The Ineffable Nature of Consciousness

Jussi Jylkkä is a philosopher and psychologist based at Åbo Akademi University in Finland. In 2008 he completed a PhD in philosophy at the University of Turku on the relationship between language and reality. He then began studying the hard problem of consciousness and had a transformative mystical experience. After becoming frustrated that he couldn’t express this insight in words, he moved to study psychology and, in 2017, he completed a second PhD at Åbo Akademi University, this time in psychology. His research interests include consciousness, psychedelics, Zen philosophy, metaphysics and epistemology, all of which we talk about today.