Wesley J. Wildman - Spirit Tech: The Brave New World of Consciousness Hacking and Enlightenment Engineering

Technology and spirituality are two of the strongest forces shaping the landscape of human culture and consciousness; yet we rarely speak of them in the same breath. Over the coming decade, that may radically change as we witness a revolution in the way we practice and access spirituality. Already, millions of people use meditation apps, department stores sell brain-training wearables that help us quiet our minds, virtual reality can take us on a psychedelicor technodelicjourney, and advanced brain stimulation is on the cusp of facilitating states which usually require thousands of hours of meditation.

This brave new world of Spirit Tech naturally brings up a host of questions, concerns, and profound possibilities. Are these new advances shortcuts? Are they missing some vital part of the spiritual or religious journey wed typically traverse with traditional methods? Is there something fundamentally different between a traditional method, such as meditating on a cushion, and using an app or wearable? Are the spiritual experiences attained through something like brain stimulation authentic? What are the implications of a profound mystical experience being as easily accessible as our cell phones?

These are just a small sampling of the questions and issues at this emerging intersectionwith implications that reach into the very depths of what it means to be human and the future of humanity. Yet, remarkably, Spirit Tech is the first significant text devoted to discussing them, and I cant overemphasize its importance. Wesley and Kate have dedicated their academic careers to exploring spirituality and religion as it intersects with modern culture. In Spirit Tech, they have beautifully written about this cross-disciplinary topic, touching neuroscience, engineering, consciousness, religion, and ethics, in a style that is both rigorous and accessible to the nonacademic.

This text will help us to navigate these new, wild, and hopefully wonderful tools in a way that maximizes the benefit to ourselves and humanity. This is important as the increasing power of technology combined with the fundamental nature of spirituality opens the door for both existential dangers and profound possibilities. It was these possibilities that captured my imagination ten years ago when I began my own journey to bridge these seemingly separate worlds. Inspired by the first line of the United Nations UNESCO Constitution, That since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed, I applied my engineering skills to change the world from the inside out by creating modern tools to heal and awaken the minds and hearts of humanity.

When I began that journey, it was quite lonely. In academia, meditation had already become a popular research topic, but the idea of applying that scientific understanding toward the development of meditation technologies was mostly unheard of. The companies focused in this area were often fringe and plagued by pseudoscientific or new-age beliefs. Not content with the existing landscape, I started a global community and nonprofit called Consciousness Hacking. Later I developed and taught three courses at Stanford University, cofounded conferences such as the Transformative Technology Conference and Awakened Futures Summit, and developed a tech platform for human connection (which you can read about in chapter 4, Engineering Togetherness).

Id like to share a few of my observations and learnings accumulated over the years, which I hope will add useful perspective as you read this book.

People often feel that technology is somehow fundamentally different from, or at odds with, spirituality. This is a well-founded concern, and Ill be the first to acknowledge that our modern tech landscape feels anything but spiritual. However, for millennia the spiritual landscape has produced its own technologies. Though not silicon-based, the history of spiritual practice and religion is defined by invention and innovation. Meditation techniques, temples, prayer, ritualthese are all tools and methods designed to more reliably access our spiritual nature. If we take the definition of technology to be the skills, methods, and processes used to achieve goals, then are these not technologies? We might even say that the creation of spiritual technologies is one of the defining qualities of modern humans.

Yet, many of us are still uncomfortable with the idea of modern technology playing a part in our spiritual lives. We feel that something is dissonant about our deviceswe enjoy their usefulness, but at a cost. What is that dissonance?

After traveling the world and speaking with thousands of people about their experience, while simultaneously diving deeply into my own journey toward creating tools for connection, Ive boiled it down to a simple observation: Modern technology is out of harmony with lifes natural rhythms because we, as modern humans, are out of harmony. We are disconnected from our planet, stripping it for its resources so we can create and consume more. We are disconnected from each other, practically enslaving ourselves both as workers building the gadgets we love, and as consumers saving up for the latest upgrade. Most significantly, we are disconnected from ourselves, hungry for distraction from the anxiety and emptiness buried within. In essence, we are disconnected from our spiritual nature, and our resistance to modern tech as a spiritual tool is because in it we sense the spiritual disconnect embedded in its design.

But technology can be anything, limited only by imagination and the laws of physics; it is the amplification of its driving intention. If we overlook the possibility that technology can be skillful, can actually meet us where were at, can be kind, gentle, and loving, then we are missing out on one of the most important capacities that humanity has. Namely, our ability to innovate on the means of spiritual growth. What happens if we stifle our human development while our technological power grows at an exponential rate? What happens when you give the power of the universe to a child who is selfish, heartless, and afraid?

We could also ask the opposite question: What happens when you give the power of the universe to a mind that is clear, a heart that is open, and a soul that is wise? In the words of Alan Watts, Technology is destructive only in the hands of people who do not realize that they are one and the same process as the universe.

The incredible power of technology has been irrevocably unleashed. The question now is, What do we do with it? If its valence is indeed an extension of the intention wielding it, then there is an incredible opportunity. My hope is that we build our future from a place of wisdom, love, and the desire to uplift humanity, and thus create the spiritual technologies that will push humanity toward its greatest potential. Im grateful to this book and its authors for opening our minds, posing the questions, and inspiring the sense of possibility that will guide us in that direction.