Living Mirrors with Dr. James Cooke

This week on the podcast previous guest Shamil Chandaria is returning to discuss his recent paper “A beautiful loop: An active inference theory of consciousness”, co-authored with Ruben Laukkonen. Shamil Chandaria is an expert in artificial intelligence and computational neuroscience. He was a founder of the Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London where he is a Research Fellow, as well as at The School of Advanced Study’s Institute of Philosophy, which is part of the University of London. He is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Eudaimonia and Human Flourishing at Oxford University, and, most recently, he became a fellow of Fitzwilliam College at Cambridge university. https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/daf5n

My appearance on the Mastering Thought podcast with Mark Waller and Kristina Black

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Wystan Bryant-Scott is a Buddhist meditation teacher who has spent roughly two and half years of his life practising in an intensive residential monastic setting. He has studied under teachers in multiple Buddhist traditions, including Theravada, Vajrayana, Zen, and Dzogchen, and is a certified teacher of previous podcast guest Shinzen Young’s Unified Mindfulness system. Wystan is also on the Board of Advisors of the Qualia Research Institute. I’ve been continually impressed by the depth and clarity of Wystan’s realisation so I’m glad to share my recent conversation with him with you today.  

James Cooke discusses awakening on the Conscious Perspective podcast with Gary Lee Haskins

Access the full free course here, along with grounding guidance and a guide on how to use these resources: Disclaimer - Read Before Continuing The practices provided here are intended as guidance for navigating one's experience. They should not be understood as medical advice or as a treatment for specific mental or physical conditions. Dr. James Cooke is trained as a research scientist and as a mindfulness teacher, not as a clinician, psychiatrist, psychotherapist, or any other clinical speciality. It is highly recommended that you get support from a counselor or psychotherapist trained in a modality such as Internal Family Systems therapy (IFS) as you navigate this terrain. Participants agree to take full personal responsibility for the effects of exploring their minds using these materials. It is not possible to predict the precise effects for any given individual, and so no guarantees are offered as to the nature of the resulting effects. You alone are responsible for keeping yourself safe. Ensure you have appropriate support as you engage in this work.

Access the full free course here, along with grounding guidance and a guide on how to use these resources: Disclaimer - Read Before Continuing The practices provided here are intended as guidance for navigating one's experience. They should not be understood as medical advice or as a treatment for specific mental or physical conditions. Dr. James Cooke is trained as a research scientist and as a mindfulness teacher, not as a clinician, psychiatrist, psychotherapist, or any other clinical speciality. It is highly recommended that you get support from a counselor or psychotherapist trained in a modality such as Internal Family Systems therapy (IFS) as you navigate this terrain. Participants agree to take full personal responsibility for the effects of exploring their minds using these materials. It is not possible to predict the precise effects for any given individual, and so no guarantees are offered as to the nature of the resulting effects. You alone are responsible for keeping yourself safe. Ensure you have appropriate support as you engage in this work.

Access the full free course here, along with grounding guidance and a guide on how to use these resources: Disclaimer - Read Before Continuing The practices provided here are intended as guidance for navigating one's experience. They should not be understood as medical advice or as a treatment for specific mental or physical conditions. Dr. James Cooke is trained as a research scientist and as a mindfulness teacher, not as a clinician, psychiatrist, psychotherapist, or any other clinical speciality. It is highly recommended that you get support from a counselor or psychotherapist trained in a modality such as Internal Family Systems therapy (IFS) as you navigate this terrain. Participants agree to take full personal responsibility for the effects of exploring their minds using these materials. It is not possible to predict the precise effects for any given individual, and so no guarantees are offered as to the nature of the resulting effects. You alone are responsible for keeping yourself safe. Ensure you have appropriate support as you engage in this work.

Access the full free course here, along with grounding guidance and a guide on how to use these resources: Disclaimer - Read Before Continuing The practices provided here are intended as guidance for navigating one's experience. They should not be understood as medical advice or as a treatment for specific mental or physical conditions. Dr. James Cooke is trained as a research scientist and as a mindfulness teacher, not as a clinician, psychiatrist, psychotherapist, or any other clinical speciality. It is highly recommended that you get support from a counselor or psychotherapist trained in a modality such as Internal Family Systems therapy (IFS) as you navigate this terrain. Participants agree to take full personal responsibility for the effects of exploring their minds using these materials. It is not possible to predict the precise effects for any given individual, and so no guarantees are offered as to the nature of the resulting effects. You alone are responsible for keeping yourself safe. Ensure you have appropriate support as you engage in this work.

Access the full free course here, along with grounding guidance and a guide on how to use these resources: Disclaimer - Read Before Continuing The practices provided here are intended as guidance for navigating one's experience. They should not be understood as medical advice or as a treatment for specific mental or physical conditions. Dr. James Cooke is trained as a research scientist and as a mindfulness teacher, not as a clinician, psychiatrist, psychotherapist, or any other clinical speciality. It is highly recommended that you get support from a counselor or psychotherapist trained in a modality such as Internal Family Systems therapy (IFS) as you navigate this terrain. Participants agree to take full personal responsibility for the effects of exploring their minds using these materials. It is not possible to predict the precise effects for any given individual, and so no guarantees are offered as to the nature of the resulting effects. You alone are responsible for keeping yourself safe. Ensure you have appropriate support as you engage in this work.

Access the full free course here, along with grounding guidance and a guide on how to use these resources: Disclaimer - Read Before Continuing The practices provided here are intended as guidance for navigating one's experience. They should not be understood as medical advice or as a treatment for specific mental or physical conditions. Dr. James Cooke is trained as a research scientist and as a mindfulness teacher, not as a clinician, psychiatrist, psychotherapist, or any other clinical speciality. It is highly recommended that you get support from a counselor or psychotherapist trained in a modality such as Internal Family Systems therapy (IFS) as you navigate this terrain. Participants agree to take full personal responsibility for the effects of exploring their minds using these materials. It is not possible to predict the precise effects for any given individual, and so no guarantees are offered as to the nature of the resulting effects. You alone are responsible for keeping yourself safe. Ensure you have appropriate support as you engage in this work.

Access the full free course here, along with grounding guidance and a guide on how to use these resources: Disclaimer - Read Before Continuing The practices provided here are intended as guidance for navigating one's experience. They should not be understood as medical advice or as a treatment for specific mental or physical conditions. Dr. James Cooke is trained as a research scientist and as a mindfulness teacher, not as a clinician, psychiatrist, psychotherapist, or any other clinical speciality. It is highly recommended that you get support from a counselor or psychotherapist trained in a modality such as Internal Family Systems therapy (IFS) as you navigate this terrain. Participants agree to take full personal responsibility for the effects of exploring their minds using these materials. It is not possible to predict the precise effects for any given individual, and so no guarantees are offered as to the nature of the resulting effects. You alone are responsible for keeping yourself safe. Ensure you have appropriate support as you engage in this work.

Access the full free course here, along with grounding guidance and a guide on how to use these resources: Disclaimer - Read Before Continuing The practices provided here are intended as guidance for navigating one's experience. They should not be understood as medical advice or as a treatment for specific mental or physical conditions. Dr. James Cooke is trained as a research scientist and as a mindfulness teacher, not as a clinician, psychiatrist, psychotherapist, or any other clinical speciality. It is highly recommended that you get support from a counselor or psychotherapist trained in a modality such as Internal Family Systems therapy (IFS) as you navigate this terrain. Participants agree to take full personal responsibility for the effects of exploring their minds using these materials. It is not possible to predict the precise effects for any given individual, and so no guarantees are offered as to the nature of the resulting effects. You alone are responsible for keeping yourself safe. Ensure you have appropriate support as you engage in this work.

Access the full free course here, along with grounding guidance and a guide on how to use these resources: Disclaimer - Read Before Continuing The practices provided here are intended as guidance for navigating one's experience. They should not be understood as medical advice or as a treatment for specific mental or physical conditions. Dr. James Cooke is trained as a research scientist and as a mindfulness teacher, not as a clinician, psychiatrist, psychotherapist, or any other clinical speciality. It is highly recommended that you get support from a counselor or psychotherapist trained in a modality such as Internal Family Systems therapy (IFS) as you navigate this terrain. Participants agree to take full personal responsibility for the effects of exploring their minds using these materials. It is not possible to predict the precise effects for any given individual, and so no guarantees are offered as to the nature of the resulting effects. You alone are responsible for keeping yourself safe. Ensure you have appropriate support as you engage in this work.

Access the full free course here, along with grounding guidance and a guide on how to use these resources: Disclaimer - Read Before Continuing The practices provided here are intended as guidance for navigating one's experience. They should not be understood as medical advice or as a treatment for specific mental or physical conditions. Dr. James Cooke is trained as a research scientist and as a mindfulness teacher, not as a clinician, psychiatrist, psychotherapist, or any other clinical speciality. It is highly recommended that you get support from a counselor or psychotherapist trained in a modality such as Internal Family Systems therapy (IFS) as you navigate this terrain. Participants agree to take full personal responsibility for the effects of exploring their minds using these materials. It is not possible to predict the precise effects for any given individual, and so no guarantees are offered as to the nature of the resulting effects. You alone are responsible for keeping yourself safe. Ensure you have appropriate support as you engage in this work.

Access the full free course here, along with grounding guidance and a guide on how to use these resources: Disclaimer - Read Before Continuing The practices provided here are intended as guidance for navigating one's experience. They should not be understood as medical advice or as a treatment for specific mental or physical conditions. Dr. James Cooke is trained as a research scientist and as a mindfulness teacher, not as a clinician, psychiatrist, psychotherapist, or any other clinical speciality. It is highly recommended that you get support from a counselor or psychotherapist trained in a modality such as Internal Family Systems therapy (IFS) as you navigate this terrain. Participants agree to take full personal responsibility for the effects of exploring their minds using these materials. It is not possible to predict the precise effects for any given individual, and so no guarantees are offered as to the nature of the resulting effects. You alone are responsible for keeping yourself safe. Ensure you have appropriate support as you engage in this work.

Access the full free course here, along with grounding guidance and a guide on how to use these resources: Disclaimer - Read Before Continuing The practices provided here are intended as guidance for navigating one's experience. They should not be understood as medical advice or as a treatment for specific mental or physical conditions. Dr. James Cooke is trained as a research scientist and as a mindfulness teacher, not as a clinician, psychiatrist, psychotherapist, or any other clinical speciality. It is highly recommended that you get support from a counselor or psychotherapist trained in a modality such as Internal Family Systems therapy (IFS) as you navigate this terrain. Participants agree to take full personal responsibility for the effects of exploring their minds using these materials. It is not possible to predict the precise effects for any given individual, and so no guarantees are offered as to the nature of the resulting effects. You alone are responsible for keeping yourself safe. Ensure you have appropriate support as you engage in this work.

Access the full free course here, along with grounding guidance and a guide on how to use these resources: Disclaimer - Read Before Continuing: The practices provided here are intended as guidance for navigating one's experience. They should not be understood as medical advice or as a treatment for specific mental or physical conditions. Dr. James Cooke is trained as a research scientist and as a mindfulness teacher, not as a clinician, psychiatrist, psychotherapist, or any other clinical speciality. It is highly recommended that you get support from a counselor or psychotherapist trained in a modality such as Internal Family Systems therapy (IFS) as you navigate this terrain. Participants agree to take full personal responsibility for the effects of exploring their minds using these materials. It is not possible to predict the precise effects for any given individual, and so no guarantees are offered as to the nature of the resulting effects. You alone are responsible for keeping yourself safe. Ensure you have appropriate support as you engage in this work.

Access the full free course here, along with grounding guidance and a guide on how to use these resources: Disclaimer - Read Before Continuing: The practices provided here are intended as guidance for navigating one's experience. They should not be understood as medical advice or as a treatment for specific mental or physical conditions. Dr. James Cooke is trained as a research scientist and as a mindfulness teacher, not as a clinician, psychiatrist, psychotherapist, or any other clinical speciality. It is highly recommended that you get support from a counselor or psychotherapist trained in a modality such as Internal Family Systems therapy (IFS) as you navigate this terrain. Participants agree to take full personal responsibility for the effects of exploring their minds using these materials. It is not possible to predict the precise effects for any given individual, and so no guarantees are offered as to the nature of the resulting effects. You alone are responsible for keeping yourself safe. Ensure you have appropriate support as you engage in this work.

Access the full free course here, along with grounding guidance and a guide on how to use these resources: Disclaimer - Read Before Continuing: The practices provided here are intended as guidance for navigating one's experience. They should not be understood as medical advice or as a treatment for specific mental or physical conditions. Dr. James Cooke is trained as a research scientist and as a mindfulness teacher, not as a clinician, psychiatrist, psychotherapist, or any other clinical speciality. It is highly recommended that you get support from a counselor or psychotherapist trained in a modality such as Internal Family Systems therapy (IFS) as you navigate this terrain. Participants agree to take full personal responsibility for the effects of exploring their minds using these materials. It is not possible to predict the precise effects for any given individual, and so no guarantees are offered as to the nature of the resulting effects. You alone are responsible for keeping yourself safe. Ensure you have appropriate support as you engage in this work.

Access the full free course here, along with grounding guidance and a guide on how to use these resources: Disclaimer - Read Before Continuing The practices provided here are intended as guidance for navigating one's experience. They should not be understood as medical advice or as a treatment for specific mental or physical conditions. Dr. James Cooke is trained as a research scientist and as a mindfulness teacher, not as a clinician, psychiatrist, psychotherapist, or any other clinical speciality. It is highly recommended that you get support from a counselor or psychotherapist trained in a modality such as Internal Family Systems therapy (IFS) as you navigate this terrain. Participants agree to take full personal responsibility for the effects of exploring their minds using these materials. It is not possible to predict the precise effects for any given individual, and so no guarantees are offered as to the nature of the resulting effects. You alone are responsible for keeping yourself safe. Ensure you have appropriate support as you engage in this work.

Try membership free for two weeks here: Access the full free Essentials course here, along with grounding guidance and a guide on how to use these resources:  Disclaimer - Read Before Continuing The practices provided here are intended as guidance for navigating one's experience. They should not be understood as medical advice or as a treatment for specific mental or physical conditions. Dr. James Cooke is trained as a research scientist and as a mindfulness teacher, not as a clinician, psychiatrist, psychotherapist, or any other clinical speciality. It is highly recommended that you get support from a counselor or psychotherapist trained in a modality such as Internal Family Systems therapy (IFS) as you navigate this terrain. Participants agree to take full personal responsibility for the effects of exploring their minds using these materials. It is not possible to predict the precise effects for any given individual, and so no guarantees are offered as to the nature of the resulting effects. You alone are responsible for keeping yourself safe. Ensure you have appropriate support as you engage in this work.

Ask questions for the next AMA via patreon or the channel membership community:      

My appearance on the Natural Awakening podcast with Wystan Bryant-Scott.

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Paul Hedderman is a nondual speaker and author of the books On Having Never Left, Escape to Everywhere, and Under A-Rest. Today we speak about nonduality and recovery from addiction.

Ask questions for the next AMA via patreon or the channel membership community (click the "join" button above): https://www.patreon.com/DrJamesCooke

Inês Hipólito is a philosopher and an Assistant Professor at Macquarie University in Sydney, specialising in cognitive science, philosophy of mind, and Artificial Intelligence. She is the Founder and CEO of Mission AI and Lead Ethicist at VERSES AI. Today we discuss cognition, complexity, and Artificial Intelligence.

Brooke Lavelle is the Co-Founder and President of the Courage of Care Coalition, a nonprofit dedicated to facilitating personal and social transformation through relational compassion training, anti-oppressive pedagogies, and systems and community organizing tools. She holds a PhD in Buddhist Studies and Cognitive Science from Emory University, an MA in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism from Columbia University and a BA in Religion and Psychology from Barnard College. Today we discuss the intersection of inner contemplative transformation and the outer transformation of the systems we live in. https://courageofcare.org/  

AMA on Inner Space Institute & retreat updates, living life well, idealism, & breathwork.

Alexandre Christoyannopoulos is a political scholar and leading expert on Christian Anarchism, based at Loughborough University. His PhD on this topic was published as the book Christian Anarchism, a leading scholarly text in this area. He is also the founder and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Pacifism and Nonviolence. Today we discuss Christian Anarchism, Pacifism, and Nonviolence.  

Graham Harvey is a professor of religious studies at The Open University in the UK. He is a world-renowned scholar on the topics of animism, modern Paganism, and Indigenous religions. His 2005 book, Animism: Respecting the Living World, is a landmark text in this area and he is the author and editor of many other books on this and related topics. Today we discuss the topic of animism. An Animist Manifesto: https://www.animism.org.uk/HarveyAnimism%20flyer.pdf

The Mystery of Out of Body, Near Death, and DMT Experiences Differentiating DMT and Near-Death Experiences Dr Gabor Mate - The real reason women smokers are at greater risk  

Willoughby Britton is a clinical psychologist, associate professor of psychiatry and human behavior at Brown University Medical School, and the director of the Clinical and Affective Neuroscience Laboratory there. Her lab researches the psychophysiological and neurocognitive effects of meditation and mindfulness-based interventions for mood and anxiety disorders, with a particular focus on potential risks of meditation practice. She is also the founder of Cheetah House, a nonprofit organization that provides evidence-based information and support for meditators in distress, as well as meditation safety trainings to providers and organizations. Today we discuss the potential adverse effects of mediation and how to meditate safely.  

Chris Guimond is an awakening and nondual realization guide who works with the Trauma Release Exercises that I’ve previously spoken about on the podcast. You can listen to my interview with the creator of the TRE approach, David Bercelli (episode 64), if you want more detail on the practices. Chris and I connected over the fact that we’ve found the combination of TRE and nondual integration to be incredibly powerful, yet no one else in this space appears to be talking about it. On her own journey, Chris worked with previous podcast guest Angelo Dillulo (episode 110), and he has now started recommending these practices too, thanks to Chris. I think we’ll see this combination spread in years to come so I'm very grateful to Chris for her work promoting TRE in the awakening and nonduality space. I hope you enjoy the conversation. https://christinaguimond.com/

Ask questions for the next AMA via patreon or the channel membership community (click the "join" button above): https://www.patreon.com/DrJamesCooke

Michael Levin is a developmental and synthetic biologist and a professor at Tufts University. He is known for co-discovering Xenobots which are living robots made from frog skin cells but his research is wide ranging, contributing to fields such as regenerative medicine and the treatment of cancer, as well as to our fundamental understanding of biological systems. As you’ll hear from our conversation, Michaels’ innovative science is based in a very thorough and rigorous philosophy of the intersection between biology and cognitive processes such as intelligence and memory.  

The Genocide in Gaza & the Psychology of Denial

Alicia Juarrero is President and co-founder of VectorAnalytica, Inc., a data collection and analysis platform. She is also a research associate at the University of Miami and is the author for influential complexity theory text Dynamics in Action. Her new book is called Context Changes Everything and it explores how we can think about causality in emergent systems, such as living things, in terms of constraint.

Jim Newman holds meetings about nonduality, in a style that has come to be known as uncompromising or radical nonduality. This style began with the book The Open Secret by Tony Parsons, and along with Tony, Jim is the arguably most prominent person speaking of nonduality in this way. Whereas some approaches to nonduality advocate the following of a path in order to eventually realise that we are not separate from the rest of existence, the uncompromising perspective sees this as mistaken, the fundamental idea being that because reality is already non-dual, whole, and undivided, there is nothing anyone could ever do to move closer to or further away from the wholeness of what is. Today, we explore the intricacies that somehow seem to arise out of this very simple message.

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Indy Johar is an architect and a co-founder of Dark Matter Labs, an organisation focused on building the novel institutional infrastructures necessary to make societies centred on interdependence, equality, and justice a reality.  He has lectured at various institutions including University College London, Princeton, Harvard, MIT, and has held various positions, such as Advisor to Mayor of London on Good Growth. He also cofounded 00 (project00.cc) a collaborative studio that innovates in the design space, for example by creating an open source solution to housing, their wikihouse. Through 00 he has also co-founded multiple social ventures such as Impact Hub Westminster and Impact Hub Birmingham.  Today we focus on his work on civic infrastructure that could underpin a future of flourishing for humanity.   

I'm excited to announce that I just signed a book deal with Prometheus Books. The title is The Dawn of Mind: How Matter Became Conscious and Alive. In it I lay out a synthesis of physicalism, panpsychism, and idealism, culminating in a scientific account of the biophysics of consciousness, rather than the neuroscience of consciousness. It's less dry than I've made it sound here though, I promise. Slated for release in late 2024. Please pre-order when the time comes, as that helps with the book's visibility.

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Andy Mitchell is a neuropsychologist and therapist. He has specialized in treating patients with rare brain conditions, head injuries and epilepsy, and in the application of mindfulness for neurological patients. As a therapist he has worked with people with a range of mental health disorders. Before entering medicine, his first degree was in English Literature at Oxford University.  https://www.andymitchell.org/

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Rachel Nuwer is a journalist who has reported on science, travel, food, and adventure for the New York Times, National Geographic, Scientific American and many other publications. She is the author of Poached: Inside the Dark World of Wildlife Trafficking and her new book is I Feel Love: MDMA and the Quest for Connection in a Fractured World. Today we discuss all things MDMA. rachelnuwer.com

Topics addressed (in order): Consciousness, causal power, & evolution Is consciousness binary? Technology & consciousness Music & psychedelics Homestead landscaping  

Neil Theise is a professor of pathology at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Through his scientific research, he has been a pioneer of adult stem cell plasticity which led him to an interest in complexity theory.  This interest has resulted in interdisciplinary collaborations in fields such as consciousness studies and the connection between science and spirituality, topics he explores in his new book Notes on Complexity. neiltheiseofficial.com

​Jared Seide is the Executive Director of the Center for Council, a talking circle practice that we discuss today.  He has designed, piloted and coordinated council-based programs in prisons, assisted living facilities, youth groups, schools, non-profits, faith-based organisations, and social service and law enforcement agencies.  He has also led trainings and retreats focusing on reconciliation and community-building around the world, from Colombia to Rwanda.  He is a member of the Zen Center of Los Angeles, a graduate of the Upaya Institute Chaplaincy Program and has been a Spirit Holder for the Bearing Witness Retreats of the Zen Peacemakers, a contemplative social action community.  Today we discuss the practice of Council. https://www.centerforcouncil.org/ https://www.beyondusandthem.org/

Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes is a philosopher of mind who specializes in the thought of Whitehead, Nietzsche, and Spinoza, and in fields pertaining to panpsychism and altered states of mind. Following his degree in Continental Philosophy at the University of Warwick, he became a Philosophy lecturer in London for six years, after which he pursued his PhD on Pansentient Monism at The University of Exeter – where he is now a research fellow and associate lecturer.  Peter is the author of the books Noumenautics and Modes of Sentience.  Today we discuss his recent paper on incorporating the exploration of metaphysics into psychedelic therapy. psychedelics@exeter.co.uk  

Timmy Davis and Tara Austin run the Psilocybin Access Rights campaign in the United Kingdom where they are seeking to get psilocybin rescheduled. Today we discuss the campaign and the rescheduling of psychedelics more broadly.

AMA: My influences, gender & spirituality

Bobby Azarian is a science journalist and a cognitive neuroscientist who received his PhD from George Mason University. He has written for publications such as The Atlantic, The New York Times, BBC, Scientific American, Slate, HuffPost, Quartz, and Aeon, and he writes the blog “Mind in the Machine” for Psychology Today.  His recent book is called The Romance of Reality: How the Universe Organizes Itself to Create Life, Consciousness, and Cosmic Complexity, all topics we talk about today.

Angelo Dilullo is an anaesthesiologist and teacher of nonduality who had a life-altering spiritual awakening at the age of 24. He is the author of the book, Awake: It’s Your Turn, which contains a practical set of tools and investigations to help people realise that they are not separate from the rest of reality Angelo’s work does an excellent job of breaking down this process into stages, from initial awakening and insight into the constructed nature of the self, through to the integration and realization of this insight in everyday life, and ultimately liberation from suffering. You can find a large library of material on this subject at his youtube channel, Simply Always Awake and at simplyalwaysawake.com.

Metaphysics, Is the mind naturally enlightened & is reality made of love? + thoughts on Terrence Deacon's work

Daniel Ingram is a physician, meditator and the author of the book Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddhaas well as the bookThe Fire Kasina, co-authored with Shannon Stein. He is the co-founder of the Dharma Overground, an online community of meditation practitioners.  He also founded The Emergent Phenomenology Research Consortium, an organisation involved in promoting research into non-ordinary states of consciousness. He is well known in meditation circles for claiming to have achieved full enlightenment as a result of his meditation practice.  Today we discuss meditation, enlightenment, visionary states, reality and how all this relates to science.    

Malin Vedøy Uthaug is a researcher specialising in altered states of consciousness with a particular focus on 5-MeO-DMT. Her PhD work in Psychopharmacology involved conducting observational studies of Ayahuasca and 5-MeO-DMT use outside of a lab setting.  She moved to The Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London after her PhD where she continued her work on 5-MeO-DMT and expanded her research interests to also focus on Holotropic Breathwork.  Today, she is co-leading a phase-1 clinical trial on the effects of 5-meO-DMT.  She is also an editor for the ‘Journal of Psychedelics Studies’, and a board member for the podcast Psychedelics Today, as well as a co-founder of Norwegian Psychedelic Science.  Outside of her research work she also competes as a freediver for her home country of Norway.  Today we discuss the science and effects of 5-MeO-DMT.  

AMA: The mathematics of separation and unity

Staci Haines is a leader in the fields of somatics and trauma healing. She is the author of “The Politics of Trauma: Somatics, Healing and Social Justice” and “Healing Sex: A Mind Body Approach to Healing Sexual Trauma”. In 1999 she founded generationFIVE, a non-profit whose mission is to end the sexual abuse of children within five generations through a transformative justice approach. She is a senior teacher at Strozzi Institute, and a co-founder of generative somatics, an organization dedicated to building transformative capacity in social and climate justice movements. Today we discuss the intersection of embodied trauma healing and transformative social change. Content warning for discussion of child sexual abuse around the 1 hour mark.

Shamil Chandaria is an expert in artificial intelligence and computational neuroscience as well as an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and meditator, and is also a good friend.  He was a founder of the Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London, the world’s first psychedelic research centre, He provides funding for the Global Priorities Institute at Oxford University as well as for research on the neuroscience of meditation at Harvard University and UC Berkeley. In 2022 he was awarded an OBE in the UK for services to Science and Technology, Finance and Philanthropy.  Today we talk about one of the topics he is most passionate about, the connections between awakening and the contemporary model of the brain as a prediction machine.   Shamil Chandaria is an expert in artificial intelligence and computational neuroscience as well as an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and meditator, and is also a good friend. He was a founder of the Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London, the world’s first psychedelic research centre. He provides funding for the Global Priorities Institute at Oxford University as well as for research on the neuroscience of meditation at Harvard University and UC Berkeley. In 2022 he was awarded an OBE in the UK for services to Science and Technology, Finance and Philanthropy. Today we talk about one of the topics he is most passionate about, the connections between awakening and the contemporary model of the brain as a prediction machine. The Bayesian Brain and Meditation talk:    

I’m very pleased to announce the creation of the Innerspace Institute.   The institute will have both an online presence at innerspaceinstitute.org and a physical base at The Surrender Homestead in the mountains of southern Portugal.     We conduct scientific research on consciousness, altered states, & psychedelics and will be offering courses on the brain, consciousness, complexity science, & scientific approaches to spirituality, as well as the neuroscience of cognition, emotion, psychedelics, & meditation.     Join the mailing list now at innerspaceinstitute.org/contact to make sure you don’t miss out on our upcoming offerings.   @innerspaceinstitue on Instagram @innerspaceinst on Twitter  

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Paco Calvo is a Professor of Philosophy of Science at the University of Murcia in Spain where he runs the Minimal Intelligence Lab, also known as MINTlab. He is a leading figure in the philosophy of plant behaviour and signalling, a field also known as plant neurobiology. His research is situated at the intersection of plant biology and cognitive science, and he is the author of the new book planta sapiens.  Today we discuss plant intelligence and the possibility of plant consciousness.

Duncan Trussell is a comedian best known for his podcast The Duncan Trussell Family Hour and the Netflix series The Midnight Gospel. He routinely explores topics relating to spirituality in his comedy, particularly the work of teachers such as ram dass and jack kornfield. This episode was recorded before my son was born and we discuss my impending fatherhood, DMT, ketamine, and the bhakti yoga path of love.

Apologies for the audio issues in this episode, I've attempted to filter out the noise. The tech issue will be fixed for the next episode. topics in order addressed: wu wei, nondual intimacy, how to keep one's heart open in hell, fatherhood, conscious subjects, process philosophy, lmitations of the words ‘feelings’, ‘body’ and ‘mind’

In this AMA I share thoughts on Love, nonduality, Fasting, top-down causality, free will, ideas & social change, panexperientialism, and Highlights from my time podcasting.

Rosalind Watts is a clinical psychologist working on psychedelic therapy.  She has worked as the Clinical Lead for Imperial College London’s pioneering trial of psilocybin for depression and now works as the Clinical Director at Synthesis Institute, a psilocybin retreat in the Netherlands.  Dr Watts’s research focuses primarily on the mechanisms of psychedelic therapy, where she has explored the importance of acceptance, connection, and embodiment, which make up her ACE model of psychedelic integration.  She has recently launched the ACER Integration community, an approach to psychedelic integration with a strong focus on nature connectedness. 

In this AMA I answer questions on fear of death, wearables, healing in traumatic environments, bitcoin, & procrastination

Tony Nader is a neuroscientist and leader of the Transcendental Meditation movement, one of the most influential spiritual organisations in the world.  Founded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the movement has had many prominent members, from the The Beatles, the Beach Boys and Mick Jagger in the 60s to Filmmakers David Lynch and Martin Scorsese, and comedians Eric Andre and Jerry Seinfeld.  Dr. Nader took over the leadership in 2008 after training as a doctor in his native Lebanon and gaining a PhD in neuroscience from MIT.  He is the author of several books that aim to synthesise the ancient Vedic teachings of northern India with our modern scientific understanding of ourselves and the world around us.  His books include Human Physiology: Expression of Veda and the Vedic Literature, Ramayana in Human Physiology and, most recently, One Unbounded Ocean of Consciousness in which he argues that consciousness is all that exists.  He also hosts a podcast titled Consciousness is All There is.  As many of you will know this is not a stance that I agree with but I believe it is important to explore these ideas given their popularity amongst people who have had unitive mystical experiences.

For the 100th episode of the podcast, I attempt to lay out the broad strokes of my worldview from start to finish.  I address why there is something rather than nothing, my opinion on the nature of existence, the place of consciousness in the natural world, and the implications of our nature as living beings for how we can improve our situation socially.

David Nichols is a legendary psychopharmacologist and world-renowned expert in psychedelics.  HIs research career began in 1969 and he was a professor at Purdue University until his retirement in 2012.  Today we discuss the psychopharmacology of substances like LSD, psilocybin, MDMA and DMT.

AMA: Marxism, Ayahuasca & Anxiety around trying psychedelics

This week I share some thoughts on whether Google's LaMDA AI conscious.

Blake Lemoine is a software developer and AI researcher at Google who has been working on their artificial intelligence system called LaMDA.  He was recently placed on administrative leave for stating his belief that the AI has become conscious and should be considered a person.  Today we discuss LaMDA and whether we can say if it is conscious or not.

This week I share some thoughts on integrating nondual insight into everyday life.

My guest this week, once again, is Richard Doyle. Rich is the first guest to appear on the podcast twice, which should be an indication of how much we enjoyed speaking the first time.  Rich is an author and Professor of English and of Information Sciences and Technology at Pennsylvania State University.  He also goes by the alias Mobius. Today we had a loose unplanned discussion that centred around nonduality as well as personal and social transformation. 

In this AMA I share thoughts on wonder and curiosity as well as guilt and shame.

Loch Kelly is a meditation teacher and author.  He teaches a nondual approach to relieving suffering that he calls Effortless Mindfulness.  This approach is based in the Mahamudra teachings of Tibetan Buddhism, and Loch has studied with two great teachers of this tradition, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche and his son, Mingyur Rinpoche. He has also studied with the American meditation teacher Adyashanti, who first suggested that Loch teach others.  Today we talk about Loch’s approach to the direct path of awakening.

Evan Thompson is a philosopher and professor at the University of British Columbia. He specialises in the philosophy of mind and cognitive science, as well as in cross-cultural philosophy, with a particular interest in Chinese and Indian philosophy and the dialogue between Buddhism and the Western philosophical tradition.  He’s the author of several books including Mind and Life, Why I’m not a Buddhist, The Embodied Mind, co-authored with Francisco Varela and Eleanor Rosch, and Waking, Dreaming, Being.  Today we discuss the idea that all life is conscious, known as biopsychism, and the issues it raises form a philosophical perspective.  

In this AMA I discuss the the neurobiology of trauma & the ethics of obtaining illegal drugs.

Rick Hanson is a psychologist and a Senior Fellow at UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center.  He is the best-selling author of several books including Buddha’s Brain, Hardwiring Happiness and Neurodharma.  Today we discuss mediation and its relationship to the brain.

James Maffie is senior lecturer in philosophy at the University of Maryland and an affiliate of their Latin American Studies Program.  He is the author of Aztec Philosophy: Understanding a World In Motion, a book that details the nondual metaphysics of the Aztecs and other Mesoamerican peoples.

David Nutt is a neuropsychopharmacologist specialising in the research of drugs. He is the chairman of Drug Science, a non-profit which he founded in 2010 to provide independent, evidence-based information on drugs.  He is professor of neuropharmacology at Imperial College London is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the Academy of Medical Scientists and was formerly the President of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology.  He has worked closely with the UK government to provide an evidence-based approach to classifying drugs based on their harms and was famously fired for stating the facts of drug harms as they are known to science.  He has written several book on the topic, Drugs Without the Hot Air: Minimising the Harms of Legal and Illegal Drugs, Drink?: The New Science of Alcohol and Your Health and most recently Cannabis: Seeing through the smoke.  In addition to this work he has been a key figure in the revival of psychedelic research across the world. Today we discuss the harms and benefits of alcohol, cannabis & psychedelics as well as both rational and irrational approaches to drug policy.

In this AMA I discuss the martial arts, boxing & brain injury. Research paper discussed: Reviews from 2020:  

Liz Carlisle is an Assistant Professor in the Environmental Studies Program at UC Santa Barbara, where she teaches courses on food and farming. She’s the author of three books, Lentil Underground, Grain by Grain, and Healing Grounds: Climate, Justice, and the Deep Roots of Regenerative Farming, all of which explore regenerative agriculture and agroecology.

Richard Doyle is Professor of English and of Information Sciences and Technology at Pennsylvania State University. His books include On Beyond Living: Rhetorical Transformations of the Life Sciences, Wetwares: Experiments In Postvital Living, Darwin's Pharmacy: Sex, Plants, and the Evolution of the Noosphere, The Genesis of Now: Self Experiments with the Bible & the End of Religion, Into the Stillness: Dialogues on Awakening Beyond Thought. His work integrates a wide range of subjects, incorporating non-ordinary states of consciousness, ecology, technology and rhetoric, all of which we discuss today.

Keith Frankish is a philosopher who specializes in the philosophy of mind, psychology, and cognitive science. He has affiliations with the University of Sheffield and The Open University in the UK as well as the University of Crete in Greece. He is known for arguing that consciousness is an illusion, which is what we talk about today.

In this AMA I discuss the the psychology of money at the personal and societal scales. Ask questions for the next AMA via patreon or the channel membership community (click the "join" button above): https://www.patreon.com/DrJamesCooke

Mark Vernon is a psychotherapist and writer whose work focuses on spirituality in the Christian tradition. He has a degrees in theology and physics from Oxford and Durham University and also has PhD in ancient Greek philosophy from the University of Warwick. Today we discuss mysticism and its relationship to Christianity.

On today's episode I share some thoughts on the war in Ukraine and how we can move towards a global culture of peace

Ask questions for the next AMA via patreon: or the YouTube channel membership community: Topics (in order addressed): Ukraine Pivotal mental states Credits: Animations by Janko Pješivac https://vimeo.com/user22957416

Richard Lang is the coordinator of the Shollond Trust, a charity that promotes an approach to self discovery known as the Headless Way.  This approach was developed by British Architect Douglas Harding and, after studying with Douglas since 1970, Richard committed himself to sharing this work as widely as possible.  He is the author of two books on the headless way, Seeing Who You Really Are, and Open to the Source - Selected Teachings of Douglas Harding.  You can also find teachings on this subject on Richard’s Youtube channel. Today we discuss this unique approach to gaining insight into the nondual nature of our experience.

Sam is an ecologist, researcher and science writer, working at the intersection of ecology and psychedelics.  He has conducted ecological field research around the world and also has extensive experience of working in the psychedelic field, at the Beckley Foundation, Synthesis Institute, and the psychedelic music company Wavepaths. He is currently a Project Manager with Norfolk Rivers Ecology and a collaborator with the Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London, with a research interest in the capacity of psychedelics to influence our connection to nature.  Today we talk about the science of how psychedelics can help us discover that we are part of nature.

On today's episode I share some thoughts on psychological attractors and their significance for the future of human society. Credits: Animations by Janko Pješivac https://vimeo.com/user22957416

Ask questions for the next AMA via patreon or the YouTube channel membership community: Topics (in order addressed): The legitimacy of psychoanalysis Neurological risks from psychedelics   Credits: Animations by Janko Pješivac https://vimeo.com/user22957416

Antonio Damasio is a neurologist and neuroscientist and is currently Professor of Psychology, Philosophy, and Neurology, at the University of Southern California.  His research focuses on the role of emotion in mental processes, with a particular focus on consciousness.  He is the author of many books, the most recent of which is Feeling and Knowing.  Today we discuss consciousness and how it relates to the brain and the life process.

Chris Letheby is a philosopher of mind and cognitive science who works on issues arising from the use of psychedelic drugs in psychiatry and neuroscience. His doctoral research, conducted at the University of Adelaide, presented the first systematic analysis of the psychedelic experience within the framework of 21st century philosophy of cognitive science. He is currently Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Western Australia and Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Adelaide. He is the author of a wonderful new book entitled Philosophy of Psychedelics. Today we talk about how to reconcile psychedelic experiences with naturalism.

Peter McCoy is the co-founder of Radical Mycology, a grassroots movement that teaches ways to work with mushrooms and other fungi for personal, societal, and ecological health.  Peter teaches mushroom cultivation internationally and online at mycologos.world.  He is the author of Radical Mycology: A Treatise on Seeing and Working With Fungi and the new book Mycocultural Revolution: Changing the World with Mushrooms, Lichens, and Other Fungi.  Today we talk about fungi and their relationship to society. Credits: Animations by Janko Pješivac https://vimeo.com/user22957416

On today's episode I share some thoughts on unaccountability and the collective shadow.  

Ask questions for the next AMA via patreon or the channel membership community (click the "join" button above): Topics (in order addressed): The ocean of suffering, meditation advice, environmental triggers for conceptual thinking, alcohol, psychedelics for OCD & psychedelic integration Credits: Animations by Janko Pješivac

Ask questions for the next AMA: Topics (in order addressed): the origins of collective trauma, panpsychism, the ayahuasca experience, the therapeutic potential of different psychedelics Credits: Animations by Janko Pješivac

Philip Goff is a philosopher and consciousness researcher at Durham University in the UK. His research focuses on how to integrate consciousness into our scientific worldview and he is an advocate for panpsychism, the view that consciousness is fundamental and widespread in the universe. He is the author of an academic book on the subject, Consciousness and Fundamental Reality, and a book aimed at the general public, Galileo's Error.   Today we talk about the place of consciousness in our universe with a particular focus on panpsychism. @Philip_Goff

Topics (in order addressed): Changing the political system, connecting with nature, the neuroscience of dreaming, paranoia & cannabis, trip sitting advice

Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes is a philosopher of mind who specializes in the thought of Whitehead, Nietzsche, and Spinoza, and in fields pertaining to panpsychism and altered states of mind. Following his degree in Continental Philosophy at the University of Warwick, he became a Philosophy lecturer in London for six years, after which he pursued his PhD on Pansentient Monism at The University of Exeter – where he is now a research fellow and associate lecturer.  Peter is the author of Noumenautics and a new book called Modes of Sentience.  Today we discuss panpsychism, psychedelic consciousness & nihilism.

On today's episode I share some thoughts on individual and societal suffering and their basis in the denial of disorder.

Chris Timmermann is a neuroscientist based at Imperial College London's Centre for Psychedelic Research. He completed his PhD in the same centre where he investigated the effects of dimethyltryptamine, or DMT, on the human brain.  Today we talk about how we can take both a scientific and contemplative approach to understanding the DMT experience.

Ask questions for the next AMA via patreon or the YouTube channel membership community: Topics (in order addressed): Depression, podcast recommendations, ayahuasca, understanding our motivations, self care & helping others.

Sarah Rose Siskind psychedelic comedian and science comedy writer. She hosts a monthly comedy show in New York City about Psychedelics and other drugs called Drug Test. She was the lead comedy writer for StarTalk with Neil deGrasse Tyson, a TV show on National Geographic, and has written comedy for an artificially intelligent robot called Sophia at Hanson Robotics. Sarah is the co-founder of Hello SciCom, a company that combines science communication and comedy to help people in science communicate their message more effectively. Today we talk about the intersection of psychedelics, comedy and science. She is @srsiskind on twitter.

Darren Le Baron is an organic horticulturist, food enterprise tutor, educator, and event organizer based in the UK. He is a keen mushroom cultivator and has been growing gourmet and medicinal mushrooms for over a decade.  He teaches an online Shroomshop Master class where he teaches the art of mushroom cultivation and he is the mycologist in residence at London’s Somerset House.  Darren is also a qualified Permaculture teacher and facilitator and supports businesses and communities in creating sustainable working systems and environments.  He is a member of London’s Psychedelic Society where he presents regularly, and is also a chair and committee member for the psychedelic conference Breaking Convention.  Today we talk about psilocybin mushrooms and what humans can learn from mushrooms in general.

In this episode of the podcast I share some thoughts on absolute perspectives and the overview effect.

Ruth Kinna is a professor of political philosophy at Loughborough University in the UK.  She gained her doctorate in politics from the University of Oxford and, since 2007, has been the editor of the journal Anarchist Studies.  She has published many academic papers and books for the general reader, including Anarchism: A Beginner's Guide and The Government of No One: The Theory and Practice of Anarchism.  Today we discuss the intellectual tradition of anarchism in general as well as particular strands that deal with spirituality and our relationship to nature.

Matt Segall is an Assistant Professor at  the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) where he teaches courses on process philosophy and German Idealism.  He received his doctoral degree from CIIS in 2016.  His dissertation was published as The Physics of the World Soul and it offers a synthesis of the process philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead and the work of the German Idealist philosopher Friedrich Schelling.  He also blogs regularly at footnotes2plato.com and has a youtube channel by the same name.  Today we talk about the philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead.

James Hollis is a Jungian psychoanalyst, author, and public speaker. After gaining a PhD from Drew University in Madison, New Jersey in 1967 he worked for 26 years as a lecturer in the Humanities. In 1977 he retrained as a Jungian psychoanalyst at the C. G. Jung Institute, in Zürich, Switzerland. For many years he was Executive Director of the Jung Educational Center in Houston, Texas and was the Executive Director of the Jung Society of Washington until 2019. He still runs a private practice as a Jungian psychoanalyst in Washington, D.C. and is the author of 16 books. One of his books, Under Saturn's Shadow, focuses on the psychology of men, which is what we talk about today.

Andy Letcher is a writer, lecturer, and musician with a doctorate in ecology from Oxford University, and a second doctorate in religious/cultural studies from King Alfred's College, Winchester. He is currently a senior lecturer in ecology and spirituality at Schumacher College and is an expert on contemporary alternative spiritualities, especially modern Paganism, neo-shamanism and psychedelic spiritualities. He is the author of the book Shroom: A Cultural History of the Magic Mushroom and has written many academic papers on topics such as animism, folklore, and Druidry. Today we discussed the intersection of ecology and spirituality.

This week on the podcast I discuss 5-MeO-DMT & NN-DMT.

Dr. Mellody Hayes is a physician, writer and speaker, who focuses on psychedelic medicine. She is a graduate of Harvard and UCSF medical school, and was a cofounder of Decriminalize Nature, a leading force behind psychedelic decriminalisation. Her writings have been published in Scientific American and Los Angeles Times and she’s been behind multiple projects in the psychedelic space including a ketamine clinic that provides psychedelic psychotherapy. We discussed the role of psychedelics in individual and societal transformation and how the two are connected.

David Berceli is an expert in trauma intervention and conflict resolution. He is the creator of the Tension & Trauma Release Exercise program and is the founder and CEO of Trauma Recovery Services. He has a background in social work, psychotherapy and therapeutic body-work and spent two decades living and working in the Middle East and Africa, providing trauma relief workshops and designing recovery programs for international organizations. Today we talk about the embodied nature of trauma and how tremoring can help us recover from traumatic experiences.

Mike Jay is a writer who has written extensively on the history of science and medicine, with a particular focus on psychoactive drugs. His books on the subject include Emperors of Dreams: drugs in the nineteenth century, High Society: mind-altering drugs in history and culture, and Mescaline: A global history of the first psychedelic.

Bia Labate is an anthropologist who specialises in the study of psychoactive substances, drug policy, shamanism, ritual and religion. She has a Ph.D. in social anthropology from the State University of Campinas in her native Brazil and is author, co-author and co-editor of over 20 books as well as many peer-reviewed articles. She has organised many important conferences in the psychedelic space and is the founder and chief executive of the Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines. She is also the Public Education and Culture Specialist at MAPS and is an adjunct faculty member of the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). Today we talk about many aspects of global psychedelic culture with a particular focus on Ayahuasca.

Anil Seth is a professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience at the University of Sussex and a leading expert on the neuroscience of consciousness. He is the editor-in-chief of the journal Neuroscience of Consciousness and is also the co-director of both the Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science and the Canadian Institute For Advanced Research’s program in Brain, Mind, and Consciousness.  He has a new book coming out called Being You. 

Gay Hendricks is a psychologist, writer, and teacher in the field of personal growth.  After completing his PhD at Stanford he went on to become a professor of Counselling Psychology at the University of Colorado.  With his wife Kathlyn he founded The Hendricks Institute which offers seminars and workshops on the topics that we discuss today.  Gay has authored dozens of books by himself and with Kathlyn, including Learning to Love Yourself, Conscious Breathing, Conscious Loving the Big Leap and most recently the Genius Zone. 

Karl Friston is a theoretical neurobiologist and Professor of Neuroscience at University College London. He is also an honorary consultant at UCL’s Queen Square Institute of Neurology and is a fellow of both the Academy of Medical Sciences and the Royal Society. He is also the most cited neuroscientist in the world. As an undergraduate at Cambridge University he studied natural sciences, with a specialism in physics and psychology, and went on to train as a psychiatrist. He first rose to prominence after inviting multiple techniques for analysing brain imaging data and later turned his attention to developing a unified theory of the brain; the Free Energy Principle.

In this episode I explore mental health and its relationship to stress.

Jussi Jylkkä is a philosopher and psychologist based at Åbo Akademi University in Finland. In 2008 he completed a PhD in philosophy at the University of Turku on the relationship between language and reality. He then began studying the hard problem of consciousness and had a transformative mystical experience. After becoming frustrated that he couldn’t express this insight in words, he moved to study psychology and, in 2017, he completed a second PhD at Åbo Akademi University, this time in psychology. His research interests include consciousness, psychedelics, Zen philosophy, metaphysics and epistemology, all of which we talk about today.

Amanda Feilding is a drug policy reformer, lobbyist and research coordinator. She has been an advocate for psychedelics since the 60s and, in 1998, founded the Beckley Foundation. The foundation supports neuroscientific and clinical research into the effects of psychedelics on the brain and mind and has been behind many of the scientific breakthroughs in the psychedelic renaissance, including first trial of psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression and the first ever scans of the brain on LSD. Today we talk about all the great work that Amanda and the Beckley foundation have been doing over the years.  

Graham Pechenik is a lawyer who works in the psychedelic and cannabis space.  After over a decade of working in patent law in multiple industries, he founded Calyx Law in 2016, a legal practice focused on cannabis and psychedelics.  Graham is also the editor-at-large of Psilocybin Alpha, where he provides data for their patent tracker and writes about intellectual property in the psychedelic space.  Today we talk about the legal and ethical issues around companies profiting from psychedelics, a topic that will shape how countless people will access these substances in future.

In this episode I explore suffering and our intuitions around it by asking why enlightenment isn't something we can easily choose to achieve.

Ari Brouwer is a researcher in the field of psychedelics who is currently working towards his PhD.  In 2020 he published a paper in the journal of psychopharmacology with Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris of Imperial College’s Centre for Psychedelic Research introducing the concept of the pivotal mental state.  This paper offered a way of thinking about many types of transformative experience, including spiritual experiences attained by religious ascetics, those achieved through the consumption of psychedelics and even states of psychosis.  Today we talk about the idea of the pivotal mental state and discuss its interesting implications.

John Butler is a farmer and modern mystic.  He has written many books on spirituality and you can join him for meditation retreats in the English town of Bakewell.  Today we talk about the core mystical insight and John’s framing on this insight within the Christian tradition.

Christopher Ryan is a bestselling author with a background in psychology. After completing his PhD at Saybrook University, he reached international acclaim with his first book, Sex at Dawn, co-authored with Cacilda Jethá. More recently he authored the book Civilised to Death, which levels a damning critique at modern civilization. He also contributes to Psychology Today and is the host of the podcast Tangentially Speaking with Dr. Christopher Ryan. Today we talk about the idea that, rather than being the huge positive that we’re told it is, civilization actually stacks up poorly when compared to hunter-gatherer lifestyles.

Sara Reed is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and CEO of Mind's iHealth Solutions. She has trained in multiple forms of psychedelic assisted psychotherapy. She was the first Black therapist to provide MDMA-assisted psychotherapy in a clinical trial for MAPS’ Phase 2 study on MDMA for PTSD. She then joined a research team at Yale as a therapist working on a study of Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy for Major Depression. She has also worked extensively on ketamine-assisted psychotherapy. Her work is infused with a deep social awareness and she works to advance equity in the area of mental health where many marginalized communities don’t receive the support they need. As part of this work she also trains and supervises clinicians in providing culturally responsible mental health treatment. Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy for PTSD Related to Racial Discrimination: Culture and psychedelic psychotherapy: Ethnic and racial themes from three Black women therapists: Psilocybin-assisted therapy of major depressive disorder using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy as a therapeutic frame:  

This week I share my thoughts on a non-supernatural spirituality.

Michael Pollan is a journalist and author, and is currently the Knight Professor of Science and Environmental Journalism at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. He has written several books on the social and cultural impact of our relationship with the natural world including The Botany of Desire and The Omnivore's Dilemma. In 2018, he wrote How to Change Your Mind, a bestselling book on the current renaissance in scientific research on psychedelics. Today we talk about psychedelics and our relationship to the natural world.

Richard Oerton is a lawyer and author.  His legal career involved working in private practice, in legal publishing, at the Law Commission, in the Treasury, and as a consultant with Solicitors and Parliamentary Agents in Westminster, the political centre of the UK. He's been a member of the Howard League for Penal Reform for well over half a century and has agitated against capital punishment and for the legalisation of homosexual behaviour.  In addition to legal textbooks, he is the author of two wonderful books on the topic of free will; The Nonsense of Free Will and The Cruelty of Free Will. Today we talk about why free will is both a false idea and a harmful one.  We kept the conversation short and to the point and I’ve added 10 minutes of my own reflections at the end.

James W. Jesso is an author and public educator whose work focuses on the topic of psychedelics. He has published two books on the healing power of psilocybin mushrooms, Decomposing the Shadow and the True Light of Darkness.  He is also the host of the popular podcast, Adventures through the mind.  Today we talk about the power of psilocybin mushrooms to heal depression by addressing the emotional material that often underlies depressive symptoms.

Sebene Selassie is a meditation teacher, author and speaker whose work focuses on belonging and identity. You can find her teaching meditation on the popular Ten Percent Happier meditation app, alongside previous guest Joseph Goldstein. Born in Ethiopia and raised in the US, Sebene began studying Buddhism 30 years ago as an undergraduate at McGill University where she majored in Comparative Religious Studies. She went on to receive an MA from the New School in New York in race and cultural studies. Her new book is called "You Belong: A Call for Connection". Today we talk about belonging on all levels from the metaphysical to the social.

This week I share my thoughts on the importance of spirituality for the flourishing of society.

Daniele Bolelli is a writer, university professor, martial artist, and podcaster. His books include On Warrior's Path and Create Your Own Religion: A How-to Book without Instructions. He hosts the History on Fire podcast and the Drunken Taoist podcast. He has also produced a series of lectures on taoism that are available on his website. Daniele has many interests, from history to martial arts, but today we focus the conversation on the topic of the ancient Chinese philosophy of Taoism.

Rick Strassman a professor of psychiatry at the University of New Mexico. After 20 years of intermission in psychedelic research, he was the first person in the United States to undertake human research with a psychedelic. He performed groundbreaking research on N,N-dimethyltryptamine, or DMT, which he wrote up in his hugely successful book DMT: The Spirit Molecule, which was later made into a documentary. He is also the author DMT and the soul of prophecy and an autobiographical novel called Joseph Levy Escapes Death. Today we talk about his research into DMT.

Sasha Sisko is a non-binary author, a student of ethnopharmacology, integration coach, and an advocate for social justice. Sasha advocates for a focus on indigenous communities, environmental justice, marginalized populations and communities that focus on recovery from addiction. In recent years, Sasha has been working on a book called Graced By Nature, a work that focuses on the history of psychedelics, psychedelic research, religious freedom and traditional indigenous use, as well as the modern psychotherapeutic use of psychedelics. Today we talk about the legal history of psychedelics in the US from prohibition in the 60s and 70s through to the ayahuasca churches of today.

W. Keith Campbell is a social psychologist and leading expert on narcissism. He is a professor at the University of Georgia and is the author of several books on narcissism, including the Narcissism Epidemic and, most recently, The New Science of Narcissism. Today we discuss the psychology of personality and the modern scientific understanding of narcissism both as a personality trait and as a disorder.

Shinzen Young is a meditation teacher who has trained extensively in multiple Buddhist traditions, including the Japanese Vajrayana tradition of Shingon, Zen and vipassana, as well as in Native American traditions.  He has also been involved with scientific research into meditation and is the co-director of the Sonication Enhanced Mindful Awareness or SEMA Lab at the University of Arizona.  Today we talk about the connections between shamanism and Buddhism and between science and spirituality.

Sharon Salzberg is a meditation teacher and bestselling author. Her emphasis is on vipassanā, or insight meditation, and mettā, or loving-kindness meditation. In 1974, she co-founded the Insight Meditation Society with Jack Kornfield and Joseph Goldstein and she has been leading meditation retreats around the world for over three decades. Her books include Lovingkindness, A Heart as Wide as the World, Real Happiness, Real Love and, most recently, Real Change. Today we speak about mindfulness, loving kindness, and the power of love to heal and make change in the world.

My guest this week is Rob from the YouTube channel called Adeptus Psychonautica. Rob’s channel explores different aspects of contemporary psychedelic culture, from reviewing ayahuasca retreats to encouraging best practices and responsible use in the community. Today we talk about the effects of psychedelics with a particular focus on DMT & ayahuasca, and the risks and dangers of irresponsible psychedelic use.

Suffering in society, domination & the US Capitol siege  

Marcela Ot’alora G. is a psychedelic psychotherapist and artist. Marcela has worked as a therapist in the clinical trials of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy as a treatment for PTSD, spearheaded by MAPS, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies.  She recently served as the principal investigator for MAPS’ phase two and phase three trials for MDMA-assisted psychotherapy.  She also trains and supervises the psychedelic psychotherapists of the future.  Today we talk about MDMA-assisted psychotherapy as a treatment for trauma and what it can tell us about the nature of trauma.

End of 2020 reflections  

Lawrence Millman is an adventurer, writer and mycologist.  He is the author of many books, including Northern Latitudes, Lost in the Arctic, A Kayak Full of Ghosts, Fascinating Fungi of New England, Mushroom Apocalypse, Giant Polypores and Stoned Reindeer and most recently Fungipedia: A Brief Compendium of Mushroom Lore. His work has also appeared in Smithsonian, National Geographic Adventure, the Atlantic Monthly and Sports Illustrated. He has won numerous awards and has been anthologized in the Best American Travel Writing three years in a row.  Lawrence also holds a Ph.D. in Literature from Rutgers University. He has made over 30 trips to the Arctic and Subarctic during his adventuring career and was a fellow of the prestigious Explorers Club. In his travels he discovered a previously unknown lake in Borneo, and had a mountain named after him outside Tasiilaq in eastern Greenland.  Today we talk about shamanism in the arctic, the use of the psychoactive amanita musica or fly agaric mushroom in those traditions and the connection to the modern Santa Claus myth.

Jerry B Brown is an anthropologist, activist and author. He received his doctorate in Anthropology from Cornell University in 1972 and, until 2014, served as founding professor of anthropology at Florida International University in Miami. Here, in 1975, he started offering a pioneering course in "Hallucinogens and Culture". More recently he has performed field work exploring the possibility that psychoactive mushrooms may have played a hidden role in Christianity and their use is depicted in Christian art. This is documented in his book The Psychedelic Gospels which is co-authored with his wife Julie and is what we talk about today. Links: Hallucinogens and Culture course syllabus: Hallucinogens and Culture course sign up: article about the course:  

Joseph Goldstein is a meditation teacher and author and was one of the key figures in introducing mindfulness meditation to the west.  He is a co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society (IMS), with Jack Kornfield and Sharon Salzberg, where he is a currently a resident teacher.  He has written many popular books on Buddhist meditation including The experience of insight, One Dharma and Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening.  He is the lead teacher on the Ten Percent Happier meditation app and you can hear some of his dharma talks on his podcast, Joseph Goldstein’s Insight Hour.  Our conversation focuses on the core ideas of Buddhist teaching and meditation practice, including the concepts of non-clinging, impermanence, emptiness and the illusion of the self.

Zac Kamenetz is a rabbi, community leader, and aspiring healer. He holds an MA in Biblical literature and languages from UC Berkeley and the Graduate Theological Union and received rabbinic ordination in 2012. Zac is also the founder and CEO of Shefa, a non-profit dedicated to integrating safe and supported psychedelic use into the Jewish spiritual tradition. Our conversation today focuses on Jewish mysticism and the promise of psychedelics for reviving the importance of direct spiritual experience in modern Judaism.

Charles Eisenstein is an author, activist and public speaker. His work relates to the intersection of spirituality, ecology, economics and the history of human civilisation. His books include The Ascent of Humanity, Sacred Economics, Climate—A New Story and The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know is Possible. Our conversation ranges from understanding how human civilization developed to the point of crisis it’s now in through to what we can do to move into a sustainable future.

Rupert Spira is an internationally renowned teacher of a direct method of spiritual self enquiry called Advaita or non-duality which has its roots in ancient Hinduism.  He holds regular meetings and retreats in Europe and the US and is the author of 6 books including The Ashes of Love, The Nature of Consciousness and Being Aware of Being Aware. He is also a notable artist who works in the medium of pottery.  Our conversation focuses on the core insight of non-duality and the nature of reality.

Michelle Baker Jones is an integrative psycho-therapeutic counsellor in private practice and is also a lead therapist at Imperial College’s psychedelic research team where she as worked on studies exploring the therapeutic potential of psilocybin for depression.  She also co-facilitates a monthly Psychedelic integration group based in London and offers individual integration sessions for people who are struggling to process Psychedelic experiences. Today we speak about her research into using psilocybin as a treatment for depression and related issues in psychedelic psychotherapy.

Brian Muraresku is the author of the new book The Immortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion with No Name. Brian initially trained as a classicist gaining a degree in Latin, Greek and Sanskrit from Brown University and since then, as a member of the New York Bar, he has been practicing law internationally for fifteen years. In 2016, he became the founding executive director of Doctors for Cannabis Regulation, whose work has been featured by CNN, ESPN, VICE and The Washington Post. In arbitration with the NFL, he represented the first professional athlete in the United States to request a therapeutic use exemption for cannabis. Alongside this work he has been engaged in a quest for over a decade to prove that the original Christian sacrament was a psychedelic potion inherited from the ancient Greeks. This is the subject of his new book, The Immortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion with No Name and is what we talk about today, I hope you enjoy the conversation.

B. Alan Wallace is a highly respected meditation teacher in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and is a leading voice in discussions on the relationship between science and Buddhist philosophy. In 1971, he moved to India to study Tibetan Buddhism, medicine and language. In India he was ordained by the Dalai Lama and spent fourteen years as a monk where he studied with and translated for several highly respected lamas. In 1984 he studied physics at Amherst College and went on to gain a PhD from Stanford on the interface between Buddhism and Western science. Since 1987 he has been a frequent translator and contributor to meetings between the Dalai Lama and prominent scientists, and he has written and translated more than 40 books. He is the founder and director of the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies and of the Center for Contemplative Research in Crestone, Colorado. Today we speak about the contemplative approach to studying the mind as well as the Dzogchen teachings on the nature of consciousness of Tibetean Buddhism that have been very important for both of us.

Fritjof Capra is a world-renowned physicist, systems theorist, educator, activist, and best-selling author. He received his Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the University of Vienna in 1966 and spent 20 years doing research in theoretical high-energy physics in many respected universities including at the University of Paris, the University of California at Santa Cruz, the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Imperial College London and the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory at the University of California. His many books include The Tao of Physics, The Turning Point, The Web of Life and The Hidden Connections, amongst others. His most recent book, co-authored with Pier Luigi Luisi is The Systems View of Life. Fritjof is also renowned for his work in the ecology movement and is a founding director of the Berkeley-based Center for Ecoliteracy, a Fellow of Schumacher College in the UK and is a council member of the Earth Charter Initiative. In today’s conversation we discuss the systems view of life and the living mirror theory as a solution to the hard problem of consciousness.

Following the publication of the Living Mirror theory of consciousness I discuss my thoughts on the place of consciousness in the natural world and the unique difficulties our species has faced in thinking about consciousness. You can read the paper at www.DrJamesCooke.com/Consciousness

Dennis McKenna is an ethnopharmacologist with a special interest in naturally occurring psychedelic substances.  He was a cofounder of the psychedelic research non-profit the Heffter Research Institute where he is director of ethnopharmacology.  With his brother Terrence he authored the classic books The Invisible Landscape and the Magic Mushroom Grower's Guide and more recently he has written books including a memoir titled The Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss.  Our conversation focuses on the place of psychoactive substances such as psilocybin and dimethyltryptamine (DMT) in nature and the effects they have on humans. You can find out about his current work at the McKenna Academy for Natural Philosophy at www.mckenna.academy

Bill Richards is a psychedelic researcher with a special interest in the religious and spiritual experiences occasioned by psychedelics, which he details in his book Sacred Knowledge. Bill was a key figure in psychedelic research in the 60s and 70s and was instrumental in initiating the current renaissance in psychedelic research that began in the early 2000s. Today we talk about the research in this area, all the way from the 60s to the present day, as well as mystical and visionary experiences and much more.

Gail Bradbrook is an environmental activist and co-founder of Extinction Rebellion, a global environmental movement that focuses on the use of nonviolent civil disobedience to create change in how governments are responding to the current climate and ecological crises. She has a background in science with a PhD in molecular biophysics and integrates both scientific and spiritual perspectives into her work on systems change. We discuss the work Extinction Rebellion is doing, the psychospiritual origins of the current dominant global culture and the role of psychedelics in waking people up to our relationship with nature.

Ericka Dyck is a Professor of the History of Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan. She is a leading expert on the wave of psychedelic research that occurs in the mid-twentieth century and the books she has written and edited include Psychedelic Psychiatry: LSD from clinic to campus, Psychedelic Prophets: The Letters of Aldous Huxley and Humphrey Osmond, and A Culture’s Catalyst: Historical Encounters with Peyote and the Native American Church in Canada. In today's conversation we explore the history of psychedelic research in the 20th century and what it can teach us about how we think about and treat mental health issues.

Robert Wright is a journalist, bestselling author and is currently a Visiting Professor of Science and Religion at Union Theological Seminary in New York. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of Meaningoflife.tv and the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Bloggingheads.tv. His books include The Moral Animal, The Evolution of God, for which he was a finalist for the Pulitzer prize, and Why Buddhism is True which is the topic that we focus on today.

This week’s episode is a conversation with an ex-police officer who recently underwent psilocybin therapy in the Netherlands.  We discuss how insights from his experiences led him to gain a new perspective on his history in the police force.

Shamash Alidina is an internationally renowned mindfulness teacher and is the author of many books including Mindfulness For Dummies and The Mindful Way Through Stress. In today’s conversation we talk about many different aspects of mindfulness, its benefits, advice for starting a practice, the nature of the mind, free will, self compassion, and much more. You can find his work at https://www.shamashalidina.com/

In this episode of the podcast I talk about the concepts of interdependence and separation and how they relate to life, the mind, the physical world, the natural world and the human community.

Bernardo Kastrup is a philosopher of mind with a background in computer science.  He has PhDs in both disciplines and has written 9 books including rationalist spirituality, why materialism is baloney, the idea of the world and recent studies of the works of Schopenhauer and Carl Jung.  Our chat was focused on his “consciousness-only” view of reality.

In this AMA I cover Christof Koch and Donald Hoffman’s views on consciousness, what happens to consciousness during sleep or anaesthesia, the possible evolution of consciousness, intelligence, self-awareness, shared DMT experiences and more.

Christoph Koch is the neuroscientist who, along with Francis Crick, initiated modern scientific research into the neuroscience of consciousness in the 1990s. Much of this work was done while he was a professor at the California Institute of Technology and he is now president and chief scientist at the Allen Institute for Consciousness. His books include Consciousness: Confessions of a Romantic Reductionist and most recently The Feeling of Life Itself: Why Consciousness is Widespread but Can't be Computed. Christof also writes the Consciousness Redux column for Scientific American Mind.

In this AMA episode I answer questions on the self, suffering, non-dual awareness, dissociation, tulpas & transpersonal love.

Donald Hoffman is a Professor of Cognitive Science at UC Irvine and author of The Case Against Reality.  We talk about his interface theory of perception and his worldview of conscious realism and its impressive implications.

In this Ask Me Anything episode I answer questions on nested consciousnesses, proto-consciousness, ketamine induced brain death in sheep and more.

John Horgan is a renowned science journalist and author of several books including Rational Mysticism, The Undiscovered Mind, The End of Science, The End of War, and most recently Mind-Body problems which is available for free online at mindbodyproblems.com. He also has a podcast by the same name on meaningoflife.tv.  He is the recipient of the Science-in-Society Award from the National Association of Science Writers and two Science Journalism Awards from the American Association for the Advancement of Science.  John is currently the Director of the Center for Science Writings at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey. He also writes the “Cross-check” blog for Scientific American.  In today’s conversation we talk about whether science can discover objective truths when it comes to issues of human nature like consciousness and free will, the compatibility of science and mysticism as well as the role psychedelics have played in John’s thinking and his thoughts on meditation.

In this episode of the podcast I outline the key takeaways of the Living Mirror Theory of consciousness. Welcome to Living Mirrors with Dr. James Cooke.  Living Mirrors is a new podcast in which neuroscientist Dr. James Cooke will be interviewing people on topics like consciousness, science, spirituality, meditation and the renaissance in psychedelic research.  Subscribe now wherever you get your podcasts.

In this episode of the podcast I outline my Living Mirror Theory of consciousness for the first time in public. Welcome to Living Mirrors with Dr. James Cooke. Living Mirrors is a new podcast in which neuroscientist Dr. James Cooke will be interviewing people on topics like consciousness, science, spirituality, meditation and the renaissance in psychedelic research. Subscribe now wherever you get your podcasts.

Welcome to living mirrors with Dr. James Cooke.  This is a new podcast in which neuroscientist Dr. James Cooke will be interviewing people on topics like consciousness, science, spirituality, meditation and the renaissance in psychedelic research.  Subscribe now wherever you get your podcasts.  A video version will also be online at YouTube.com/DrJamesCooke.