👁️ Top Insights #130 - Radical Non-Duality, Wise Visionary Leadership, & No Free Will VS Hyper Agency
Why radical non-duality is misunderstood, wise visionary Leadership , navigating the views of no free will & hyper agency, using AI to cultivate wisdom, & more.
“Top Insights” is a monthly newsletter that shares mind-expanding podcasts, transformational frameworks, and insightful links that help you go beyond conventional development.
Welcome to the March 2025 edition of Top Insights 🌱
As winter’s slumber nears its end, may the coming days of spring awaken inspiration, growth, and renewal.
Radical Non-duality ⚫️
Last month, I attended a non-duality meeting with Jim Newman in a beautiful penthouse in the heart of NYC.
If you’re unfamiliar with Jim, he is best known as a proponent of Radical Non-Duality—an uncompromising form of non-duality that negates personhood, free will, meaning, value, and the idea of spiritual progress.
Of course, that’s a negative framing of this message. Seen from another perspective, it’s also the total release of any sense of lack, the dropping away of the need for anything to be different than it is.
In recent years, this expression of non-duality has been criticized as dangerous, irresponsible, and as a form of spiritual bypassing.
There is validity to these concerns, but I believe they often stem from a misunderstanding.
When the message is filtered through a dualistic lens, it can often be heard as nihilistic, but my sense is that it’s pointing beyond any distinction, value judgment, or position.
Can hearing this message in a particular way lead to bad outcomes?
Sure, but so can psychedelics, meditation, or any tool that profoundly shifts our perception of reality.
Over the months, this message has landed in different ways for me, although more often than not, it has been liberating.
To step out of the relentless doer/achiever/problem-solver mode and simply rest in the unknowable mystery of this moment is freedom.
This doesn’t mean I agree with everything Jim Newman says, nor do I take this message as some ultimate, irrefutable truth. But there is a resonance that keeps me coming back.
My experience of listening to Jim—and my brief interactions with him—is that he has no agenda.
Maybe I’m wrong, but I sense there is nothing he wants from you and nowhere he is trying to get.
If there is anyone I’ve met who embodies the phrase “nobody is home,” it’s Jim Newman.
The four-hour meeting cost me $60 and came with coffee, tea, and an assortment of delicious treats.
What set it apart from other spiritual meetings and retreats I’ve attended was the absence of a practice. There was no meditation, no exercises, no prescribed path—just Jim voicing the radical non-dual message and then sitting in silence.
Questions arose, and they were answered.
At first, it was like the beginning of a meditation session — thoughts bubbling up, questions forming, an internal grasping for understanding. But as time went on, the mind settled down and relaxed.
Every question asked was dismantled, every attempt to grasp the message exposed as futile.
And in that unknowing, there was nothing to do, nowhere to go, no one to be.
If that isn’t freedom, I’m not sure what is.
If any of this piques your curiosity, here is a short interview with Jim Newman as well as a critique of Radical Non-Duality.
Wise Visionary Leadership 🦉🔋
The conventional mind operates within the realm of the known, where questions have answers, systems are established, and reality is structured. In contrast, the post-conventional mind ventures into the realm of the unknown, where certainty dissolves, paradoxes arise, and truth is expertiental rather than objectively defined.
In his piece, The Cave of Consensus is Collapsing, Tom Morgan distinguishes these realms as The Cave of Consensus (the known) and The Cavern of Consciousness (the unknown). The Cave of Consensus consists of shared, widely accepted knowledge—politics, finance, history, technology—while the Cavern of Consciousness explores the less tangible dimensions of existence—spirituality, mysticism, non-human intelligence, and the big questions of philosophy.
The below image taken from Tom’s article illustrates this well:
My sense is that wisdom is largely developed in the unknown realm (Cavern of consciousness), while power is mostly built in the known realm (The Cave of Consensus).
Conventional minds operate primarily within the known realm. They make things happen but struggle to see beyond the systems they are part of. They optimize, but they rarely question first principles.
Post-conventional minds explore the unknown, engaging in deep contemplation and self-inquiry. While this fosters wisdom, it can also detach them from active participation in shaping the world, rendering them powerless in the conventional domain.
This image from
does a great job of mapping the dynamic of wisdom and power in four potential quadrants.
(1) Bottom Left - Low Power / Low Wisdom (Degenerate Consumption)
Driven by hedonism, addiction, and nihilism.
Lacks both depth and the ability to shape reality.
A life governed by impulsivity, distraction, and external control
(2) Top Left - High Power / Low Wisdom (Techno-Optimism & Authoritarian Dystopia)
Operates with great efficiency and technological prowess but lacks ethical grounding.
Can lead to extraction, ecological collapse, and dehumanization.
Prioritizes technological and economic growth at the cost of deeper meaning.
(3) Bottom Right - High Wisdom / Low Power (Many forms of Spirituality)
Engages in deep existential and ethical contemplation but lacks systemic influence.
Fosters meaning and wholeness but often struggles with pragmatism and real-world engagement.
Can result in detachment, naivety, or ineffective idealism.
(4) Top Right - High Wisdom / High Power (Human Flourishing)
A synthesis of deep wisdom and pragmatic action.
Envisions and builds sustainable, ethical, and transformative systems.
Cultivates regenerative models of progress, integrating both insight and impact.
The wise visionary leaders of the future will be those who can seamlessly move between the realms of the known and the unknown, developing both wisdom and power.
They will be those who go deep into inner work practices without getting lost in them.
They will show up and build in the conventional world without forgetting the deeper vision they hold in their hearts.
And most of all, they will embody the rare fusion of insight and action, ensuring that wisdom is not just contemplated but lived and that power is not just wielded but guided by a higher purpose.
No Free Will VS Hyper Agency 🧎💪
The big questions of philosophy are those that speak to the core of the human experience yet lack definitive answers.
One of these big questions is: Do we have free will?
I’m not here to argue for or against it—because, as far as I can tell, the answer is unknowable.
What I do want to suggest is that most people are incapable of truly believing they don’t have free will. Regardless of what we think we believe, it is our actions and emotional responses that reveal our underlying convictions.
Jordan Peterson points to this when he writes:
"You can only find out what you actually believe (rather than what you think you believe) by watching how you act. You simply don’t know what you believe before that. You are too complex to understand yourself."
Most of us are deeply invested in our goals, striving to shape our future, and reacting emotionally to success and failure. We get elated when things go our way and upset—or even devastated—when they don’t.
This is not the behavior of someone who fully accepts they have no control. If they did, we might expect them to exhibit a radical surrender, like Jim Newman.
Although most people don’t consistently behave as if they lack free will, they can momentarily adopt this perspective. For those with a hyper-agentic mindset—who see themselves as deeply in control of their destiny—briefly surrendering to the idea of no free will can feel liberating.
The hyper-agentic view is one that seeks to maximize power, control, and self-determination. You see this in figures like Conor McGregor, who has on many occasions said, “There’s no such thing as luck.”
Of course, we know this isn’t true—circumstances, chance, and external forces play a role in life. Yet for McGregor, believing that luck doesn’t exist is a useful mindset when pushing himself to train harder and perform at the highest level.
Although it can be empowering, the belief that every outcome is solely in one’s hands can also be exhausting. The hyper-agentic perspective creates a constant drive for control, and when setbacks occur, it often leads to self-criticism, burnout, and a failure to recognize external circumstances at play.
While hyper-agency can offer a sense of control, the no-free-will perspective can provide a sense of relief. Accepting that events unfold as they must can free a person from the burden of self-judgment, eliminating the need to ruminate over past decisions or anxiously attemping to shape the future.
We can also see how this mindset can lead to passivity, apathy, and a loss of motivation. If nothing is in our control, why strive for anything? Why take responsibility for our actions?
Rather than rigidly committing to either stance, I’m more interested in moving between these perspectives and seeing what reality they afford.
What can be accomplished when I hold the view of hyper-agency and assume I’m 100% responsible for my life?
What becomes possible when I adopt the no-free-will perspective and surrender control?"
Which of these views feels more counterintuitive for me, and how can I learn to shift between them more fluidly?
Elevating Consciousness Podcast 🎙
In case you missed it, here is the podcast episode I released last month.
Jung’s Map of the Soul with Murray Stein - Murray Stein is a Jungian Psychoanalyst, author, and lecturer. He received his bachelor’s in literature and Masters in Divinity from Yale and completed his PhD in Religion and Psychological Studies at the University of Chicago. He was trained as a Jungian Analyst at the C.G. Jung Institute of Zurich and is a founding member of the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts and the Chicago Society of Jungian Analysts. He is the author of many books including The Principle of Individuation and Jung’s Map of the Soul. Murray Stein welcome to the show. In this episode, we unpack Jung’s Map of the Soul, explore Murray’s experience studying with Jungian legends James Hillman and Marie Louise von Franz, delineate levels of religious understanding, and dive deeper into ethics, serial killers, and collective shadows.
Insightful Links 🔗
How to use AI to cultivate Wisdom - An insightful article on how we can use AI to develop self-knowledge and cultivate wisdom from fellow liminal explorer Tucker Walsh.
Jim Newman in Conversation with Susan Blackmore - This was a fun conversation between Jim and Sue that shows how much intellect can be a barrier to direct realization. Blackmore might have spent decades meditating and studying philosophy, but she still seems to miss what Newman is pointing to.
The Light at the End of the Tunnel - A beautifully written piece on ego death, Individuation, and the cyclical journey of self from the Dark Knight of the Soul — Shiv Sengupta.
Quintessential Quote ✍️
‘The end of seeking is the end of the need to know, which is the end of questions and the search for answers, as the causeless end of the questioner which never was.”
- Jim Newman
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