analects noun, pl

/ˈan.ə.lɛkts/

a collection of ideas, extracts, or teachings.

Spiritual Architecture

stuff On those things greater than ourselves

show:

analects under the categories btrmt. believes in, as set out in the manifesto

analects organised according to the fundamental questions of philosophy

sequences of articles gathered around a more focused idea

  • successful prophets 5 Jun 2026 [article] We think of cults as the product of dangerously charismatic leaders but on examination this narrative falls apart. Really, the most successf...
  • values don't matter 21 Feb 2026 [article] Values often function as virtue ethics—traits we’re expected to cultivate. But virtues are context-dependent: courage for a soldier isn’t co...
  • gesticism 26 Jan 2026 [article] Lots of things are happening, but anything can matter, and whatever gives meaning will eventually demand sacrifice. The agony of attention....
  • beyond system 1 and system 2 13 Jun 2025 [article] System 1 vs System 2 is a useful shorthand, but our minds aren’t two-speed engines—they’re multi-process coalitions of specialised agents wo...
  • there is no authentic self 11 Apr 2025 [article] There’s no hidden version of you. If anything, we are a collection of bits and pieces that we weave together from the stories we learn from...
  • speaking in tongues 23 Aug 2024 [article] Glossolalia has a unique pattern of neural activity, distinct from psychopathologies and even other trance-like states. So, the feeling unde...
  • meditating for fun and for profit 5 Jul 2024 [article] Meditation generally involves either acknowledging or excluding thoughts, but can be problematic. Movement-based meditations (e.g. yoga, run...
  • eerie coincidences aren't that eerie 12 Nov 2023 [article] Your phone probably isn’t eavesdropping for ads. Your brain’s job is to highlight unexpected hits while ignoring the misses. Eerie coinciden...
  • on managing magic mushroom experiences 29 Jul 2023 [article] Mushrooms change the balance between inside-out forces (the all-consuming neural networks that support the ‘self’) and outside-in forces (th...
  • the value of ritual 17 Mar 2023 [article] Rituals are often dismissed, but they’re just procedures with a purpose. We all engage in ritualistic behavior—many habits and routines meet...
  • mundane cults 27 Feb 2023 [article] We’ve been taught that cults are dark and scary things. But we have been fooled. The cult is a prominent building block of modern community....
  • abstractions as gods 28 Dec 2022 [article] We can use abstractions to get a handle on complex features of the world. By personalising centres of purpose in the world, we can better co...
  • obscuring banalities 16 Dec 2022 [article] We often use complicated-sounding words to dress up simple ideas about the human experience. But this isn’t just self-indulgence. It’s also...
  • everything is ideology 19 Sep 2022 [article] Ideologies are presented to us as distortions of reality—a synonym for ‘false belief’. But they are merely a subjective understanding of the...
  • spirituality of mind 29 Aug 2022 [article] The secular world replaced the soul with a mind in the brain. Modern science of mind finds no such thing, but a collection of mini-minds whi...
  • the origin of insight 20 Feb 2022 [article] Lightbulb moments are one crucial key to creativity, and though they appear elusive, there are many ways to encourage the happy accidents th...
  • the value of the sacred 24 Aug 2021 [article] The sacred isn’t a social myth; a delusion of the religious. It is what happens when we bind moments of personal meaning and power to someth...
  • in praise of the sage 19 Jul 2021 [article] Our culture spurns the ‘guru’ as a charletan and the traditionalist as a relic. Legitimate knowledge comes from reasoned observation, not in...
  • the scientific ritual 13 May 2021 [article] The scientific method is just another belief system, a ritual subject to errors of application like any other. In being thus, it has become...
  • insight and the sciences 21 Apr 2021 [article] Varela’s gestures of awareness—suspension, redirection, letting go—align with cognitive science findings on insight, emphasizing their value...

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