Uploaded December 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
Today on Connecting with Coincidence, we take on one of the biggest questions there is: what is consciousness, and why does it matter right now. Dr. Matt Colborn joins us, author, lecturer, and podcaster with a D.Phil in biology and an MSc in cognitive science, currently teaching consciousness studies and exploring this question from both rigorous science and lived experience. We start with the hard problem of subjective experience, then move into something surprisingly practical: the “self-observer,” the part of us that can watch our own mind in real time.
From meditation and reportability to identity, time, and the way our inner state shapes the world we build, this conversation makes a case that the future of humanity is not only about fixing systems. It is also about growing insight, empathy, and the capacity to step back before we react. Matt also shares what a more benign future could actually look like, from rewilding and restoring the biosphere to cultivating communities built on trust, play, and psychological maturity.
Matt Colborn is an author, lecturer, and podcaster with a D.Phil in biology and an MSc in cognitive science, currently teaching consciousness studies. His published work includes the non-fiction book What Lies Beyond and the short story collection City in the Dusk. He also reached Everest base camp in 2023
Learn more about Matt’s work at drmattcolborn.co.uk.
Dr. Bernard D. Beitman, MD, is a Yale and Stanford educated psychiatrist and the founder of The Coincidence Project. He served as chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Missouri Columbia and has authored two books, Connecting with Coincidence and Meaningful Coincidences. Through his Psychology Today writing, podcast, and public appearances, he has helped bring “Coincidence Studies” into the mainstream, reaching millions with practical ways to notice, interpret, and learn from meaningful coincidences.
Today on Connecting with Coincidence, we take on one of the biggest questions there is: what is consciousness, and why does it matter right now. Dr. Matt Colborn joins us, author, lecturer, and podcaster with a D.Phil in biology and an MSc in cognitive science, currently teaching consciousness studies and exploring this question from both rigorous science and lived experience. We start with the hard problem of subjective experience, then move into something surprisingly practical: the “self-observer,” the part of us that can watch our own mind in real time.
From meditation and reportability to identity, time, and the way our inner state shapes the world we build, this conversation makes a case that the future of humanity is not only about fixing systems. It is also about growing insight, empathy, and the capacity to step back before we react. Matt also shares what a more benign future could actually look like, from rewilding and restoring the biosphere to cultivating communities built on trust, play, and psychological maturity.
Matt Colborn is an author, lecturer, and podcaster with a D.Phil in biology and an MSc in cognitive science, currently teaching consciousness studies. His published work includes the non-fiction book What Lies Beyond and the short story collection City in the Dusk. He also reached Everest base camp in 2023
Learn more about Matt’s work at drmattcolborn.co.uk.
Dr. Bernard D. Beitman, MD, is a Yale and Stanford educated psychiatrist and the founder of The Coincidence Project. He served as chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Missouri Columbia and has authored two books, Connecting with Coincidence and Meaningful Coincidences. Through his Psychology Today writing, podcast, and public appearances, he has helped bring “Coincidence Studies” into the mainstream, reaching millions with practical ways to notice, interpret, and learn from meaningful coincidences.
