I work in AI safety and make stuff out of wood and magnets.
Jules
Karma: 38
Good question! Would happily investigate if funding was provided :)
I think their target audience for four-figure in-person retreats is people who have enough disposable income to make that amount palatable, which does describe plenty of bay-area based tech workers.
I don’t think “jhanic meditation” makes sense as a term, unless you’re just using it to describe that Jhourney is doing.
Yes, I think my terminology could have been more precise. This is what I meant by “jhanic meditation”: the state that Jhourney implies is the meditative precursor to jhanas, arising from cultivating ease and joy and getting closer and closer to them (this state for me, felt like a lesser version of other nice things in my life).
I agree with you that the actual jhana states would feel different. I thought I came close to something quite different, described further down in section 2.
I would be interested to know your reasons for not wanting to talk about the jhanas, if you can share!
I did a jhana meditation retreat (in 2024) with Jhourney and it was okay.
Jules’s Shortform
Hey! So I’m one of the organizers for the 2025 Bay Area Secular Summer Solstice and we’re seeking input from people planning to attend. In particular, Solstice has been at Miller-Knox for the past several years and we’d like to move it somewhere else for this year.
Rachel Shu, the 2024 organizer, posted about doing Solstice on Angel Island back in June. The basic idea is that Angel Island could be a temporary, alternate world that facilitates a deeper collective experience: Summer Solstice is about agency, freedom, solutionism, physical embodiment, cooperation, and fun — and Angel Island has a mountain peak to climb, crumbling ruins to explore, forests to hike, and beaches to swim from.
If you are planning to attend the next Bay Area Summer Solstice, does this idea excite you, or would you prefer a different venue, such as the Marin Headlands (the original Secular Summer Solstice venue)? Short survey here, or comments welcome below. We plan to make a decision in the next couple weeks, so now is a great time for input!
Quick pros of Angel Island:
Logistics are easier than they might seem: we can charter dedicated ferry rides at good times and have a boat on hand to take people back to the mainland if they need to leave in the middle and the regular ferry’s intervals aren’t enough.
we visited to suss it out and it’s a much more interesting area than Miller-Knox (also, there’s a great spot for the sunset).
higher commitment = greater chance for community and connection.
shared unique travel experience on boat = (maybe) bonding experience & alternative world feeling.
Chance for camping.
Quick cons of Angel Island:
Higher total travel time and more complex than Marin Headlands (~30-50 minutes of driving + 15 minute ferry vs 50 minute drive).
Would be more expensive (think $30 − 40 / person).
Seems like the Marin Headlands could also provide a lot of similar benefits.
Would also welcome additional collaborators on Summer Solstice 2025.
Thank you, Mark! This is a very thoughtful comment for your first on LessWrong.
I agree that the joy-must-be-earned stance you point to as Christian / Western is common. The 2024 virtual Jhourney retreat didn’t give me a path to unlearning it or disproving it. I think doing so would be hard. I am not convinced it is worth trying right now, but if it is a thing where you learn it, and then can easily return, that makes it more compelling.