The Examined Life — Explorations of consciousness, relationships, meaning, ego, soul, and the experience of being human

Explore the Reflections

Every reflection in one place, from five-minute quick reads to deeper essays.


A Good Place to Begin

Ego & Soul: Two Perspectives, One Human Experience. Scott Gibson stands in the desert before a glowing figure

Consciousness, Ego & Soul: What I Mean by Them

What do I mean by consciousness, ego, and soul? I distinguish awareness, personal identity, and the possibility of an enduring soul, exploring how we can develop wiser responses while recognizing a foundational well-being we do not have to earn.

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Coffee beside a cabin fireplace overlooking forested mountains, illustrating What Are We All Looking For?

Foundational Well-Being: Part 1 — What Are We All Looking For?

Can well-being remain when life’s circumstances change? Drawing from personal experience and Rupert Spira’s teachings, I explore whether peace begins with recognizing the awareness beneath our thoughts, fears, and changing personal story. Resilience can develop without having to create the foundation itself.

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My Working Theory of Everything About Being Human: a figure overlooks layered landscapes of consciousness and nature

My Theory of Everything About Being Human

Beginning with consciousness, I explore how identity, relationships, choices, and even our theories arise within experience. Drawing from Rupert Spira, I distinguish recognizing foundational well-being from developing wiser ways to live, guided by intelligence, love, and openness to revision.

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There Is Nothing I Have to Do: a hand above a bucket of water, a notebook reading “I have to,” and signposts

There is Nothing I Have to Do

Much of life’s pressure begins with three words: I have to. But when we step back far enough, many of life’s urgent demands begin to look different. What happens when obligation becomes choice—and “I have to” becomes “I get to”?

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Who I Am vs. Who I Could Be: Scott at ages 18, 68, and 88 against a sunset

Who I am vs. Who I Could Be

What if I could return to eighteen with everything I know at sixty-eight—or wake up tomorrow at eighty-eight? A thought experiment about time, choice, and the possibility that who we are isn’t a finished identity, but an ongoing process of becoming.

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