This week I sat down with Jake Stone, a conversation I was very much looking forward to.
Jake is building something called Cosmic Psychology, a framework rooted in the idea that the cosmos doesn’t exist outside of us, it exists within the psyche itself. He draws from Nietzsche, Fromm, esoteric Kabbalah, and Jungian thought to map what he calls “the natural rhythms of the psyche,” developmental phases that arrive on their own schedule regardless of the individual.
His framework mirrors what I'm working on with circadian biology and the rhythmic architecture of the nervous system. We're approaching the same territory from different directions. He's coming through philosophy and perennial wisdom. I'm coming through clinical somatic work and depth psychology. The overlap was immediate.
In this podcast we discuss:
The natural rhythms of the psyche, why Jung believed youthhood doesn’t culminate until 35-40
The “persona within the persona” Jake’s concept for the layered inauthenticity social media creates
Spiritual deception, and why psycho-emotional intensity gets mistaken for genuine spiritual experience
Nietzsche and Fromm on morality, why the self-help industry often violates Kant’s principle of treating people as ends
McGilchrist’s hemispheric distinction and how categorical thinking gets weaponized in online culture.
Jake is one of the most well-read thinkers I’ve come across. He’s read every piece of Nietzsche’s writing, including his personal letters. He recommended Nietzsche’s “Anti-Education” (originally titled “On the Future of Our Educational Institutions”) as the best entry point.
Jake’s work lives on Substack under Cosmic Psychology, and he’s launching a YouTube channel soon.
With deep respect,
Brian Maierhofer
