Out of Your Mind by Alan W. Watts

Out of Your Mind Reviews

• 
  Ravi Raman

  I don't pass along 5-star reviews lightly. This is the second Watts book (the other being "The Book") to garner a full rating. Watts is commonly referred to as a "spiritual entertainer" is steeped in Western and Eastern religious traditions. He was an Anglican Minister for a time, but also was one of the foremost Western experts on Zen. His knowledge of Vedanta (the basis of Hindu religion and culture) is also vast.
  
  The premise of the book is that there is a bigger game being played around us. This game is hidden, through illusion "maya", a set of tricks being played by our own minds and the universe. The purpose of the game isn't to stop playing, but to know that it is a game, so that we can approach with a sense of play and fun, not seriousness and struggle. Given the number of people who seem to struggle their way through life, this book is an important one.
  
  What if you were the universe, a vast sea of conscious, the "works", but simply forgot it to have the fun experience of playing the role of a human being for a while? This is the question that Watts dares to answer, in a humorous fashion.
• 
  Lindu Pindu

  This is one to listen to again and again. Watts has done a brilliant job of summing up Zen Buddhism mixing it up with Pantheism, and what sounds to me like a Jungian view of the Self and the Ego. I can’t understand why people accuse him of recycling other ideas he’s heard. Granted, but he showcases them in a way that’s both spiritual and fun. Nothing wrong with that. I’ll be revisiting this lecture series.
• 
  Bo

  just absolutely vital, beautiful and liberating. i listened to these a lot when i was traveling alone and heartbroken in the caucasus mountains, and watts' voice, day in and day out, challenged my intellect and spirit, and gave me more perspective and peace of mind than anything else prior... he doesn't offer answers, in terms of religion or spirituality or metaphysics, but instead as a scholar on buddhism and the hindu faith, applies the core values and beliefs of each faith and challenges his audience to see the harmony and interconnectedness of all life. By extension, he talks about the falsity and superfluity of the illusions and games (samsara) that we busy our lives with, but never in a negative, or self-righteous manner... well, i better stop. i can't say enough about these lectures, and i love talking with anyone who has been affected by them, or who holds them as close to their heart as i do.
• 
  Alexandru

  Wonderful, just wonderful. Started listening to this as an audiobook but found that I really needed to pay attention so started over and actually read it. This is a collection of discussions held by Alan Watts and it is an invaluable distillation of his thoughts and philosophy. Absolutely 5/5.
• 
  Jeffrey Howard

  Reading Alan Watts is an experience in osmosis for me. The themes and approach in each of his books are similar, straightforward, in a way, but a bit tricky; each time I encounter one of his books—or lectures—I breathe in a new way of liberation, a little bit deeper. I walk away more aware, less rigid, more open.
  
  Zen manifests in surprising ways. Insights can take years to uncover, if we're struggling too much with them, or they can be ever-present, mere moments away—once we stop seeking them.
  
  Watts is a spiritual entertainer to the core, not a guru. You won't find dogma within these pages. He's merely offering us some things to consider—always sincere but never serious. His ability to use metaphor to convey dynamic truth always impresses. Zen cannot be captured in written word, or spoken word for that matter, but Out of Your Mind offers another way by which we can reorient our way of being, to train our minds; what matters is not the words themselves but the fact that they enable us to accept the world & ourselves (for we are the universe experiencing itself), and more easily flow with it.
  
  He's a delight. Warm. Erudite. Full of life.
• 
  Robert

  I was thinking back the other day to the year 2008. It was a time of great change for me and so many unsettling developments had got me questioning my sense of direction. During this time, I suppose I was trying to find stability even while everything that had supported my sense of stability, even my sense of identity, was being challenged. Made redundant from a good job and then running an unprofitable small business, I had called off an engagement, been forced to sell my house, and—on top of all that—needed to deal with the death of my mother. Additionally, I had searched but found no better job prospects in the UK for a long while. I wanted my mind taken off the nagging worries and some sort of change of perspective was needed.
  
  Enter Alan Watts and ‘Out of your mind’. Of course Watts’ talks were never likely to solve any of these practical crises. They were unlikely to bring direct solutions. One thing these long, rambling, good natured talks did do for me though, was to make me question where my sense of security should lie. In that sense the talks were invaluable. Simply reassessing my sense of security and identity was a way to stabilize my inner world and to therefore gain more traction on the outer world. Not that I agreed with everything he said, or saw him as any kind of believable guru, far from it! It was *how* he said things, and how he was able to make people re-evaluate things that was his greatest strength as a speaker and writer.
  
  In terms of finding a reliable guide through such troubled waters Alan Watts might seem an unlikely candidate, but in my view, it was precisely because of his own self-acknowledged imperfections, coupled with his naturalness, his knowledgeable ways, his warmth and humor and immense curiosity, that he proved extremely well qualified to enable me (and obviously many others) to re-think their situation and get some inner peace again.
  
  So who is (was) Alan Watts?
  
  At first glance, he may just strike you as an unconventional, off-beat philosopher. A pacifist, he avoided the draft in WWII, becoming a clergyman in the USA. He had ongoing marriage and fidelity issues and drink problems. He even seemed to feel like suicide was always a welcome option if the game of life got to be a drag.
  
  While some of the elements of his life might lead some people to be prejudiced and dismissive of him. I would say that while this man had some very normal, natural, human imperfections, he was no smug pretender of holiness. Life and nature is not perfect. It is messy and contradictory and so are we, if we are honest.
  
  Watts was a very sincere guide, particularly to a whole generation of Americans seeking more than a predictable, materialistic lifestyle in the 60′s and 70′s.
  
  He pointed out some typical sources of the world view of people which is rooted in their inherited philosophy and religion.
  
  Watts was an excellent and thoughtful speaker, a very helpful elucidator of Eastern philosophies. He was a seeker of whatever is valuable and essential in the human experience. He certainly valued the traditional aesthetics and culture of the Far East and found value in the way of life recommended by the ancient sages. This influence he brought into a world which then sorely needed, and now still needs to hear his reassuring and refreshing message.
  
  ‘Out of your mind’ is a set of talks which will prompt you to reconsider your place in the scheme of things. I can highly recommend the talks.
• 
  Sam

  I’ve come across Alan Watts quite a few times, in quotes and listened to parts of his talks on YouTube in the form of inspirational videos, and always found his words to be thought provoking. Yet I found these talks to be quite bland and repetitive, which makes me feel that Alan Watts was somewhat rehearsed in what he says, and this made his words feel less authentic. I also found it really odd the frequency at which he laughed at his own words, given they are rehearsed, and how the audience laughed merrily along each time as if he’d said something profound or outrageous. Given, these lectures were in an age where they were more likely to have found impact but it felt as if Watts was trying to imitate the Buddha in how he laughs along at the world. I found it interesting that Watts aligns himself with a lot of Eastern Philosophy and yet diverges at his own convenience in relation to the modern world. There are nuggets of gold amongst his discussions that make you rethink your own thought processes about the world but they are not worth listening to the full 14 hours of lectures for.
• 
  Alex

  This dude Alan is insane in the membrane. He provides some humbling perspectives and interesting, if not always agreeable, insights. Worth a listen though far better off read slowly.
  
  V2
  Signal to noise ratio isn't the best in the industry. Still, he's got some of the same talent as McKenna for capturing the seemingly inexplicable. Also a knack for scholarly theistic criticism I can dig.
• 
  Aviva Shore

  Every so often while listening to Allan watts I make the mistake of trying to understand what he's saying, which is possible, it just hurts my brain. Experiencing is the best way to go about absorbing this content.
• 
  Haley

  Forced myself to finish… not really sure what I learned
• 
  Finja

  Some of my favourite quotes:
  
  „The moment you cease to identify with the ego and become aware that you are the whole organism, you realize how harmonious it all is. Your organism is a miracle of harmony. All these things functioning together—even miniscule creatures fighting each other in your bloodstream and eating each other up. If they weren’t doing that, you wouldn’t be healthy. What appears to be discord on one level is harmony at a higher level. All the discord in your life and in the lives of others—at a higher level of the universe, all of that is healthy and harmonious. Everything you are and do at that higher level is magnificent and free of blemish, just like patterns in waves, markings in marble, or the rippling movements of a cat. The world is really okay, and it couldn’t be anything else. Otherwise, it couldn’t exist.“
  
  
  „Confusion largely results from not following feelings or ideas into their depths. People say they want to live forever, or they want this or that new car, or a certain amount of money to make them happy, and so on, but follow that line of thinking to its end. What would it be like to have those desires fulfilled?“
  
  
  „A free and easy society loves outsiders. It knows that the outsider is doing for us what we haven’t got the guts to do for ourselves. The outsider lives up there in the mountains at the highest peak of human evolution—their consciousness is one with the divine, and that’s just great. It makes you feel a little better to have somebody like that around. That person is realized—they know what it’s all about. So we need those people, even if they aren’t playing our game, because it reminds the government in no uncertain terms that there’s something more important going on.“
  
• 
  Gabriel Claravall

  A
  
  Everything is change. Nothing can be held on to. And if you go with the flux, you flow with it. However, if you resist the stream, it fights you. If you realize this, you swim with the flow—you go with it, and you're at peace.
  
  Embracing Buddhism—IMPERMANENCE and SUFFERING (or shall I say, the lack thereof?).
• 
  Chetan Narang

  Alan Watts is one author you'd rather also listen to, than just read. This is an amazing collection of his sessions, I'd recommend it for everyone.
• 
  Sajid

  It was very enjoyable and mind-opening kind of book at the same time.The important thing about reading any Alan watts book is that your face will be illuminated with a magical smile at every piece of line. Make your mind peaceful is the first and foremost duty of Alan watts book.It is so often that even a very complex and layered an idea had been explained by Alan watts with so much ease,beauty and spiritual bliss.
  In this book,Watts comes across as both a confident philosopher of religion and as a spiritual trickster whose enthusiasm for ideas is contagious. Out of Your Mind contains six digitally-restored seminars running fourteen and one-half hours. They have been selected from hundreds of recordings by Alan Watts' son Mark. The six seminars are: The Nature of Consciousness, The Web of Life, The Inevitable Ecstasy. The World as Just So, The World as Self, and The World As Emptiness. Here Watts puts on display his wide-ranging knowledge about Eastern and Western philosophy. Whether exploring the myth of ourselves based on our separation from others, the nature of selfishness, the fallacy of misplaced concreteness, or the illusion of the ego, Watts takes delight in demolishing the traps of conventional thinking. He asserts that we miss too much of the diversity and majesty of our experience when we close ourselves off to mystery, playfulness, and improvisation.
  There are so many beautiful and soul touching quotes and i can't show all of them right here,but the quote which i loved the most must be lamented here:
  
  “If we can see that the ego is purely fictitious—that it is merely an image of ourselves coupled with a sensation of muscular strain occasioned by trying to make this image an effective agent to control emotion and direct the nervous operations of our organism—then it becomes clear that what we have called ourselves isn’t able to do anything at all.”
• 
  Nigeyb

  
  Out of Your Mind by
  Alan W. Watts came up as an Audible deal of the day and I was sufficiently intrigued to take a chance.
  
  
  Alan W. Watts (6 January 1915 – 16 November 1973) was a British philosopher, writer and speaker who was best known as an interpreter and populariser of Asian philosophies for a Western audience. Many of his talks are on YouTube and remain very popular. Indeed, in Spike Jonze's 2013 film Her, Watts is resurrected as a hyper-intelligent operating system.
  
  I managed to get through about half of these recordings before waving the white flag. I don't know when these talks were recorded but from some of the words he uses I'd guess mid to late 60s. The talks are quite interesting and amusing but doubtless played better to the counterculture college kids of the 1960s. His main message seems to be that there is no separate self, that there is just the universe and you are inescapably part of it, so relax and let go, rather than trying to rigorously follow whatever spiritual practice you are convinced by, and which will actually just reinforce your ego. You are already perfect and enlightened so you don't need to do or change anything. It's a subtle and nuanced message that feels quite profound whilst he's talking but then seems far more nebulous an hour later.
  
  Watts died age 59. He was drinking a bottle of vodka a day and also smoking heavily. He was compelled to give several talks a week to make enough money to pay his alimony and child support after three failed marriages. Does any of that matter? Perhaps, perhaps not. It tends to make me a bit more sceptical about his philosophy.
  
  The titles of the 12 talks in this recording will give you some idea of what's in store...
  
  1. The nature of consciousness, Part 1
  1. Intro
  2. Our image of the world
  3. The myth of the ceramic construct
  4. The myth of the automatic universe
  5. A wiggly world
  6. A game that's worth the candle
  7. An independent system
  8. Whose game is it?
  9. The world as a drama
  
  2. The nature of consciousness, Part 2
  1. Intro
  2. Being aware of awareness
  3. Captivated by the drama
  4. The game of hide and seek
  5. Consciousness beyond awareness
  6. How do we define ourselves?
  7. What it is to see
  8. The road to here
  9. A re-examination of common sense
  
  3. The web of life, Part 1
  1. Intro
  2. What did you forget?
  3. A spontaneous life
  4. Seeing beyond our separateness
  5. Intervals between what happens
  6. Existence as a function of relationship
  7. Understanding the unitive world
  8. An implicit agreement
  9. To be aware of the melody
  
  4. The web of life, Part 2
  1. Intro
  2. Web as mutuality
  3. The nature of selfishness
  4. A perfectly genuine act
  5. The sound of rain needs no translation
  6. What game would you like to play?
  7. Is is serious?
  8. An invitation to act
  
  5. The inevitable ecstasy, Part 1
  1. Intro
  2. Undifferentiated vs. differentiated awareness
  3. The marriage of an illusion to a futility
  4. The awareness of a baby
  5. The fallacy of misplaced concreteness
  6. The sensation of the happening
  7. Of pain and suffering
  8. Must life go on and on?
  9. A natural satori
  10. The aversion to death
  11. The eroticism of pain
  12. The spectrum of vibrations
  
  6. The inevitable ecstasy, Part 2
  1. Intro
  2. Seeing beyond the game
  3. A conspiracy we play on ourselves
  4. The illusion of the ego
  5, The meaningless life
  6. This is the game
  7. So what is the problem?
  8. Every incarnation is this one
  9. The state of nothing
  10. The line of least resistance
  
  7. The world as just so, Part 1
  1. Intro
  2. To say what can't be said
  3. Zen's appeal to the West
  4. Direct pointing
  5. The origins of Zen
  6. The golden age of Zen
  7. No mind, no deliberation
  8. Who are you?
  9. Disturbing confusions of the mind
  10. Who is the thinker behind the thoughts?
  
  8. The world as just so, Part 2
  1. Intro
  2. Escaping the tangle
  3. The in defines the out defines the in
  4. The Japanese Zen monastery
  5. Entering the temple
  6. Answering the koan
  7. Seeing past the illusion
  8. The decline of modern temples
  9. The truth of the birthless mind
  
  9. The world as self, Part 1
  1. Intro
  2. The totality of all being
  3. Awareness of the self
  4. The fundamental I
  5. Self as play
  6. The rhythmic dance
  7. Rules of the game
  8. The Hindu Yogas
  9. Western difficulty with Hindu mythology
  
  10. The world as self, Part 2
  1. Intro
  2. The human world as self
  3. Stages of citizenship in India
  4. Shedding the masks
  5. The limits of self-awareness
  6. The role of the trickster
  7. The journey to where you already are
  8. Fear of enlightenment
  9. The Yoga Sutra
  10. How not to use the mind
  11. Gamesmanship in spiritual practice
  12. A place for the hermit
  
  11. The world as emptiness, Part 1
  1. Intro
  2. The essence of Hinduism
  3. The Four Noble Truths
  4. The cause of suffering
  5. The Eight-Fold Path
  6. The Five Good Conducts
  7. Presence of mind
  8. A finger point at the moon
  9. The nature of change
  10. The mystery of change
  11. Peaks and valleys go together as one
  
  12. The world as emptiness, Part 2
  1. Intro
  2. The Buddhist attitude of change
  3. Willing to die
  4. A happy death
  5. Raising the alarm
  6. The world as Void
  7. Voiding the Void
  8. Consider death now
  9. Thunderous silence
  
  3/5
  
  
• 
  Kari Olfert

  This book took my perspective and sometimes we were standing beside eachother nodding our head in agreement and other times it bashed me over the head and I woke up like what the hell was that for. But it all made sense after I regained my consciousness.
• 
  Bejoy Mathew

  I didn't understand all the concepts from this book, but whatever I got is more than life-changing. I got to learn a lot about Hinduism and Buddhism. Must read if interested in zen ideologies
• 
  Dawn

  Alan Watts is just incredible.
  
  Would highly recommend.
  
  Sessions 10-12 were for me, the best.
  
  His lectures are timeless, entertainingly conveyed, and extremely thought provoking.
  
  
• 
  Jacopo

  Ho potuto per la prima volta sperimentare quello che gli Anglofoni chiamano “mind-blown”.
  
  Fare una recensione di questi 12 CD (durata approssimativa di 1h ciascuno) è impossibile perché la mole e lo spessore dei concetti proposti travalica abbondantemente il limite presentato dalle parole; ed è proprio per questo che trovo Alan Watts un Filosofo eccezionale, nonché un grande intrattenitore: tramite efficaci metafore, sapiente reiterazione dei concetti ed umorismo permeante, riesce a spiegare efficacemente ciò di cui — per definizione — non si può parlare.
  
  Watts era un grande studioso, si è immerso completamente nella cultura asiatica (India-Cina-Giappone), ne ha assimilato le complesse dottrine filosofiche notando le influenze reciproche, dopodiché ha voluto spiegare all'Occidente una visione della vita talmente diversa da quella che siamo abituati ad avere, da sembrare inconcepibile. Il tutto è calato in una dimensione che tiene conto di scienza e psicologia (è però doveroso precisare che i seminari risalgono agli anni '60).
  
  Alan Watts ha consacrato buona parte della sua vita a favorire la diffusione di una filosofia che cambiasse in meglio l'approccio delle persone alla Vita, e questi seminari — che affrontano gran parte dell'esperienza umana — sono un prezioso distillato del suo pensiero. Potete affrontarli con tutto lo scetticismo di cui siete capaci, ma qualcuna delle idee proposte lascerà inevitabilmente il segno.
• 
  Hans

  Alan Watts brings a sharp and stunning clarity to mankind's most complicated spiritual concepts. I will always be in-debated to him for helping to expand my world view in a manner that works for me. Whenever I find myself suffering from existential angst I read Alan Watts and it calms me back down to the point where I can enjoy wherever I am in life.
  
  So for anyone who finds themselves struggling with the spiritual or religious norms of their wider culture Alan Watts is for you. He will help re-invigorate your interest in human spirituality and help guide you back towards introspection to find your own deeply personal spirituality.
• 
  Atul Pandey

  Philosophy is sometimes necessary in an individual's life in order to bring out the inside child for whom once the universe was wonder-filled but slowly while growing up it got used to the world and it became a habit. In order to keep this faculty of wonder, of being astonished seeing the world philosophy is necessary . It's like the magic trick of taking the Rabbit out of hat the how part is not important .... mystery that follows bewilderment is worth the show.
• 
  Mert Topcu

  Amazing.
  I started listening to Alan Watts' talks in You Tube. Then I bought the audiobook of this book.
  Loved it. His style is a little more analytical for some people but it fits to my thinking perfectly.
  
  Before I finished listening to the audiobook, I ordered a hard copy of it so that I can open a chapter (one of his talks) and read again in the future because I am sure every time I read, I will get something new out of it.
• 
  Nick Kroger

  I listened to 10 hours straight of these lectures from Ohio to NYC. It’s addictive, creative, strange, lucid, and hilarious. Mr. Watts is—as he proclaims—“a spiritual entertainer”, and I would like to recommend these lectures in such a fashion: they’re entertainment. They shouldn’t be taken as a crutch.
  
  As Watts would say: “when you get the message, hang up the phone”
• 
  Peter

  If you've got 12 hours to kill, this will blow your mind all over the place. Alan Watts covers a pretty full spectrum of human experience in this one.
• 
  Torgeir Andresen

  Alan Watts, one of the greatest minds to walk this earth. So simple, yet so profound👌
• 
  Jaydn Asay

  Absolutely wonderful series of essays on the nature of life, and the ways in which thinking and the mind can sabotage our presence and enjoyment of life. Alan Watts is a wealth of knowledge on Western and Eastern religions/thought and his insights in these essays are something I greatly need at this point in my life.
  
  Here are just a few of the dozens of incredible quotes/lessons that really jumped out to me that I want to keep in mind:
  
  “Peace can be made only by those who are peaceful, and love can be shown only by those who love. No work of love will flourish out of guilt, fear, or hollowness of heart, just as no valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity for living now.”
  
  “Faith is a state of openness or trust. To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don’t grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float. And the attitude of faith is the very opposite of clinging to belief, of holding on. In other words, a person who is fanatic in matters of religion, and clings to certain ideas about the nature of God and the universe, becomes a person who has no faith at all. Instead they are holding tight. But the attitude of faith is to let go, and become open to truth, whatever it might turn out to be.”
  
  “the relationship between the organism and the environment is transactional—the environment grows the organism, and the organism creates the environment. The organism turns the sun into light, but it requires an environment containing a sun in order to exist. It’s all one process. It isn’t that organisms came into this world by accident or chance—this world is the sort of environment that grows organisms. And it has been that way from the beginning. From the very first moment of the big bang—if that’s the way the whole thing started—organisms like you and me were involved.”
  
  This wave phenomenon is happening on ever so many scales—the fast wave of light, the slower waves of sound—and there are all sorts of other wave processes, such as the beat of the heart; the rhythm of breath, waking, sleeping; the movement of human life from birth to maturity to death. And the slower the wave goes, the more difficult it is to see that the crest and trough are inseparable, and this is how we become persuaded in the game of hide-and-seek. So we see the trough go down, down, down and think it keeps going forever—that it will never rise back up again into a crest. We forget that trough implies crest, and crest implies trough. There is no such thing as pure sound—sound is sound/silence. Light is light/darkness. Light is pulsation—between every light pulse there is the dark pulse.”
  
  I definitely look forward to consuming more of his talks and writing in the near future, and I will be revisiting this collection again and again.
• 
  Michele

  Listened to this over the course of many months, which worked well for me. I have to be in a certain mood to fully appreciate Watts, and doing so at a leisurely pace gave me plenty of time to absorb. Though these lectures were recorded decades ago, their wisdom is as relevant as ever. Alan Watts deserves to be listened to. Hearing him in his own words, at his own pace, gives more dimension to his teaching than reading his words alone. Would highly recommend to anyone interested in a bit of mind-bending, look at the world upside-down type inspiration.
• 
  Maddy

  Didn’t quite finish the book. I got to chapter 14 of 17, but not really my type of book—I read it for a book club. I kinda knew I would probably disagree with the general idea of the book because it focuses on Buddhism & the author has some issues with Christianity. It was good to see a perspective different from my own though & it made me think. I think he saw a lot of real issues in the world, I’m just not sure if I’d agree with his solutions for them or that I always followed his logic & arguments.
• 
  Z

  It requires some investment to make it through these 13-odd hours of talks. High on concept, and to be fair to Watts he does a good job of breaking it all down, but most of these ideas are complex and we don't grapple with them in the everyday, so it takes considerable focus to keep up. I think I got a lot out of the talks though. These are the kind of ideas that take root in your mind and develop over time.