Victoria (https://www.victoria-hogan.com/​ & https://twitter.com/incertaspecie​) is an actress, film producer, writer, voiceover artist and animal activist. She has appeared in Netflix’s “Haunted”, the Comedy Central show “Nathan for You”, in various theatre productions & in the video game “Kingdom Come: Delieverance”. Victoria is an animal rights activist. She co-founded the production company Quantum Kitten. Look out for Victoria’s new Cosmic Creature app (https://www.victoria-hogan.com/cosmic…​

In these Sentientist Conversations we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “what matters?” Sentientism is “evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” The audio is also on our Podcast – subscribe here: https://apple.co/391khQO​ & all the other platforms https://pod.link/1540408008​​​​.

We discuss:

• Victoria’s life in the performing arts & animal activism
• Holding the concept of reality lightly
• Our own experience as central to our reality
• We’re not fully conscious of much that we do
• Growing up Christian. Believing in god, praying
• Ditching religion at 10-11 yrs
• Being an angry, anti-Christian atheist in early teens
• Rejecting the homophobia & freedom restrictions of Christianity
• Exploring spirituality, Wicca, Buddhism, Hinduism and holding them all as loosely true or real
• Re-visiting some Christian concepts and finding it less troubling, while still rejecting where it conflicts with equality
• The risks of solipsism. Giving up on knowing
• Being sceptical even of our own perceptions and rationality
• Can people have separate personal “truths” and still understand each other and collaborate?
• The path from formal religion to “angry atheism” to a broader spirituality or a more humble naturalism
• Is there “A divine source we are working our way towards”?
• Does a broader spirituality warp compassionate ethics less than the idea of god as a being?
• The role of intuition
• “Most people I encounter are kind”
• The bizarre admission of: “Without religion – what’s stopping us from looting and murdering?”
• “Is religion really all that keeps you from murdering?”
• How much wrong comes from ignorance rather than intention (e.g. animal farming)
• Most religious people are more compassionate than their gods or religious books. Which is why most don’t follow the books
• Maybe religion doesn’t influence ethics that much for good or ill
• Grounding morality in the experiences of others (or something else)?
• Having a very intense, ineffable psychedelic experience using DMT: The universe is relatively indifferent. Nature is sometimes cruel and sometimes kind. The universe values creation (e.g. having a child). The universe wants to exist. Suffering leads to destruction. Nurturing leads to life, flourishing and new creation
• Is death intrinsically bad? Except as a cessation of life
• Eating turkey at 12-13 yrs old. Having a sudden realisation that it was a turkey. Immediately stopping eating meat. Watching slaughterhouse videos and documentaries. Organising animal advocacy protests
• The benefits of anthropomorphising animals
• Clean-meat and plant-based alternatives. Fast, cheap, easy, available
• The indoctrination re: animal farming and fishing
• Veganism and “purity”
• Sometimes the vegan community doesn’t feel like a welcoming group people want to join (even for other vegans)
• Some people have medical needs that present more challenges
• Engaging with compassion is more ethical and maybe more effective
• Humans are sentient beings too
• Being told by a Buddhist monk “Your protest isn’t going to work… You need to connect with compassion and help people elevate their compassion. Help them become better.”
• The Cosmic Creature app concept. Gamifying ethical behaviours
• If two choices are equal people will choose the more ethical one
• Making it fun and easy to reduce animal product consumption. Reaching people who mainstream vegan campaigns might not get to
• Maybe it’s easier to change behaviours than ethics. Then ethics will follow. But the behaviour and the outcomes are what matter. “First and foremost – do the behaviour.” “There is suffering – end it!”

Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at https://sentientism.info/​​​​​​​​​​​​. Join our “wall” https://sentientism.info/wall/​ using this form: https://sentientism.info/im-a-sentientist​. ​

Everyone interested, Sentientist or not, is welcome to join our groups. Our biggest is on FaceBook https://www.facebook.com/groups/sentientism.

Thanks, Graham for the post-production: https://twitter.com/cgbessellieu.