Erik was the very first PEL guest participant, acting as our more-knowledgeable-than-we-about-Eastern-philosophy go-to guy, and was actually one of those I'd spoken to before launching the podcast altogether as a potential host, but I thought that having to adjust to his British time zone would complicate things too much.
Here he is on our Taoism episode, and on our first Buddhism one, on Nagarjuna (Note that his funky, non-phonemic pronunciation--Nargoojana--was confirmed/repeated by Flanagan, so I lose that one.)
He was also a philosophy grad student at U. of Texas, though a couple years behind Wes and me, and I don't remember him so well from those days, nor did we really correspond all that much beyond planning the couple of episodes he was on. A primary interest of his was Zen/Chan Buddhism (i.e. the more anti-language kind that Owen Flanagan discounted in our interview with him), and I was just now tracking him down to talk to him about an eventual episode in that area, and to get his perspective as part of this round of Buddhism discussions. I discovered on his Facebook page that he passed away last December 5th. I don't know the details, but got the impression from a comment that he made in an email a while back that he had some recurrent health issues; he said that he was surprised to be alive at that point.
Erik's blog appears to be down, but you can learn about his activities on this biographical page. Here are some of his thoughts on academia and the science/philosophy distinction:
My background academically was originally mathematics and science. I was driven as an undergraduate and graduate student to understand the scientific nature of consciousness, but the nature of the questions quickly brought me to the liminal regions of science. Thus, I turned then to philosophy to provide a better cognitive framework to pursue answers to the above riddles.
My work in this area saw two kinds of fruit grow. The first is my reasonable certainty that "science" as sincerely conceived can approach the big questions surrounding consciousness and its origins. However, a serious need to look at the way we define our terms cannot be overstated. At root of greatest mystery in this poly-discipline - what is sometimes called the "Hard Problem of Consciousness" but which is just a dressed up name for the "Mind-Body Problem" - is the nature of time. Time or temporality itself is no less mysterious when approached honestly. It is my thesis that these two concepts (Time & Consciousness) are so related, they are likely of one in the same essence, and a physicalist understanding of either will lead to answers about the other. I believe that the necessary metaphysical foundations will likely be found in a complete theory of quantum gravity, and I am generally persuaded by Roger Penrose's thinking. However, I suspect that new kinds of temporal logic will need first to be developed. I have been involved with time researchers around the world, and I am developing an academic/general Website dedicated to these issues. On account of necessity, my energies have turned significantly to the political in the past two years.
The second fruit to grow was considerably more sour/bitter. I am now of a mind that the traditional institution of the academy is really in its death throws. That is to say, the social pressures of the past century have finally killed the spirit of investigation and exploration that first kindled in the Enlightenment, notably the influence of corporate and capital driven models of organization and respective definitions of goals and success. However, I remain an optimist with respect to the human spirit, and all of our crumbling ivory towers will in time be swept away into the dustbins of history.
Thanks for talking, Erik.
-Mark Linsenmayer
Very sorry to hear this.
That’s a damn shame.
I just listened to Taoism episode last night. Stunned to wake up and see this. So sad.
Wow, that is fucked.
Very sorry to hear about this. Be at rest, Erik.
So sad to hear this. Erik’s contributions made for some of my favorite moments on the show. Being big on eastern philosophy, my interests aligned with his, and he explained many of the concepts very eloquently and unpretentiously.
Thank you very much, Erik.
Sounds like he was a very interesting guy. I’ll listen to those episodes again.
Sad to hear, I’ll be keeping an eye out for those episodes when I catch up to them. I’ve been listening to Episode 5 on Camus today too, absurd indeed.
Loved both the Taoist and Buddhist episodes, it really got me back into Eastern thought. Be at peace, Erik.
Thank you so much for this Mark.
Erik violently took his own life in Berlin, and this is how he would have liked to be remembered. Absurd indeed. I am his widow, and he did not have health issues. He had academia issues.
Thank you for this moment of grace.
My heart is broken. My name is Tom and I’ve know Erik since we were 10 years old. We grew up together in Vancouver, Canada and were very close friends. I just found out about this moments ago and there is so much I’d like to say now but feel it might not be appropriate.
Erik and I have only spoken a few times in the past couple of years and the thought that we will never again sit in a cafe, smoke, drink coffee and discuss our ideas for the new world order just doesn’t seem real to me at this point.
You will be missed more than you would believe Erik. I hope you find the peace in death that you couldn’t in life.
I just feel sick right now. Many regrets.
Tom.
It’s 2016, July, the same month I met him, & I just found out about Erik’s death now. Respectfully, what a waste of a brilliant mind. I respect Erik’s choice, but I think his “am” (not “I” am) may have been better served being alive than dead (but who really knows, maybe his “am” is being better served now). I briefly met “Ringan” (he went by many names) at an airport/plane trip, many years ago, going from the US to France. It greatly impacted me. I recognized his genius & eccentricity immediately. Like me, he was smoking clove cigarettes, and I followed the intoxicating scent (hoping to find a comrade in spirit) to a table where I found him plowing through academic (psychology, mathematics, philosophy) books (at the time, I also often carried my psych books & work w/me). I fell in love at first sight. He told me he was working on a mathematical equation to prove that consciousness exists. And he showed me his work. I had a mind/spiritual orgasm. We boarded the long flight to Paris. Time flew too fast as we were discussing every topic under the sun. My complete memory fails me, but I remember we did some psych experiments & discussed our responses to them. One was about how we would expect ourselves to respond to emergencies versus how we would actually respond to them. We both found that we remained calm, logical, & focused (versus expecting to behave emotionally). Another exploratory experiment we did on the plane was somewhat metaphysical in nature: how the physical (temporal, tactile, quantifiable experience) could assist in exploring the relationship w/the more difficult quantification of space/energy/time & “oneness” or connection (demonstrated through focused meditation on energy between 2 hands barely touching). In so many words, Ringan shared w/me how he was a leader of a “cult” (my words) in southern France on energy & light & the metaphysical/spiritual underpinnings associated w/it. As fate would be, I happened to have experience w/deprogramming people in cults, so of course I thought it was my mission to rescue & “save” his brilliant mind from possibly being lead on a wrong path. I did pseudo try. I wish I had tried harder to reach him. I wrote him a 60 pg letter about it & about our experiences together. Where I was neurotic, he was kind. I lost that letter (stolen from car in Netherlands) while traveling in Europe & rewrote it from memory. He lost my letter (stolen from his backpack) but later recouped it. We were to possibly meet in front of the cathedral Chartres, but it never came to be. I left a rose at the doorstep, but not ironically, a swift wind from nowhere blew it away & all the electricity (energy) broke down in the church. He told me if friends are meant to meet again, they will. He talked to me about Taoism without naming it. I find it funny now how some comments on his Buddhist podcast criticized him for not naming or pronouncing things “correctly.” On that flight he also would correct my way of pronouncing certain words claiming I (but not him) was saying them wrong – haha! He had numerous passports from many different countries & spoke several different languages & used several different aliases – I thought he may be some mega-intelligent spy! Years later I tried to find what developed of him on the net. I found these (not sure if they’re still there) extremely intriguing & complex philosophical/political website constructions he built, that to me, seemed to be a mapped exploration of where his mind & thoughts were currently going. Complex. Chaotic. Passionate. Extremely intelligent. He himself told me he “may be enigmatic, and certainly recognizes he is unusual.” Some of his writings there inspired some of my thinking. His discourses in consciousness & spirituality were brilliant. It appeared then that he was a recluse living w/cats (gee, who does that sound like?). Seems like then he was trying to create some new political order in British Columbia (based on the green movement?) Again, I tried to contact him w/no response. And now this shit. God, I really did want to meet him again. I don’t know the circumstances that lead to his eventual “death.” And maybe I’m biased, but I think he was just too deep a thinker, with too many different novel insights, and just finally despaired not being able to connect all the dots in a world he perceived could not yet perceive him. This belies a poem he wrote me on a map:
Not everything can be found on a map,
And many things are not on this map.
Our minds are like maps,
Where we understand everything in context of something else,
And some maps are more extreme than others.
But all maps (minds) are finite in the infinite cosmos.
Oh Ringan, I so hope your mind is mapping the infinite consciousness of the cosmos and that you find the finite answer you were looking for.
Erik and I grew up together in Vancouver, Canada. He was my best friend for many years. As life happens people tend to follow their own paths. Erik left Canada to follow his path, and I stayed and followed mine. I attended his funeral along with his sisters and mother in Oregon. I think about him almost every day, and the way he impacted my life. My name is Tom and if you’d like to talk about Erik, and/or have unanswered questions about his death please feel free to contact me. expresso99@gmail.com
On the “violent death” of Erik R. Douglas, an “Eastern philosophy go-to guy.” I think it is crucial for the philosophically minded, to be aware of Erik and David Foster Wallace’s philosophical bent, which reflects a soul’s struggle to bring meaning to a felt meaningless universe, worthy of nothing less than the existential challenge: Why not commit suicide?
Perhaps we should consider our philosophical concerns (and those of our philosophical colleagues) as even desperate efforts to bring meaning, value, reason to living to our existential condition which otherwise seems to have no surdity, no raison d’être.
Perhaps those efforts of philosophers to fly to the sun of existential value are a prelude of Icarus’ flight too close to the sun, the wax in his wings melting and falling to the sea.
Perhaps philosophy needs to be informed better of the sheer need of human compassion, of a grounding of the heart, so that the soaring of the mind does not fly too close to the sun.
Perhaps.