A curated collection of documentaries, scientific insights, and philosophical perspectives on quantum physics, non-duality, and the mysteries of existence.
This vault archives YouTube transmissions and corresponding literature across meditation, neuroscience, ontology, ecology, AI, spirituality, and cosmology.
Time, Space, and Consciousness, Part One: The Nature of Light, with Fred Alan Wolf
Fred Alan Wolf, PhD, is a theoretical physicist who left academia and has spent his career exploring the mystical realms where consciousness and physics interface. He received the National Book Award for Taking the Quantum Leap: The New Physics for Non-Scientists. His other books include...
https://youtu.be/wUJj9AOqrKo
Fred Alan Wolf, PhD, is a theoretical physicist who left academia and has spent his career exploring the mystical realms where consciousness and physics interface. He received the National Book Award for Taking the Quantum Leap: The New Physics for Non-Scientists. His other books include The Spiritual Universe: How Quantum Physics Proves the Existence of the Soul, The Dreaming Universe: A Mind-Expanding Journey into the Realm Where Psyche and Physics Meet, Parallel Universes: The Search for Other Worlds, The Eagle’s Quest: A Physicist Find Scientific Truth at the Heart of the Shamanic World, Space Time and Beyond, Mind Into Matter: A New Alchemy of Science and Spirit, Matter Into Feeling, Dr. Quantum’s Little Book of Big Ideas, The Yoga of Time Travel: How the Mind Can Defeat Time, and Time Loops and Space Twists: How God Created the Universe.
Here he discusses Einstein’s thought experiment, imagining what it would be like riding on a photon at the speed of light. He notes that many experiments have now shown conclusively that time actually slows down as one’s speed approaches the speed of light. This phenomena is related to the lifespan of pi meson sub-atomic particles as their speed approaches that of light. At the speed of light, itself, time stops completely and space also disappears. Thus, one might say that a photon is located everywhere in time and space at once. He also points out that Einstein developed the notion of “space-time” as a single concept or “block” of measurement. In addition, the “now” moment is relative to each observer and not necessarily simultaneous for everyone.
New Thinking Allowed host, Jeffrey Mishlove, PhD, is author of The Roots of Consciousness, Psi Development Systems, and The PK Man. Between 1986 and 2002 he hosted and co-produced the original Thinking Allowed public television series. He is the recipient of the only doctoral diploma in "parapsychology" ever awarded by an accredited university (University of California, Berkeley, 1980). His master's degree is in criminology. He teaches parapsychology for ministers in training with the Centers for Spiritual Living through the Holmes Institute. He has served as vice-president of the Association for Humanistic Psychology, and is the recipient of its Pathfinder Award for outstanding contributions to the field of human consciousness. He is also past-president of the non-profit Intuition Network, an organization dedicated to creating a world in which all people are encouraged to cultivate and apply their inner, intuitive abilities. His American Indian name, chosen at age eight, is Soaring Eagle.
Books
Being You: A New Science of Consciousness with Anil Seth
Being You is not as simple as it sounds. Somehow, within each of our brains, billions of neurons work to create our conscious experience. How does this happen? Why do we experience life in the first person? After over twenty years researching the brain, world-renowned...
Being You is not as simple as it sounds. Somehow, within each of our brains, billions of neurons work to create our conscious experience. How does this happen? Why do we experience life in the first person?
After over twenty years researching the brain, world-renowned neuroscientist Professor Anil Seth puts forward a radical new theory of consciousness and self. His unique theory of what it means to 'be you' challenges our understanding of perception and reality and it turns what you thought you knew about yourself on its head.
About
Anil Seth is a leading British researcher in the field of consciousness science. He is Professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience and Co-Director of the Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science at the University of Sussex. He writes regularly for New Scientist, Guardian and the BBC, and has been interviewed on Radio 4's The Life Scientific. His TED talk on consciousness has been viewed nearly 8 million times; he is currently a Wellcome Trust Engagement Fellow and he tweets at @anilkseth.
T R U T H
Nick Bostrom: Superintelligence & the Simulation Hypothesis
Nick Bostrom is a Swedish-born philosopher at the University of Oxford known for his work on existential risk, the anthropic principle, human enhancement ethics, superintelligence risks, and the reversal test. In 2011, he founded the Oxford Martin Program on the Impacts of Future Technology, and...
https://youtu.be/IAb8LNjZK54
Nick Bostrom is a Swedish-born philosopher at the University of Oxford known for his work on existential risk, the anthropic principle, human enhancement ethics, superintelligence risks, and the reversal test. In 2011, he founded the Oxford Martin Program on the Impacts of Future Technology, and is the founding director of the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University. In 2009 and 2015, he was included in Foreign Policy's Top 100 Global Thinkers list.
Bostrom is the author of over 200 publications, and has written two books and co-edited two others. The two books he has authored are Anthropic Bias: Observation Selection Effects in Science and Philosophy (2002) and Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies (2014). Superintelligence was a New York Times bestseller, was recommended by Elon Musk and Bill Gates among others, and helped to popularize the term "superintelligence".
Bostrom believes that superintelligence, which he defines as "any intellect that greatly exceeds the cognitive performance of humans in virtually all domains of interest," is a potential outcome of advances in artificial intelligence. He views the rise of superintelligence as potentially highly dangerous to humans, but nonetheless rejects the idea that humans are powerless to stop its negative effects.
In his book Superintelligence, Professor Bostrom asks the questions: What happens when machines surpass humans in general intelligence? Will artificial agents save or destroy us? Nick Bostrom lays the foundation for understanding the future of humanity and intelligent life.
The human brain has some capabilities that the brains of other animals lack. It is to these distinctive capabilities that our species owes its dominant position. If machine brains surpassed human brains in general intelligence, then this new superintelligence could become extremely powerful - possibly beyond our control. As the fate of the gorillas now depends more on humans than on the species itself, so would the fate of humankind depend on the actions of the machine superintelligence.
But we have one advantage: we get to make the first move. Will it be possible to construct a seed Artificial Intelligence, to engineer initial conditions so as to make an intelligence explosion survivable? How could one achieve a controlled detonation?
Documentaries
The Wisdom of Trauma (2021)
One in five Americans are diagnosed with mental illness every year. Suicide is the second most common cause of death in the US for youth aged 15-24, and kills over 48,300 in the US and 800,000 people globally per year. Drug overdose kills 81,000 in...
One in five Americans are diagnosed with mental illness every year. Suicide is the second most common cause of death in the US for youth aged 15-24, and kills over 48,300 in the US and 800,000 people globally per year. Drug overdose kills 81,000 in the US annually. The auto-immune disorder epidemic affects 24 million people in the US alone. What is going on? The interconnected epidemics of anxiety, chronic illness and substance abuse are, according to Dr Gabor Maté, normal - but not in the way you might think.
Astronomy/ Cosmology
Brian Keating & Garrett Lisi on E8 & String Theory – Theory of Every0ne Live 5.24.22
Tonight we look at a discussion between Brian Keating, professor of physics at UCSD and creator of the "Into the Impossible" podcast, and Garrett Lisi, theoretical physicist and founder of the Pacific Science institute. Garrett Lisi is known for his attempt to unify physics using...
Tonight we look at a discussion between Brian Keating, professor of physics at UCSD and creator of the "Into the Impossible" podcast, and Garrett Lisi, theoretical physicist and founder of the Pacific Science institute. Garrett Lisi is known for his attempt to unify physics using the beautiful geometric structure of E8.
Artificial Intelligence
AI-Generated Philosophy Is Weirdly Profound
Sources: Zizek's Ontology by Johnston Transgressing the Boundary by Sokal What the Sokal Affair Does and Does Not Prove by Sokal The Phenomenology of Spirit by Hegel Lectures on the Phenomenology of Spirit by Kojeve 2001: A Space Odyssey I Have No Mouth And...
Sources: Zizek's Ontology by Johnston
Transgressing the Boundary by Sokal
What the Sokal Affair Does and Does Not Prove by Sokal
The Phenomenology of Spirit by Hegel
Lectures on the Phenomenology of Spirit by Kojeve
2001: A Space Odyssey
I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream by Ellison
Lectures on The Philosophy of History by Hegel
The Sublime Object of Ideology by Zizek
The Other Side of Psychoanalysis by Lacan
The Desire of Psychoanalysis by Tupinambá
Art
Waking Life (2001)
Dreams. What are they? An escape from reality or reality itself? Waking Life follows the dream(s) of one man and his attempt to find and discern the absolute difference between waking life and the dreamworld. While trying to figure out a way to wake up,...
Dreams. What are they? An escape from reality or reality itself? Waking Life follows the dream(s) of one man and his attempt to find and discern the absolute difference between waking life and the dreamworld. While trying to figure out a way to wake up, he runs into many people on his way; some of which offer one sentence asides on life, others delving deeply into existential questions and life's mysteries. We become the main character. It becomes our dream and our questions being asked and answered. Can we control our dreams? What are they telling us about life? About death? About ourselves and where we come from and where we are going? The film does not answer all these for us. Instead, it inspires us to ask the questions and find the answers ourselves.
Neuro-Science
Dr. Ruth Kastner and the transactional interpretation of quantum mechanics
In this episode I am looking forward to exploring more about alternate interpretations of Quantum Mechanics. In previous episodes exploring consciousness, I’ve encountered several people who believe that Quantum Mechanics is at the root of consciousness. My current thinking is that it replaces one mystery...
https://youtu.be/x-zks53ZiTo
In this episode I am looking forward to exploring more about alternate interpretations of Quantum Mechanics. In previous episodes exploring consciousness, I’ve encountered several people who believe that Quantum Mechanics is at the root of consciousness. My current thinking is that it replaces one mystery with another one without really providing an explanation for consciousness. We are still stuck with the options of consciousness being a pre-existing property of the universe or some aspect of it, vs. it being an emergent feature of a processing network. Either way, quantum mechanics is an often misunderstood brilliant theory at the root of physics. It tells us that basic particles don’t exist at a specific position and momentum—they are, however, represented very accurately as a smooth wavefunction that can be used to calculate the distribution of a set of measurements on identical particles. The process of observation seems to cause the wavefunction to randomly collapse to a localized spot. Nobody knows for certain what causes this collapse. This is known as the measurement problem. The many worlds theorem says the wavefunction doesn’t collapse. It claims that the wavefunction describes all the possible universes that exist and the process of measurement just tells us which universe we are living in.
My guest is a leading proponent of transactional quantum mechanics.
TDr. Ruth E. Kastner earned her M.S. in Physics and Ph.D. in History and Philosophy of Science from the University of Maryland. Since that time, she has taught widely and conducted research in Foundations of Physics, particularly in interpretations of quantum theory. She was one of three winners of the 2021 Alumni Research Award at the University of Maryland, College Park (https://tinyurl.com/2t56yrp2). She is the author of 3 books: The Transactional Interpretation of Quantum Theory: The Reality of Possibility (Cambridge University Press, 2012; 2nd edition just published, 2022), Understanding Our Unseen Reality: Solving Quantum Riddles (Imperial College Press, 2015); and Adventures In Quantumland: Exploring Our Unseen Reality (World Scientific, 2019). She has presented talks and interviews throughout the world and in video recordings on the interpretational challenges of quantum theory, and has a blog at transactionalinterpretation.org. She is also a dedicated yoga practitioner and received her 200-Hour Yoga Alliance Instructor Certification in February, 2020.
Imagination as the ground of reality, with Patrick Harpur
In this wide-ranging interview, one of our favorite scholars, Patrick Harpur, discusses the fundamental role of the imagination in human history, the human mind, and reality at large. He also discusses the daimons, those elusive, contradictory figures who inhabit minds and the world, but who...
https://youtu.be/w_sj8KOgO3Q
In this wide-ranging interview, one of our favorite scholars, Patrick Harpur, discusses the fundamental role of the imagination in human history, the human mind, and reality at large. He also discusses the daimons, those elusive, contradictory figures who inhabit minds and the world, but who appear only to those with the eyes to see. Harpur's extensive, extraordinary, life-transforming body of work is one of the most criminally underrated in modern scholarship.
This video has human-created English subtitles, so don't forget to click on the 'CC' button below the video to enable them.
Ralston College presents a lecture by Dr Iain McGilchrist followed by a discussion with Dr Stephen Blackwood and questions from the audience. In his lecture Dr McGilchrist deals with certain themes that are treated at greater length in his recent book The Matter With Things....
https://youtu.be/N4AFdNxLmb4
Ralston College presents a lecture by Dr Iain McGilchrist followed by a discussion with Dr Stephen Blackwood and questions from the audience. In his lecture Dr McGilchrist deals with certain themes that are treated at greater length in his recent book The Matter With Things. He focuses especially upon the coincidence of opposites (coincidentia oppositorum), which he explores (providing an extraordinary range of illustrative examples) in such a way as to make manifest both its universality and its particular relevance to our present historical moment.
Books
Thich Nhat Hanh – Oprah Winfrey | Full Length Interview
This is the full-length version of a truly insightful, deep and powerful Interview. Oprah Winfrey talks to Thich Nhat Hanh about becoming a monk, meeting Martin Luther King Jr; The powers of mindfulness, insight, concentration and compassion, how to transform warring parties and how to...
https://youtu.be/tVr5ala7xZg
This is the full-length version of a truly insightful, deep and powerful Interview. Oprah Winfrey talks to Thich Nhat Hanh about becoming a monk, meeting Martin Luther King Jr; The powers of mindfulness, insight, concentration and compassion, how to transform warring parties and how to deeply transform relationships.
Using the Great Tradition of Global Wisdom to Move Beyond Religious Provincialism & Scientific Materialism, God’s Great Tradition of Global Wisdom, Chapter 1, Part 1, Brad Reynolds
The entire Great Tradition must be accepted as our common inheritance…. I Call for the universal acceptance of the total tradition or Great Tradition of humankind as the common inheritance of humankind. — Adi Da Samraj, 1982 Source: God's "Great Tradition" of Global Humankind, God's Great...
The entire Great Tradition must be accepted as our common inheritance…. I Call for the universal acceptance of the total tradition or Great Tradition of humankind as the common inheritance of humankind. — Adi Da Samraj, 1982
