doesn’t answer anything as to the origins of existence or the universe because you’ve boiled it down to some unknown variable which is really no different than saying that god created the universe or universe sits on a back of a turtle.
#where did the singularity of the big bang come from? Did it come from the other universes; did it come from something like a meta-universe? From a multi-universe?
Sevi says: # how does the material interact with the im-metarial (thoughts, emotions, sights, sound, etc.)
Ex: one’s thoughts effects the actions / alcohol effects the mood (10 0)
# what governs what’s possible what’s impossible in the universe? (12:1
# what makes a thing, a thing? / what actually determines what is an object? Ex: am I one (body as a block) or trillions of cells?
Are those boundaries created by human mind?
# does the evolution of the universe has a purpose?
# does eternal reality exists at all? (18:17)
# what could god be? What could be the origin of the universe?(18:5
# what are thoughts?(20:10)
# how did life start? The very beginning? Where did all come from?(20:56)
Sevi says: Epistemic Category
Epistemology: study of knowledge
# how do we know what we know? (21:53)
# how can I know anything for certain? (22
#what do I know for certain? (22:15)
# why do billions of people believe in god? (23:45)
# why do people disagree about good and bad? Right or wrong/ what’s ethical and unethical/ moral and immoral (26:19)
# what’s evil? (26:30)
# is good and bad objectively truth or is that a construction of a human mind? (27:32)
# how come intelligent people delude themselves? How can we be sure that we are not deluded? (29:11)
A very fundamental question of epistemology and very useful because it forces you to ask:
#WHAT IF I’M WRONG? (29:20)
#what if I’m being self bias? (29:4
# can there be a difference what serves me and what the truth is?? (30:35)
Sevi says: # how could I know that I didn’t indoctrinated? (31 7)
# what are the limits of science? (32:27)
# what is mathematics? What makes it valid? What are the limits of it? (33 4)
# what’s rationality? Why does it work? How do we know rationality can be trusted and relied upon and valid? What are the limits of it or is it limitless? Is it a feature of a human mind? (33:27)
# what is more reliable, 5 senses, rationality or intuition? Which one of those 3 should we use to develop our knowledge? Which one of those is most trustworthy?(34 0)
#what are the biases and blind spots of humanity as a whole? (34:20)
Sevi says: # how do we evaluate our blind spots as humanity? (35:46)
#how do animals understand the reality?(36:13)
# how can we be certain about our knowledge and what we think is true?(36:50)
# why is the human understanding taken as the ultimate truth? (36:5
# how do we know which expert we can trust?(37:16)
#Which model of reality is most accurate?/ what is truth? Itself? Is it an idea? Is it a model? Is it a concept? Is it actual reality? Is it something beyond reality?
What is understanding? Where does understanding come from? How can we trust and rely upon understanding? What is the ultimate truth? (39 7)
# what’s the best way to acquire knowledge? (39:54)
Sevi says: # is reality ultimately understandable?(40:22)
can humans understand everything there is to understand reality or not? Simply because we’re limited by our psychology, biology and so forth
Sevi says: Questions about the self:
# how can I be sure that I exist at all? / what is the self exactly? / what am I ? (41:11)
# how come or how did I come into a being?(41:45)
You were born biologically but you didn’t come online several years after that; there was no you until you aged 3or 4 and then there developed sense of you, sense of ego; before that it didn’t exist. So are you the body or are you the sense of ego? / if you are sense of ego, what is that? / what justifies my identity with my body and with my mind?(42:21)
# if I think that I’m the body and the mind, why do I think that?(42:32)
# the body is mine, the mind is mine then who is it that is owning these things?(42:46)
# what is in control of my thoughts?(42:12) / what is my role in reality?(45:5 / how should IT live my life? What should I do; what things shouldn’t I do?(46:50)
Sevi says: Questions about consciousness:
# what is consciousness? / how come I’m conscious and what does it mean to me to be conscious?(47:17)
# how come science hasn’t explained consciousness; neither has religion? And why is that? Why is it taking so long for us to understand consciousness; what’s going on there?(47:55)
# how is perception possible? How is it possible that one physical object can perceive another physical object?(48 5)
# what unifies our senses?(48:12)
So we have sight, sound, touch, smell; we have emotions, we have thoughts and all of those seemed to occur almost in separate dimensions. These dimensions don’t seem to interpenetrate really, and yet at the same time all these dimensions are unified for us.
# so where are those consciousness located such that they are completely independent and separated, as it seems to be?
# it’s like we live in separate dimensions and yet we also interact with each other. What’s the mechanism there?(50:55)
# can artificial consciousness be created? Ex: can a computer become conscious? Or, is consciousness a property of biological organic life?(51 6)
Sevi says: # can consciousness be split or joint?
Is it possible to take my consciousness and somehow split it in two; so that there are two consciousness?
Or, is it possible to take two consciousness like mine and yours and merge them together, so that there is one?(51:31)
What would happen if we joint every single human consciousness on earth together? Seven billion all multiplied together?
# is consciousness something that arises from higher level order creatures and such, or is consciousness actually sort of like a field that permeates the entire universe?
Sevi says: …
And may be we have to think consciousness not as an emergent higher order property but actually as the most fundamental variable of the universe; in the same way we think about matter, energy, time and space.
# But if that’s the case, if consciousness is something that very very elemental, how do we account for that in our physics?
Because right now our physics doesn’t include that at all. There is no variables in physic equations for consciousness.
# what are the laws governing qualia?(51:57) Qualia being the sensations, colors and sounds all the first person’s subjective experiences that we experience (53 4) / so those, supposedly have certain laws and orders to them; it’s not just random. There is very concrete laws and yet how do these laws arise? And what are these laws?
Freddy Pilot says: Thank you Leo for your huge work. Your videos are life changing.
You should absolutely read Michael Singer amazon.com/dp/1572245379/?tag=uts-website-20
He gives by far the best image I have ever read explaining the Enlightenment:
This is the image of a person volontarily recluded in a dark house he built himself and desperately working in order to engineer some lightning system. The only thing he has to do is to … Open the windows.. The walls are his thoughts.
Freddy Pilot says: Thank you Leo for your huge work. Your videos are life changing.
You should absolutely read Michael Singer: The Unthethered Soul.
He gives by far the best image I have ever read explaining the Enlightenment:
This is the image of a person volontarily recluded in a dark house he built himself and desperately working in order to engineer some lightning system. The only thing he has to do is to … Open the windows.. The walls are his thoughts.
Andrew says: Solid video, Leo. Questions such as these have haunted me ever since I had my own brief but intensely mystical experience of the “non-existence of time” while trekking alone in the wilderness for 3 weeks. Thank you for helping me to get back on track thinking about these essential questions.
Mandy says: Not really good videos these days, Leo! Looks like you don’t have much to say anymore
Mark says: OMG!!! I swear to god Leo has literally the best thumbnails out of any videos on youtube. I absolutely love them!!!! Your so awesome Leo!
Stephen zekpa says: Hey Leo,
Thanks again for this great presentation! Can you recommend a good beginner book on epistemology?
Thanks,
Michael Emery says: Beautiful..Thanks
Milan says: Hello Leo. Is truth just another name for Love, nothingness, god. Or am I missing the point. Cheers Milan
Max Gron says: Being as logical as Leo doesn’t mean Leo thinks his logic’s accurate, it’s not about being as logical as Leo, it’s about the post-rational, the fascinating thing about science is that it’s so simple, when methodological solipsism’s complicated, the answer is you’re not conscious, you’re a philosophical zombie, but these questions can easily be answered in a few years or decades, don’t get me wrong but I have meta-delusions, I suffer from the delusion that something’s a delusion, I have an open mind, and Leo’s being ambiguous, he means question your doctrines meaning use skeptical doubt but he also means to ask questions of consciousness and reality, to “question” them, his theory is simple: rational my arse! I don’t think it’s rational, but it’s true.
Max Raoy Gron says: Leo’s wrong, there’s no such thing as the immaterial, I never thought there was such a thing, I can’t believe such a thing. Everything is material, even your thoughts and your spirit, you’re living in a fantasy. Reality isn’t your imagination, it’s real, everything is physical.
Max Raoy Gron says: Why do I believe Leo’s delusional or wrong? I don’t even know I believe that, and I don’t even know I don’t know. I don’t know whether I’m going to believe Leo, I stopped being a cynic and skeptic of him, maybe all these religious beliefs for millenia and centuries are just theory, an alternative belief is to believe God is evil and there’s no reason to believe in God, that doesn’t mean any of this is real truth, it’s all theory. Do you see we don’t bloody know? How can you know? It’s all guesswork. These questions are the old wise man in a Chinese robe believing sage things, with the exception of a youngish American citizen, Vegas-obsessed, teaching it. It’s all for Leo, he’s not considering any benefit for us, just him and how he continues to live, that’s why people want money. But it’s not just money, it’s to hook you into the man’s sect, to have loyal fans, and be famous. Religious wackos have been trying to be famous inventing their own religion since Jesus Christ.
Max Gron says: All these bullshit beliefs aren’t true, spirituality’s retarded, I just think, what I don’t do is delude myself into fairy tales. I am, but that doesn’t mean everything’s real, nothing is a difference, all things are the same, and so I think, this isn’t projection against Leo, it’s confusion of crap that doesn’t make sense. What people need is to stop doing disgusting things, inhuman things, you altruist bastard! Selflessness, you’re evil, life’s not pointing to love, it’s pointing to falsities and untruths, dick moves and bullshit, and simple rejection of anything outside of itself, not the other way around, and you think this is the truth, it’s the bullshit, especially the fact of your unacceptance. The truth is Leo’s trying to be cool as all internet men try to be cool, so fuck you, uncool person, you’re not even trying, if it’s an attempt to eat low quality food and do poor quality medical practice, it’s still poor quality, and if it’s the wasted years of poor quality, uselessness, it’s still poor quality and uselessness. And if you don’t try to be cool, you’re still not cool. Just try to be calm and control yourself, be the only cool one there, stupid. You’re such an idiot, it’s just popular thinking, do you think you’re in reality by your popular beliefs? Reality without thinking? Get out of here! It’s all bullshit, it’s common bullshit! Nothing of the mainstream is true, it’s all lies to alter your being, and they only want you if you’re all a bunch of wankers, I’m not giving these disgusting, evil people the satisfaction, this isn’t how reality works.
Max the shithead says: After a “yellow” lemon matures, it turns brown and the flesh has a vinegary “sourness” in it, when it’s not really sour, but alkaline. Brown lime cordial has the flavour of rotten limes, it tastes like a lime that’s been matured, it’s a little too limey, don’t you think? And Leo talks about the truth, when the “truth” for him is drugs. I think getting the truth out of him isn’t that hard, that is, it’s not hard for him to give out his version of the truth. It’s subjective, religion’s the truth, truth is really a low-consciousness concept, you can do anything spontaneously and that would be the truth. Not a word against Leo, I’m already drenched in his illusions, but if I believed anything that was served to me I would be a fool, I believe some of those things. I’m not arguing about my views, I really think the worst case scenarios and cigar-smoking and Shakespeare is the truth, that’s part of the book I was reading (surprise surprise, it’s fiction) from Soren Kieregaard /pronounced sur-en keer-ke-gore/, the king of the existentialist movement. But I had it with putting it off any longer, practices are what’s needed, but then again, Leo doubles down. It’s all the perfect opportunity to give him assumptions, like what he’s saying is true, I think people talk horseshit, of all the lies I believed in the past, I think only my cynical beliefs are the truth, only what’s pessimistic is the truth, beliefs are addictive, I was addicted to those lies, truth to me is a simple thing, it’s about the downfall of humanity and the things you enjoy, and sleeping nightly, I know of no truth of pretty pictures or any magic other than evil magic and anything of witches and wizards, I’m not going to judge, it’s goodbye to those other addictive, false beliefs.
not evil or wicked says: When is this not learning, not growing going to end? I would prefer to learn with Leo. Gaining the truth, the truth might be a religion that doesn’t work, you don’t know, it mightn’t feel right, people make me feel so old! When I was even 9 years old they made me feel old, nobody believes me but I was good and everyone else was a punk! What’s more, the world was just my imagination, I don’t know how I created it but it didn’t exist, the concept of good, I made it up, and evil, someone else made it up, all that went wrong, even now, isn’t my creation, I didn’t ask for this, the truth hurts.