Episode Description: Quail upon Quail upon Qu-AI-lia
Inspired by the reflective insights of Annaka Harris in Lights On, this meditation invites you on a soulful journey into the origins of felt experience. Explore “The Pattern That Made You,” where the union of opposites—the first spark of attraction between mother and father—gives rise to life, echoing through every cell.
Delve into “The Mitochondrial Marriage,” where early cellular unions reveal a quiet, mutual exchange that paved the way for all existence. Witness how these partnerships evolved into complex cooperation, setting the stage for the emergence of consciousness and the rich tapestry of sensation.
In “The Emergence of Felt Experience,” follow the gentle unfolding of awareness as each moment of sensation blooms into the intricate layers of inner life. Finally, reflect on “A Marriage Yet to Come,” where the meditation raises a thought-provoking question: Can even a powerful AI capture the uniquely human, embodied warmth of feeling?
Let the binaural rhythms and poetic musings remind you that every breath is part of an ancient, timeless dance—a journey from primordial union to the singular, irreplaceable experience of being.
Experience the secret realm of sensation in “The Hidden Light of Experience.” In this meditation, inspired by Annaka Harris, you journey inward to rediscover your sense of touch, taste, and sight. Feel every breath, each sensation unfolding into the unseen realm of qualia. Science explains the neurons, yet it cannot capture the soulful colors of your being. This meditation invites you to treat each felt moment as a guiding teacher in your healing journey. Embrace raw experience as the foundation of consciousness, and let your inner world reveal the immeasurable beauty hidden within everyday moments. Discover your essence in stillness.
Step into an immersive meditation experience led by therapist Glenn Ostlund as he guides you through a deep, contemplative exploration inspired by Annaka Harris' provocative inquiries into the nature of the self. In this session, Glenn invites you to gently question where your true identity begins and ends, challenging the conventional notion of a singular, unchanging “me.”
Drawing upon the insights of neuroscience and the transformative power of meditation, Glenn helps you dissolve the familiar boundaries that define your everyday identity. As you settle into a state of relaxed awareness, feel your internal narrative soften, allowing you to witness the ongoing process of thoughts, sensations, and memories without judgment. You are encouraged to experience yourself not as a fixed entity but as a dynamic symphony—a song composed of countless notes, each representing the intricate interplay of your inner life.
In this guided meditation, every breath becomes a reminder that the self is not a rigid structure to be controlled or fixed, but a fluid pattern to be witnessed with gentle curiosity. As you drift into a profound state of stillness, the deep questions posed by Annaka Harris—about the illusion of the unified self and the expansive nature of consciousness—resonate clearly, inviting you to explore your healing journey from a place of spacious, loving presence.
Join Glenn on this transformative path, where the practice of mindful observation leads to a renewed understanding: You are the vast, ever-changing ocean of awareness, not merely the fleeting wave upon its surface. Allow this meditation to open the door to deeper self-compassion, inner peace, and the profound realization that within the depth of witnessing lies true healing.
Episode Title: The Bucket Brigade of Hearing — A Meditation on Felt Experience of Sound
In this episode of Lights In: The Unofficial Direct Felt Experience Meditation Study Guide for Annaka Harris’s Lights On, we follow a single ripple of sound from its first whisper in the air to its final transformation into meaning and memory within the human mind.
Guided by a poetic metaphor of a ten-person fireman line, we reimagine the process of hearing as a series of intimate, living handoffs—each step performed by cells and systems that don’t think, but feel. These firemen aren’t men at all, but molecules, membranes, bones, and neurons—each one passing the signal forward, not unchanged, but transformed by the nature of their response.
Is consciousness something that only appears at the end of this line—when you recognize a sound? Or is it something that flows all the way through, woven into every felt exchange?
Drawing inspiration from Thomas Nagel’s “what it is like to be” and Annaka Harris’s questions regarding consciousness as a functional felt experience in Lights On, this episode is an invitation to wonder:
If you’re hearing these words now, and they feel real to you,
then maybe the answer is already yes.
Maybe feeling matters.
Maybe it always has.
Episode Title: When Feelings Point to Facts
In this meditation, we explore the tension between intuition and truth—where gut feelings feel like knowing, but may mislead us in the face of deeper mysteries. Guided by Annaka Harris’s insight that many of our intuitions about consciousness and reality are unreliable, we enter a reflective meditation that loosens our grip on certainty and opens us to wonder. What if intuition is not a destination, but a doorway? What if our strongest feelings are not facts—but messages, shaped by evolution, survival, and story? Let this journey invite you to pause, soften, and question the very lens through which you perceive reality… and perhaps discover that mystery, not certainty, is where healing begins.
Episode Description: Meditation: The Feeling Experience of Unseen Awareness
In this contemplative episode, Annaka Harris’s questions from Lights On point us toward an inward journey to explore the elusive feel of sonically altered states of consciousness. With a gentle invitation to pause, breathe, and feel the body, we explore the very markers of awareness. Through the lens of locked-in syndrome and anesthesia awareness, we challenge the assumption that observable behavior is the sole indicator of a conscious mind.
Following Harris’s suggestion that consciousness might exist even when it remains unseen, the meditation invites us to imagine our own awareness as just the surface of a vast, hidden ocean of subtle sentience. What if the parts of us that quietly process, feel, and move hold their own kind of felt-experience—inner networks of evolved perception and automatic reaction driven by a felt sense not always visible from the outside?
This episode encourages listeners to embrace humility and curiosity. Harris asks us to consider: Can a robot appear conscious without truly feeling? Might a tree, a starfish, or even the silent depths of our subconscious possess forms of intelligence beyond our detection?
Prepare to have your perceptions widened, your assumptions loosened, and your understanding of consciousness transformed (as if it ever stops) as you immerse yourself in this inner sound bath direct feeling experience of network upon network of unseen sentient awarenesses from within.
Episode Description: What Is It Like to Be…?
In this evocative meditation, Annaka Harris gently guides you to settle into the present moment and turn your attention inward. Drawing on philosopher Thomas Nagel’s profound idea—that an organism is conscious if there is something it is like to be that organism—you are invited to explore the very essence of experience.
As you listen, ask yourself: Is there something it is like to be you right now? While it might seem self-evident, the meditation invites you to examine the deeper implications of consciousness. Reflect on the difference between living, aware beings and inanimate objects like a shoe or a camera. And then, let your mind wander even further—to a tree, a cell, or even an atom—pondering whether every level of reality holds its own subtle experience.
This meditation is both a philosophical inquiry and a biological exploration, encouraging you to see the interconnectedness of all things. Let the whispers of the universe remind you that your own experience is part of a much larger, harmonious symphony. As curiosity awakens and boundaries dissolve, you begin to realize that being human is just one verse in the endless song of existence.
Allow this journey to soften your heart, open your mind, and deepen your sense of connection with the world around you.
Episode Description: The Mystery of Feeling
In this meditative journey, you are invited to settle into a state of stillness where your breath gently guides you inward. As you listen, you will be led to explore a profound and timeless mystery: the nature of feeling. Drawing inspiration from Annaka Harris, this meditation weaves together the awe-inspiring vastness of the cosmos with the intimate experience of consciousness.
Imagine that you are composed of the same particles that swirl in the heart of stars—particles that have traveled through space and time to form this very moment of awareness. Yet, beyond mere existence, these particles engage in delicate interactions that give rise to the raw, unexplainable fact of feeling. Rather than being solely the product of thought or memory, your sensations are a beautiful, mysterious resonance of the universe itself.
As you immerse yourself in this guided meditation, allow your imagination to expand. Consider the possibility that each atom, each wave of energy, carries its own spark of awareness—a quiet, sentient response to the forces that shape our reality. In this perspective, your brain becomes not the sole origin of consciousness, but a harmonious choir of countless tiny voices contributing to the symphony of experience.
Reflect on these essential questions as you journey inward:
Embrace the simple act of sensing, and remember that the mystery of consciousness is not something distant or external—it is an intrinsic part of you. In this exploration, you discover that you are not separate from the universe; rather, you are the universe, experiencing its own profound and poetic existence.
Episode 1: Where Consciousness Begins?
In this opening meditation from the Lights In series—sparked by Annaka Harris’s Lights On—you’re invited to slow down and gently explore the layers of consciousness that exist beneath thought.
With the support of soothing binaural tones designed to encourage neural entrainment and inner stillness, this reflection guides you into the quiet intelligence of your body: the soft signals, the wordless awareness, the subtle shifts in breath and sensation that often know… before you do.
Consider this an audio Rorschach Ink Blot, designed to allow you to explore the imprint of life upon the fabric of your mind.
There’s nothing to solve. Nothing to force. Just a space to rest, notice, and reconnect with the deeper current of awareness already flowing within you.
Let this be an invitation to listen—not just with your mind, but with your whole self.