Healing and the Nature of Self with Karl Friston

Jun 7, 2025

Karl Friston, a leading neuroscientist from University College London, explores profound connections between neuroscience and the self. He discusses the Free Energy Principle, shedding light on how we minimize uncertainty in our lives. The conversation delves into attachment theory, resilience in change, and the role of meditation and yoga in understanding uncertainty. Friston also touches on emotional learning in education and the interplay of technology and genuine human connection, all while considering the fascinating realm of parapsychology.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Books

Transcript

Episode notes

INSIGHT

Existence and Synchrony

Existence as a self entails synchrony between brain states and the external world.
This synchronization reflects probabilistic beliefs encoded in the brain, highlighting dual aspect monism.

INSIGHT

Attachment Builds Predictability

The infant builds a predictable world model through synchronized interactions with caregivers.
Failure to get predictable responses leads to fragility in self and world models, causing insecurity.

ADVICE

Embrace Uncertainty for Resilience

Embrace uncertainty as an opportunity to update mental models and grow.
Adaptively respond by learning and exploring to regain predictability and resilience.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

Healing and the Nature of Self with Karl Friston

Karl Friston is widely regarded as one of the most influential neuroscientists of our time. Some peers consider him the foremost neuroscientist in history. As a professor at University College London, Friston has made groundbreaking contributions to neuroimaging and theoretical neuroscience. His most significant contribution is the Free Energy Principle, a foundational framework in neuroscience stating that biological systems minimize surprise (or uncertainty) by continuously updating their internal models to predict and adapt to their environment.

From predictive coding and attachment theory to affective neuroscience, meditation, and nonduality, Friston explores how the brain builds models of the world—and how those models shape our experience of suffering and liberation. He discusses early developmental imprinting, the SEEKING system in affective neuroscience, and the possibility of parapsychological phenomena, all through the lens of self-organization and synchrony. This conversation bridges science and spirit, offering insights into healing, transformation, and a return to the ground of Being.

00:00:00 Introduction
00:06:19 Exploring existence and beingness
00:11:13 Dual aspect monism and the embodied brain
00:19:08 Safety, uncertainty, and development
00:27:36 Resilience and coping with change
00:31:17 Yoga, meditation, and uncertainty
00:38:28 Consilience across disciplines
00:49:13 Optimizing human systems through education
01:04:26 Parapsychology and synchronization of chaos
01:08:20 Final thoughts

Definitions:

Free Energy:
Free energy is the difference between what we expect and what we actually experience—it measures surprise or uncertainty in a system.

Markov Blanket:
A Markov blanket is like an invisible boundary that separates a system (like a living being) from its environment, allowing it to sense and act while maintaining its own integrity.

Bayes Optimal:
Being Bayes optimal means making the best possible decisions based on all available information and past experience, continuously updating beliefs as new information comes in.

Active Inference:
Active inference is the process of taking actions that reduce uncertainty—constantly adjusting what we perceive and how we behave to better match the world around us.

Epistemic Motivation:
Epistemic motivation is the deep drive to seek information and reduce uncertainty, like a built-in curiosity that helps systems learn, adapt, and survive.

New Thinking Allowed Guest Host Leanne Whitney, PhD, is a depth psychologist and transformational coach based in Los Angeles, CA. Her website is https://leannewhitney.com/

Producer: Elena McNally
Editor: John Hartmann
(Recorded on March 12, 2025)

For a short video on How to Get the Most From New Thinking Allowed, go to • InPresence 0253: How to Get the Most …

For a complete, updated list with links to all of our videos, see https://newthinkingallowed.com/Listin….

Check out the New Thinking Allowed Foundation website at http://www.newthinkingallowed.org. There you will find our incredible, searchable database as well as opportunities to shop and to support our video productions – plus, this is where people can subscribe to our FREE, weekly Newsletter and can download a FREE .pdf copy of our quarterly magazine.

Check out New Thinking Allowed’s AI chatbot. You can create a free account at https://ai.servicespace.org When you enter the space, you will see that our chatbot is one of several you can interact with. While it is still a work in progress, it has been trained on 1,600 NTA transcripts. It can provide intelligent answers about the contents of our interviews. It’s almost like having a conversation with Jeffrey Mishlove.

To order high-quality, printed copies of our quarterly magazine, visit https://NTA-Magazine.MagCloud.com

If you would like to join our team of volunteers, helping to promote the New Thinking Allowed YouTube channel on social media, editing and translating videos, creating short video trailers based on our interviews, helping to upgrade our website, or contributing in other ways (we may not even have thought of), please send an email to friends@newthinkingallowed.com.

To join the NTA Psi Experience Community on Facebook, see / 1953031791426543

To download and listen to audio versions of the New Thinking Allowed videos, please visit our new podcast at https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/n….

You can help support our video productions while enjoying a good book. To order a copy of New Thinking Allowed Dialogues: Is There Life After Death? click on https://amzn.to/3LzLA7Y (As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.)

To order New Thinking Allowed Dialogues: Russell Targ – Ninety Years of ESP, Remote Viewing, and Timeless Awareness, go to https://amzn.to/4aw2iyr

To order New Thinking Allowed Dialogues: UFOs and UAP – Are We Really Alone?, go to https://amzn.to/3Y0VOVh