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

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:

1. 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?
2. 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?
3. 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?
4. What role does consciousness have in psychological healing, in the practice of a psychologist?
5. 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?
6. 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?
7. What are the hot studies going on at IONS, what else is coming? Pixar, VR
8. 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;
9. What breakthroughs do you see coming, that really excite you?
10. What else do you want to share? Get involved! https://noetic.org/community/overview

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