John Astin is a professor of psychology, author, teacher, and musician. He returns to do a deep dive into appreciating THIS moment as all there is. Originally streamed live with audience Q+A on YouTube. Watch the video here.

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The implications of his theories just may change everything you think you know about reality and our place in it. Take the Red Pill and see how deep the rabbit hole goes…

Here's the original video and transcript of our interview.

We dive into the Interface Theory of Perception (how evolution hides the truth about reality in favor of a dumbed down user interface that only shows us “fitness” payoffs that help us survive), the “Hard Problem of Consciousness” and how we simply have no idea how consciousness could emerge from physical matter, the theory of Conscious Realism (how reality is really a mathematically-definable social network of conscious “agents” and our perceptions are simply the interface by which we exchange experience with other conscious agents), the math behind conscious agent theory, implications for artificial intelligence (AI), what happens when we die, the limitation of resources in the universe, synesthesia, psychedelics, spirituality, medicine, and much much more.

1:22 Are we machines? Don’s motives for studying reality & his background in artificial intelligence & mathematics

6:38 Evolutionary game theory and how organisms are tuned to see fitness payoffs, not objective reality

11:46 The “Grand Theft Auto” analogy of perception as interface/symbolic representation

14:41 Differentiating solipsism & why we don’t just see SOME objective reality, we see NONE of it (YOU are the author of space and time)

21:06 The hard problem of consciousness and WHY it’s hard from a physicalist perspective

28:38 Conscious agent theory: consciousness is fundamental (rather than emerging from matter)

39:36 Challenging perceptual psychology; Piaget and object permanence

7:06 Amplituhedron and projecting quantum mechanics and relativity from conscious agent theory

50:42 Impact this theory can have on modern medicine and our limited understanding of mental health disorders

01:01:44 Deeper down the rabbit hole, and what happens when we die?

01:08:40 Artificial intelligence as a way to open new interfaces into the conscious agent realm

01:27:58 Examining Evolutionary Psychology; its relation to consciousness and resource limitation, logic & reason as tools of social persuasion

01:40:30 Psychedelics and meditation as tools to hack our perceptual interface and experience other conscious agents

01:47:02 Synesthetes as a glimpse into interface theory, evolution, and more

Prof. Donald Hoffman, apart from being a brilliant scientist, is a wonderful and warm human being in person. Check out our first audio-only conversation from 2018 here, and my take on his theory of consciousness here.

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When Doc Vader goes live to YouTube for a q+a, you never know what Dark Side madness might emerge 😂 Watch the video here.

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Streamed LIVE to YouTube with Q+A 3/10/23. We talked about vaccines and the nature of belief, public health messaging challenges, moral foundation theory, dealing with anger and boundary violations, dropping into the body sense and out of the head, emotional repression and the make believe world of thought, kundalini energy, the nature of negativity bias and how we can shift to positive, Trauma Release Exercises (TRE), body as sensor, shame and its roots (particularly in medicine), self inquiry, the nature and trickiness of ego, the nature of mind-identification and the house of mirrors of thought, empaths and sensitivity to others’ emotions, the excess death question, guilt around setting boundaries, letting go, dealing with fear and more. Here's the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df5QkTpx3x8

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In this episode – originally streamed live to Instagram – I take viewer comments on the topics of healthcare transformation, burnout, identity, and more. We talk about left brain vs. right brain thinking, the absolute vs. the relative world as well as practical solutions and insights for personal transformation.

Video here: https://youtu.be/NKH5a-wuJEI

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Originally released in June of 2021, I recently revisited this amazing conversation with Dr. Angelo DiLullo, a physician, author, and teacher of non-dual realization (sometimes called spiritual awakening) and felt compelled to share it again for a newer audience who may be deeply interested in awakening and the end of needless seeking and suffering. The original video and transcript are here. Read Angelo's book on awakening Awake: It's Your Turn here. Check out Angelo's YouTube channel here.

0:00 Intro: Eckhart Tolle and “The Three Pillars of Zen”

6:44 Disclaimer/Warning: why you should ONLY watch if you’re deeply interested

10:17 The possibility of transcending the ego and subject-object duality

12:10 The paradox of free will/agency on the path to awakening

16:36 Experiencing the present moment as a kind of flow state

20:59 Understanding what “presence” is and its relationship to thought

27:54 The sneaky ego and how it relates to awakening

34:52 The roots suffering in desire, striving, and egoic constructs

37:48 Unbound consciousness, the dissatisfaction of seeking via a false “self,” the importance of surrendering and emotional integration

50:44 The truth behind paradox

56:31 Awakening is available for anyone, and is not a crazy or paranormal experience

1:00:20 Is mental illness a hindrance to awakening, or a reason not to go down the path

1:05:38 Awakening is beyond the mind’s understanding, so how can you tell you’re awake

1:10:18 Unfiltered reality as the primary truth

1:16:08 Psychedelics vs. other methods of pointing/awakening

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Famous docs who can’t process evidence, prior authorization in healthcare and care variation, private equity and gray areas in medicine, the decline of academic medical centers, indoctrination in education, does Paxlovid actually work in populations that matter and the biases of observational trials, fake twitter medical experts, why hospital maintenance workers have more common sense than healthcare leadership, Cochrane mask review, CDC director masking comments and ivermectin, politics in science and why politicians simply can’t be honest, and more! Video here.

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Parasitic middlemen and others in the healthcare industry are gouging patients who can't afford live-saving medications. Dr. Alex Oshmyansky of Mark Cuban's Cost Plus Drug Company teaches us who they are (oh yes, we name names) and how we can fight back to make meds affordable again. A must-watch for patients and caregivers struggling with the high cost of prescription drugs.

Here's the full video of the interview.

Here's our prior interview with Alex from 2021.

Dr. Alex Oshmyansky is the Founder and CEO of the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company. He graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder at the age of 18 with a BA in Biochemistry. He went on to earn an MD at the Duke University School of Medicine and a PhD at Oxford University in Mathematics as a Marshall Scholar. Alex completed a surgical internship at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital / Harvard Medical School. He went on to a residency in diagnostic radiology and a fellowship in pediatric radiology at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Alex then served as an adjunct faculty member at the Stanford University School of Medicine and continues to practice as an emergency radiologist.

Topics & Timecodes

00:00 Intro

2:08 About Alex, the inspiration for Cost Plus Drugs

9:34 Why drugs cost so much, price gouging, parasitic middlemen (PBMs)

18:23 Who ultimately suffers?

25:29 Breaking the system, price transparency, the problem with “discounts”

31:18 Financing this model, negotiating directly with drug manufacturers, Mark Cuban, simple pricing

38:55 How providers can prescribe using costplusdrugs.com

42:12 Employer incentives, the Health 3.0 vision, building a new (less corrupt) system

51:06 Primary care, concierge care, importance of preventative care

1:07:03 Med expiration dates, working with Mark Cuban

1:11:52 Finding a sense of purpose (both personally & within your team), founder stress & burnout

1:20:30 Final thoughts

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Meditation questions, what it's like on meditation retreat (virtual and in-person), thoughts on thoughts, emotion shadow work, reactivity, truth-realization, and more in this Q+A originally LIVE on Facebook.

Watch the video here.

Future retreats with Dr. Angelo DiLullo can be found here.

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Can healing happen when we shine a light on the dark places in medicine? Dr. Emily Silverman is a UCSF hospital physician and host of the popular podcast The Nocturnists. We dive into shame and emotional repression in doctors, healthcare professionals, and beyond.

Check out the entire Shame series here. Learn more about Dr. Silverman here. Donate to her nonprofit here. Visit The Shame Space. Here is the gun violence article we referenced.

Watch the video of our interview here.

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