The Consciousness Podcast

Episode 42: Psilocybin, Addiction and Consciousness with Dr. Garcia-Romeu

In this episode, I had the honor of speaking with Dr. Albert Garcia-Romeu [https://hopkinspsychedelic.org/garcia-romeu], Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Johns Hopkins and a Guest Researcher at the National Institute on Drug Abuse Intramural Neuroimaging Research Branch, where he studies the effects of psychedelic drugs in humans, with a focus on psilocybin as an aid in the treatment of addiction. We discussed his work with psilocybin, what it means to be addicted, and what insight his work has given him into the mystery of consciousness. So, please enjoy this episode, with Dr. Garcia-Romeu. We discussed: 1. You did some work in treating addiction to tobacco with the aid of psilocybin. Can you tell us a little about that study? Matt Johnson [https://hopkinspsychedelic.org/johnson] 2. How do you think psilocybin actually worked in creating those amazing results? 1. What is the key to breaking an addiction? 2. Ego dissolution; mystical 3. Other psyches and addiction: ibogaine/opioids? 4. Cognitive behavioral therapy; Counselling; 3 months 3. Does psilocybin help with addictions of all kinds? Alcohol? Gambling? Etc.? 4. Can you tell us about dosing psilocybin for treatment of addiction? 1. Is it just a pill the patient takes, or is there more to it? See above 5. What other long-term effects did you notice in your patients? Spirituality? Mystical effects? Other changes? 1. Any relationship between dose and mystical effects? Challenging experiences and dose, i.e. a bad trip? 2. Any comment on the relationship between the mystical experience and one’s consciousness? 6. How is psilocybin metabolized in the human body? Did you administer doses based on body weight? 1. [how do these measurements relate to a single mushroom?] 7. What about other psychedelics, such as LSD, Ayahuasca? You’ve recently published some papers on Kratom? “Kratom” — how do you pronounce that one (krat-um)? Do these also help with addiction? 8. What insights do psychedelics give, through altered states of consciousness, into their underlying neurobiological mechanisms? 1. What are the neurobiological mechanisms of consciousness? 9. Let’s step out into the philosophical aspect of consciousness, given your insights into non-ordinary states of consciousness. 1. What are your thoughts on trying to answer the Hard Question of Consciousness — why the phenomenal experience of, say, seeing a red apple? 2. Is consciousness a function of the brain, of our hardware? 3. Mind/body duality? 10. What else? What haven’t I asked? Center for Psych and Consciousness Johns Hopkins; 11. What’s next for you, what are you excited about? 1. Hopkinspsychedelic.org [https://hopkinspsychedelic.org/] 1. Unlimited Sciences collaboration; real world psilocybin use; 3,000 enrolled; The post Episode 42: Psilocybin, Addiction and Consciousness with Dr. Garcia-Romeu [https://theconsciousnesspodcast.com/episode-42-psilocybin-addiction-and-consciousness-with-dr-garcia-romeu/] appeared first on The Consciousness Podcast [https://theconsciousnesspodcast.com].

Episode 41: Consciousness and Psychedelics with Dr. Dennis McKenna

In this episode, I had the honor of speaking with Dr. Dennis McKenna, an ethnopharmacologist, research pharmacognosist, lecturer and author. He’s also the founder of the McKenna Academy [https://mckenna.academy/] and a board member at the Heffter Research Institute [https://www.heffter.org/]. We talked about psychedelics and consciousness. [https://theconsciousnesspodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Dennis-McKenna.jpg]So, let’s hear what Dennis McKenna has to say about human consciousness, including psychedelics’ role in our evolution. We discussed: ethnopharmacologist, pharmacologist 1. Start with a discussion of consciousness. Mind/Brain duality. Universal consciousness. The hard question. What is consciousness, in your opinion? 1. The reality hallucination; brain creates reality 2. Default mode network as a filter 3. A fundamental property of nature? 2. In that context, what is a non-ordinary state of consciousness, like that which results from a psychedelic experience? 1. Disrupt neural gating (DMN); opens up what we have suppressed 2. Reset DMN, brain 3. When you say that plants and fungi can expand our consciousness, what do you mean by that? 4. Set and Setting; medicine; dose 3. What role did the plants play in the evolution of human consciousness? 1. Can we deliberately change and evolve our consciousness (individual, collective)? With plants/fungi, something else? 2. Stoned Ape Theory 1. Neural plasticity 2. Epigenetics 3. Synesthesia as a basis of language; triggered by psilocybe cubensis 4. Language basis of consciousness, cognition 5. Share/transmit information/knowledge through time 6. 2001 Space Odyssey, Monolith 4. We’re at the doorstep of a global transformation in human consciousness, yes? (Please explain) 1. When somebody says ‘higher consciousness’, what does that mean? 5. Any thoughts on neural correlates of consciousness? Under non-ordinary states of consciousness? 6. Teonanacatl – flesh of the gods 1. Book: American Holocaust 7. What are your thoughts on reality…what is real versus perceived? 8. What didn’t I ask? 1. Immersed in symbiotic relationship with the plants/fungi 2. Tools to help us discover what we already know 3. Cognitive partners 9. What’s next from you? What are you excited about? 1. McKenna Academy – psychedelic university 2. A place for learning, integrating, exploring these ideas 3. Help people learn how to think, not WHAT to think 4. Achieve their own consciousness 5. Remind people to remember to be astonished, experience wonder (nature) The post Episode 41: Consciousness and Psychedelics with Dr. Dennis McKenna [https://theconsciousnesspodcast.com/episode-41-consciousness-and-psychedelics-with-dr-dennis-mckenna/] appeared first on The Consciousness Podcast [https://theconsciousnesspodcast.com].

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

In this episode, I had the honor of speaking with Dr. Donald D. Hoffman [http://www.cogsci.uci.edu/~ddhoff/], 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 [https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/04/the-illusion-of-reality/479559/], 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: 1. 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? 2. 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? 3. What do physicists say about this idea? 4. 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? 5. 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)? 6. 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? 7. 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”? 8. How does your theory do with non-ordinary states of consciousness, like dreams, psychedelics, etc.? 9. 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? 10. What didn’t I ask? 1. Distinction between living and non-living things. 2. What about the transition between living and not living? 11. What’s next from you? What are you excited about? The post Episode 40: Consciousness as Fundamental to Reality with Dr. Donald D. Hoffman [https://theconsciousnesspodcast.com/episode-40-consciousness-as-fundamental-to-reality-with-dr-donald-d-hoffman/] appeared first on The Consciousness Podcast [https://theconsciousnesspodcast.com].

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

In this episode, I had the honor of speaking with Dr. Sam Ko, owner of Reset Ketamine [https://www.resetketamine.com/]. 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 [https://stonedapecomedy.com/episodes/], which covers healing with psychedelic medicines. So, please enjoy this episode with Dr. Sam Ko. We discussed: 1. Tell us about your practice, so, first, tell us about your practice, Reset Ketamine. Treatment resistant depression, PTSD, eastern-western approach to medicine 2. Ketamine is used to help treat suicidal ideation and prevent suicide, correct? 3. 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 4. 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? 5. 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 6. 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 7. How does that relate specifically to one’s consciousness? 8. 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 9. Can you share a couple stories of outcomes from ketamine treatments? 10. You mention that the spiritual part of us can get injured: what does that mean? 11. Anything else you want to share regarding consciousness? Healing with Ketamine? Other ‘plant medicines’? Your practice? Askp.org [https://askp.org/] KetamineHelps.com [https://www.ketaminehelps.com/] The post Episode 39: Ketamine, NDE and Consciousness with Dr. Sam Ko [https://theconsciousnesspodcast.com/episode-39-ketamine-nde-and-consciousness-with-dr-sam-ko/] appeared first on The Consciousness Podcast [https://theconsciousnesspodcast.com].

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

In this episode, I had the honor of speaking with Dr. James Glattfelder [http://jth.ch/jbg]. 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: 1. 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? 2. Panpsychism, Integrated Information Theory: consciousness is everywhere; Freeman Dyson [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeman_Dyson]; Max Planck [https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Max_Planck] 3. 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] 4. Self organization and complexity; Stephen Wolfram [https://www.stephenwolfram.com/about/] – simple rules; teleological force of universe 5. Time is an illusion, doesn’t really exist; anthropic principle; 6. Eastern traditions; Hinduism (lei-la); Buddhism; Shamanism; Christ Bache (high-dose LSD sessions, LSD and the Mind of the Universe [https://www.amazon.com/LSD-Mind-Universe-Diamonds-Heaven/dp/1620559706]) 7. 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? 8. 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 9. In that context, what is “self”, then? 1. Default state, default mode network 10. 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; 11. Is time real? How does time relate to consciousness? 12. 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 13. 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. 14. 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 [https://theconsciousnesspodcast.com/episode-38-quantum-physics-reality-and-consciousness-with-dr-james-glattfelder/] appeared first on The Consciousness Podcast [https://theconsciousnesspodcast.com].