Dan Harris

His book sales have, I think, stayed strong. I coded him as very weird. I think now, given all of my experience in the meditation realm, I think I would view him differently.

Yes. He's a small Elfin German man who speaks very slowly and very deliberately. And in his book talked about how he had a spiritual awakening and then lived on a park bench for a couple of years in the city of London, which made no sense to me because they have winter there. And then he makes all these grandiose claims.

Yes. He's a small Elfin German man who speaks very slowly and very deliberately. And in his book talked about how he had a spiritual awakening and then lived on a park bench for a couple of years in the city of London, which made no sense to me because they have winter there. And then he makes all these grandiose claims.

Yes. He's a small Elfin German man who speaks very slowly and very deliberately. And in his book talked about how he had a spiritual awakening and then lived on a park bench for a couple of years in the city of London, which made no sense to me because they have winter there. And then he makes all these grandiose claims.

So at first I'm reading this book thinking, OK, maybe this guy will be a good story because the celebrities like him and I'll do it like an expose on him. And then he says some things that blew my mind.

So at first I'm reading this book thinking, OK, maybe this guy will be a good story because the celebrities like him and I'll do it like an expose on him. And then he says some things that blew my mind.

So at first I'm reading this book thinking, OK, maybe this guy will be a good story because the celebrities like him and I'll do it like an expose on him. And then he says some things that blew my mind.

He pointed out something that is so obvious but so overlooked, which is that we all have a voice in our heads, that we have this little inner narrator who chases you out of bed in the morning and is yammering at you all day long and has you constantly wanting stuff, not wanting stuff, judging people, comparing yourself to other people, thinking about the past or thinking about the future instead of focusing on what's happening right now.

He pointed out something that is so obvious but so overlooked, which is that we all have a voice in our heads, that we have this little inner narrator who chases you out of bed in the morning and is yammering at you all day long and has you constantly wanting stuff, not wanting stuff, judging people, comparing yourself to other people, thinking about the past or thinking about the future instead of focusing on what's happening right now.

He pointed out something that is so obvious but so overlooked, which is that we all have a voice in our heads, that we have this little inner narrator who chases you out of bed in the morning and is yammering at you all day long and has you constantly wanting stuff, not wanting stuff, judging people, comparing yourself to other people, thinking about the past or thinking about the future instead of focusing on what's happening right now.

If you're unaware of this nonstop chaos and cacophony in your mind, it all owns you. You act out every little neurotic obsession that flits through your mind as if it's – in the words of my meditation teacher, Joseph Goldstein, as if that thought is a tiny dictator. And I was reading the book and I was thinking, oh, shit. This is the smartest thing I've ever heard about the human animal.

If you're unaware of this nonstop chaos and cacophony in your mind, it all owns you. You act out every little neurotic obsession that flits through your mind as if it's – in the words of my meditation teacher, Joseph Goldstein, as if that thought is a tiny dictator. And I was reading the book and I was thinking, oh, shit. This is the smartest thing I've ever heard about the human animal.

If you're unaware of this nonstop chaos and cacophony in your mind, it all owns you. You act out every little neurotic obsession that flits through your mind as if it's – in the words of my meditation teacher, Joseph Goldstein, as if that thought is a tiny dictator. And I was reading the book and I was thinking, oh, shit. This is the smartest thing I've ever heard about the human animal.

I can't believe I'm hearing it from this dude.

I can't believe I'm hearing it from this dude.

I can't believe I'm hearing it from this dude.

And it also explains why I had a panic attack on national television, because the voice in my head told me to go off to war zones without thinking about the consequences, and then I came home, got depressed, was insufficiently self-aware to know I was depressed, and then blindly, per the voice in my head, self-medicated with recreational drugs, including cocaine.

And it also explains why I had a panic attack on national television, because the voice in my head told me to go off to war zones without thinking about the consequences, and then I came home, got depressed, was insufficiently self-aware to know I was depressed, and then blindly, per the voice in my head, self-medicated with recreational drugs, including cocaine.

And it also explains why I had a panic attack on national television, because the voice in my head told me to go off to war zones without thinking about the consequences, and then I came home, got depressed, was insufficiently self-aware to know I was depressed, and then blindly, per the voice in my head, self-medicated with recreational drugs, including cocaine.

And so it was a massive aha moment for me. How did that lead me to meditation? I went and interviewed Eckhart Tolle. I asked him, OK, dude, this is the smartest diagnosis I've ever heard of the human condition. What do I do about it? And he had no coherent answer whatsoever. And that left me in a state of confusion. And it was in that confusion that I started doing more research.