Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion

Harris rejects the dichotomy between spirituality and rationality, and seeks to define a middle path that preserves spirituality and science but does not involve religion.[3] He writes that spirituality should be understood in light of scientific disciplines like neuroscience and psychology.[3] Science, he contends, can show how to maximize human well-being but may fail to answer certain questions about the nature of being, answers to some of which he says are discoverable directly through our experience.[3] His conception of spirituality does not involve a belief in God.[4]

Harris' treatment of the nature of the mind draws on psychology, split-brain scientific literature, and philosophy of mind.[5] He explores various positions on the mind-body problem but states that the solution may lie beyond the capabilities of human reason.[6]

Harris writes that the purpose of spirituality (as he defines it – he says the term's uses are diverse and sometimes indefensible) is to become aware that our sense of self is illusory, and says that this realization brings both happiness and insight into the nature of consciousness.[3][5] He says spiritual discipline allows us to repeatedly recognize in our day-to-day lives that there is no self.[3][6] Instead, there is an apprehension of "pure consciousness," a profoundly peaceful state independent of any sense experience.[6] He argues this process of realization is based on experience and is not contingent on faith.[3]

Harris provides brief guidance on how to meditate, and directs readers to his website for more in-depth instructions.[5] He has studied under several Eastern meditation teachers, and gives advice on how to identify a good spiritual teacher.[4] He describes his experience with Dzogchen, a Tibetan Buddhist practice, and recommends it to his readers.[3]

Although Harris assigns great value to religious experiences, he argues that facts about the cosmos and particular religious dogmas cannot reasonably be inferred from these experiences.[7] In this vein, he describes some of his own deep spiritual experiences, but does not interpret them as evidence, for instance, of Christian, Hindu, or Buddhist metaphysics, as he says adherents of those religions likely would.[4] He defends a segment of English spiritual author Douglas Harding's book On Having No Head against the sharp criticisms of cognitive scientist Douglas Hofstadter. By contrast, he criticizes Eben Alexander's Christian interpretation of a near-death experience in Proof of Heaven at length as filled with unwarranted assumptions.[6]