Chasing Consciousness

Iain McGilchrist PHD - NAVIGATING BEYOND MATERIALISM

Dec 1, 2021

Psychiatrist and author Dr. Iain McGilchrist discusses a post physicalist world and a broader understanding of mind and reality. He explores the limitations of reductionist materialism, the relationship between consciousness and matter, and the complexity of evolution. He also argues against the reductive materialist mindset and explores the relationship between the sacred and scientific reasoning.

01:45:32

Creator website

Episode guests

Iain McGilchrist

AI Summary

Highlights

AI Chapters

Episode notes

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

Consciousness is fundamental to reality and may have existed from the beginning of the universe, challenging the notion that matter exists independently of consciousness.

A post-materialist science recognizes the significant role of consciousness and encourages a broader understanding of reality beyond what can be measured in a laboratory.

Matter and consciousness co-arise and are intertwined, suggesting that consciousness has been present from the beginning rather than emerging solely from matter.

Deep dives

Consciousness and matter are intertwined

Consciousness and matter are intricately connected, with consciousness potentially existing from the beginning of the universe. The observer effect and the phenomenon of entanglement in quantum mechanics challenge the notion that the material world exists independently of consciousness. It is more logical to consider the possibility that consciousness is a fundamental aspect of reality, rather than something that emerges solely from matter. This perspective aligns with the idea that consciousness and matter co-arise, with neither being primary over the other.

Question the Limits of Scientism

01:20

Newtonian Mechanics and Quantum Theory

01:20

Matter and Mind: Embrace Complexity

01:20

Consciousness as a Certainty in an Illusory World

01:20

Introduction

5min

Exploring Consciousness, Intuition, and the Spiral of Development

5min

The Journey from Literature to Medicine

23min

Limitations of Scientism and the Need for a More Open Approach

19min

Consciousness and Matter: Exploring the Relationship

21min

Complexity of Evolution and Intelligent Behavior in Organisms

7min

The Matter with Things

11min

The Sacred and Science

15min

What would a post physicalist world look like?

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

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

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

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

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

What we discuss in this episode:

00:00 In communication with the world itself

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

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

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

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

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

30:48 Imagination and intuition in scientific discovery

33:10 Reason suggests there are immaterial things

37:40 We only know about matter because of consciousness

42:00 Navigating beyond materialism