Freddy Drabble

Chasing Consciousness

About the show

The curious person’s guide to all things mind! Have you ever wondered how it is that your thoughts and feelings relate to the grey matter in your head? How space and time came to be out of nothing? How what life means to us influences our day-to-day struggles with mental health? In conversation with experts in physics, psychology, neuroscience and philosophy, Chasing Consciousness will take you to the very fringes of reality and share with you the groundbreaking discoveries that are dramatically changing the way we relate to the world, the future, and our own minds.

Newest episodes

DOES THE UNIVERSE HAVE A PURPOSE? - Federico Faggin #95

Nov 1, 2026 1 hr 21 min

Can we solve the observer problem by seeing quantum fields as conscious? Is free will fundamental? Does the universe itself have agency rather than behaving deterministically? In this episode we have the interesting possibility of a teleological universe to discuss, that is whether the universe exists for a purpose or purposes, and if it displays goal directed behaviour, i.e. agency. To do this we’re going to get into a new interpretation of panpsychism, involving quantum fields as conscious agents and interpreters of meaning; we get also into the difference between digital and biological intelligence and knowing. To face this tough topic we have as our guest the inventor of the computer microprocessor, turned consciousness researcher; physicist and computer scientist Federico Faggin. Federico has written three research papers and many books for the general public including his 2021 book “Silicon”, his 2024 book “Irreducible, Consciousness, Life, Computers, and Human Nature”, and now his most recent 2026 book, “Beyond the Invisible”. What we discussed: 00:00 Intro. 09:45 Federico’s mystical experience that inspired his theory. 17:00 The universe is wholistic, entanglement is the rule, there are no boundaries. 18:40 QIM - Quantum Information Theory. 19:15 Are consciousness and free will more fundamental than quantum mechanics? 22:30 Consciousness and free will are ontological properties of the whole. 28:15 New knowings are creations not discoveries. 35:20 Seities - conscious agential quantum fields. 38:45 Ontology found in our interiority. 40:00 Body-mind-spirit superimposed, bridging classical, quantum and meaning information. 46:50 Mind acts like a quantum computer. 48:30 The subject object divide dissolves. 51:45 A holographic principle - Part-whole of One. 01:01:45 The purpose of the universe is to know itself. 01:03:57 Artificial VS biological knowing and intelligence. 01:12:20 Love is a cosmological constant that unites matter, mind and spirit. References: F...

ELECTROMAGNETIC THEORIES OF CONSCIOUSNESS - Tam Hunt #94

Oct 14, 2026 1 hr 28 min

Do EM fields across and around the body and brain correspond to and contain information about our experience of consciousness? Can resonance help explain how larger and smaller systems with consciousness can harmonise into a single field of consciousness? Does mind evolve as matter evolves? Today we have the possibility that consciousness relates to electromagnetic fields to look into. So, we get into the arguments for why consciousness might be baked into the physical world as panpsychism holds; we compare General Resonance Theory to other electromagnetic theories of consciousness; look at how GRT solves some of the problems of panpsychism like the combination problem and the boundary problem; and how we might use resonance to theorise about consciousness at various levels of existence above and below our single organism subjective experiences; we get into why the hippies were right about vibration, fields and resonance, and also what the hippies got wrong; And we also get into some of modern science that seems to show an alignment between science and spiritual ideas rather than an incompatibility. For this broad range of topics we are fortunate to have the polymath, environmental lawyer, author and philosopher at University of California Santa Barbara, Tamlyn Hunt. He’s written over 40 academic papers and 3 books for the general public, “Eco, Ego, Eros”, “Mind, World, God” ,and his brand new book “The Hippies Were Right”, which we focus on today. What we discuss: 00:00 Intro. 06:00 The omission of mind from our sciences of nature. 10:30 Panpsychism is the least crazy explanation. 14:30 Analogies between scientific theories and spiritual traditions. 27:30 As matter evolves, mind evolves. 31:40 The Wattsian Vedanta approach. 34:30 General Resonance Theory explained. 40:30 The brains nested hierarchies of EM Fields contain the information about consciousness. 46:00 EM effects are 5000 times faster than neural firings. 55:30 “The hippies were right” about consciousne...

NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCES & ACCESSING DEAD PEOPLE'S MEMORIES - Marieta Pehilvanova PhD #93

Sep 30, 2026 1 hr 26 min

How can we explain vivid, life changing experiences and true perceptions occurring in patients between brain death and resuscitation? What are the implications of true information being anomalously communicated during these experiences? What are the implications of some children being able to access the memories of deceased people? Why do such a high portion of these kids remember a traumatic death? In this episode we have the two fascinating phenomena of near death experiences, and access to deceased peoples memories to look into. So, we discuss the history of NDE research, the main repeating components of the experiences and some of the anomalous information received; we talk about the radical changes in meaning, purpose and world views after such experiences; and the difficulties integrating this with their previous daily lives and relationships. Then we switch and look at the research into children who appear to have memories of people who are no longer alive, and the attempts to identify the dead person and verify if these things actually happened to them. And of course we’re going to look at the implications of these anomalous phenomena for life, death, consciousness and the nature of reality. Our guest today is a psychiatrist and neuro-behavioural scientist in the Division of Perceptual Studies at the University of Virginia, Marieta Pehlivanova. She’s the author of 12 scientific papers, many co-authored with Dr. Bruce Greyson, the founder of the International Association for the Study of Near Death experience, who recommended Marieta in his stead now he is unable to give interviews any more. Please feel free to donate to the Division of Perceptual Studies Donation · University of Virginia · GiveCampus Getting funding to study anomalous phenomena is harder than ever, and we don’t want this research to drop off the map. What we discuss: 00:00 Intro. 06:45 Near Death Experiences. 06:25 The Dept Of Perceptual Studies (DOPS), UOVirginia. 14:15 Near Death Exper...

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All episodes

DOES THE UNIVERSE HAVE A PURPOSE? - Federico Faggin #95

Nov 1, 2026 1 hr 21 min

ELECTROMAGNETIC THEORIES OF CONSCIOUSNESS - Tam Hunt #94

Oct 14, 2026 1 hr 28 min

NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCES & ACCESSING DEAD PEOPLE'S MEMORIES - Marieta Pehilvanova PhD #93

Sep 30, 2026 1 hr 26 min

HOW METRICS CAPTURE HUMAN VALUES - C. Thi Nguyen #92

Sep 14, 2026 1 hr 39 min

How have metrics surreptitiously replaced our internal value guidance system? How much nuance is lost when we scale collective counting across contexts? How dangerous is data that at first appears independent, whist in fact having heavy value assumptions baked in from that start? Today we have the worrying topic of value capture to discuss; that is the phenomena of how the majority of our personal values have been outsourced to external generic data sets and measurable scoring systems, often without us realising it. We discuss how, whilst useful in getting the wider picture, these measurables replace our internal lived sense of why things are important, motivating and worthy of goal directed behaviours. We also get into the root of this phenomena in the artificial demotion of the subjective to a lower level of value than the objective; how subjectivity is in fact supertangible and salient rather than intangible; and we get into how data is not neutral and has interests that in turn influence how we collect that data - risking a kind of objectivity laundering. On the other hand we also look at what measurables are good for, and how awareness of the tension between our external and internal value guidance, offers a middle road that gets the best of both worlds. Fortunately to unpack this slippery topic we have the philosopher of games and art at the University of Utah, C. Thi Nguyen. He’s the author of over 70 academic papers and 2 books for the general public. “Games: Agency as Art”, and his brand new book “The Score: How to stop playing somebody else’s game”, that we’ll be focussing on today. What we discuss: 00:00 Intro. 05:20 Double Consciousness - W.E.B. Du Bois. 09:05 “The Score”, how measuring everything warps our values. 10:35 “The things that are easiest to measure at scale don’t track what’s actually important”. 11:50 The constraints on scaled collective counting. 13:36 Amplification of particularly fashionable scaled data points distorts our values. 22:50...

FUNGI & SYMBIOSOS IN LIFE - Merlin Sheldrake PhD #91

Aug 31, 2026 1 hr 3 min

Why were fungi so important to the evolution of life on earth? How do they collaborate with plants to help them communicate? What does the difficulty separating individual fungi from the collective of a mycelial network teach us about collective intelligence and interconnected co-dependence in ecosystems? In this episode we discuss how fungi are a brilliant example of symbiosis in nature. We get into their importance to evolution; how they facilitate plant communication; how they exhibit both collaboration and competition simultaneously; how they can solve problems without brains; and how they confound our ideas of ‘self’ and ‘other’. Fortunately to decode these ideas we have biologist, ecologist, mycologist and award winning author Merlin Sheldrake as our guide. He is a research associate at Oxford University and Vrije University in Amsterdam. He has written 20 scientific papers and his 2020 book “Entangled life - How Fungi make our worlds, change our minds, and shape our futures”, has sold more than a million copies in over 30 languages. The book received the 2021 Royal Society Science book award and the Wainwright prize for writing on Global Conservation. What we discuss: 00:00 Intro 05:00 Entangled Life Book. 06:40 The difference between the plant and fungal kingdoms. 08:00 Mycelium Networks: shapeshifting, sprawling networks. 09:55 Fungi’s symbiotic role in early evolution of land plants. 13:15 Mychorrhizal fungi: plant partners. 14:00 Katie Field - Re-creating early earth conditions in the lab. 15:50 Plant-Fungi electrical and chemical signalling. 19:40 Mutual vs parasitic simbiosis. 22:15 Inherent intelligence in fungi behaviour. 27:15 The skin and gut microbiome. 31:45 The enteric nervous system - possible mood changer. 33:00 The dance of competition and cooperation in evolution. 37:30 Climate Change innovations with fungi - Carbon cycling. 39:50 Writing Fungi into conservation targets with better data. 42:00 Fungal problem solving and distributed intelligen...

A NEW NUTRITION PARADIGM - Dr. Federica Amati PhD #90

Jul 14, 2026 1 hr 0 min

How has new research changed the way we see nutritional health? What role do ultra-processed foods, fibre, gut microbes, inflammation and insulin resistance play in the new paradigm? Why does the gut microbiome affect our mental health? How can simply diversifying the quantity of plants in your diet change health outcomes radically? In this episode we have the complex topic of nutrition to get up to date on. There’s been so much research over the last 20 years that has contradicted some of our most deep seated preconceptions about food, so today we clarify science’s new take. We discuss the rise of lifestyle medicine as a solution to western health crises; individualised diet; ultra processed foods; fibre; glycemic index issues; the gut microbiome; inflammation; a variety of foods over restrictive diets; how to support the use of new GPL-1 weight loss drugs; and what the nutritional organisation Zoe is doing to make this all easier for the public to put into practice. Fortunately our guest is a master at untangling all this nuance in a way that’s so easy for us Joe public to understand - medical scientist and clinical nutritionist, senior lecturer and researcher at Imperial College London and King’s College London, Dr. Federica Amati. She’s also Head Nutritionalist at ZOE and Head of Nutrition Science at WellFounded Health. She’s written 12 scientific papers and 3 books, “EveryBODY should know this”, “Recipes for better menopause”, and her brand new book “The Appetite reset”, which we discuss today. What we discuss: 00:00 Intro 06:30 Worldwide pandemic of previously western-only diet related chronic diseases. 07:00 Western diet, exported to the rest of the world is a big part of the problem. 08:45 Sedentary lifestyle is also part of the metabolic dysfunction crisis. 09:15 The “Diabesity” crisis. 10:15 Dysfunctional food environments. 10:55 One size dos NOT fit all for diet. 11:45 Influencers are confusing the public. 16:25 Personalised diet issues: more required...

EXTENDED COGNITION & PARTICIPATORY SENSE-MAKING - Rebecca Todd PhD #89

Jun 30, 2026 1 hr 41 min

How separate is the cognition in our heads from cognition with our bodies, our tools, our communities and our ecosystems? What is participatory sense making and why is our world becoming less and less disposed to doing it? What does connecting cognitively with the world beyond our own bodies do for our sense making, and so for the future of our species? In this episode we have the intriguing topic of extended cognition to explore, and in particular the field of participatory sense-making. So we get into the extended component of the 5E’s model of embodied cognition; how our technologies, including AI, are much more influential on our cognition than mere tools that we set aside after use; we talk about our co-dependence on the natural world, and what happens to cognition and our society when our sense of “kinship” with it is lost; And we get into detail on the crucial process of participatory sense making, and how important it is to arrive to consensus rather than getting bogged down in polarisation, which in turn allows us to decide on urgent solutions as a species. Fortunately these are the exact specialisations of our guest, psychologist, cognitive scientist and philosopher at the University of British Columbia, Rebecca Todd. With a background also in neuroscience, she’s authored nearly 100 academic papers, whilst her substack hosts her much loved writings for the general What we discuss: 00:00 Intro. 06:05 Extended cognition defined. 08:45 Distributed cognition - Edward Hutchins. 09:00 Attention, learning and memory are all distributed. 10:00 Can we identify the cognitive boundary between self and other? 14:30 Heidegger’s warning about undermining the influence of technology. 17:00 We give our tools too much credit. 19:00 Large Language Model’s effect on extended cognition. 23:00 Individualistic, extractive, competitive motivations for technology. 24:00 Self AS relationship rather than IN relationship - Dr. Yuri Celidwen. 28:10 Non-verbal communication. 29:46...

SPACE PSYCHOLOGY EXPLAINED - Iya Whiteley PhD #88

Jun 15, 2026 3 hr 3 min

What can psychologists do the make pilots and astronauts’ decision making better under duress? Can we anticipate the psychological issues of planned long distance space missions to Mars? How can we shift the shame culture for pilots and astronauts around reporting unidientified anomolous phenomena? In this episode we have the unique field of Space psychology to look into; So we discuss the psychology of military pilots and astronauts working under such extreme conditions; and the intuitive skill sets developed under such high pressure, split second decision situations; we discuss the cognitive engineering required to match the design of instruments to the cognitive needs of the pilots and astronauts; we get into alternatives methods of expertise exchange apart from the usual text book approach which have had extraordinary decision making results for pilot and astronaut performance. We also discuss the issues for pilots around reporting of UFO encounters, and the implications for space psychology of the new bout of main stream interest following the New York Times 2017 expose of military incidents. So who better to help us understand the minds of pilots and astronauts than space psychologist, cognitive engineer, astronaut instructor and Director of the Centre of Space Medicine at UCL in London, Dr. Iya Whitely. She’s helped design training programs and conducted studies for the European Space Agency, The Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre in Russia, and presented he research for the USAirforce and Nasa. Dr. Whitely is also a pilot, rescue scuba diver and competitive sky diver! She’s written 11 scientific papers, and three books, “Toolkit of a Space Psychologist, to support astronauts on exploration missions to the moon and mars”, “Earth Designs” for toddlers, and her new book “Born Knowing”, which we get onto at the end. What we discuss: 00:00 Intro. 05:30 Iya’s path into Cognitive Engineering. 18:35 Decision making research. 28:00 Iya’s method led to 200/cent inc...

REIMAGINING OUR POST-COLONIAL PSYCHOLOGY - Bayo Akomolafe PhD #87

May 31, 2026 1 hr 12 min

How has colonialism shaped our western psychology? How can we reimagine our post-colonial psychology, before we wipe ourselves out? What is the role of the trickster archetype in the disruption of such a well-established and dominant world view? In this episode we have the tricky topic of trying to re-orientate our post-colonial psychology. So we’re going to be looking into the reasons why we might need to do that, following the influence of the west’s military-industrial rise to power over the last 250 years, and the post scientific revolution’s predominantly reductionist, philosophy of science; we’re going to be considering the consequences of such a view of humanity and the natural world; and crucially what elements we might invite back into our psychology, to perhaps set humanity back onto a path of harmony with its own species and its habitat, before it destroys itself. To do this we’re going to be exploring the possibility that the dualistic, black and white separation of ideas into binary truth or falsehood; and right or wrong, is a big part of the problem; exploring how the complexity of systems, and the nuance of their relations goes far beyond the simplified duality of human thought; and we’ll get into how when seen in that simplified binary way, the debate often degenerates into a mud slinging distraction from the underlying issues that continue to thrive un-checked and often grow worse. Fortunately, our guest today is a master of this topic: professor of psychology, philosopher, writer, post-activist and executive director of the Emergence Network, Bayo Akomolafe. He is the author of the books, “These wilds beyond our fences”, “We will tell our own story”, and many beautiful essays which you can find on his website. A new book on his work, “Selah: A Bayo Akomolafe Reader” is out now. What we discussed: 00:00 Intro. 07:10 The importance of mythopoetry. 08:15 The story of Goddess Freya obsessively protecting her son Baldur. 11:15 The imperviousness of...

THE TEEN BRAIN EXPLAINED - Jennifer Pfeifer #86

May 14, 2026 1 hr 11 min

Are our preconceptions about teen behaviour true? What can we learn from the psychology and neuroscience of teen development to help support them rather than blame them? Are mobile phones and social media responsible for the jump in youth mental health issues? In this episode we have the topic of the adolescent brain to get the up to date science on. So we’re going to be testing our preconceptions about teenagers, and comparing the evidence base from research, to what we’ve come to believe through friends, family and heresay. So, we get into the development of the brain during puberty; just what behaviour hormones are and aren’t responsible for; whether the late completion of the frontal cortex, responsible for self control and reasoning, affects their ability to make important decisions; the consequences of social connection circuits developing for their sense of belonging or exclusion; the alarming rise in mental health issues among young people over the past 15 years, and whether the research supports recent claims that digital devices and social media are largely responsible. Fortunately to navigate these choppy waters we have the co-director for Center for Translational Neuroscience at the University of Oregon and the co-director of the National Scientific Council on Adolescence, Jennifer Pfeiffer. She is the author of over 150 scientific papers on the neuroscience and Psychology of adolescence, puberty, social cognition and teen mental health and self regulation. She is on a mission to use science to change our narratives about the adolescent brain which she explains in her excellent new TED X talk, “The surprising science of adolescent brains”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wr8VVJRcRSg What we discuss: 00:00 Intro 06:11 Need to shift the narrative about teens. 12:10 Puberty Vs Adolescence. 16:25 Preconceptions about teen development. 17:00 Impulsive and risk taking (1st preconception). 17:50 Frontal cortex not complete before 21/22 yo. (Executive reaso...

THE NEUROSCIENCE OF DMT - Andrew Gallimore PhD

Apr 30, 2026 1 hr 57 min

How are DMT experiences neurologically different to hallucinations? How does DMT alter the world modelling of our brains? What evidence is there that the brain is receiving information on DMT rather than modelling it? In this episode we have the extraordinary neuroscience of DMT to discuss, one of the most powerful mind altering substances on the planet. We discuss the history of research into its effects; relevant neuroscience; research into the mystical experiences it induces; the statistical significance of repeated, highly specific yet unearthly places and entities reported by experiencers across eras and cultures; experiments that extend the DMT experience for longer periods of time; the metaphysical implications if any; and finally we consider the mind bending possibility that the otherworldly creatures and realities experiencers repeatedly encounter could be actual realities connecting with our brains via DMT. Fortunately to navigate these mysterious results and ideas, we have chemist, computational neuroscientist and author Andrew Gallimore as our guide. Gallimore has written 16 scientific papers and three books including, “Reality Switch Technologies: Psychedelics as Tools for the Discovery and Exploration of New Worlds”, “Alien Information Theory: Psychedelic Drug Technologies and the Cosmic Game”, and his brand new book, “Death By Astonishment, confronting the mystery of the world’s strangest drug” which we’ll be focussing on in this episode. What we discuss: 00:00 Intro. 08:30 How DMT binds to the brain. 09:50 Receptors are like a cell’s perception organs. 14:25 The cascading of electrical patterns across neurones. 16:50 The big differences between DMT and 5meoDMT. 18:50 Hierarchical structure of model processing. Wilder Penfield, 1950’s. 26:20 Primary visual cortex stimulated even with eyes closed - fMRI DMT research. 32:20 Hallucinating schizophrenics don’t have the same activity in the primary visual cortex. 34:25 Evidence that DMT users are accessing...

THE QUEST FOR CONSCIOUSNESS - Christof Koch PhD #84

Dec 1, 2025 1 hr 34 min

What are the best competing theories of consciousness? Can we isolate where it arises and measure how complex it is? How do 5meo DMT mystical or non-separation experiences shift worldviews on consciousness? In this episode we have the very theme of the podcast’s title to delve into, the quest to understand the nature of consciousness. So we discuss mind and self, and what kind of substrate you need to allow for subjective experience; we look at the various philosophical positions on the nature of consciousness and ways to move beyond the unwinnable argument around the hard problem; we talk about extended cognition and cellular cognition; how integrated information theory attempts to quantify consciousness; the origin of meaning; psychedelics and the implications of mystical experiences of non-separation; whether AI will ever become conscious; and the implications of plant intelligence and memory. There’s only one person who can speak about such a wide range of topics this well, one of the most passionate consciousness researchers in the world for over 40 years, physicist and neuroscientist, Christof Koch. He’s Chief Scientist at the BlueDot Foundation, and has authored and co-authored over 1000 scientific papers and 6 books, including “The Quest for Consciousness”, “Confessions of a Romantic Reductionst” and “Then I am myself the World”, which we’ll be focussing on today. What we discuss: 00:00 His migration from physics to neuroscience. 06:10 “Take no one’s word for it”. 07:50 His long-term Francis Crick collaboration. 10:00 The signatures, footprints and correlates of consciousness. 17:50 The empirical approach to the philosophical ‘Hard problem’. 21:00 Metaphysics isn’t empirical. 21:40 The issues along the spectrum from materialism to idealism. 29:00 “The great divide of being” - quotidian vs dissociated states. 33:15 Is the self an illusion? 34:15 The difference between self consciousness and subjective experience. 38:00 “Confessions of a romantic reductionis...

HIGH-DOSE INTRAVENOUS VITAMIN C TRIALS - Dr. Richard Z. Cheng PhD #83

Nov 15, 2025 1 hr 21 min

Do the many clinical trials into high-dose vitamin C prove it can actually treat the common cold and cancer, rather than just boost the immune system? Why is there ongoing scepticism? Why are multifactorial chronic diseases so hard to study in clinical trials? What is the right dosage to get the best results from vitamin C?In this episode we have the often misunderstood topic of Vitamin C as an antioxidant to get clear on, particular the high-dose approach and particularly delivered intravenously. Despite a very clear consensus that Vitamin C is a great booster to immune function, research that shows that it helps fight the common cold or flu have been dismissed by doctors and medical researchers; as well as claims that higher doses can increase its efficacy. Other claims that Vitamin C can help fight cardio-vascular disease and even cancer have been with even greater scepticism. So what exactly can vitamin C do to assist our immune function to fight disease, and why is there so much confusion about the answer given the high quantity of clinical trials data?Fortunately today’s guest has exactly the right skill set and research knowledge to separate the science from the here-say, medical doctor and orthomolecular medicine researcher, Dr. Richard Z Cheng. Dr. Cheng has a PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology; he’s served as a doctor in the US military; he has consulted for the National Cancer Institute, and presented at the National Institute of Health (NIH); he has conducted clinical trials; He is the editor in Chief of the Orthmolecular Medicine New Service; He is also a fellow of the American Academy of Anti- Aging medicine; and has run anti-aging and regenerative medicine clinics in both China and the US for over 20 years.What we discuss:00:00 Intro05:15 Most animals produce Vitamin C in the body, but not primates.06:00 Oxidation & Redox: Giving or receiving an electron.11:00 After reducing oxidation the body recycles it back into vitamin C.14:00 Teamwork: sha...

WILL AI ROBOTS BE SENTIENT & THE QUANTUM FOUNDATIONS OF CONSCIOUSNESS - Suzanne Gildert PhD #82

Nov 1, 2025 1 hr 32 min

Will artificial intelligence robots have subjective experience? What are the ethical and safety implications of such entities? Which quantum physics theory can accommodate consciousness? In this episode we have the extraordinary possibility of subjective experience and feelings in artificial intelligence robotic systems to think about. So we look at experiments to try and prove if it’s even possible; the quantum building blocks from which both living and artificial systems are made up; the ethical and safety implications of advanced intelligence instantiated in robots, and we get into the controversial search for a quantum physics theory that can accommodate consciousness. Fortunately, my guest today is not only one of the first pioneering scientists to really devote themselves to the creation of sentient human-similar robot minds and bodies, but is also an experimental physicist working with quantum computing systems. She is of course the quantum engineer, consciousness researcher and AI computer scientist Suzanne Gildert. She has written over 80 scientific papers, founded several successful AI companies and has dozens of US patents for her inventions. What we discuss: 00:00 Intro. 04:25 Her move to AI & robotics from quantum computing. 06:45 Something missing from materialism. 11:00 The what, how and why of consciousness. 12:20 Remembering quantum fields are the base level of reality. 15:50 Quantum Biology - John Joe McFadden. 18:20 ‘Protecting’ quantum coherence environments. 20:00 The Penrose-Hameroff microtubules quantum consciousness theory. 24:40 The risks of the “two mysteries” argument. 30:10 Looking for subjective experience in AI robots. 33:55 “Reward function”, purpose led, agential behaviour doesn’t emerge naturally in AI. 36:25 Limitations to building sentient AI robots. 39:25 Iain McGilchrist’s left-right hemisphere interpretation of split brain data. 41:40 How similar are AI minds to human ones? 43:40 Will Ai become conscious one day? 44:40 The gene...

EXERCISE INTERVENTIONS FOR MENTAL HEALTH - Dr. Brendon Stubbs #81

Oct 14, 2025 1 hr 7 min

Is there evidence that even light exercise can improve mental health and help treat severe mental illness? How easy is it to prove the effects? Are our ever more sedentary lifestyles putting us at risk? How easy is it to apply in the current mental health treatment system? In this episode we have the revealing research on the use of exercise and movement to treat mental health to get up to date on. This is the third episode out of three in this series on the theme of life-style medicine, the other two being on Sleep for mental health (Episode #72 with Roxanne Prichard) and on diet for mental health (Episode #70 with Felice Jacka), so please check those out as all 3 interrelate in term of mental health outcomes. In this episode though we get into the reasons why even a little movement has a radical effect on our mental health; that movement can be used in association with talky and drug therapies to effectively treat even serious mental health disturbances like schizophrenia; we also get into the huge host of improvements across the board when exercise is applied; the impressive bulk of clinical trials that have proved this in the last 15 years; and we hear about the faster than usual uptake of this data by international policy makers, and the difficulties of practically integrating these protocols into the mental health care system. Now fortunately for us, our guest today is one of the world’s leading researchers in this field, mental health physiotherapist and Kings College London researcher, Brendon Stubbs. He is the co-author of over 800 highly cited scientific papers, and the book “Exercise-Based Interventions for Mental Illness: Physical Activity as Part of Clinical Treatment”. What we discuss: 00:00 Intro 06:40 Early attempts on the mental illness ward as a physio. 09:28 The rise of life-style research into mental health in the early 2000s. 12:00 Sedentary lifestyle issues. 13:24 The benefits of being both therapist & researcher. 15:50 Resistance to the word...

ON FACING DEATH, according to C.G.Jung - Monika Wikman PhD

Sep 30, 2025 1 hr 24 min

How should we support the dying, and how should we approach death itself? What is conscious dying? What does Carl Jung’s work say about facing death? In this episode we have the complex topic of how to face Death, through the lens of psycho analyst Carl Jung. I’m sure that some of you will have found this episode because you’re facing death during this time, either your own or of a loved one; and to those of you I offer my condolences and healing prayers, and hope dearly that what we discuss today will offer some perspective and assistance, and my apologies in advance if any of our ideas cause you pain: death and mourning are extremely personal topics. But I also hope that many others of you are here simply to try and form a healthier relationship with death.The inspiration for this episode came not only from my own experience facing my own parent’s mortality, but also from my intuition that our modern, consumeristic, aestheic and individualistic society has made us more afraid of death than ever; perhaps because of our modern societies focus on material well-being, and the power of technology to guarantee it. My gut feeling is that we need to become aware of this unconscious taboo, as it seems to be hindering a deeper and perhaps more wholesome acceptance of mortality in general. And that’s why I wanted to speak to a specialist like my guest psychoanalyst Monika Wikman. Monika received her PhD in clinical psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology and then qualified as a Jungian psychoanalyst at the Jung-Von Franz Center for Depth psychology in Zurich. She is an expert on topics including archetypal phenomena surrounding death, dreams, active imagination and alchemy. Her work with the dying culminated in a research project called ‘Dreams of the Dying’ at UC San Diego Medical Center. She is also the author of the book, “Pregnant Darknesss: Alchemy and the rebirth of consciousness”. What we discuss: 00:00 Intro. 04:30 How to support the dying...

THE 4th PHASE OF WATER EXPLAINED - Gerald Pollack #79

Sep 14, 2025 1 hr 48 min

What are the implications of the discovery of the chemical variation of water, nicknamed “The 4th phase”? What does the new structured chemical composition mean for the storage of energy and information? What can we learn from the discovery that electrical charge plays a role in the way water moves and transports other molecules? In this episode we have the fascinating new science of water to get into, particularly the research around the discovery of the gel-like chemical variation of water, nicknamed the “4th phase”. It occurs when water gets close to water friendly surfaces, and as it changes chemical structure, it separates into positive and negatively charged components. So we find out how this particular form of water is used by nature; how its structure can be ‘charged’ by infrared energy from the sun like a solar cell, becoming an energy source that can do work. We also separate the wheat from the chaff on the controversial ‘memory of water’ claims of Maseru Emoto and Nobel prize winner Luc Montagnier; and we discuss why there is so much resistance to this research despite the ubiquity and importance of water in biological systems. Fortunately to navigate this cutting edge research and avoid wishful thinking, we have the director of Pollack Labs at the University of Washington, one of the most established lab’s studying water in the world, Bioengineer, professor Gerald Pollack. He is the author of over 300 scientific papers, and four books for the general public including ‘Cells, Gels and the Engines of Life’, ‘The 4th Phase of Water’ and his new book just out ‘Charged - the unexpected role of electricity in the workings of nature’. What we discussed: 00:00 Intro. 10:00 The role of electricity in nature. 15:25 The Earth has a negative charge & the ionosphere positive. 19:00 The old consensus on water. 23:00 Gilbert Ling - cellular water is charged and so the molecules stack. 26:15 The transition of chemical structure when in contact with hydrophilic surfac...

THE MIND BODY PROBLEM & THE PANPSYCHISM SOLUTION - Galen Strawson PhD #78

Sep 1, 2025 1 hr 21 min

How can consciousness emerge from non-conscious material? If there is only one type of stuff, how is the potential for consciousness encoded in the building blocks of the universe? In this episode we have the ancient philosophical mind-body problem to get our heads around, and the ever more popular solution, panpsychism: That is, the belief that everything material, no matter how small, has always had a component of consciousness in it. We get into what consciousness is, why it’s not an illusion; into subjective experience; we cover the rich history of the mind-body problem in philosophy, and we also confront the apparently magical emergence of consciousness from non-consciousness by exploring the arguments for panpsychism, and how new understandings from the last 100 years of science might change preconceptions about a panpsychist solution. Fortunately, to understand this we have the hugely experienced author and analytical philosopher of mind, for many years at the university of Oxford and now at the university of Texas, professor Galen Strawson! Alongside over 140 papers, he has also written 12 books including “Consciousness and its place in nature”, “Things that bother me: Death, Freedom, the self etc” and his new book “Stuff, Quality and Structure”. What we discuss: 00:00 intro 05:30 ‘Naturalism’ as a position. 07:00 Qualia explained. 09:30 There’s only one kind of stuff: identity metaphysics. 12:00 A criticism of life as narrative story. 14:30 what is the self? 17:20 There is no mystery of consciousness. 19:15 Locke’s Primary and Secondary Qualities clarified. 21:45 The history of the mind-body problem. 27:30 The interaction problem VS the combination problem. 30:30 Radical emergence of consciousness from non-consciousness is impossible. 32:30 The arguments for panpsychism. 34:00 Psychophysical laws - David Chalmers. 35:00 The rise of panpsychism. 36:30 Different types of panpsychism. 41:30 Separating between conscious stuff, and subjects of consciousness. 48...

MEMETICS IN THE AGE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE- Susan Blackmore PhD

Jul 31, 2025 1 hr 1 min

What are memes and why do some replicate while others disappear? Are the memes selected for always for the benefit of the host culture? How are our new technologies changing the way memes feedback into our cultural evolution? In this episode we have the slightly disconcerting ideas of Memetic theory to get our heads around; as we learn how successful ideas and information are replicated by humans before being re-transmitted back out into world. We’ll see how these memes evolve our culture and minds over time, similarly to how our genes evolve through natural selection. But concerns will arise when we realise that this replication is not only selected for memes that are good for human evolution, and so memes seem to take on some type of evolutionary survival of their own. So when we now find ourselves in an internet era, with AI algorithms replicating ideas in an artificially amplified feedback loop with our own human memes, we get a cultural run away train, in which we are not really in control of our own culture and ideas. So fortunately, to get our head around this tough topic we have one of the inventors of the field, author of the 1999 book “The Meme Machine”, and by now, in her third appearance on Chasing Consciousness, our in-house sceptic - psychologist, philosopher, broadcaster and author Susan Blackmore. She’s best known for her books "Zen and the Art of Consciousness, Consciousness: An Introduction", and "Seeing Myself". Susan’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 experiences, and anomalous experiences. What we discuss: 00:00 Intro. 04:00 Using Natural Selection to apply to the imitation and thus survival of ideas. 06:35 Successful imitation of behaviours came first. 07:35 The ideas that get copied more, for whatever reason, survive longer. 08:40 Language allowed better copying and feedback. 12:10 Memplexes: an...

AI SAFETY - A SCEPTICAL VIEW - Stephen Wolfram PhD #76

Jul 14, 2025 1 hr 40 min

What are the benefits and risks of developing advanced AI? What kind of safety precautions could we take? Could we risk never making future discoveries, by over-limiting today’s AI in pre-emptive safety regulations? In this episode we get a sceptical evaluation of the complex debate that’s currently raging on artificial Intelligence safety, aiming to get a balanced view of the extremely useful applications versus the currently hugely publicised existential risks, and evaluate the safety measures and legislative frameworks that are being considered to help avoid risk to humans. To do this we trace the path from today’s artificial intelligence right up the ever steeper curve towards artificial super intelligence; we risk risk assess the unpredictability of emergent properties of such systems; we assess the future of work, and the potential loss of control of our culture as AI starts to outnumber us and generate more and more of the media we consume. My guest today has a unique take on these issues which took me by surprise, as he disagrees with the alarmism and call for harsh regulation, whilst openly predicting that emergent properties will more or less guarantee safety hazards. The fact that he has been at the cutting edge of computer science for over 40 years, creating computer language and Ai solutions, makes him well placed to provide a counterpoint to the AI safety campaigners calling for collective action. He is of course physicist, computer scientist and tech entrepreneur Stephen Wolfram. In 1987 he left academia at Caltech and Princeton behind and devoted himself to his own computer systems 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”, “A project to find the fundamental theory of physics”, and “Computer modelling and simulation of dynamic systems”, and most recently “The Second law” about the mystery of Entropy. What we discussed: 00:00 Intro. 06:3...

OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCES: THE ANTHROPOLOGY - Samantha Lee Treasure #75

Jun 30, 2025 1 hr 29 min

What are the contents of Out of Body Experiences? How closely do they map the actual physical world? Is it possible to induce them purposefully? How do modern practices compare to indigenous shamanic ones? In this Episode we look at the scientific, religious, cultural and historical contexts of Out of Body Experiences, also known as astral projection - so the experience in which an individual appears to leave their body and be able to travel around the world and into other dimensions, often meeting other worldly entities, similarly to DMT psychedelic experiences, (see Episode #73, “DMT Entity Experiences”). So, we get into the phenomenology- the various things people experience; potential neurobiological explanations; and the possibility of inducing the experiences on purpose and of exploring alternate realities; we get into indigenous traditions of ‘Shamanic flight’ and which people might be predisposed to these alternate states of consciousness; and we end up talking about a potential connection between OBE, sleep paralysis and ludic dreaming. To discuss this slippery topic, we have a researcher who is also a lifelong experiencer, who has devoted her career to trying to understand these phenomena, the medical anthropologist and author Samantha Lee Treasure; she has an MA in Medical Anthropology from SOAS university in London, has been a brain science research assistant at the University of Liege, and has just released her first book on the topic, “Out of Body experiences”, the release of which this episode is timed to coincide with. What we discuss: 00:00 Intro. 11:30 What is medical anthropology? 16:00 OBE entity research. 22:15 Samantha’s New Book - getting beyond preconceptions. 25:50 OBE vs Astral projection - bypassing the taboo. 30:00 Common reported OBE experiences. 33:00 Mental body schemas and projected models of the world. 37:00 Do OBE’s map the real world accurately? 45:00 Olaf Blanke - the Temporoparietal junction discovery. 48:45 No sense of smell dur...

INTELLIGENT LIFE ON OTHER PLANETS, WHAT ARE THE CHANCES? - Adam Frank PhD #74

Jun 14, 2025 1 hr 17 min

How do astronomers detect the conditions for life and techno-signatures on exoplanets many lightyears away? What conditions on earth give us clues to how life might have formed elsewhere? How do intelligent civilisations evolve to technomaturity before they destroy themselves? So in this episode we have the mysterious arising of life and eventually intelligent life on our planet to try and explain, to then apply that to our search for other intelligent life in the cosmos. So to explain that we’re going to be getting into the co-evolution of the geosphere and the biosphere on earth and their corresponding feedback loops; the possibility of planetary level intelligence; the difficulty of laying a technosphere on top of the geo and biosphere, and the risk of civilisations wiping themselves out before learning how to harmonise the technosphere with the biosphere; We’ll be looking at the changes in the field of SETI (the Search for Extraterrestrial Terrestrial Intelligence), since we can now identify potentially life sustaining exo-planets in nearer parts of the galaxy; we’re going to get into the newly funded search for techno signatures from advanced civilisations, and potential space junk from the many civilisations that presumably didn’t make it; lastly we’re going to discuss recent claims of ancient and alleged present visitations to earth by extra terrestrial intelligence. Fortunately to face these tough and complex issues, our guest is a world specialist in astrobiology, with a talent for making these topics fun and imaginative, an astrophysics professor at the University of Rochester, Professor Adam Frank. He’s the author of over 200 scientific papers and 6 books for the general public including, “The Blind Spot: why science cannot ignore human experience” and “The Little book of Aliens” which we’ll be focussing on today. He’s also an award winning science communicator, on a mission to raise public awareness about existential risk and science in general. What we...

DMT ENTITY ENCOUNTERS, A QUANTITATIVE STUDY - Dr David W Lawrence #73

May 31, 2025 1 hr 19 min

What’s the architecture of a DMT experience, who are the entities that regularly interact and what’s their message? How can DMT therapy facilitate positive mental health outcomes? In this episode we’re going to learn about the bizarre types of experience that users of DMT have; DMT being the most powerful hallucinogenic molecule on the planet. So we’ll be getting into the background of psychedelics for mental health; and the particularities of DMT, the active ingredient in Ahyuasca and the psychedelic that most often presents entities that interact meaningfully with the experiencer; we’re going to discuss the different types of entities: from mythological creatures, to Gods and Demons, to machine elves and aliens, and the significance of these same characters appearing significantly often without an obvious primer; we’ll also discuss the importance of mystical experience and teacher /guide experiences to positive mental health outcomes. Fortunately our guest was the head researcher on a 2022 paper that looked at exactly this topic, the medical doctor and sports scientist professor at the University of Toronto, Dr. David Wyndham Lawrence. He’s published over 35 scientific papers across sports science and psychedelics for medical use. What we discussed: 00:00 Intro 05:20 Concussion, sports mental health & psychedelic therapy. 08:10 Bringing in Robin Carhartt-Harris on the gaps in sports mental health treatment. 12:06 Why psychedelics for those already in psychological difficulty? 14:04 Serotonin receptor - neuro-protective mitochondria function. 15:00 DMT is endogenous to the brain. 18:20 Medical institution meets shamanism. 23:50 David’s DMT phenomenology paper. 30:10 The architecture of the DMT world. 32:60 Mostly positive, interactive entity encounters. 37:05 Occasionally negative encounters. 38:40 Negative psychedelic experiences study - Jules Evans. 40:05 How much “Primers” from pop culture influence experiences. 44:00 Alien encounters in %16 of participants....

THE SLEEP DEPRIVATION EPIDEMIC & SOLUTIONS - Roxanne Prichard PhD

May 14, 2025 1 hr 13 min

What are we sleeping less and less? What are the benefits of getting a good nights sleep and the risks if we consistently don’t? How is sleep linked to memory, cognitive performance, blood sugar regulation & stress hormones? How is young people’s development affected by sleep? In this episode we have the surprising data on the science of sleep to get up to date on; so, why there’s a sleep deprivation epidemic; how sleep works and what it’s required for; dreams; and importance of sleep for learning and for immunity. We’re also going to discuss the wide range of serious health issues that arise with even a small sleep deficit, and the vast benefits of getting sleep right; and the lifestyle tips we need to consistently get the sleep we need. And of course, sleep and mental health, and the importance of sleep for development in young people. Gratefully our guest today is a psychologist and neuroscientist that specialises in sleep, mental health and dream research, particularly in young people. She’s the Scientific Director of Psychology at the University of St. Thomas, Minnesota, Roxanne Prichard! She’s the author of over 40 highly citied scientific papers, and her TEDx talk “Addressing our Childrens Sleep Debt” was featured in the lecture series: Transforming Education. She’s quoted regularly in the press, inlcuding the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Teen Vogue, and USA Today. What we discussed: 00:00 Intro. 05:00 The Sleep deprivation epidemic. 07:15 Shaking off prejudice about resting being laziness. 08:31 Glymphatic system for toxin removal. 10:00 Synaptic plasticity: Learning & unlearning. 11:10 Learning & memory require sleep. 14:00 The hippocampus processes memory during sleep. 15:00 Late night cramming for exams blocks learning. 15:50 Lack of sleep appears to the body as a threat out in the world. 17:40 Blood sugar regulation is affected by sleep. 18:00 “Sleep! Like diet and exercise only easier!” 19:10 Immunity and sleep deprivation. 21:00 Cancer & regul...

GLOBAL FIELD CONSCIOUSNESS THEORY - Roger Nelson PhD #71

Apr 30, 2025 1 hr 38 min

Can intention alone cause changes in physical systems? Can the collective attention of a large group of people to an event cause changes in the coherence changes in physical systems, despite that lack of intention to do so? In today’s episode we’re going to be exploring a field consciousness hypothesis: so a variation on the idea that consciousness may extend beyond the body and interact casually with physical systems and the consciousness of other beings, in some kind of resonant field phenomena. We’re going to be learning about the experiments with random number generators used to test this hypothesis; how human intention and attention has been proved to be able to affect these random outputs in a vast backlog of positive results and meta analyses; We're going to hear about how these experiments have been taken global, looking at collective effects on RNGs of particularly important world events that many people are attending to; we’re going to be looking at criticisms of the statistical analysis and a potential experimenter effect; and we’re going to be talking about the contrast between some seemingly non-local effects with other localised effects; and as always we’re going to be getting into the implications, in this case of whether the ‘field consciousness’ effect the data seems to point to, is more likely to be a unified field of consciousness, so in some sense a single mind, or simply the aggregated sum of all individual consciousnesses. Now fortunately to guide us as we carefully test the thickness of the ice on this genuinely alternative world view of consciousness, we have the cognitive psychologist that has pioneered these field consciousness experiments since he founded the Global Consciousness Project at the Princeton University PEAR labs, Roger Nelson. Roger worked at Princeton’s PEAR labs in the department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, initially under Bob Jahn, for over twenty years until his retirement in 2002. He is also the author of th...

MOOD FOOD: TREATING MENTAL HEALTH WITH DIET - Felice Jacka PhD #70

Apr 14, 2025 1 hr 44 min

How much can a change in diet influence symptoms of mental health disorders? Why are a diversity of plants and whole foods so important to include, and ultra processed foods so important to remove? Why are inflammation and microbe diversity in the gut so key to this question? What does this research mean for the life-style medicine movement and to world food policy? In this episode we have the exploding new field of nutritional psychiatry to get to grips with, that is the way our diet can influence and even treat mental health conditions. We’re going to be discussing the historical separation of mind and body by science, which has led to scepticism that diet could influence mental health outcomes; the new understanding of the importance of diversity in our microbiome and inflammation to our mood and mental state; our main topic which is going to be the radical results of recent trials showing large changes in cognitive and mental health outcomes when diet is altered; we’ll get into the foods that can bring about that change and why they work; and we’re going to be getting into the reasons for the broken industrialised food environment that has contributed to the current mental health epidemic in the west. Fortunately, to understand this complex new field, our guest today is the very scientist that risked her reputation to conduct the first trials, facing considerable pushback, only to shift the consensus remarkably quickly with some top science, Felice Jacka. She is the Deakin University Distinguished Professor of Nutritional Psychiatry in Melbourne, the founder and director of the Food & Mood Centre, and of the International Society of Nutritional Psychiatry; She has been cited in over 100 institutional directives for food policy including the World Health Organization and UNICEF; and she is also the author of two books on this for the general public, the children’s book “There’s a Zoo in my Poo” and for adults “Brain Changer: How diet can save your mental health”...

EMBODIED COGNITION MEETS BUDDHISM - Evan Thompson PhD #69

Mar 31, 2025 1 hr 36 min

What is the relationship between our cognition and our bodies in the natural environment? How do we reconcile the presence of mind in life without splitting them into a dualism? What are the similarities between cognitive science and the buddhist view of the mind? How can we resist the bifurcation of nature into subjective and objective? In this episode we have the important topic of embodied cognition to raise our awareness about, that is the importance of our biologically lived experience to our perspective of world. So we get into the biologist and neuroscientist Francisco Varela’s concept of Autopoiesis, literally ‘self creation’ from the Greek, which describes the extraordinary tenacity of self-organising living systems to create and sustain themselves; we discuss the meeting point of buddhism, meditation, asian philosophy and modern cognitive science which may have become overstated in recent decades; and we get into the deep continuity between body and mind, and the importance of the artificial separation of the objective and subjective in the history of science, that has led us to the dominant position of reductionist materialism. To face these diverse topics, we have as our guest the hugely influential philosopher, cognitive scientist and Asian philosophy scholar Evan Thompson. Evan is Professor of Philosophy at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and an Associate Member of the Department of Asian Studies and the Department of Psychology (Cognitive Science Group). He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He is the author of many books, collected works, and papers, including “The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience”, “Mind in Life”, “Why I’m not a buddhist” and “The Blind Spot, why science cannot ignore human experience”. What we discuss: 00:00 Intro. 06:30 Francisco Varela and the “Embodied Mind” book. 11:00 Embodied experience, embedded in the environment. 13:15 Chalmers and Clarke: Extended mind. 15:30 Autopoies...

MEMORY - A NEW PERSPECTIVE - Charan Ranganath PhD #68

Mar 14, 2025 1 hr 22 min

Why and how do we store certain memories and not others? What lifestyle elements influence memory for better or worse? Can traumatic memories be reframed and lead to reduction in symptoms? In this episode we get into the most recent research into memory. So, how we store memory; the different types; the way we actively construct it rather than simply receiving it; it’s importance to our sense of self and framing of the world; to our attention and motivation; to our openness and updating our beliefs; and to Deja Vu. We talk about the influence of screen time and multi-tasking on memory; some unexpected life style factors that influence the quality of memory function and how they can feed into memory disorders; and we discuss traumatic memories and how we can reframe them, and the psychedelic research on that too. Fortunately, our guest is one of the world’s most fun and knowledgeable authorities on memory, psychologist, neuroscientist, and head of the dynamic memory lab at The University of California Davis, Dr. Charan Ranganath. He’s the author of over 120 scientific papers on memory and has recently released a fascinating book for the general public on all this, “Why We Remember”. Charan is also a rock guitarist with several bands so a man of many talents. What we discuss: 00:00 intro. 07:20 The remembering self vs experiencing self. 09:30 We forget a lot, we’re supposed to. 11:00 Autobiographic memory. 13:30 Episodic memory. 14:20 Emotional intensity brings attention, which is linked to motivation. 18:20 Association, cue and prompts, and the hippocampus. 20:30 Memory athletes and training memory. 21:51 Storifcation, mental schemas and ‘scaffolding’ new memories with old blueprints. 24:40 Preconceptions, bias and prejudice is baked into new memories. 27:00 Imagining the past (re-membering) and imagining the future are very similar in the brain. 29:15 The brain is not linear, rather a global network of dynamic interaction between brain regions simultaneously. 3...

PLANT INTELLIGENCE, MEMORY & COMMUNICATION - Monica Gagliano PHD #67

Dec 1, 2024 1 hr 20 min

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 o...

MORPHIC RESONANCE, NATURE'S MEMORY & EXTENDED MIND - Rupert Sheldrake PHD #66

Nov 15, 2024 1 hr 17 min

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 h...

POST-REDUCTIONIST SCIENCE - Marcelo Gleiser PHD #54

Nov 1, 2024 2 hr 10 min

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...

THE YOUTH MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS & SOLUTIONS - Louis Weinstock #64

Sep 30, 2024 1 hr 29 min

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...

METACOGNITION: THE SCIENCE OF SELF-AWARENESS - Stephen Fleming PHD #63

Sep 15, 2024 1 hr 40 min

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 Intro05:15 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 simi...

ANALYSING UFO EXPERIENCERS' BRAINS & ANOMALOUS MATERIALS - Garry Nolan PhD #62

Aug 31, 2024 1 hr 28 min

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 cal...

UPDATING OUR MENTAL HEALTH APPROACHES - Camilla Nord PHD #61

Jul 31, 2024 1 hr 18 min

How can neuroscience help us personalise mental health diagnoses and treatments? How are mental heath stats changing and why? How effective are life style changes as a prevention? What other new treatments are proving promising and effective? In this episode we’re going to get an update on all the recent research from neuroscience that’s studying mental health, and not just the issues and the treatments being used to deal with them, but also the importance of the brain itself in the perception of our mental health, and the lifestyle choices that can preventatively ward off the issues before they arise; things like nutrition, sleep, exercise, and social contact. We’ll be looking at the big one: depression and its connection to inflammation, and a wide range of buzz therapies including psychedelic therapy and cold water immersion. Today’s guest has just written a book for the public on this topic “The Balanced Brain: The science of mental health”, and her lab at MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences in Cambridge bridges the gap between the nuts and bolts of cognitive neuroscience and the more mind base of clinical psychology. She is neuroscientist and author Camilla Nord. In 2022, she was named a Rising Star by the US Association for Psychological Science, and received the Young Investigator Award from the European Society for Affective and Cognitive Science. Now it strikes me that if we can integrate new evidence from brain research into the clinical psychology field, we‘ve got a much better shot at treating ever rising numbers of mental health diagnoses and perhaps educating a good portion of the next generation enough to avoid these issues all together. It may be a pipe dream but we’ve got to try. What we discuss: 00:00 Intro 07:00 Our perception of pain. 11:00 Body changes lead to mental health changes. 12:00 Our ‘Inside-out’ perception is an active predictor of our mental health and the outside world. 16:00 The importance of narrative repetition to our self-percept...

THE PHYSICS OF RETRO-CAUSATION AND TIME SYMMETRY - Daniel Sheehan PHD #60

Jul 14, 2024 1 hr 9 min

Can time symmetry in physics, combined with exceptional violations of the 2nd law of thermodynamics, and the “quantum handshake” transactional interpretation of Quantum mechanics, open up main stream physics to the possibility of retro-causation? Could it help to explain the many paradoxes left open in modern physics? and is there experimental evidence for it? Today we have the extraordinary possibility of retro-causation to get our heads around: the apparently impossible phenomenon of events in the present causing changes in the past, or future events having an effect in the present depending on how you want to look at it. Today we’ll be approaching this topic via the context of time symmetry in physics. As far back as 1947, French quantum physicist Olivier Costa de Beauregard, began to question the usual interpretation of time in quantum mechanics, intuiting that something was missing from the model for the many paradoxes in Quantum Mechanics to remain unexplained. And then, with others get on board over the years, in the 80’s, John G Kramer, agreed that the missing ingredient was found in time symmetry and he proposed a ‘quantum handshake’ between the waves passing forward and backward in time at the moment of collapse; in this Transactional Interpretation of quantum mechanics, Kramer claimed he had solved the paradoxes. My guest today has put together this research, a re-interpretation of the 2nd law of thermodynamics based on violations where Entropy exceptionally does not hold, and theorisation about quantum correlates to consciousness to create a new theory of retro-causation, which he thinks can be tested. He is Daniel Sheehan, Author and Professor of Physics at the University of San Diego, specialist in plasma physics, violations of the 2nd Law thermodynamics and Retro-causation. He is the founder the Quantum Retro-causation symposia that met at The University of San Diego. What we discuss: 00:00 Intro. 09:00 Time dilation: the twin paradox. 12:20 Time sym...

THE MEANING CRISIS & EMBODIED PRACTICE SOLUTIONS - John Vervaeke PHD #59

Jun 30, 2024 2 hr 0 min

How have we ended up in a meaning crisis and what are the symptoms? Why is embodiment important to knowing? Why is an ecology of practices part of the solution? Today we have the growing issue of The Meaning Crisis to discuss, and the embodied practices that could offer a few solutions. This conversation is a part 2, following directly on from Episode #51, where John and I talked about Collective intelligence, and how the evolution of distributed cognition has led to homo-sapiens being such effective collaborators. It was so fascinating that we didn’t have time to connect the sheer power of our collective intelligence, to today’s discussion about what John has dubbed The Meaning Crisis. We come back to the importance of our propensity for self-transcendence, and the correspondent risk of self-delusion; how important a sense of the sacred is to our sense of meaning in life, to our mental health; then we zoom in on the importance of a range of embodied practices that John calls an ecology of practices, like Chi Gong, circling, flow states and meditation to re-discover lost forms of knowledge and embodied cognition that John thinks can bring us back from the brink of self delusion and self destruction. There is of course only one polymath who can speak about so many things and connect them all, like a ninja of the mind as one listener called him, the Cognitive scientist and philosopher John Vervaeke. Vervaeke is the director of the university of Toronto’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. Vervaeke has taught courses on Buddhism and Cognitive Science in the Buddhism, Psychology, and Mental Health programs for 15 years. He is also the author and presenter of his much loved YouTube series “Awakening from the Meaning Crisis” and ‘After Socrates.’ What we discuss: 00:00 Intro 06:15 Self-transcendence VS self-delusion. 07:45 The ‘fram...

THE BELIEVING BRAIN & CONSPIRACY THEORY - Michael Shermer PHD #58

Jun 24, 2024 2 hr 3 min

Why do we have the tendency to believe things when they may not be true? Why do we project patterns, agency and meaning onto the world when sometimes there is none? How can we consider the probabilities of conspiracies to identify the ones that may be true? How do we encourage brave journalism that calls out conspiracies even by powerful institutions, in spite of the pejorative term ‘conspiracy theorist’?Today we have the uncomfortable topic of how our brains often believe things which aren’t true. The topic fits perfectly with our theme for series 4 of Self-transcendence vs Self-delusion. Our innate ability to notice patterns in systems, assign agency and find meaning in the world are among the reasons we’ve evolved to become so successful at predicting, understanding and creating meaningful collaborations in the world. But the issue with these abilities is that we might make the mistake of thinking what the brain assigns to the world for our own survival, is necessarily true of the world itself. Sure our brains do track the truth but truth is not always what’s needed for survival; so issues like negativity bias, confirmation bias and creating narrative stories that conveniently map onto our existing world view have become a deeply engrained part of our society. Add to this modern phenomena like the siloing of information by the internet into small echo chambers where only like minds come together; algorithmic amplification of memes led by the internet business model of “maximising engagement”; and decreasing trust in institutions, as economic inequality in the world increases exponentially, and you get a perfect storm of clashing beliefs about the truth.Fortunately, our guest today is one of the most established sceptical voices in science who reminds us that we need to track closely the difference between what can be collectively confirmed to be true, and what our brains project to be true from the inside out. He is of course, New York Times best selling author a...

Dr. Sarah McKay - FEMALE HORMONES: MENOPAUSE & MOTHERHOOD

May 31, 2024 1 hr 49 min

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...

Jeremy Rifkin - THIRD INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION SOLUTIONS

May 14, 2024 2 hr 2 min

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 Int...

Dr. Neil Theise - COMPLEXITY THEORY & SELF ORGANISING SYSTEMS

Apr 30, 2024 1 hr 30 min

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 question...

Peter Levine PHD - TRAUMA STORED IN THE BODY: SOMATIC EXPERIENCING

Apr 14, 2024 1 hr 16 min

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 threatenin...

Diana Pasulka PHD - BELIEF IN UFOS: COLLECTIVE VISION OR OBJECTIVE REALITY?

Mar 31, 2024 1 hr 28 min

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, patholo...

Stephen Wolfram PHD - THE COMPUTATIONAL UNIVERSE & MODELLING COMPLEXITY

Mar 15, 2024 2 hr 1 min

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 abo...

John Vervaeke PHD - USING OUR COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE

Dec 1, 2023 1 hr 57 min

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...

Rebecca Dennis - BREATHWORK EXPLAINED

Nov 15, 2023 1 hr 19 min

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 discuss...

Michael Levin PHD - BIOELECTRICITY AND THE BLUEPRINTS OF LIFE

Nov 1, 2023 1 hr 20 min

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...

Dr. James Hollis - 'THE SHADOW' AND HOW TO INTEGRATE IT

Oct 14, 2023 1 hr 5 min

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...

Shohini Ghose PHD - QUANTUM COMPUTERS AND WOMEN IN SCIENCE

Sep 30, 2023 1 hr 18 min

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...

Roy Baumeister PHD - NEGATIVITY BIAS EXPLAINED

Sep 14, 2023 1 hr 13 min

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”....

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Podcast details

Created by: Freddy Drabble
Status: Active
Latest episode: Nov 1, 2026
Episodes: 97
Release period: Every two weeks
Avg. episode length: 1 hr 28 min
Explicit: No
Language: English

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