How do plants communicate using sound? How do they remember previous stimuli that have proven not to be threat, when at first they seemed like one? Where is the memory encoded considering they have no brain? What are the implications for biology of plant memory?

In this episode we cover the ground breaking topics in plant cognition studies of: plant intelligence, behaviour, memory and communication. The type of experiments presented here have never really been done before, because there has always been an assumption in plant science that the cellular cognition that all living cells have, relies solely on light, touch or chemical interactions; so it doesn’t really permit for plant behaviour, memory and consciousness. So with my guest today, the first scientist to bypass the assumptions and try these tests, we’re going to discuss her experiments with plants; that clearly show not only basic memory and the corresponding updated behaviour based on that memory, but even pavlovian memory, i.e. associative memory that requires arbitrary stimuli to take on meaning to the plant. Obviously all of this has massive implications for distributed memory and memory beyond brains. We’re also going to get into plant medicine and other indigenous approaches to connecting with plant consciousness; and what plant communication and biophilia in general might do for our relationship to the natural world as we face imminent biosphere collapse.

My guest is of course, the research associate professor of Evolutionary Ecology at several universities in Australia, Monica Gagliano. She’s published over 60 scientific papers, across the fields of Ecology, Plant Cognition, Plant Communications and Marine Ecology.

She is also the author of the books “The Language of Plants: Science, Philosophy and Literature”,  and the highly celebrated,“Thus Spoke the Plant, A remarkable Journey of Groundbreaking Scientific Discoveries and Personal Encounters”.

What we discuss:

00:00  Intro

05:00 The consensus on Plant intelligence & communication.

09:20 The difference between reacting and responding in cognition.

10:00 Bio-acoustic communication between plants.

21:07 Possible methods for plants to percieve sound.

22:00 Response to gravity may be similar.

23:30 Her plant memory experiment with Mimosa.

27:15 ‘Habituation’ learning: screening out non-useful stimuli.

32:15 The connection between hardship and accelerated adaptive learning.

37:50 Her ‘Pavlovian’ associative memory experiment with peas.

46:10 The Implications of plant memory for modern biology. 

49:25 Where is memory stored without a nervous system?

52:30 Monica’s ethical crisis in animal studies.

01:00:00 ‘Pavlovian’ associative memory experiment with peas.

01:01:30 ‘Dieta’, amazonian plant communication practice.

01:05:00 Shamanic interface with plant wisdom, particularly for healing.

01:08:00 Reductionist materialist pushback is representative of the colonial history of abuse of nature.

01:11:00 Indigenous science and a new book in the making.

References:

Monica Gagliano, “Thus Spoke the Plant, A remarkable Journey of Groundbreaking Scientific Discoveries and Personal Encounters”.

Gagliano, Manusco & Robert, “Towards Understanding Plant Bioacoustics” paper

Where is nature’s memory of its evolution encoded? Is there evidence for extended mind occurring beyond individual brains? How possible is it that the sun is conscious?

In this episode we’re going to get up to date on Rupert Sheldrake’s extraordinary theory of Morphic resonance: so Morphic fields, the unfolding of nature’s ‘habits’ and the ‘memory of nature’. We’ll examine the possibility of levels of consciousness larger than our own brains - scaling up in a hierarchy from cellular consciousness right up to planetary and perhaps even stellar consciousness! We’re also going to get into examples of consciousness beyond the brain like ‘the sensation of being stared at’ (clearly a useful skill to evolve) and other phenomena Rupert has reported in his experiments. 

Rupert Sheldrake is a Cambridge PHD developmental Biologist whose published over

100 papers on topics as wide as Cellular Biology, telepathy, Pets who know when their owners are coming home, and after-death communications. He is also the author of many books like “A new science of life”, “Science set free”, and “Ways of going Beyond”, among many others.

What were discuss:

00:00 Intro.

06:10 Morphic resonance explained.

08:15 Polar Auxin - death in the midst of life.

09:15 Genes make proteins, morphogenetic fields determine form.

11:30 Nature’s “memory” spread across time.

13:25 Something that has happened before is more likely to happen again.

14:15 Collective memory, like Jung’s collective unconscious.

17:15 His scientific education engrained materialism and atheism in him..

18:15 Asian philosophy, psychedelics, Neo-platonism and Christianity.

20:30 Questioning of scientific dogma came before his faith.

22:00 Thomas Kuhn’s paradigm change, an analogy for him breaking with science.

23:50 Rupert’s work denounced as ‘Heresy’ by the editor of Nature in 1981. 

26:30 Measuring Morphic fields in experiments.

28:30 IQ tests have got easier for people over time, The Flynn Effect

30:00 Video games have to make new versions harder each time. 

32:10 Is subtle energy field research beyond science?

37:00 Bioelectric morphogenetic fields & Michael Levin. 

41:20 Bioelectric fields are the interface not the explanation.

42:30 Where are morphic fields recorded in nature?

44:50 Platonism doesn’t explain evolution and change over time.

47:00 Different levels of collective consciousness, up to planetary, stellar and even cosmic consciousness.

56:40 The feeling of being stared at: examples of extended mind.

01:02:55 Mystical experience - being part of a greater consciousness.

01:09:40 Are spiritual & scientific insight compatible?

References:

Rupert Sheldrake, “A New Science of life”.

Michael Levin - Bio-electric morphogenetic fields CC interview

The Sheldrake.org Staring App.

Polar Auxin 

QUOTE:

“Morphic resonance leaps across time and space,

It’s not stored anywhere it’s a direct connection with the past.”

What role do estrogen and the menstrual cycle play in the moods of women? Is ‘baby brain’ a real phenomena or does the brain actually sharpen during motherhood? What are the symptoms of menopause and how natural and effective is HRT (Hormone Replacement Therapy)?

- Use the time stamps for those interested only in the neuroscience of Menopause (01:07:45) and Motherhood (37:00). 

- NO VIDEO Episode, audio only.

Today we have the important topic of women’s hormones to up our awareness about. A big part of the experience we have of our bodies is thanks to hormones, also called  neurotransmitters because they help our nervous system communicate with the rest of the body about what’s going on inside and outside the body. Having accompanied my partner through the process of having two children, and us both having had many unanswered questions about that; and now heading into my late forties having many female friends and listeners heading towards menopause, and speaking publicly about how they wished there’d been given more information about it as it seems not to be discussed much, even amongst women. So I felt the need to make a show about the science and experience of female hormones, particularly with regard to motherhood and menopause; in the hope that women facing these experiences and men hoping to be informed and supportive to those experiences might get more insight. If you’re looking for a show about the comparison or difference between men and women, or Mars or Venus, or the battle of the sexes this is not the show for you: this is simply an informative show about the female brain and particularly about the changes that take place during motherhood and menopause. Unfortunately there is hardly any research into the neuroscience and hormones of trans people, so I apologise in advance for the fact that this show speaks only of those who are born and identify themselves as women. 

We are extremely fortunate that our guest today is a neuroscientist and author who has specialised in the Female Brain, both studying the full arc of a woman’s life  in her highly accessible yet detailed book “The Women’s Brain Book: The neuroscience of Health, Hormones and Happiness”; and most recently in her new 2023 book “Baby Brain: The surprising science of how pregnancy and motherhood sculpt our brains and change our minds (for the better)”. She is of course Dr. Sarah McKay, an Oxford University phD in Neuroscience, whose super power is to make neuroscience simple, actionable and relevant to your everyday life. So she chose to leave her research career in favour of science communication, hoping to bridge the gap between the lab and everyday life. She’s the founder of the Neuroscience Academy; has been the neuroscience correspondent for ABC in Australia and has been quoted in the Guardian, Wall Street Journal, Grazia and the Sydney Morning Herald.

What we discuss:

00:00 Intro.

10:55 Menstrual cycle and estrogen neuroscience.

13:45 Brain-ovarian axis (HPO hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis).

18:45 Wrong assumption that estrogen equals negative moods in women.

24:30 PMS misconceptions - proved to affect only %10 of population.

35:00 A bio-psycho-social model - many contributing factors to mood.

37:00 MOTHERHOOD neuroscience.

48:45 Wrong assumptions about ‘baby brain’ - no cognitive decline.

55:15 Wrong assumptions about post-partum attachment dynamics.

01:05:15 Post natal depression - Not only due to an estrogen drop.

01:07:45 MENOPAUSE Neuroscience.

01:17:00 Perimenopause - menstrual cycle becomes erratic.

01:27:30 Sex-drive and discomfort after menopause.

01:31:30 HRT - Hormone Replacement Therapy 

01:41:45 Nuance and ‘grey areas’ in a world of click bait.

References:

Sarah McKay The Women’s Brain Book

Sarah McKay "Baby Brain: The Suprising Neuroscience of how Pregnancy and Motherhood Sculpt our Brains and Change Our Minds (for the better)"

The Neuroscience Academy

Dr. Sarah Romans - ‘Mood and the menstrual cycle’ paper.

What technological solutions can mitigate our ecological and economic crises? Why are horizontally integrated 'smart' data sharing networks so important? What are 'Glocalisation' and Bio-regional governance? Will we rise to the challenge in time to survive the next extinction event? Today we have the technological solutions to our economic and ecological crisis offered by the Third Industrial Revolution to consider. Some may jump to the conclusion that technology and industrialisation are what got us into this mess in the first place and depending on my mood on any one day I might agree with you, but there’s no turning back the clock on the scientific and technological revolutions, so if you can’t beat it then reform it; And many social elements of the digital and internet revolution seem to have started doing just that, quite independently. That said it has been the campaign and deep vision of my guest today for more than 40 years to go further than just talking about it, to push beyond political divides by prioritising life over blind growth and productivity, and get big entities like governments and trade federations to start thinking like this. He is of course the economist, social theorist, activist and author of 21 books, Jeremy Rifkin. His work focuses on the impact of scientific and technological changes on the economy, the workforce, society, and the environment. Today we’ll be focusing on this new book the “Age of Resilience”, his 2014 book “The Zero Marginal Cost Society”, and his 2011 book “The Third Industrial Revolution”; Rifkin has been an advisor to the leadership of the European Union since 2000 and several other European heads of state, particularly on ushering in the smart, green revolution; he has advised the Peoples Republic of China on the build out and scale up of the Internet in a sustainable low-carbon economy; And he is currently advising the European Commission on the deployment of the Smart Europe initiative. What we discuss: 00:00 Intro. 06:20 Dysfunctional economic system from 1st and 2nd and Industrial Revolution. 08:00 Exponential Climate change feedback loop from industrialisation. 08:30 New Communication, Energy, logistics and water paradigm changes alter society radically. 10:20 Infrastructure paradigms define our world view. 15:00 Dropping productivity and efficiency after 2008. 17:50 Near-marginal cost economy e.g Solar, wind, internet commerce. 20:00 Jeremy’s 3rd Industrial Revolution vision, all at near zero marginal cost. 21:30 Component 1: Communication via the internet. 22:30 Component 2: Energy internet - sharing surplus globally. 23:55 Component 3: Logistics internet fed by the energy internet. 24:30 Component 4: The Water internet. 31:00 The 3IR infrastructure system is by its nature distributed using data over the internet. 38:00 "The Age of Resilience" Book. 38:20 Biophilia, Eco-consciousness, and an empathic society. 44:10 “Periods of Happiness.. are the black pages of history” Hegel. 47:00 Mirror neurones and empathic neurocircuitry. 55:00 Extinction events lead to unity. 55:50 Shadow 1: Big data. Can this common be democratised? 01:02:52 Bio-regional governance. 01:04:45 “Glocalisation”. 01:19:00 Shadow 2: The internet business model. 01:29:40 Shadow 3: No motivation for corporations to move from multinational investment to ‘glocal’ investment. 01:39:00 Differences between Claus Schwab’s “4th Industrial Revolution” and Jeremy’s 3rd. 01:50:00 The Ginsburg “Moloch” allegory. Jeremy Rifkin, “The Age of Resilience: Reimagining Existence on a Rewilding Earth” https://search.app.goo.gl/g97t6pL Jeremy Rifkin, “The Third Industrial Revolution” https://search.app.goo.gl/gbMdqE9 Jeremy Rifkin, “The Zero Marginal Cost SocietyThe Zero Marginal Cost Society” https://search.app.goo.gl/eiZXAy5 The Human Microbiome Project NIH https://hmpdacc.org/

Why do complex systems self-organise? What is cellular uncertainty and stem cell plasticity? Can we create artificial digital life that’s subject to the same creative adaptability that nature and life demonstrate?

Today we have the extraordinary phenomena of self-organisation in Complex Systems to look into. We’re going to be looking into the conditions for a system to be considered complex, how a certain amount of randomness in the system releases the creativity required to permit adaptability, and how the feedback loops within that adaptability lead to a self-correcting organisational principle that keeps the system’s order and randomness in balance as it evolves. We’re going to be seeing how that self-organisation is operative at almost every level of scale in the universe and in life and death, and trying to get our heads around what that means for the nature of reality and consciousness.

So who better to discuss this with than stem cell biologist and diagnostic pathologist Neil Theise. Neil is is a professor of pathology at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine and a pioneer of adult stem cell plasticity research. In 2018 the news of his discovery of the interstitial, a vast communication network throughout the human body went viral and was featured in the New York Times and Scientific American among many others. Theise is also a long term student of Zen meditation and Kabbalah. And his studies of complexity theory, summarised in his new book “Notes on Complexity: A scientific theory of connection, consciousness and being”, have led to interdisciplinary collaborations in fields as diverse integrative medicine, consciousness studies and the science-spirituality interface.

Since speaking with biologist Michael Levin on Cellular cognition, and cognitive scientist John Vervaeke on collective intelligence, in the last series; I’ve been keen to speak to Neil about stem cell plasticity and self-organising systems, as their elegant sophistication begs so many questions about the nature of reality and consciousness. So without further ado, let’s go!

00:00 Intro

05:45 Livers have stem cells, Neil’s first of many discoveries

13:50 “Cellular Uncertainty” - Stem-cell plasticity.

17:43 Heisenberg’s ‘Uncertainty principle’ analogy.

20:20 Cellular sensitivity

22:00 The TechnoSphere - interacting with virtual creatures

26:20 Emergent bottom-up structure, self-organising inside the game

27:20 Artificial Life.

29:20 Complexity Theory explained by Ants.

34:20 Randomness allows the creativity to adapt to changes: in the environment Divergent ants.

35:20 A minimum of elements are needed over time to become self-organising.

36:50 Cells, ants and humans all self-organise: micro macro phenomena.

38:40 No planning or top-down intelligence managing complex systems.

42:55 ‘Wholarchies’ not hierarchies.

47:50 Living systems and complexity arise at the boundary between perfect order and fractal chaos.

49:55 Extinction is also part of complexity, as much as creative adaptivity.

50:30 “What makes you able to be a living system, inevitably, given enough time will lead you to die. You can’t separate life and death”.

53:10 Self correction

55:50 Cancer, economic crashes, extinction events: Pruning away the corrective negative feedback loops leads to collapse.

57:30 Every scale of nature adheres to complex system behaviours.

59:50 Complementarity exists at all levels of scale - Niels Bohr.

01:01:40 Biological complementarity.

01:04:50 Breaking down the separations between discrete organisms.

01:10:50 Not upward or downward causation but complementarity.

01:35:50 Zen meditation insights which led to scientific insight.

01:18:20 The risk of over-rating our personal experience.

01:23:20 Where you find mind, you find life.

References:

Neil Theise, “Notes on Complexity: A scientific theory of connection, consciousness and being”

Evan Thompson - Deep Continuity (of Life and Mind)

Francisco Varela - (Evan Thompson’s mentor)

How are traumatic memories stored in the body? How has Somatic Experiencing helped thousands of people release the symptoms of trauma through bodily practices rather than talky therapy? How did Peter resolve his own devastating childhood trauma? What will a trauma aware society be like?

In this episode we have the fascinating question of the different ways traumatic memories are stored to think about, and how the body itself and not only the brain is instrumental in the way the memory’s are made and processed, and so in how we might ease the symptoms of the trauma later on. We’re going to delve into the brain-body connection in traumatic memory, looking at the way trauma can influence our bodily states and so in turn the way we can use bodily methods in a bottom-up approach, to re-train the brain to feel safe and integrate traumatic memories. 

For this there can be no better person than the psychotherapist, Dr. Peter Levine, the creator of the Somatic Experiencing therapy method, founder of the Institute of Somatic Education and author of many books on trauma and therapy, including “Waking the Tiger”, “Healing Trauma”, “Trauma Through a Childs Eyes”, “Trauma and Memory” which we’ll be discussing today, and his brand new book, which this episode is happy to celebrate the release of “An autobiography of Trauma: A healing Journey”.

Minus 1 minute

What we discuss:

00:00 Intro.

06:00 Conscious memories start earlier than we might imagine.

07:00 Descartes was wrong, better “I move, I sense, I feel, I have images, I have thoughts: therefore I am.”

07:30 The mid-1960’s session with Nancy that started it all for Peter.

14:20 The 3 different nervous system bodily states: fight or flight, freeze and social engagement.

20:00 Body/Nervous system bi-directionality: Influences between Polyvagal theory and Somatic Experiencing.

26:00 Exercises to switch the hyper-aroused message coming from the body.

29:00 Animal kingdom research into ‘shaking off’ daily life threatening experiences.

31:00 The very sensations that help animals release, are scary to us so we block them.

31:40 Vitality, movement and exuberance VS a disembodied society.

33:20 As children we learn to limit our exuberance, so as not to disturb adults.

35:30 Different types of memory and the role of the body in recording them.

36:00 Declarative conscious memory.

36:45 Autobiographical conscious memory.

38:30 Emotional unconscious memory (associative).

39:00 Procedural/body unconscious memories (to protect oneself).

39:45 Peter as Chiron “The Woundd Healer” archetype.

45.10 Being heard, witnessed and listened to: why reflection and mirroring are important.

47:00 “I don’t think there is consciousness without being mirrored”.

47:40 A trauma aware society.

51:00 Being heard and mirrored leads to resilience.

54:00 Peter’s devastating childhood trauma and shame: “An Autobiography of Trauma”

57:00 Confronting shame tends to intensify it.

59:30 Why share such a personal vulnerable story with the world?

01:01:00 The dream that helped him choose whether or not to publish this deeply personal story.

01:02:20 Encouraging others to tell their stories: cathartic sharing.

01:04:45 Sharing vulnerability with the compassionate other.

01:05:30 Is trauma required to transform or is it just an inevitability of life?

01:07:00 Trauma is a rite of passage towards being truly compassionate.

01:07:40 Gabor Mate, “Compassionate Enquiry”.

01:08:00 Curiosity can’t co-exist with fear, use it to shift the process.

References:

Peter Levine, “An Autobiography of Trauma: A Healing Journey” 2024

(Available at Ergos Institute, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Amazon UK, Inner Traditions, Books A Million, and Bookshop.org)

Somatic Experiencing

https://www.somaticexperiencing.com/home

Peter Levine, “Trauma and Memory” 2015

https://g.co/kgs/vAzjvB2

“Hand in Hand: Parenting by connection” episode, Listening technique

https://www.chasingconsciousness.net/episode-18-parenting-by-connection-maya-coleman

In what way is beef in UFOs religious-like? Is there evidence for collective visions of these objects and entities, or rather for their objective reality? In what way could the experience have elements of both?

In this episode we have the ever more mainstream story of UFO experiences to assess; Not necessarily the important questions around the existence of the phenomenon, which the office of the US director of National Intelligence confirmed in an official 2021 report that they were, in fact, a ‘population of objects’ (see show notes below)- but rather the belief in the phenomenon, in 2008 polled at around %37 of Americans, but by no means confined to the US. This widespread belief, along with less ridiculed beliefs bolstered by the high probability of extraterrestrial civilisations more advanced than our own existing out there in the cosmos, has had a huge sociological and cultural influence on western society.

So in this episode I want to put into a sociological context all of this quasi-religious belief; understand the role of our perception of technology; get our heads around a rare example of a modern myth forming in real time; look at the ways a phenomenon can be both physical and psychological at the same time; and examine various scientific, academic and even philosophical doors into this confounding phenomena that no matter how much the sceptics deny, just won’t go away.

So when we study belief we have to turn to a religious studies specialist, and who better to call on than Professor of Religious studies at the University of North Carolina, Diana Pasulka. She’s also the author of 3 books, “Heaven Can Wait”, a book about purgatory, “American Cosmic” on scientists who believe in UFO’s, and her new 2023 book “Encounters” on multi-disciplinary academic approaches to the UFO phenomenon and experiences with non-human intelligence.

Don’t forget listeners, that we talk about all the science in more detail with Stanford medical School’s immunologist, pathologist and inventor Garry Nolan in this series so check that out too.

What we discuss:00:00 Intro.13:08 Meaningful events propel people towards religious belief.21:30 Heidegger’s warning about underestimating the influence of technology on our culture.27:00 Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” - A just government and the control of information.34:40 Nietzsche, the risk of assigning causal power for synchronicities to higher powers.44:00 Perspective change: The creation of a modern myth, to a real physical phenomenon.45:50 Looking for UFO crash parts in the desert with Garry Nolan, taken blindfolded by a Space Force scientist.49:00 The ‘Antenna’ hypothesis: the brain as a receiver and transmitter.56:00 Physical data analysed by top scientists, and government “management” of information.01:01:00 Where the physical and non-physical meet: idealism or VR hypotheses.01:05:00 Humans may be a sophisticated type of biotechnology.01:06:00 The use of intuition protocols to find technological solutions: intention and visualisation.01:11:30 New Encounters book: a “reorientation”.01:14:00 Iya Whitely: validating pilots experiences.

Diana Pasulka, “Encounters”.

https://g.co/kgs/tFfG3Mx

Diana Pasulka, “American Cosmic”.

https://g.co/kgs/MbQ1tXQ

Office of the Director of National Intelligence Assessment on UAP, June 2021, John L. Ratcliffe

https://www.dni.gov/files/ODNI/documents/assessments/Prelimary-Assessment-UAP-20210625.pdf

Martin Heidegger essay, “The Question Concerning Technology”

https://g.co/kgs/ed5JVEW

Iya Whitely “Trusting and Learning from Pilots”, Lecture at the SOL Foundation symposium at the Nolan Lab at Stanford Medical School

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HR09GHQ5AwA

Beyond UFOs: The Science of Consciousness & Contact with Non Human Intelligence - Rey hernandez et al.

https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-UFOs-Science-Consciousness-Intelligence/dp/1721088652

Does the use of computer models in physics change the way we see the universe? How far reaching are the implications of computation irreducibility? Are observer limitations key to the way we conceive the laws of physics? In this episode we have the difficult yet beautiful topic of trying to model complex systems like nature and the universe computationally to get into; and how beyond a low level of complexity all systems, seem to become equally unpredictable. We have a whole episode in this series on Complexity Theory in biology and nature, but today we’re going to be taking a more physics and computational slant. Another key element to this episode is Observer Theory, because we have to take into account the perceptual limitations of our species’ context and perspective, if we want to understand how the laws of physics that we’ve worked out from our environment, are not and cannot be fixed and universal but rather will always be perspective bound, within a multitude of alternative branches of possible reality with alternative possible computational rules. We’ll then connect this multi-computational approach to a reinterpretation of Entropy and the 2nd law of thermodynamics. The fact that my guest has been building on these ideas for over 40 years, creating computer language and Ai solutions, to map his deep theories of computational physics, makes him the ideal guest to help us unpack this topic. He is physicist, computer scientist and tech entrepreneur Stephen Wolfram. In 1987 he left academia at Caltech and Princeton behind and devoted himself to his computer science intuitions at his company Wolfram Research. He’s published many blog articles about his ideas, and written many influential books including “A New kind of Science”, and more recently “A Project to Find the Fundamental Theory of Physics”, and “Computer Modelling and Simulation of Dynamic Systems”, and just out in 2023 “The Second Law” about the mystery of Entropy. One of the most wonderful things about Stephen Wolfram is that, despite his visionary insight into reality, he really loves to be ‘in the moment’ with his thinking, engaging in socratic dialogue, staying open to perspectives other than his own and allowing his old ideas to be updated if something comes up that contradicts them; and given how quickly the fields of physics and computer science are evolving I think his humility and conceptual flexibility gives us a fine example of how we should update how we do science as we go. What we discuss:  00:00 Intro 07:45 The history of scientific models of reality: structural, mathematical and computational. 20:20 The Principle of Computational Equivalence (PCE) 24:45 Computational Irreducibility - the process that means you can’t predict the outcome in advance. 27:50 The importance of the passage of time to Consciousness. 28:45 Irreducibility and the limits of science. 33:30 Godel’s Incompleteness Theorem 42:20 Observer Theory and the Wolfram Physics Project. 50:30 We ’make’ space. 51:30 Branchial Space - different quantum histories of the world, branching and merging 58:50 Rulial Space: All possible rules of all possible interconnected branches. 01:19:30 The Measurement problem of QM and Entanglement meets computational irreducibility and observer theory.  01:32:40 Inviting Stephen back for a separate episode on AI safety, safety solutions and applications for science, as we did’t have time. 01:37:30 At the molecular level the laws of physics are reversible. 01:45:30 Entropy defined in computational terms. 01:50:30 If we ever overcame our finite minds, there would be no coherent concept of existence. 01:51:30 Parallels between modern physics and ancient eastern mysticism and cosmology. 01:55:30 Reductionism in an irreducible world: saying a lot from very little input.

References:

“The Second Law: Resolving the Mystery of the Second Law of Thermodynamics”, Stephen Wolfram

“A New Kind of Science”, Stephen Wolfram

Observer Theory Article, Stephen Wolfram

How has the evolution of cognition led to homo-sapiens being such effective collaborators and how is the collective knowledge and wisdom of the society distributed and passed on to later generations? How can we apply the amplified wisdom of distributed cognition to solve some of humanities biggest problems?

Today we have the important fields of Collective Intelligence and how we can use it to solve our problems as a society, to try and get our heads around. We’ll be discussing the relevance of difficulties arising from cognitive science and physics research that for some put into question the consensus story that embodied feelings were fundamental in the development of reasoning and consciousness; We also discuss the relevance of the work of Carl Jung on the Collective Unconscious; of Neuroscientist Anil Seth’s Controlled Hallucination and Don Hoffman’s User interface theory; of Iain McGilchrist’s split brain research and of Michael Levin’s take on cellular cognition. 

There is of course only one polymath who can hold that many topics in a single conversation and that’s the Cognitive scientist, and philosopher John Vervaeke. Vervaeke is the director of UToronto’s Consciousness and Wisdom Studies Laboratory and its Cognitive Science program, where he teaches an Introduction to Cognitive Science and The Cognitive Science of Consciousness. 

He has been a leading intellectual observer of the modern meaning crisis: the loss of a spiritual worldview in the West, and the decline of wisdom traditions that help individuals find meaning in their lives. His online lectures and practices integrate teachings from many different disciplines, including philosophy, psychology, religion, and cutting edge cognitive science. He is the author and presenter of the YouTube series, “Awakening from the Meaning Crisis” and his brand new series, "After Socrates."

What we discuss:

00:00 Intro.

05:35 Losing faith without losing a taste for the transcendent.

15:30 The difference between intelligence and living cognition.

18:40 Relevance realisation: What to attend to in the sea of info available.

21:00 Cognition “cares” because its life is on the line: Salience landscapes.

24:15 Humans VS persons.

30:05 Distributed Cognition explained.

30:30 ‘Reason is monological’ framework.

33:15 The rise of individualism.

34:30 Distributed computation and problem solving via the internet.

36:30 ‘Reason is dialogical’ framework.

38:00 Your best self-correction ability is with other people.

42:30 Life builds collective intelligence without language.

45:50 Issues from neuroscience and quantum physics.

50:30 Predictive processing to identify salience.

52:30 The imaginary VS the imaginal.

53:40 Imaginally augmented perception.

58:00 Causality is not the same as causal relevance: Acausal phenomena.

01:00:30 Determinism VS fractal probability. 

01:03:50 A hierarchy of cognitive selves: Michael Levin.

01:06:50 There isn’t just bottom up emergence but top down emanation.

01:07:20 Deep continuity - Evan Thompson.

01:09:30 Hierarchies of selves: Michael Levin.

01:15:30 Could we be part of single selves greater than our individual organisms?

01:17:30 Cognition is a continuum but differences of degree eventually make differences of kind.

01:19:30 Solving collective problems via distributed cognition and practices of connectedness.

01:25:20 Left/right hemisphere considerations for distributed cognition: Iain McGilchrist.

01:32:30 Adaptivity: Self-transcendence VS self-delusion.

01:35:15 Narrative bias and the Left Brain interpreter: Mike Gazzaniga.

01:37:00 Extended naturalism

01:40:24 The Collective Unconscious - Carl Jung.

01:46:25 A lot of the unconscious contents are not narrative like or persona like.

References: 

“After Socrates” You Tube series

“The meaning Crisis” You Tube series

Michael Levin - Cellular cognition episode

Evan Thompson - Deep continuity hypothesis

“Mind in Life: Biology, Phenomenology, and the Sciences of Mind”

How does breathwork interact with our nervous system, access memories and help integrate traumatic memories? How has it got results treating auto-immune disease, addiction, agrophobia, PTSD and depression? How can it help sleep, detoxification, digestion, immunity, and taking control of negative thought patterns.

In this episode we have the hugely popular practice of Breathwork to look into. After millennia of it being used in bodily practices like martial arts and yoga, conscious breathing was launched into our modern scientific world view by the work of psychologist Stan Grof, who developed Holotropic Breathing in the 1960’s at Harvard, see our Transpersonal Psychology episode for more on that; Breathwork continued to gain in popularity following the focus on the lungs and breathing in near regulation proposed by Dr. Stephen Porges in his Polyvagal Theory, see our devoted episode with Dr. Porges for detail on that; And gained further in popularity with Dr. Pete Levine’s development of Somatic Experiencing, who I am delighted to announce will be coming on the show in the next series, so look out for that. 

So having been present for some time in the trauma community, in the last few years the practice has exploded onto the wellbeing scene as well because of all its benefits both physiologically and psychologically.

So who better to talk to about this than expert in a wide range of Breathwork and body-based therapies, Rebecca Dennis. She facilitates workshops, events and retreats alongside her public speaking and individual sessions. She is a gifted speaker and coach, specialising in breathwork, trauma release, somatic modalities, polyvagal theory and nervous system regulation. 

Part of her wide popularity is due to her having written three successful books on the topic, the latest being a new edition of Let it Go, “Let It Go and Breathe – A Practical Guide To Breathwork” which has been featured in Amazon and Sunday Times Best Sellers, and which we’ll be discussing today. And she has also collaborated with Google, BBC, Stylist magazine and Sweaty Betty.

What we discuss:

00:00 intro.

05:15 Breathwork explained

09:00 Repressing and controling emotions changes breathing.

12:00 Sympathetic vs parasympathetic nervous system.

20:50 Long deep breaths don’t necessarily calm you down.

23:50 It’s NOT hyperventilation or hyperoxygenation.

29:00 How traumatic memories can be brought up by the breath.

38:00 Rebecca’s crisis that brought her to breathwork.

43:30 Benefits: Depression relief, confidence, sleep, detox, digestion, immunity, taking control of thought patterns.

46:00 “Let it go” book: the foundations of the breath in daily life, tips and methods.

47:40 Breathe yourself calm - lower abdominal breathing.

49:00 Anxiety is higher now than ever.

52:40 What’s the right way to breathe?

59:00 Accessing altered states of consciousness without psychedelics.

59:45 Unlocking traumatic memories: Breath, psychedelics, EMDR.

01:01:00 Easing the symptoms without re-living the memories.

01:02:45 Some of her darkest memories have been her greatest teachers.

01:05:00 Increased resilience emotionally, physically and mentally.

01:07:20 Anti bacterial/anti viral Nitrous-oxide produced, improving immunity.

01:08:00 Gut-brain-cardio vascular system axis: anti-inflammatory effects.

01:11:45 Telomere length in meditators (caps on the end of chromosomes) Elizabeth Blackburn 2015 study.

01:13:30 Treating auto-immune disease, addiction, agrophobia, PTSD and depression using breathwork.

01:17:00 New book coming soon.

01:17:50 Her own new training school in Nov 2024.

References:

Rebecca Dennis, ‘Let it Go: Breathe yourself calm’

www.Breathingtree.co.uk

Polyvagal theory, Stephen Porges, CC Episode #5

Deborah Dana, ‘Anchored’: how to befriend your nervous system’

Elissa Epel, Elizabeth Blackburn 2015 ‘Can meditation slow rate of cellular aging? Cognitive stress, mindfulness, and telomeres’ 

What role does bioelectricity play in the formation of new organisms? How do cells connect to form a hierarchy of ever more advanced cognnition, preferences and goals? What are the implications for regenerative medicine, sense of self and consciousness?

In this episode we have the extraordinary role of bio-electricity in the orchestration and elaboration of organisms to look at. I became interested in this topic in the nineties when I read a book that was controversial at the time: ‘The Body Electric’, by Dr. Robert Becker who had been studying the bioelectric fields around salamanders as they regenerated limbs. I’ve been hoping to hear about it again ever since, but I thought the research had died out. That was until my guest Zhen Xu at the university of Michigan, spoke about the work of my guest today, in our episode #37 on her work “Histotripsy: Ultrasound for destroying cancer cells”. He is the award winning Biology professor at TUFTS Michael Levin, in the department of regenerative and developmental Biology, although he started out as a computer engineer. His specialisations are in how cells form bioleletrical networks, used for storing and recalling the pattern memories that guide morphogenesis. He then applies that to next generation Ai to help understand a top down control of pattern regulation in the new field of the bioinformatics of shape. He is also a visionary in how all this can be applied to regenerative medicine and bioengineering and his work obliges us to re-examine our approach to morphogenesis. I have been longing to find someone to talk to about the implications of this work for the biolelectric nature of collective intelligence, and how that builds up ever higher levels and layers of collective cellular agency, cognition and sense of self, culminating perhaps in collective intelligences greater than single organisms. For that answer you’ll have to listen to what Michael says in the episode. What we discuss: 00:00 Intro. 06:10 Bioelectrical fields are responsible for which cells become which body parts. 07:30 The cognitive ‘glue’ that binds collectives of cells to goals, agency and preferences. 09:30 Morphogenesis explained. 11:00 Self-organising cellular adaptability. 12:30 Cells also communicate using electric signals, not only neurones. 16:00 How are cognitive memories encoded in the electrical field? We don’t know yet. 16:45 “Electric face” present in the field: copy it, apply it elsewhere and it grows there! 18:30 The bioelectrical pattern is instructive. 20:15 It’s a simple information encoding. 20:30 Competent active cellular material. 24:30 DNA vs Bioelectricty: Analogy of Hardware vs Software with reprogrammability 28:00 Where is the location of the forms stored, memorised and encoded in the bioelectric field? 30:30 “We really have to redefine what me mean by “Where”“ 32:21 We don’t know where the truths of mathematics reside. 38:10 Bioengineering: Training competent materials VS building passive materials. 40:30 Agential’ material: Cells have agency and preferences. 44:30 Zenobots: cells re-program themselves in days, with no training only influenced by their environment. 50:40 Highly regenerative, cancer resistant, immortal: Plenaria asexual worms. 55:40 Gap Junctions: bioelectric gates for cells to network memories and agency 01:01:50 Cognitive hierarchy of selves within selves, with increasing levels of advanced complexity and agency, each with subjective experience. 01:08:00 Collaborative collective intelligence between organisms VS ever larger selves as one unified intelligence. 01:09:00 Testing agency at any level: Perturbative experiment over only observation. References: https://drmichaellevin.org/

https://thoughtforms.life/

Voltage movie of an embryo developing “Electric face” - Dany Adams, TUFTS Agential material Nature paper Zenobot researchWerner Lowenstein book - the discovery of Gap junctions

What did Jung mean by ‘The Shadow’? What did he mean by making the Unconscious conscious? What is integrating the shadow so useful for us and our relationships?

In this episode we cover the fascinating topic of Carl Jung’s concept of ‘The Shadow’ in analytic psychology; a term that has become overused in pop psychology and seems to be understood in many different ways depending on who you talk to.

To clarify the mystery, our guest today is one of the worlds most published and respected Jungian analysts, teachers, authors and commentators, Dr James Hollis. After a career teaching literature, he then retrained to become a Jungian analyst, and is still lecturing, writing books and giving psychotherapy at 83. He has written 19 books on Jungian themes, among which ‘Why good people do bad things: understanding our darker selves’ which we’ll touch on today.

What we discuss:

00:00 Intro.

08:00 ‘The Shadow’ according to Jung.

08:30 A Reluctance to face what contradictory, disturbing or challenging.

11:00 4 ways the shadow manifests:

11:10 1) Unconsciously: everyone else deals with the consequences.

11:40 2) Projected onto others: we disown what we don’t accept in ourselves.

12:00 3) Being possessed by the shadow.

13:00 4) Consciously: this takes a lot of work and is a social responsibility.

13:50 Projected onto children: "The greatest burden a child must bear is the unlived life of its parents”, Jung.

16:00 “Why good people do bad things: understanding our darker selves” Hollis’ book on the shadow.

18:30 Being accountable for our actions and their consequences.

19:50 Making the unconscious conscious.

23:00 Making decisions as if we were still 8 years old.

24:50 What am I expecting the other to do, that is mine to address?

26:45 Storification and oversimplified narratives, become complexes.

31:43 Changing our relationship to our complexes.

32:30 We don’t solve these complexes we outgrow them.

35:50 What does your complex make you do or stop you from doing?

36:20 Meaning is the goal of life not happiness.

38:00 “The least of things with meaning, is always greater the the largest of things without meaning” Jung

39:00 An inner sense of purpose and satisfaction, and what to do if it’s not there.

40:20 The role of suffering, failure, and challenges in learning and meaning.

42:30 “Relationship is finding one special person you can annoy for a very long time” Mrs. Hollis.

43:45 The trickster overthrows our expectations: life’s way to force us to look in a new way.

47:00 Life is change, yet our nervous system and ego respond badly to ambiguity and the unknown.

49:30 The Ego’s complex is control - understandable but life rarely collaborates.

50:30 Ageing and mortality: an example of a summons to the ego to let go and go with it.

51:00 The ego is like a wafer thin boat floating on the vast iridescent sea of the unconscious.

52:20 “The unconscious is as vast as nature, you carry the human race inside of you”, J. Hollis.

56:45 Leading a life more examined = asking where I can change, improve and grow.

01:00:00 Most of our habits are protective, but stand in the way of our growth.

01:01:15 ‘Soul Heal’ Joe Enrique Pardo, a film about men being cut off forms their inner life.

References:

James Hollis, “Why good people do bad things: understanding our darker selves”

James Hollis’ 18 other books!

‘Soul Heal’ film, Jose Enrique Pardo, with James Hollis, a film about healing the issues of men

Bernardo Kastrup, Jung’s Metaphysics CC episode 

Monika Wikman, Collective Unconscious CC episode

Laura London’s, Speaking of Jung podcast

Why is our subjective experiences and cultural context inseparable from our scientific theories and attempts to be objective? Why is it that the more we know, the more we know we don’t know? What does reductionist materialism miss out from the scientific picture and what does a post-reductionist science look like? How can understanding some of materialism’s incompleteness help us face humanity's greatest problems?

In this episode we have the blind spots of enlightenment science to assess; we’re going to be investigating the common belief that science can provide a universal, objective, God-like perspective of the truth of things, independent from our human experience. We’re also going to look at the implications of the consensus in science that all phenomena can be reduced to solely material causes, and what that may be missing out. To assess this we’re going to be looking at data from cosmology, biology, cognitive science and quantum physics and thinking about the assumptions that are so baked in to our western scientific approaches, that we may have forgotten they’re assumptions at all. 

In order to do this we’re going to be speaking to Brazilian professor of theoretical physics at Dartmouth College, Marcelo Gleiser. Marcelo works on a range of topics from Cosmology and information theory, to the history and philosophy of science, and how science and culture interact. He’s also the author of many popular science books including most recently, “the Dawn of Mindful Universe: A manifesto for humanities future” and his new 2024 book which we’ll be focusing on today, “The Blind Spot: Why Science Cannot Ignore Human Experience”, Co-authored with astronomer Adam Frank and philosopher Evan Thompson, who will be not he show in the next series.

Gleiser’s also the first South American recipient of the prestigious Templeton Science prize for his standpoint that science, philosophy and spirituality are complementary expressions of humanities deep need to explore the unknown.

I have wanted to speak to Marcelo about the limits of science and a post-reductionist approach to science since he was recommended by my previous guest psychiatrist and brain-hemisphere researcher Dr. Iain McGilchrist in the series one episode “Navigating beyond Materialism”, and I’m extremely glad I followed him up on it.

What we discuss:

00:00 Intro

06:14 Asymmetry is also beautiful. 

11:40 The more you know, the more you know you don’t know.

18:00 ‘Interbeing’ - buddhism and the philosophy of science.

22:00 Bacteria are our ancestors.

23:00 Sacred ancestral knowledge - belonging & gratitude for nature.

30:00 Extremely unlikely chemical steps and extinction events required for life to develop.

35:00 The chances of intelligent technological life on other planets.

37:00 Fine-tuned for life VS the anthropic principle.

50:30 Post-enlightenment sacredness.

52:00 The rise of reductionism. 

01:03:30 Newton was troubled by his theory.

01:08:37 Strongly and weakly emergent phenomena.

01:12:00 Downward or upward causation? Dualism or monism?

01:17:50 Scientific concepts are stories, and stories are simplifications too.

01:21:20 “The Blind Spot: Why science cannot ignore human experience”.

01:26:31 “Sureptitious substitution” of concepts for experiences.

01:28:45 Is consciousness fundamental?

01:42:45 Blindspots in the hard sciences - jumps that are too big.

01:53:30 Marcelo’’s new “The Island of Knowledge’ centre in Tuscany.

Quote:

“Gravity must be caused by an agent, acting constantly according to certain laws; but whether this agent be material or immaterial, I have left to the consideration of my readers.” — Sir Isaac Newton (Third letter to Bentley, 25 Feb 1693)

References:

Marcelo Gleiser, “The Blind Spot: How science must take include human experience”.

Marcelo Glesier, “The Dawn of a Mindful Universe”

Aristarchus of Samos - The greek Copernicus

‘The Island of Knowledge’ Centre in Tuscany, Italy

How close are we to a scalable quantum computer? How do they work? Why is it so difficult for women in science? Is that changing?

In this episode we have the fascinating new technology of Quantum Computers to get our heads around. They’ve been in the news a lot recently for the extraordinary computing power they could offer if harnessed properly; and also in conjunction with misleadingly named ‘teleportation’ technologies that can encode information in a quantum key and have it appear at the destination almost instantaneously and unshackably using quantum entanglement. But how do they work?

Our guest today Shohini Ghose explains beautifully, she studies them as a professor of Quantum Physics at the Wilfrid Laurier University in Toronto, Canada. She is also a Senior Fellow at TED and her TED talk, ‘A beginners guide to Quantum Computers’ has been viewed almost 5 million times. She’s a passionate advocate for women in science which she’s just released a new book on, ‘Her Space, Her Time’ and which we’ll be getting into around the 45min mark, and she’s the Chair for women in Science at the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. She is also the author of the 2019 book ‘Clues to the cosmos’.

I couldn’t let such a brilliant since communicator get away without asking her what the measurement problem means for the nature of reality too. Fascinating stuff!

What we discuss:

00:00 Intro

06:50 A beginners guide to quantum computers

09:50 The difference between binary 0/1 opposite and quantum superposition ‘probabilistic’ states

13:20 Integrating sensitive quantum systems into a practical computing technology

15:00 Harnessing cubits connecting them via entanglement for processing power

15:30 Avoiding the ‘noise’ of entanglement with external particles: near absolute zero conditions 

20:40 The applications of quantum computing

21:30 Encryption via ‘no cloning’ keys

22:10 A quantum enhanced internet - more security

25:40 Developing new chemical compositions via quantum simulations 

30:10 Quantum ‘teleportation’ 

35:40 Clarifying the role of light photons in quantum teleportation - it isn’t instantaneous

40:30 The limitations: When will we have a practically useful quantum computer (VS Neural network computers, see Vitaly Vanchurin episode)

45:30 Women in Science throughout history and the appropriation of their success by men

47:10 “Her Space, Her Time”, Shohini’s new book

47:40 The Mathilda effect: When men get credit for women’s work

52:30 Skew in The Nobel Prize and awards in general, and the risk of tokenism now

56:10 There is a lower ratio of women choosing science careers, but is that culturally biased data? See study

01:03:10 “Clues to the Cosmos” Shohini’s first book 

01:05:10 The way new experiments force us to update our theories step by step

01:09:05 The implications of non-local probabilistic quantum phenomena 

01:12:10 Matter is not fixed, reality is fluid

01:13:55 Measurement problem’s meaning: Even the separation between classical and quantum scale is fluid

References:

Shohini Ghose “Her Space, Her Time: How Trailblazing Women Scientists Decoded the Hidden Universe” 2023

https://g.co/kgs/bt9h63

A Beginners Guide to Quantum Computers, TED talk

https://www.ted.com/talks/shohini_ghose_a_beginner_s_guide_to_quantum_computing?language=en

Nobel prize for experiments confirming non-local realism and entanglement

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-universe-is-not-locally-real-and-the-physics-nobel-prize-winners-proved-it/

Vitaly Vanchurin - Neural network computers

https://www.chasingconsciousness.net/episode-38-vitaly-vanchurin-the-world-as-a-neural-network

A celebration of women scientists, TED talk

https://www.ted.com/talks/shohini_ghose_a_celebration_of_women_scientists_and_why_we_need_more_of_them

Scientific Careers and Gender differences, A qualitative study

https://jcom.sissa.it/article/pubid/Jcom0701(2008)L01/

Shohini Ghose, “Clues to the Cosmos” 2019

https://g.co/kgs/PiuqF6

Why do we have a negativity bias that predisposes us to focus on bad things in the world? How can we channel that natural tendency to learn and improve, rather that be afraid and depressed by it? What are the implications of negativity bias for the functioning of our society ongoing?

In this episode we’ve got the important topic of the inherent Negativity Bias in human psychology to assess. This is the tendency for bad events, experiences and emotions to have more impact than good ones. We see this in relationships, social patterns, traumatic events, the media and learning processes. Research shows that bad impressions and stereotypes form quicker than good ones, that the self is more motivated to avoid bad self-definitions than to pursue good ones, and even that bad impressions are more thoroughly processed than good ones. This all plays out in out in the media, in the consumer markets and in politics and thus defines our culture ongoing. Is this natural? Is there anything we can do to mitigate it or use it for good? And do we even want to?

Fortunately for us our guest today is a specialist in these matters, one of the most prolific and cited psychologists in the world, with over 650 publications, Professor Roy Baumeister. His 40 books include the New York Times bestseller Willpower. His research covers self and identity, self-regulation, interpersonal rejection and the need to belong, sexuality and gender, aggression, self-esteem, meaning, consciousness, free will, and self-presentation, some of which we cover today in connection with negativity bias. In 2013 he received the William James award for lifetime achievement in psychological science (the Association for Psychological Science’s highest honor). In 2001 He co-wrote a seminal paper on the very topic of today’s episode in, called ‘Bad is Stronger than Good’; and one of his latest books, co-authored with John Tierney, is called “The Power of Bad: How the Negativity Effect Rules Us and How We Can Rule It”.

What we discuss:

00:00 Intro

10:00 Negativity Bias Explained

12:00 Evolutionary reasons to focus on the negative

15:45 “Life has to win every day, death only has to win once”

17:45 We process the negative more thoroughly than the positive

18:45 “We learn a lot more from bad events than from good ones”

20:10 The Pollyanna principle VS Bad memories being good for learning 

27:30 Negativity bias in the media, fiction and entertainment

31:50 Ai algorithms tracking our engagement with negativity, making us feel the world is worse than we it is

33:10 “The world is getting better on every index except hope”, John Tierney 

35:30 Older people are happier than younger people, Laura Carstensen

37:00 Polarisation as a consequence of algorithmic driven negativity bias

41:50 Using fear for profit VS using fear for control 

33:15 Tendency to see the outsiders as threats

47:30 Belonging: our need not to be thought of negatively, hence not to be thrown out of the group

49:50 Theory of mind: Primates understand how other people think of them competitively but humans also collaboratively

50:40 We act ethically because we need people to cooperate

53:50 Negativity bias leading to a sense of belonging in the camp against the ‘other’

55:30 Self control and regulation: taking control of negativity bias, we’re good at getting better

56:30 Not doing the bad things is what makes the difference

58:50 4:1 Ratio of good things to bad things required to swing the balance

01:03:40 Ego depletion confirmed: self control fatigue over time 

References:

Baumeister and Tierney “The Power of Bad: How the negativity effect rules us and how we can rule it”

‘Bad is stronger than Good’ Paper, 2001

Baumeister and Tierney, “Will Power: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength”

Full Show Note References on CC.net

What data supports the idea that Oumuamua could have been space junk from another civilisation from another civilisation? Why is it so important that the Galileo Project at Harvard looks for more such objects? Why is science finally taking the UAP Phenomenon seriously?

Today we’re going to find out about new developments in the SETI discussion (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) that has been prompted by the anomalous interstellar object Oumuamua, that passed through the solar system in 2017. Since the cosmologist, sceptic and TV presenter Carl Sagan helped normalise the topic for serious scientific consideration, SETI has been a thriving, if underfunded, scientific endeavour with multiple techniques being used, not just listening for radio signals; but which until recently hasn’t found anything to write home about, despite a few false alarms.

Until the arrival of Oumuamua, today’s guest, Avi Loeb wasn’t really involved in the SETI debate, but his SETI interpretation of the data on this object, and his impeccable reputation as former chair of the astronomy department at Harvard University has brought him into the debate with a bang. He is the Frank B. Baird Jr Professor of Science at Harvard, author of over 700 scientific papers, and receiver of so many awards and accolades I won’t list them there. Avi is also the author of 4 books, of which we’ll be discussing two today. First his New York Times bestseller ‘Extraterrestrial’ about Oumuamua, and second his new book that’s just out “Interstellar: the search for extra terrestrial life and out future in the stars”.

To add further taboo to this newly invigorated debate, we’ll also be talking about the 2017 NYTimes story on military UFO encounters, which revealed that the US Government had not only been secretly studying the UFO Phenomenon, but also covered the extraordinary ‘TicTac’ case around the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier, witnessed by multiple pilots and including radar blip confirmation. All of which has led to Congress passing a new law obliging military witnesses to testify about these incidents and alleged black projects working on this kind of technology, and to the June 2021 report form the Director of National intelligence (see show notes). Having never known this was even a real confirmed phenomena, and knowing Avi has since become involved in the scientific debate on this topic too, this interview was particularly curious.

What we discuss:

00:00 Intro

12:45 6x anomalous data points on interstellar object Oumuamua, Oct 19th 2016

21:45 Technological relic VS natural object hypothesis

24:00 Natural origin: Solid hydrogen/nitrogen hypotheses

27.30 Avi’s New book “Interstellar”

32:00 Our star is younger than most in the galaxy so younger star’s civilisations are probably more advanced

36:00 The Galileo Project: Looking out for interstellar objects, in 3 ways

39:15 1. Exploring impact sites on earth, Finding the next Oumuamua sooner, Study of UAP

48:00 Imagining seeding of planets, creating species and creating universes in labs

01:12:30 “Science is not zero sum game its an infinite sum game, because basically everyone benefits from knowledge”

References:

Avi Loeb 'Interstellar: The Search for Extraterrestrial Life and Our Future in the Stars '(2023)

Galileo Project @Harvard University

Office of the Director of National Intelligence Assessment on UAP, June 2021, John L. Ratcliffe

VICE Magazine, Experiencers brains and Anomalous materials magazine article

NY Times USS Nimitz ‘Tic-Tac’ article, Dec 2017

What is the protocol for psychedelic therapy? How does it work? Who is it appropriate for?

Today we have the interesting topic to look into, of how psychedelic compounds are now being used in psychotherapy. With promising results in clinical trials from Imperial College around the mid 2010’s, a flourish of trials at other medical schools across the world has seen a renaissance of the psychedelic movement for treating, particularly depression and PTSD, that was started by transpersonal psychologists like Stan Grof in the 1960’s before then being banned. 

Along with this renaissance has come interest from pharmaceutical companies and psychonauts, psychotherapists and members of the general public suffering from treatment resistant conditions. With all this activity there is confusion about what the results from the studies actually show, how the treatment should be done safely, ethically and with lasting results and who to be contacting if you want to try it out. So I thought it was important to speak about these matters here for anyone interested in getting a data led picture of the fast evolving situation, among all the noise out there on the internet.

Fortunately my guest today is a clinical psychologist who’s been at the centre of the field since the beginning of the renaissance, and not just as a researcher but as a hands on psychologist in the therapy room with the subjects at all stages of the process, Dr. Rosalind Watts.

Dr. Watt’s work as the Clinical psychologist Lead for Imperial College London’s psilocybin trials,  have made her one of the most prominent voices and minds in the field of psychedelic research. She has been named as one of the 50 Most Influential People in Psychedelics; however, what sets Dr Watts apart is her focus on integration, harm-reduction and inclusion in the psychedelic space.  

Apart from treating she also builds tools and structures to foster connectedness after psychedelic experiences, finding inspiration for their design from nature. The most recent of which is the integration community she’s created - ACER Integration.

What we speak about:

00:00 Intro

04:30 Clubbing community

07:40 The psychedelic therapy process: step by step

08:40 1. Screening: for people it could suit VS cause problems for

09:50 2. Preparation: Building trust and safety in vulnerability

11:15 The psychedelic experience is the beginning not the end of the work

13:05 Sharing meals; music and essential oils used to encourage relaxation and surrender

16:50 At least two guides needed for ethical and practical reasons

19:50 The ‘Pearl Dive’ analogy, deep down to the hidden traumas

26:50 3. The therapy session itself

28:50 A non-directed approach to the journey from the guides

33:05 4. Integration: after the experience, maximising benefits

35:10 Planting the pearl of insight to nourish and nurture them

35:40 6 months later the depression was back

44:20 The role of ritual and ceremony in effective results

46:20 Appropriated from Mexican Mazatec tradition of psilocybin for healing

49:50 How to talk about the ceremonial without deities and religions  

54:50 Opening up to the sacred wound VS numbing the feelings

58:50 Ros’s first experience: Fear before and transformation after

01:07:35 The ‘brain reset’ analogy and the expectations it created

01:12:05 Mystical experience’s importance in the transformation 

01:18:05 Adverse psychedelic effects: actively facing the hardest places

References:

ACER Community Integration Group

Dr. Rosalind Watts, A.C.E. Accept, Embody, Connect model

Maria Sabina, Mexican shaman - Life magazine 1957

Gaia Hypothesis

Adverse effects trial at Greenwich University: Jules Evans and David Luke 

Increased brain connectivity following psilocybin treatment

Little Pharma (Dr. Ben Sessa)

What does symmetry and self-similarity between life and intelligence mean for the nature of reality? How are neurones like genes? 

Today we have the extraordinary Fractal Brain Theory to discuss. After episode #38 about the World as a Neural Network, with Russian physicist and computer scientist Vitaly Vanchurin, i’ve become more open to a unified theory of universe that reconciles quantum mechanics with general relativity, as Vanchurin’s equations seem to offer. So when I was recommended today’s guest’s Fractal Brain Theory by one of the wonderful listeners, I was curious if a little sceptical given all the psychedelic hype about fractal geometry. So a symmetrical theory of repeating self-similar, self-modifying behaviour in the universe is not so far from the vision of the universe as a thriving, adaptable neural network. And according to today’s guest the symmetry directly connects the often divorced worlds of neurones, brains and intelligence with the world of genes, evolution and life. 

He is multi-disciplinary researcher, computer scientist, musician and author Wai H Tsang. A self-taught thinker in the world of neurology, evolutionary biology, consciousness and philosophy of mind, Tsang is in the unique position of combining these traditions into a single theory of brain, that promises to solve even the hard problem of consciousness. Trained in computer science at Imperial college, he wrote the first version of his Fractal Brain Theory in 2016, in his book of the same name, and it was picked up by quantum consciousness theorist Stuart Hameroff, who invited him to the Science of Consciousness Conference, alongside heavy weights in the field like David Chalmers, Roger Penrose, Sue Blackmore,  Donald Hoffman - many who’ve been on this show already. This recognition catapulted his theory into the field, so it’s with great pleasure that I include it on the show for us to compare alongside the theories of many of the giants.

What we discuss:

00:00 Intro

07:10 Symmetry explained: Variance and non-variance; change and resistance to change

11:00 Genomes work like tiny fractal brains

12:30 The symmetry between intelligence and life, neurones and genes

13:00 Junk DNA, neurones and boolean algebra

17:45 Dendritic structure, processing and artificial intelligence

19:00 Self-similarity and recursively nested symmetry

21:30 Evolution and ontogenesis algorithm: differentiate, select, amplify 

22:15 Fractal Mathematics and Benoit Mandelbrot: Approximate self-similarity

25:45 Binary trees generating life and intelligence

29:00 Mitosis and progenator fields

30:00 Allocentric and egocentric mapping (Nobel prize)

34:40 Goodwin and cell division VS epigenetic mutation/adaptation

36:00 Recursive modification IS intelligence; evolving evolvability

40:15 A new calculus: analytic geometry 

47:00 The soft and hard problem of consciousness 

51:00 Time symmetric quantum mechanics and problems with causal chains 

58:00 David Chalmers: Identity cosmo-psychism critique

01:11:00 Is self-reflective conscious Ai possible?

01:19:30 Penrose: Quantum mechanics is incomplete until we understand the collapse of the wave function

01:21:00 The ethical debate about the future of Ai

References:

‘The Fractal Brain Theory’ Wai Tsang

Wai Tsang You Tube Channel 

Wai Tsang Core Live shows

Boolean Algebra

Yakir Aharonov, ‘New insights into time-symmetry in quantum mechanics’ paper

David Chalmers, ‘The Singularity: A Philosophical Analysis’ paper

David Chalmers, “Idealism and the mind body problem” paper

What evidence is there for a connection between the microbiome and the chronic inflammation and mental health problems on the rise in western populations? Do we need to rethink hygiene practices to benefit from this new understanding?

In this episode we’re going to be getting our heads around the idea that while Hygiene has revolutionised health, too much hygiene, actually weakens our immune system’s development. To understand why, we need to understand how the complex community of microbes in our intestines, on our skin and in nature around us has evolved for thousands of years, in symbiosis with our immune system; we’ll be mapping out how, as our hygiene practices and food processing have increased, so the diversity of microbiota has dropped, eventually leading to the explosion of inflammatory disorders, mental health issues and auto-immune disfunction we’re now seeing in western communities. But how to solve this problem, without loosing the great advances in health care achieved by the application of Hygiene theory?

Who better to answer that question and explain these subtleties than professor of medical microbiology at University College London, Dr. Graham Rook. Rook is a specialist in infection and immunity, and has spent his career unfolding how the young immune system is ‘programmed’ by the microbial background, identifying all the medical conditions that have been worsened by the failing immuno-regulation associated with our impoverished biomes, and developing ways we can update our lifestyle to restore the diversity required to sustain healthy immune response.

In his new book ‘Evolution, Biodiversity and a Reassessment of the Hygiene hypothesis’ he explains all this and his 2003 Old-Friends hypothesis, which seeks to correct the over-stretching of the Hygeine hypothesis.

We have got a show from the second series with phytotherapist Alex Laird, about the dietary aspect of the microbiome and inflammation called ‘Mood Food: Inflammation, the gut and diet’ should anyone want to get into the food side of this.

What we discuss:

00:00 Intro

08:30 Bacterial diversity in the human body and the evolution of the immune system

12:00 The symbiotic co-evolution of internal bacteria and humankind

13:30 The ‘programming’ of the adaptive immune system by diverse bacteria: Lymphocytes

16:30 Most of our genes evolved in micro-organisms 

20:55 Modern western microbiomes compared to our hunter gatherer ancestors

21:40 Variety of diet and contact with nature

22:10 Microorganisms from mother and the natural environment

24:00 The socio-economic factor: Urban poverty VS exposure to microorganisms and diverse diet

26:00 Antibiotic over-use in children contributing to allergies and obesity

26:25 Immune regulation, and how it changes with hyper inflammation

30:00 Background high inflammation in the west

31:20 Microbiota transplants in mental health, allergies and obesity experiments

33:50 The difficulty in using biota transplants to treat biome related issues 

39:00 Microbiome/inflammation research into Autism, Parkinsons and Alzheimer’s 

46:00 ‘Trained Immunity’ - raising immune alertness epigenetically 

50:00 Reassessing the hygiene hypothesis, good diet and minimising antibiotics

References:

G. Rook, ‘Evolution, Biodiversity, and reassessing the hygiene hypothesis’ book

G. Rook, 'The Old Friends Hypothesis’ paper

‘Pediatrics Consequences of Caesarean Section-A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis’, maternal microbiota paper

‘Association between antibiotic treatment during pregnancy and infancy and the development of allergic diseases’ paper

‘Gut microbiome remodelling induces depressive-like behaviour’ paper

‘Long-term benefit of Microbiota Transfer Therapy on autism symptoms and gut microbiota’ paper

'Pet-keeping in early life reduces the risk of allergy in a dose-dependent fashion’ paper

What is Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprogramming therapy? What could be the mechanism by which its bilateral stimulation relieves the disturbances from trauma?

In this episode we have the fascinating technique of EMDR psychotherapy to look into. This is another show, like the Parenting by Connection episode #18, that’s close to home, as I personally have had extraordinary results with this method. Developed from the 80’s onwards by Francine Shapiro, Eye Movement Desensitisation Reprocessing uses a bilateral brain hemisphere stimulation, similar to the pre-REM sleep state, to lower the physiological reaction in the present, following traumatic experiences in the past. The reason I was so struck by the method and wanted to share the science of it here, is how the model works physiologically on the reprogramming of traumatic memories, with more or less instant results - results that might take years using traditional talky therapies. Why this ‘straight to the point’ method works though is still not clear to scientists, so it will be interesting to hear the different theories.

Who better to tell us all about it than EMDR therapist ex-president of EMDR Europe and the president of EMDR Italy, Dr. Isabel Fernandez. As well as more than 20 years treating patients with EMDR and training tens thousands of therapists, she sits on several boards of organisations studying science of psychotraumatology, like the Society of Traumatic Stress Studies. She has written various scientific papers, books and chapters on EMDR and trauma too.

What we discuss:

00:00 Intro

06:10 Trauma with a big ’T’ (threat to life) and a little ’t’ (interpersonal)

09:20 The risk of a ‘victim’ complex, lowering resilience if we focus on even little ’t’ trauma

10:00 You reach resilience through addressing and integrating trauma 

11:20 Our innate ability to process adverse experience information and the overwhelming of that in PTSD 

15:30 Bilateral eye movement stimulation helps the completion of our innate memory integration ability

18:25 You do need to remember the memory to work on it, but often it arises by association rather than actively remembering it

21:00 Bilateral stimulation of the left and right hemisphere: visual, sensory and auditory versions

23:00 Pre-Rem Sleep is similar to the EMDR state

26:30 Proved to be faster than other therapies, therefore more cost effective for the state health services

28:15 Its functioning is not yet completely understood: the leading theories 

32:40 Iain McGilchrist’s left right hemisphere interpretation (See Episode #15) 

36:45 A meta analysis - Bilateral stimulation much more effective than non-bilateral stimulation, just therapy 

39:30 Adaptive information - 1. Processing of the past 2. De-sensitisation of disturbance the present 3. Imaginal future events 

50:15 EMDR for kids with traumatic experiences from 2 years old

51:45 Applications for collective mass trauma: war, pandemics, floods and earthquakes

52:45 The key is to work with bilateral stimulation during the acute phase of the trauma

55:00 Bringing EMDR to the Police, the military and the hospitals

References: 

Frontiers in Psychology: Slow Wave Sleep/ Pre-Rem Sleep similarities with EMDR State

American Psychological Association: Neural Basis of EMDR Therapy

Nature: Neural Circuits involved in EMDR suppressing fear response

American Psychological Association: Chris Lee, Meta-analysis of efficacy and speed of EMDR

PubMed: Meta-analysis of treatment of sexual abuse in children and adolescents

EMDREurope.com

EMDR.com

EMDR.it 

Just how much evidence for psi phenomena is there today, when we put together the data from all the studies? What theory of reality could account for such phenomena? In this episode we have the baffling results of the scientific study of psi phenomena to get our head around. Broadly speaking psi can be broken down into four categories: telepathy, precognition and clairvoyance, and mind-matter interaction. The mere mention of these words immediately conjures images of magicians, charlatans and soothsayers duping a susceptible public; so combine that with the fact that nothing of these experiments and results have ever been properly covered in the scientific press, except by sceptics to dismiss them as physically impossible, as they would defy our current conception of the laws of physics: and the consequence is that scientifically educated people like us may have had absolutely no idea that there was more than 100 years of serious scientific peer-reviewed study on these effects from credible institutions like Princeton University and Stanford Research Institute, with debate and disagreement like any other field of science. Still, you can understand why professional scientists that are interested do this research out of the public eye, and the difficulty of other main stream scientists opening up to the results; as not only would it mean opening up to an alternative understanding of the laws of physics and mind, but also to be accused of believing pseudo-science. So I ask listeners that you sit through this presentation of the evidence patiently and just stay open to the possibility, as let’s face it the testimonial evidence for these anomalies is overwhelming. So who better to speak to about this baffling data, than one of the world’s leading psi researchers for over 30 years, psychologist Dean Radin. Dean got his degree in Engineering with Physics at the University of Massachusetts, and his PHD in psychology from the University of Illinois. He’s the head scientist at The Institute of Noetic Sciences and has worked in R&D for AT&T and GTE, as well as holding positions at Princeton University and SRI international. He has written many books on these topics for those who want delve deeper but the ones we’ll concentrate on today are ‘The Conscious Universe’, ‘Entangled Minds’ and ‘Real Magic’. 00:00 Intro 07:35 4 types of PSI experiments: Telepathy, mind-matter interaction, Precognition and Clairvoyance 10:30 Typical scientific response: delusion, illusion, mental illness, ignorance of the scientifically possible, and often that’s true 11:30 The Ganzfeld telepathy experiments: 5000 experiments with a 25% chance, result shift to 30% (6 sigma - a billion to one chance) 23:00 These phenomena may be bubbling up from the unconscious, so best to avoid conscious reporting methods 32:14 Mind-matter interaction: quantum random number generator experiments (4.5 Sigma result) 40:20 Dean’s ‘non-local connection/ observer effect’ theory for how psi works 44:80 Evidence for quantum coherence in the brain (See episode on ‘Quantum Biology’) 51:45 Robert Jahn, Princeton University Dean of Engineering, founder of PEAR Labs 56:30 A shift in openness to PSI 59:30 The Stargate remote viewing program at SRI: Dean’s role 01:07:00 Sceptic Ray Hyman: the strongest evidence for psi comes from Dean Radin and Jessica Utts 01:15:00 What’s being studied at IONS, that Edgar Mitchell founded following his mystical experience 01:35:00 Journals with editorial prejudice and psi research friendly publications References: Dean Radin 'The Conscious Universe' Dean Radin 'Entangled minds' Telepathy Gansfeld meta analysis of 29 studies (1992-2008) Precognition experiments meta analysis of 90 studies (-2011) Mind matter experiments eta analysis of 216 studies (1959-2000) Stargate Remote viewing program 1974-1996 Documentary ‘Third Eye Spies’ Evidence for quantum entanglement in the brain

Why are religious and mystical experiences important to our sense of meaning and purpose in life? What is a spiritual emergency and how can it actually help us in the long run? Are transpersonal experiences illusions of the mind or can they tell us anything about the nature of reality?

In this episode, we have the extraordinary topic of Transpersonal Psychology to learn about. With the steady rise in popularity of western secular spirituality, meditation, psychedelic research, altered states of consciousness and embodied practices in general, during the 60’s some psychologists felt there was a part of psychology missing from the old humanist and behaviourist models. It was as if the overwhelmingly materialist scientific view of humans, that sees our bodies and brains as fundamentally separate from other beings, the natural world and any hypothetically transcendent reality, was missing out a huge source of data about the way our minds work. So a bunch of them coined a new term, Transpersonal psychology, and with it came a new field of study and practice. 

It’s a really wide field and at its cusps starts to get into areas that science can’t actually study using the method; some of which we’re going to touch on towards the end of this episode. But above all it makes a place for the importance of the transpersonal that crosses those boundaries between our bodies and brains and everything else out there, both known and unknown. So fortunately today’s guest has over 25 years of experience both as a psychologist and a workshops leader, David Lukoff.

Dr. Lukoff has published over 80 articles on spirituality and mental health, and is an active workshop presenter internationally on spiritual competency, grief, death, recovery, and spiritual crises. He is a Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the Sofie University, previously known as the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto, in CA and previously served on the faculties of Harvard University and UCLA. He is also the co-founder of the Spiritual Competency Academy, that offers mental health professionals courses on the skills and knowledge to become more spiritual competent.

What we discuss:

00:00 Intro

05:30 A psychedelic psychotic episode and a spiritual crisis

07:00 Spirituality and religion as resources and practices

07:42 The history of transpersonal psychology 

14:00 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs VS behaviourism

16:45 Spiritual emergencies 

18:00 Jospeh Cambell’s ‘Hero’s Journey’ and Jung’s ‘Compensatory psychosis’

22:30 David’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) entry

24:00 The post scientific revolution meaning crisis, and spiritual assessment as a solution

29:45 Ceremonial, shamanic and plant medicine approaches

32:30 Bringing altered states into mainstream psychology

37:00 Holotropic breathing: simulating an LSD-like research after LSD research was banned

40:15 The strength of the mystical experience correlates with positive outcomes

41:15 Stan Grof: NDE, OBE, psi, afterlife and interdimensional communications

45:00 The Spiritual Competency Academy: forgiveness, compassion, mindfulness

References:

Spiritual Competency Academy

Journal of Transpersonal Psychology

Rick Doblin - Founder of MAPS - Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies

‘Spiritual and religious problems’ included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of mental disorders

Jung’s ‘Compensatory psychosis’

The Spiritual Emergency Network

Johns Hopkins and NYU studies - Intensity of mystical experiences correlation with positive clinical outcomes.

What do machine learning, physics and biology have in common? What maths emerges when we apply learning dynamics to physics, and can it reconcile quantum mechanics and general relativity? If we see all nature as neuroplastic and constantly learning, like a neural network, what can this tell us about the fine tuning in the universe and the emergence of life and observers?

In this episode we have the fascinating possibility that the world is like a neural network to consider. On the show we’ve already deeply considered the way in which particles and sometimes even minds seem to be inter-connected in the universe, even beyond the apparent causal links in space and time. We also covered the brain science of neuroplasticity, for listeners who want to understand how that works. Applying that idea to the universe, that in some way the dynamic evolution of systems in the universe, over time adapt depending on the requirements could explain the extraordinary fine tuning we see in the universe, that permitted the arising of life in the first place. Along the way it could potentially fix some of the other gaping holes of disagreement in our best theories of physics. 

Our guest in this episode, the Russian physicist Vitaly Vanchurin, has not only developed this theory from the ground up, apparently reconciling quantum mechanics and general relativity, but is connecting it with biological systems and even developing a new type of computer processor to model it. After many years at the University of Minnesota, he’s taken a position at the National Institute of Health, and has more or less simultaneously launched a new multidisciplinary company ‘Artificial Neural Computing’ that connects physics, biology, and machine learning.

What we discuss:

00:00 Intro

05:21 The world as a neural network

06:00 Deep learning in the systems of the universe, neural learning and machine learning

09:00 The universe is learning as it evolves

11:30 Cosmic storage of learning, leads us to a cosmic consciousness model

12:40 The efficiency of learning defines its level of consciousness

13:30 A super-observer

16:00 It’s a useful model, but it’s likely how the universe actually works too

18:20 Fast changing non-trainable variables VS slow changing trainable variables

20:00 When the trainable variables change they could modify the laws of physics

21:20 Trainable variables in machine learning, are similar to genetic adaptation in biology

22:00 Connecting machine learning, physics and biological adaptation

31:40 What experiments could confirm this model?

42:00 At large scale entropy’s actually reduced by learning.

43:00 The emergence of life has a low chance of emerging by chance, more likely by pursuit of learning

44:50 Learning theory explains fine tuning in the universe

49:20 Neuroplasticity at a cosmic level: increasing efficiency and collective consciousness

54:30 The observer problem solved - hidden variables are trainable variables learning

58:30 Getting comfortable with variances from our best theories: models are only mental constructs

01:01:30 Vitaly’s new company 'Artificial Neural Computing’ - an interdisciplinary method marrying machine learning, physics and biology

01:11:00 What is emergent quantumness?

01:13:15 The implications of neuromorphic machine learning technology

01:17:30The implications for AGI

01:18:30 Self-driving car efficiency

01:21:00 Biology is a technology

01:27:40 You can think of space-time as many communication channels or neural connections

01:28:30 We are like one organism, a super-consciousness

References:

Vitaly Vanchurin - The World as a Neural Network Paper

Vitaly Vanchirin - Toward a theory of evolution as multilevel learning paper

Vitaly's new company, Artificial Neural Computing

Anthropic principal

Stochastic (Adj) = Random and predictable only using probability distributions

Learning equilibrium = when learning in a system equalises with the level of knowledge in the wider system

Self-organising criticality

Why are we seeing such a rise in youth mental health diagnosis? How do we relativise this against the rise in mental health awareness? What’s the best approach for parents seeking solutions? How can social-connection and loneliness completely change trauma integration? What role does the recent explosion of persuasive technologies in young peoples lives play in the changing situation? In this episode we have the important topic of Youth Mental Health to get ourselves up to date on. Today we’re going to try and unravel these often divisary issues in a balanced way; we’re going to be discussing the importance of threat and safety to a child’s state of mind as they develop; the power of the parent or carer’s own unresolved issues to transmit to young people, creating symptoms in the child; the importance of going to the root of the problem rather than just treating symptoms; the role of escapism as an emotional avoidance strategy, and how digital platforms and device providers have taken advantage of that tendency, and the parenting strategies to guide this; and we’re going to discuss the role of shame in us avoiding facing these issues. Fortunately, considering the nuanced and potentially triggering topic of the mental well being of the children we parent and teach, today’s guest has just released the paper back version of his new book on exactly this topic, “How the world is making our children mad and what to do about it”. As a hugely experienced child psychotherapist and founder of the charity “Apart of Me” that supports children to transform their loss into compassion, he is perfectly placed to give us un update on this, and is filled with excellent stories and advice to help us face it. He is of course Louis Weinstock, a transpersonal psychotherapist and mindfulness specialist, who has worked with a wide range of sufferers from the criminal justice system, to drug addicts, to homeless people, to troubled teens and their parents. What we discuss: 00:00 Intro. 09:00 Our mental life is inseparable from our environment. 11:45 ‘Fetal programming’ is applied in utero by the mother’s environment. 14:10 Improvements in kid’s mental health, simply from parents doing the work. 18:45 Children having behaviour issues at the same age as their parent’s had trauma. 21:20 The evolutionary history of shame. 25:40 The difference between shame and guilt. 28:00 Rupture & repair: conflict in relationships is bearable and repairable. 29:25 Is psychotherapy worth it for kids, considering the stigma? 34:15 Mental health awareness can exaggerate our negative view of ourselves. 38:30 Massive jump in recent stats on youth mental health. 41:00 ‘Roots’ of mental health issues and ‘fruits’ we can learn from them. 45:20 Suffering and transformation: post-traumatic growth. 49:50 Escaping into virtual realities: Dissociation. 53:00 The ‘freeze’ response - shutting the body down. 01:00:40 Resilience explained - fragile vs anti fragile. 01:04:00 The connection between loneliness and trauma. 01:05:25 Youth mental health and device/internet addiction. 01:07:25 ‘Variable reward’ strategy taken from gambling slot machines. 01:12:30 Clear differences in kid’s moods and sleep after too long on devices. 01:14:20 Parenting solutions to regulating screen time peacefully. 01:16:40 No devices in the bedroom, particularly in the evenings before bed. 01:20:30 Awareness: they’re capable of reflecting on their behaviour. 01:24:20 Unsupervised play outside and in nature. 01:25:40 The world is safer rather than less safe than in the past. References: Louis Weinstock, “How the world is driving our kids mad” https://louisweinstock.com/ Apart of Me mental health charity (please donate) Jonathan Haidt - “The Anxious Generation”

Let Grow movement for childhood independence

How Can Ultrasound destroy cancer cells and even increase immune response elsewhere? Are there any implications for a resonant field based understanding of matter?

In this episode we have the fascinating invention of Histotripsy (https://histotripsy.umich.edu/), the non-invasive destruction of cancer cells using ultrasound to look into. Alongside the other headline news that bioengineers are also using acoustics to pattern replacement heart tissue, makes the field of bioacoustics one of the most exciting for the future of medicine. 

It is of course the implications of this for the resonant vibrational nature of matter that make this of interest to us on the show, as we attempt to get closer to a true understanding of the nature of reality through our shows on the implications of Einstein’s ‘matter is energy’ findings and quantum mechanics. We get into this after 45 mins or so.

We are lucky enough to be speaking today with one of the inventors of Histotripsy technology, Zhen Xu, Associate Professor and Graduate Chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Michigan University. She’s won many awards for her research, including from the American Heart Association and from the National Institute of Health. 

00:00 Intro

07:25 Destroying Cancer Cells with Ultrasound 

08:50 Issues with tissue heating and toxicity in other non-surgical techniques

09:50 Cavitation: the creation, expansion and collapse of bubbles - gas pockets in the tissue

11:40 Ultrasound propagates through the vibration of tissue particles

13:36 Acoustic Scalpel: Cavitation bubbles are highly visible on ultrasound imaging, for high accuracy treatment

14:45 No spread of tissue heating, so no healthy tissue damage

16:00 The discovery happened by mistake

19:45 She developed new devices for a new phenomenon 

21:40 Toxicity of the destroyed tumour is removed from the body in a few months

24:30 Immune response to tumerous cells after treatment, possibly from the debris

25:40 Live cancer cells alter signal pathways to confuse the immunes system

28:00 But once dead the the debris can are noticed by the immune system 

29:45 Future tumours or relapses in different locations are picked ups by the immune system

33:30 Treating neurological disease, brain blood clots and epilepsy too, across the skull protection

40:30 Patterning and forming new cell structures using sound (Stanford Med research): Structuring vs destructing using sound

44:30 Resonant frequency in various types of matter and biological tissue

45:00 No evidence from the lab for a resonant theory of tissue/organ health

48:50 Nikola Tesla, “If you want to find the secrets of the Universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration”

52:00 The implications of a wider wave-length fields, for the creation and maintaining of matter and biological life’s structure

56:30 Bioelectric component in organ development (TUFTS Study): The formation of life depends on more than DNA

1:01:00 A field based understanding of physical matter, rather than matter generating fields

References:

Dr Zhen Xu 'Histotripsy: the first noninvasive, non-ionizing, non-thermal ablation technique based on ultrasound' Paper

Dr Zhen Xu - Histotripsy Group

Cosmos Magazine Article on Histotripsy

Dr Cliff Cho, Dr Zhen Xu - “...Immune responses that enhance cancer immunotherapy” Paper

Sean Wu and Utcan Demerci, Stanford Medical School, Engineering Heart tissue using Bioacoustics

Havana Syndrome

Nikola Tesla quote, “If you want to find the secrets of the Universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration”

Micheal Levin, TUFTS university, “changes in bioelectric signals cause tadpoles to grow eyes in back and tail”

What are the benefits and risks of transhumanist technologies, and why are they so taboo? How do we legislate to avoid existential risks, without holding back too much the enormous possible benefits? How do we secure the mental health, rights and equal access of the public as it inevitably rolls out?

So today we have the tricky and somewhat taboo topic of how to ethically guide the ever-increasing application of transhumanist technologies. With the recent advances in bio-technology, and some technologies already making their way into our bodies, it seems that the move towards a transhumanist vision of how to improve our standard of living is already well under way. So the question now is how do we educate ourselves the public and legislate tech corporations and governments, to be sure that people’s mental and physical health, access to opportunities, and personal freedoms are not being compromised in the gold-rush.   

Fortunately our guest today is a sociologist and bioethicist with over 25 years of debating exactly these kind of questions. He is the executive director of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies or IEET, and he is the Associate Provost for Institutional research, Assessment and Planning at the University of Massachusetts Boston, James Hughes.

He is a Buddhist and techno-optimist, and was executive director of the World Transhumanist Organisation from 2004-2006. He argues for a democratic transhumanism in which human enhancement technologies should only be allowed if available to everyone, with respect for the rights of the individuals to control their own bodies.

He’s the writer of many articles and papers and the author of the book,“Citizen Cyborg: Why democratic societies must respond to the redesigned human of the future”. He is currently working on another book about moral enhancement, tentatively titled “Cyborg Buddha: Using neurotechnology to become better people”.

Being a techno-optimist and futurist myself, yet extremely cautious of mankind’s reckless and often blind curiosity when developing technology, I felt it was an important time to take a balanced multi-perspectival look into the ethics and policy development of transhumanist technologies. The interview offered me a process of re-evalutation of my own preconceptions and triggers, so I hope it helps you question your own opinions on this complex topic. 

What we discuss:

00:00 Intro

08:00 Difficulty accepting our inevitable transhumanist future

14:00 The taboo of transhumanism and debating toxic issues

19:45 It’s not the tech that’s the risk but the way we use it and legislate it: Max Tegmark

33:20 The History of Transhumanism

44:50 Is Eugenics connected to Transhumanism?

51:00 The roadmap towards markets rolling out transhumanist technologies 

52:30 The Kurzweilian paradigm: Smaller, smarter and faster 

55:45 Backing up memories - replacing and supplementing brain function

57:00 Instantiating brain backups in robot bodies, cloned bodies or computers

58:45 The Metaverse and brain-internet interfaces assessed

01:03:00 Augmented reality will be more popular than virtual reality

01:06:00 Technology interfering with the evolution of brains and culture

01:10:00 Selective scientific publication about the negative mental health outcomes

01:21:00 Neurolink: brain computer internet interfaces assessed

01:27:00 Gene therapy assessed: the risks of yet further inequality of wealth and power

01:43:50 The Singularity explained

01:56:20 Inequality leads to dangerous conflict VS Transnational collaboration leads to peace

References:

James J Hughes ‘Citizen Cyborg’

Nick Bostrum - ‘A History of Transhumanist thought’ paper

The Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies IEET

What evidence is there for quantum effects in biological systems? What are the implications for life in general?

Today we’ve got the relatively new field of quantum biology to assess. For years the idea of quantum effects in biological cells was dismissed because live cells were ‘too warm and wet’ to host these sensitive quantum phenomena. But new research into quantum coherence in avian navigation, quantum tunnelling in DNA mutations, in enzymes, even in smell - has brought new interest and study to the field of Quantum Biology.

One biochemist, saw all this coming and wrote a book about it 20 years ago called, ‘Quantum Evolution’. He is none other that than Professor of Molecular Genetics at Surrey university, JohnJoe McFadden.

His mainstream research is in microbial genetics, particularly in developing new systems biology approaches to infectious diseases. He is a keen promoter of public understanding of science and has given many popular science talks on subjects as varied as evolution and GM food. He also writes popular science articles, particularly for the Guardian newspaper. His specialties are broad including: systems biology, microbiology, evolutionary genetics, infectious diseases, tuberculosis, meningitis, and bionanotechnology.

He’s written many books but in this episode we’ll be focussing on material from his newer books, ‘Life on the Edge: the coming age of Quantum Biology’ with physicist Jim Al-Khalili, and ‘Life is Simple: How Occam’s Razor Set Science Free and Unlocked the Universe’.

What we discuss:

00:00 Intro

04:30 ‘Too Warm and Wet’ Dismissing quantum consciousness in microtubules

08:40 Roger Penrose: Consciousness may be a field

14:28 The macro universe must be quantum in some way

17:30 Nobody understands the cut-off point between classical large and quantum small

20:20 Quantum coherence in Photosynthesis, enzymes, DNA mutations and avian navigation

23:00 Life ‘amplifies’ the dynamics of stuff going on at the quantum level a to classical level

49:30 University of Surrey ‘Quantum Biology’ PHD graduate program

54:30 Science is becoming more and more interdisciplinary

57:00 Biologists sometimes need to go to quantum mechanics to understand their phenomena

01:12:00 The brain is a receiver and a transmitter: Conscious Electromagnetic information theory

01:16:00 William of Occam’s ‘Razor’ explained

01:22:00 Any sufficiently advanced science would look like metaphysics

01:27:00 Simple models aren’t an ontological claim about the world being simple

01:28:30 Bayesian likelihood reasoning makes sharper predictions

References:

‘The Emperor’s New Mind’ Roger Penrose

Greg Engel, Quantum Coherence in Photosynthesis paper (2011)

Judith Klinman, Quantum Tunneling in Enzymes paper (2006)

Thorston Ritz, Avian navigation paper (2004)

Johnjoe McFadden, Consciousness: Matter or EMF paper  (2022) 

What are the implications of Jung’s theories about the Collective Unconscious, Archetypes, Synchronicity and Individuation? What can they suggest about the nature of reality and the anomalies of modern science?

In this episode we have the fascinating topic of the metaphysics implied by Carl Jung’s theories to discuss. Jung is one of the great hero’s of this podcast, we covered the collective unconscious in episode #6 and synchronicity in episode #14 for listeners who want to go into detail about that. And the topic of The Shadow is coming up too, so look out for that. But to understand the metaphysical implications of his theories we need a special guest.

He is philosopher and author Bernardo Kastrup. Bernardo is the executive director of Essentia Foundation and his work has been leading the modern renaissance of metaphysical idealism, the notion that reality is essentially mental (he has a PHD in philosophy). As a scientist, Bernardo has worked for the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) (he also has a PHD in Computer science!). He has written many academic papers and books, has appeared on many media outlets and writes regularly for the Scientific American. 

Today we’ll be mostly speaking about one of his most recent books “Decoding Jung’s Metaphysics, the archetypal semantics of an experiential universe”. But we do take time first to talk about his scientific and philosophical worldview, as it related directly to Jung’s.

What we discuss:

00:00 Intro

06:40 Materialism VS the church: The history of Idealism

14:20 The dissociative boundary between us and the mind at large

22:20 Neural correlates + interacting across the dissociative boundary

25:50 Anaesthesia: Mistaking unresponsiveness for unconsciousness

29:45 Jung’s Metaphysics

31:20 The unconscious is active and creative, not a passive container

38:40 Archetypes are primordial templates of manifestation

39:40 ‘The ego is a little boat floating on a raging ocean of psychic activity that it cannot control’

43:20 Was Jung an idealist?

46:00 Causality + synchronicity: Wolfgang Pauli and Jung

47:10 Individual quantum events are not causal, so they are governed by synchronicities

48:00 Causality itself is an aggregate effect of microscopic level synchronistic effects

01:04:40 Bernardo’s midlife crisis - the first and second half of life

01:06:20 Individuation explained

01:09:20 ‘The freedom of the Slave’: The impersonal flow of nature channeled through you

01:20:50 Etiology: spontaneous VS deliberate purpose

01:26:20 Interpreting quantum phenomena through an idealist, Jungian lens

01:34:20 Physical quantities only exist if you look, if you measure

01:35:20 Entanglement and materialism’s difficulty

01:40:20 The states of the world are not physical but probabilistic states, physical states arise from measurement

01:48:20 Primordial truth beyond space time, is projected into space-time

01:51:50 Evolution is a spatio-temporal projection

01:53:30 Are Psi phenomena and military UAP experiencers manifestations of the unconscious?

02:03:40 Humility in the face of the unknown about the nature of reality

References:

“Decoding Jung’s Metaphysics, the archetypal semantics of an experiential universe” Bernardo Kastrup 

“Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle” Carl Jung 

What exactly are time and space? What are the implications of them not being as they seem? What is the relational interpretation of Quantum Mechanics? What are the implications of its leading to no universal laws of nature?  

In this Episode we have the non-linearity of space and time to get our heads around. In Episode #28 with physicist Paul Davies we talked about the implications of Einstein’s work in general, and in this episode we delve deeper into the implications of relativity, particularly of time, but also of space and extension. A subject that our guest has worked on extensively.  

Carlo Rovelli is a theoretical physicist who works mainly in quantum gravity research, heading up the Quantum Gravity Group at the Centre de physique Theorique in Aix-Marseille in France. He is also passionate about the philosophy and history of science, so a perfect guest for this show.  Rovelli has written many popular science books, including the bestseller ‘The order of Time’ which we’ll be focussing on today. We’re also going to discuss today the release the his new book ‘Helgoland’, which champions his favourite Relational Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics. Being such a philosophical scientist I’m also going to ask him about Intuition, Buddhist philosophy and psychedelics.   

What we discuss: 

00:00 Intro 

08:05 Time is local not universal 

12:32 ‘Block time’ is a bad analogy 

13:20 The apparent ‘flow’ of time from the past to the future 

18:00 Entropy’s relationship to time 

21:15 Is time an illusion? 

26:00 Matter and its extension is also relative 

27:00 Space is curved 

28:00 Back holes are full of space 

30:35 Our most obvious intuitions may not be correct 

31:00 Quantum Mechanics: Nature is radically and violently different from our intuition 

36:00 Probability Matrices and margins of uncertainty 

38:00 The wave particle duality and probability distributions 

39:00 Why the relational interpretation is the best 

46:00 Science is how you think about reality, not just maths 

53:00 Our obsession with final truth is illusory, a silly dream 

57:00 Buddha’s Dependent Origination + Nagarjuna’s emptiness 

01:02:00 Intuition and altered states of consciousness 

01:06:00 Psychedelics, insights and jumps of imagination 

01:17:00 A scientific theory of meaning  

01:26:00 An intro to Loop Quantum Gravity theory  

References: 

‘Helgoland: The Strange and Beautiful Story of Quantum Physics’ , Carlo Rovelli 

'The Order of Time’ , Carlo Rovelli 

‘The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way: Nagarjuna’s Mulamadhyamakakarika’ , Nagarjuna 

Empedocles - Greek philosopher 

7 Brief Lessons in Physics’ , Carlo Rovelli 

‘Reality is not what it seems’ , Carlo Rovelli 

What theory of reality could accommodate a phenomena of remote viewing? What are the implications of its success?

In this episode we have the extraordinary phenomenon of Controlled Remote Viewing (CRV) to get our heads around. Thanks to declassification of US government documents and several freedom of information act requests, enough official paperwork and declassified accounts about the top secret Stargate remote-viewing program has been gathered to give credibility to a book Phenomena by Pulitzer Prize finalist and military journalist Annie Jacobson, and a documentary film about this controversial psychic phenomena. The film ‘Third Eye Spies’ follows laser physicist Russel Targ, who along with Hal Puthoff, was employed by the Defence Intelligence Agency to do some tests on allegedly ‘psychic’ test subjects at the Stanford Research Institute in the early 1970’s. This was at the height of the Cold War, when intelligence was coming out of Russia that the military were doing psychic research successfully. To cut a long story short, the experiments were successful and the program went top secret shortly after the scientists published their first results. A protocol for ‘viewing’ distant times and places in the minds eye was developed by their first talented subject, Ingo Swann. The program ran for over 20 years costing over 5 million dollars of military funding, which is actually very little for military projects. The technique was used for intelligence work for the CIA, DIA, NSA, the army, and the navy, including assisting the finding of lost aircraft and profiling of Russian bases, before being declassified in the mid 1990’s after a CIA report determined the technique wasn’t accurate enough, despite getting some good, statistically significant results.

After it was declassified, the instructors went over to the private sector and began teaching the technique to members of the general public. Two such instructors were Lyn Buchanan and Mel Riley, who met my guest today Lori Williams; and became her mentors. In 2001 Lori became the first non-military certified instructor. Her experience includes not only teaching the technique but working with law enforcement to assist in missing person cases, conducting professional sessions for corporations that have had a direct effect on profit margins, and working on archeological mysteries.

She is also the author of two books about the subject Boundless: Your How to Guide to Practical Remote Viewing, and Monitoring: A Guide for Remote Viewing and Professional Intuitive Teams for anyone who wants to learn more before doing an actual course with an instructor.

What we discuss:

00:00 Intro

07:20 Controlled Remote Viewing explained

11:20 Being ‘blind’ to the target

14:00 No need to be in a theta or meditative state

29:00 Viewing the future: some things in the future seem to be set

32:00 Anyone can do remote viewing

01:14:30 Fear of demonic possession and extra-dimensional viewings

01:25:30 Remote viewing structures on Mars and other dimensions

References:

Lori Williams. Boundless: Your How to Guide to Practical Remote Viewing

Free introductory remote viewing course from Lori’s school

Annie Jacobson ‘Phenomena’

Watch ‘3rd Eye Spies’ documentary

1995 CIA Report that led to the cancelation of the US govt Stargate program. Jessica Utts and Ray Hyman

In this episode we have the fascinating proposition that what we call reality is in fact a hallucination we all agree on, to consider. We’ve already heard in this second series in Episode #28 from physicist Paul Davies on ‘The implications of Einstein’, that indeed matter is energy and as such the world we see as solid objects with space between them, isn’t truly like that. We’ve also heard from cognitive scientist Don Hoffman that we see the world optimised for ‘fitness’ in the evolutionary sense, and not for truth i.e not to see it as it actually is. So in the same vein in this episode we’re going to find out from a brilliant neuroscientist that we are in what he calls a ‘controlled hallucination’. That neuroscientist is none other than Anil Seth.

Anil Seth is a professor of cognitive and computational neuroscience at the University of Sussex. He is also the co-director of the Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science. He has published over 100 scientific papers and is the editor-in-chief of the Oxford University Press publication ‘Neuroscience of Consciousness’. His TED talk ‘Your brain hallucinates your Conscious reality’ has more than 11 million views.

His new book ‘Being You: a new science of consciousness’, which expands on most of what we’ll discuss today, is a Sunday times top 10 best seller, and a New statesmen, Economist and Bloomberg book of the year.

I’ve wanted to speak with Anil since I heard about his theory, as it seemed to match some of my worries about the disconnect between what we perceive and what is actually there, and how much of what we see is coming from our own mental and biological state, and our biases at the time.

What we discuss:

00:00 Intro

05:41 A ‘prediction machine’ perceiving from the inside-out, as well as perceiving sensory info outside-in.

10:00 Interoception: predictions about the body for self-control/regulation

14:00 The rubber-hand illusion: the prediction machine is not perfect

19:00 The risk of our best predictions being considered truth rather than hypothesis

23:00 Cultural humility about differences in our perceptions and beliefs

24:15 Why we call reality is a ‘controlled hallucination’

31:30 The body has shaped the predictive brain for survival

34:00 Brain body bidirectionally vs reductionism

37:30 Supervenience

38:00 Can different levels of description be primary to each other?

46:00 The self is illusory

References:

Anil Seth's best seller, ‘Being you’

The Perception Census - Call for participants

Immanuel Kant’s idea: Noumenon, ’the world is hidden behind a sensory veil’

Pareidolia - seeing patterns in things

The Dream machine - Interactive flickering light experiment

Is our subjective experience of Free Will, supported by the experimental evidence? If not, how do we take moral responsibility for our actions? Why do meditators, who’re used to watching their thoughts arise and pass without identifying with them, find this data easier to integrate?

In this episode, we have the tough job of evaluating the experimental evidence for the existence of Free Will. The debate has raged for centuries in Philosophy, but now with advances in neuroscience and psychology experiments, we have some actual physical evidence to examine, and its implications to reflect on. We’re going to discuss how most of those who accept this evidence have chosen to carry on as if it they still have Free Will, which sounds contradictory. Do the implications for personal moral responsibility require us to do that? We’re also going to get into meditation and Zen, as our guest today and another famous advocate of the illusion of free will, Sam Harris, are long term practitioners. It seems those who use some kind of mindfulness meditation, and hence are used to watching the way thoughts arise and pass without identifying with them, are less troubled by the idea that they may not have free will. What does all this mean for the reality of a ‘self’?

So who better to explain this mind boggling question than, our first returning guest, psychologist, author and visiting Professor at Plymouth University, Susan Blackmore. Best known for her books The Meme Machine, Consciousness: An Introduction, and Seeing Myself, Sue’s work spans across hundreds of publications in over 20 different languages, making huge contributions in the fields of psychology, memetics, religion, philosophy of mind, supernatural experience, and many other areas.

What we discuss (full show notes on the website)

00:00 Intro

04:24 Previous Interview with Susan - Episode #1 on The Hard Problem of Consciousness

08:30 Experimental evidence refuting Free Will

14:30 Daniel Wegner - Thought suppression experiments

19:30 Who is making the decision if not our consciousness?

29:40 Wegner, ‘I let the decision make itself’ = Zen: Let the universe or practice do it

40:00 Meditation: frustration, Sam Harris and letting go of free will

50:00 Buddha’s ‘dependent origination’ and science’s causation

References:

Susan Blackmore - ‘Living without Free Will’

Benjamin Libet - Testing readiness potential against the time of choice

Daniel Wegner - Thought suppression experiments

Susan Blackmore - ‘Conversations on Consciousness’

Susan Blackmore - ‘Zen and the art of consciousness’

In this episode we explore a User Interface Theory of reality. Since the invention of the computer virtual reality theories have been gaining in popularity, often to explain some difficulties around the hard problem of consciousness; but also to explain other non-local anomalies coming out of physics and psychology, like ‘quantum entanglement’ or ‘out of body experiences’. 

As you will hear today the vast majority of cognitive scientists believe consciousness is an emergent phenomena from matter, and that virtual reality theories are science fiction or ‘Woowoo’ and new age. One of this podcasts jobs is to look at some of these Woowoo claims and separate the wheat from the chaff, so the open minded among us can find the threshold beyond which evidence based thinking, no matter how contrary to the consensus can be considered and separated from wishful thinking.

So who better than hugely respected cognitive scientist and User Interface theorist Don Hoffman to clarify all this.

Donald D Hoffman is a full professor of cognitive science at the University of California, Irvine, where he studies consciousness, visual perception and evolutionary psychology using mathematical models and psychophysical experiments. His research subjects include facial attractiveness, the recognition of shape, the perception of motion and colour, the evolution of perception, and the mind-body problem. So he is perfectly placed to comment on how we interpret reality.

Hoffman is also the author of ‘The Case Against Reality’, the content of which we’ll be focusing on today; ‘Visual Intelligence’, and the co-author with Bruce Bennett and Chetan Prakash of ‘Observer Mechanics’.

What we discuss:

11:20 Seeing the world for survival VS for knowing reality as it truly is

13:30 Competing strategies to maximise ‘fitness’ in the evolutionary sense

21:30 The payoff functions that govern evolution do not contain information about the structure of the world

29:30 Space-time cannot be fundamental

37:45 A User-Interface network of conscious agents

41:30 A virtual reality computer analogy

53:30 User Interface theory VS Simulation theory

01:08:00 The notion of truth is deeper than the notion of proof and theory

01:17:30 Is nature written in the language of Maths?

01:27:00 Consciousness is like the living being, and maths is like the bones

01:44:00 Being and experiencing being may co-arise

01:48:00 Different analogies for different eras

References:

Donald Hoffman - ‘The case against reality: Why evolution hid the truth from our eyes’

Nima Arkani-Hamed - ‘Space-time is dead’

Nima Arkani-Hamed - 'Reductionism is dead'

Local Realism is false

Noncontextual realism is false

Don Hoffman - Objects of Consciousness paper

Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem

What are the implications of Einstein’s predictions? Has our understanding of reality integrated the implications of this thinking? His General and Special theories of relativity have completely changed the way we see gravity, energy, mass, space and time, even size - but how? Physicists may find it easy to understand what his ideas mean; like this quote “The distinction between the past, the present and the future is nothing but a stubbornly persistent illusion”. But for us, the general public, just thinking that the the arrow of time is an illusion, is enough to give us a bad headache and leave us wishing that Newton was right after all. But that’s not what we do on Chasing Consciousness, our mission is the same as always, to update our world view to match new theories. Now this sounds like no small feat, but have no fear, all will be be clarified by a man with a skill for presenting complex ideas in a way we can all understand, one of the worlds most published popular science writers, Professor Paul Davies.

Paul Davies is a Cosmologist and Professor of Physics and Director of the Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science at Arizona State University. His work has covered topics as far reaching as Cosmology, Quantum Fields and Astrobiology, with a sprinkling of the Search for Extra terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) and cancer research to boot. He’s the bestselling author of almost thirty popular science books, his many awards include the Templeton Prize and the Faraday Prize of the Royal Society. He is a Member of the Order of Australia and even has an asteroid named after him! Quite a career!

His new book ‘What’s eating the universe’, that covers many of the topics we’ll touch on today, is out now.

What we discuss in this episode:

00:00 Intro

08:00 ‘The universe is about something’

16:00 The warping of space time

22:00 The implications of gravity slowing time

31:25 Time and Space are relative, and can change and move like matter

36:00 Arrow of time VS Block time - ‘Time is just there’

38:30 Matter is energy or Mass is a form of energy

42:00 The table isn’t solid, its mostly empty space

44:30 Did time start at the Big Bang?

49:00 Time doesn’t flow universally, it’s what clocks measure

52:00 3 big origin problems: the universe, life and consciousness

1:03:00 John Wheeler - the ‘bendy rubber’ analogy of space time

1:05:00 Einstein’s famous quotes explained

1:08:00 Intuition according to Einstein

References:

Paul Davies ‘What’s Eating the Universe: And other cosmic questions’

An Einstein Ring (A warping of space time)

Full Isaac Newton quote, ’Absolute, true, and mathematical time, of itself, and from its own nature, flows equably without relation to anything external’

St Augustine quote ‘The world was made, not in time, but simultaneously with time’

Nima Arkani-Hamed ‘Space Time is Dead’ lecture (from 14.20)

John Wheeler ‘Pregeometry’

Mach’s Principle

How and why did human’s develop self-awareness of what we know and don’t know? How does it develop in relation to how we evaluate what other people know? What are the risks of cognitive bias tainting our ability to learn and self correct? In this episode, we have the interesting question of our own self-awareness, or Meta-cognition, to understand. For centuries philosophers have called on us to “know thyself”, but only now with the tools of modern neuroscience have we been able to scientifically quantify the way we consciously track our behaviour, performance, thoughts and knowledge. So today we’ll be getting into why this is important for learning and error correction; we’re going to talk about meta-cognition’s use for “mind reading” I.e. tracking our confidence in others in their own knowledge, both friends and foes, fundamental for the evolution of our collaborative groups; the implications of cognitive bias blind spots in metacognition for updating our collective beliefs over time; also whether metacognition is proportionally correlated to intelligence; and how technology and AI has and will influence the future of our self-awareness, and whether it’s convenient to try programming AI to be metacognitive too, or if that would invite disaster. For these matters there can be no better guest than University College London Cognitive neuroscience Professor, Stephen Fleming. He’s the author of the 2021 book “Know Thyself, the science of self awareness”, and founder of the Meta Cognition Group at UCL, and the group leader of the Max Plank, UCL Centre for Computational Neuroscience. What we discuss: 00:00 Intro 05:15 Striking aspects of experience get you thinking. 08:00 ‘Know thyself’ - a moral, social and spiritual responsibility 10:00 Lao Tsu - to think you know when you do not is a disease. 11:00 Tracking the quality of our performance, error correction and learning. 14:00 Cognitive offloading - compensating for our limitations. 14:30 Metacognition and intelligence are similar but different. 17:40 Inside-out modelling of the world influences your cognition. 20:45 The brain has confidence in colour - Subjective inflation in the periphery. 22:00 UCL metacognition lab experiments - confidence in performance. 25:20 Metacogntiive efficiency - skill in evaluating your success. 26:20 MRI scans of the processes of self-aware brain activity. 28:50 Sam Harris - Self-awareness in the brain vs Ego-self. 33:20 Mind reading/Theory of mind: Evaluation of others VS evaluation of myself. 38:50 Children’s learning 43:40 Chris Frith - metacognition for collaboration: Balancing our own VS group evaluations. 44:30 Supremacy of collective knowledge 46:45 Why did self-awareness evolve? 51:30 The fight or flight mental state trumps self-reflective evaluation. 54:00 Stress blunts frontal cortex activity. 54:20 Modern life stress is not the same as the stress we evolved for. 57:20 We need self-reflection in stressful arguments but it’s not available. 58:20 Education: re-presenting your ideas - an antidote to over confidence. 01:04:00 Left Brain Interpreter - lack of self-awareness of our cognitive bias. 01:10:00 Exacerbated confidence judgements in internet/social media information ecosystems. 01:14:40 Awareness of the inside out way we construct our view of the world could be positive for compassion. 01:17:10 Balancing long-term societal self awareness, with traditional short term one. 01:21:00 The influence of Ai and technology on our self awareness. 01:26:30 ‘Offloading’ aids for cognition VS replacements for our cognition? References: Stephen Fleming, “Know thyself - the science of self-awareness” Steve Fleming’s Lab - The Meta Lab, UCL Gilbert Riles, “Concept of Mind” - self awareness in us and others Peter Carruthers - “Knowledge of our own thoughts is just as interpretive as knowledge of the thoughts of others” paper Chris D. Frith - ‘The role of metacognition in human social interactions’ paper

How can out of body experiences be explained? What theory of reality could accomodate such a phenomenon?

Today we have the extraordinary topic of the science and physics of Out of Body Experiences to get our head around! Many brain scientists have reduced this common experience to a mix of physiological and brain chemical effects, maintaining that no perceiving consciousness actually leaves the body, rather it is a form of hallucination and distortion of body schema. Not knowing when these experiences will spontaneously occur has made them hard to study in the lab.

However, certain researchers have developed a method for inducing the experience, allowing for deeper study. Following that study some new theories of reality have developed that could include such an experience and even others like Near Death Experience or NDE, and Controlled Remote Viewing which we’re evaluating in this second series.

One such scientist is our guest today physicist Dr. Tom Campbell! He’s an experimental physicist who’s worked for over 20 years developing US missile systems for the Department of Defence, specialising in developing cutting edge technology, large-system simulation, technology development and integration, and complex system vulnerability and risk analysis.

He began researching altered states of consciousness with Bob Monroe at Monroe Laboratories in the early 1970s. He helped design experiments and develop the Binaural Beats technology for creating specific altered states, and became an experienced test subject and trainer too. After many years studying consciousness, and out of body experiences he wrote the book ‘My Big TOE’, as in ‘Theory of Everything’, which describes his model of existence and reality from both the physical and metaphysical points of view.

PART 1: Testing Out of Body Experiences

00:00 Intro

06:00 Balanced left right brain thinking

09:00 Out of Body Experience is a bad term, but neutral

13:00 Consciousness is not projected from the body

21:30 Testing Bob Monroe’s OBE phenomena

32:00 The experiment that confirmed it was real

36:00 Alpha Numeric information is not the same type as image, pattern or metaphor

46:00 The weirdest stories Tom’s encountered

55:00 Non-embodied consciousnesses encounters

01:05:00 Binaural beats to aid getting out of body explained

01:20:00 Theta brainwave is the state you need to be in to explore your consciousness

PART 2: The physics of Tom’s ‘My Big T.O.E’ (Theory of Everything)

01:25:00 Consciousness evolves by lowering entropy, finding more order and structure

Full show notes at Chasingconsciousness.net

References:

My big TOE book series

Monroe Institute

MBT events (binaural beats)

‘On testing the simulation’ One of Tom's scientific papers

Tom's You tube channel MBT

Why is Panpsychism gaining popularity? Is it coherent to say consciousness emerged out of non-consciousness? What can we deduce from a universe fine tuned for life?

In this episode we have the important job of finding out what Panpsychism is all about, and why the philosophical position is gaining more and more traction in philosophy, but even with physicists and other scientists. The idea that consciousness is the fundamental nature of the physical world is by no means a new one, and it does seem to resolve some of the problems of how consciously experiencing lifeforms could have evolved out of non-conscious non-living material. But most materialists balk at the idea and consider it absolutely bonkers, for reasons we’ll find out as we attempt to pay respect to the criticisms of the position too.

So fortunately, to navigate this tricky philosophical quagmire we have one of the best known and most passionate supporters of panpsychism, author and professor of philosophy at Durham University Philip Goff. Philip’s research focuses on how to integrate consciousness into our scientific worldview. He argues that the traditional approaches of materialism, that consciousness can be explained in terms of physical processes in the brain; and dualism, that consciousness is separate from the body and brain, face unresolvable difficulties.

His first academic book, Consciousness and Fundamental Reality was published in 2017 and his first book aimed at a general audience, Galileo's Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness, was published in 2019.

He also has a podcast, Mind Chat, which he rightly hosts with a philosopher of a completely opposite point of view. And he’s involved in a book of essays on consciousness which will be out this year called ‘Is Consciousness Everywhere? Essays on Panpsychism’, which is a collection of essays by scientists and philosophers published in Journal of Consciousness Studies. The contributors include Carlo Rovelli, Sean Carroll, Lee Smolin, Anneke Harris, Christoph Koch, and Anil Seth, several of whom appear in this series of Chasing Consciousness.

What we discuss

00:00 Intro

06:00 The unanswerable questions

09:30 Panpsychism explained

12:30 %32 of philosophers are now opposed to materialism

19:30 Neural correlates don’t describe the subjective contents of experiences

21:10 Arguments for Panpsychism

23:00 Consciousness from Non-consciousness: the evolutionary problem

26:20 Materialist counter arguments

44:45 Public observation and experiment is not the full story

54:30 Block Universe implications for panpsychism

01:06:45 Meaning, value and mystical experiences

References:

Galen Strawon: why he believes Panpsychism

Eric Schwitzgebel ‘Crazyism’ article

Sabine Hosselfeld “Electron’s don’t think” article

David Chalmers on Consciousness might collapse the wave function

Full references and show notes at Chasingconsciousness.net

In this episode we learn everything we need about how food relates to our mood and state of mind. We’re going to lay out the fundamentals of how different food groups and qualities of food influence directly our mental and physical health; how the gut species depletion and inflammation are key consequences of the changes we’re seeing in western industrial diet, and we can counter that tendency with some simple tricks.

Alex Laird is a medical herbalist with more than 20 years' clinical experience. Trained in biomedicine and plant pharmacology, she treats patients in the only NHS herbal clinic based in a UK hospital at Whipps Cross, and she is a fellow and council member of the College of Practitioners of Phytotherapy (CPP). She worked with Breast Cancer Haven UK for 20 years, using nutritional therapies for cancer. Alex has undertaken clinical research, is a visiting lecturer, has published numerous research papers, and is the co-founder of the charity Living Medicine. She is also the author of the new book ‘Root to stem’ which talks about seasonal foods and remedies for strong health and immunity that can be found growing literally in the hedgerow around your house!

Please buy me a coffee if you're enjoying the show here

What we talk about:

05:00 An epiphany with nature

07:00 Nutritional Psychiatry and the Gut microbiome

08:40 Evolution with unrefined foods VS modern refined sugars

17:00 The need for minerals and phytonutrients

13:10 High protein/ lo-carb approaches

18:10 Variety is key, the research says

20:20 Phytotherapy

21:20 Inflammation explained

26:30 Acidification and pH in the body

33:00 The gut microbiome

40:00 Reciprocity in nature and life: Feeding diversity

44:00 Crucial gut and fecal microbes via vaginal birth

46:00 Contact with soil and pets (spores, fecal microbes)

46:30 Immune response load needed regularly to maintain health

48:30 The overuse of antibiotics in humans and animals

50:20 Gut disbiosis explained and solutions

55:50 Immunity evolved alongside bacteria and viruses and needs their load

58:30 Supporting Innate and adaptive immunity

1:00:00 Germ theory 2.0? - healthy immune response load

1:04:00 The ‘Root to Stem’ philosophy - Diversity, reciprocity, interconnectivity

06:00 Our relationship to the seasons sustained by seasonal foods

06:55 Reconnecting to nature, ourselves and to community

01:09:10 Plant medicines we might not be aware of

01:10:25 Phytonutrients explained

01:15:30 Dietary fibres and prebiotics

01:18:10 Fermented foods and probiotics

01:24:00 Connection to nature

01:28:00 Sacred = in service to life

References:

Alex Laird’s association 'Living Medicine'

Breast Cancer Haven UK

Graham Rook, Old Friends Hypothesis, UCL

Karin Moelling - ‘Viruses, more friends than foes’

Tim Spector, British epidemiologist and gut microbiome specialist

The College of Practitioners of Phytotherapy www.thecpp.uk

www.herbalalliance.uk

European Scientific Cooperative on Phytotherapy www.escop.com 

Association of Foragers  https://foragers-association.org

Audio Note: There’s a short background sound at 10 mins, it only lasts for 5 mins and it was during an important a point about the role of feelings in reasoning, which was too crucial to the topic to cut out.

In this episode we have the fascinating topic of understanding how feelings play a part in reason and consciousness. We’re also going to be learning how feeling is different from sensing, and if internal feelings and homeostasis, which evolved far earlier than other elements of our perceptual systems, can tell us anything about the evolution of human consciousness.

To get to grips with this we the hugely influential Portuguese neuroscientist Antonio Damasio. Damasio is professor pf Psychology, Philosophy and Neurology at the University of Southern California and the founder of their important ‘Brain and Creativity Institute’. He’s written many important books like ‘Descartes Error: Emotion, reason and the human brain’ and just out the subject of most of our discussion today, ‘Feeling and Knowing: Making minds conscious’.

I’m extremely grateful to previous guest Jonas Kaplan, who works for professor Damasio at USC, for arranging this interview. Check out his fascinating interview Episode #9 ‘The Backfire Effect’ on the neuroscience of belief.

Please donate a cup of coffee if you're enjoying the show

What we discuss in this episode:

00:00 Intro

02:49 The importance of creativity in science and life

08:30 Creativity can be slow, not always a flash of intuition

09:12 Brain and body are intertwined in the creation of consciousness

14:00 The importance of emotions to reason

17:00 Homeostasis explained

19:15 We have feelings to provoke us to get something that we need

21:15 Feeling is different from sensing

28:00 Sensing predates the nervous systems and feelings in evolution

31:50 Consciousness is related to feelings and they allow knowing

33:15 Artificial intelligence will not be conscious and feeling, but could copy vulnerability

36:28 AI didn’t evolve from surviving like us

38:15 It’s not just the brain - from the start it’s been interrelated with the body

40:30 Will robots suffer?

42:20 There’s no Hard Problem of Consciousness, it’s just physical evolution

47:00 Does awareness of awareness have an evolutionary reason?

48:30 The feeling system is ancient and early in our conscious evolution

51:30 Consciousness isn’t an illusion it’s a representation of your self and the world

53:13 The mind instinctively creates maps and patterns, even ones that don’t exist

References:

‘Feeling and Knowing: Making Minds Conscious’ 2021

‘Descartes’ Error: Emotion, reason and the human brain’ 1994

Can we have conscious experiences after clinical death?

In this episode we have the bizarre phenomena of Near Death Experiences to examine. The intense experience reported by about %25 of patients whose hearts are restarted after a short time of clinical death, has fascinated researchers for many years going right back to Plato. However, advances in cardiology techniques in the last 50 years have permitted doctors to save many more people, and thus to study the phenomenon in a controlled manner: so, exactly how many people have the experiences, exactly how dead they were at the time and so to start assessing the controversial part of this discussion, whether these experiences can be explained in simply neurobiological terms or if there is evidence that consciousness can ‘survive’ clinical death, if that is in fact the best way to talk about it.

So who better to help us understand this than cardiologist, scientist and author Dr. Pim Van Lommel from The Netherlands. During his 35 year career as a Cardiologist, Dr. Van Lommel saw the need for a detailed study on this to nail down the physiological variables like medication, length of time without oxygen and to connect those to the psychological data, about the content of the experiences and how long they remained influential in the patients lives.

The prospective study he spearheaded was published in the respected Lancet medical journal in 2001, and his book about the research ‘Consciousness beyond life, the science of the near death experience’ was published in 2007. He also recently won second prize in the Bigelow Foundation for consciousness studies essay prize, which discusses the study and its implications.

Full references, shownotes and links here

Please donate a cup of coffee if you’re enjoying the show

What we discuss in this episode:

03:19 Common experiences during an NDE

05:30 NDEs are possible even when the brain is fully functional e.g. Fear of death emergency

06:44 Carl Jung’s NDE was the first description of viewing planet earth from above

07:45 Transformation of world view via NDE + STEs (Spiritually transformative experiences)

08:14 Scientific curiosity about NDEs in clinically dead brains

11:00 1988-1998 Pim’s medical and psychological study of NDEs

17:15 Examining neurobiological explanations

27:45 Implications: consciousness must be non-local and the brain an interface

38:30 NDEers report heightened intuitive skill, empathy, precognition and telepathy

46:00 Organisations researching post-materialist science

51:50 Is the information perceived in an NDE different to normal perceptive information?

54:00 Non-local information exchange

59:30 Heightened sense of interconnection with nature and other beings - oneness

01:01:00 Life review: Experiencing from a different consciousness’ point of view

References:

Pim’s book ‘Consciousness beyond life: the science of near death experiences’.

Pim’s medical and psychological study

Pim’s Bigelow essay prize text 2022

Bigalow Insitute for Consciousness Studies

IONS

The Journal of Consciousness Studies

How do we integrate the intense experiences of psychedelic therapy for long term benefits? Can we apply those learnings to existential exploration in general?

In this episode we have the fascinating topic of ‘psychedelic integration’ to get our head around. Integration is a crucial part of any psychotherapy process, but perhaps even more so when those suffering experience psychedelic compounds in their treatment program. Many subjects of the new psychedelic treatments for depression and ADHD, have life changing experiences that often go against everything they have come to believe about themselves and the world. So regardless of how positive that can be to the meaning of their lives, it’s clear that some pretty sensitive guidance and processing needs to take place for the therapy to shift their day to day life long-term. And interestingly the same tools we’ll discuss can be used for all of us to navigate our own existential exploration.

So who better to help us explain this and offer some tools for navigating these tricky experiences than clinical psychologist and author Dr. Kile Ortigo. Kile is the founder of the Center for Existential Exploration in Palo Alto California; he’s hugely influenced by psychologist Carl Jung and Jospeh Campbell and specialises in treating trauma, PTSD, depression, anxiety, and addiction, with a particular sensitivity to gender identity issues. He’s just written a book about the topic Beyond the Narrow Life: A Guide for Psychedelic Integration and Existential Exploration

What we discuss in this episode:

00:00 Intro

06:00 Integration in therapy

09:44 Integration of psychedelic experiences

12:13 Preparation for the unknown - Kile’s new book ‘Psychedelic integration’

17:00 Re-finding initiation; analogy with preparation

21:00 The risks of self-initiation

23:25 Is meaning built into existence?

28:00 Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey

31:30 The symbolism of the battles in the myths

34:00 The shadow - ‘a moral problem’ Jung

35:00 Monomyth is a misnoma

38:00 The Heroine’s journey - Maureen Murdoch

41:30 MDMA therapy for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

43:45 Preparation - medicine journey - integration; 3 Arcs

46:00 The risk of re-trauma if the patient is not prepared

49:45 The rewards from existential exploration and integration

54:00 The exciting mystery of the unknown - making friends with the unknown

References:

Kile’s new Book Beyond the Narrow Life: A Guide for Psychedelic Integration and Existential Exploration,

'The Shadow' according to Jung

Collective Unconscious episode #6

Individuation according to C.G.Jung

Jospeh Campbell’s Hero’s Journey episode

This episode covers the fascinating science of mindfulness meditation. The massive explosion in popularity of meditation, has brought about a quiet revolution to the frantic western mind with the result of a complete change in our societies approach to stress management, happiness and well being. Today we’re going to get to the bottom of what happens to the brain when we meditate and why it’s so beneficial. But we’re also going to find out what happens to our levels of happiness, satisfaction, mental health and physical health if we meditate regularly over a long period of time. We’re also going to think about how society and business at large will evolve if these techniques continue to be introduced to our schools and companies.

So who better to help us find out what all the buzz is about than award winning professor of clinical psychology at Santa Clara University, Dr. Shauna Shapiro. She’s a fellow of the Mind and Life Institute co-founded by the Dalai Lama, who we’ll be discussing a bit today. She also lectures about and leads mindfulness programs internationally; and she’s even brought mindfulness to pioneering companies including Cisco Systems and Google. She has published over 150 articles and is the author of several books, like ‘The art and science of Mindfulness’, and ‘Good Morning I love You’ and has just released The ‘Good morning I love you’ guided journal.

What we discuss in this Episode:

00:00 Intro

05:37 Study results: Increased attention, memory and academic success, lowered activation of the Amygdala, reaction to pain

09:00 Better regulation of the nervous system

10:00 Effects of longer term meditation practice

11:00 Our happiness base line can be changed with practice

13:30 Intention and repetition’s relation to neuroplasticity

16:00 Journalling to set intention and maintain practice

17:00 Journalling for memory, health, mood, immune system and sleep

18:00 Morning theta state - more malleable brain

20:00 Advice for beginners getting started on meditation

22:00 Breath as a tool for relaxation

24:20 ‘Name it to tame it’ - Increased resilience and acceptance

27:00 Historical undervaluing of the coping function of emotion

28:30 Emotions only last 30-90 seconds, apart from their intellectualisation

30:00 Rise of polarisation and negative bias hacking by media - Mindfulness and compassion as a solution

33:00 Self-compassion leads to wider compassion and implicit bias reduction

34:00 The insular (compassion centre of the brain) is muted when someone is very different to you.

35:00 Knee jerk reactions (amygdala) reduced with regular meditation

37:00 Shauna’s meditation workshops in the military and companies

References:

drshaunashapiro.com

Good Morning, I Love You: A Guided Journal for Calm, Clarity, and Joy Shauna Shapiro

Altered Traits, Daniel Goleman and Richard J. Davidson 

Changing happiness set points - Dr. Tal Ben Shahar - Happiness Studies 

Andrew Huberman Lab, ‘Sigh breath’ research https://governmentscienceandengineering.blog.gov.uk/2021/11/26/is-a-sigh-just-a-sigh/

‘Name it to tame it’ UCLA study. https://www.scn.ucla.edu/pdf/AL(2007).pdf

Alleged Viktor Frankl quote “Between stimulus and response lies a space. In that space lies our freedom and power to choose a response. In our response lies our growth and our happiness.”

In this episode we have the challenging job of getting our head around the psychology of altered states of consciousness or ‘exceptional human experiences’ as today’s specialist calls them. Are they mere illusions of the mind? Does their ability to radically change our world view and sense of meaning in the world give them a special status in psychology and mental health? And how do we talk scientifically about significant similarities between such experiences across different times and cultures that appear to imply the existence of an alternative kind of ‘reality’ what ever ‘reality’ is.

Fortunately, to navigate this bag of worms, we have a researcher who has devoted his career to the study of these experiences both psychedelic and other, Dr. David Luke. David Luke is currently a module leader of the Psychology of Exceptional Human Experience in Greenwich Universities Psychology and Counselling Department, a course he has been running since 2009.

He is also currently an Honorary Senior Lecturer for the Centre for Psychedelic Research, Division of Brain Sciences, Imperial College London. He was President of the Parapsychological Association between 2009 and 2011, and received the Faculty's first Inspirational Teaching Award (2016) from the University of Greenwich.

He is a prolific author and editor of books, and today we’ll be discussing his 2017 book ‘Otherworlds: Psychedelics and exceptional human experiences’ and his new book, a collections of essays he has edited called ‘DMT Entity Encounters: Dialogues on the Spirit Molecule’

He is also the co-founder of the Breaking Convention Conference on Psychedelics.

What we discuss in this episode: 

00:00 Intro

04:20 Measuring subjective qualitative experiences

11:45 The different types of altered states of consciousness

18:00 Reduced activity in the DMN (Default Mode Network) during alternate states of consciousness, but increased brain region connectivity

21:30 Evaluating mystical experiences psychologically

33:00 The connection between psychedelics and telepathy

57:00 Psychonautics - trying to map psychedelic realms and types of beings encountered

and much much more (full show notes here)

References:

William James - Radical Empiricism

During Altered states there is a reduced activity in the DMN but increased brain region connectivity

Johns Hopkins and NYU studies - Intensity of mystical experience correlation with positive clinical outcomes.

%50 drop in atheism among DMT experiencers

Stephen Szára - first DMT experiments in 1950’s

Charles Laughlin - Polyphasic culture and transpersonal anthropology

Medicalisation and Reciprocity Specialists Symposium

In this episode we have the extraordinary theory of Biocentrism to consider: the hypothesis that the space, time and matter arose from life, and not the other way around. This theory obviously flies completely in the face of material science’s Darwinian view that life and consciousness evolved slowly out of ever more complex systems of matter.

Now we’ve heard in multiple interviews on the show so far that similar theories like Panpsychism, the hypothesis that consciousness is fundamental to the physical world, are hugely increasing in popularity and not only among philosophers but also among physicists, perhaps because many of the anomalies coming out of quantum experiments can be explained in a panpsychist model. But this is the first time as far as I know that a scientist has argued that life itself is fundamental to the physical world. Perhaps to many scientists it would sound absurd, but as the theory has been popularised by award winning Stem Cell biologist Robert Lanza, it seems important that we give this theory a closer look.

Given our physics slant on Chasing Consciousness, we are extremely lucky to be speaking today with Robert Lanza’s co-author on the new book about the theory “The Grand Biocentric Design, How life creates reality”, physicist and author Matej Pavšič

Matej Pavšič has been a theoretical physicist at the Jožef Stefan Institute in Slovenia for over 40 years, working on Mirror Particles, Brane Spaces, and Clifford algebra and spaces among other areas. He’s published more than hundred scientific papers and 3 books including "The Landscape of Theoretical Physics: A Global View" (Kluwer Academic, 2001) and "Stumbling Blocks Against Unification" (World Scientific, 2020). And the Biocentrism book mentioned above.

00:00 Intro

06:00 Niels Bohr - Measurement ‘creates ‘ the world quote

10:00 The wave particle duality - real vs perceived

15:10 The Many Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics

18:00 Hugh Everett - The wave function is relative to the observer

20:00 The risk of Woo when talking about Quantum Entanglement

25:30 A universe fine tuned for life - Hierarchical levels of representation and the hard problem

37:00 Mystical experiences may connect to wave function of the universe

38:31 Hawking and Wheeler - The past is not fixed until measurement

39:45 Matej’s theory: The Big Bang could have been caused by a vacuum instability in the quantum field

40:30 The book has been criticised by scientists for being over-simplified for the general public

44:30 Testability of Biocentrism via Quantum Mechanics

46:00 Weak Biocentrism paper, accounting for the observer effect while keeping the physical world

49:00 Quantum Suicide and the impossibility of being dead from the first person point of view

53:00 Why is consciousness so controversial in modern physics?

55:12 Difficulty of applying different laws at the classical and quantum level

References:

Rupert Everett - The Many Worlds from interpretation of quantum mechanics

Robert Lanza, Dmitriy Podolskiy and Andrei Barvinsky paper - reduction of quantum gravity in the presence of observers: Intro article and Paper

In this episode we look at an alternative child psychology approach to parenting and care-giving, than perhaps the one we’re used to from our own childhoods: one based on connection rather than threat based motivations. This episode is a little closer to home than usual, as a few years ago we hit the wall with our eldest boy, who after the birth of our second child when he was 6, became extremely aggressive and uncontrollable. This led us to try Hand in Hand parenting, and we got an improvement of wellbeing and behaviour within just 2 weeks!

We were scheduled to be speaking with the founder, child psychologist Patty Wipfler. Patty sent her apologies as sadly her health had taken a turn, but what a silver lining as Patty sent us Hand in Hand’s program director and Clinical psychologist Dr. Maya Coleman Ph.D. Since 2007 she has been providing trauma treatment for children and support for parents. She spent 3 years at the Children’s National Medical Center giving behavioural and developmental consultancy, and last year joined Hand in Hand as program director.

Please donate to help me keep the content flowing 

00:00 Short intro

13:36 Parent-child mutual connectedness for healthy emotional development

18:50 Learning and healing only possible in a state of safety

19:30 Traumatic experiences block learning both physically and mentally.

27:00 Release of emotion only when connected, emotionally regulated care is present

27:00 Crying is an opportunity to clear and reset their emergency/threat system

31:00 Offloading often happens later when the parent takes back the child

32:40 Children’s fear of care givers themselves

38:25 THE 5 HAND IN HAND PARENTING TOOLS EXPLAINED

39:20 SPECIAL TIME EXPLAINED - building connection

43:45 STAY LISTENING EXPLAINED - holding a regulated space for big emotions

55:00 SETTING LIMITS EXPLAINED - Listen, limit, listen

01:05:00 Regulation and body language, instead of tagging and shaming

01:09:40 PLAY LISTENING EXPLAINED

01:13:45 Laughter as an inbuilt releasing mechanism

01:18:00 LISTENING PARTNERSHIPS EXPLAINED

01:21:00 Parents too get triggered and go off track

01:28:35 You can heal betrayed trust with kids

01:35:30 Memories and a corrective associative adjustment

01:38:15 Heal parenting, heal the world

References:

Attachment theory

Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) Study 

5 Listening tools for parents introduced

Hand in Hand you tube channel

More videos with Patty introducing the tools

Patty Wipfler and Tosha Schore Book “Listen: Five simple tools to meet your Everyday Parenting Challenges”

Listening partnership instructions video

‘The neuroscience of enduring change’ Richard D. Lane and Lynn Nadel

‘Birthing a new world’ parenting blog, Roma Norris

Is the brain structure found in many UFO experiencers and remote viewers related to intuition? Are anomalous isotope ratio alloys, allegedly fallen from UFO’s, evidence that can help important jumps in the research into energy and transportation technologies? How can this be both a physical and psychological phenomenon simultaneously? Is there a connection between the mind and this brain structure and the phenomena? In this episode, we take a stab at talking scientifically about the fascinating, empirically problematic and historically controversial UFO phenomenon; it’s particularly fascinating these days since the US director of National Intelligence confirmed in an official 2021 report that UAPs were in fact real and a ‘population of objects’. Many scientists and engineers are excited, because the study of UFO’s, regardless of their origin, could give us clues to clean energy and transportation technology that we so urgently need to combat our pollution footprint, and in fact several patents have been granted to explore such experimental physics if sadly for military purposes, but at least its a start. Apart from a short comment from Harvard Astronomer and director of The Galileo project, Avi Loeb in Episode #45; and a mythological evaluation from religious studies professor Diana Pasulka in episode #53; An idealism perspective from Bernardo Kastrup in episode #34, our guest today is the first on the show to speak in detail about the scientific study of this phenomena. This episode is the perfect deeper dive into this topic, as my guest is going to speak about two pieces of physical evidence which he has studied, so often absent in claims about this phenomenon; Firstly, MRI scans and blood samples of experiencers from the military and intelligence services who had alleged interactions with UFO’s; and secondly anomalous fragments of alloys recovered from alleged UFO encounter sites. Being a science podcast the data of physical evidence is always our first port of call, but as so often when discussing anomalous phenomena that don’t fit with our current world view, the interpretations of that data are various and contradictory. Today’s guest is the perfect person to present this data as he was contacted by US intelligence because he invented the equipment needed to analyse it; he’s not shy of the possible implications of the data, while equally in no hurry to jump to any conclusions till we have confirming proof.

He is the cell biologist & Chair of the Department of Pathology and part of the cancer immunology department at Stanford University school of medicine, Dr. Garry P. Nolan. He’s published over 330 academic papers, holds 50 patents and has founded 8 bio-tech companies. What we discussed: 00:00 Intro. 10:00 Garry’s background in genetics and immunology. 18:30 Thomas Kuhn: ‘The structure of scientific revolutions’. 24:00 Imagination and problem solving. 32:00 The brains of 15 military experiencers. 34:00 Havana Syndrome. 37:00 They shared an until-now undiscovered structure in the brain. 38:30 ‘Intuition centre’ hypothesis - Basal Ganglia. 42:15 Family members also share this unlikely brain feature. 53:00 The Antenna hypothesis. 01:00:00 It’s physical AND psychological. 01:09:00 Spectrometry to analyse UFO molten metal sample alloys. 01:16:50 Patents to develop new technology and energy sources. References: “Stanford Professor Garry Nolan Is Analyzing Anomalous Materials From UFO Crashes” Vice Magazine Article, Dec ’21 Thomas Kuhn ,‘The Structure of Scientific Revolutions’.All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO)‘Subcortical Brain Morphometry Differences between Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Schizophrenia’ Paper Dr. Salvatore Cezar Pais - US Navy “UFO” fusion energy patents Interview on T.O.E. podcast Forbes article

In this episode, we have the tough task of examining the evidence that our society is losing its ability for prolonged attention, focus and concentration. We talk about what are the main factors leading to this, and what we can do to mediate it individually, but also collectively through regulation if necessary, before it becomes intergenerational. Is this also another symptom, like depression and addiction, of growing up with less and less face to face social connection and non-focused attention?

Fortunately today’s guest, the New York Times bestselling author Johann Hari, has written about Depression and Addiction, and his new book “Stolen Focus: What you can’t pay attention and how to think deeply again”, focuses on this very issue of Attention.

Johann is a British award winning author and journalist. His book on Addiction ‘Chasing the Scream: the First and Last Days of the War on Drugs’, has been adapted into the Oscar-nominated film ‘The United States Vs Billie Holiday’.

And his second book, ‘Lost Connections: Uncovering The Real Causes of Depression – and the Unexpected Solutions’ was shortlisted for an award by the British Medical Association.

His TED talks have been viewed more than 80 million times. Over the past decade he has written for some of the world’s leading newspapers and magazines, including the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Guardian, and the Spectator. And he has appeared on NPR, HBO, The Joe Rogan Podcast, and the BBC.

What we discuss:

00:00 Short Intro

050:0 Rumi’s quote, ’The wound is where the light enters you’

09:42 The 12 reasons for our shrinking attention

11.10 Task switching and the illusion of multitasking

14.27 Higher stress from faster lives

17:00 Deep concentration only when feeling safety

18:41 Technologies that monitor us and manipulate our attention

20:00 Precedents in history for laws to ban certain elements that were harmful

22:00 The social media business model and the alternative

45:16 Gabor Mate, trauma and the rise of ADHD

48:45 Lowering of length of sleep and bad diet

50:00 The loss of exercise, sedentary schooling

53:00 www.letgrow.org, free social play without supervision

01:04:00 Flow states: Meaningful goals at the edge of your ability

References:

Leonard Cohen quote: ‘There’s a crack in everything, that’s where the light gets in’

Earl Millar at MIT - Task Switching and the Switch- Cost effect

Nadine Burke-Harris - Ex-Surgeon general of California, adverse childhood experience survey

Tristan Harris - Social Dilemma documentary

Gabor Mate book on addiction - In the realm of Hungry ghosts

Johann Hari book on addiction - Lost Connections

www.letgrow.org, free social play without supervision

David Hume quote - ‘reason is the slave of the passions’

The Corporation, documentary about the history of corporations

Paul Graham - the world will become more addictive

Krisna Murti quote- ‘it’s no sign of good health to be adjusted to a profoundly sick society’

How likely is it that we live in a simulations? Are virtual worlds real?

In this first episode of the 2nd Series we delve into the fascinating topic of virtual reality simulations and the extraordinary possibility that our universe is itself a simulation. For thousands of years some mystical traditions have maintained that the physical world and our separated ‘selves’ are an illusion, and now, only with the development of our own computer simulations and virtual worlds have scientists and philosophers begun to assess the statistical probabilities that our shared reality could in fact be some kind of representation rather than a physical place.

As we become more open to these possibilities, other difficult questions start to come into focus. How can we create a common language to talk about matter and energy, that bridges the simulated and simulating worlds. Who could have created such a simulation? Could it be an artificial intelligence rather than a biological or conscious being? Do we have ethical obligations to the virtual beings we interact with in our virtual worlds and to what extent are those beings and worlds ‘real’? The list is long and mind bending.

Fortunately, to untangle our thoughts on this, we have one of the best known philosophers of all things mind bending in the world, Dr. David Chalmers; who has just released a book ‘Reality+: virtual worlds and the problems of philosophy’ about this very topic. Dr. Chalmers is an Australian philosopher and cognitive scientist specialising in the areas of philosophy of mind and philosophy of language. He is a Professor of Philosophy and Neuroscience at New York University, as well as co-director of NYU's Center for Mind, Brain and Consciousness. He’s the founder of the ‘Towards a Science of Consciousness Conference’ at which he coined the term in 1994 The Hard Problem of Consciousness, kicking off a renaissance in consciousness studies, which has been increasing in popularity and research output ever since.

Donate here: https://www.chasingconsciousness.net/episodes

What we discuss in this episode:

00:00 Short Intro

06:00 Synesthesia

08:27 The science of knowing the nature of reality

11:02 The Simulation Hypothesis explained

15:25 The statistical probability evaluation

18:00 Knowing for sure is beyond the reaches of science

19:00 You’d only have to render the part you’re interacting with

20:00 Clues from physics

22:00 John Wheeler - ‘It from bit’

23:32 Eugene Wigner: measurement as a conscious observation

27:00 Information theory as a useful but risky hold-all language tool

34:30 Virtual realities are real and virtual interactions are meaningful

37:00 Ethical approaches to Non-player Characters (NPC’s) and their rights

38:45 Will advanced AI be conscious?

42:45 Is god a hacker in the universe up? Simulation Theology

44:30 Simulation theory meets the argument for the existence of God from design

51:00 The Hard problem of consciousness applies to AI too

55:00 Testing AI’s consciousness with the Turing test

59:30 Ethical value applied to immoral actions in virtual worlds

The difficulty of simulations within simulations

References:

Hans Moravec - Pigs in cyber space 1992

Eugene Wigner ‘Remarks on the mind and body question’ 1961

David Chalmers and Kelvin McQueen ‘Consciousness and the Collapse of the Wave Function’

NPC becomes conscious in ‘Free Guy’ movie dir. Shawn Levy, with Ryan Reynolds

NPC torture in ‘USS Callister’ Black Mirrors 4th series, Episode 1

The Turing test for subjective conscious experience

Robert Nozic’s ‘the experience machine’ thought experiment

Future of Life: Max Tegmark's Organisation to reduce existential risk from new technology

What would a post physicalist world look like?

So in this episode we’re going to evaluate the evidence presented by psychiatrist and author Dr. Iain McGilchrist, from his extensive analysis of split-brain studies, that support a broader understanding of the mind and reality. One that pushes beyond the traditional reductionist materialist worldview, to include the implicit, the context dependent and the consciousness dependent.

He’s just released an epic two part book to clarify all of this, ‘The matter with things: Our brains, our delusions and the unmaking of the world’ in which he asks how we should understand consciousness, space, time and matter, given the apparent over-emphasis on Left hemisphere interpretation of the world.

Iain is an associate Fellow of Green Templeton College, Oxford; he’s a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists; a Consultant Emeritus of the Bethlem and Maudsley Hospital, London; a former research Fellow in Neuroimaging at Johns Hopkins University Medical School, in Baltimore. And he now lives on the Isle of Skye, off the coast of North West Scotland.

He has published original research as well as original articles in papers and journals, including the British Journal of Psychiatry, Psychiatry & Psychology, The BMJ, The Lancet, The Wall Street Journal, The Sunday Telegraph and Sunday Times on topics in literature, medicine, psychiatry and philosophy. He has taken part in many radio and TV programmes and documentaries, including for the BBC, NPR, and ABC and also took part in a Canadian full-length feature film about his work called The Divided Brain.

This interview was recorded at the start of last year, so the new book is not covered in so much detail.

What we discuss in this episode:

00:00 In communication with the world itself

06:30 Taking the implicit apart and out of context: disembodying it

12:00 John Cutting: noticing consequences of right hemisphere damage

14:40 The differences between the hemispheres shown in many studies

27:00 The Left Brain Interpreter: Denial and invention by the right hemisphere

29:15 Scientism: the belief that science can explain everything

30:48 Imagination and intuition in scientific discovery

33:10 Reason suggests there are immaterial things

37:40 We only know about matter because of consciousness

42:00 Navigating beyond materialism

PART 2

55:00 Implications of the Observer Effect and Quantum Entanglement

57:30 The world changes depending on your attention

58:00 Panpsychism on the up in Anglo-American Analytic philosophy: Galen Strawson and Christian De Quincy etc.

01:14:00 Cells have intelligent novel reactions to the environment, genes store the map

01:19:00 Iain’s new book “The Matter with Things: Our brains, our delusions and the unmaking of the world

01:22:00 Why the drop in happiness despite a rise in standard of living?

References:

“The Matter with Things: Our brains, our delusions, and the unmaking of the world” 

“Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World” 

Maurice Merleau-Ponty - Philosopher and neurologist 

John Cutting - psychiatrist 

Galen Strawson - philosopher 

Barbara McKintoch - molecular biologist 

Can Physics shed light on how synchronicity might work?

“Synchronicity: A meaningful coincidence of two or more events where something other than the probability of chance is involved.” C.J. Jung, from ‘Synchronicity: An acausal connecting principal’

The majority of us have experienced some meaningful coincidences in our lives - perhaps the right person to help with a problem got in touch out of the blue at just the right time to help solve it, or the right book randomly ended up in front of you when you have hit a block with a certain question, or a disaster happened that created total upheaval in your life which in retrospect turned out that without that disaster you would never have arrived at a certain really important change in your life.

Of course there is no way of scientifically testing or falsifying either a potential coordination between the causally unconnected events, nor the meaning of those coincidences to the individual. Despite that, the famous psychoanalyst Carl Jung thought that meaning could be as rigorous and objective as logical deduction, setting apart synchronicities from mere statistical coincidences.

So, firmly planting ourselves on the subjective, experience based side of the scientific fence, today we’re going to be exploring what Jung meant by a synchronicity and the evidence in physics that might help to explain at least the possibility of a non-local connection across space and time, or between the ‘inter-psychic world’ as Stanislaf Grof puts it, and material reality. We talked to psychologist Monika Wikman in episode #6 about Jung’s Collective Unconscious concept, so please listeners go back to that episode if you’d like to familiarise with that crucial idea too.

So who better to explain the relevant physics than the executive director of the Los Angeles ‘C.G.Jung Institute’ and theoretical physicist, Christoph Le Mouel. Having moved out of high energy quantum physics when he moved to USA in 2007, he is passionate about the connections between physics and psychology and incredibly knowledgable about the history of science.

What we discuss in this episode:

00:00 Superhero scientists and poems from the unconscious

12:30 Einstein and Jung have dinner: Relativity between space and time and between the psyche and the outside world

13:30 Quantum physicist Wolfgang Pauli asked Jung to write about synchronicity

16:30 Synchronicity: ‘Meaningful equivalence’ between causally unconnected events

19:40 Symbols appearing widely without previous knowledge of them by the patients

24:55 Is it impossible to investigate synchronicity with science despite the acausality?

26:45 Wolfgang Pauli sought therapy from Jung

34:00 The incompleteness of quantum mechanics according to Einstein and Pauli

35:00 Pauli wanted a neutral language with analogies to connect quantum mechanics with psychology

37:45 They discussed the unobservable parts of reality, strange numbers and other realities

PART 2

48:45 The implications of the proof of acausality in quantum mechanics

55:00 Science cannot deal with meaning, despite statistical significance beyond chance

01:06:20 Uncertainty in quantum mechanics leaves space for creativity and meaning

01:10:00 Jung’s Brain as a transformer idea: transforming ‘Infinite intensity’ of the psyche into extension and frequencies.

References:

Carl Jung ‘Synchronicity: An causal connecting principal’ 

C.G.Jung, Wolfgang Pauli ‘Atom and Archetypes: The Pauli/Jung Letters 1932-58’ 

David Bohm’s impilcate and explicate order