How easy is it to change our Habits? Today we have the important job of working out what neuroplasticity is all about. 50 years ago we thought the adult brain remained the same after reaching maturity. Now since the discovery that in fact our neural networks remain ‘plastic’, which means adaptable, a host of research has opened up fuelled by our desire to thrive and improve rather than just survive. Along with that knowledge, as so often with popular science, has come a host of exaggerations and quick fix claims, that prey on the wishful thinker, and today we’re aiming to sort the facts form the fiction and really understand what can change in our neural networks in adulthood and perhaps even offer some tools to facilitate that. Who better to discuss this with than developmental neurobiologist turned freelance science writer Moheb Costandi. He writes stories and articles for various popular publications like New Scientist and the Guardian, is often cited from his Neurophilosophy blog, and is the author of the books Neuroplasticity and 50 Human Brain Ideas You Really Need to Know. Things we discuss in this episode: 00:00 A good psychology teacher 04:30 The controversial history of neuroplasticity 11:46 Longterm potentiation (LTP) 12:41 Stem Cells and the tipping point for neuroplasticity 14:47 What’s the significance of neuro-genesis? 16:00 What actually happens when neurons adapt? 18:00 Electro-chemical neurocommunication at high speed 22:00 Are there neurons all over the body? 23:30 The gut’s enteric nervous system (ENS) 25:00 Calling out spurious false rumours about neuroplasticity 31:40 ‘Awareness of plasticity doesn’t empower us in any way’ 33:00 The wellness, self help and new age industries have manipulated neuroplasticity to exploit the public 37:05 Can we use plasticity to reprogram negative habits? 40:30 The bidirectional link between brain and behaviour. 44:00 The longer we have a particular behaviour the stronger those pathways become 47:00 Stress hormones stimulate plasticity. Negative emotions encode memories more strongly. 50:00 Microglia: the brain’s immune cells 53:00 Plasticity even in white matter tracts of myelin 55.00 Mitigating age-related cognitive decline using plasticity 01:01:00 Learning a musical instrument or new language can help mitigate dementia 1:05:00 Are there any limits to how plastic the mind can be? 1:12:00 Are brain computer-interfaces going to cause a plasticity adaptation in the brain? 1:16:00 Technology could cause a lowering of brain function rather than a bionic super race References: ‘Neuroplasticity’ by Moheb Costandi  ’Neurophilosophy’ Mo’s blog  Charles Darwin - Dissent of Man  Santiago Ramone Cahall and Camill Gogi - Nobel prize  The Raticularists  Paul Bach-y-Rita  Longterm potentiation LTP  Microglia: the brain’s immune cells 

How much of our consciousness is shared? In this episode we have the fascinating job of trying to get to get to grips with Jung’s concept of the Collective unconscious. I’ve always loved Jung and I think his ideas can offer a brilliant framework in which to maximise our mental health, to use life’s challenges to harvest meaningful lessons, and just to navigate the subjective experience of being alive. But this is a science podcast, so we do want to get clear on what is just a useful idea and what is a scientifically proven reality. Jung was very shy to speak about scientifically unprovable ideas because he was a rigorous academic, but as his career progressed he was encouraged more and more to elaborate on the tools he was using with his patients; and as we’ll discuss today he felt there was a huge value in acknowledging the active role of what lies outside of the sphere of testable knowledge, rather than just dismissing it as non-existent. So I am extremely happy to have Jungian analyst Dr Monika Wikman with us to help locate the threshold between these two very different fields of knowledge and to explain in detail the collective unconscious. Monika is the author of ‘Alchemy and the Rebirth of consciousness’ and received her PHD in clinical psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology and then deepened her knowledge of Jungian Analysis at the Jung-Von Franz Center for Depth psychology in Zurich. She is an expert on topics including the anima mundi and environmental issues of our time, archetypal phenomena surrounding death, dreams, active imagination, and alchemy. Her work with the dying culminated in a research project called ‘Dreams of the Dying’ at UC San Diego Medical Center, which is the foundation of her most recent book, Alchemy of Life, Death and the Wedding Veil. What we discuss in this Episode: Part 1 12:20 The humility of the ego to identify suffering that creates an opening for us to grow: Dissent, the renewal of consciousness 14:30 What is the Collective Unconscious? 19:00 How can motif’s from ancient myths appear in the minds of those who’ve never learned about these myths? 20:00 The healing function of connecting with this archetypal strata of consciousness 29:00 The importance of dreams to scientific discovery 40:00 Monika’s ‘2 weeks to live to cancer free overnight’ experience 50:00 Ego consciousness making a bridge to the symbolic field of the collective unconscious Part 2 1:03:00 How do we use knowledge of the collective unconscious in therapy?  1:11:20 Chaos as a catalyst forcibly setting off a chain reaction of transformation 1:15:00 The Implicate and Explicate order, David Bohm and the big question about where does all this information reside 1:27:30 ‘Exploring Holotropic Breathing’  1:35:00 Peak experiences, psychedelics and the dangers of getting hooked on transformation References: ‘Pregnant Darkness; alchemy and the rebirth of consciousness’ Monika Wikman  ‘Exploring Holotropic Breathing’ Monika Wikman Monika’s presentation ‘Refining you inner bullshit detector’  Monikawikman.weebly.com ‘On dream and death’ by Marie- Louise Von Franz  ‘The order disorder paradox’ by Nathan Schwarz Stan Grof’s Holotropic Breathing and Grof Transpersonal Psychology training

Dr. Stephen Porges is a leading expert in the neuroscience of safety and the founder of Polyvagal Theory. He dives deep into how our perception of safety influences communication and learning, linking emotional states to physiological responses. The discussion touches on the importance of emotional safety in education, the connection between tribalism and social engagement, and innovative treatments for trauma. Porges also emphasizes the transformative potential of understanding internal feedback loops, advocating for a shift in healthcare to address the mind-body connection.

What does entanglement actually mean? So in this episode we’re going to be trying to get our heads around one of the most extraordinary phenomena ever recorded in subatomic physics: Quantum Entanglement. Famously dismissed by Einstein as ‘Spooky action at a distance’, it has been proved to exist in the lab over and over again since then. This non-local phenomenon is when sub-atomic particles remain connected so that the physical properties of one will affect the other, no matter what the distance is between them. It’s been in the news a lot recently not only because it has been photographed by a team at the University of Glasgow, but also because of a host of successful so called ‘Teleportation’ experiments, in which entanglement has been used to send information instantaneously between two computer chips that have no causal connection between them whatsoever. I believe the implications of this non-local phenomenon are among the most important scientific discoveries of our time, most importantly to update our purely classical ‘cause-and-effect’ understanding of the world. But it also begs the question, through what medium is that information passing between those two entangled particles, if not through Space and over time? To help us get our heads around this mind-bending reality is theoretical Physicist Dr Chris Fields, an independent scientist interested in both the physics and the cognitive neuroscience underlying that human perception of matter in space and time. Chris began his career as an experimental physicist, obtained his Ph.D. in Philosophy of Science at the University of Colorado and was an early developer of automated DNA sequence analysis tools at the Human Genome Project. He has published over 130 peer reviewed papers in nuclear physics, artificial intelligence, molecular biology and cognitive psychology. What we discuss in this episode: 00:00 The Human Genome Project 07:00 What is Entanglement? 15:30 “Spooky action at a distance” 16:24 Einstein’s mission to remove non-locality from physics 20:00 Quantum theory challenges all classical intuitions 22:30 Re-think what we mean by locality 22:42 Is the intuition of separability false? 26:24 What Is spin? 29:12 The difficulty of using classical analogies for quantum concepts 31:06 The difference between quantities and qualities of information 35:00 John Wheeler and the way you ask questions changing the answers you get. 37:00 The interaction of information exchanging systems as a model for panpsychism 41:00 Hiding the distinction between Semantics and Syntax in information theory 43:36 Predictability VS Meaning 44:30 Observation is interaction 47:50 Is objectivity achievable? Intersubjective agreement. 50:00 The disaster of ‘Shut up and calculate’ 52:00 John Wheeler’s ‘Participatory Universe’ bridging the gap 53:00 Physical systems are question askers and answer receivers 54:00 Was Wheeler a panpsychist? Part 2: 58:00 The implications of Entanglement 1:02:00 What does it mean to give and receive information to and from the world? 1:10:00 Are the observer and the system they are interacting with not in fact one and the same thing? 1:17:00 La Place: Non-local forces like gravity imply that all the information about the system must be uniformly available to the whole system. 1:23:00 What effect will quantum understanding have on the general world view of society in the future? 1:28  Does Meditation lead to a non-separate world view? 1:34 Moving attention and interest away from the self References:  ‘Meditation if you’re doing it you’re doing it right’ Alison Tinsley and Chris Fields 

Mike Gazzaniga, expert in Left Brain Interpreter phenomenon, discusses how our brains invent explanations based on past experience without us realizing. He explains the authority and validity of our conscious faculties and the challenges of overcoming bias. The podcast also explores communication between brain hemispheres, the complexity of neuroscience, and the importance of understanding our brain's limitations.

Renowned physicist Jon Butterworth discusses the wave-particle duality, debunking myths and exploring the connection between quantum mechanics, reality, and consciousness. They also delve into the discovery of the Higgs Boson and its significance, the challenges of incorporating gravity into the quantum mechanical standard model, and the probabilistic nature of particles at a quantum level. The speakers touch on observation and wave-particle duality, the many worlds interpretation, and the practical applications of quantum teleportation.

Dr. Susan Blackmore, expert in the problem of consciousness, discusses the definition of consciousness, the limitations of dualism, and the explanation of the 'Hard Problem'. She also shares her personal out of body experience and explores the theories of extended consciousness. The podcast delves into the concept of self and identity, the implications of quantum physics and philosophy on society, and the potential consequences of identifying with a single consciousness.

See www.chasingconsciousness.net/episodes for the full program. Here host Freddy Drabble introduces what he'll be covering with his guests in the first 15 part series. Please subscribe and leave a rating and review if you like what you hear.