Jesse Michels is an investor at Thiel Capital and the creator and host of ‘American Alchemy’, a Youtube channel dedicated to highlighting the most heretical thinkers and ideas of our time. He joins the show to discuss the transmission theory of consciousness, whether mushrooms are aliens, the reawakening of the Boomers and MUCH more! Important Links:

• American Alchemy
• Jesse’s Twitter

Show Notes:

• The modern-day Robert Anton Wilson
• Why Jesse started American Alchemy
• The transmission theory of consciousness
• Why mushrooms may have catalysed human civilisation
• Paradigm shifts and heretical thinking
• Are mushrooms aliens?
• Nixon, psychedelics & brainwashing
• The reawakening of the Boomers
• AGI, qualia & quantum physics
• AI, learned helplessness & Twitter
• The power of curiosity
• Reality is a compressed version of something much larger.
• MUCH more!

Books Mentioned:

• The Half-Life of Facts: Why Everything We Know Has an Expiration Date; by Samuel Arbesman
• The User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to Size; by Tor Norretranders
• Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid; by Douglas Hofstadter
• The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World; by David Deutsch
• The Immortality Key : The Secret History of the Religion with No Name; by Brian C. Muraresku
• The New Inquisition: Irrational Rationalism and the Citadel of Science; by Robert Anton Wilson
• How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression and Transcendence; by Michael Pollan
• Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties; by Tom O’Neill
• Weird Scenes Inside the Canyon: Laurel Canyon, Covert Ops & the Dark Heart of the Hippie Dream; by David McGowan
• Prometheus Rising; by Robert Anton Wilson
• Quantum Psychology: How Brain Software Programs You & Your World; by Robert Anton Wilson
• The Cosmic Trigger trilogy; by Robert Anton Wilson
• Communion: A True Story; by Whitley Strieber