Recorded in January of 1969, the Intelligent Mindlessness lecture introduced an audience in San Francisco to the theory and practice of meditation, and the following weekend many attended Alan's meditation workshop at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California

Excerpts from the talk:
“Civilization suffers easily from too much of a good thing, and all civilization rests on language.... Under the hypnotic influence of thought--that is to say, linguistic representation of the world--we're always trying to straighten things out. "Just what sort of a person are you? How much is 'you' and how much is 'me?" And all this is simply a symptom of the fact that we are confusing the description of the world on the one hand, with the world itself on the other. And this can lead to the most disastrous results, because it makes us unable to see that you really cannot divide one thing from another.

Before we decide either to save the planet or to destroy it, I suggest that we pause for a moment of silence...and I mean real silence--in which we stop thinking and experience reality as reality is. Because, after all, if I talk all the time I can't hear what anyone else has to say....”