Mysticism & The Absolute · žižek archive

In his words 1

“i'm going to promote the view that nature is god.”
19:06 Debunking new-age spirituality | Slavoj Žižek, Rupert Sheldrake, John Vervaeke and more · Spinozist pantheism

The stories that teach it

the jokes and anecdotes he reaches for when he works in this idea, ranked by how many of its talks they turn up in; each card is one story, with every retelling on its page

example · in 2 of its talks

Eliot on Artistic Change

T.S. Eliot’s claim that new art changes the past, which Žižek uses to argue the past is 'open' and actualized by the present, not just re-interpreted.

example · in 1 of its talks

Taliban and the Bamiyan Buddhas

Western outrage at the Taliban's destruction of the Buddha statues was framed as defense of 'culture', not genuine religious belief, revealing that it is the West that maintains mere cultural distance, while the Taliban were, paradoxically, closer to actual belief.

anecdote · in 1 of its talks

Catherine Millot and the Last Lacan

Žižek dismisses the idea that Lacan’s final years (represented by his 'official mistress' Catherine Millot) contained a 'last wisdom' or point of the Real, arguing instead that these seminars represent a 'gradual disintegration' and a liberalizing of Lacan’s thought.

Judas and Evil People1 Hamlet and the Norwegian King1

Where it comes up 4

4 moments located in the transcripts, click a timestamp to play from there

Slavoj Žižek and Alex O'Connor Live in London2025-11-09 · 1:23:32

38:16 Devil is another name of God

… But Devil is another name of God for me.

Act of Courage with Philippe Petit2018-12-03 · 1:15:56

13:43 contact with the Absolute

… But what does this prove for me? Not that intense sexuality can be a contact with the Absolute, but it's that it's spiritual.

Slavoj Zizek - Buddhism, happiness and sacrifice day 02 audience questionspub. 2023-04-23 · 49:52

~4:56 dark undercurrent in Buddhist experience

transcendence. And some Tibetan friends, this may interest you, claimed to me that there is a dark undercurrent even in Buddhist experience, where what needs to be done is done. Which means that Nirvana is not conceived as a state of eternal peace, but an …

Debunking new-age spirituality | Slavoj Žižek, Rupert Sheldrake, John Vervaeke and more2023 · 29:04

22:47 pantheism

… it wasn't until the 1780s with the pantheism controversy that his ideas became serious again, but then science had moved on, as i said, with the cartesian framework.