Chasing Consciousness

Dean Radin, a PhD researcher delving into psi phenomena, shares fascinating insights on telepathy and precognition. He explores over a century of peer-reviewed research that challenges conventional physics, and discusses the psychological nuances of belief and emotional connections in experiments. The podcast also addresses mind-matter interaction and the intriguing cases of remote viewing in military contexts. Radin argues for a shift in scientific attitudes towards these phenomena, linking them to emerging perspectives in quantum mechanics.

Why are religious and mystical experiences important to our sense of meaning and purpose in life? What is a spiritual emergency and how can it actually help us in the long run? Are transpersonal experiences illusions of the mind or can they tell us anything about the nature of reality? In this episode, we have the extraordinary topic of Transpersonal Psychology to learn about. With the steady rise in popularity of western secular spirituality, meditation, psychedelic research, altered states of consciousness and embodied practices in general, during the 60’s some psychologists felt there was a part of psychology missing from the old humanist and behaviourist models. It was as if the overwhelmingly materialist scientific view of humans, that sees our bodies and brains as fundamentally separate from other beings, the natural world and any hypothetically transcendent reality, was missing out a huge source of data about the way our minds work. So a bunch of them coined a new term, Transpersonal psychology, and with it came a new field of study and practice.  It’s a really wide field and at its cusps starts to get into areas that science can’t actually study using the method; some of which we’re going to touch on towards the end of this episode. But above all it makes a place for the importance of the transpersonal that crosses those boundaries between our bodies and brains and everything else out there, both known and unknown. So fortunately today’s guest has over 25 years of experience both as a psychologist and a workshops leader, David Lukoff. Dr. Lukoff has published over 80 articles on spirituality and mental health, and is an active workshop presenter internationally on spiritual competency, grief, death, recovery, and spiritual crises. He is a Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the Sofie University, previously known as the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto, in CA and previously served on the faculties of Harvard University and UCLA. He is also the co-founder of the Spiritual Competency Academy, that offers mental health professionals courses on the skills and knowledge to become more spiritual competent. What we discuss: 00:00 Intro 05:30 A psychedelic psychotic episode and a spiritual crisis 07:00 Spirituality and religion as resources and practices 07:42 The history of transpersonal psychology  14:00 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs VS behaviourism 16:45 Spiritual emergencies  18:00 Jospeh Cambell’s ‘Hero’s Journey’ and Jung’s ‘Compensatory psychosis’ 22:30 David’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) entry 24:00 The post scientific revolution meaning crisis, and spiritual assessment as a solution 29:45 Ceremonial, shamanic and plant medicine approaches 32:30 Bringing altered states into mainstream psychology 37:00 Holotropic breathing: simulating an LSD-like research after LSD research was banned 40:15 The strength of the mystical experience correlates with positive outcomes 41:15 Stan Grof: NDE, OBE, psi, afterlife and interdimensional communications 45:00 The Spiritual Competency Academy: forgiveness, compassion, mindfulness References: Spiritual Competency Academy Journal of Transpersonal Psychology Rick Doblin - Founder of MAPS - Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies ‘Spiritual and religious problems’ included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of mental disorders Jung’s ‘Compensatory psychosis’ The Spiritual Emergency Network Johns Hopkins and NYU studies - Intensity of mystical experiences correlation with positive clinical outcomes.

Physics researcher Vitaly Vanchurin, exploring the possibility of the world being a neural network. Discusses fine-tuning in the universe, application of learning dynamics to physics, and the reconciliation of quantum mechanics and general relativity. Explores the concept of life and consciousness as technologies. Connects the dynamics of the universe with biological systems. Examines the distinction between non-trainable and trainable variables in neural networks and their association with gravitational equations and quantum mechanics. Considers the emergence of observers in the universe and proposes learning dynamics as an explanation. Explores hidden variables and deviations from quantum mechanics, suggesting further experiments are needed. Explores the concept of subsystems of conscious learning and collective consciousness.

How Can Ultrasound destroy cancer cells and even increase immune response elsewhere? Are there any implications for a resonant field based understanding of matter? In this episode we have the fascinating invention of Histotripsy (https://histotripsy.umich.edu/), the non-invasive destruction of cancer cells using ultrasound to look into. Alongside the other headline news that bioengineers are also using acoustics to pattern replacement heart tissue, makes the field of bioacoustics one of the most exciting for the future of medicine.  It is of course the implications of this for the resonant vibrational nature of matter that make this of interest to us on the show, as we attempt to get closer to a true understanding of the nature of reality through our shows on the implications of Einstein’s ‘matter is energy’ findings and quantum mechanics. We get into this after 45 mins or so. We are lucky enough to be speaking today with one of the inventors of Histotripsy technology, Zhen Xu, Associate Professor and Graduate Chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Michigan University. She’s won many awards for her research, including from the American Heart Association and from the National Institute of Health.  00:00 Intro 07:25 Destroying Cancer Cells with Ultrasound  08:50 Issues with tissue heating and toxicity in other non-surgical techniques 09:50 Cavitation: the creation, expansion and collapse of bubbles - gas pockets in the tissue 11:40 Ultrasound propagates through the vibration of tissue particles 13:36 Acoustic Scalpel: Cavitation bubbles are highly visible on ultrasound imaging, for high accuracy treatment 14:45 No spread of tissue heating, so no healthy tissue damage 16:00 The discovery happened by mistake 19:45 She developed new devices for a new phenomenon  21:40 Toxicity of the destroyed tumour is removed from the body in a few months 24:30 Immune response to tumerous cells after treatment, possibly from the debris 25:40 Live cancer cells alter signal pathways to confuse the immunes system 28:00 But once dead the the debris can are noticed by the immune system  29:45 Future tumours or relapses in different locations are picked ups by the immune system 33:30 Treating neurological disease, brain blood clots and epilepsy too, across the skull protection 40:30 Patterning and forming new cell structures using sound (Stanford Med research): Structuring vs destructing using sound 44:30 Resonant frequency in various types of matter and biological tissue 45:00 No evidence from the lab for a resonant theory of tissue/organ health 48:50 Nikola Tesla, “If you want to find the secrets of the Universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration” 52:00 The implications of a wider wave-length fields, for the creation and maintaining of matter and biological life’s structure 56:30 Bioelectric component in organ development (TUFTS Study): The formation of life depends on more than DNA 1:01:00 A field based understanding of physical matter, rather than matter generating fields   References: Dr Zhen Xu 'Histotripsy: the first noninvasive, non-ionizing, non-thermal ablation technique based on ultrasound' Paper Dr Zhen Xu - Histotripsy Group Cosmos Magazine Article on Histotripsy Dr Cliff Cho, Dr Zhen Xu - “...Immune responses that enhance cancer immunotherapy” Paper Sean Wu and Utcan Demerci, Stanford Medical School, Engineering Heart tissue using Bioacoustics Havana Syndrome Nikola Tesla quote, “If you want to find the secrets of the Universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration” Micheal Levin, TUFTS university, “changes in bioelectric signals cause tadpoles to grow eyes in back and tail”

What are the benefits and risks of transhumanist technologies, and why are they so taboo? How do we legislate to avoid existential risks, without holding back too much the enormous possible benefits? How do we secure the mental health, rights and equal access of the public as it inevitably rolls out? So today we have the tricky and somewhat taboo topic of how to ethically guide the ever-increasing application of transhumanist technologies. With the recent advances in bio-technology, and some technologies already making their way into our bodies, it seems that the move towards a transhumanist vision of how to improve our standard of living is already well under way. So the question now is how do we educate ourselves the public and legislate tech corporations and governments, to be sure that people’s mental and physical health, access to opportunities, and personal freedoms are not being compromised in the gold-rush.    Fortunately our guest today is a sociologist and bioethicist with over 25 years of debating exactly these kind of questions. He is the executive director of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies or IEET, and he is the Associate Provost for Institutional research, Assessment and Planning at the University of Massachusetts Boston, James Hughes. He is a Buddhist and techno-optimist, and was executive director of the World Transhumanist Organisation from 2004-2006. He argues for a democratic transhumanism in which human enhancement technologies should only be allowed if available to everyone, with respect for the rights of the individuals to control their own bodies. He’s the writer of many articles and papers and the author of the book,“Citizen Cyborg: Why democratic societies must respond to the redesigned human of the future”. He is currently working on another book about moral enhancement, tentatively titled “Cyborg Buddha: Using neurotechnology to become better people”. Being a techno-optimist and futurist myself, yet extremely cautious of mankind’s reckless and often blind curiosity when developing technology, I felt it was an important time to take a balanced multi-perspectival look into the ethics and policy development of transhumanist technologies. The interview offered me a process of re-evalutation of my own preconceptions and triggers, so I hope it helps you question your own opinions on this complex topic.  What we discuss: 00:00 Intro 08:00 Difficulty accepting our inevitable transhumanist future 14:00 The taboo of transhumanism and debating toxic issues 19:45 It’s not the tech that’s the risk but the way we use it and legislate it: Max Tegmark 33:20 The History of Transhumanism 44:50 Is Eugenics connected to Transhumanism? 51:00 The roadmap towards markets rolling out transhumanist technologies  52:30 The Kurzweilian paradigm: Smaller, smarter and faster  55:45 Backing up memories - replacing and supplementing brain function 57:00 Instantiating brain backups in robot bodies, cloned bodies or computers 58:45 The Metaverse and brain-internet interfaces assessed 01:03:00 Augmented reality will be more popular than virtual reality 01:06:00 Technology interfering with the evolution of brains and culture 01:10:00 Selective scientific publication about the negative mental health outcomes 01:21:00 Neurolink: brain computer internet interfaces assessed 01:27:00 Gene therapy assessed: the risks of yet further inequality of wealth and power 01:43:50 The Singularity explained 01:56:20 Inequality leads to dangerous conflict VS Transnational collaboration leads to peace References: James J Hughes ‘Citizen Cyborg’ Nick Bostrum - ‘A History of Transhumanist thought’ paper The Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies IEET

What evidence is there for quantum effects in biological systems? What are the implications for life in general? Today we’ve got the relatively new field of quantum biology to assess. For years the idea of quantum effects in biological cells was dismissed because live cells were ‘too warm and wet’ to host these sensitive quantum phenomena. But new research into quantum coherence in avian navigation, quantum tunnelling in DNA mutations, in enzymes, even in smell - has brought new interest and study to the field of Quantum Biology. One biochemist, saw all this coming and wrote a book about it 20 years ago called, ‘Quantum Evolution’. He is none other that than Professor of Molecular Genetics at Surrey university, JohnJoe McFadden. His mainstream research is in microbial genetics, particularly in developing new systems biology approaches to infectious diseases. He is a keen promoter of public understanding of science and has given many popular science talks on subjects as varied as evolution and GM food. He also writes popular science articles, particularly for the Guardian newspaper. His specialties are broad including: systems biology, microbiology, evolutionary genetics, infectious diseases, tuberculosis, meningitis, and bionanotechnology. He’s written many books but in this episode we’ll be focussing on material from his newer books, ‘Life on the Edge: the coming age of Quantum Biology’ with physicist Jim Al-Khalili, and ‘Life is Simple: How Occam’s Razor Set Science Free and Unlocked the Universe’. What we discuss: 00:00 Intro 04:30 ‘Too Warm and Wet’ Dismissing quantum consciousness in microtubules 08:40 Roger Penrose: Consciousness may be a field 14:28 The macro universe must be quantum in some way 17:30 Nobody understands the cut-off point between classical large and quantum small 20:20 Quantum coherence in Photosynthesis, enzymes, DNA mutations and avian navigation 23:00 Life ‘amplifies’ the dynamics of stuff going on at the quantum level a to classical level 49:30 University of Surrey ‘Quantum Biology’ PHD graduate program 54:30 Science is becoming more and more interdisciplinary 57:00 Biologists sometimes need to go to quantum mechanics to understand their phenomena 01:12:00 The brain is a receiver and a transmitter: Conscious Electromagnetic information theory 01:16:00 William of Occam’s ‘Razor’ explained 01:22:00 Any sufficiently advanced science would look like metaphysics 01:27:00 Simple models aren’t an ontological claim about the world being simple 01:28:30 Bayesian likelihood reasoning makes sharper predictions References: ‘The Emperor’s New Mind’ Roger Penrose Greg Engel, Quantum Coherence in Photosynthesis paper (2011) Judith Klinman, Quantum Tunneling in Enzymes paper (2006) Thorston Ritz, Avian navigation paper (2004) Johnjoe McFadden, Consciousness: Matter or EMF paper  (2022) 

Philosopher and author Bernardo Kastrup discusses the metaphysics implied by Carl Jung's theories, including the collective unconscious, archetypes, synchronicity, individuation, and the mind at large hypothesis. They explore topics such as dissociation, perception, and the influence of Jim Hollis. The speaker reflects on personal experiences of realizing separateness and the illusory sense of control. They delve into teleology, idealism, the collective unconscious, anomalous phenomena, and the importance of self-awareness. The conversation also touches on books, writing, and future interviews on related subjects.

What exactly are time and space? What are the implications of them not being as they seem? What is the relational interpretation of Quantum Mechanics? What are the implications of its leading to no universal laws of nature?   In this Episode we have the non-linearity of space and time to get our heads around. In Episode #28 with physicist Paul Davies we talked about the implications of Einstein’s work in general, and in this episode we delve deeper into the implications of relativity, particularly of time, but also of space and extension. A subject that our guest has worked on extensively.   Carlo Rovelli is a theoretical physicist who works mainly in quantum gravity research, heading up the Quantum Gravity Group at the Centre de physique Theorique in Aix-Marseille in France. He is also passionate about the philosophy and history of science, so a perfect guest for this show.  Rovelli has written many popular science books, including the bestseller ‘The order of Time’ which we’ll be focussing on today. We’re also going to discuss today the release the his new book ‘Helgoland’, which champions his favourite Relational Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics. Being such a philosophical scientist I’m also going to ask him about Intuition, Buddhist philosophy and psychedelics.    What we discuss:  00:00 Intro  08:05 Time is local not universal  12:32 ‘Block time’ is a bad analogy  13:20 The apparent ‘flow’ of time from the past to the future  18:00 Entropy’s relationship to time  21:15 Is time an illusion?  26:00 Matter and its extension is also relative  27:00 Space is curved  28:00 Back holes are full of space  30:35 Our most obvious intuitions may not be correct  31:00 Quantum Mechanics: Nature is radically and violently different from our intuition  36:00 Probability Matrices and margins of uncertainty  38:00 The wave particle duality and probability distributions  39:00 Why the relational interpretation is the best  46:00 Science is how you think about reality, not just maths  53:00 Our obsession with final truth is illusory, a silly dream  57:00 Buddha’s Dependent Origination + Nagarjuna’s emptiness  01:02:00 Intuition and altered states of consciousness  01:06:00 Psychedelics, insights and jumps of imagination  01:17:00 A scientific theory of meaning   01:26:00 An intro to Loop Quantum Gravity theory   References:  ‘Helgoland: The Strange and Beautiful Story of Quantum Physics’ , Carlo Rovelli  'The Order of Time’ , Carlo Rovelli  ‘The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way: Nagarjuna’s Mulamadhyamakakarika’ , Nagarjuna  Empedocles - Greek philosopher  7 Brief Lessons in Physics’ , Carlo Rovelli  ‘Reality is not what it seems’ , Carlo Rovelli 

Lori Williams, expert in Controlled Remote Viewing (CRV), discusses the top-secret Stargate remote-viewing program, successful experiments during the Cold War, the importance of blindness in remote viewing, the challenges of remote viewing future events, the concept of living in a virtual reality, resistance to new ideas, skepticism and belief, and recommendations for further exploration

In this episode we have the fascinating proposition that what we call reality is in fact a hallucination we all agree on, to consider. We’ve already heard in this second series in Episode #28 from physicist Paul Davies on ‘The implications of Einstein’, that indeed matter is energy and as such the world we see as solid objects with space between them, isn’t truly like that. We’ve also heard from cognitive scientist Don Hoffman that we see the world optimised for ‘fitness’ in the evolutionary sense, and not for truth i.e not to see it as it actually is. So in the same vein in this episode we’re going to find out from a brilliant neuroscientist that we are in what he calls a ‘controlled hallucination’. That neuroscientist is none other than Anil Seth. Anil Seth is a professor of cognitive and computational neuroscience at the University of Sussex. He is also the co-director of the Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science. He has published over 100 scientific papers and is the editor-in-chief of the Oxford University Press publication ‘Neuroscience of Consciousness’. His TED talk ‘Your brain hallucinates your Conscious reality’ has more than 11 million views. His new book ‘Being You: a new science of consciousness’, which expands on most of what we’ll discuss today, is a Sunday times top 10 best seller, and a New statesmen, Economist and Bloomberg book of the year. I’ve wanted to speak with Anil since I heard about his theory, as it seemed to match some of my worries about the disconnect between what we perceive and what is actually there, and how much of what we see is coming from our own mental and biological state, and our biases at the time. What we discuss: 00:00 Intro 05:41 A ‘prediction machine’ perceiving from the inside-out, as well as perceiving sensory info outside-in. 10:00 Interoception: predictions about the body for self-control/regulation 14:00 The rubber-hand illusion: the prediction machine is not perfect 19:00 The risk of our best predictions being considered truth rather than hypothesis 23:00 Cultural humility about differences in our perceptions and beliefs 24:15 Why we call reality is a ‘controlled hallucination’ 31:30 The body has shaped the predictive brain for survival 34:00 Brain body bidirectionally vs reductionism 37:30 Supervenience 38:00 Can different levels of description be primary to each other? 46:00 The self is illusory References: Anil Seth's best seller, ‘Being you’ The Perception Census - Call for participants Immanuel Kant’s idea: Noumenon, ’the world is hidden behind a sensory veil’ Pareidolia - seeing patterns in things The Dream machine - Interactive flickering light experiment