Consciousness – we all have it, yet it’s one of the greatest mysteries of science. Exactly what it is, how it works, what it’s for, and what its implications are for our understanding of “reality”, remain matters of speculation, not of fact. I recently joined biologist Rupert Sheldrake on a deep dive into these mysteries. Full conversation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKlfsXPuGwI
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29 thoughts on “Beyond the Brain: Graham Hancock and Rupert Sheldrake explore the mystery of consciousness”
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Fine if you want to use ayahuasca and peyote, but the CIA’s use of LSD in MkUltra makes me think that’s one psychedelic you shouldn’t mess with.
If Buddhist don’t believe in core personalities being able to reincarnate, then how is it possible for them to ever reach nirvana?
Does something like Theosophy provide an alternative to scientific materialism and conventional religion?
Why do Christians act like society would be better if Christianity became as dominant as it was when 1) life sucked back then too and 2) Christians do the same shit they preach against?
I’ve witnessed full blown telepathy. Doesn’t witness testimony count for anything?
I’m intrigued by David Icke’s interpretation of gnostic Christianity; this realm is basically a run away fuck up ruled by evil spirits (Yaldobaoth) and salvation is ascending back to the higher realms that this realm split off from.
You should have David Icke as a guest if you haven’t already.
Thanks for the tip regarding David Icke!
Thank you Graham, your work and research as well as your topics of interest are always a joy to read!
Thank you for bringing yours, and others, perspectives to our attention!
Thank you for the discussion.
I increasingly find the concept that we are living in a relative dark age – the best model for the current world. There appears to be a concerted effort to keep our minds off of reality. Maybe seeking the truth is supposed to be hard, maybe that’s how we show we are committed to the truth.
Please know that despite the pushback you get, your ideas are a cool glass of water for many thirsty people. Please don’t get discouraged and keep it up!
Dan – Interesting comments and frankly, most welcome! I was thinking I was the only person oppressed by such thinking. It certainly seems to me that human forces on planet earth are are becoming increasingly more fascist, obscuring science, academics and progressive thinking.
I could not agree more.
why is it so Impossible to contact Graham directly? … someone please forward this if know how to contact him. I own 40 acres in Arizona and have found numerous arrowheads and spear points while walking the land. Local anthropology expert said spear points are from the Clovis era. I have a Huge spear point and many more on the land …. Graham should be interested in this location … invite him to investigate further … we keep finding more arrowheads and spear points … contact info is [email protected]
To speak of “controlling” consciousness is to speak nonsense. The govt. or any other organization can as much control consciousness as they can govern the orbit of Jupiter about the sun.
Graham and Rupert
I followed your discussion with great interest.
I asked myself how this discussion would have gone if we had assumed with Alvin Kuhn Boyd that the underworld or hell is our life here on earth, the Bardo? To change for a moment or in future our view of things upside down!
As a theologian, I assume Alvin Kuhn Boyd’s meaningful view of the Egyptian, also of the Christian texts or his view of the books of the dead is a true one.
The Books of the Dead prove to be helpful for our “life”, for what we are used to to call life. Alvin Boyd Kuhn offers further exciting theses and insights in his book The Lost Light – An Interpretation of Ancient Scriptures. There is, for example, an! interpretation of the Egyptian court scene of weighing our hearts:
„All the while the arms of that Balance on the hill of the horizon in
the twilight are moving, and they are the pen of Taht-Aan inscribing the record.“ (…of or to our heart: WS) Page 496
One more comment on the subject of dreams.
Personally, I experience the absence or non-recollection of my nightly dreams as an alarm signal for my health.
Would we or the animals endure this life here on earth without dreams?
When I listen to the lyrics of Franz Schubert’s Winterreise, this second half of our existence in dreams with its disappointing awakening in “reality” is impressively expressed.
And again, it is the balance of night and day as of spirit and matter that models our life experiences here.
The records take my soul with them, my I at the moment of its clicking out of the body. Where to – I could not find out. I (was) clicked myself back in.
Graham. You may have already considered this. Imagine the frame of mind of people who just survived a massive flooding event were sea level rose 400 feet or so in a matter of days and killed most of humanity. Gobekli Tepi may have been an attempt to leave behind a marker for the future, that would survive a massive flood. They may have been of a frame of mind that this would happen again. Also, maybe the site is a pointer to something bigger, maybe a deeper repository of knowledge buried on higher ground.
Thank you Graham,
Thank you Rupert,
This was a very intriguing discussion.
As William Shakespeare once noted: There are more things in heaven and earth.
I am looking forward to your podcast.
Denis Paquette
Dear Graham
This is an excellent video which I enjoyed immensely and I look forward to your podcast. I have read your work for many years and agree with much of your thinking on prehistory and past civilisations but I have never really understood your attitude to drug taking.
Your principle argument appears laudable. That everyone should be free to choose what they do with their lives. I also know that you have a get out of gaol card which says ‘ do no harm’, but I have never heard how we could address the practical effects that the fallibility of human nature and drug taking inevitably would lead to many more numbers people drawn into addiction as well as further social shrapnel.
3 times today your name and articles have come to my conscious presence and I took note to everything and believe me when I understand ESP and intuition. Have many facts our oppressors have kept from us in these matters.
The spirit lives on.
Graham-A recent and compelling development in my understanding of consciousness and it’s significance to the universe derives from Dr. Robert Lanza’s theory of Biocentrism, which draws from research in quantum physics and which posits that conscious observation/attention is fundamental to the existence/creation of the material world. According to conclusive quantum physics research, the material world exists only in a state of potential position (wave function) until registered by a conscious observer (wave function collapse into a fixed position). Lanza’s is as convincing a theory as I’ve found on consciousness’s role in the universe and provides a scientific framework for conceptualizing the mystical notion that our inner worlds and outer worlds are one and the same. I am distraught that despite having published three books on his theory, Lanza’s Biocentric perspective is not being discussed more among thinkers and researchers within either the scientific or spiritual communities. I’d be deeply interested in a further examination into what quantum physics has shown us about the nature of reality and the role that consciousness plays in creating that reality. Many thanks to you and your campaign promoting open-mindedness and freedom of thought, Graham!
Reid, I second your thoughts here about Lanza’s book while I don’t know about his overall thesis, it seems possible to me and a recent article in New Scientist seems to me to tie into it: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg25333720-800-do-we-create-space-time-a-new-perspective-on-the-fabric-of-reality/
Yes, please do start a regular podcast! We are all very much in need of new (and indeed sometimes very old) ideas, now more than ever. A very exciting prospect indeed.
Absolutely thrilled that Graham wants to do a podcast! Can’t wait.
Loved the discussion.
Thank you so much Graham.
Would love to listen to that podcast!
I think the one thing that we need, esp here in the usa is more people with real experience and knowledge and wisdom to speak up and speak about what they’ve learned.
The Native americans as well as many traditions had wisdom keepers and I think we need to have that as a society so we can evolve so to speak.
Living in Texas is pretty awful because the government is so christian and totally hypocritical.
They look after themselves and their own while discriminating and oppressing people who just want to live their lives. Many people are at the point where after you talk to someone and look in their eyes, you say, was that person even real??!?
It’s incredible the level of pigheadedness and stupidity and it’s at a boiling point honestly.
I want to be around people who are open to new ideas and wouldn’t mind smoking a joint or two without getting the handcuffs. I don’t need someone to push their religion onto me and that is one problem here. The people in power and many people here believe that the founding fathers of america were somehow evangelical christians which couldn’t be farther from the truth!
All the best and thank you!!!
Wow I was there when I was dropped from a ship ina pod unto water and later made it back to shore covered in mud catching my breath with many others whio made it.
Wow cool I relate to your therory I think I was in a pod and dropped into a water system in a pod and then incubated for awhile and made it back to land barely breathing with many others covered in mud true story.
Can’t wait for a podcast from you! I am and have been inspired by you. A podcast would be so good for me. I live in rural Washington State and streaming videos is very limited. Podcasts however are available always. Blessings
Graham: The dialogue between Rupert Sheldrake and yourself forms an excellent introduction to the subject at hand –consciousness. This conversation traces back into antiquity, though the dilemma of mind and matter was probably most concisely posed by Rene Descartes: If mind and matter are separate in their constitution, how can they ‘know’ of each other? But if they are of the same constitution, how can they be distinct from each other? I find that the conundrum has never been adequately resolved, by Descartes, or by anyone else –although I am working on it. We might begin by asking, Could one truly exist without the other? I find Rupert’s concept of the ‘morphic field’ appealing –though its precise method of interaction remains elusive: it still involves the problem of mind, separate from matter, yet acting on matter.
I share your concern about governments controlling our brains: it really is, and ought to be, an unalienable right to choose what we do with them -at our own risk and responsibility- especially when it comes to psychoactive substances. Can anyone, after all, scientifically and unambiguously, distinguish between what is a ‘drug’, and what is a nutrient? Certainly, I do not advocate any blind usage of psychoactive substances, but rather advise extreme caution there: some of them could be brain DAMAGING agents, if not lethal poisons. I am convinced, nonetheless, that power structures seek to keep subject populations in ignorance and under control, and fear that certain natural botanical substances, including essential nutrients, might act to erode that control.
One issue I must raise with you, and all authors, however, is this: one may write a book on a certain subject with a sincere intent of informing the public about it. But when the book is promoted for sale, this serves to undermine the credibility of the author: the public cannot distinguish between genuine research and reporting and mere product merchandising. Of course authors should receive compensation for their efforts -publishers certainly do- but at a compromise of credibility. I claim the answer must lie in the establishment of academic style journals devoted to the subject matter, however controversial, by which authors cannot be paid, and must declare full disclosure of research funding sources. It is the only way to keep it honest. Even so, ‘peer review’ itself can be corrupted…
Last message sent just before midnight, 4/4/22, Pacific Time. Please acknowledge my subscription.
S.I. Wells, https://sites.google.com/site/cywelsian/
With utmost appreciation for this platform:
GAIADATE 4/22/2022
GAIADAY
SUBJECT: GAIA CONSCIOUSNESS
URGENT MESSAGING THROUGH THE PLANETARY CYBERMYCELIUM
– A GLOBAL WARNING
THERE IS NO ANTHROPOGENIC GLOBAL WARMING:
PLANET EARTH IS HEATING BECAUSE GAIA IS RUNNING A FEVER!
THIS FEVER IS AN EMERGENCY PLANETARY IMMUNE RESPONSE TO A DEADLY GLOBAL PATHOGEN:
HOMO SAPIENS ‘CANDIDIENSIS’.
More to follow…
GAIADATE 4/25/22
THE HUMAN SPECIES HAS GROWN OUT OF CONTROL, SPREADING LIKE A PLANETARY YEAST INFECTION. THE EARTH IS HEATING FROM BELOW, NOT ABOVE: GREENHOUSE GASES CANNOT ACCOMPLISH EARTH CRUSTAL WARMING IN THE POLAR LATITUDES. THE GAIAN IMMUNE RESPONSE WILL MELT THE LAND-OCCUPYING POLAR ICE CAPS FROM BENEATH
POLAR WARMING IS DUE TO GAIA’S CONSCIOUSLY DIRECTED MAGMATIC FLOW TO THE POLES. WHY? BECAUSE THAT IS WHERE THE ICE IS! THE HUMAN POPULATION IS DESTROYING THE BIOSPHERE AT AN ACCELERATING RATE. AND GAIA IS RESPONDING WITH A RISE IN BODY TEMPERATURE TO STOP THE DESTRUCTION. ONLY THOSE WHO TRULY KNOW GAIA CONSCIOUSNESS WILL UNDERSTAND THIS, AS DO THE SHAMANS OF THE AMAZONIAN RAINFOREST –THE MOST HEAVILY IMPACTED AND DANGEROUSLY THREATENED OF EARTH ECOSYSTEMS– THE ‘LUNGS OF THE BIOSPHERE’. WE HAVE BEEN WARNED: HOW MANY WILL HEED?
The sudden melting of the polar ice caps from beneath will cause catastrophic rise of the global ocean. The sudden breaking of the ice shelves will produce enormous global Tsunamis which will destroy most of the human species who live in coastal cities –a sudden death event which will be inescapable once it happens. The chaos that immediately follows will severely impact all human life on the planet –it will be a potentially civilization-destroying event. All geological and climatological signs indicate this will happen in the very near future, well within the lifespan of most adults alive today.
More to follow…
LATE STAGE ANTHROPOCENE
At this point it becomes necessary to confront our basic conception of reality: What role does consciousness play in the function and development of the universe? We must each have our own ‘DesCartes moment’, whereby we must either posit the primacy of mind, or of matter. Rene DesCartes decidedly posited the primacy of Mind –for the simple and sensible reason that before we know anything else (or whether we CAN know anything else), we know that we are AWARE. We know a state of CONSCIOUSNESS. All Cartesian epistemology follows from this premise, as does that of major wisdom traditions such as Brahmanism, Buddhism, Taoism etc.
Everything proceeds from thought, intention, state of mind. Matter is more of an after effect than a cause in this tradition. To presume that consciousness is produced by the motions and interactions of inert, lifeless, non-conscious material particles is the ultimate absurdity –yet it is the basis of most of modern science. The ‘Gaia Hypothseis’ can only be understood from a Mind-premised position: then one may appreciate the mind-body interaction, however subtle and mysterious it may be. Certain material substances are known to affect states of consciousness; why should not states of consciousness initiate effects in states of matter? This phenomenon is fundamental to the birthing of all life forms on Earth, just as it is responsible for the aggregation of heat and directed movement of magma within the Earth. The mycelium is the global neural network that accumulates and transmits information through the living soil, to the living rock, the living waters and the living atmosphere. The true biosphere is really the planetary noosphere, which extends far beyond the atmosphere and down to the very center of the Earth.
Gaia-ism works on this premise, by which, and only which, the present Gaian immune response is generated. ‘Anthropogenic’ global warming is a scientific fraud, easily exposed, and is but a grand hoax employed as a tool of political control and mass taxation.
More to follow…
GEODYNAMIC = GAIADYNAMIC
Once the Cartesian dilemma is resolved with respect to the primacy of consciousness, all difficulty regarding the activation of the living Earth’s immune response is cleared away, and the ‘Gaiological’ truth becomes evident. Since consciousness itself is not a product of random material particle motions -not a mere ‘epiphenomenon’ of inert matter- it can permeate all matter, including rocks, clouds, oceans -and magmatic currents within the Earth. The interaction of mind with matter remains a mystery: one cannot exactly become or create the other, but they may act on one another through a mutual interface, which constitutes the realm of the senses. Hence the limited philosophical validity of Berkeley’s famous dictum: “esse est percipi” –we only “know” directly what our senses tell us. The extension of philosophical inquiry into the nature of mind, the nature of matter, and into the various formulations of ‘laws of nature’ constitutes the realm of Metaphysics -beyond the direct information from the physical senses.
Real science would take the underlying reality of consciousness more seriously on this account. Real science would more readily accept the Gaian hypothesis, and work to develop the course of human civilization on this basis. Indeed, one thoughtful scientist has already advanced such a notion: the Earth “IS MOST LIKE A SINGLE CELL” -Lewis Thomas, ‘The Lives of a Cell’. Scientists today, instead, persist in supporting the pseudo-scientific political hoax that global warming is mechanically driven by human carbon emissions –which, for numerous reasons, is geophysically impossible. Among these are records of past global heating without CO2 rise, higher CO2 levels without heating, the Mediavel warming period, the Dryas cooling periods, the recent ‘little ice ages’ plus the very nature of a water planet to respond to increased solar radiation absorption with increased evaporation of its oceans, leading to cooling cloud cover -and perhaps even to a major ice age! Thus we are treated to regular public displays of gross ignorance from those scientists who really should know better:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/scientists-stage-worldwide-climate-protests-after-ipcc-report-180979913/
The only meaningful sense of anthropogenic global warming is the stimulation of a Gaian immune response -a fever- to the depredations of a planetary human ‘yeast infection’ causing real damage by pollution of the oceans, spread of nuclear waste, destruction of the rainforests and severe loss of biodiversity. These are the multiple reasons for planet warming from internal heating -not from external CO2 increase. The coming polar catastrophe is the reason behind the announcement of “Late Stage Anthropocene”.
More to follow…
Hi Graham, thank you and Rupert for a most thought provoking(not for the first time) podcast. Many issues were raised, I would like to focus on dreamers in the Bible. 1. Joseph spouse of Mary 2. Joseph in the Book of Genesis 3. The 3 Wise men 4. Eli and Samuel 5. St John who wrote the Book of Revelation I believe dreams arise out of a message that we need to change and in some mysterious way guide us. Possibly coming from the Archetypes of the Unconscious. Keep up the good work, the journey never ends, it gets better.
Fascinated for decades with your many
travels and writing, your educated and evolving
theories. Thank you for major contributions to the life of my mind, at age 80 most appreciative (and envious) of your research and questioning, searching.7/05/22 Randy Bellamy Pgh., Pa
Buenas tardes, vi su programa los apocalipsis del pasado en el capitulo el legado de los sabios donde muestran una de las civilizaciones mas antiguas y una de estas es y note tres cosas la primera es que la humanidad es mucho mas antigua de lo que nos enseñaron nuestros profesores, dos una de los pilares el 43 donde ellos marcaron lo que podria mostrar varias figuras que representaría escorpion, sagitario, y otras figuras estelares el doctor Martin Sweatman dice que la figura central podria ser el sol, en mi parecer podria ser un meteoro y esto me llevaria a la tercera cosa que podría ser otra teoria que viene hacia la tierra y esto podria darnos la idea de porque fue enterrado GOBEKLITEPE a propósito para que no fuera destruido ya que ellos veian cosas que nosotros no, ya que ellos de pronto sabrian lo que iba a pasar como el suceso que los cientificos nombraron el drayas reciente lo que nos da con la conservacion de esta edificacion cuidando de una inundacion, meteoritos, y lo enterraron, es por eso que pienso que la figura central no es el sol, si no un meteoro que viene hacia la tierra, me gustaria saber que piensa de lo que pienso