Queye TV The Essential Lectures of Alan Watts
Reality
Talk
Documentary
Comedy
The Essential Lectures of Alan Watts
TV-Y7
1972
5:42
1 Seasons 12 Episodes
★ 10
🇺🇸
The Essential Lectures of Alan Watts video series was recorded in 1971 above Muir Woods, California, and in 1972 aboard the ferryboat the SS Vallejo in Sausalito. Produced by his son Mark and directed by long-time archivist Henry Jacobs, the series explores core philosophical themes that spawned over Watts' career.

Episodes

Nothing
Episode 1

Nothing

Basing his ideas on sensory perception and physical experience, Alan Watts makes a compelling argument that everything actually depends upon nothing for its very existence.

342m
Ego
Episode 2

Ego

Alan Watts was concerned with the way we trap ourselves in words. He considered it unfortunate that we separate the "I" from reality and think of "I" in terms of how others see us or the image that we want to project. What is the answer?

342m
Meditation
Episode 3

Meditation

As Alan Watts explains, "A person who thinks all the time has nothing to think about except thoughts and loses touch with reality." He covers basic mediation techniques, including listening without naming and mantras or sonic meditations.

342m
God
Episode 4

God

To many of us the image of God as a gray-bearded omnipotent and omnipresent supreme being has become implausible, yet the common sense notions of divine authority surrounding that image persist.

342m
Cosmic Drama
Episode 5

Cosmic Drama

Alan Watts further explores the Hindu dramatic view of the universe, in which God plays all of the parts - all the while pretending not to know who he/she/it is!

342m
Time
Episode 6

Time

Here Alan Watts points out that our insistence that the past determines the present is nonsensical.

342m
Work & Play
Episode 7

Work & Play

Alan Watts swirls an orange on a string and shoots an arrow high into the air before explaining why the art of living is being paid to play - and to the extent that we feel compelled to work and survive, life becomes a drag.

342m
Death
Episode 8

Death

Alan Watts comments on the circle of life and our response to the surprising event of being born in the first place.

342m
The More It Changes
Episode 9

The More It Changes

Alan Watts speaks on our fascination with reproduction through media, and on the far out notion that human beings may just be one star's way of becoming another star!

342m
Clothing
Episode 10

Clothing

After talking about growing up near London, Alan Watts demonstrates a variety of cultural garb and points out how each influences the way we live and feel. His choices of attire include a western business suit and a kimono.

342m
Do You Smell?
Episode 11

Do You Smell?

Alan Watts speaks about our most repressed sense. Here he introduces viewers to the intricacies of incense in front of a small Buddhist altar, while commenting on the types of incense used in Church rituals and all across Asia.

342m
Conversation with Myself
Episode 12

Conversation with Myself

While walking in a field above Muir Woods, Alan Watts points to humankind's attempts to straighten out a wiggly world as the root of our ecological crisis.

342m

Cast

Alan Watts

Alan Watts

Crew

Mark Watts

Producer

Henry Jacobs

Camera Operator

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