It's wonderful to find a philosophy professor who is indeed a philosopher, one devoted to wisdom.

I wish I understood Spinoza much better. I believe it entirely possible that a combination of the Stoics and Spinoza may be the actual Truth.

Dr Grossman’s book “The Spirit of Spinoza” is a book that is very much worth buying and reading. Highly recommended.

Nice to see Grossman here; I took a course on Spinoza from him at UIC in the 70's.

Wow amazing! Dr. Neal is so humble while being so brilliant. Both Neal and Jeffrey smile the entire time, what kind and extraordinary men they are! Thanks so much for sharing your mission to increase the understanding of human consciousness.

Never stop jeff!! I'm only 26 and I've loved u for almost 10 years! I started with Terence McKenna and john lilly and watched nearly every video since!

Extraordinary conversation. We could learn a lot from Grossman not just as an academic philosopher but as a spiritual guide.

Thank you for the interview, Neal Grossman is absolutely wonderful :)

BEST SHOW ON KZfaq! Thanks for your hard work Jeffery.

It is both humbling and rewarding to find that somebody as riverired as Spinoza has come to some of the same conclusions as myself. Long have I pondered till my hair turned grey at an early age only to find that Spinoza was there first. Yet, it shows that my thought was without fallacy. As well as gives a second agreement with his theory that god is the universe. As I have come to the same conclusion with all the advancements of technology to current day.

Wow, one of the greatest conversations I ever had the privilege of listening too.

I had the privilege of being in Dr Grossman’s class on Plato at UIC. Amazing professor

Thank you to both of you... very fascinating talk!

Thank you, Jeffery and all for allowing such wonderful conversations to take place

So fascinating that so many great thinkers come to the same understanding, that all is one and that that unity is divine. I’m so glad to understand Spinoza more now...my thanks for yet another ‘enlightening’ (and it is!) interview.

Great guest, coherent conversation. Thank you Jeffrey

Superb. One of the very best discussions that Jeffery has ever had. Thank you Neal Grossman and Jeffery Mishlove.

I find the talk about play-like amnesiac performative roles that we intentionally have chosen/fallen into, paired with the cosmic unity concept, exactly the same lesson psychedelics seem to teach. The similarities are mindblowing.

Thank you, Jeffrey and Neal. Spinoza can appear daunting so I appreciate how you were both able to make this accessible and relevant.

i love this man, Neal Grossman, you are a true philosopher a seeker

Thank you. Beautiful conversation

Loved this. I’ll be looking into Spinoza now. Thank you.

Awsome interview! I'm surely going to dive deeper in Spinoza's Phylosophy. "If it was good enough for Einstein, it's good enough for me. "

Great interview! Thank you!

I've been drawn to Spinoza's teachings for the past year, but I couldn't distill why. I think Neil and Jeffrey succeeded in distilling Spinoza's contribution to peace of mind in a subtle and precise way. I'm so glad I discovered this channel, this interview and this book😊

Love this video powerful thought about emotions HOW to deal with .mind and body thru our intellectual minds to better understand our feelings.

Great discussion I really enjoined it. Thank you💜

That helps me understand but i might have to listen to it again thank you.

What a delightful conversation about Spinoza - I knew that name, of course, but not much more. Hearing it left we a taste for more. Much thanks gentlemen.

Thanks Jeffrey.

On every level what does nature do? It folds and unfolds. It makes copies of what is working and incorporates what works better. At its base it is mindless and at its apex it is mindful. It dances to the harmony of seasons to sustain itself and to evolve a greater unfolding. Perhaps it is unfolding a god-like mind somewhere in the cosmos.

OMG!!! Neal!! I took philosophy classes with you at UIC back in the late 70s! So good to hear you on the topic of Spinoza, one of my favorite philosophers! Hope you are well.

I loved this interview!! Grossman’s energy for his subject seems powerful! I have loved the work of Spinoza for decades, and I loved Deluze’ work on him as well. I had somehow missed the “worm in the blood” reference but find it fascinating that a “mystic” in the 1600’s imagined DNA... I also wonder how his contemporaries Edward Kelly and John Dee (and Shakespeare) , perceived his work!! Thanks so very much...

Thanks for interview.l bought that book and I am reading it now

Thank you!

Jewish excommunication or censure was fairly common in very orthodox communities in Amsterdam during Spinoza's life. It is called *herem* or *cherem.* A great novel to read about this is by Irvin Yolam entitled _The Spinoza Problem._

Brilliant discussion. Thnx.

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻❤️💜💚 Thank you both! 💪💪💪

I absolutely loved this. ❤ What a great man. ❤ I was surprised to find my own views coming from a completely different angle as Spinoza’s views, and even some of Dr. Grossman’s views. He described them so well, I am going to get his book. Great minds don’t only think alike. I’ll just leave it at that. 🥰👍🏻 Plato and Spinoza, 😊 and seeing between the lines 😊❤

Great interview. It would seem that as we progress in our own consciousness, understanding the wholeness of creation would be an experience-enabled reality. Now with relationships of consciousness, space and time tethered across dimensions, it would only seem rational that it would be so... experience-enabled.

Thanks for mentioning...alightment with what we don't want.

Interesting reference to ACIM; would enjoy further expansion on that material. Perhaps an interview with Dr. Jon Mundy would contribute to the NTA program.

Thank you! Well explained.

Now that is a meaningful conversation

0:50 a radiantly sparkling smile !

Thinking has always been allowed, expressing your thoughts not always.

Just discovering Neil Grossman, pleasantly surprised and impressed

Fantastic interview

An excellent treatment of Spinoza can be found in The Radical Spinoza. This book was written by a professor of philosophy with an interest in Zen Buddhism. He also encourages the reader to try acquiring Latin. Even two years of high school Latin, a dictionary and a good translation should make this not too difficult.

Hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Love. The doctor's book is now on my Amazon wish list.

Fantastic!!!

Thank you. I remember your interviews with U.G. Krishnamurti years back.

I love you, Jeff

Awesome video

Been an adherent of much of Spinoza’s thinking since I were a lad . Got to say, Mr Mishlove, your sitting posture seems to be excellent.

Great interview

Thank you 😍😍

Excellent

Thank you gentlemen: You are Quantum Mechanics ~ Creation ~ Evolution and Entropy

Is life chemistry and the mind these questions and answers add to my understanding of who we are

Another adherent of Non-Duality! Isn’t it wonderful to learn about Spinoza.🙏

The universe is a prefect machine made of imperfect parts.

closer to Taoism then western religions. It's also nice to listen to those who cherish honesty.

Does the body create the cells of which it is comprised ? Or do the cells create, repair, maintain, replace other cells on the level of cellular automata with communication / interaction with other cells and the body is merely the aggregation of the collection of cells ? Like anthills or bee hives are the aggregation of the individual members performing special functions as directed by phenomenal messaging

Just wow

I don't know about being free from emotions, I know sometimes I don't give attention to things or emotions because I don't feel it at that moment.

Spinoza's views are very similar to the conceptualization of the Creator and the Creation in the models of Sufism.

May I recommend Steven Nadler’s “Think Least of Death” it’s the most comprehensive breakdown of Spinoza’s Ethics I’ve come across

I would love to know the professor's thoughts about the Spinoza's critique on free will.

Before reading Ethics by Spinoza I would consider reading ' On the Improvement of Understanding', probably his earliest work, but never finished. He tries to paint a whole picture from ontology to ethics in Ethics, like the Bible does, but by means of reason. I would not consider him a rationalist, because he has also written about the complexities of affects, and already saw that a person can only substitute one affect for the other. You cannot just stop feeling, but you can test your feelings and idea's through means of reason. Resulting in another affect. This idea is so futuristic that it almost the same as cognitive therapy, where for instance fears are substituted for reasonable thoughts by means of testing them rationally

28:08 Really important point.

Watched all of it 23:27

Spinoza was not a mystic, he believed science would set us free, knowledge would set us free from superstition, I believe he was a truly amazing human being

I just bought the book. I like that the author isn’t a Spinoza scholar. Otherwise, he would never be able to take leaps like the near death experiences analogy. Spinoza died young so it’s important for educated modern authors to make inferences, otherwise his work remains confined. I tend to trust his author more than most given his background and appearance of genuine love for Spinoza. I hope not to find a cancerous political message hidden in there as it’s so often the case.

You ever hear about mystics with supernormal abilities and are you going to do videos on them again

nice

This is right up my street, but I'd like to ask: "is anger a form of suffering?" Anger isn't the same thing as depression.

Not sure I understand Mr Grossman at around 14:40 . How is one to understand the term " Universe " ? Surely it is not a top down picture - the one he describes . Rather things are creative , indeed ultimately creative of all other things ? The universe does not exist either from the top down or the bottom up. All of the things that exist that are things that exist are ultimately ( that is , in the final analysis ) responsible for the sum total of existence ( because, being existent they are , prima facie, part of the description or constitution of all things that exist and of all existence as a whole ) - not any one of them in particular is ultimately causa sui or sui generis but only all of them , together, as a whole . Each one part contains as a condition of itself the property to be itself precisely because it is a part of the whole thing ( all existence ) that does actually exist and it does so precisely in the manner of its existence ( that is, the precise nature of its existence ). Consecutively, the whole thing ( existence as a whole ) has ultimately the property to be itself ( that is , in the form that it is or rather actually may be ) especially because all of its infinitesimal parts of it are precisely what they are and each of them not another thing than they are. The whole of everything , Spinoza's Nature, Spinoza's God , is the only thing that could possibly ( reasonably ) be a possible cause of itself for the reasoned fact that anything finite is unlikely to be capable of absolute self generation since in some sense or another sense all finite things rely on other things so that they can be. Nonetheless , each thing that does indeed exist must by definition contribute to the ultimate nature of whatever that thing is that is the whole thing that might be , that is to say, Nature/God/Universe. I admit no great familiarity with his work but I speculate that the thinking of David Bohm may be of some use in clarifying what it is the fuck I am trying to say.

❤ from Germany

I love Spinoza, but strongly disagree with Einstein. Einstein believed in a finite universe AND in a universe that had a beginning. Spinoza argues that the universe is infinite and eternal, and I agree with Spinoza. The 2 people argued for entirely different things.

🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

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06:36 I'm certain that by "image of God" he did in fact mean concept of God.

When considering I have a biome makes me a we in spinoza's whole of we.

I was hoping this dialogue would bring us closer in comprehending the truth, turned out to be jargon from beginning to end, I don’t know how my question could reach either, sirs, when it comes to human behaviour why is it that we live in a constant state of conflict, they say that living in the moment is how it should be, so WHY are we being cultured to live OUT of it? Maybe language is not the apt instrument in reaching truth, is there an alternate? Also in all humility would there be a chair at the table for one more, we never know something new may arise. My first of question of significance is, AT WHAT POINT IN A HUMANS LIFE DOES CORRUPTION TAKE PLACE, by way of inculcation, conditioning, doctrine or wrong education.? 🙏. Anyone may answer 🤷🏻‍♂️

What is love? Or what kind of love? People will kill to protect those who they love. Hatred and love are only concepts just like good and bad. People like to romanticize the word love as just something good, when it is by the grace of love that everything happens in itself.

If it is good enough for ryan stein it good enough for me.

God is the universe we all take part, it's the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, it's infinite and ever existed. The present moment is all there is, the now. Life is God and is wholly, only our minds recall the past through memory stored in the brain and dream of the future, but it doesn't exist. Only the now is real. God is all the particles of the universe collectively, our bodies are also part of it. To those who destroy the Earth knows he destroy himself. The truthcontest thepresent

💜❤️💙💚🧡💛

18:00 ish 42:00 too attached

you can not set yourself apart from your emotions not even the most rational..harness them its all one unit

Who said that the Judea-Christian concept of God is that he is separate from creation? The ancient and medieval understating is that we participate in God's being, which obviously means that we are not separate from God. God is wholly other in the sense that we cannot grasp or comprehend God; but he's not wholly other in the sense that he is separate from creation.

What about Tesla opinion of Einstein, sir Neal?

*Only those people can understand Spinoza correctly who are guided by God, and they know that Spinoza was not Pantheist but Pure Monotheist. Some people say that he told that "Every thing is God", so he was a pantheist but he never told that "every thing is God" but he said "every thing is in God". These both statements differ each other like darkness differ from light. Many verses of Quran also support what Spinoza said but what Mullahs follow is not from Quran but from millions of fabricated hadiths*

Is it odd that I dislike the philosophy of Spinoza and Descartes?

The Road to Eleusis and The Immortality Key, books assisting in fleshing out the mystical experiences these ancients were having-particularly the Greeks for over 2,000+ years. They used hallucinogenics! God is there, just suck down the cocktail and you will see him. Now, if we could just get modern religion to reinstate the worship that Greeks, Romans, early Jews and possibly, early Christians partaked in, then the churches would fill to the brim and humanity would change

The slayer of God, Nietzsche deeply admired Spinoza.

Affirming positives is love. This is obvious. But negating negates is also love. This is not so obvious. If you affirm negatives you get the same result as negating positives, anti-love or negative love. This is why pacifist philosophers suffer a lot, because they are trying to defeat negatives with positives. This is like giving candy and flowers to your bully and smiling sincerely after he just beat you up. Einstein talked about militant pacifism. I think Einstein got it right. If Germany and Japan were not defeated in WW2 we'd all be giving flowers and candy to them. This is just multiplication of negative and positive numbers. Fighting is negative and Injustice is negative but the fighting of injustice is positive (love). The only remaining point is defining injustice. I believe the silver rule is the best definition; don't do to others what you'd not like done to you, namely doing things you'd not like done to you is injustice. This also means that we should not let others do to us what they would not like done to them, we should either fight them or flee. Lastly I see no problem in viewing God as the affirmer of positives those who acted by the silver rule(giving heaven) and the negator of negatives (punishing with hell) those who violated the silver rule, becausing negating of negatives equals positives. The negative stuff people acquired into their minds needs to be scraped off.

We are never upset for the Reason we think! Yes, finally, now go one step further and state: We are upset because the breadth of scope of factors that are entirely out of our control, ie ancestral genes, mother's stress hormones will you were a fetus, the 25 year development of your frontal cortex, environmental and cultural factors throughout your life, your diet or lack thereof for the day of your upsetness and BOOM, you have it! Biology baby! Spinoza just called it GOD or the paradox: We are God, God is us.

God I.S. 01 Self-Creation Time/Yahweh/Naturally/Neutral breathing universe. There is a succinct difference between Believing and Understanding the G.U.T. ~ feeling.