THE Pursuit OF Happiness

A NEW STARTUP RAISES QUESTIONS ABOUT WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU TRY TO OPTIMIZE SPIRITUALITY

- NAINA BAJEKAL

Nick Cammarata has always been unusually happy.

The 31-year-old AI safety researcher had a good childhood, but it wasn't just that; situations that made others depressed seemed to roll off him. "I think I was probably happier than 99% of people. It's just kind of unfair luck," he says. "I figured maybe what I had was as good as it gets."

Then, in 2021, as part of an effort to investigate whether life could get even better, Cammarata discovered the jhanas. These eight advanced meditative states, characterized by deep concentration and blissful absorption, have been practiced for thousands of years but were long considered the domain of mystics and monks with decades of training. Cammarata, however, taught himself to enter these states after around 1,000 hours of solo meditation practice. "I was shocked that it was possible to get this thing you turn on in 10 seconds and just get joy for five hours straight," he says. "Nobody talks about it."

So he started to. In the past few decades, a handful of American Buddhist teachers had published books and led retreats on the jhanas, but knowledge hadn't spread much beyond meditation circles. Cammarata's enthusiastic tweets about the jhanas got the attention of many in the Bay Area, fueling a growing interest in the ancient practices. Now neuroscientists are researching these altered states, more meditation teachers are guiding people into them, and a much hyped startup called Jhourney-where Cammarata is a minor investor-claims most of its participants can reach them in under 40 hours of meditation.