🌀 Transforming Perception Through Process Relational Philosophy

The limitations of science, the core metaphysical disagreements in the liminal space, naturalizing machine agency & horizons of biological intelligence, and the four powers of transformational leaders

We often think of reality as structured in layers: atoms make up molecules, molecules build cells, cells create life, and so on. But what if this stratified view limits us from seeing a more expansive perspective?

What if our world wasn’t made of isolated objects, but rather, woven from a tapestry of relationships, histories, and experiences—extending far beyond what we can see?

How might a taste of this deep interdependence change your experience of life?

One of my goals with my podcast is to give you a taste of that through coming in contact with mind-expansive teachers, thinkers, and practitioners.

While many offer profound insights, few do so with the breadth and depth of Bonnitta Roy.

Bonnita is an insight guide, philosopher, and futurist whose work is deeply grounded in cutting-edge cognitive science, evolutionary theory, contemplative studies, and metaphysics. 

She’s an inexhaustible resource for learning and one of my favorite thinkers in the liminal space.

I’ve followed Bonnitta for years and was delighted to finally get a chance to chat with her.

Click the video below to tune into our wide-ranging conversation where we discuss process relational philosophy, the limitations of science, the core metaphysical disagreements in the liminal space, naturalizing machine agency & horizons of biological intelligence, The Divinity School program, the four powers of transformational leaders and so much more. 

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Memorable Quotes 🗣️

Process Relational Philosophy:

"Process relational philosophy doesn’t stratify reality from 'lower' to 'higher.' Instead, it says reality bottoms out in experience, in being-in-relation-to. It’s a difficult but expansive way of seeing the world—one where the universe is not made of things but with relationships across time."

"Think of a pizza: it’s not only dough and sauce. The wheat in the dough is made with the agricultural revolution, which is made with human evolution, which is made with the cosmos. Process philosophy insists that every part has a story, a relational history embedded within it."

“You can’t see what things are made with, you can only conjecture what things are made of.”

Expanding the Observer Effect:

“The postmodern confusion with the observer effect is to think if a tree falls in the forest and no human is there, it doesn’t fall. But there are always perspectives, always more than one thing experiencing. When a tree falls, many things are experiencing that fall—even if no human is present."

"Observation doesn’t just collapse into human sight. Perspectives in the world are ongoing, and the relationships within them matter—like atoms needing the scientific revolution to be 'seen' as they are."

Difficulty of Translating Ideas & Writing:

“For me, ideas first live in my imagination as performances—they’re all playing one big song together. Writing reduces that to linear arguments, and the inner experience doesn’t match what ends up on the page. It’s why I find writing long pieces almost psychologically unhealthy."

“Writing demands that I take these big, vibrant ideas that I feel moving inside me and put them into tidy, linear arguments. It’s like compressing a symphony into a single instrument—you lose the harmony and depth.”

Metaphysical disagreements in the Liminal space:

“In evolution, the next highest form doesn’t evolve from the previous apex. We see a resetting to a simpler form, like shrews from dinosaurs, or worms after the Cambrian explosion. This contradicts the linear progression we tend to assume in developmental theories."

"People in the liminal space might say they don’t subscribe to determinism, yet deterministic thinking seeps into their models. I call it 'epistemic leakage,' where even if they wouldn’t agree outright, their assumptions imply it."

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Dive Deeper 🤿

• Read Bonnitta’s writing on metaphysics

• Sign up to Bonnita’s learning community - The Pop-Up School

• Join Bonnie’s Transformational Leadership program - The Divinity School

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