Based on what I've read, meditation seems to be a lot like using psychedelics, except that it takes a lot more time and effort.

My opinion: this is a real thing, but it's just something you can learn to do with your body. It doesn't offer cosmic insights

It would have taken even fewer sessions except that each time I managed to concentrate on the "mechanism by which you validate your own experience of awareness" my breathing became troublingly shallow.

During lockdown I took up meditation, got as far as achieving 1st jhana a few times, and nevertheless lost interest in meditation and gave up...

I've listened to a lot of [meditation expert] Daniel [Ingram's] interviews... I think, for some people, taking meditation too far is analogous to taking psychedelics too far

Jhnana is literally worthless. What good is an eon of being immersed in bliss if when you emerge you still haven't figured out what this place is all about?

I don't think they're lying, I just think it's a massive cope.

I wouldn't go so far as to say Nick is definitely lying, just that there are people willing to craft convincing narratives that are 100% BS

I think a particular family of insights is the more mundane explanation for being less interested in casual sex after experiencing consistent jhānas...