The Consciousness Podcast

Hear from Experts on Mind and Consciousness

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Episode 9: Quantum Consciousness with Dr. Amit Goswami

The Consciousness Podcast

02/23/18 • 47 min

This week, I had the pleasure of speaking with Theoretical Quantum Physicist, and Quantum Activist, Dr. Amit Goswami. Dr. Goswami is a retired full professor from the University of Oregon’s Department of Physics where he served from 1968 to 1997. He is a pioneer of the new paradigm of science called “science within consciousness,” an idea he developed in his seminal book, The SelfAware Universe. Dr. Goswami has written many other popular books based on his research on quantum physics and consciousness, including ,his latest book, The Everything Answer Book, in which his basic premise is that quantum physics is the key to understanding consciousness, life, death, God, psychology, and the meaning of life. In short, quantum physics is indeed the theory of everything.

It was an insightful discussion, so please enjoy my conversation with Dr. Amit Goswami.

Get his latest book on Amazon:

First of all, please give us a little background on your studies and theories, especially as it relates to consciousness.
I like to ask this of my guests: how do you define consciousness?
You describe a ‘quantum consciousness’. Are you describing a causal relationship, an underlying physical explanation, of consciousness?
1. Can consciousness be measured? Are there strange, quantum effects from conducting these measurements?
You mention the need to integrate science and spirituality. How do you integrate those two, and how does quantum physics come in there?
In your view, consciousness exists outside of the brain. Can you expand on that a bit?
1. You mention scientific evidence of the survival of consciousness after death. Can you provide some examples?
What is the notion you mention of ‘evolution of the mind’?
1. Is that something we can play an active part in, individually? Can we change/modify/exercise/expand our own consciousness?
You include the ‘meaning of life’ in your book. How is the meaning of life tied to consciousness, or is it?
You mention that ‘Materialism is like an epidemic disease that has to be healed. And quantum science can be part of the healing.’ How can quantum science, quantum physics, be part of that healing? How does that work, exactly?
Given the quantum nature of consciousness, where do you stand on panpsychism? Do you think all living things are conscious? How about a rock?
1. What about Cosmic Consciousness, the idea that there’s a larger, ubiquitous consciousness that can be tapped into?
Please tell us how creativity plays a role in what you describe as a ‘discontinuous creative insight’. It sounds as if you’re talking about freeing consciousness from the constructs of the mind/ego?
As quantum theory expands to include ‘field theory’ as opposed to particle theory, how does that play into your ideas of quantum physics and consciousness?
I know that this conversation has been focused, obviously, on Consciousness. Before we leave, I’d like to give you an opportunity to discuss any other topic. I know your book covers, well, literally, ‘Everything.’ Is there anything else you’d like to bring up? Quantum activism? Anything?

The post Episode 9: Quantum Consciousness with Dr. Amit Goswami appeared first on The Consciousness Podcast.

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Episode 29: Near-Death Experience (NDE) and Consciousness with Dr. Pim van Lommel

The Consciousness Podcast

09/16/19 • 41 min

In this episode, I had the honor of speaking with cardiologist Dr. Pim van Lommel. For more than twenty years Dr. van Lommel has studied near-death experiences (NDEs) in patients who survived a cardiac arrest. In 2001, he and his fellow researchers published a study on Near Death Experiences in the renowned medical journal The Lancet. He, then wrote the bestseller Consciousness Beyond Life: The Science of the Near-Death Experience in 2007.

We had a great conversation and covered Enhanced Consciousness, NDEs and more. Please enjoy this episode with Dr. Pim van Lommel.

Questions we discussed:

You are known for your extensive work with NDEs; however, your book is titled, Consciousness Beyond Life. It’s a book about consciousness. So, if it’s okay with you, let’s start there.
Medical Doctors generally see consciousness as either on or off. In your first experience with NDE’s in 1969, you saw consciousness differently, as more than just that waking consciousness. Is that correct? Can you expand on that for us?
So, the idea — that NDEs lead you to — is that there is a special state of consciousness, an enhanced consciousness?
1. And this is technically, medically impossible during cardiac arrest, but observed/reported.
2. What is the difference between normal, waking consciousness and enhanced consciousness? [no time, no space, non-local].
  1. Are there other ways to access enhanced consciousness, such as Psychedelics?
  2. Speaking of psychedelics, you mention DMT a few times in your book, as having a role in consciousness. What role in consciousness do you think DMT plays?
You sought to answer the question, “What is the biological basis of consciousness?” Within that question, though, is a pretty significant assumption — that there is a biological basis — which you point out, has never actually been proven...we all just kind of ran with it. So, how do you answer that question today?
You say that the brain facilitates consciousness, it does not produce or create it.
1. So, then, what is consciousness and where does it come from, then?
2. When/how does consciousness bind to the brain? Mind-brain binding?
3. When does that happen in a new human life?
4. Is Quantum Mechanics the ‘missing link’ between the brain and consciousness? Might we find a particle, the conscioutron? Gravity?
You have an analogy of the brain being like a radio – a relay station – tuning into the Consciousness channel, with waking consciousness being a single channel and enhanced consciousness being all channels at once. Can you expand on that a little?
1. Aldous Huxley, and his book, Doors of Perception, describes the brain as a filter for a cosmic Consciousness, Universal knowledge. Is there any correlation there to your idea of the brain’s tuning into consciousness?
NON-LOCAL CONSCIOUSNESS:
1. “The content of an NDE suggests that consciousness may be nonlocal.” What is a nonlocal consciousness?
2. In quantum physics, you mention, that everything is connected. Is it that way for our consciousnesses? Is that endless consciousness?
  1. DNA is the ‘mobile phone number’ of consciousness, or IP address?
  2. Does non-local consciousness enable connections between minds?
  3. Collective consciousness is unlimited, and connects each individual with everything else, past, future, everything. Is there a way to access this greater Collective consciousness?
  4. What about the living and the dead, can they be connected?
  5. In your view, then, what is death, then, a simple change in consciousness?
  6. Would it be possible to bind, or affix non-local Consciousness to a new brain? Perhaps, a mechanical brain? DNA
I think you reference this in your book...but you are familiar with the study on brain activity in rats...just before cardiac arrest...the burst of activity, with George Mashour and others.
1. What do you make of this activity as it relates to you ideas of non-local consciousness? Is that a sign of consciousness releasing and re-binding to the body, before and after the NDE?
Since writing the book, have you seen any new information or recent discovery out there that is causing you to either second-guess or reaffirm your ideas on consciousness?
What breakthroughs do you see coming in the study of consciousness and NDEs?
What else, what haven’t I asked ...

Episode 40: Consciousness as Fundamental to Reality with Dr. Donald D. Hoffman

The Consciousness Podcast

10/23/20 • 75 min

In this episode, I had the honor of speaking with Dr. Donald D. Hoffman, who is a professor of cognitive science at the University of California, Irvine. His writing has appeared in Scientific American and Edge, and his work has been featured in the Atlantic, Wired, and Quanta. He resides in Irvine, California. Be sure to check out his latest book, The Case Against Reality, available just about everywhere.

So, what is real...and how does that help answer the Hard Question of Consciousness?

We discussed:

There is a false assumption out there that you take head on: ‘That we see reality as it is.”
1. You think that’s wrong? What is real, then?
2. Simulations/equations
3. What about two people perceiving the same thing?
4. Your letter exchange with Dr. Crick and The-thing-in-itself versus the-idea-of-the-thing: does this get to the heart of answering the hard question?
5. How big of a gap is there between perception of reality and reality? Is that knowable?
What is a conscious agent? [Something that perceives, decides, and acts — what does that mean?]
1. Do spacetime and physics arise from the dynamics of conscious agents?
2. Is reality a network of conscious agents, with consciousness a fundamental property in the universe?
What do physicists say about this idea?
You mention some interesting findings with split brain studies.
1. What interested you about those studies, and how did that play a part in developing your theories?
2. The one consciousness split into two consciousnesses, but the two then act as a single conscious agent, right?
  1. Do you and I act as a single conscious agent? Do we all combine into one universal consciousness?
Is perception the result of the brain building models/schema? Do these models then create phenomenal experiences (consciousness)?
1. There is a quantum basis to this, too, correct? Measurement/observation, entanglement?
2. Is has to do with information (i.e. Hawking)?
We re-construct what we perceive, in our brains?
1. 3D cube in circles. Necker Cube.
2. This is driven by evolution?
3. Not perceiving the world accurately gives an advantage?
The good old Hard Question: that gap in between the physical brain and our phenomenal experiences (qualia).
1. Does your Interface Theory of Perception (ITP) explain this gap? How?
2. How does this explain “something it is like to be a bat”?
How does your theory do with non-ordinary states of consciousness, like dreams, psychedelics, etc.?
Your analogy: Computer desktop as a representation of reality.
1. We see an icon on the desktop that represents a document or email. That’s our reality, that this graphic icon is our document. But, there are software engineers and graphic designers creating a thing-as-it-is reality behind that. What are those designers and coders analogous to, in reality?
What didn’t I ask?
1. Distinction between living and non-living things.
2. What about the transition between living and not living?
What’s next from you? What are you excited about?

The post Episode 40: Consciousness as Fundamental to Reality with Dr. Donald D. Hoffman appeared first on The Consciousness Podcast.

Episode 21: Consciousness, Spirituality and Interconnectedness with Dr. Cassandra Vieten

The Consciousness Podcast

12/27/18 • 52 min

In this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Cassandra Vieten, who is the President of the Institute of Noetic Sciences and a scientist at the Mind-Body Medicine Research Group at California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute. Dr. Vieten is a licensed clinical psychologist and has been with IONS since 2001, previously serving as its Executive Director of Research.

We had a great conversation and covered consciousness, interconnectedness, spirituality and much more. Please enjoy this episode with Dr. Cassandra Vieten.

Questions:

What are your views/definition of consciousness? Universal consciousness? Mind-body, the binding problem. Survival. Etc.?
1. Is Consciousness a primary component of the universe, along with matter and energy?
I saw your video from your talk on the Science of Interconnectedness.
1. Your team has conducted experiments on interconnectedness with some pretty incredible results? (Examples?)
  1. What criticism have you received about the experiments? Have they been independently repeated?
2. Is ‘interconnectedness’ a shared consciousness? What are the hypotheses about how this works, physically, if that’s even a legitimate question.
3. You mention that the body itself is interconnected (cells). How? Is that a level of consciousness? Is that an extension of that what connects us to each other?
A focus of yours is spirituality in psychological treatment, correct? How, if at all, does that tie into consciousness? Is there an overlap or connection between consciousness and spirituality?
1. In your research into spirituality, including meditation and other practices, what have you discovered about consciousness?
What role does consciousness have in psychological healing, in the practice of a psychologist?
I’ve spoken to a few people who study the effects of psychedelics on the brain. Often, those who experience psychedelics describe something like this interconnectedness. Have you looked into that at all? Any insight? Spirituality?
What are the eventual, or hopeful, practical uses that might come from your studies, both in consciousness and psychology?
1. Are we already experiencing those benefits, without knowing the reason? How are people using these abilities now, while not even realizing it?
What are the hot studies going on at IONS, what else is coming? Pixar, VR
What should we look for from your future work? Ions discovery lab; [link to it]; ions-x (moon shot); help ppl who are working toward positive change (climate, prison) and equip them with tools for transforming worldviews;
What breakthroughs do you see coming, that really excite you?
What else do you want to share? Get involved! https://noetic.org/community/overview

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Episode 11: Immortality of the Soul, Property Dualism and More with Jonathan Simon

The Consciousness Podcast

03/23/18 • 53 min

This week, I had the pleasure of speaking with Jonathan Simon, who is a a postdoctoral associate in the NYU Department of Philosophy, and research fellow of the NYU Center for Mind, Brain and Consciousness and the Global Institute for Advanced Study Project on Space, Time and Consciousness. His primary research is in the metaphysics of mind. He also has research interests in perception, the metaphysics of science, moral psychology, value theory, and legal and political philosophy. We had a great discussion on property dualism, the immortality of the soul, and more.

We covered these Questions:

Let’s start with this: how do you define consciousness?
You describe yourself as a ‘property’ dualist? What exactly is that?
A discussion on the neural correlates, emergence of mind/consciousness, and your his views.
1. Tell me about the topic of your dissertation, ‘borderline’ consciousness. What does that mean?
2. What is your view on the matter?
3. Are you familiar with research done by Dr. Tononi and Dr.Koch on their experiments in measuring consciousness? I would think that could have fascinating ramifications on testing borderline consciousness.
4. So...your take on panpsychism, then?
Can consciousness survive the death of the body/brain, is it immortal, in your view?
In your paper on immortality, you describe a gap, a kind of quantum leap, between existence and non-existence that is the central issue of the survival of consciousness.
1. Can you quickly give us a summary of that argument?
2. Where do you land on that?
3. The argument is about the immortality of the ‘soul’. Does ‘soul’ equate to consciousness?
4. If the immortality arguments holds true (true? Valid? I’m starting to get philosophy 101 flashbacks), what actually survives?
5. Any thought as to if/how quantum physics theory could play into this?
Is there a practical application to all of this? Is there some way we can expand, exercise, observe our own consciousness?
What are you going to be studying or working on in the future, when it comes to consciousness? Do you see any breakthroughs coming that really get you excited?

And...a short discussion on Artificial Intelligence and consciousness.

The post Episode 11: Immortality of the Soul, Property Dualism and More with Jonathan Simon appeared first on The Consciousness Podcast.

Episode 16: Consciousness, Idealism and Baloney with Dr. Bernardo Kastrup

The Consciousness Podcast

06/09/18 • 52 min

In this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Bernardo Kastrup. Bernardo has a Ph.D. in computer engineering with specializations in artificial intelligence and reconfigurable computing. He has worked as a scientist in some of the world’s foremost research laboratories, including the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and the Philips Research Laboratories (where the “Casimir Effect” of Quantum Field Theory was discovered). He has authored many academic papers and books on philosophy and science. Three of his most recent books, available at online booksellers are: More Than Allegory, Brief Peeks Beyond and Why Materialism Is Baloney.

Please enjoy this conversation with Dr. Bernardo Kastrup, where we dive into that notion that Materialism...is baloney.

Questions:

How has your background in Computer Engineering and Artificial Intelligence affected your views on consciousness?How have your studies of consciousness and idealism affected your notion of AI and AC?
What is the difference between artificial intelligence and artificial consciousness?
What do you think it would take for a computer to have what you call ‘private inner experience’? Possible? The hard question applies to computer consciousness as well as human consciousness?
You have papers and videos and a book on breaking down the materialist argument(s). What is the most common argument for materialism and how do you counter that?
Can we review the argument about psychoactive drugs?
Do your counter-arguments to materialism also apply to dualism, since you’re removing the material part of the mind-body duality?
You say it’s a mistake to say that science explains or supports materialism. Is that correct? Can you explain why that’s a mistake?
What are your thoughts, if any, on integrated information theory (IIT) and how it measures consciousness in the brain, postulates a physical substrate of consciousness?
As an idealist, how do you avoid solipsism? Or, do you?
What is your opinion of ‘unconsciousness’?
The self/ego and reflection, you say, ‘amplify’ consciousness. You also mention Robin Carhart-Harris’ psychedelic studies as decreasing brain activity. Is the ‘unconscious’ state a baseline condition of consciousness?
What are your interpretations of Robin Carhart-Harris’ psychedelic studies, that brain activity slows down or reduces during psychedelic experiences?
What IS ego/self?
What implication does that have on the notion of dreams (or hallucinations)?
Can you please tell us more about the ‘collective unconscious’ and how it generates reality?
You mention (in Scientific American), that “subatomic particles are the “pixels” of experience, not necessarily of the experiencer.” What is the difference between the experience and the experiencer? Does an experience exist independently of the experiencer?
Your analogy of pixels and pixelated images to experience, can you explain that for us? Would you mind running that analogy for one’s experience of, say, the color red? Also, to your analogy to the whirlpool?
You mention that the universe, as a whole, can be conscious – is mental. Can you explain or expand on that?
There is something it is like to be the universe, as a whole? I have as much of a hard time with that as I do a stone.
Particles are affected by our observation. We can’t know of particles behaving independent of our observations. Therefore, the Universe is a product of our minds — idealism. Do I have that right?
Where do you stand on the survival of consciousness after death?
The body is the localization of consciousness? When the body dies, it de-localizes? Does it maintain memories, or are memories the function of (the image of) the brain?
Where do you stand on psi phenomena, especially near death experiences? [Ed Kelly wrote the afterward for your book?]
Newly added, what about the emergence of consciousness?
In your own studies and in the study of consciousness, what about future discoveries or advances excites you?

The post Episode 16: Consciousness, Idealism and Baloney with Dr. Bernardo Kastrup appeared first on The Consciousness Podcast.

Episode 30: An Exploration of Consciousness with Dr. Riccardo Manzotti and author Tim Parks

The Consciousness Podcast

12/15/19 • 55 min

In this episode, I welcome back previous guest, Riccardo Manzotti, along with his friend and co-author, Tim Parks. We discussed their new book, Dialogues on Consciousness, in which the two discuss the nature of consciousness.

Buy at O/R Books

TIM PARKS, novelist, essayist and translator, is the author of nineteen works of fiction, including Europa, shortlisted for the Booker. He is a regular contributor to both The New York Review of Books and The London Review of Books. He lives in Italy, where he teaches literature and translation studies at IULM in Milan

RICCARDO MANZOTTI is a philosopher, psychologist, and robotics engineer who has written more than 50 scientific papers and several books, among them The Spread Mind: Why Consciousness and the World Are One. A former Fulbright Visiting Scholar at MIT, he is now visiting professor at UAEU University (Emirates).

We had a great conversation. Please enjoy this episode with Dr. Riccardo Manzotti and author Tim Parks.

We discussed:

Please tell us about these dialogues between you two. How did they come about? Tim, you want to start us off with that?
Tim, I’m curious about your curiosity with consciousness. Where did that come from?
Riccardo, any new revelations in the book for you, anything that builds on the Spread Mind, beyond it?
Okay, let’s start off like your book. What is consciousness?
1. You use the term “internalist”, whereas I’m used to terms like “physicalist” or “materialist”. Is there a difference?
2. You can’t deduce “mind” from looking at neurons. What does that tell you/us?
3. Is mind within the skull? What about memories and information? How exactly are memories stored and recalled?
4. If the mind is not internal, how do changes in the physical/internal brain affect consciousness? What is the connector between internal brain and external mind?
Red/white square experiment...
It’s fascinating to essentially eavesdrop on your conversation in this book. Over the years that you two had these conversations, did either of you experience a change in how you understand consciousness?
1. What do you two agree on, and where do you disagree with each other?
I’d like to ask you about “The Now.” Dreams, hallucinations, even thoughts in my mind, are made up of experiences I’ve already had. But don’t I experience those in my consciousness right now? Even if the sun shined eight minutes ago, aren’t I experiencing it, phenomenally, right here, right now?
1. Sensory events are not simultaneous, right? Light hits my eyes before sound enters my ears. My brain puts the model together, combines the consciousnesses of multiple properties of an object (say, a train). Then, I experience the train in my now. Isn’t that “the now” of all of my phenomenal experiences? No? There is no “now”?
The body facilitates, or selects, the objects and their connected experiences. What is different in this selection/facilitation process during altered states of consciousness, such as dreams or psychedelics or meditation?
Somebody asked you, Tim, about the properties of objects floating “through the air” to the brain. That sounds too literal of a way to describe this. But let me put it another way. I hear about the brain being like a radio receiver, and the transmitted signal is a greater, universal consciousness that we tune in to. The brain as a receiver sounds compatible with Spread Mind. Is it? Anything there? Do objects “transmit” their properties via a universal consciousness medium? Is there a source?
So, what is the ego? What is one’s self?
What’s happening when I have a thought? How does that relate to objects? And what about creativity or inspiration?
1. Do I have any control at all over my thoughts, my actions, my desires?
Are you two still having these conversations? Is there more to come for us fans of consciousness? What other topics are you exploring?
Looking to the future of our understanding of consciousness, what are you two excited for, what breakthroughs or discoveries or advancements?
What else?

The post Episode 30: An Exploration of Consciousness with Dr. Riccardo Manzotti and author Tim Parks appeared first on The Consciousness Podcast.

Episode 39: Ketamine, NDE and Consciousness with Dr. Sam Ko

The Consciousness Podcast

09/29/20 • 27 min

In this episode, I had the honor of speaking with Dr. Sam Ko, owner of Reset Ketamine. We discussed his insight into consciousness while working with Ketamine and his East-meets-West approach to healing. This is also the first episode that is also published on my other podcast, The Stoned Ape Reports, which covers healing with psychedelic medicines. So, please enjoy this episode with Dr. Sam Ko.

We discussed:

Tell us about your practice, so, first, tell us about your practice, Reset Ketamine. Treatment resistant depression, PTSD, eastern-western approach to medicine
Ketamine is used to help treat suicidal ideation and prevent suicide, correct?
You mention that ketamine infusion treatment produces a dissociative experience known as a, “ketamine-induced non-ordinary state of consciousness.” Can you explain what that is? Eli Kope, Out of Body Experience
Have you had patients who experience a near death experience in treatment? Dr. Marshialle real NDEs and stories about them; compared reports to 15,000 reports from DMT, Ketamine, other substances;
1. How is ketamine’s effect on the brain and consciousness different from other psychedelic medicines?
Treatments allow one to access the unconscious part of the mind — memories, emotions, stories. What do you think is going on there which allows this experience to occur? Freud’s iceberg
Ketamine blocks the default mode network. What happens to one’s experience of consciousness when this occurs? Similar to deep meditators
1. Ego? Pollan’s book
How does that relate specifically to one’s consciousness?
How has your work with Ketamine shaped your idea of human consciousness?
1. Physical, mental, spiritual concentric circles?
2. Universal consciousness; connectedness
3. Carl Jung: dreams access universal consciousness
4. Bio-psycho-social medicine + spiritual
Can you share a couple stories of outcomes from ketamine treatments?
You mention that the spiritual part of us can get injured: what does that mean?
Anything else you want to share regarding consciousness? Healing with Ketamine? Other ‘plant medicines’? Your practice?

Askp.org

KetamineHelps.com

The post Episode 39: Ketamine, NDE and Consciousness with Dr. Sam Ko appeared first on The Consciousness Podcast.

Episode 38: Quantum Physics, Reality, and Consciousness with Dr. James Glattfelder

The Consciousness Podcast

07/31/20 • 54 min

In this episode, I had the honor of speaking with Dr. James Glattfelder. Dr. Glattfelder is a physicist turned quant, turned complexity scientist, with a pinch of data science and a philosophical bent. He has a Ph D in Complex Systems from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and is interested in fundamental theories and real-world complexity. We discussed quantum physics and consciousness, the concept of reality, panpsychism and more. Please enjoy this episode with Dr. James Glattfelder.

Could there be a quantum mechanical element to human consciousness? If so, could that allow a collective intelligence/consciousness in humans, like we see in termites? Could it save the plant? Is the fundamental element/property of consciousness be information?

We discussed:

Some, like Depak Chopra and others, some that I’ve interviewed, use “quantum physics” as an answer to what consciousness is, or how it binds to the brain. With your knowledge of both consciousness and quantum physics, do you see a possible connection there? How would that work?
Panpsychism, Integrated Information Theory: consciousness is everywhere; Freeman Dyson; Max Planck
The laws of physics: quantum (super small), general relativity (huge), classical (everyday life-sized): They’re not all compatible with each other. How might consciousness fit in there, if at all? [David Bohm’s Implicate Order theory, quantum potential, hidden waves, enfolding/unfolding]
Self organization and complexity; Stephen Wolfram – simple rules; teleological force of universe
Time is an illusion, doesn’t really exist; anthropic principle;
Eastern traditions; Hinduism (lei-la); Buddhism; Shamanism; Christ Bache (high-dose LSD sessions, LSD and the Mind of the Universe)
What role could non-locality, quantum entanglement play?
1. The interconnectedness of everything: Can this explain “cosmic consciousness” or other phenomena of expanded consciousness? Information entity, space and time not relevant
2. The collective intelligence of ants, for example?
So, what is real, then? Reality is actively constructed by the brain?
1. Are hallucinations just as real as...reality?
2. Emmanuel Kant – what is real, space and time
3. Information is the most fundamental thing
4. “Neuroscience, consciousness and spirituality” book
5. Living in a simulation
In that context, what is “self”, then?
1. Default state, default mode network
Can we even ask, what is consciousness?
1. Does consciousness arise from the human brain-computer?
2. Centered in my universe; panpsychism; field of consciousness; birth/death;
Is time real? How does time relate to consciousness?
Other loose concepts:
1. Something else I hear a lot of, is that everything is energy. What does quantum physics say about that?
2. We create reality (quantum/buddhism)
3. Each observer has their own universe; the observer effect
4. Looking for reality in the mind is going the wrong way
What didn’t I ask?
1. Intelligence; why are we destroying the biosphere; termites – function as a collective organism; why aren’t humans becoming more ‘collective’? Find consciousness within ourselves.
What’s next from you? Digital transformation in financial interaction; blockchain; good blueprint for creating collective intelligence; decentralized ledgers; eventually come back and reflect on these topics in a book in normal;

The post Episode 38: Quantum Physics, Reality, and Consciousness with Dr. James Glattfelder appeared first on The Consciousness Podcast.

Episode 12: The Philosophy of Consciousness, from Emergentism to Connected Minds with Dr. Bernard Kobes

The Consciousness Podcast

04/02/18 • 69 min

This week, I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Bernard Kobes from my Alma Mater, Arizona State University. Dr. Kobes has been an Associate Professor of Philosophy at ASU since 1986, where he has been recognized with numerous awards. We covered everything from what-it-is-like consciousness to the emergence of consciousness in both individuals and in species to the morality and ethics of uploading one’s consciousness into a computer.

Topics we covered include:

How do you define consciousness?
Tell us about your seminar, Philosophy of Mind: Consciousness, and its topic: Metaphysical aspects of an apparent tension between dependence of consciousness on the physical brain and body, and the novelty of consciousness relative to the physical.
1. What is that dependence of consciousness on the physical brain and body? How does this relate to your idea of dualism/physicalism?
2. Does this explore the binding of the mind to the body?
3. Does consciousness emerge from the physical layers of the brain/body? What is ‘emergentism’?
4. What about weak and strong emergence? What is that, and what is your view on this?
5. You describe consciousness (what-it-is-like consciousness) as one of the layers. What are the layers? At what point do the layers move from physical to metaphysical/phenomenal?
  1. How do the Mary and archangel arguments help explain this?
  2. How is emergentism a form a dualism, or is it?
6. The physical closure principle (every physical event that has a cause has a sufficient physical cause): how does this play into dualism? Do you accept this?
7. Panpsychism: you argue that panpsychism is not plausible, because of the ‘combination problem’. Can you explain/expand on that?
8. You reject substance-dualism. What about property dualism? Maybe provide an explanation of each if pertinent.
9. Regarding your “thoughts and conjectures about distinctively human forms of consciousness, based partly on a lecture given at ASU on February 1, 2018, by the paleoanthropologist Ian Tattersall,” can you give us a quick synopsis on your ideas regarding the evolution of consciousness in humans, including any key points you find particularly interesting?
  1. What about Block’s notion of ‘access to consciousness’. What do you mean by that?
    You’ve discussed emergence of consciousness as related to an individual mind/brain. What are you thoughts here on the emergence of ‘consciousness’ in a species, in humans?
10. What is “constitution of consciousness”?
11. Do you see any breakthroughs coming in the study/understanding of consciousness?
12. Is one’s consciousness something, like knowledge and wisdom or muscle development, something that one can exercise/improve/expand upon?
13. In addition to what we’ve discussed, is there anything else you’d like to bring up and/or discuss?

The post Episode 12: The Philosophy of Consciousness, from Emergentism to Connected Minds with Dr. Bernard Kobes appeared first on The Consciousness Podcast.

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What topics does The Consciousness Podcast cover?

The podcast is about Society & Culture, Podcasts and Philosophy.

What is the most popular episode on The Consciousness Podcast?

The episode title 'Episode 9: Quantum Consciousness with Dr. Amit Goswami' is the most popular.

What is the average episode length on The Consciousness Podcast?

The average episode length on The Consciousness Podcast is 56 minutes.

How often are episodes of The Consciousness Podcast released?

Episodes of The Consciousness Podcast are typically released every 27 days, 5 hours.

When was the first episode of The Consciousness Podcast?

The first episode of The Consciousness Podcast was released on Jul 25, 2017.

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The Consciousness Podcast