About the Episode
If you are not having an existential crisis, well, you are not looking hard enough.
In this episode, Hari Prasada, Michael, and Rasanath do a deep dive into existential crises, their causes, and how to deal with them. They discuss the link between existential crises and the fear of death, how the fear of not being my ego and the fear of death is essentially the same thing, the importance of spirituality, and how their own existential crises led them to having this conversation.
In This Episode
- Hari Prasada Das
- Michael Sloyer
- Rasanath Das
Highlights
- 2:40
What is an existential crisis?
- 7:50
The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker
- 10:30
A message to "the invincibility of youthfulness."
- 13:20
We are all engaged in our immortality projects
- 20:10
The Unbearable Lightness of Being: A Novel by Milan Kundera
- 23:00
The existential crises of success
- 31:40
The different identities we build for ourselves
- 38:00
Is lack of time really the problem?
- 39:50
How to look internally for answers in an achievement-oriented society
- 45:20
The pain of recovery vs. the pain of an accident
- 47:40
Mastering our life only by confronting our death
Quotes
“We had a collective existential crisis in the last three years when the pandemic changed the nature of how we thought about life.”
— Rasanath
“Skepticism is basically sophisticated defensiveness. It's well disguised because it comes across as sophisticated, knowledgeable, and practical.”
— Rasanath
“I've seen this…[continuous thought of mine]...of never wanting my peak to have passed. Because what would that mean? That would mean I would have to start looking at death much more in the face.”
— Michael
“The existential crisis of success is: I succeeded, and then I realize that it doesn't feel like I thought it would.”
— Rasanath
“At the end of the day, we're afraid of losing our core. The real me that I'm striving to be, that I wish I could uncover. And death is a threat to that.”
— Hari Prasada