Ep204: Unseen Beings - Erik Jampa Andersson
Erik Jampa Andersson is a Sowa Rigpa healing practitioner, student of Tibetan Buddhism, meditation instructor, and author of ‘Unseen Beings: How We Forgot The World Is More Than Human’.
Available on Youtube, iTunes, SoundCloud & Spotify – search ‘Guru Viking Podcast’.
Erik discusses how he came to write ‘Unseen Beings’ and why he changed its theme from the spirit ontologies of Tibetan culture to the themes of climate change and animism.
Taking climate change as his starting premise, Erik follows a traditional 4-part medical model to make a diagnosis, and goes on to present his views on the causes and conditions, prognosis, and treatment.
Erik also grapples with moral and cultural dilemmas, compares animal testing in a medical context to hunting practices and animal sacrifices in a traditional context, and challenges the anthropocentrism of both modern culture and the environmentalist movement.
00:00 - Intro
01:02 - Celebrating Erik’s first book
02:15 - Unexpected praise
04:09 - Charlie Morley’s author advice
05:49 - 4-part medical model
06:48 - How the book changed direction from spirit ontology to climate change
10:36 - The inspiration of the pandemic
12:44 - Summarising Erik’s argument
13:36 - Rinpoches performing rituals to appease the spirits who sent the pandemic
15:24 - Animism vs materialism
20:21 - A scientific materialist challenge to animism
29:59 - Tolkien on gods and fairy tales
32:58 - Ian McGilchrist and harmonising vs polarisation
37:26 - Should we abandon modernity?
39:19 - Generalisation vs individuality
41:20 - Disenchanting ontologies
43:00 - The danger of sweeping generalisations
44:27 - The lived experience of mice
46:45 - Alienation from nature
51:21 - Moral nuance and confused views
55:46 - Erik considers hunting in animistic societies
58:19 - The trolley problem and perceived consent in hunting
01:00:15 - Is animal sacrifice justified within certain cultural contexts?
01:05:57 - Stewarding the resources of the world
01:08:43 - Anthropocentrism vs animism
01:10:41 - Erik on the climate crisis
01:13:09 - The bloody history of Tibet and other nations
Previous episode with Erik Jampa Andersson:
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Music ‘Deva Dasi’ by Steve James