Listen free for 30 days
-
Waking Up
- Narrated by: Sam Harris
- Length: 5 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Politics & Social Sciences, Social Sciences
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Listen with a free trial
Buy Now for £23.99
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Silence
- The Power of Quiet in a World Full of Noise
- By: Thích Nhất Hạnh
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 3 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We can spend a lot of time looking for happiness when the world right around us is full of wonder. But our hearts and minds are so full of noise that we can’t always hear the call of life and love. To hear that call and respond to it, we need silence.In his beautiful new book, Buddhist monk and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Thich Nhat Hanh explains how mindfulness is the practice that stops the noise inside.
-
-
Highly recommended
- By Mr. Clifford M. Carder on 22-07-16
-
Stillness Is the Key
- By: Ryan Holiday
- Narrated by: Ryan Holiday
- Length: 6 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Throughout history, there's been one indelible quality that great leaders, makers, artists and fighters have shared. The Zen Buddhists described it as inner peace, the Stoics called it ataraxia and Ryan Holiday calls it stillness: the ability to be steady, focussed and calm in a constantly busy world. This quality, valued by every major school of thought from Buddha to Seneca, John Stuart Mill to Nietzsche, is urgently necessary today. And, Holiday shows, it is entirely attainable.
-
-
Abandoned
- By J-One on 04-11-19
-
Making Sense
- Conversations on Consciousness, Morality and the Future of Humanity
- By: Sam Harris
- Narrated by: Sam Harris, David Chalmers, Babette Deutsch, and others
- Length: 22 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Neuroscientist, philosopher, podcaster and best-selling author Sam Harris has been exploring some of the greatest questions concerning the human mind, society and the events that shape our world. Harris’ search for deeper understanding of how we think has led him to engage and exchange with some of our most brilliant and controversial contemporary minds - Daniel Kahneman, Robert Sapolsky, Anil Seth and Max Tegmark - in order to unpack and understand ideas of consciousness, free will, extremism and ethical living.
-
-
Important Conversations
- By Kindle Customer on 02-09-20
-
The Moral Landscape
- By: Sam Harris
- Narrated by: Sam Harris
- Length: 6 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sam Harris has discovered that most people, from secular scientists to religious fundamentalists, agree on one point: science has nothing to say on the subject of human values. Indeed, science’s failure to address questions of meaning and morality has become the primary justification for religious faith.The underlying claim is that while science is the best authority on the workings of the physical universe, religion is the best authority on meaning, values, morality, and leading a good life.
-
-
The Third Horseman of the Apocalypse - Brilliant
- By Mr. J. M. Ainsworth on 25-09-13
-
The Surrender Experiment
- By: Michael A. Singer
- Narrated by: Michael A. Singer
- Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Michael A. Singer, author of The Untethered Soul, tells the extraordinary story of what happened when, after a deep spiritual awakening, he decided to let go of his personal preferences and simply let life call the shots. As Singer takes you on this great experiment and journey into life's perfection, the events that transpire will both challenge your deepest assumptions about life and inspire you to look at your own life in a radically different way.
-
-
Best book I've read in years
- By Visible For A Cause on 20-01-19
-
Free Will
- By: Sam Harris
- Narrated by: Sam Harris
- Length: 1 hr and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A belief in free will touches nearly everything that human beings value. It is difficult to think about law, politics, religion, public policy, intimate relationships, morality—as well as feelings of remorse or personal achievement—without first imagining that every person is the true source of his or her thoughts and actions. And yet the facts tell us that free will is an illusion.
-
-
mind blowing book
- By Dom on 22-04-15
-
Silence
- The Power of Quiet in a World Full of Noise
- By: Thích Nhất Hạnh
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 3 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We can spend a lot of time looking for happiness when the world right around us is full of wonder. But our hearts and minds are so full of noise that we can’t always hear the call of life and love. To hear that call and respond to it, we need silence.In his beautiful new book, Buddhist monk and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Thich Nhat Hanh explains how mindfulness is the practice that stops the noise inside.
-
-
Highly recommended
- By Mr. Clifford M. Carder on 22-07-16
-
Stillness Is the Key
- By: Ryan Holiday
- Narrated by: Ryan Holiday
- Length: 6 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Throughout history, there's been one indelible quality that great leaders, makers, artists and fighters have shared. The Zen Buddhists described it as inner peace, the Stoics called it ataraxia and Ryan Holiday calls it stillness: the ability to be steady, focussed and calm in a constantly busy world. This quality, valued by every major school of thought from Buddha to Seneca, John Stuart Mill to Nietzsche, is urgently necessary today. And, Holiday shows, it is entirely attainable.
-
-
Abandoned
- By J-One on 04-11-19
-
Making Sense
- Conversations on Consciousness, Morality and the Future of Humanity
- By: Sam Harris
- Narrated by: Sam Harris, David Chalmers, Babette Deutsch, and others
- Length: 22 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Neuroscientist, philosopher, podcaster and best-selling author Sam Harris has been exploring some of the greatest questions concerning the human mind, society and the events that shape our world. Harris’ search for deeper understanding of how we think has led him to engage and exchange with some of our most brilliant and controversial contemporary minds - Daniel Kahneman, Robert Sapolsky, Anil Seth and Max Tegmark - in order to unpack and understand ideas of consciousness, free will, extremism and ethical living.
-
-
Important Conversations
- By Kindle Customer on 02-09-20
-
The Moral Landscape
- By: Sam Harris
- Narrated by: Sam Harris
- Length: 6 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sam Harris has discovered that most people, from secular scientists to religious fundamentalists, agree on one point: science has nothing to say on the subject of human values. Indeed, science’s failure to address questions of meaning and morality has become the primary justification for religious faith.The underlying claim is that while science is the best authority on the workings of the physical universe, religion is the best authority on meaning, values, morality, and leading a good life.
-
-
The Third Horseman of the Apocalypse - Brilliant
- By Mr. J. M. Ainsworth on 25-09-13
-
The Surrender Experiment
- By: Michael A. Singer
- Narrated by: Michael A. Singer
- Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Michael A. Singer, author of The Untethered Soul, tells the extraordinary story of what happened when, after a deep spiritual awakening, he decided to let go of his personal preferences and simply let life call the shots. As Singer takes you on this great experiment and journey into life's perfection, the events that transpire will both challenge your deepest assumptions about life and inspire you to look at your own life in a radically different way.
-
-
Best book I've read in years
- By Visible For A Cause on 20-01-19
-
Free Will
- By: Sam Harris
- Narrated by: Sam Harris
- Length: 1 hr and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A belief in free will touches nearly everything that human beings value. It is difficult to think about law, politics, religion, public policy, intimate relationships, morality—as well as feelings of remorse or personal achievement—without first imagining that every person is the true source of his or her thoughts and actions. And yet the facts tell us that free will is an illusion.
-
-
mind blowing book
- By Dom on 22-04-15
-
Lying
- By: Sam Harris
- Narrated by: Sam Harris
- Length: 1 hr and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As it was in Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary, and Othello, so it is in life. Most forms of private vice and public evil are kindled and sustained by lies. Acts of adultery and other personal betrayals, financial fraud, government corruption - even murder and genocide - generally require an additional moral defect: a willingness to lie. In Lying, bestselling author and neuroscientist Sam Harris argues that we can radically simplify our lives and improve society by merely telling the truth in situations where others often lie.
-
-
Disappointingly short and narrow.
- By Judy Corstjens on 25-09-16
-
Islam and the Future of Tolerance
- A Dialogue
- By: Maajid Nawaz, Sam Harris
- Narrated by: Sam Harris, Maajid Nawaz
- Length: 3 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this short book, Sam Harris and Maajid Nawaz invite you to join an urgently needed conversation: Is Islam a religion of peace or war? Is it amenable to reform? Why do so many Muslims seem drawn to extremism? What do words like Islamism, jihadism, and fundamentalism mean in today's world? Remarkable for the breadth and depth of its analysis, this dialogue between a famous atheist and a former radical is all the more startling for its decorum. Harris and Nawaz have produced something genuinely new: they engage one of the most polarizing issues of our time - fearlessly and fully - and actually make progress.
-
-
Bold
- By KatieStar on 03-01-17
-
On Having No Head
- By: Douglas Edison Harding
- Narrated by: Richard Lang
- Length: 2 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
'Reason and imagination and all mental chatter died down... I forgot my name, my humanness, my thingness, all that could be called me or mine. Past and future dropped away... Lighter than air, clearer than glass, altogether released from myself, I was nowhere around.' Thus Douglas Harding describes his first experience of headlessness, or no self. First published in 1961, this is a classic work which conveys the experience that mystics of all times have tried to put words to.
-
-
Measured, interesting, but fails to convince
- By Leigh on 04-04-19
-
Inner Engineering
- A Yogi's Guide to Joy
- By: Jaggi Vasudev - Sadhguru
- Narrated by: Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The practice of what is commonly known as hatha yoga is but one of eight branches of the body of knowledge that is yoga. Yoga is a sophisticated system of self-empowerment that is capable of harnessing and activating inner energies in such a way that your body and mind function at their optimal capacity. It is a means to create inner situations exactly the way you want them, turning you into the architect of your own joy. A yogi lives life in this expansive state, and in this transformative book Sadhguru tells the story of his own awakening.
-
-
Wow - Fantastic
- By Amazon Customer on 23-05-18
-
Four Thousand Weeks
- Embrace Your Limits. Change Your Life.
- By: Oliver Burkeman
- Narrated by: Oliver Burkeman
- Length: 5 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nobody needs telling that there isn't enough time. We're obsessed by our lengthening to-do lists, our overfilled inboxes, the struggle against distraction and the sense that our attention spans are shrivelling. Yet we rarely make the conscious connection that these problems only trouble us in the first place, thanks to the ultimate time-management problem: the challenge of how best to use our 4,000 weeks. Four Thousand Weeks is an uplifting, engrossing and deeply realistic exploration of this problem.
-
-
Hard work
- By JC on 14-11-21
-
The Untethered Soul
- The Journey Beyond Yourself
- By: Michael A. Singer
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 6 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Spiritual teacher Michael A. Singer explores the question of human identity and shows how the development of consciousness can enable us all to dwell in the present moment and achieve happiness and self-realization.
-
-
One of the best I've purchased.
- By "tenerife1" on 13-02-15
-
The Power of Now
- A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
- By: Eckhart Tolle
- Narrated by: Eckhart Tolle
- Length: 7 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
To make the journey into The Power of Now you need to leave your analytical mind and its false created self, the ego, behind. Access to the Now is everywhere - in the body, the silence, and the space all around you. These are the keys to enter a state of inner peace.
-
-
Nonsense for the ill informed
- By slipperychimp on 15-05-19
-
12 Rules for Life
- An Antidote to Chaos
- By: Jordan B. Peterson
- Narrated by: Jordan B. Peterson
- Length: 15 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Acclaimed clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson has influenced the modern understanding of personality, and now he has become one of the world's most popular public thinkers, with his lectures on topics from the Bible to romantic relationships to mythology drawing tens of millions of viewers. In an era of unprecedented change and polarising politics, his frank and refreshing message about the value of individual responsibility and ancient wisdom has resonated around the world. In this audiobook, he provides 12 profound and practical principles for how to live a meaningful life.
-
-
Hours of the guy banging on about religion, basically
- By Mr. Leigh Riley on 17-01-20
-
Witch: A Tale of Terror
- By: Charles MacKay, Sam Harris - introduction
- Narrated by: Sam Harris
- Length: 3 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For centuries in Europe, innocent men and women were murdered for the imaginary crime of witchcraft. This was a mass delusion and moral panic, driven by pious superstition and a deadly commitment to religious conformity. In Witch: A Tale of Terror, best-selling author Sam Harris introduces and reads from Charles Mackay's beloved book, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds.
-
-
Well read and well worth a listen
- By Lee on 05-04-17
-
Why Buddhism Is True
- The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment
- By: Robert Wright
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From one of America's greatest minds, a journey through psychology, philosophy, and lots of meditation to show how Buddhism holds the key to moral clarity and enduring happiness. In Why Buddhism Is True, Wright leads listeners on a journey through psychology, philosophy, and a great many silent retreats to show how and why meditation can serve as the foundation for a spiritual life in a secular age.
-
-
One of the best books on secular Buddhism and it's relationship to natural selection and neuroscience
- By Amazon Customer on 12-09-17
-
A Guide to the Good Life
- The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy
- By: William B. Irvine
- Narrated by: James Patrick Cronin
- Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of the great fears many of us face is that despite all our effort and striving, we will discover at the end that we have wasted our life. In A Guide to the Good Life, William B. Irvine plumbs the wisdom of Stoic philosophy, one of the most popular and successful schools of thought in ancient Rome, and shows how its insight and advice are still remarkably applicable to modern lives. In A Guide to the Good Life, Irvine offers a refreshing presentation of Stoicism, showing how this ancient philosophy can still direct us toward a better life.
-
-
To the non-stoic reviewers...
- By Anonymous User on 20-01-20
-
Evolving Dharma
- Meditation, Buddhism, and the Next Generation of Enlightenment
- By: Jay Michaelson
- Narrated by: Jay Michaelson
- Length: 5 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Evolving Dharma is the definitive guide to the meditation revolution. Fearless, unorthodox, and irreverent scholar and activist Jay Michaelson shows how meditation and mindfulness have moved from ashrams and self-help groups to classrooms and hospitals and offers unusually straight talk about the “Big E” - enlightenment. Michaelson introduces us to maverick brain hackers, postmodern Buddhist monks, and cutting-edge neuroscientists and shares his own stories of months-long silent retreats, powerful mystical experiences, and many pitfalls along the way.
-
-
Great Book.
- By Benjamin Aaron Carl Hill on 29-05-19
Summary
For the millions of people who want spirituality without religion, Sam Harris’ new book is a guide to meditation as a rational spiritual practice informed by neuroscience and psychology.
From best-selling author, neuroscientist, and "new atheist" Sam Harris, Waking Up is for the increasingly large numbers of people who follow no religion, but who suspect that Jesus, Buddha, Lao Tzu, Rumi, and the other saints and sages of history could not have all been epileptics, schizophrenics, or frauds. Throughout the book, Harris argues that there are important truths to be found in the experiences of such contemplatives - and, therefore, that there is more to understanding reality than science and secular culture generally allow.
Waking Up is part seeker’s memoir and part exploration of the scientific underpinnings of spirituality. No other book marries contemplative wisdom and modern science in this way, and no author other than Sam Harris - a scientist, philosopher, and famous sceptic - could write it.
More from the same
Narrator
What listeners say about Waking Up
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Lucas
- 15-02-15
This is Important.
Possibly one of the most important book you can read about spirituality today.
Performance wise is also top level. I have read Sam's books and follewed him for some time on YT, blog and podcasts. I knew the book will be of the highest quality but the audiobook somehow enhanced the experience even more. Listening to Sam's voice is so much better than merly reading the book in your own voice inside your head...
This is an ultimate journey to spirituality guided by one of the most important figure in line of scientific and spiritual/religion field.
You simply cannot afford to miss it.
15 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 23-11-18
Wonderful!
I never thought an atheist would write such a helpful perspective on spirituality. I'm not an atheist and have never understood how you could be one and be interested or truly open to spirituality but this book proved me wrong. I appreciated his insight and felt it helped me appreciate atheists more.
11 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- James
- 01-08-16
Thank you Sam Harris
This book is truly brilliant, Sam's idea that a spiritual life can be enjoyed in a secular way is as beneficial as it is important. I don't know if you will ever read this Sam but thank you for helping me sort through the knots in my mind and find peace.
7 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 01-11-20
Shallow and inhumane
Somewhat of a tub-thump for Buddhism (or 'boodism' as the narrator weirdly pronounces it). Lately the narrator has also become a cheerleader for Osama bin Laden.
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- GRAHAM
- 21-05-20
Dull
not too sure what the point of this book is.... spend half your life meditating for a deeper insight...into what?...half a life you haven't lived!
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 23-02-20
Not impressed
Sam Harris narration was too fast for non native speakers. Book is strange, very bias and without a clear conclusion. He is trashing other theories without giving an alternative solution other than meditation (for which he claims you might never be able to do properly anyhow). Weird book. Not impressed. Sorry
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Anonymous User
- 02-10-16
Waking Up!
Clear, concise, enlightening this is a must read for those becoming aware of their journey.
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Hope
- 06-11-18
Starting Again
Refreshingly free from the self aggrandisement and spiritually justified obfuscation that so often accompanies spiritual teachers, Sam Harris shines his laser-like mind onto the most intractable questions the modern spiritual seeker is likely to encounter: God, gurus, enlightenment, the self, life after death, right and wrong etc. That rarest of things, accomplished scientist and accomplished meditator, he brings a fresh perspective that, for this rather jaded spiritual seeker, is enough to dust-off the meditation stool to ‘start again’.
6 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Marek
- 23-10-16
The most important book of the modern era
It should be a legal requirement that young adults read this book. Harris calmy tears apart the very foundation of what people think it is to experience life.
6 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 28-08-19
Sam Harris never ceases to amaze me
Sam Harris does a great job at explaining spirituality, meditation and how to practice having a happier life, among other mighty interesting topics.
Everything about this book is superb and I would recommend it to everyone, even those who have no interest in religion, meditation, spirituality, psychedelics etc. There is simply so much wisdom packed in to these short 6 hours.
I will definitely read this book again at a later date, after I have grown older and practiced some of the principles in the book.
5/5 stars
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- srocha
- 08-03-15
Sam Harris has outdone himself
Great writing by a great mind.
As usual Harris offers a new perspective on things, one which would have been extremely difficult to arrive by oneself.
Thanks Sam, I've enjoyed it thoroughly.
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Robert
- 30-03-15
wow
Simply great. A balanced, useful, contemporary synthesis of philosophy, neuroscience, and contemplative methodology.
Sam Harris is possibly the most reasonable man alive.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Kerry
- 11-07-20
Enlightening
Sam's writing is incisive and lucid as always, with soothing narration. A short, illuminating read.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- James
- 22-06-19
Life changing book for those who are both critical thinkers and open minded
It’s difficult to change your worldview. Generally, people don’t. We vote the same way as our parents. We have the same religion. The things that were real important to them are real important to us.
Reading this book does require you to be ready to change your worldview. It also requires you to be open minded. This isn’t because it’s fantastical - in fact it’s the opposite - but Harris’ observations, based in empirical research as much as philosophy really do challenge the reader to think about life and our own minds differently.
I think it will change my life.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Jordan
- 08-04-19
Transformative
The best secular approach to meditation and mind maintenance I've come across. A great addition to Sam's Waking Up app, as it explains a lot of the ideas he guides you through in a way that makes me want to revisit them.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Sarah
- 01-01-18
A clear headed look at spirituality
I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for spiritual fulfilment without religion. Sam Harris talks about the benefits of a contemplative life with insight and reason, identifying and cutting through the mumbo jumbo of religious doctrines.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Brian
- 11-10-17
Eloquently written
Highly recommended. A wonderful book that articulates beautifully how Sam has come to observe the relationship between mind, body, and spirit. Sam also challenges us to question the legitimacy of our ideas, and to remove those that do not benefit all humanity. Worth a second, and a third listen.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- RomulusRom
- 27-08-17
A new way of looking at spirituality
This short, but excellent audiobook was exactly right for someone like me. I have always been intrigued by the power of the mind, having spent a lot of years trying out lucid dreaming and dabbling in types of meditation and hypnosis. Unfortunately, a lot of times when researching said topics, you get to handle unwanted mumbo-jumbo about how the experiences are deeply religious or transcendental beyond what our minds can grasp.
Sam Harris takes an entirely different approach, luckily. He starts with the mind. With consciousness, and the self. He writes about "spirituality" from experience and experimentation, firmly rooted in science and objective research. And that's exactly what is needed in a subject as this: someone who can approach this from both sides, and find a middle ground. The science of Zen, as it were.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Corne Kruger
- 22-08-17
interesting but not that helpful.
very scientificly structured which I am happy about and well researched and methodical.
it does not exactly capture your mind or thoughts though.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Sean
- 16-08-17
Great read
Insightful, well structured and logical. Which given the topic is no easy task. The task of becoming a better person is greatly enhanced from reading this book