Chasing Consciousness

Why are we seeing such a rise in youth mental health diagnosis? How do we relativise this against the rise in mental health awareness? What’s the best approach for parents seeking solutions? How can social-connection and loneliness completely change trauma integration? What role does the recent explosion of persuasive technologies in young peoples lives play in the changing situation?

Let Grow movement for childhood independence

How and why did human’s develop self-awareness of what we know and don’t know? How does it develop in relation to how we evaluate what other people know? What are the risks of cognitive bias tainting our ability to learn and self correct?

Is the brain structure found in many UFO experiencers and remote viewers related to intuition? Are anomalous isotope ratio alloys, allegedly fallen from UFO’s, evidence that can help important jumps in the research into energy and transportation technologies? How can this be both a physical and psychological phenomenon simultaneously? Is there a connection between the mind and this brain structure and the phenomena?

How can neuroscience help us personalise mental health diagnoses and treatments? How are mental heath stats changing and why? How effective are life style changes as a prevention? What other new treatments are proving promising and effective?

In this episode we’re going to get an update on all the recent research from neuroscience that’s studying mental health, and not just the issues and the treatments being used to deal with them, but also the importance of the brain itself in the perception of our mental health, and the lifestyle choices that can preventatively ward off the issues before they arise; things like nutrition, sleep, exercise, and social contact. We’ll be looking at the big one: depression and its connection to inflammation, and a wide range of buzz therapies including psychedelic therapy and cold water immersion.

Today’s guest has just written a book for the public on this topic “The Balanced Brain: The science of mental health”, and her lab at MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences in Cambridge bridges the gap between the nuts and bolts of cognitive neuroscience and the more mind base of clinical psychology. She is neuroscientist and author Camilla Nord. In 2022, she was named a Rising Star by the US Association for Psychological Science, and received the Young Investigator Award from the European Society for Affective and Cognitive Science.  

Now it strikes me that if we can integrate new evidence from brain research into the clinical psychology field, we‘ve got a much better shot at treating ever rising numbers of mental health diagnoses and perhaps educating a good portion of the next generation enough to avoid these issues all together. It may be a pipe dream but we’ve got to try.

What we discuss: 

00:00 Intro

07:00 Our perception of pain.

11:00 Body changes lead to mental health changes.

12:00 Our ‘Inside-out’ perception is an active predictor of our mental health and the outside world.

16:00 The importance of narrative repetition to our self-perception.

18:00 Individualised data and solutions to mental health are impractical for our one-size-fits-all medical systems on a budget.

23:30 Nutritional Psychiatry - the connection between diet and mental health.

26:30 Gut-brain axis importance.

28:00 The risk of dieting affecting pleasure centres and thus motivation and mental health.

30:00 Inflammatory diet choices and lifestyle leading to depression.

33:30 Microbiome research: promise vs wishful thinking.

37:45 Social connection, nature connection and connection to meaning.

40:45 Some mental health symptoms can be useful and adaptive.

43:20 Sport and physical exercise to improve mental health.

46:00 Depression leads to a lack of drive to obtain pleasure - Anhedonia.

48:20 Sleep neuroscience.

53:30 Anger management and ‘hangriness’.

56:20 The Placebo effect is a useful part of a treatment’s effect.

58:00 Changing diagnosis rates in mental health.

01:02:00 Psychedelic therapy was unpopular before the last 10 years of study.

01:06:00 MDMA’s uses for PTSD, and modifying beliefs and expectations.

01:08:10 Connection between psychosis and cannabis.

01:09:20 Cannabis CBD Oil treatment of THC addiction.

01:11:15 Cold water immersion for euphoria and pain tolerance.

01:13:00 The changing nature of mental health.

References:

Camilla Nord, “The Balanced Brain, the Science of mental health”.

Felicity Jacka, Nutritional psychiatry, Guardian Article

Metabolic health influences learning paper.

Clinical psychosis vs mediumship paper. Connection to symptoms changes mental health outcomes.

Oliver J Robinson - Adaptive anxiety paper

Wim Hof, Cold water Immersion method, list of science papers

Can time symmetry in physics, combined with exceptional violations of the 2nd law of thermodynamics, and the “quantum handshake” transactional interpretation of Quantum mechanics, open up main stream physics to the possibility of retro-causation? Could it help to explain the many paradoxes left open in modern physics? and is there experimental evidence for it?

Today we have the extraordinary possibility of retro-causation to get our heads around: the apparently impossible phenomenon of events in the present causing changes in the past, or future events having an effect in the present depending on how you want to look at it. Today we’ll be approaching this topic via the context of time symmetry in physics. As far back as 1947, French quantum physicist Olivier Costa de Beauregard, began to question the usual interpretation of time in quantum mechanics, intuiting that something was missing from the model for the many paradoxes in Quantum Mechanics to remain unexplained. And then, with others get on board over the years, in the 80’s, John G Kramer, agreed that the missing ingredient was found in time symmetry and he proposed a ‘quantum handshake’ between the waves passing forward and backward in time at the moment of collapse; in this Transactional Interpretation of quantum mechanics, Kramer claimed he had solved the paradoxes.

My guest today has put together this research, a re-interpretation of the 2nd law of thermodynamics based on violations where Entropy exceptionally does not hold, and theorisation about quantum correlates to consciousness to create a new theory of retro-causation, which he thinks can be tested. He is Daniel Sheehan, Author and Professor of Physics at the University of San Diego, specialist in plasma physics, violations of the 2nd Law thermodynamics and Retro-causation. He is the founder the Quantum Retro-causation symposia that met at The University of San Diego.

What we discuss:

00:00 Intro.

09:00 Time dilation: the twin paradox.

12:20 Time symmetry: reversible time functions in physics equations.

13:20 Violations of the 2nd Law, the Entropic arrow of time.

18:20 Wheeler’s bizarre altered double slit experiment.

23:15 Wheeler’s ‘Participatory Universe’.

26:00 The history of retro-causation research.

29:15 Bergmann and Lebowitz ‘Two-State Vector Formalism’ theory 1964

31:00 Kramer’s “Quantum Handshake” Transactional interpretation of QM.

35:30 Sheehan’s theory of retro-causation.

36:45 The assumption of quantum processes acting in the brain.

39:00 Issues with quantum consciousness hypotheses.

42:00 Macroscopic quantum systems.

50:00 Precognitive retro-causation experiments: Graff & Cyrus 

51:45 Triple blind experiments - blind ‘even to the universe’.

55:00 Is the subject finding out what actually happened important to the result?

57:00 Emotional charge in the future, influencing the past.

59:00 Are some events in the future already fixed?

01:01:30 Global Consciousness aggregate effects in physical systems.

01:02:30 Time symmetry allows the transmission into the past of important.

01:05:00 Wider science reception of such a paradigm shifting ideas as retro-causation.

01:05:00 Getting over our Second law biology habits.

References:

Vladislav Capek & Daniel P. Sheehan, “Challenges to The Second Law of Thermodynamics: Theory and Experiment”.

Stephen Wolfram, “Computational Foundations for the Second Law of Thermodynamics”

John Wheeler - Altered double double slit “Delayed Choice” experiment.

Bergmann and Lebowitz ‘Two-State Vector Formalism’ theory 1964

John G. Kramer’s “Transactional interpretation” of Quantum Mechanics.

Dale E Graff, Patricia S. Cyrus, ‘Perceiving the future news: Evidence for retrocausation’ Paper

Global Consciousness project at Princeton, Roger Nelson.

Quotes:

“The question is more important than the answer”, author unknown.

“Order is a state of mind, not a state of matter” On Entropy, Daniel Sheehan. 

How have we ended up in a meaning crisis and what are the symptoms? Why is embodiment important to knowing? Why is an ecology of practices part of the solution? Today we have the growing issue of The Meaning Crisis to discuss, and the embodied practices that could offer a few solutions. This conversation is a part 2, following directly on from Episode #51, where John and I talked about Collective intelligence, and how the evolution of distributed cognition has led to homo-sapiens being such effective collaborators. It was so fascinating that we didn’t have time to connect the sheer power of our collective intelligence, to today’s discussion about what John has dubbed The Meaning Crisis. We come back to the importance of our propensity for self-transcendence, and the correspondent risk of self-delusion; how important a sense of the sacred is to our sense of meaning in life, to our mental health; then we zoom in on the importance of a range of embodied practices that John calls an ecology of practices, like Chi Gong, circling, flow states and meditation to re-discover lost forms of knowledge and embodied cognition that John thinks can bring us back from the brink of self delusion and self destruction.

There is of course only one polymath who can speak about so many things and connect them all, like a ninja of the mind as one listener called him, the Cognitive scientist and philosopher John Vervaeke. Vervaeke is the director of the university of Toronto’s Consciousness and Wisdom Studies Laboratory and its Cognitive Science program, where he teaches an Introduction to Cognitive Science and The Cognitive Science of Consciousness. Vervaeke has taught courses on Buddhism and Cognitive Science in the Buddhism, Psychology, and Mental Health programs for 15 years. He is also the author and presenter of his much loved YouTube series “Awakening from the Meaning Crisis” and ‘After Socrates.’

What we discuss:

00:00 Intro

06:15 Self-transcendence VS self-delusion.

07:45 The ‘frame’ problem, the need to ignore many things to attend to the ‘salient’ ones.

12:30 The history of meaning in the west.

17:00 The history of religion and philosophy: connectedness across generations.

20:00 Pre-agricultural sacred practices and rituals.

22:30 The upper palaeolithic transition - the artistic, technical, and symbolic.

24:30 The axial revolution - numeracy, literacy and democracy.

27:30 The ‘2 world’ mythology revolution - the natural and supernatural.

29:30 The scientific revolution - the collapse of the 2 world mythology.

31:20 The impossible promise of scientism.

38:00 The difference between wisdom and knowledge.

43:00 Participatory knowledge - graspable, shapable knowledge.

45:00 Gnosis - embodied knowledge.

49:30 The importance of the sacred to meaning.

54:00 Maladaptive replacement of religion with consumerism.

57:45 A relationship with the transcendent.

59:00 Becoming mature is about facing reality.

01:01:00 Loss of epistemic humility.

01:04:00 Loss of wonder

01:05:00 Humility + Wonder = reverence.

01:06:09 The disappearing of traditional men’s roles.

01:17:30 The changing of women’s roles.

01:23:50 Direct embodied experience

01:26:00 An ecology of practices - there is no single panacea practice

01:30:20 Dialogical over monological reasoning - we don’t become wise in isolation.

01:33:40 Flow States and the lowering of the ego mind.

01:38:00 Circling: Listening as an intentional action

01:41:30 Meditation helps break mental frames.

01:46:40 The lowering of the Default Mode Network

01:50:20 Tai Chi and Qigong. 

01:53:45 ‘Transjective’ embodiment

References:

John Vervaeke, “Awakening from the meaning crisis”, You Tube lecture series.

Why do we have the tendency to believe things when they may not be true? Why do we project patterns, agency and meaning onto the world when sometimes there is none? How can we consider the probabilities of conspiracies to identify the ones that may be true? How do we encourage brave journalism that calls out conspiracies even by powerful institutions, in spite of the pejorative term ‘conspiracy theorist’?

Why do we have the tendency to believe things when they may not be true? Why do we project patterns, agency and meaning onto the world when sometimes there is none? How can we consider the probabilities of conspiracies to identify the ones that may be true? How do we encourage brave journalism that calls out conspiracies even by powerful institutions, in spite of the pejorative term ‘conspiracy theorist’?

Today we have the uncomfortable topic of how our brains often believe things which aren’t true. The topic fits perfectly with our theme for series 4 of Self-transcendence vs Self-delusion. Our innate ability to notice patterns in systems, assign agency and find meaning in the world are among the reasons we’ve evolved to become so successful at predicting, understanding and creating meaningful collaborations in the world. But the issue with these abilities is that we might make the mistake of thinking what the brain assigns to the world for our own survival, is necessarily true of the world itself. Sure our brains do track the truth but truth is not always what’s needed for survival; so issues like negativity bias, confirmation bias and creating narrative stories that conveniently map onto our existing world view have become a deeply engrained part of our society. Add to this modern phenomena like the siloing of information by the internet into small echo chambers where only like minds come together; algorithmic amplification of memes led by the internet business model of “maximising engagement”; and decreasing trust in institutions, as economic inequality in the world increases exponentially, and you get a perfect storm of clashing beliefs about the truth.

Fortunately, our guest today is one of the most established sceptical voices in science who reminds us that we need to track closely the difference between what can be collectively confirmed to be true, and what our brains project to be true from the inside out. He is of course, New York Times best selling author and founding publisher of Skeptic magazine Michael Schermer; he wrote for 18 years for the Scientific American. He’s written nine books but today we’re going to focus on his books “The Believing Brain” and his new release “Conspiracy: Why the rational believe the irrational”.

What we discuss:

References:

Michael Schermer, “The Believing Brain"

Michael Scheremer, “Conspiracy: Why the Rational Believe the Irrational”

Michael Schermer, “The Moral Arc”

Scepticism 101 course: How to think like a scientist

Remote viewing Stargate Program documentary “Third Eye Spies”

Helene Cooper, Ralph Blumenthal, and Leslie Kean - ‘Glowing Auras and ‘Black Money’: The Pentagon’s Mysterious U.F.O. Program’, NYTimes article

....

What role do estrogen and the menstrual cycle play in the moods of women? Is ‘baby brain’ a real phenomena or does the brain actually sharpen during motherhood? What are the symptoms of menopause and how natural and effective is HRT (Hormone Replacement Therapy)?

- Use the time stamps for those interested only in the neuroscience of Menopause (01:07:45) and Motherhood (37:00). 

- NO VIDEO Episode, audio only.

Today we have the important topic of women’s hormones to up our awareness about. A big part of the experience we have of our bodies is thanks to hormones, also called  neurotransmitters because they help our nervous system communicate with the rest of the body about what’s going on inside and outside the body. Having accompanied my partner through the process of having two children, and us both having had many unanswered questions about that; and now heading into my late forties having many female friends and listeners heading towards menopause, and speaking publicly about how they wished there’d been given more information about it as it seems not to be discussed much, even amongst women. So I felt the need to make a show about the science and experience of female hormones, particularly with regard to motherhood and menopause; in the hope that women facing these experiences and men hoping to be informed and supportive to those experiences might get more insight. If you’re looking for a show about the comparison or difference between men and women, or Mars or Venus, or the battle of the sexes this is not the show for you: this is simply an informative show about the female brain and particularly about the changes that take place during motherhood and menopause. Unfortunately there is hardly any research into the neuroscience and hormones of trans people, so I apologise in advance for the fact that this show speaks only of those who are born and identify themselves as women. 

We are extremely fortunate that our guest today is a neuroscientist and author who has specialised in the Female Brain, both studying the full arc of a woman’s life  in her highly accessible yet detailed book “The Women’s Brain Book: The neuroscience of Health, Hormones and Happiness”; and most recently in her new 2023 book “Baby Brain: The surprising science of how pregnancy and motherhood sculpt our brains and change our minds (for the better)”. She is of course Dr. Sarah McKay, an Oxford University phD in Neuroscience, whose super power is to make neuroscience simple, actionable and relevant to your everyday life. So she chose to leave her research career in favour of science communication, hoping to bridge the gap between the lab and everyday life. She’s the founder of the Neuroscience Academy; has been the neuroscience correspondent for ABC in Australia and has been quoted in the Guardian, Wall Street Journal, Grazia and the Sydney Morning Herald.

What we discuss:

00:00 Intro.

10:55 Menstrual cycle and estrogen neuroscience.

13:45 Brain-ovarian axis (HPO hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis).

18:45 Wrong assumption that estrogen equals negative moods in women.

24:30 PMS misconceptions - proved to affect only %10 of population.

35:00 A bio-psycho-social model - many contributing factors to mood.

37:00 MOTHERHOOD neuroscience.

48:45 Wrong assumptions about ‘baby brain’ - no cognitive decline.

55:15 Wrong assumptions about post-partum attachment dynamics.

01:05:15 Post natal depression - Not only due to an estrogen drop.

01:07:45 MENOPAUSE Neuroscience.

01:17:00 Perimenopause - menstrual cycle becomes erratic.

01:27:30 Sex-drive and discomfort after menopause.

01:31:30 HRT - Hormone Replacement Therapy 

01:41:45 Nuance and ‘grey areas’ in a world of click bait.

References:

Sarah McKay The Women’s Brain Book

Sarah McKay "Baby Brain: The Suprising Neuroscience of how Pregnancy and Motherhood Sculpt our Brains and Change Our Minds (for the better)"

The Neuroscience Academy

Dr. Sarah Romans - ‘Mood and the menstrual cycle’ paper.